Gavin WintersOnly in this show could the monstrous alien villain be little old Anne Reid in a nightdress, threatening people with a bendy straw. #DoctorWho
Martha gets one of my favourite ‘bigger on the inside’ moments, with the Doctor mouthing it along with her.
Welcome aboard, Miss Jones! 😀 #DoctorWho
The Shakespeare Code: you get a slight sense of the show expanding its visual capacity around this point, with the repeated CGI shots of medieval London. Even adding some tiny CGI people running about near the end. Just makes the scale a little grander. #DoctorWho
There’s still a tiny lingering worry that kids may not connect with an historical episode, so you get the Doctor’s quick summary of how “similar” everything is to the modern world - ‘recycling… global warming’, etc. #DoctorWho
They literally do the “there was only one bed” thing from fanfiction. 😄
Honestly Doctor, Freema Agyeman in bed next to you, looking longingly… and you go and ruin the moment blathering about bloody Rose…
You idiot! #DoctorWho
“Oh, 57 academics just punched the air!”
There it is - Russel’s favourite number! Is that the first time it was used in dialogue? #DoctorWho
To be honest, the technobabble (or bafflegab) explanation of how exactly the Carrionite technology works is a bit weak. It’s really just an excuse to have a fantasy concept like witches in #DoctorWho’s sci-fi universe. Best not to think about it too much and just enjoy the story.
Gridlock: always loved this one, definitely the best of the loosely-connected ‘New Earth’ trilogy. Very inventive how they just redress the same set for all the cars, but done so well you don’t really notice. And with such a crazy variety of different characters. #DoctorWho
Random Macra cameo! I suppose there is a thematic connection to their original appearance, with everyone refusing to accept their existence. #DoctorWho
One thing that RTD sometimes went slightly overboard with is having other characters becoming instantly besotted with the Doctor and start eulogising him. Brannigan’s known him about five minutes before breathlessly talking about how he’s “a little bit magnificent!” #DoctorWho
Tennant’s talk with Martha at the end, with his teary-eyed description of Gallifrey, is some of the best acting he’s done in the show so far. #DoctorWho
And it made this old fan very happy with the callback to Susan’s description of ‘silver leaves on the trees’…🥲 #DoctorWho
Daleks In Manhattan/ Evolution Of The Daleks: the first slightly iffy Dalek story of the modern run. Apparently RTD fell ill during production and it had to be completed without his oversight, and it shows. #DoctorWho
Where would time travellers be without random discarded newspapers to tell them what year they’ve arrived in? #DoctorWho
I’m sure fans of, er… certain niche adult entertainment were pleased with the design of this character… 👀 #DoctorWho
I know Talllulah is supposed to be a bit ditzy, but does it really take her that long to recognise Lazlo? Surely she’d recognise his voice straight away? #DoctorWho
I love the moment of the two gossipy Daleks, talking about Dalek Sec, with one checking behind him first to make sure they’re not being overheard. #DoctorWho
The bit about “Time Lord DNA” being conveyed down the lighting strike (?) is the point where the plot feels like its unravelling.
And the scene of the Doctor saving Lazlo seems rushed and almost improvised, sort of “oh, just do what you can with the available props.” #DoctorWho
The Lazarus Experiment: there was often a bit of a mid-season slump in the RTD years, and never more obviously than in season 3. There’s nothing too terrible here, there’s just much better episodes coming soon.
Still, a whole episode without a mention of Rose. Result! #DoctorWho
Hmm, so you conduct a dangerous and untested scientific experiment, in a huge spinning machine thingy… slap bang in the middle of a party with people having drinks and nibbles? Health & Safety nightmare! #DoctorWho
Tish comes across as incredibly shallow considering she was repulsed by Lazarus when he was a lecherous old man, but is suddenly all over him once he becomes younger. #DoctorWho
The CGI for the creature is generally very good and holds up well… except for the human face. 🫤
On DW:Confidential the CGI artists proudly talked about how they’d managed to get Mark Gatiss’ features in there. Er, really…? #DoctorWho
The Saxon story arc is ticking away nicely in the background. It’s worked into the season much better than Bad Wolf or Torchwood ever were, which were just… words being mentioned.
