Spoilers Doctor Who 2024 (spoilers)

[Morrus]

Sooo... Ncuti Gatwa's first full season has arrived with two episodes -- Space Babies, and The Devil's Chord.

What did we think?

Space Babies was kinda silly--in the same way that RTD's 2005 intro with Eccleston and the animated wheelie bins were silly. It was quite expositiony, which I suppose was needed for new viewers. I felt Ruby was fully onboard with the whole concept very, very quickly. Both actors were really fun and charming.

The Devil's Chord was a little darker, although I'm not sure how I feel about the musical number at the end--it feels a little 4th wall breaking--or the animated music notes flying around. So Maestro is like the 'god of music' who wants to eat all the music. Again, the performances were fun.

This series definitely has a more fairytale 'Buffy' vibe than the sci-fi vibe of previous iterations of the show. At least so far. The preview for next week looks like it involves a sci-fi warzone.

 

[Ryujin]

The first two episodes really seem to lean into the idea that the show is mainly for kids, which is fine. I still really enjoyed them.

 

[MarkB]

It felt like a near-constant stream of winks-to-the-audience (sometimes literally) which made it very difficult to not be knocked out of the fiction and try to take any of the events seriously.

This is the first time in a very long while, perhaps ever, that I've watched Doctor Who and thought "this really wasn't made for me."

 

[Staffan]

I'm not sure if I liked the Devil's Chord. I thought it had a lot of unnecessary violins.

Jokes aside, I liked both these episodes. I don't know if I'd want all Doctor Who episodes to be like these, but whimsy is good. If I was running the show, I'd probably do something more scary with the second episode to establish parameters, but it seems the next episode will be a bit more on the serious side.

 

[Morrus]

I'm not sure if I liked the Devil's Chord. I thought it had a lot of unnecessary violins.

I thought that. Ruby played the Beatles' piano on the roof. But there was clearly additional violin going on in the background! Who was playing those?

 

[Morrus]

I'm not sure if I liked the Devil's Chord. I thought it had a lot of unnecessary violins.

Jokes aside, I liked both these episodes. I don't know if I'd want all Doctor Who episodes to be like these, but whimsy is good. If I was running the show, I'd probably do something more scary with the second episode to establish parameters, but it seems the next episode will be a bit more on the serious side.

RTD did that in 2005 too. Went silly with man-eating wheelie bins to introduce then got darker... then did farting aliens. I love his operatic character stuff, but his kiddie stuff... well, I guess the show is for kids too!

 

[overgeeked]

RTD has a pattern and he sticks to it with Doctor Who. Can't fault him for that.

DW is a kid's show so it makes sense, especially as a partially Disney funded kid's show, that they'll lean into that side of the equation. Maybe in a few years they can be partially funded by Shudder and hit those darker gothic or horror notes again.

I'm kinda in the middle on these two episodes. I love DW. I love that Ncuti's the new Doctor and I love his energy. I'm just not sure I'd rate these particular episodes that highly. New Doctor Who, yay! These two episodes in particular, meh.

The next one, Boom, looks like it might be great. The Doctor steps on a landmine and has to stay still for the entire episode.

 

[Morrus]

So why did he call himself the last of the time lords? I feel like I’m forgetting stuff now!

 

[Staffan]

So why did he call himself the last of the time lords? I feel like I’m forgetting stuff now!

Because the Master murdered the rest and turned them into (regenerating) Cybermen.

 

[Staffan]

I'm kinda in the middle on these two episodes. I love DW. I love that Ncuti's the new Doctor and I love his energy. I'm just not sure I'd rate these particular episodes that highly. New Doctor Who, yay! These two episodes in particular, meh.

I mean, they're probably not going to go down in history as the greatest Doctor Who episodes, but I felt they were solid, particularly given that Space Babies had to do all the exposition stuff and Devil's Chord reintroduces the Pantheon and opens up for more of the same (though I do think a little goes a long way).