"Merry Christmas, Davina McCall" must rank as one of the worst lines in any Doctor Who episode ever?

There were some hairy moments in that and I'm not absolutely sure what it was about. But I know I enjoyed it. As expected, Ncuti is absolutely amazing, but I was really pleasantly surprised by Millie too. She had always struck me as a bit gormless, but I thought she was terrific.

Pros:

I found the scenes where he believed the mother was shopping with a baby at midnight and Tardis address as rather funny.

I liked the use of “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens in terms of early music choices.

The gran always letting the teas go cold worked rather well. I liked the family dynamic of Ruby’s family and them fostering children too and I found it a really good depiction of foster families as a whole until we entered the alternative timeline but I feel as if that’s supposed to show the positive change Ruby made on Carla’s life as she may well have fostered 5 kids now and then for cash beforehand.

Davina being injured by a Christmas tree until 15 later went back in time to prevent it felt like DW was attempting to rival the most absurd death from Midsummer Murders where Martine McCutcheon got crushed by a block of literal cheese.

15th doctor’s theme which I’ve loved ever since hearing towards the end of ‘The Giggle’. Just wish it had a better title than “Fifteen” though as the other doctors themes haven’t as far as I’m aware been named after the incarnation that they are tied towards, which is how both 10 & 14 could both share the exact same theme with one another!

“It’s a Sunday right now, that’s a coincidence”.

The return of Mavity and I feel like it’ll be used throughout 15’s run unless he fixes Newton coming up with gravity next series!

I really enjoyed the musical number and feel like every new villain could do with one. I think it’d be good if some new villains had original songs and others had bigger songs like the returning villains have done in the past for example.

My god, I didn’t expect Millie to have such a great vocal in her and Ncuti’s song! I usually go by character names but here I just couldn’t resist but go with the real names! If only she could have sang at least once in Corrie!

Cherry finally got her tea by the latter half of the episode.

It was nice to finally find out that one time neighbour characters name to be Mrs Flood, even if that’s a weird surname reminiscent of “Fireman Sam” (The shows not called Firefighter Sam despite some thinking it should be in order to be more politically correct).

I’m pleasantly surprised to see the show back in May as the season that aired in May was Series 10 (Revival) if memory serves rightly, as S11 aired late 2029, S12 aired at the start of 2020 & S13 aired late 2021 with the 2022 Specials scattered and each of this years episodes between November & December.

Cons:

RTD doing bits on older terminology is annoying. The bit with Davina was an obvious parody of Long Lost Family but she never asks “Are you okay with the [more old fashioned terminology] foundling” on that show whatsoever.

Why can the Sonic now tinker with traffic lights? It didn’t even help 15 there, it just served as a lazy way to help people around him. It did later help him by becoming a torch but all that did was provided light so it wasn’t that bad.

15 makes himself look like a stalker. He finds Ruby abandoned on the night of her abandonment by simply being where she was abandoned and then pops up every night wherever she is for 2 consecutive nights and even parks up the Tardis on her street. Whilst being there when she was abandoned is important later it is still a rather stalker like detail in my eyes.

The latter half of the plot with the baby being taken felt far too much like a less spooky and more Christmassy version of “Labryinth”.

The vocabulary of rope? I’m so confused by that.

Why does the goblin King look like a Hutt from Star Wars?

How does 15 know Ruby’s grans name? I was going to put her conical name of Cherry Sunday as a pro until I realised that.

How did 15 develop such a close friendship with Ruby in like half an hour to 40 minutes that he was devastated when the goblins changed the timeline and ate her in Lulubelle’s place before he went back in time to save Ruby?

Why is 15 using his Sonic to be a criminal and break into Ruby’s house? I completely understand that he had absolutely no ill intent there but it still seems weird and makes 15 feel even more like a criminal then the episode did earlier (Just glad he didn’t pull these kind of stunts in ‘The Giggle’)!

15’s first set off in his Tardis at the end of ‘The Giggle’ was far better in my eyes in comparison to him & Ruby’s departure at the end of this very episode.

Dimensions in Time sequel episode upcoming.

Mrs Flood is Angie Watts

His is backed up by multiple Eastenders references on Doctor Who Unleashed.

This obviously means that the Rani is returning.

I liked the episode better than the previous 3 specials.

Pros:

• Pretty christmasy. Cool soundtrack and ambient overall.

• I absolutely love the Doctor dancing with his skirt. Feels like the kind of thing he would do. His clothing is gorgeous, I wish I had jumpers like the ones he uses.

• Both Ncuti's Doctor and Ruby feel like really good and solid characters to begin the series with. They do have a chemestry that reminds me of Matt's Doctor and Amy.

• The plot was alright. Nothing too good, but it works as an introduction to the new Doctor, companion, series, showrunner, etc. Nevertheless, it does not beat The Eleventh Hour, which also was a brand new start with new everything.

• The musical number was quite good. Both Ncuti Gatwa and Mlillie Gibson are pretty good singers (better than the SNW episode Subspacial Raphsody, where we can obviously hear Spock singing with heavy use of autotune). I would have hoped for something more jazz-swing-cabaret or hard rock rather than the pop song we got.

• I think Ruby's biological mother will be important in the rest of the series.

Cons:

• The plot was alright. It works as a introduction, as I said before, but everything feels like it has already been seen in other companion introduction episodes.

• No "It's bigger on the inside!"

• We got Rasputin, spice up your live and now this! I'm not against making a DW musical, but just a song every now and then seems out of place.

• I was specting a teaser of the season at the end

• The dialogue was sooo weird. How is the mother and the grandma (don't remember their names) not worried about an stranger entering their house? Wtf? At the very least some line of dialogue between them.

• Tons of things were just out of place. Why Davina's bad luck? And the gloves? The Doctor mentioned they had a 3% of battery left, but then he used them again in a pretty powerful way to take down the boat.

• The Gobling King is Jabba

@CT-75676 There was a teaser at the end.

It was just the date, wasn't it?

@CT-75676 No, there was a miniscule trailer with clips of one thing looking litigiously like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, and from the Beatles episode which I absolutely cannot wait for. It's almost certainly on youtube by now.

Okey imma head and watch it. I can't belive I missed it, thanks!

@CT-75676 No problem at all.

Ohhhh Abbey road studios! I'm not a Beatles fan specifically, but I do like 60s rock n roll. I can't wait!