Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023

Dinosaurs On A Spaceship: a fun little episode, with the most ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ title ever (I’d love to hear Samuel L. Jackson saying the sweary version).

Chibnall getting in some practice for writing a packed TARDIS crew, with lots of characters. #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
The problem with retconning the Silurians so they were a space-faring race capable of building a giant space ark… is if they were that far advanced couldn’t they tell that the moon wasn’t really going to hit the earth and there was no need for their hibernation? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
A big game hunter from the early 1900s who delights in killing animals is an odd choice of friend for the Doctor to have, let alone want to bring along on an adventure. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
While Solomon is undoubtedly an evil bastard (poor Tricey!), him being deliberately left to get blown up is an unusually callous choice for the Doctor. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
A Town Called Mercy: a fairly straightforward tale with a moral dilemma for the Doctor, basically similar to what happened with Margaret Slitheen back in Boom Town. And especially interesting following his own actions in killing Solomon in the previous episode. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
The cinematography on location shoots like this continues to come on in leaps and bounds. They could have only dreamed of making a Western of this quality back in the days of The Gunfighters. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
Lol at Rory’s reaction to “Sheriff… Ma’am… fella…?”#DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 20, 2023
The main big American guest star is killed off half way through, presumably as a money-saving exercise! #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 21, 2023
The Power Of Three: Kate Stewart arrives! Funny how a character from an unofficial spinoff ended up being adapted into the main show in such a major way. And strange to think she’s now been appearing as the head of UNIT for longer than the Brig’s original 1968-75 run. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 21, 2023
Okay, nerd hat on (when do I take it off?)… there’s a new UNIT dating issue here, as Amy & Rory’s encounters with the Doctor are now established as having months, or even years between them, so this is about 2015 (even before the year that passes during the episode…) So for Kate does this take place after she meets the Twelfth Doctor? Or are those episodes set in the near-future too? 😵‍💫 #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 21, 2023
Anyway, lol at this shot. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 21, 2023
This is all well and good until the rushed, rewritten ending on the Shakri ship, apparently due to Steven Berkoff being an absolute arse on set and leaving them with barely any usable footage. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
The Angels Take Manhattan: one of the best post-Blink reappearances for the Weeping Angels, and a great companion exit for Amy and Rory (the mutual leap off the building is still a stunning moment). #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
The ‘Weeping Cherubs’ are an hilariously creepy addition to the Angels lore, and I’d guess were at least partly-inspired by the Peg Dolls the previous season, with the same kind of scuttling and childlike laughter. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
Unlike some, I don’t have a problem with the concept of the Statue of Liberty being a Weeping Angel, but I do wonder how it would ever manage to move, as surely there’d always be someone looking at it? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
I don’t like how Moffat deliberately fudges the rules in order for Rory to be zapped back in time. The Angel gets him because he blinks *while not looking at it*. Amy does the same thing moments later, despite it being in full sight of the Doctor and River! 🤔 #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
Though I don’t get why so many fans can’t understand why the Doctor can’t go back for them. It’s explained that the Angels have messed up the timeline of New York so badly that any further changes to time will destroy the city. And no, he can’t just rescue them “from New Jersey” or wherever, as that would still alter all the decades they lived in New York, and the city still goes Kaboom. QED. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
The Snowmen: of the three iterations, Victorian Clara works best I feel. There’s still a bit of the unrealistic super-quippy dialogue and excessive flirting, but it’s relatively toned down from space-Clara and modern-Clara. I wish this version had become a companion. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
Strax is gloriously funny in this episode. Having him become the comedy butler to Vastra and Jenny was a genius move. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
It took nearly fifty years, but we finally get a proper ‘camera follows the actors through the police box doors and into the console room’ shot, even if you can tell where they cheated a bit with the CGI exterior. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
Some slightly forced and convoluted continuity-tidying on Moffat’s part, by giving the Great Intelligence a map of the London Underground in the 1960s. And it’s weirdly portrayed as though the Doctor is doing it deliberately because he knows who they are. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
I like the ending with the tears of the family causing the Snowmen to melt, a hidden-in-plain-sight solution that was there all along. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 22, 2023
Something I never noticed until rewatching Asylum Of The Daleks recently- the Doctor legged it just before Oswin said ‘Run you clever boy, and remember’… so how does he recognise the phrase here? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 23, 2023
The Bells Of St. John: finally we get modern day Clara, who’s at least likeable enough at this point, but is fatally hampered from the start by A) not being Amy and Rory and B) being lumbered with the ‘Impossible Girl’ mystery, rather than presented as a normal person. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 23, 2023
The idea of there being something menacing lurking in the Wi-Fi is more the type of threat you might have expected to see RTD come up with. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 23, 2023
The Doctor keeps his anti-grav motorbike in a garage in the TARDIS. I like to imagine he’s got Bessie and the Whomobile in there somewhere. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 23, 2023
The reveal of the Great Intelligence, with Richard E. Grant’s face murkily seen on a screen, might’ve worked better if they’d only appeared last week or something, but coming months after the Christmas special some viewers might not have remembered or recognised him. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
The Rings Of Akhaten: this makes a very commendable attempt to give us one of the most alien settings the show’s ever depicted, but it’s a backdrop for a story that’s fairly muddled and unfocused. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
Every SF franchise at some point or another tries to do their own version of Star Wars’ cantina scene, and the market place in this episode is one of several attempts #DoctorWho has made.
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
It’s quite funny that they unintentionally used the same 1980s car to nearly run over Clara’s dad as ran over Rose’s dad back in season one. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023

