I will start by saying I’m in the minority in saying I didn’t care for RTD1. Specifically, his season arcs. As a viewer, I started watching in Matt Smith’s run, then started to watch Eccleston onwards while also watching Capaldi’s early stuff. I think the Moffat style arcs, especially Series 6, with how they were incorporated into the episodes, really clicked with me, and so watching RTD1’s arcs which just consisted of repeated words or phrases like “Bad Wolf”, “Torchwood”, etc was underwhelming, with the exception being Series 3, I enjoyed the mystery of who Harold Saxon was, and why he was interested in Martha.

So when RTD2 was announced, I was apprehensive but nonetheless interested. After all, he did write great episodes themselves. I went in with low expectations of the arcs, and Season 1 affirmed how I felt. So going into Season 2, I was barely invested in the Mrs Flood mystery, although I did enjoy the “Land of Fiction” theory.

So let’s start with Mrs Flood. I have no issues with her being the Rani. I’m perhaps slightly underwhelmed but I have no issues with it, except maybe the assumption that the average fan will instantly know who she is. The Rani isn’t really explained in the episode except for “she’s a Time Lady”. Ok and? That doesn’t inherently mean anything, you need to explain who she is, not just name drop her.

But I think the worse criticism of the Rani here is that she was barely used! Like, you’ve had Mrs Flood since Season 1, maybe even the specials. She appears in half of Season 1 and every episode of Season 2, but then as soon as it’s the finale, she’s barely around. Mrs Flood is demoted to sidekick, then the new Rani dies halfway through the episode. I had to check the timestamp when that happened to see another half hour left. Why are you building up a character for TWO years just to do throw her aside? It’s especially infuriating when both actresses are so great in their role whenever they do get to do anything.

This doubles for Omega, as well. We are not told anything about Omega short of “the first Time Lord” which for starters isn’t even true in established lore? Like I know Doctor Who lore is pretty inconsistent but at least try. But again, we just don’t know what the stakes here actually are. Why is he locked away in the underworld? Who were the people chanting about him? Most importantly, what is his relationship to the Doctor? The Doctor asks Omega “remember me?” but we don’t. The average viewer has potentially but probably not seen that one episode from 1973 that ACTUALLY introduces Omega as a character, and again, as a threat he is dealt with in about two minutes.

Don’t even get me started on the design, like Omega has one of the COOLEST designs in 1973, but like last season’s Sutekh, they’re just a CGI beast now. Why are you taking away their uniqueness? Their originality? I literally thought it was Sutekh at first when Omega had a weird ass CLAW coming out from the portal. They’re literally just the same, but namedropped as pre-established antagonists in the hope that this will be enough to make people enjoy the CGI mess. It’s embarrassing.

For the finale, I was also expecting something with the Pantheon. Since that’s kind of the Fifteenth Doctor’s whole thing. We’ve faced three maybe four Gods by now? I was surprised, maybe pleasantly, by the lack of any Pantheon member. We do of course have some dialogue about Omega becoming a God anyway, I’m not sure if this means he was meant to be part of the Pantheon itself, or if they’re just hyping him up? I don’t see anything happening this episode to really “wrap up” the Pantheon arc. More Gods can theoretically appear in future episodes, no? If so I hope we have a better showrunner by then.

Next, I need NEED to talk about Ruby and Belinda. It’s so clear from this episode that RTD does not care about Belinda. Like, the villain is RUBYs neighbour and RUBYs ex-boyfriend. Belinda is just there. Sometimes I’ll joke and say characters are just standing around, but in this case Belinda is LITERALLY inside a box to separate her from the rest of the world while RUBY goes and confronts Conrad.

The episode then ends with Belinda’s timeline being reconstructed to retroactively include Poppy as a baby, a baby in which Belinda never met nor interacted with. A baby that RUBY had previously met and interacted with, and most importantly shared the theme of being a foundling and having abandonment issues. The episode was literally written for Ruby. Belinda deserved better.

