Yeah, this season felt ALL OVER the place. and none of it felt cohesive. As a long time Whovian, it dissapointed me. I would love to see a deep dive on Clara, since i love the episode where she is throwing the keys. Also, i definitely agree Ruby feels......lackluster. i also feel like there should have been 15 episodes. i feel like it should have been Boom, then like 3 episodes, then Dot, then Rogue. so it kind of cycles.
Even when they were making more episodes they were making 13. In today's production pipeline where 13 has become impossible, 15 would be even more so impossible.
@@TalhaMasood 13 episodes per season hasn't become impossible in any way. _Most_ of the cause for decreased season lengths is silly streaming policies and risk aversion rather than anything to do with production. Although yes, increased production value also means increased budget per episode (if one insists that Who actually _needs_ increased production value beyond what we saw in e.g. series 5-10). But by most estimates, this series of Who has _double_ the budget of any previous series - and that amount of money really doesn't appear in the final episodes in terms of production value. Which isn't surprising, considering Bad Wolf actually spent money building, just to name one example, a set to pose as Abbey Road Studios - when some set dressing of e.g. Hoddinott hall in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff would have worked at least as well for the little we actually saw of it. Strange use of money. But then, this series was really marred by strange priorities at every level, including in terms of writing. At this point, it seems likely the budget will decrease severely if a series 16 ever appears - wonder if we'll be down to 4 episodes per series then. Anyway, out of all the genre shows currently being produced, Who is definitely the least reliant on a massive budget. It has, after all, survived a budget well below its contemporaries for pretty much all of its previous 39 seasons...
This season sometimes felt like it was switching between "It's Joever" and "We Are Sobek" every single episode. Sometimes you'd have some absolute gold sandwiched between some seriously confusing rubbish and I wish it was more consistent. The episode count is also a massive problem. WE NEED AT LEAST TEN EPISODES, RUSSELL! THIRTEEN, PREFERABLY!
I don’t think Ruby not being special is bad in itself. But the way the audience was misled in ways that don’t make sense when you look back on them isn’t great. Like the pointing at the lamppost… that wasn’t there when we saw the street in Church in Ruby rd. Or the Doctor’s memories of that night changing.
I will never forget the atmosphere of a packed cinema at 1am. It was like leaving a wake. It did NOT go down well, there was audible anger at the end of my Empire Of Death screening & the fact no one thought of putting a Xmas trailer at the end to lighten the mood is still beyond me. Mrs Flood's "Night, Night" was like sticking a middle finger at the audience after the Ruby mother reveal tbh
I wanted so badly to really enjoy this season, and there were moments and episodes where I did (I LOVED Boom, for example), but my biggest annoyance is with the friendship between the Doctor and Ruby. Not only is it totally uncomplicated, as you unpacked brilliantly, but it is also almost entirely “tell not show.” With large offscreen time jumps, they seem to expect us to be happy believing them to be best friends just because they call each other best friends. We see almost no relationship-building, no conflict that allows them to push and pull and grow…I just do not believe that they’re best pals. Because we are only told it instead of shown it, it often reads to me as a very shallow friendship with a less-shallow label slapped on top.
You outlined perfectly why I (and many others) think there should be more scenes of them just having fun in the TARDIS. I can’t help remembering all the scenes of Eleven, Amy, and Rory hanging out together during their run - it really made their friendship seem real
It’s kinda wild too because Russel perfectly established the relationship between rose and 9 by the second episode. It established boundaries and how they feel about eachother and how they’re not always in agreement on every action
Fancy meeting the actual 91st Doctor Who fan here. Enjoy your videos. I wish I was as enthusiastic as you about the new series, but I do enjoy hearing your take on them.
Ruby's origin was going to be much more awesome, her build-up indicates that. There were real-life mechanations in the shadows, which we may never know.
The season was definitely a mixed bag, but episodes 3-6 (Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble, and Rogue) make for the strongest continuous run of episodes Doctor Who has had in years.
@@sammulhall Yup, after Love and Monsters, the writers do seem to relish playing in the Universe with the all-powerful doctor. Blink, was stellar, and showed the opportunity. We also received the incredible Companion-lite episode 'Midnight'. However, the reduced count does make the duds hit harder.
I'm new to Doctor Who, and I personally really enjoyed this season. My girlfriend convinced me to watch the 60th anniversary specials with her since she's a massive Doctor Who Fan and I had a lot of fun with those, especially Wild Blue Yonder. Since it was starting to drop on Disney Plus, and my girlfriend said this new era was meant as a good jumping on point for new fans, I decided to check out this first season with her, and I had blast with it quite honestly. I know that with a critical eye, I could list or call out a lot of structural or narrative issues this season of Doctor Who might have had, but as an introduction into this universe I thought it was really entertaining and overall executed reasonably well. Since I found myself really enjoying this season of Doctor Who I've decided to go back and watch the older seasons/series of the show. I'll probably start with the 2005 relaunch and then move onto Classic Who. My girlfriend will lend me her box sets of Doctor Who so we can watch the previous era together, this being my first watch while she'll be re-watching it. I guess in the end, I'm happy Doctor Who dropped on Disney Plus since it's one of the few streaming services we have, and that I have someone who could introduce to this universe. I'm glad I started watching Doctor Who, since this new season was super fun, and now I'm really looking forward to watching the older seasons/series in the near future. 🙌🏽 (Came from Tiktok, btw, keep up the great work!)👍🏽
I think this season need episode reordering and it needed a standard modern earth story to help connect and give us more time with Ruby’s family. Not every season needs a modern earth story that’s in the middle of season or at all , but with this many on earth characters to know we needed another story to grow attached to Carla, Cherry and unit
Brilliant video, agreed with almost everything said. Another thing I love about the season is the doctors outfits, they are always good but with this season specifically it felt like the costume department had a lot of fun.
