Series 14 (Doctor Who)

Now that I've finally gotten around to finishing the latest series, I can give my ranking.

8 - Space Babies - There are worse episodes, but not a lot of them.

7 - The Church on Ruby Road - Not a bad episode but not a very good one either. It's just sort of there.

6 - Rogue - I do love the character Rogue, and the episode has some fun moments, but it's all skin deep... which wouldn't be too bad if it didn't try and be something it wasn't. They tried to put serious stakes and an emotional companion "death" into what should have been a fun lighthearted episode. However, I do hope we'll see Rogue again. And I think we will. We still have that mysterious "boss" to suss out (I'm assuming it will be the same boss that Beep the Meep mentioned).

5 - The Devil's Chord - A bit camp, a bit silly, and a lot of fun. Jinkx goes a bit overboard with their acting choices, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Maestro is a very overboard villain. Also, the reveal that the Beatles are shit was hilarious.

4 - 73 Yards - I was very tired when I watched this and it was very noisy in the house, so maybe I missed something important that made this episode make sense? I just didn't really get it. However, the horror aspect at the beginning was brilliantly done, and the change up to using that horror to defeat an even bigger horror was masterfully done.

3 - The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death - Great to have Sutekh back (and still voiced by Gabriel Woolf!), and we got some nice emotional scenes with Ruby. I expected to be more bothered by Ruby's mum being a normal person, but I honestly didn't mind the explanation that she was important because everybody believed it to be so. It still leaves a few plot holes, like the snow and why Sutekh couldn't see who she was, but for the most part, I'm fine with the ending (apart from the pointing at the sign thing, which I thought was ridiculous). Having said all that, I'm not totally convinced it is the end of Ruby's story. We shall see.

2 - Boom! - While I do think this episode overcompensates with drawing out the suspense of the land mine, and it could have done without the romance subplot, it is a great story with a great premise. Capitalism is making an army fight itself because war is profitable. Very believable.

1 - Dot and Bubble - Great social commentary, and I love how Finetime has a real 50s/60s aesthetic which works brilliantly with the whole segregation/racism theme. I also love how the main character of this Doctor-lite story - a role we are familiar with and are used to rooting for - ends up not being a good person. Usually we expect to end an episode - any episode - with at least the hope that the main character will overcome their flaws and become a better person. But any small amount of hope we have for Lindy vanishes when she, for all intents and purposes, murders Ricky to save herself. After that, the rosy tint of narrative expectation lifts, and we see that Lindy - and the whole damn society - is even worse than we feared. She's not going to change, she shows next-to-no remorse, and we are left with a mixture of heartbreak that the people of Finetime would willingly die on their prejudiced hill, and a bitter feeling that they deserve to.

3 images I made showing what it would be like if the first doctor never regenerated. the bbc did cruel cruel experiments on william hartnell to discover the secret to immortality and keep him in the role

Spoiler warning since this discussion post will likely provoke people to bring up what has happened in recent episodes, as well as potentially correctly predict what will happen in the finale.

So, recent episodes and specials like "The Giggle" and "The Devil's Chord" have been teasing this big villain of the season who is connected to The Toymaker and his child, Maestro. They are presumably part of the same pantheon that these two are in. There are all these mentions and offhanded references to them, and we know that they have a connection to Ruby Sunday.

People have brought up many potential candidates for who it could turn out to be, including Sutekh, Fenric, Omega, The Beast, The Master, The Trickster, Davros, and even the Doctor's own granddaughter, Susan. XD

Of course, it could always be a completely new and original character.

But go on, everyone. Just for fun, speculate who you think it might be, and give your reasons why.

Maestro (who has become one of my favourites) said that ‘The One Who Waits is nearly here’. This made me ponder over a couple of things over who this mysterious unknown character is. I am 80% sure it’s the supposed ‘Boss’ that the Meep

1) It’s Mrs Flood (whoever she may be (I think the Rani))

2) It’s the Master (although this is highly unlikely because of what the Toymaker said

3) It’s the lady with red fingernails we saw in the Giggle (which may be Mrs Flood)

4) It’s someone’s. The Trickster Brigade (I mean, why not?)

5) It’s one of the Toymaker’s legions (again, unlikely because of what the toymaker said

6) Its some unknown person who we haven’t met yet but is clearly feared throughout the universe

7) It’s Rassilon (idk if he survived the Master’s rampage since he was banished)

8) It’s the Valeyard (I highly hope not!)