Finally, the regeneration. Man. We just did this. The last couple regenerations have been controversial spectacles. People Didn’t like Tennant coming back as 14, then people didn’t like him staying around through a bigeneration. These issues, I’m mixed about. Like, it’s a 60th anniversary one-off, you want to get some viewers, I GUESS I can excuse it. But now it’s not a one-off. You’ve gone and done the exact same thing again. Like Tennant, I’m sure Billie Piper will be phenomenal in terms of acting. But the desperate attempt to get viewers through this nostalgia-baiting is at this point so embarrassing. It makes me wonder whether Piper will be a permanent, or “numbered” Doctor. We’ve had mini “half-Doctors” before such as Fugitive or War, and I love these characters, but I do think a bit more thought needs to be put into the mainline Doctors. Either way, I know I’m not going to be able to be invested in Piper, because it’s either too much of a gimmick, like 14, or she’s not going to be around long enough to establish any cohesive arc, like 15.

Overall, the finale is fine is the culmination of many issues that have plagued the show for the last two years. I will miss Ncuti, and I’m sad that there are like going to be so many dropped plotlines due to his surprise regeneration.

See my full Season 2 review over on serializd:
https://www.serializd.com/review/34868764

Recommended Prerequisites

TV: Rose

AUDIO: The Queen of Clocks

TV: Deep Breath

The Clockwise Man

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would going in, especially in some of the ways the Doctor was written about.

I like, get, the parallel they were doing with Russia and Katuria, what with the theme of reclaiming / returning, but it more or less fizzled into nothing pretty quick. There was even a relatively large group of characters introduced at the start of the book that I felt would be important that just kind of disappeared for most the book.

But for everything else in the book, it was pretty solid. The story was fun, I enjoyed the twists although some were not too surprising. Even the characters started to grow on me by the end.

This may be a hot take but I really wish Freddie tackled Vassily off of the clock tower at the end. I thought they were really going to lean into it, with the idea of Freddy repeatedly wanting to feel like a "hero". I think it would have worked SO much better for the Freddie-Vassily parallel if they fell to their deaths together, plus it could help give the Ninth Doctor more opportunity to develop in later stories with another death being his fault. Another person sacrificing themselves for his cause.

Quote

"Anyone looking up from the street below would see the Doctor's head and shoulders emerging from his window. His chin was resting in his hands, elbows on the wide sill. The eyes were ever alert, flicking to and fro, taking in every last detail. One might imagine, looking up and discovering him there, that the Doctor had been like this all night. Frozen like an icicle, staring out and thinking. And perhaps he had."

Recommended Prerequisites

PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse

TV: Inferno

Timewyrm: Revelation

This book was interesting and entertaining throughout, but like the first three Timewyrm books, it's still just missing something. I absolutely loved the deep dive on Ace. I feel this is the first time we've actually examined her as a character, and the different names for different versions of her throughout her life was so sick. We also saw the Doctor in a bit of a darker light, where he has literally taken the physical manifestation of his conscious and tied it to a tree, like a Christ-like figure. I know Ace and the Doctor have issues going forward and I think their dynamics in this book really add to what will be coming soon.

However, we're also introduced to a number of just really pointless characters. Trelaw, Emily, Saul, etc. At first I thought they must be from a classic series episode that I haven't seen, apparently not. Were introduced to these people like we're meant to know them, then they do nothing for 90% of the book except look around confused st each other. It wasn't the most engaging reading.

Quote

"You live in paradise, you start to wonder who empties the bins"

Recommended Prerequisites

PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus

TV: Logopolis

Timewyrm: Apocalypse

I may be coming in with a hot take here, but I honestly think this is the best book of the tetrology so far. Granted, it's not hard to beat the low bar of Genesys, but while Exodus was a step up, I think Apocalypse is leagues above.

