[rtpoe]

"The Devil's Chord"

OK, they're going more into the fantasy side of things now. A villain who sucks all the (literal) music out of human life for.....it's not clear what.

And I just could not stand Jinkx Monsoon as "The Maestro". Look, there's over-the-top acting, and camp. This was so far over the top it went all the way around the universe and came back to the absolute lowest level of camp. I cringed every time they were on the screen.

And for the love of all that's holy, they better NOT be having a musical number in every episode.

[CarlTL]

"The Devil's Chord"

OK, they're going more into the fantasy side of things now. A villain who sucks all the (literal) music out of human life for.....it's not clear what.

And I just could not stand Jinkx Monsoon as "The Maestro". Look, there's over-the-top acting, and camp. This was so far over the top it went all the way around the universe and came back to the absolute lowest level of camp. I cringed every time they were on the screen.

And for the love of all that's holy, they better NOT be having a musical number in every episode.

The Maestro wanted to be the only being in all of existence that could write and perform music, to be the center of attention for an eternity. The Maestro is also the offspring of the Toymaker and mentions they have siblings...so I bet some of those are also going to face off against the Doctor as well.

[rtpoe]

"Boom"

OK, a nice fairly straightforward story. The Doctor stumbles into a place he'd rather not be in (almost literally), then has to find a way out, which happens to result in fixing the situation.

"War profiteering is bad" - but they don't really hit you over the head with it.

I did sigh in disappointment at the "snow" to remind us - like it matters - that Ruby is a Special Person of Mystery. They already did that sort of thing with Clara, the "Impossible Girl"; can't you just have a normal Companion? We'll let you have "Ruby is an orphan who has no idea who her real parents are"; that's fine. No need to make her into something weird - which you'll probably never get around to properly explaining anyway.

Oh, and how did the Ambulance know how old Ruby was? Or her name? With the soldiers, they surely had some sort of "dog tag" implanted in them. No way Ruby would have one. Could have just gone with "Identity: Unknown. Civilian....." - which could have crashed the Ambulance because civilians weren't supposed to be there, right?

[rtpoe]

"73 Yards"

Doctor Who meets Weird Tales.

"Weird" fiction is a subset of horror where the scares are not overt; they are more along the lines of "Tales from the Darkside" rather than "Tales from the Crypt". It's about the atmosphere rather than outright scares -  the feeling that Something Isn't Right, and the protagonist is in some unspecified danger.

Clark Ashton Smith, Arthur Machen, and Ray Bradbury were masters of this sort of horror.

It might take a while to grow on you.

By the way, if you want to make sure no one breaks your Faerie Circle, make it a little more noticeable, OK?

[salem]

I still haven't watched an episode since 'The Giggle', frankly the culture surrounding the show, the direction it has gone in, the way the interviews have gone etc have really put me off. It's plain that there is a definite ideological narrative they are pushing, something entirely absent from the Matt Smith era, and pretty much absent from the first time RTD ran the show (literally).  I know RTD and Ncuti themselves are talking (way too often) about left-wing politics and left-wing bubbles entering the show (in the last episode quite literally) and I'm sure they nthink what tey are saying reflects the real world, but I think they are way off. It may resemble the real world if you live on X (formerly Twitter) or watch MSNBC constantly. It only seems to reflect the bubble THEY LIVE IN. Steven Moffat once said that Doctor Who is not just for progressive liberals, sadly this is no longer the case. I prefer to watch a show without having someone else's politics shoved in my face. I like my shows entertaining and politics free, whether it be left OR right (which is why I tend to also steer clear of movies like God's Not Dead etc).

We keep seeing the same argument that 'Doctor Who was always progressive', sure, but it only got REALLY political in a handful of stories, and most of those were in the 70's by a communist writer called Malcolm Hulke, and even then there was a semblance of balance to them. These days there are decidedly one-sided conversations being had. Fans are being attacked for not liking the new direction, despite the fact that Doctor Who was at its least political in the Matt Smith era, when it was arguably the most popular it has ever been worldwide. I would maybe think it was just me, but when over half of fandom is annoyed at the writing and infusion of 'wokeism' (translation - unnecessary shoehorning in of identity politcs when it is not needed, or in order to virtue signal), it is a problem. Fandom has never been so divided, and it is not the fault of the fans, it is the doubling down of the narrative. At least when politicians double down on bad policies you can vote them out, fans have no such recourse.

I will watch the episodes, but maybe in a couple of years, I'm currently watching classic Hartnell right now. I feel this era of the show will be appreciated more long after its time, like the McCoy era.

Having said that, 73 Yards looked really intriguing. Not that I am a fan of when Doctor Who leans into magic with a big 'M', but I thought the episode looked interesting and a little disturbing, sort of similar to that movie 'It Follows'. I may watch that one. I just wish the producers would concentrate on entertaining the fans first, and preaching second. it can't be that hard! They managed it for most of  the first 12 years of the return of the show!