@@looseleafellie I had the same thoughts but it weirdly makes it feel like they are travelling together off scene more, which I liked. Also nice to see someone actually like new Earth, not sure why but I really enjoy that episode
I wish the extra Disney money had been better spent, with more episodes rather than splashy effects. Russell was a maestro with a budget, putting episode like Boomtown in, allowing him to write an effects lite episode to have more money for the finale. I just don't see how the Ruby / Butterfly moment, needed quite so much CG, or such elaborate make-up for such an irrelevant aside. I'm not calling for cheap, but the program does seem to flourish under constraints, either budgetary, and time. It drives the writers (the real heroes of the show) to embrace the challenge. Sadly, I feel a little disappointed by Russell in that aspect, a bit of a shock there.
Really good review, finally someone who liked the twist. I think Ruby's mom being no one special is the right move, the show has always been about ordinary people being swept up in the magical. I really like the analysis of Ruby being the opposite of Clara's mystery box. This season has been my favorite so far and I've been watching since I was 12 when Matt Smith was the Doctor. The reason for that is that the show has returned with bigger 2 hearts than ever before and louder than ever with Murray Gold's iconic music giving life and emotion to every scene. The production quality has never been better. I love love love Heaven sent but episodes with that production quality were far in between this season every episode has beautiful sets, amazing practical and visual effects. The Devil's Cord is the best looking non special episode we've had in ages. 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble every single episode knocked it out of the park with it's set design, costume design and the camera was always so kinetic. With 73 Yards, they planned the shoot, the entire crew had to get on the public train in under a minute, shoot that whole sequence in 5 minutes until the next stop and get off. That's camera operators, production assistants, a whole village of people. Not to mention the whole thing relying on the Actor's performance which Millie Gibson nails it. The internet's need to be loud about what the problem is in everything I feel we've missed out on celebrating the goodness of our timey wimey show. We're in the new golden era.
Devils cord gave me “false hope”. Putting it in the first few introductory episode, gave me the wrong idea about what the rest of the show was going to be. And I thought 15 was going to be a self aware fun meta doctor.
Yes, I was expecting more fourth wall breaks, but we got NONE for the entire rest of the season! Which is fine, but they shouldn’t have set up that expectation in episode two 😅
This season is like a sandwich. Stale crusty bread on top, a decently tasty middle, and a catastrophically moldy bread bottom. There are a lot of elements that work in this season, but the problem is that they never quite fit together. I had fun overall, but, like the sandwich, it left a bad aftertaste in my mouth after having finished it.
I literally just finished the season today (this video was recommended to me mid finale) and I really loved it. That is because I am of the goof-inclined, but I think it was a fantastic return to form for doctor who. It Definetly had its faults, but I can see these easily being improved upon in the next season, and even my least favourite episode (space babies) at least felt like a pretty cohesive story with good character moments.
@@looseleafellie I did! I would definitely be up for a video about Doctor-Companion romances! I also liked your analysis of the Pantheon and how it might be incorporated into future seasons. It helped me put into words some thoughts I had already had about it. I think similarly to your thoughts on the episode order. Having 73 Yards before the two-part finale would have been more compelling for me, both with the cross-episode references and the tonal content being related. This would be in a comparable way, if with distinct themes, to how Face the Raven set up the two-part finale Heaven Sent and Hell Bent in Series 9. I agree that despite the tonal inconsistencies, the series had a charming and fun vibe. I find that, in art, allowing variability is underrated! Great video, thank you :))
@@RubyC-t8gFace the Raven is another great example of an episode setting up the two-part finale! I feel like a lot of viewers would have forgotten about Roger Ap Gwilliam before the finale, so putting 73 Yards later would keep him top of mind.
Thanks for the video! I love to hear conversation and critique of doctor who that comes from a place of love and appreciation, instead of just cynically hating change
I really don't believe the theory that Rogue was meant to be episode 2. And the biggest thing that makes me think it was always meant to be episode 6 was Rogue's ring. If it was meant to be episode 2 the Doctor would be wearing it in every other episode of the season but you can only see him wearing it again in the two part finale.
