Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials [[SPOILERS!!]]

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Master having a fan club (or, more likely, a cult) makes a lot of sense.

 

[overgeeked]

The Master having a fan club (or, more likely, a cult) makes a lot of sense.

I don’t remember what happened to the Master’s wife back during 10’s run. The Master took over England and became the PM. But he had a wife. Maybe she’s part of it or started it? But then real-world people who are objectively evil also have fan clubs, so it tracks.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don’t remember what happened to the Master’s wife back during 10’s run. The Master took over England and became the PM. But he had a wife. Maybe she’s part of it or started it? But then real-world people who are objectively evil also have fan clubs, so it tracks.

His wife is a really good thought. Or ... what if they had a kid?

 

[MarkB]

I don’t remember what happened to the Master’s wife back during 10’s run. The Master took over England and became the PM. But he had a wife. Maybe she’s part of it or started it? But then real-world people who are objectively evil also have fan clubs, so it tracks.

In the two-part finale of Tennant's original run, The End of Time, the Master's cult of followers resurrected him from a ring. But his wife spoiled the mix, preventing the ceremony from completing correctly. The resulting explosion wiped out the building and everyone in it - cultists and wife - aside from the Master.

 

[Ryujin]

In the two-part finale of Tennant's original run, The End of Time, the Master's cult of followers resurrected him from a ring. But his wife spoiled the mix, preventing the ceremony from completing correctly. The resulting explosion wiped out the building and everyone in it - cultists and wife - aside from the Master.

Thanks for that. I remembered the cultists, the ring, and the 'betrayal', but not the outcome.

 

[overgeeked]

His wife is a really good thought. Or ... what if they had a kid?

Give them as excuse to bring back the half-human on his mother’s side argument.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Since they are labeling the Christmas episode as Special 4, it looks to fit this thread for the discussion. And then the new season in Spring 2024 can have a new thread when it is time.

It was quite good and I enjoyed it being more a mix of silly and serious. Much better than a lot of more recent stuff. And Millie Gibson, as Ruby, brought some much needed energy and spunk to the show. I am looking forward to the new season.

 

[Vael]

That was fun. Definitely more fantastical than usual, the Doctor's comment about opening a door for myth in "Wild Blue Yonder" was more portentous than I anticipated.

 

[Echohawk]

Since they are labeling the Christmas episode as Special 4, it looks to fit this thread for the discussion. And then the new season in Spring 2024 can have a new thread when it is time.

I think this thread is intended for today's episode plus Gatwa's full first season.

 

[Voadam]

Wow. That episode...well, sucked. And sucked hard.

So, let me get this straight: the Celestial Toymaker, a being from outside our normal universe, an entity that can turn bullets into rose petals, was defeated because he...couldn't catch a ball? And, having not caught the ball, did not have the ability to make the ball simply fly back up into his hand? Or teleport to his hand? Or, since we saw several of him in rapid succession doing his "dance video" sequence there in UNIT headquarters, he couldn't suddenly appear on the ground outside UNIT headquarters and catch the ball after it fell over the edge of the projecting bit of building they were playing on? Any of those seem like they would be well within the "rules" of catch, which seem to be "catch the ball after it is thrown by another player," so it's not like he would be cheating by doing so.

And the Doctor, who earlier defeated the Celestial Toymaker at his own games in an earlier incarnation, now had no better plan to stop him than "let's cut cards and see who picks the higher card?" This is the Doctor's brilliant stratagem? (I guess it's a good thing he had "let's play catch" as a brilliant backup plan, huh?)

And didn't the Doctor and Donna have an issue, in the previous adventure (which was literally just minutes ago in their timeline), where separating was a bad idea? That lesson apparently didn't sink in, as the first thing they do when trapped inside the Toymaker's workshop halls of endless doors is to separate themselves on either side of a door, then each go wandering off. (Oh, but the door was locked when it was closed! Too bad the Doctor doesn't have a sonic screwdriver designed to open locked doors, huh?)

This was insulting on so many levels. The concept of "bi-regeneration" was terrible (as others have pointed out, it's basically telling Gatwa "Congratulations! You're the new Doctor! But we have a potentially better Doctor on hand to rescue the series in case you run it into the ground" - what a vote of confidence!), the plot was nonsensical (I'm with the new science adviser: in all these years, we've never been able to pick up the image of a laughing ventriloquist dummy hidden behind every single television broadcast, ever?), and even the ending, with the 14th Doctor "learning" what it's like to stay in one time period for awhile was ridiculous - didn't the 12th Doctor spend "one final night" with River Song on a planet where "one night" equals something like 61 years? And the TARDIS has an oversized wacky prop mallet stored in its floorplates for emergencies, in case you ever need to whack another TARDIS out of the existing one?

I can only shake my head in disbelief. Great job, Davies.

I wish Gatwa well in the role. Hopefully he'll be given better scripts to work with in the rest of his tenure as the Doctor.

Johnathan

Neil Patrick Harris was fantastic and full of style and fun characterization, but the whole games scenes were really let down by the writing.

Instead of figuring out complex puzzles and coming up with a clever workaround to beat the Toymaker's catch 22 game culmination, the games are simply high card draw luck and catch. Zero cleverness, zero trap setup by the toymaker that is revealed at the end and subverted by the Doctor.

Also the bi-generation seemed to be just "because", no real explanation of why it happened based on what was going on. No real thematics for why this regeneration was different.

I really like cleverness in Who. I have been disappointed in the Whittaker writing solutions of saying the Doctor is clever and then bam win result with no actual cleverness. Here they skipped even the pretense of cleverness. That aspect was hugely disappointing.

Still NPH goofing around with different outrageous accents in different time periods was fun.