The problem with the location of this story is it’s just a bit too weird - how exactly are they all breathing when it’s seemingly just a bunch of asteroids orbiting a sun? Especially when the Doctor and Clara use those space-bike things to fly between them.

It’s the type of detail RTD would have been all over, but Moffat is happy to skim past. I mean, we can *infer* there’s some sort of atmospheric shield or whatever, but a quick line explaining it would have been nice… #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
This episode is principally remembered for the Doctor’s big, epic, emotionally-charged speech to the living sun, which is a good moment yes, but sadly there’s not much else worthwhile surrounding it. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
Cold War: a nicely claustrophobic setting, with some very ‘Alien’ or ‘Thing’ type scenes of the unsuited creature scuttling about and grabbing people from the ceiling… but to be honest the Ice Warriors have never had a really outstanding episode, have they? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
The updated version of the costume is very good - not messing about with the basic shape, which is always the way to go, but just making it look more solid and “real”. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023
I don’t know why you’d get an actor of David Warner’s calibre and put him in such a thankless role where he’s just obsessed with early 80s New Romantic bands. 🤷🏻‍♂️ #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 24, 2023

Gatiss updates and fine tunes Ice Warrior lore, with their exterior being a cybernetic suit. It’d never been clear before how much of what we saw of them was armour or skin.

It’s a bit ‘Hmmm’ though when we finally see their real face. They look better in the helmets. #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 25, 2023
Hide: this is probably #DoctorWho’s best ever attempt at doing a proper haunted house story. In fact the ‘ghost’ bits in the first half are so well done it’s almost a shame when the inevitable required SF explanation starts to kick in.
Show threadGavin WintersSep 25, 2023
The TARDIS shows what excellent taste she has in companions by taking a dislike to Clara and trying to lock her out. 😄 #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 25, 2023
Matt Smith mispronounces ’Metebelis’. Heresy! De-canonise him from #DoctorWho, etc…
Show threadGavin WintersSep 25, 2023
The final bit feels a little unnecessary, with the tacked-on ‘love story’ between the two creatures and the one final hop to the other dimension. It would’ve worked perfectly well ending a few minutes earlier. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin Winters
Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS: I was never overly fond of this one, but to my surprise I enjoyed it a lot more on this rewatch. The plot is still pretty thin, but the exploration of some of the stranger corners of the TARDIS is interesting. #DoctorWho
Sep 26, 2023 at 3:01pmWeb
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
At last the new series gives us an extensive look at parts of the TARDIS often mentioned but rarely seen, like the enormous library. As well as some visually striking new bits like the ‘tree’ with the glowing orbs. Nice callback to the TVM too, with the Eye Of Harmony. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023

The concept of the jars of liquid that are really burbling, whispering Gallifreyan “books” is very Harry Potter.