@@shanejames13 that’s a very good point! To be clear, I wasn’t saying that I thought Rogue used to be episode two and then they switched it - I was saying I think it would have worked well as episode two plotwise
When it comes to the doctors and ruby’s 4th wall breaks, I’m okay with them because they’re only in episode 2. The episode where one of the pantheon is already altering reality and breaking the 4th wall. It’s sort of like how the lingering presence of the toy maker allowed 15 to use cartoon logic to duplicate the tardis with a big ol’ hammer. In episode 2 the doctor and Ruby are being affected by the lingering presence of the maestro causing them to break out in song and dance at the end. If these 4th wall breaks were elsewhere I feel like it would detract from the show more. Although if what I posited was their intention they probably should have added in some direct indication that it was the case
My guess for the order change in series 14 could be that they wanted the devils cord to be before the legend of Rudy Sunday but maybe felt like introducing maestro right before sutekh felt like the same premise, with both having the harbingers. Having maestro be introduced in the second episode lets the fans theorized on other gods of the Pantheon. It might be a stretch but the doctor calls out the Tardis making the groaning noice to Ruby in the devils cord but in Rouge he makes an excuse of what the groaning was. The only other time the Tardis groaned was in Wild Blue Yonder. TLDR: SerIes 14’s episode order might have changed because having two god reveals one after the other didnt seem like it gave any breathing room for a viewer to connect dots, and having it earlier in the season was a better placement
Capaldi and Coleman and their undefinable 'love'. Yes, to Clara and a discussion on her toxic relationship with twelve. The fact that here we have in physical form a much older Doctor than his predecessor and after series eight this no longer seemed anything of relevance was great in itself. However, this personality mix where there were more similarities than differences and how that played out was genuinely interesting to watch. Most of all though, I was thrilled with the 'love' that developed between them and that this 'love' is almost undefinable. That is the kind of characterisation and relationships that are fascinating; one's that cannot be pigeonholed. Never is their love for the other questioned as immoral or perverse in any way, nor is there any implied notion of physical attraction. If anything, this was a meeting of two minds who being so similar knew the other as almost a reflection of themselves. Such a relationship could be dangerous in its influence, even power and this is something both the Doctor and Clara come to see and then accept. For me at that juncture in ‘Hell Sent’ where this became obvious was one of the most beautiful and moving segments in all of DW. I myself fell in 'love' with the pairing of them and Moffatt's writing here excelled. This Doctor-companion relationship was like no other. The strength of it and the power it yielded over the Doctor in particular was phenomenal. Somehow though even we the viewer could see the toxicity this bond had. In many ways the viewer came to an understanding that this relationship had to be temporary and come to an end. That was something I for one would love to see explored more deeply. Certainly, if put more articulately than the mess I made of it.
Great job! I think for episode ordering, I generally like your order, but maybe swapping Boom and Space Babies would be better. As a season opener, Space Babies is weak. The opener should besomething that sets the tone of the season to some degree, and Boom does a good job at that. Both Space Babies and Boom are future travel, as opposed to past, so swapping them doesn't upset that aspect. Move the "butterfly effect" joke to Boom, maybe relax the runtime for it, and give Space Babies a little more time, and I think we have a winner. That said, if this wasn't the first season for an incarnation, I think that Dot and Bubble would have made a good season opener as well, and the feel of the "butterfly effect" joke would have worked even better with the palatte of D&B than with Boom.
I see where you’re coming from, because I do think Space Babies is the weakest episode of the lot, but I think Boom works best a bit later in the season because of the conflict between the Doctor and Ruby. I like that they have a somewhat fun adventure their first time out, and then Boom shakes them out of their comfortable friendship. Ultimately I think the best way to open the season would have just been to make Space Babies better 😅
Great video :) Pretty much agree with all your points, and I am so glad I found someone else who liked the reveal of Ruby's mum 😅. Anyway, even if this series was a bit patchy in some regards, my net enjoyment has been a lot higher than quite a few series of nuwho ( *looks shiftily at series six* )
I can't recall a lot of issues with s6 beyond the finale being really bad myself, then again the finale was probably bad enough to bring the whole season down a tad😭
So glad my thoughts resonated with you! I personally like series 6, but I think it’s most fun on a first watch when you don’t know all the reveals. Subsequent watches have been a bit less enjoyable for me (but still enjoyable)
20:01 that’s all great but you must create a big build up that it still making sense. While instant snowing makes no sense for Ruby if she is totally normal.
Clara vid=yes please I personally didn’t really like this one (aside from Dot and Bubble and Boom) i didn’t really like 73 yards, i thought it was too confusing and even after watching a video explaining it it didn’t help. I think they definitely need to bring back the 12-13 episode series because 2 ouf of the 9 episodes i actually liked. I hope the next season is better.
Tbh despite the season's flaws i really love what it was setting out to do and I'd say the episodes work well individually, unfortunately the narrative sticking it all together isn't the greatest
On the topic of Ruby Sunday and her birth mother, I agree that she was a bit too bland overall, not showing too much personality or even ingenuity. I'm fine with the mother being an ordinary person, but I needed there to be a reason she was being shrouded by time. Maybe she fell into a time rift, or had been touched by a magical alien; bonus points if it justified Ruby having snow powers. Louise would still be an ordinary person who just had an extraordinary accident.
(I'm from the US to eliminate confusion) I don't know if Gatwa is doing this because of the bi-generation, but I can see some of Doctor 10 in Doctor 15. What I mean by this is during an episode, Doc 15 will feel something deeply, we can see it on his face. But, he'll cover it up to get the job done. At the end of the episode he'll act like nothing is wrong like the beginning of the episode, for those of us who've watched Doctor Who long enough we know it's a cover. Like Doctor 10 it seems 15 feels things deeply as well. We don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing...yet. But I see 10 in 15. What do y'all think?
