pros: jodie whittaker

cons: literally everything else

With wish world being a right wing populist's ideal world and the rani being a eugenicist you wouldve thought that the episode would treat that as a bad thing. and it does! but then why does the episode then end up rewriting the entire character and timeline of belinda chandra to make her a caricature of motherhood. especially when her opening story is about dealing with shitty incels and not trusting the doctor for messing with her dna. but suddenly shes fine with having a literal child with him and isnt bothered by that at all and thats supposed to be a good thing.

wish world understands that its bad to force women into restrictive roles of motherhood. and yet the finale of belindas own series has her shoved in a closet with a baby away from any action while the white woman ruby goes to save the day.

these past few seasons built hype about omega and the rani only to kill them off instantly and have omega basically be an entirely separate character anyways because "he became the mad god". which feels like a complete waste of his character and compelty generic RTD2 finale villain.

Archie Panjabi is brilliant as the Rani but is unceremoniously murdered by Omgea in her second episode. but we still have mrs flood as if she didnt get 2 seasons already while the new Rani gets murdered... it feels a little offensive to keep prioritising the white characters more over the people of colour.

Also, I'm not sure if its going to be brought up next season, but the susan cameos were very strange as they didn't go anywhere at all. I would've thought that bringing susan back properly would tie in brilliantly with the themes and motifs of ncutis doctor but she was basically just an easter egg so far.

Ncuti Gatwa regenerating when his seasons were so short is genuinely dissapointing. I loved him as the doctor and i wish he'd gotten more time as it seemed he was really hitting his groove.

the return of billie piper as the doctor seems incredibly desperate and im worried the news will overshadow ncutis finale. these past few seasons seem stuck in the past instead of coming up with new concepts. im getting really sick of all the callbacks to david tennants era. if this is supposed to be a "jumping in point for new viewers", its doing a terrible job and they must be pretty confused.

that being said, i do think a billie piper doctor can maybe be interesting, at least. if the show acknowledges the grief and f**ked up nature of stealing the face of your lost ex love interest. but im worried its just a cheap stunt to generate news. i am very happy we got another female doctor though! I was very worried the show wouldnt have the guts to have one to avoid upsetting the whittaker haters. so silver linings i guess.

on that note, jodies cameo was wonderful. she was so in character and i was so happy to see her again i nearly cried. what a great moment. anita and mel were also great

even though i wasnt fond of this episode, thank you to ncuti gatwa for being a wonderful Doctor. these past few seasons have been brilliant

Incredibly fun and campy season opener. its primary purpose is introducing us to new companion belinda chandra and it does so wonderfully. she has so many layers to her dynamic with the doctor already and im so excited to see more of her. she feels like a real person with real struggles living in a house share. the story isnt anything incredible but its a good time. if theres one thing thats bugged me its the "tell, dont show". for example, its described as "planet of the incels" when its already incredibly obvious to the viewer that the villain is an incel. it doesnt seem to trust that its audience can figure out the message themselves and has to explain it. a little more faith in the viewer and the social commentary would've hit harder.

also the doctor says yas queen and the villain turns into a sperm and egg then gets vaccumed up. not a criticism its just funny lmao

we are so back

I think this is the best Graham has been in any doctor who media. We get a lot more insight into his character than we ever do in tv since theres a lot of his internal thoughts. The Doctor keeps getting sent through time so we dont see quite as much of her but when we do shes great. Theres a lot of what I like to call "Doctor and Graham old man bonding moments" and this story really delves into that dynamic of the Doctor and Graham actually being very similar characters (grandfathers (or now-grandmother, in the Doctor's case?) who both quite recently lost their wives). The show doesnt do much with this so im glad its getting explored in the eu.

Its also super atmospheric and has a great mood throughout, the story is intruging and I really liked Silvia Sandstrom here, she was written very well.

Hopefully we will get more stories like this, im so excited for 13 to get more eu media

The Doctor inspiring a trans girl to come out becuase the Doctor is also trans is the most beautiful and amazing thing. This story was delightful from start to finish with some great doctor who twists on the world of oz. I only wish we got more Missy.

This game is so incredibly lame but the little stories you can unlock with Who characters from every era are cute. If you like mobile idle games (with copious micro transactions) and also doctor who you'll probably have a decent time

I'm so mad that such a fun episode with a really good premise and potential for relevant social commentary got ruined by that speech at the end

They had a 10 quid budget, david tennant, and a dream and they made one of the best episodes in all of television

This is just 11 and 12 arguing for like half an hour and its amazing. Also there's vampires and river song references so what more could you want. The mystery is neat too but it takes a back seat to the fun multi-doctor interactions, which works for a short trip story.

Really fun and intruging drama that brings up a lot of questions about Time Lord ethics and political intruige. I loved Romana and her decisive leadership and also Leelas unique perspective that contrasted and complimented her. Very fun banter between all the characters; I really liked Brax here. K9 is delightful but I thought the slave disguise thing was a bit uncomfortable. As someone getting into Gallifrey it was a little hard to follow at times since there are so many new characters and organisations and plot threads. I imagine it would be even better if you re-listened to it later to get the full experience. However this doesn't stop it from being a super interesting introduction to the series and im excited to listen to more.

(Also, they mention the Doctor occasionally which makes me very happy; they're my favourite character)

I've watched this three times now and every time I do, I like it a bit more. Obviously the biggest issue is the whole "lets starve the spiders instead of shooting them" at the end, which makes absolutely no sense from a moral perspective. But otherwise its a really fun episode with some decent character work