[rtpoe]

Catching up after a while:

"Dot and Bubble"

OK, a nice, tense episode about social media addiction. Given the utter uselessness of the people and their complete vapidness, I have to wonder if their colony was their home world's version of the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B.... And then they twist the knife with a clear comment on racism - and how some people don't deserve to be helped.

"Rogue"

I can see why more than a few people have complained about this series being excessively "woke". The GAY!!!!eleventy!! relationship was completely unnecessary, and WAY OVERDONE! First, The Doctor really shouldn't be getting romantically involved with anyone, no matter how hot they are. It's just Wrong. Secondly, it was a REAL distraction. You can have The Doctor have a BFF, but if you're yelling "GET A ROOM!" at the screen..... Oh, and I wonder how quickly the reference to Bridgerton will become dated....

"The Legend of Ruby Sunday"

So THAT'S why references to "The Pyramids of Mars" have been popping up in my YouTube recommendations! And if you were paying attention, you might have also caught something which would resolve the UNIT Dating Controversy. Needed to fix the pacing, though. Some scenes were so fast I couldn't follow what was going on; and then they spent WAY too much time farting around in the Time Window. By the way, if I read the credits right, that monster thing on the TARDIS at the end was an actual on-set construction, and NOT CGI!

[rtpoe]

"Empire of Death"

The Doctor saves the day with some really stupid deus ex machina thing - that reminded me of "The Blip" in the MCU. Guess they did have to cram it in to one episode, so there wasn't much time for something to make sense. Especially when we had to find out who :The Woman in the Hooded Robe: was that was there back when Ruby got dropped off at the church......which was REALLY a let down. The whole mystery of Ruby's origins made the whole deal with the "Mystery Snow" pointless.

And I STILL want to know who picked up the Gold Tooth in "The Giggle". They must have forgotten about that.....

[Breasts]

"Empire of Death"

The Doctor saves the day with some really stupid deus ex machina thing - that reminded me of "The Blip" in the MCU. Guess they did have to cram it in to one episode, so there wasn't much time for something to make sense. Especially when we had to find out who :The Woman in the Hooded Robe: was that was there back when Ruby got dropped off at the church......which was REALLY a let down. The whole mystery of Ruby's origins made the whole deal with the "Mystery Snow" pointless.

And I STILL want to know who picked up the Gold Tooth in "The Giggle". They must have forgotten about that.....

RTD does nothing but Deus ex machina. He's incapable of writing anything else. He's a useless writer. Though a genius comnpared to Chibnal.

[rtpoe]

Look what's back!

"The Robot Revolution" - OK, a pretty decent story. I'm not expecting the whole "time fracture" thing to ever be properly resolved, but if Belinda turns out to be another case of The Companion Of Mystery Around Who The Entire Universe Depends.......I may just give up on the entire show.

"Lux" - Definitely different, and didn't waste too much time on things that didn't move the plot along. Can someone slip Murray Gold some sedatives, though? His music was so overblown here that I was thinking he was actually parodying himself.

[salem]

Look what's back!

"The Robot Revolution" - OK, a pretty decent story. I'm not expecting the whole "time fracture" thing to ever be properly resolved, but if Belinda turns out to be another case of The Companion Of Mystery Around Who The Entire Universe Depends.......I may just give up on the entire show.

"Lux" - Definitely different, and didn't waste too much time on things that didn't move the plot along. Can someone slip Murray Gold some sedatives, though? His music was so overblown here that I was thinking he was actually parodying himself.

Don't you mean Look WHO'S back...?

 

[rtpoe]

By the way, in "Lux", the baddie used the phrase "Don't make me laugh" (said with a lot of snark) so much that I honestly expected it would have something to do with his defeat.

Might have actually been a more satisfying ending than the one we got.....

[rtpoe]

"The Well"

A "follow up" to the great Tennant episode "Midnight" - though it didn't have to be. A mining outpost on a planet that should be utterly incapable of supporting life; something happened that resulted in the violent deaths of all but one person there.... A classic "Base Under Siege" story; Doctor Who has gone to that well often enough (pun intended). It was done well enough so that I can give all the wonky science a pass.

Some RWNJs are probably going to complain about how Aliss' being deaf was "DEI" - to me, it was a case of "So what?" It was needed for the plot, and they never made too much of it - or her. Just need to find an alternate method of communicating with her (which the troopers JUST HAPPENED to have.....) and the story can progress.

I noticed that the troops behaved like you'd expect highly trained troops would. When one of them started circling in to approach Aliss, the troopers he passed in front of *lifted their weapons* so that their fellow would not be in their line of fire.

I may puke if it turns out that taking Belinda away from the Earth is the thing that somehow led to the entire  planet being wiped out of existence.... Stop it already with this crap about the Companion being the Key To Everything In The Universe.