The craziest thing is there was supposedly a bunch of scenes that were actually filmed but left out in the post-production and I don't understand why they deleted a scene where the whistle in the finale is explained to be from Doctor's future and that he got it from the memory TARDIS. Many scenes like that cut off for no logical reason. Also I don't fully buy the whole ''everyone was overworked when we did 13 episodes per season'' crap. I mean they literally started filming series 15 after they wrapped series 14 up so I feel like the real reason is just the deal with Disney. Also how does Russel find time to do spin off(s) if doing all that is so exhausting? Maybe I don't fully understand what is going on but I just find it fishy to say the least. I wish we got more straightforward answers because at this point I trust nothing that comes out of Russel's mouth.
@@saenz7947 I largely take everything RTD says with a huge spoon of salt, though if you read his book The Writer’s Tale, his first run on the show was extremely taxing. That said, my theory is they went down to 8 episodes because of streaming trends, and maybe because the BBC wanted to consolidate the budget into fewer episodes. The BBC is kind of skint at the moment (as evidenced by them outsourcing production to Bad Wolf and looping in Disney)
@@looseleafellie That makes most sense indeed. I now wonder, if a different showrunner might me more capable of handling this new format of the show better that Russel, who is used to have a slow burn mystery box which is simply not plausible with merely 8 episodes per season. Not the way he does it. It would be really interesting to be able to hop into a different timeline where Moffat returned instead of Russel or where a new showrunner was put in his place. That would be interesting to see and I think, eventually, we are bound to see that happen anyway (with the new showrunner) and I hope that they not only learn from their predecessor's mistakes but also listen to the fans and find the perfect balance between pleasing the fans and doing things that are best for the show overall, if that makes sense.
@@looseleafellieI don't think it's simply overworking this time around. VFXs takes far longer than it has before in doctor who history and it now takes up a large part of making an episode. If they were going for the streaming show format they'd likely have made it 6 episodes long. It takes them about 18 months to make these 8 episode seasons, adding on any more episodes would mean gap years which RTD wants to avoid. Essentially, RTD doesn't want to have gap years so 8 episodes a year + Christmas special means they can effectively create seasons quick enough to release them annually
I worry that the Whoniverse is too sharply focused on things that'll age poorly. In ten years time will people get the Bridgerton references. In 2005, he targeted the characters and broad genres on Satellite 5. It just feels a little zeitgeisty, for me.
One of my problems with the new series is the Doctor himself. 14 supposedly did the rehab. So 15 should be absolutely fine, however he is not. He is as stable mentally as women on her period. He has a temper tantrum while he want to save everyone??? He was not the doctor. He lacked almkst anything doctor like until Moffat wrote him. He was space Erik...
Dot and Bubble being directly before Rogue didn't work as well, they way they had an episode directly saying 'the casting of background characters is part of the story and setting", then immediate follow it with a colour blind casting of English nobility at the peak of the slave trade and empire, wasn't good, sykes only for that episode now we've addressed a black doctor we're going to go back to acting like he's not, and is something I have noticed alot of pushback against, especially from PoC fans on tumblr. Your proposal to put Rogue up front would go a long way to fix that dissonance. To me, I don't mind the Ruby reveal, what jarred me is a whole season of set up that the mystery and big bad will have something to do with the salt and opening of magic and, it didn't? Dog wasn't released onto the TARDIS by doing it, it wasn't a blue yonder alien turned by TARDIS energy and Doctor's guilt or whatever into Deathdog, it was just, hey random callback that doesn't tie in to this seasons 2 inciting incidents? Like this season had both Toymaker and WBY things that were frequently brought up and viewers pointed to, both things that you'd expect to be the season arc and neither had anything to do with anything so it was weird the show keep pointing attention to them episode after episode?
"Modern doctor who has shown itself to be very capable of delivering good, satisfying 45 minute episodes" - I'd have to disagree. A major issue of Nu-hu has always been their minisode obsession - every episode is both too slow & too rushed. They should do two-parters exclusively, it's better for both story & budget. Nu-hu is more like the average sci-fi show, with way too much season-filler & deep dips in quality. This season actually has 16 episodes, but they decided not to broadcast the second half until next year & decided to call the second half "season 2", which is why the first half has a finale. You should ask yourself why a reduced number of episodes only reduced the number of what you would regard as quality episodes & did nothing to reduce the number of filler episodes unlike what would have been expected. I think your impression of the show is higher than the actual show deserves. Actually think about series 1-4 & how much they depended on Steven Moffat's contribution, bringing back old monsters & finales. Without those 3 crutches, each series was rubbish. The Doctor, like all expats, has always hated his home. This is clear before Nu-hu, & only becomes clear in Nu-hu in End of Time when he angrily tries to send the Timelords "back to hell". The Doctor's companion has always been an afterthought, making them consistently naff & non-essential with a high turnover rate, which the audience doesn't seem to mind. The only truly popular companions (based on merit) have been the Brigadier & Ace. In Nu-hu it was Rose, only bc they unintentionally made her the main character. River Snog was the most wasted Nu-hu companion. She just became female captain Jack. They placed Rogue before the finale, because that's where they always place their weakest episode, the second weakest they always make the companion's second episode, in this case: Space Babies. Placing Rogue earlier in the season would have sabotaged it too much. They should have opened the season with their best episode: Boom, even though it's just a rip-off of that scene in Genesis of the Daleks. Have you ever even heard of Genesis of the Daleks btw? Disney = breaking out into song & dance. Why are British reviewers unable to make this obvious connection?