So who was this guy and what did he whisper to Francine to make her go so mad? #DoctorWho
42: I recall there being some very daft criticisms of this one, mainly people claiming that it was “exactly the same!” as Impossible Planet/Satan Pit from the previous year.
What, just because you can’t see past the grimy industrial aesthetic? #DoctorWho
Also fans grumbled because they thought it was our sun that’s revealed as a living entity, when its actually far across space.
Like the later ideas of ‘the Statue of Liberty’s a Weeping Angel’/‘the moon’s an egg’. People can’t cope when this stuff’s too close to home. #DoctorWho
The doors having been reprogrammed to only open by answering trivia questions is a bit of a silly contrivance to string things out a bit longer. There was possibly a less convoluted way of having that happen. #DoctorWho
The space sequences are all extremely well done. From Martha and Riley floating away in the escape pod, to the Doctor’s rescue attempt, to McDonnell’s sacrifice.
We’ve come a long way from Pertwee on very obvious wires in Frontier In Space! #DoctorWho
Tennant is very good at being possessed by the entity too, leading to a rare confession from the Doctor of being scared.
A decent, if not Earth-shattering debut from Chibnall. 🙂 #DoctorWho
Human Nature / The Family Of Blood: this was the beginning of a stormingly good sequence of episodes from here to the finale, maybe the best run in the entire history of the show?
How are there two versions of this story, given the novel? Ah, the Time War changed it. #DoctorWho
There’s a simplicity to most of the FX work here, as if they decided that too much flashy CGI would intrude upon this particular story. It recalls the ingenuity of the 1970s - nearly everything to do with the alien Family is represented by just a bit of green light. #DoctorWho
Tennant rises to the acting challenge of portraying the two distinct characters, and there’s a brilliant bit of subtlety in the scene in the spaceship at the end, when he has to do ‘The-Doctor-playing-John-Smith-but-not-as-good-as-David-Tennant-plays-him’ acting. #DoctorWho
The fates he inflicts on the Family are a rare glimpse of what the show often hints at, but we only occasionally see, of the Doctor being an unstoppable godlike force of nature, almost unfathomable to us mere mortals. #DoctorWho
But the most powerful moment is left for when Joan rightly questions him over whether anyone would have died if he hadn’t come here “on a whim”, for which he of course has no answer… #DoctorWho
Blink: as Moffat himself said, the Weeping Angels are a ‘movie-level’ quality of idea. We should be very grateful we got such a fantastic concept in #DoctorWho instead. The impact of this episode meant a return was inevitable, but I doubt their debut can ever be bettered.
Looking back, it’s surprising it took until season 3 for Moffat to try a story with his trademark ’timey-wimey’ time-loop type of material, which he does so brilliantly here.
(We’ll forgive him for nicking that bit with the letter from the end of Back To The Future 2) #DoctorWho
Hindsight also makes you view Sally and Larry as clearly a proto-Amy & Rory. The smart, quippy beautiful girl and the bumbling loyal bloke. #DoctorWho
Moffat knows the geek audience too well. When Sally says the 17 DVDs on the list are all the ones she owns, millions of us yelled at the screen “She’s only got 17 DVDs??” seconds before Larry did. 😄 #DoctorWho
The bit where the Angel suddenly appears in the room, just as Sally and Larry have finished looking at the Doctor’s message, is the only moment in the entire history of #DoctorWho that genuinely made me jump…
…slightly.
…just a tiny bit, okay? 😜
Utopia: the season 3 Saxon story arc is one of the most well-crafted in RTD’s first run, if not the whole of the modern series. And it all starts to come together beautifully in these last few episodes, with links back to events throughout the season. #DoctorWho
Ten, Martha and Jack make an unexpectedly great TARDIS team, and I wish we’d had them for longer.