Not keen on Clara just randomly reading the Doctor’s real name in the book about the Time War though. #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
The subplot of the two brothers playing a ‘joke’ on the third one of making him think he’s an android is just nuts. What sort of a prank is that?? And when time is reset at the end will he now ever find out the truth? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
The Doctor popping in and telling his past self to push the button to sort everything out is basically just a rehash of the conclusion to the ‘Space’ and ‘Time’ minisodes, isn’t it? #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
The Crimson Horror: this is a fun little highlight of season 7b. Gatiss’ episodes might never be considered the very best of #DoctorWho, but they’re hardly the worst either. And it’s refreshing to get a bit of humour here after a run of grimmer stories.
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
I love the mortician guy who keeps saying the episode title with relish: “Thuh Crimmzun ‘Orror!” #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023

Strax also gets some of the best lines:”I’m going outside to play with my grenades!”

Was Moffat planning some kind of Paternoster gang spin-off? As this seems almost like a back door pilot for the first half. #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 26, 2023
Diana Rigg is deliciously evil and having a ball as Mrs Gillyflower. An actual, proper, gloating villain! Who’s… doing evil shit just for the hell of it. A rare treat in this era. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 27, 2023
Nightmare In Silver: also known as ‘the other one Neil Gaiman did that wasn’t as good as The Doctor’s Wife’. The elements just didn’t gel together as well on this, did they? Rewrites and production problems apparently. Plus the addition of the two kids doesn’t help. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 27, 2023
The presence of the kids leads to one of the stupidest moments ever in #DoctorWho - Angie, being carried off by a Cyberman, when she should be screaming in mortal terror, turns into Harry Enfield’s ‘Kevin the teenager’ and comes out with a bored-sounding “I hate you!”. FFS. 🙄
Show threadGavin WintersSep 27, 2023
Still, it was nice of Moffat to give teenage Chris Chibnall from 1986 a small role. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 27, 2023
The problem with giving the Cybermen all these new superpowers (running as fast as the Flash and having detachable body parts and so on) is that they couldn’t keep that up in all subsequent appearances as they’d be impossible to defeat. And so of course they didn’t. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 27, 2023
The implication that Porridge, as Emperor, was the one forced to destroy an entire galaxy to defeat the Cyberman foreshadows Day Of The Doctor. Though with that story in mind, it’s strange the Doctor seems so eager for him to do it again and blow up the planet here. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023
The Name Of The Doctor: not the best finale, but the buildup to the 50th starts here, with that completely unexpected opening. I can forgive the slightly shonky FX work necessary to splice in the old footage.

And seeing this moment elicited quite a gasp… #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023
Plus I want to know what that missing adventure was that had the second and the eighth Doctors running around Miami (or wherever it was) together. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023
Is it just me or is so much of season 7b perpetually dark and gloomy with blue lighting? Switch the lights on Moff! #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023

The Whispermen are another great creation that could’ve potentially returned. I like the jumpscare when one of them bursts through the phantom of River.

Another creepy nursery rhyme though. The whole universe seems to have been constantly singing about Eleven’s fate. #DoctorWho

Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023

I enjoy the buildup to Clara’s leap into the Doctor’s timeline, but the implication of it, how she’s then saved him in every previous adventure, is a bit much.

It’s the start of Moffat trying to make us see her as the most important person in the entire history of #DoctorWho…🙄

Show threadGavin WintersSep 28, 2023
Bloody hell though. #DoctorWho
Show threadGavin WintersSep 29, 2023

Day Of The Doctor: right, here we go. The big one. 🙂

Ten years on, this still holds up as a fantastic achievement by Moffat. Season 7 was a bit iffy, so there was some slight trepidation heading into the 50th, but fair play, he pulled it off spectacularly. #DoctorWho