Spoilers Doctor Who 2024 (spoilers)

[Necropolitan]

Maybe something non-essential like the Kandy Man.

See, that's the thing: The Kandy Man WAS essential because Doctor Who should be enjoyable and he was an enjoyable part of that episode.

And no, you couldn't cut The Happiness Patrol down to 45 minutes. Every character with a speaking role earned their spot in the plot and even the scenes without diaologue worked to show something about the world. At most you could replace the pipe-dwelling native species with human rebels, but I liked them so that was fine for me.

The Doctor this season just does exposition and anecdotes (and says "Space Babies"), there's simply no time (pun intended) for the last Time Lord to actually be witty or insightful.

It's the same with the other character. They just explain things, no subtext, no actual conversation.

I liked the 13th Doctor's episodes because they actually felt like they were written for the format. Ncuti Gatwa is absolutely fantastic as The Doctor but he's being wasted on episodes that feel like they're closer to 20 minutes than 45 in terms of actual plot because they had to cut out anything that would actually require expanding the episode.

73 Yards was good because it had subtext. If it followed the same direction as the other episodes we'd have characters saying "The old woman told me something profoundly upsetting and now I am having an existential crisis" and Ruby would have said "I needed to stop The Doctor from stepping in that circle" and "I have gone back in time and erased the previous timeline" at the end of the episode.

Every other episode feels like the characters doing a synposis of what should be the actual episode.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don’t think there was ever a 3 episode story when the episodes were 23 minutes. They did 2, 4, 6 and lots. There was one 1 episode story in the 1st Doc run (which also featured none of the regular cast) and I think there was one 5 episode.

 

[Riley]

I don’t think there was ever a 3 episode story when the episodes were 23 minutes. They did 2, 4, 6 and lots. There was one 1 episode story in the 1st Doc run (which also featured none of the regular cast) and I think there was one 5 episode.

There were six 23-minute, three-episode stories - two each in Sylvester McCoy’s 24th, 25th, and 26th seasons.

 

[ART!]

Heard an interesting argument in favor of 73 Yards' unanswered questions: it all started with a fairy ring*, so things are not going to make sense, because that's how the fae work.

I also heard a snippet about the episode being a metaphor for how society treats women, but I haven't given this much thought yet.

*My understanding of the term is a ring of mushrooms or other growth, but I don't know what else to call this.

 

[Ryujin]

Heard an interesting argument in favor of 73 Yards' unanswered questions: it all started with a fairy ring*, so things are not going to make sense, because that's how the fae work.

I also heard a snippet about the episode being a metaphor for how society treats women, but I haven't given this much thought yet.

*My understanding of the term is a ring of mushrooms or other growth, but I don't know what else to call this.

To me, a Fairy Ring has always been mushrooms. I would call what they showed as being more some sort of charm.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It’s the mention of “liminal spaces” that was significant.

I suspect the reference to female empowerment relates to this:

This liminal space is a middle ground between the stereotypical statuses of passive “feminine-object” and agentive “masculine-subject” that prompts women to negotiate how they perform femininity without losing agency.

kid’s show?

 

[ART!]

It’s the mention of “liminal spaces” that was significant.

I suspect the reference to female empowerment relates to this:

"This liminal space is a middle ground between the stereotypical statuses of passive “feminine-object” and agentive “masculine-subject” that prompts women to negotiate how they perform femininity without losing agency."

kid’s show?

She's in such a tenuous position, and when she tries to be assertive she's abandoned.

She has to wait patiently and slowly, and carefully maneuver for a moment when she can use that condition with some agency.

It's not until the "crone" stage that she fully understands and bring things full circle.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

She's in such a tenuous position, and when she tries to be assertive she's abandoned.

She has to wait patiently and slowly, and carefully maneuver for a moment when she can use that condition with some agency.

It's not until the "crone" stage that she fully understands and bring things full circle.

I think the point of something like this is to provoke the viewer to find their own interpretation. The show itself is a liminal space. Liminal spaces can be uncomfortable because they do not offer certainty. But a few other things I noticed: most of the characters are female. There is talk of witchcraft in the pub.

And there are political aspects as well. The Albion Party is clearly meant to be a far right nationalist party, deriving from “White Land”.

Why Wales? Well, the show is filmed there for a start!

Another observation: the world of 22 years hence does not seem much changed. And it’s quite literally lampshaded with voice controlled lamps.

“Mad Jack”? Run the words together and it sounds like “magic”.

 

[Hussar]

Well, 22 years isn’t that long. Sigh. I mean I look at pictures of the town I live in from 22 years ago when I first moved here and now, and it’s not like it’s totally I recognizable.

I read once that 20 year future fiction is one of the hardest things to write in SF. It’s just different enough that it needs to be addressed - the existence of smart phones and paying with your phone - but still very recognizable.

 

[ruemere]

22 years is not long?

Nokia 6100 was a top phone 22 years ago.

First XBox was one year old.

No YouTube yet.

Google looked like this: Google in 2002

Oh, and we were still in relatively peaceful period:

List of wars: 1990–2002 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

As compared to the present:

List of wars: 2003–present - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

In modern times 22 years is a long time.