Well, after several episodes with not a peep about her, we have to get discussion of Rose again. 😜 Unfortunately necessary I suppose, to explain Jack’s immortality. #DoctorWho
Martha trying to play it cool after drawing Yana’s attention to the fobwatch. #DoctorWho
He’s right there! Stood next to you! Why didn’t he react to hearing that? 😄 #DoctorWho
Everything builds frenetically to that absolute blockbuster of a cliffhanger, one of #DoctorWho’s all time best. Stuck facing certain death at the end of time, while the Master’s back and has nicked the TARDIS. The ultimate “How the hell do they get out of that??” #DoctorWho
The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords: …well, they escaped pretty easily as it turns out! I recall a bit of moaning about the convenience of that at the time, but what do people expect? No need to waste any more time in the far-future, get to the main action. #DoctorWho
I love Simm’s Master now, but was very unsure at the time. After the madness of Ainley and Roberts, fans had collectively started to believe we’d now get a return to a more Delgado-like portrayal, but RTD totally wrongfooted us by actually making him crazier than ever. #DoctorWho
Laserdisc Turtle (Ewan)@gavinwinters Simm just didn't work for me. I hoped he'd get a redemption of sorts when he was brought back for Twelve's run but he wasn't much better...he just had a beard. I don't think it was until Sacha Dhawan that I felt we finally had a good 21st Century Master. He even made the rubbish Tissue Compression Eliminator terrifying somehow!
The way he appears silently in a doorway echoes how the Ninth Doctor would do the same in season one.
And so does the return of RTD’s favourite - the ‘triple gag’ of the Master and Lucy Saxon repeatedly opening and closing the door to hear Vivienne Rook’s screams. #DoctorWho
Russell was trolling the vile old cow by getting her to do this, wasn’t he? Depicting her aligning herself with the most evil man in the universe… #DoctorWho
Finally getting to see a flashback of Gallifrey and the Time Lords was just magical. At long last we got to see it the way it had always been imagined - the huge citadel under a glass dome and all. #DoctorWho
The reveal that the Doctor whispered “use the countdown” to Martha is a slight cheat really, how would he know there was going to be one?
Also, the idea that the Master carved his face into Mt Rushmore is quite funny, since it’s literally what Trump wanted to do… 😆 #DoctorWho
The red herring of having some ultimate weapon, in this case the gun that can kill a Time Lord, is a type of plot device RTD will return to for the season 4 finale. #DoctorWho
A transformation scene in which Tennant’s clothes are magically restored around him? Well, let’s hope nothing as silly as that ever happens again… 👀#DoctorWho
So long for now Martha, the best RTD companion (I will brook no argument on this), who got the best exit by it being on her own terms.
If only they hadn’t fatally undermined her from the start with the constant unfavourable comparisons to she-who-must-not-be-named…🙄 #DoctorWho
David M.@gavinwinters I agree with all of this!
I don’t think any minisode was as eagerly anticipated as this one. RTD’s era was always so cautious about gradually introducing stuff from the past but finally, an actual old-school Doctor in the modern series. #DoctorWho
Voyage Of The Damned: this is lots of fun but of all the Xmas specials this feels the most like it was written to be watched in a post-Christmas-dinner stupor, not needing much of your attention on the screen to follow the relatively straightforward plot. #DoctorWho
It’s The Robots Of Death meets The Poseidon Adventure really, isn’t it? The influence of the former is never more obvious than in the sequence where the Host gets its hand caught in the door and then chopped off. #DoctorWho
The supporting cast in this story are a very good example of how RTD always has a great knack of making you really get to know and care for characters, with just a few simple moments sketching in their personality and backgrounds. #DoctorWho
The Doctor’s big speech about being a Time Lord, 903 years old, etc, plus the later bit where Astrid kisses him, (both with conveniently timed sparks going off in the background) are very obviously written to be ‘trailer moments’ rather than being strictly necessary. #DoctorWho
David 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️NB they/them@gavinwinters It’s even more fun going back to it now knowing they’re family in real life.
David McLain@gavinwinters He was best in his final performance.