Doctor Who

For most of this episode I thought it was a good (if a bit on-the-nose) commentary about our societal distraction sickness and everyone living literally in a bubble. The hero was someone who literally able to walk on his own two legs, etc. But once they went underground everything kind of went loopy?

Where did the slug monsters come from? The idea that they came from "outside the (city's) bubble" kind of reinforced the idea that it's dangerous to hide from what's scary. But then we see the homeworld was also eaten destroyed by the same slug-monsters? If the slugs are controlled or created by the dots, are we meant to understand that the people of the home world are similarly walking around in bubbles? If so, then why does Finetime exist? The whole premise of an off-world "perfect" colony seemed to imply they were providing some service to the home-worlders beyond their 2 hours of "work". Why would a society of people living in bubbles send their youth to a faraway planet?

Then we see that the dots are capable of quickly killing the inhabitants. So where did the slug monsters come from? Why did the dots not just kill zippoty zop? Were the slugs obeying the dots alphabetical order parameters? Were they created by the dots?

At this point I was like "whatever it's Doctor Who, the plots are never as consistent as the vibes!" But then the vibes changed completely when it's revealed everyone is racist?!

My best guess is that this is some bungled way of comparing the people of Finetime to our modern social problem with radicalization on social media, like "look beyond yourself man" but that feels a bit of a stretch. I feel like I'm missing something big here!

Since returning as show runner of Doctor Who, RTD has stated fairly confidently that he was going to make sure the show delivered one season per year going forward. That made the reduced episode count a bit easier to swallow... a tiny bit...

In the meantime, though, streaming companies have become more cautious splurging money on show commissions, and it seems that includes distributing deals like the Disney+ one that boosted Doctor Who budgets for the most recent season, as well the forthcoming, already filmed season.

Quoted from an interview with SFX magazine, RTD now says that we won't have a definitive answer about a third Ncuti Gatwa outing until season 2 has finished airing:

It’s an industry decision, it's like any business – these things take time. I think the decision will come after the transmission of season two. That's what we're expecting, that's what we've always been heading towards.

Given the time it seems to take only producing 8 episodes and a special these days, that will likely mean at least an extra one year gap between seasons 2 and 3 airing, if the show is even renewed by all current production and distribution parties.

Maybe, just maybe the spin-off The war between the land and the sea can fill in such a gap, but only time will tell.

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played ~~the~~ a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11809930

The overnight ratings for Doctor Who's season 14 launch episodes Space Babies and The Devil's Chord have been revealed, as Ncuti Gatwa well and truly takes over the keys to the TARDIS.

Space Babies, the first episode, was watched by 2.6 million viewers, with The Devil's Chord, the second, having an overnight audience of 2.4 million.

While the overnight figures are close to the lowest ever for the show (with Legend of the Sea Devils only securing an overnight audience of 2.2 million in 2022), it's not the whole story. It doesn't include viewers who watched on BBC iPlayer, who will be more significant than ever due to this season being the first to debut early on iPlayer.

Figures are also likely to have been affected by good weather in the UK.

Season 14 of Doctor Who marks many firsts - it's the first to launch with a double bill, with the first two episodes being available at once, and it's the first to debut episodes early on iPlayer before airing them on BBC One later that day. It's also the first season after the BBC's deal with Disney, meaning episodes are being transmitted globally at the same time for the first time ever.

Gatwa's first episode, the Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road, was streamed a whopping 10.1 million times on BBC iPlayer, setting a new record according to the BBC.

...

Next week will see Steven Moffat's return with his tense episode Boom!.

I don't think the inclusivity is the most interesting part of this interview - rather:

I wanted the show to be fun and a bit nuts. I think there’s an awful lot of television now, and I watch an awful lot of television, but I think there’s so much television that [sticks too rigidly] to the three-act structure. You know when there are 10 minutes left to go, when there’s going to be a major event, or when the murderer is going to be caught. So, I think it’s time for a show just to break those rules. Writing is about the heart and the pulse and sparks in the brain. Writing is about psychology. It’s about understanding people and why they do what they do. It’s not about hitting a particular beat 17 minutes in. So, I wanted to show this kind of laughing in the face of those rules.

It's Day 1 of this new community, so why not throw a grenade into it by bringing up the Timeless Child story?

Personally, I don't have a big issue with the concept of the Timeless Child. I think the possibility of earlier, uknown versions of the Doctor, some of whom could even be antagonists, is pretty exciting.

I understand the frustration expressed by those who don't like that the Doctor is basically the foundation of modern Time Lord society by being the origin of regeneration. I don't really have a rebuttal to that.

I do think that the story in the Chibnall era was poorly told, and it failed to do anything interesting with the concepts it presented. So far, I like the way Davies is embracing the story, even if it's just to add some texture to the Doctor's backstory, and the way he interacts with the universe.

One thing Davies hasn't done so far is address the fact that this is not just an adoption story, which is the way he's portrayed it so far - it's also an abuse story. I think he's going to have to reckon with that at some point.

I tested the waters over in c/quarks this week, and I've decided that between my own interest in hosting a Doctor Who community, and the new season/series/whatever starting up, I might as well pull the trigger.

Regular episode discussions will go up weekly while the new season airs. I would love to see some discussion about any and all eras of the show, the audios, the spinoffs, and whatever else is on your mind.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/10119463

This discussion was held in [email protected] before I decided to pull the trigger and start this community - please feel free to discuss these episodes at the link above.

IT'S A SIGN