So who saw the Doctor Who Xmas Special?

[Morrus]

Watched it earlier tonight. So, it's official - the regeneration has happened. The Doctor is now officially Jodie Whitaker!

I thought the opening was really clever; the way it merged The Tenth Planet with this episode. While Bradley doesn't really look like Hartnell, he carries his essence well. He's also 20 years older than Hartnell was!

The "villain" (not really a villain) was a bit meh. Plot device. And the Dalek who was the Doctor's worst enemy and who maintained the greatest database in the universe? Also a bit "eh?"

Mark Gatiss. I'm not a massive fan of his, to be honest. He did OK. I liked the "WW1?" reference. Other than that he was pretty incidental.

There wasn't really a plot to this. It was just about the 12th Doctor persuading the 1st that it's OK to regenerate, and the 1st persuading the 12th the same. The interaction was the meat of the episode; the jokes about the 1st Doctor's attitudes towards women were a little clumsy, but given that he was about to become a woman, perhaps necessary.

"Escape is impossible!" -- actually, apparently it's really easy. One click of the sonic screwdriver to lower the chain.

Regeneration sequence. My head-canon says that the older he gets the more violent the regenerations get. The last few seem to cause a lot of damage around him (the TARDIS this time, and the 10th's regen, too). He really should be more sensible and regenerate outside the TARDIS.

New Doctor's first words? I predicted "Still not ginger!"; we got "Brilliant!"

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[MarkB]

It felt far more like a series of attempts to be clever and self-referential with the show's accumulated backstory than an actual interesting story in its own right.

Christmas Specials and Regeneration episodes are the ones that draw in a wider general audience, so when doing both at the same time it seems like it would be a good idea to try and make the story reasonably accessible. That's certainly not what this felt like. I've been a dedicated viewer of the series since Tom Baker's era, and there were a few references that flew past me, so goodness knows what it must be like for someone tuning in for the first time.

Honestly, I really hope they go back to prioritising just good storytelling in the next series. Yes, keep all the rich backstory and all the clever touches, but start from the foundation of a good story and add in those elements afterwards. Don't make it feel like the story was the part that was tacked on at the last minute.

Also, the entire episode pokes fun at the first Doctor's old-fashioned chauvinistic attitudes, and then they have the first act of the first female Doctor being to crash the TARDIS the first time she tries to drive it. I feel like that's a mixed message.

 

[Morrus]

Also, the entire episode pokes fun at the first Doctor's old-fashioned chauvinistic attitudes, and then they have the first act of the first female Doctor being to crash the TARDIS the first time she tries to drive it. I feel like that's a mixed message.

I agree it's a bad visual. I'm sure it was more short-sighted than intentional, though - Matt Smith crashed the TRADIS, and Capaldi had to ask Clara how to fly it. I think they've kinda settled into a "new Doctor can't fly TARDIS at first" meme each time now. I think if they were to choose somebody to change that meme, it should have been this regeneration.

I'm left kinda wondering if Chibnall wants to do a TARDIS-free single-story season; more Broadchurch than episodic. He'd need to get rid of the TARDIS at least temporarily to do that.

 

[MarkB]

I'm left kinda wondering if Chibnall wants to do a TARDIS-free single-story season; more Broadchurch than episodic. He'd need to get rid of the TARDIS at least temporarily to do that.

Certainly a possibility, though some of the publicity photos for the thirteenth Doctor do seem to include a new TARDIS prop, or at least artwork thereof, so hopefully she won't be without it for too long.

 

[Janx]

It had a beginning, middle, and End. Not sure if it really had a setback, but otherwise, seemed kind of like a story.

Not sure if puddle girl was part of this see-thru people backup project and Bill joined, or if that was separate and then eons later, Bill died again and got backed up.

Or if the backup people screwed up and backed up Lethbridge wrongly, since he seems to have come out OK since it was the x-mas truce.

 

[Richards]

My thoughts:

It seems kind of strange that a time-traveling group from the future who "rescues, downloads, and returns" people as they're dying has never once been encountered by the Doctor before. How many people has he seen die over the many, many years of his existence and this has never come up? (Also, where are they planning on putting every person who has ever lived throughout billions of years of history? The universe is going to be a pretty crowded place once they're done....)

I thought the guy playing the First Doctor did a good job of it.

And boy, those are some nimble Kaled mutants! I remember when they pretty much just sat there like a blob and wriggled their tentacles a bit; now they're scurrying about like rats on a caffeine overdose.

I couldn't make out the new Doctor's first words, so thanks, Morrus, for the clarification.

Johnathan

 

[Morrus]

My thoughts:

It seems kind of strange that a time-traveling group from the future who "rescues, downloads, and returns" people as they're dying has never once been encountered by the Doctor before.

I think that’s just one of the things you have to accept; otherwise they can never introduce a new alien like that. As the series gets longer, the more you have to suspend your disbelief for stuff like that.

 

[Tonguez]

Also, the entire episode pokes fun at the first Doctor's old-fashioned chauvinistic attitudes, and then they have the first act of the first female Doctor being to crash the TARDIS the first time she tries to drive it. I feel like that's a mixed message.

yep, first thing I thought. What the new doctor can't drive because She's a woman? Lol Not Funny

I did like the way the Hartnell b&w stuff was transitioned over to the colour remake and although the overall plot was a bit meh, at least I didn't get bored. I'm not sure why they brought Bill back or Clara or Nardole and even the Gatiss character was a bit naff (although having him be a Leftbridge-Stewart did make me smile.)

It was nice, a pleasant change from the frenetic pace that Doctor Who can reach, but just nice.

I don't like the newish 'explosive' regenerations they've been having and was hoping that Capaldi's transition would go back to the original soft light regens (maybe even mirror Hartnells own) - for a short moment I actually thought the transparent humanoid was going to be the new Watcher like in Logopolis, the female form being a hint to the next regeneration that was being resisted. Alas that was not the story being told...

 

[Morrus]

I didn’t really get why that Dalek is at the centre of the universe. It’s the one from the episode where the Doctor is miniaturised. For some reason he’s now at the centre of the universe and is the Doctor’s greatest enemy. I think I need a second viewing!

 

[hopeless]

Well...

Spoiler

1) Both 1st and 12th were dying, meeting up like they did clearly caused the anomaly which probably means it was set in time to happen,
2) Lethbridge Stewart introduction anyone?
3) That Daleks clearly has access to an unimpeded database since Clara's efforts to erase the Doctor clearly didn't work when the Doctor "inspired" that Daleks to wage war on its own kind
4) She isn't the first incarnation to suffer from that problem so it wasn't a play on that either!
5) How many times has the TARDIS suffered that much damage?

Hope the above works!