One thing that this book does that many may dislike but I think works in it's favour - the Timewyrm is barely in it! I am an avid Timewyrm HATER I think the Timewyrm is such a boring villain, and I wish they were a one-time villain as opposed to being the antagonists of the first four books. While they are clearly the antagonist here, I actually forgot we were in this arc at times, and it made me enjoy the book so much more.

That being said, this book is still certainly lacking. While it felt more consistent than Exodus, the pacing was not great, we had large chunks of nothingness while people just sort of walked around. Something that has been happening all too often in the VNAs so far.

We also had a lot of characters. It took me a while to remember who was Miril and who was Huldah. Revna and Reptu, etc. I was more or less on top of it by the end but it took me some time. I'm not sure if this was a problem with my ebook, but it kept changing Mirils name to Mint. Not sure why.

Lastly, I thought the ending was a bit underwhelming. We had a reveal that the person the Timewyrm was possessing was somebody the Second Doctor met, and I assumed they were in an episode of the show, turns out they were only in this book, with their debut being in Chapter 2 for a couple paragraphs. Not the dramatic reveal that it felt like the book was trying to do. We also had Raphael, great character who I thought was perhaps going to be a companion, or maybe a recurring character. He kind of just... Turns into a God then blips himself out of existence. That all happened in two chapters.

Overall, a fun and interesting story, and the highlight of the VNAs so far. Unfortunately bogged down by a number of issues that make it still far from perfect.

Top Quote

"Come with us," they cried. "There lies death for you!" "Accept the Panjistri; join the Brotherhood!"

Ace picked up a handful of stones which she threw at them. "Bog off, wimps!"

Recommended Prerequisites

PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys

TV: The War Games

Timewyrm: Exodus

With Genesys being what it was, I went into Exodus dragging my feet. I knew we were moving from John Peel to Terrance Dicks, but I still had no desire to read more about the Timewyrm, or continue her arc in anyway. Nevertheless we persisted, and Exodus wasnt actually horrible. Far from perfect, but alright.

Exodus is formatted somewhat strangely. The Doctor and Ace, trying to track down the Timewyrm, go to 1951, then 1923, 1939, then 1940. It makes sense, plotwise, but it results in a couple of smaller interconnected stories with new groups of characters.

The first half has the Doctor and Ace walking around an alternate 1951 London, after the Nazis won WWII. This is the stronger and more interesting half of the book.

The second half has the duo going further back to stop the Nazis from winning the war, and followed characters such as Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, and of course, Adolf Hitler, who is possessed by the titular Timewyrm

The issue here, and with much of this book, is that Dicks is trying to do too much in only 234 pages. We get an interesting revolution subplot which doesn't go too far, we have only two moments with the Timewyrm, which is barely relevant to anything, and as if that's not enough, we are reintroduced to the War Lords, the antagonists that appeared in one episode twenty-five years earlier. Because why not.

It's a bunch of ideas that aren't inherently bad in themselves, but could definitely be executed a lot better. Dicks goes quantity over quality, and it really makes the book feel disjointed.

Top Quote

"In history, the real history, Hitler's Thousand Year Reich lasted from 1933 to 1945. Twelve years and that was it, finished."

"So?"

"The main reason was that Hitler was an incompetent madman. You blow him to bits and maybe a competent madman takes charge. Someone who really can make the Reich last a thousand years."

Recommended Prerequisites

N/A

Timewyrm: Genesys

Man, this book was a struggle to get through. Some are saying it has issues but has some good things about it, I don't see them. This book truly has nothing for me.

But the things this book does have includes:

• Pointless Dialogue
• Characters just walking around doing nothing the entire book
• Oversexualisation of every female character
• Fanservice that is awkward and at times, referencing events incorrectly
• A thirteen year old prostitute with no shirt on for half the book

Ishtar, as a villain, was interesting enough, but overall underwhelming, hopefully they're written better in the next three Timewyrm books. Overall, a really sad beginning to the VNAs

Top Quote

“It’s not just the TARDIS that has relative dimensions, Ace, but the societies that we visit, too.”