@@robalexander8065Boom was OK but 73 yards was a complete mess which didn't make sense. Both good sci-fi and good fantasy need to be internally consistent too much of this series wasn't.
I'm not a big fan of this season. If you think about it too much, a lot of episodes can fall apart drastically and I think Dot and Bubble is a very good exemple of that... Why the Dots didn't just muder everyone if they could do that as we see with Rick? I didn't really feel like we get a proper "I am the Doctor" moment either. With 10, 11, 12 and even 13 we have such clear "I am the Doctor" moments, but I didn't really feel that we got a proper one with 15. Also, you commented about the fourth wall break... That was very predominant in 12's era, especially in the flood two parter in season 10. Also happens a lot with the 4th Doctor in the classic era so that didn't bother me at all and I didn't personally feel like it was inconsistent in that regard. Sutekh's defeat was very disappointing and I found myself getting more attached to Ruby than the Doctor which was pretty weird. The parents reveal... Well, I can buy it for what they were going for, but not for how they actually did it. It felt like they build this mystery and then thought about the answer later on, but couldn't really explain the intriguing bits that they set up and just found a lazy excuse to do that and hoped the public would get the bait. I mean, who dresses frighteningly to give their baby up like that? Who name a baby pointing at a random sign? Why they painted her as a good mom if she just abandoned her child on the ground in the snow without even knocking at the door or anything? It was a newborn, she could've died. Overall, really enjoyed your video, tho. Great editing and I also liked how you reorganized the episodes order.
Glad you enjoyed the video! In terms of the fourth wall breaks, I totally get what you’re saying, but Twelve’s Before the Flood monologue was in the cold open of the episode, giving it some distance from the main story. It’s unclear whether it’s even canon or not. But the fourth wall breaks in The Devil’s Chord are within the main episode itself, and that felt very strange to me (I’m not super well versed in Classic Who yet though, so it’s possible that people used to watching the Fourth Doctor would find it less jarring)
@@looseleafellie what you said about 12, fair, I suppose. But that also kinda happens in Heaven Sent with the "I am nothing without an audience". 12 was the modern Doctor who used this fourth wall break the most, with the exception of 15. In the 4th Doctor's case (I'm using him because he's the one I remember doing it the most) there's a moment he was trapped somewhere and tried to use the sonic, but didn't work. He then turns into the camera and says "even the sonic screwdriver can't get me out of this one", or something like that. I think there's a compilation video with all the moments he broke the fourth wall on TH-cam. I do understand that the way 15 is doing it feels weird for NuWho viewers, but I guess that's just one of those Doctor Who moments where we have to say, "oh, so he can do that now" and just go with it. At least this one wasn't something that came out of nowhere.
I love your takes and am so excited about your TH-cam. I personally did not like this season I felt this doctored lacked curiosity ( he likes having a good time and was in awe of things but not curious) and wit ( he was smartish but it felt like based on prior knowledge not quick thinking in the moment and the few times they tried to make him look like he was papering over plot holes) which I feel are core characteristics for me. He also cried to much every other second he was crying or tear stained and it just cheapened the emotional impact. If they had more episodes like you mention this might have helped.
I didn’t really mind the crying, personally. I get the argument that it would become more impactful if he only cried when something REALLY bad happened, but Gatwa has the acting range to dial things up to 11 when necessary. His anguished scream in the darkest moment of Empire of Death was unlike any reaction he’d had before and it broke my heart! BIG agree that some of his clever speeches/explanations were just papering over plot holes, though. I keep thinking of the moment in Dot and Bubble where he tells Lindy his theory about the dots controlling the slugs - a massive leap of logic that appears to be entirely correct in the end.
The most obvious problem is that this current series deviates from a British sci serial for all the family. As a dad I had to vet the episodes before I would green light to my son. Rogue was one of them, I watched half before I had enough, my brother is gay and went to his wedding proudly last year. I really don't know who was being targeted here but was inappropriate for young family viewing so not sure why a 2 parter would have an advantage. The character of the Doctor is not this. Notice series 2 being moved up from May to March 2025. I thought maybe January several weeks ago. This move shows me Disney wants rid and they can't cancel until series 2 is released otherwise no one will watch series 2. These are just my views.
Why is it inappropriate for a young family audience? The doctor has had many romances in the past why is this any different The show being moved also probably has nothing to do with Disney, RTD wanted to air the season much earlier but couldn’t since the VFX wasn’t done- so airing it in March is what he wanted not Disney wanting to cancel the show (which they can’t do since the show isn’t theirs)
Classic Who is real Who. This abomination feels like a bad parody that can’t totally take itself seriously. The Doctor himself acts way too human thanks to the arrogance of RTD. Gatwa lacks the stoic resilience that other Doctors had. I suspect RTD wants his Doctor to be highly sexual and emotional which makes it feel I’m watching a completely different character. Sack RTD and the Bad Wolf team!
