I feel like for people who are normal this is a good episode. And it is, but you can't really improve on peak.

Midnight is a big favourite of mine. It still holds up as one of the best episodes of NuWho even after a good 17 years, and I don't really see *why* RTD wanted to make a sequel for it, except for adding a surprise twist in the middle of this story.

I've seen people say that The Well would hold up better under it's own merits and I wholeheartedly agree. The suspense, especially at the start and very end, is great. The first time Belinda 'sees' the Midnight entity, I legitimately jumped. It was great to feel scared by an episode again.

I think it was cheapened a bit somehow by seeing the actors being thrown around by the entity. And I do think that we shouldn't have seen it as much as we did, if at all. This wasn't a lot, I'll admit, but the fact that I could sort of make out the shape of the entity was disappointing for me personally. Again, a great episode for normal people but it has some drawbacks for neurotic fans such as myself.

Perhaps I am nitpicking too much but ultimately I think that it shouldn't have tried so much so be a sequel - or at least alluded less blatantly to Midnight. There are merits to leaving things to the imagination, which I think is where Midnight originally flourished, and The Well faltered.

it’s like tim foley wrote this story specifically with me in mind

A promising start to the series!

While not perfect (what Doctor Who story is? Rhetorical question btw…), The Robot Revolution is a strong start to Series 15.

Varada Sethu instantly shines in her role as Belinda, and she works great with Ncuti. Belinda’s ability to see through the Doctor’s charms and realise that he’s a dangerous person to be around is also a great aspect of characterisation and always something I like to see in a companion. I hope this continues to be explored in the other episodes.

The visuals in this episode were absolutely stunning, particularly the lighting, robots and set designs. I was enjoying just taking it all in most of the time.

The scene where the two diplomas explode was also gorgeous. I LOVE experimental choices like this, and it was also a cool way to explore the Doctor’s abilities as a Time Lord, saving Belinda from also becoming, well, a sperm and an egg 😶.

Like always with RTD’s writing there are some rocky patches. The man tries to tackle a number of current issues and falls flat on pretty much all of them. Coercive control, incels, AI, even eugenics. To me it felt like RTD was just naming things we know are issues, but not actually addressing them much beyond that. I would have liked a more in depth exploration, ie. why is AI generation bad, rather than just inferring it is. Also, as a creative I understand why we should be wary of AI, but I feel like the majority of people don’t, so I’m sure it would’ve just gone over their heads.

On the other hand, I felt like RTD spelled out some things a bit too much. For example, when the Doctor was explaining to Belinda that the robots couldn’t hear every ninth word. We didn’t need a super cut of him saying this spliced together. Have a bit more faith in your audience, Russell! But maybe I’m being hypocritical in saying this 😅

Overall I enjoyed the episode and I’m excited to see what the rest of Series 15 will bring!

I <3 old woman yuri

Okay, so it’s not exactly in keeping with the whole premise of Stranded, but I’m a sucker for Gallifreyan fairytales.

smiths reference 👍

‘has it always been that christian’ - my mum

well, that’s 20 minutes and 46 seconds of my life that i’ll never get back.

team torchwood get STDs. from each other. that’s it that’s the story.

73 yards is, in my opinion, the best episode of Series 14. It succeeds at practically everything it sets out to do, which I can’t really say about the rest of the season.

I think RTD’s writing strengths lie in these kinds of limited, mysterious stories, where a lot is left up to the viewer. You see this also in Midnight which I think is another highlight of RTD’s. In this way, our imagination can fill a lot of the possible holes that might exist, which is beneficial to a story that might not be able to be fully explained by science. Take that as you will about RTD’s writing as a whole.

73 Yards serves the fantastical vibe of the season quite well, where I think the rest of the season’s episodes fail quite a bit. There isn’t a practical explanation for existence of the Woman, and yet this really isn’t an issue. The simple explanation of the Doctor breaking the fairy circle is explanation enough, and serves the roundabout nature of the story as a whole.

Millie Gibson is obviously an absolute standout. As a young actor, she handles the weight of an entire episode incredibly well. Her acting is nuanced and emotional, and brings depth to her character which is otherwise somewhat lacking in the rest of the season. I recently had the privilege of talking about the episode *very* briefly with her and in her words she was ‘just winging it’. Well, if that was ‘just winging it’, I cannot wait to see what her acting is like when she’s giving it a proper go! (this is a joke btw)

I do really wish Ruby had more time to explore the frustration of being abandoned by her birth mother, even taking the time to talk this over with the Doctor a bit more as a fellow adoptee, although 73 Yards is quite a good allegory for her abandonment issues as a whole.

Additionally, while usually I’m not a huge fan of Doctor-lite episodes (I mean, the Doctor is my favourite character after all), I feel like 73 Yards benefits by not having the Doctor around. At times, I feel that Ncuti’s Doctor is generally a bit over the top, a bit childish, and a bit unserious. While it can be endearing, it gets to a point, and it would’ve been out of place in this episode. When he’s given the chance, Ncuti shines in his more sincere moments. I really hope that, in the future, he has more of these opportunities. But, I digress, this is a 73 Yards review after all.

One criticism I saw of 73 Yards when it first aired was that Ruby did nothing to help Marty when there was some sort of clear abuse going on from Roger ap Gwilliam. I think this is explained just fine in the episode with Ruby explaining that she thought she only had one shot at stopping Roger and didn’t want to jeopardise this before the time was right. Whether or not this is objectively correct thinking on Ruby’s end is irrelevant. It’s just what she thought was right to do. Characters - even protagonists - can make the wrong choices. They can do things that hurt others. This doesn’t mean they are bad people, or that the actors or writers themselves condone these actions, which should go without saying.

Ultimately, 73 Yards is the stand-out episode of the season. I have my issues with RTD’s writing in this new era so far, but this episode gives me hope that Doctor Who can continue to have its shining moments like this.