Doctor Who (2020) - spoilers!

[dragoner]

A lot of cool scenes, everything well done, except seems disjointed over all.

I also wonder now what has happened to Gallifrey, of course the Master blew it up (how?), though it seems to be a recurring theme, I would guess the Doctor will save it.

 

[Vael]

The electrical discharges along the strands made me thing neurons. Like, they are inside someone's (or something's) brain...

Oooh, I like this theory.

I have to admit I prefer the Master who isn't literally barking/cackling mad. More in the Delgado/Ainley mode.

I really like this incarnation. There's a bit of that manic Simm energy, but he seems more seething, volcanic.

Overall, I'm just so happy. The Doctor is back! The team is back!

I hadn't noticed how little the Doctor had told her companions in the last series. So I'm interested to see how this proceeds.

 

[Tonguez]

I really liked the Spy Master, Sasha Dawan does better crazy than Simms did, I also liked that they did a call back to the sound of drums and the Timeless child too

I liked the Spy theme of the first episode and the nod to Ada Lovelace in the second (Including her childhood illness), that was a nice homage and historic tidbit. I would have loved to see her added as a companion - a historic belle with advanced mathematical acumen has the makings of a great character, I hope we see her again. Indeed I’m kinda hoping that the Kasaavin’s realm really is inside Ada’s head and its her synapses that they travel along...

 

[GreyLord]

Well, I finally caught it. I thought something was off with O when we met him. He just didn't seem...exactly right. I still can't put my finger on it, but he didn't seem to be what we were told he was (and it looks as if I was right, though guessing at who he really was...was a tad harder and I didn't guess that part...till of course, the reveal).

I liked the second part. I thought that the "alternate" dimension seemed something like an internet, or cables, or something like that (and I could see them as neurons in someone's head as well).

 

[MNblockhead]

The only way I can make any sense of it is if the Kasaavins are an artifical intelligence. They need a massive network to invade and the earth is almost there. While they can somewho observe accross time and space they can't transfer, so they monitor worlds to understand when a civilization has the networked society they need to successfully infiltrate it. The Master's poorly explained statue and plan somehow helped them jumpstart the process on earth. Lenny Henry had a dangerous mix of hubris, distain for most of humanity whom he sees as less than him, a mommy complex, and perhaps a mental illness.

Why didn't the Kasaavins simply put themselves into robots...who knows maybe they come from a dimension that is so alien that they can't or would not want to limit themselves into discreet, individual entities. But if they are all around the universe, wouldn't they have been able to infiltrate an even more advanced and connected civilization. Perhaps the earth was there first successful toehold. Maybe the Master had something to do with it.

I don't know. Really stretching here to try to make it make any sense.

 

[wicked cool]

good 3rd episode-Wont spoil much but not as good as spyfall. felt more like last season which I didn't enjoy

Did watch an interview with Tenant and Smith at a recent convention. Hope we see one or both someday back on this show

 

[Son of the Serpent]

I cant wait for regeneration. Probably will happen in the 2020 season.

 

[Umbran]

why did he give them his dead mother?

Was that really hard to see? Or is this a trope folks are unfamiliar with? Successful character is so, because they were constantly attempting to be 'good enough' for a demanding parent. Eventually character exacts revenge on said parent. This doesn't ring any bells?

My theory is somehow the DR/Master are not true timelords but in fact are less than 100%

Well, that the Doctor was part human was suggested with Paul McGann, and then quickly ignored everywhere else. Or, the idea that the Time Lords maybe didn't so much create their technology as steal it, would be entirely in keeping with their rather nasty nature seen at various points in the series, old and new.

 

[Umbran]

Just watched this week's offering. In many ways, perhaps it is a weak episode...

but the message at the end is important enough to carry it.

 

[Richards]

Episode 3: "Orphan 55"

I liked the Dreg monster design, for the most part. I liked the design of the vehicle the resort people were in that crashed.

Let me think...yep, that's about all I liked about this episode. The concept of a vacation paradise you can only get to via teleporting from anywhere across the cosmos (which sounds like it would be pretty expensive and/or require a lot of power but can apparently happen merely by placing six coupons together) was pretty stupid. Graham gathered the six required coupons but the teleport took him, the Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan so they all got the 2-week vacation - what would have happened if, say, Graham had assembled his six coupons in the middle of a crowded Grand Central Station or something? Free vacations for all?

The whole competing "Mom doesn't pay enough attention to me so I'm going to blow up her life's work" attitude vs. "I'm going to completely ignore my daughter to spend time building this great project...for her!" attitude was pretty silly.

I'm still trying to figure out how a life form that breathes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide evolves to do the exact opposite. (Because of global warming, apparently.) So what exactly happened? Global warming killed off all the plant life on the planet and the atmosphere ended up choked with carbon dioxide from all the people alive who still insisting on breathing, so they had to evolve? That's... I don't think that's how that would work. (Are there no oxygen breathers on this orphan world? If not, you're going to have the same problem in reverse once all the carbon dioxide gets converted to oxygen by the Dregs. Then what? Do they evolve back to oxygen breathers again?) And while I certainly don't mind allegories in Doctor Who to get a point across, this one was bludgeoned at the TV viewer to a ridiculous extent. They might as well have ended it with, "Well, that's the end of tonight's story; now I'd like to lecture all the viewers about the horrors of global warning for several minutes." I guess subtlety was not what they were going for. And I really doubt anyone who's not already behind the "global warning is bad" message is going to have their opinion swayed by an episode of Doctor Who.

I thought that was awfully nice of the Dreg to just stand there and breathe oxygen in the Doctor's face to refill the oxygen supply on her arm (instead of eviscerating her like they were doing to the rest of the resort folks). And it was sure sporting of the Dreg to just walk right into the cage and get locked up rather than attack the Doctor there at the end.

And watching the episode I actually started wondering if the writer got paid a hefty bonus for every "heroic sacrifice" he was able to put into the plot. (That would have made an interesting drinking game.)

I see there will be a Cyberman episode later this season. Maybe that one will have some decent writing behind it. I'm underwhelmed so far this season. Still, next week has Nikola Tesla in it - that should be interesting.

Johnathan