I really disliked the overt romance of Rogue. It’s an issue that has come up before, but never quite so explicitly. The Doctor is at this point is more than 1,000 years old; humans would be as children to him. Really unnecessary. (And in case anyone misunderstood: I don’t care if it’s straight or queer overt romance, it’s just out of place for The Doctor.)
this whining about Doctor falling in love is cliche and pathetic really, especially when you remember that he's not exactly a kind who's much regarded by his age (seriously if the age is so important, you should've abandoned the show when his first incarnation turned into a younger man with an entirely different face) the problem with Rogue is this. The Doctor hasn't fallen in love with anyone, not even with his greatest love story, over the course of ONE episode😒😒😒
I don’t see any problem with the doctor hypothetically falling in love, as it’s clearly part of of the canon that they do form romantic relationships with humans (and has been consistently shown to since 2005… rose, madame de pompadour, river, yaz…). If you feel it’s a problem because of the age gap that’s your own personal preference. In canon there’s nothing to suggest the doctor is averse to romancing humans because they see them as children-that’s just a logical fan leap to make, but in reality the show doesn’t support that logic and it’s all fantasy sci fi anyway… there’s nothing in real life to compare it to. however i do agree that it’s often rushed and poorly done. i just don’t think that “the doctor sees humans as children” is the logical take away for why these romances don’t/can’t work. especially with the doctor’s characterisation moving closer to one that seems on equal footing with humans.
@@altinaykor364to be fair, I don’t think he fell in love with Rogue (there wasn’t enough time for that), but I think he found a kindred spirit who he wanted to explore something more with, and wasn’t able to. That said, I wish the episode had been longer or a two-parter to flesh out the romance’s development more
The only good scene of this entire series was Ncuti asking Susan if she remembered the different versions of herself, that was well done. And the acting of Sean Clifford in her refugee metal spoon seller scene. The only good bits of this pathetic, dire, horrible, woke, ridiculous, tired season. Apart from that it did literally nothing else right
@@resent29 the introduction of forced over the top disproportionate progressiveness, messages and casting choices that are chosen purely to fill quotas and push diversity. Progressiveness for progressiveness sake to the detriment of the story, to the chagrin of the majority audience and used in such a way that has not been done before in the previous successful popular history of said show.
@@resent29 swapping the doctors race because we now race swap main characters in Hollywood and tv nowadays. It’s a trendy thing to do, just like 13 was a consequence of the era of gender swapping all male roles and rebooting franchises with failed gender swapped remakes. And swapping his sexuality to make him gay. Ncuti was therefore tokenistically cast to be the first black and first gay Doctor. Just like we race swapped the first ever Doctor before William Hartnell to be a black, female child. A deliberate progress choice for progressiveness sake. More tokenism. We then race swap Isaac Newton in the second 60th special as there was a cast of only four people and bbc diversity quotas require a percentage of those to be black. Therefore we race swap issac Newton. Another tokenistic progressive choice made for the sake of quotas and progression. The changing of the sonic screwdriver design as it ‘looks too much like a gun’. The dropping of the celestial moniker from the toymaker as we’re pretending it’s racist, the cancelling of Davros, to state henceforth this is Davros now and he will always be able bodied as Davros is now all of a sudden offensive. Another change made in the sake of progressiveness. We can’t have David tennant regen into 13’s clothes as it will be offensive to the art of drag. It’s ‘about time’ there’s a wheelchair ramp in the TARDIS, The lecturing about pronouns, twice. Despite 99% of the human population being simply male and female. But oh no we need a non binary daughter who saves the day by the very fact she is ‘non binary’. That’s literally it, I am non binary I can now let the metacrisis go. Jesus Christ. Then we have a non binary drag queen. We have rubys transgender band mate. Over representation as trans is now the trendy issue after women’s rights and blm. An entire episode about racism now we’ve race swapped the Doctor, a sexuality swapped Doctor snogging a bloke out of nowhere. Comments about cultural appropriation around Egyptian imagery. A camp, over the top Doctor, an emotional sobbing doctor made gay and black as a self insert by the writer. Look at how progressive we are. It’s forced, it’s tokenism, it’s hamfisted, it’s badly done, it’s in your face, it’s intentional, it’s what the script focuses on the most, it’s box ticking. There used to be a time us gays were able to simply exist on tv, we were part of the team, we were Jack, we were Ianto, we had Martha, Bill, Mickey, all heroes, all some of the best members of the teams, they were allowed to exist as characters. Now people are included to BE the minority. The Doctor has been MADE black, he’s been MADE gay. People exist to be black, to be their race, to be their sexuality, to be disabled. Again, it’s forced tokenism and did not happen in the past, in the proper show that was about drama and story and character. But now let’s look at series 14. Episode 1 - abortion, Episode 2 - non binary drag queens, episode 3 - war, episode 4 - the far right, episode 5- racism, episode 6- gays, episode 7 and 8 - we now pretend there’s a story. With still enough time for some social commentary jabs about cultural appropriation. We now presume Martha will return, a bad ass character, universally loved by everyone, who was the equal to the Doctor in every way. But we know full well, in this era of forcing things into people’s faces, her return will be all about her race, she’ll be undermined for being black, she’ll have to fight because of her skin tone, she’ll struggle because of her blackness. Something that….we never cared about. We adored her. But nowadays, this is all we ever have to draw attention to. In the process of being ‘progressive’ they have ended up othering literally every single minority as that is all they are. That is the sum part of their character. And that’s what woke is. And it’s so wrong, it’s so offensive and it’s hated by the majority audience of every project it’s forced into. To pretend this isn’t the case is naive, just look around you and observe the failure of every single show and film that does this.
