Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa Xmas Special & s1

[James Gasik]

Flood? Pond, River!?

No, they would have recognized the Doctor's TARDIS instantly, rather than gripe about it to the neighbor.

Well, I'm assuming that this is good writing, of course, lol. I'm guessing they don't have any real plans at this moment, it's just another tease, like that bit with the gold tooth in Special #3.

 

[MarkB]

The singing wasn't nearly as irritating as I thought it would be.

The goblin song was very entertaining.

The music for the rest of the episode could have done with being turned down 2-3 notches in intensity.

 

[James Gasik]

The goblin song was very entertaining.

The music for the rest of the episode could have done with being turned down 2-3 notches in intensity.

I mean, it's Murray Gold. His dials go to 11.

 

[MarkB]

I mean, it's Murray Gold. His dials go to 11.

Yeah, but moreso on some occasions than others. In this case it sometimes felt like it was stepping on the dialogue.

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah, but moreso on some occasions than others. In this case it sometimes felt like it was stepping on the dialogue.

It's ironic that the episode starts with a studio engineer having sound problems- because yeah, a bit of sound editing would have gone a long way.

But hey, this is far from a new problem in Doctor Who. I recently dusted off my Tom Baker serials and man, sometimes they go crazy with the 70's synth!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

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.

And were you all with the sound problems watching on BBC or Disney+? I did not notice any sound issues on Disney+ when I watched it yesterday.

 

[MarkB]

And were you all with the sound problems watching on BBC or Disney+? I did not notice any sound issues on Disney+ when I watched it yesterday.

When I mentioned the music, it wasn't in the sense of there being any technical issues - nothing about it felt accidental. It was all just rather intense.

 

[Richards]

Wow - that was pretty terrible.

So, time-traveling, rope-technology goblins in a flying boat who really like coincidences kidnap a tiny little baby so they can feed it to the Goblin King (said baby being nothing but a bite-sized morsel to said enormous Goblin King - and right before they introduced him I was scratching my head wondering how exactly one tiny little baby was supposed to feed an entire goblin ship's crew). But by the end of the episode, the Doctor, using the incredible scientific gloves he happened to invent right before they were needed, pulls the entire ship down out of the sky, impales the Goblin King with a church's steeple...and naturally that causes the entire ship to disintegrate - with the sole exception of the latest stolen baby, who the Doctor catches.

I see the logic behind the "plots" (if you can call them that) hasn't gotten any better since the last special.

Other things that bothered me:

• Ruby and the Doctor having a nice little chat on the rope ladder about how his incredible gloves work and them having a grand old time testing them out, neither one of them the least bit concerned that the baby Ruby was supposed to have been watching had in fact been kidnapped by space goblins and was being raised up to their ship to be devoured
• The "sonic screwdriver" - first of all, it looks ridiculous; secondly, it's supposed to be able to take all these different kinds of readings and the Doctor had to ask Ruby twice in less than a minute what time it was? It can't even tell the local time? I have a non-smart phone that can tell the local time
• What little suspension of disbelief I had tried to conjure up about the stupid rope-technology goblins fell to pieces when the Doctor and Ruby opted to get those wacky, swinging goblins singing again so they could join in with impromptu lyrics they suddenly pulled out of their butts, and which even warned the goblins about what they were going to do, only to face no resistance at all from the goblins
• The Doctor and Ruby both hammed it up throughout most of the episode - sure, it's a surprise that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and I don't begrudge a character being surprised when they first see that for themselves, but Ruby was laying it on pretty damn thick

I appreciate Russell T. Davies for resurrecting Doctor Who when he did with the 9th Doctor, but I'll be very surprised if he doesn't end up running the show into the ground this time around.

Maybe I'll get lucky, and he'll have saved this level of ridiculousness for the specials - maybe we'll actually get some decent stories in the abbreviated (really? only 8 episodes? - what's up with that?) series to follow. But I'm starting to doubt it.

Johnathan

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We liked it. It was a bit silly, but everyone was clearly enthused and hitting the ground (or roof) running. Lots of threads left dangling for the rest of the season or run. (No, you don't need to run after Ruby's mother in the snow -- you want the timeline to go as it was, and also, you're almost certainly at the other end of that street to meet her in a dozen episodes or so.)

I am OK if they go back to pretending to be a science fiction show next week, although I thought the "language of knots" was actually a pretty good idea. From a mathematical standpoint, there's actually quite a lot going on there.

 

[Morrus]

Wow - that was pretty terrible.

So, time-traveling, rope-technology goblins in a flying boat who really like coincidences kidnap a tiny little baby so they can feed it to the Goblin King (said baby being nothing but a bite-sized morsel to said enormous Goblin King - and right before they introduced him I was scratching my head wondering how exactly one tiny little baby was supposed to feed an entire goblin ship's crew). But by the end of the episode, the Doctor, using the incredible scientific gloves he happened to invent right before they were needed, pulls the entire ship down out of the sky, impales the Goblin King with a church's steeple...and naturally that causes the entire ship to disintegrate - with the sole exception of the latest stolen baby, who the Doctor catches.

I see the logic behind the "plots" (if you can call them that) hasn't gotten any better since the last special.

Other things that bothered me:

• Ruby and the Doctor having a nice little chat on the rope ladder about how his incredible gloves work and them having a grand old time testing them out, neither one of them the least bit concerned that the baby Ruby was supposed to have been watching had in fact been kidnapped by space goblins and was being raised up to their ship to be devoured
• The "sonic screwdriver" - first of all, it looks ridiculous; secondly, it's supposed to be able to take all these different kinds of readings and the Doctor had to ask Ruby twice in less than a minute what time it was? It can't even tell the local time? I have a non-smart phone that can tell the local time
• What little suspension of disbelief I had tried to conjure up about the stupid rope-technology goblins fell to pieces when the Doctor and Ruby opted to get those wacky, swinging goblins singing again so they could join in with impromptu lyrics they suddenly pulled out of their butts, and which even warned the goblins about what they were going to do, only to face no resistance at all from the goblins
• The Doctor and Ruby both hammed it up throughout most of the episode - sure, it's a surprise that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and I don't begrudge a character being surprised when they first see that for themselves, but Ruby was laying it on pretty damn thick

I appreciate Russell T. Davies for resurrecting Doctor Who when he did with the 9th Doctor, but I'll be very surprised if he doesn't end up running the show into the ground this time around.

Maybe I'll get lucky, and he'll have saved this level of ridiculousness for the specials - maybe we'll actually get some decent stories in the abbreviated (really? only 8 episodes? - what's up with that?) series to follow. But I'm starting to doubt it.

Johnathan

Sorry, you weren’t clear…. So you liked it?