9) It’s the Rani (but not Mrs Flood) who hasn’t been seen since that corny Eastenders Crossover

10) Other

What do you all think- I am in the firm belief we will know all this by the end of Season 14/1. It will be interesting to see what they have planned!

Loved the two episodes Yesterday (preferring Devils Chord to the goofy but amusing space babies)

The new Season premieres in two weeks and three days time on Saturday 11th May 2024. This premiere also aligns (on linear television) on the night of the final of the 2024 Eurovision song contestant with the BBC marketing it as a “Whorovision” night! Whorovision Night will see the first two episodes “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord” airing back-to-back, as such I for one am guessing that both episodes will have their BBC IPlayer premiere at midnight!:

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/doctor-who-season-one-premieres-11th-may-2024#:~:text=A%20simultaneous%20global%20premiere%20date,Who%20returns%2011th%20May%202024. (Great to know that I could well be running twice as late with BGT auditions and possibly even The 1% Club on too that night. I’ll have to see whether or not I can get to them both before the linear premiere).

Sidenote: I would usually try to use a BBC Source, however they haven’t published anything about it and as such I’ve been forced to use the Digital Spy source (This weeks issue of What’s on TV magazine also teases this too by the way). I think the BBC have an advert out that confirms that to be the release date though.

Before anyone says anything, yes I’m well aware that I’m two days late (if only it released a day earlier then it would’ve been a surprise birthday present for me from the BBC & Doctor Who Official YouTube Channel). Anyway without further ado here is the second trailer!

This.

Please feel free to discuss below, as a Trailer though this will indeed contain some potential Spoilers towards the series in order to generate hype for it, so if you don’t wish to read them please don’t click on the post in order to see the responses. Now you cannot complain as you’ve been warned about the contents of this discussion thread!

SPOILERS!!

Woohoo! The first episode of the 60th anniversary specials just came out and I was beyond overjoyed to watch it; I quite literally have been waiting for this episode since FOREVER. That being said, I did have some issues with it that I would like to point out- remember that these are my opinions and I would love your thoughts on them.

1. The tone- way too fast-paced, and it switched from happy, to sad, to happy again, all too quickly. I honestly was a little bugged about the visible shifts in tone, it felt like lazy writing to me.

2. Speaking of lazy writing- the ENTIRE metacrisis thing. It was handwaved away like it literally never happened. Kinda bugged me because it was a HUGE tragedy behind Donna's character, and it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

3. Lazier writing- the sonic screwdriver (that just literally came out of nowhere) can make shields now? The TARDIS magically got a new interior? It felt lazy to me because RTD didn't really bother to add any reasons behind this.

4. The musical cues- It felt like Murray Gold was yelling out from the screen and telling us what to feel.

5. The dialogue- it felt sort of jagged, especially when the Meep was getting escorted back home. Like someone wanted foreshadowing dialogue but didn't really bother to do it correctly

6. The aesthetics- this is honestly a really stupid complaint but I'm not a fan of the new logo and intro music- it felt way too acoustic for a sci-fi romp around space and time. Loved the intro, though! Just disliked how badly it meshed with the music. It sounded like a mishmash of all the themes but without any nuance; just a remix.

7. The acting- was very good in some places, but the blocking and pacing really made the acting seem odd.

8. Not enough stakes- yes, London's gonna be destroyed, womp womp, BUT the story didn't take enough time to build it up, to give the episode a real sense of danger.

HOWEVER, I loved some things here:

1. Rose's transition. LOVED this. I've never seen a show be more open about LGBTQ+ issues, and seeing the blatant transphobia at the beginning, Donna's mother struggling to adjust to her new pronouns, and the Doctor asking the Meep's pronouns- incredible, incredible, incredible.

2. The acting. I'm not the biggest fan of Tennant's Doctor but he was really fun to watch- I felt like a kid again watching him.

3. CGI- oh lordy lord the effects were INCREDIBLE. Even if the story was, not the best, it still had some incredible scenes and visuals that I'm falling head over heels for.

This episode was not perfect, and is definitely far from the best. But it was an excellent comeback for the show that defined my childhood and I can't wait for Wild Blue Yonder!

RTD has apparently just confirmed that series 14 will be a series reset and will be called "series 1". What're your thoughts?

To be frank I think it's dumb and I really hope they listen to the fans. I understand that something similar to this was rumored to happen for series 5 but it didn't. This is a pointless idea and I really hope it's just a rumor- everyone will call it series 14 anyway, so what's the point?

The Tenth Doctor has a new sonic screwdriver what how this is amazing I’m so excited