@@obiwankenobi687 i'm going to go through this bit by bit, but first of all, with the bbc diversity quotas you mentioned, where a certain amount of the cast in an episode has to be black, asian or non caucasian, how do you then explain the episode dot and bubble? Where all but one character(the doctor, who is barely in the episode) are white people?
Let’s just all be honest for once. This season was shit. The ending had little to no payoff. Made no sense canonically. The acting was desperate. And since when was Doctor Who a musical?
since when? how about Christmas Carol episode? watch it again, cause although the story was good, but not even a single singing scenes in any of Disney shows made me that much cringe
![[TH] 2024 PMSL SEA W3D1 | Fall | สัปดาห์ตัดสิน ทีมไปไฟนอล](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZBU3GyzqErI/mqdefault.jpg)
Yeah, this season felt ALL OVER the place. and none of it felt cohesive. As a long time Whovian, it dissapointed me. I would love to see a deep dive on Clara, since i love the episode where she is throwing the keys. Also, i definitely agree Ruby feels......lackluster. i also feel like there should have been 15 episodes. i feel like it should have been Boom, then like 3 episodes, then Dot, then Rogue. so it kind of cycles.
I would LOVE 15 episodes, alas
Even when they were making more episodes they were making 13. In today's production pipeline where 13 has become impossible, 15 would be even more so impossible.
@@TalhaMasood 13 episodes per season hasn't become impossible in any way. _Most_ of the cause for decreased season lengths is silly streaming policies and risk aversion rather than anything to do with production. Although yes, increased production value also means increased budget per episode (if one insists that Who actually _needs_ increased production value beyond what we saw in e.g. series 5-10).
But by most estimates, this series of Who has _double_ the budget of any previous series - and that amount of money really doesn't appear in the final episodes in terms of production value. Which isn't surprising, considering Bad Wolf actually spent money building, just to name one example, a set to pose as Abbey Road Studios - when some set dressing of e.g. Hoddinott hall in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff would have worked at least as well for the little we actually saw of it. Strange use of money. But then, this series was really marred by strange priorities at every level, including in terms of writing. At this point, it seems likely the budget will decrease severely if a series 16 ever appears - wonder if we'll be down to 4 episodes per series then. Anyway, out of all the genre shows currently being produced, Who is definitely the least reliant on a massive budget. It has, after all, survived a budget well below its contemporaries for pretty much all of its previous 39 seasons...
Yes vote to the Clara video.
This season sometimes felt like it was switching between "It's Joever" and "We Are Sobek" every single episode. Sometimes you'd have some absolute gold sandwiched between some seriously confusing rubbish and I wish it was more consistent. The episode count is also a massive problem. WE NEED AT LEAST TEN EPISODES, RUSSELL! THIRTEEN, PREFERABLY!
I don’t think Ruby not being special is bad in itself. But the way the audience was misled in ways that don’t make sense when you look back on them isn’t great. Like the pointing at the lamppost… that wasn’t there when we saw the street in Church in Ruby rd. Or the Doctor’s memories of that night changing.
I will never forget the atmosphere of a packed cinema at 1am. It was like leaving a wake. It did NOT go down well, there was audible anger at the end of my Empire Of Death screening & the fact no one thought of putting a Xmas trailer at the end to lighten the mood is still beyond me. Mrs Flood's "Night, Night" was like sticking a middle finger at the audience after the Ruby mother reveal tbh
I wanted so badly to really enjoy this season, and there were moments and episodes where I did (I LOVED Boom, for example), but my biggest annoyance is with the friendship between the Doctor and Ruby. Not only is it totally uncomplicated, as you unpacked brilliantly, but it is also almost entirely “tell not show.” With large offscreen time jumps, they seem to expect us to be happy believing them to be best friends just because they call each other best friends. We see almost no relationship-building, no conflict that allows them to push and pull and grow…I just do not believe that they’re best pals. Because we are only told it instead of shown it, it often reads to me as a very shallow friendship with a less-shallow label slapped on top.
You outlined perfectly why I (and many others) think there should be more scenes of them just having fun in the TARDIS. I can’t help remembering all the scenes of Eleven, Amy, and Rory hanging out together during their run - it really made their friendship seem real
It’s kinda wild too because Russel perfectly established the relationship between rose and 9 by the second episode. It established boundaries and how they feel about eachother and how they’re not always in agreement on every action
Brilliant video and analysis, this was great to hear in full, keep up the great content!
Fancy meeting the actual 91st Doctor Who fan here. Enjoy your videos. I wish I was as enthusiastic as you about the new series, but I do enjoy hearing your take on them.
@@JustChrisWillDoTa I love hearing everyone’s takes too :D this was a great video
Thank you so much!!
Ruby's origin was going to be much more awesome, her build-up indicates that. There were real-life mechanations in the shadows, which we may never know.
The season was definitely a mixed bag, but episodes 3-6 (Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble, and Rogue) make for the strongest continuous run of episodes Doctor Who has had in years.
@@sammulhall right?? If the whole season had been of that quality, we might be looking at something that could rival series 4
the series with only 8 episodes having two Doctor-lite episode is the most obvious problem if you ask me
The annoying thing is that while I agree, I also think the two Doctor-lite episodes are easily the strongest in the season. Like, by a wide margin
@@sammulhall Yup, after Love and Monsters, the writers do seem to relish playing in the Universe with the all-powerful doctor. Blink, was stellar, and showed the opportunity. We also received the incredible Companion-lite episode 'Midnight'. However, the reduced count does make the duds hit harder.
I'm new to Doctor Who, and I personally really enjoyed this season. My girlfriend convinced me to watch the 60th anniversary specials with her since she's a massive Doctor Who Fan and I had a lot of fun with those, especially Wild Blue Yonder. Since it was starting to drop on Disney Plus, and my girlfriend said this new era was meant as a good jumping on point for new fans, I decided to check out this first season with her, and I had blast with it quite honestly. I know that with a critical eye, I could list or call out a lot of structural or narrative issues this season of Doctor Who might have had, but as an introduction into this universe I thought it was really entertaining and overall executed reasonably well. Since I found myself really enjoying this season of Doctor Who I've decided to go back and watch the older seasons/series of the show. I'll probably start with the 2005 relaunch and then move onto Classic Who. My girlfriend will lend me her box sets of Doctor Who so we can watch the previous era together, this being my first watch while she'll be re-watching it. I guess in the end, I'm happy Doctor Who dropped on Disney Plus since it's one of the few streaming services we have, and that I have someone who could introduce to this universe. I'm glad I started watching Doctor Who, since this new season was super fun, and now I'm really looking forward to watching the older seasons/series in the near future. 🙌🏽 (Came from Tiktok, btw, keep up the great work!)👍🏽
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I think watching the 2005 series is a perfect next step - I hope you have a great time with it!
I think this season need episode reordering and it needed a standard modern earth story to help connect and give us more time with Ruby’s family. Not every season needs a modern earth story that’s in the middle of season or at all , but with this many on earth characters to know we needed another story to grow attached to Carla, Cherry and unit
Brilliant video, agreed with almost everything said. Another thing I love about the season is the doctors outfits, they are always good but with this season specifically it felt like the costume department had a lot of fun.
Yes! I was worried at first that I would miss the Doctor having a consistent outfit, but I actually loved seeing him try a variety of styles
@@looseleafellie I had the same thoughts but it weirdly makes it feel like they are travelling together off scene more, which I liked. Also nice to see someone actually like new Earth, not sure why but I really enjoy that episode
Us new earth fans gotta stick together 😔✊️
I wish the extra Disney money had been better spent, with more episodes rather than splashy effects. Russell was a maestro with a budget, putting episode like Boomtown in, allowing him to write an effects lite episode to have more money for the finale.
I just don't see how the Ruby / Butterfly moment, needed quite so much CG, or such elaborate make-up for such an irrelevant aside. I'm not calling for cheap, but the program does seem to flourish under constraints, either budgetary, and time. It drives the writers (the real heroes of the show) to embrace the challenge. Sadly, I feel a little disappointed by Russell in that aspect, a bit of a shock there.
Really good review, finally someone who liked the twist.
I think Ruby's mom being no one special is the right move, the show has always been about ordinary people being swept up in the magical. I really like the analysis of Ruby being the opposite of Clara's mystery box.
This season has been my favorite so far and I've been watching since I was 12 when Matt Smith was the Doctor. The reason for that is that the show has returned with bigger 2 hearts than ever before and louder than ever with Murray Gold's iconic music giving life and emotion to every scene. The production quality has never been better. I love love love Heaven sent but episodes with that production quality were far in between this season every episode has beautiful sets, amazing practical and visual effects. The Devil's Cord is the best looking non special episode we've had in ages. 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble every single episode knocked it out of the park with it's set design, costume design and the camera was always so kinetic.
With 73 Yards, they planned the shoot, the entire crew had to get on the public train in under a minute, shoot that whole sequence in 5 minutes until the next stop and get off. That's camera operators, production assistants, a whole village of people. Not to mention the whole thing relying on the Actor's performance which Millie Gibson nails it.
The internet's need to be loud about what the problem is in everything I feel we've missed out on celebrating the goodness of our timey wimey show. We're in the new golden era.
Absolutely agree with the point about Clara (make the video!)
Devils cord gave me “false hope”. Putting it in the first few introductory episode, gave me the wrong idea about what the rest of the show was going to be. And I thought 15 was going to be a self aware fun meta doctor.
Yes, I was expecting more fourth wall breaks, but we got NONE for the entire rest of the season! Which is fine, but they shouldn’t have set up that expectation in episode two 😅
Awesome video, also so cool to see someone else has read a long way to a small angry planet, such a great book!!
This season is like a sandwich. Stale crusty bread on top, a decently tasty middle, and a catastrophically moldy bread bottom.
There are a lot of elements that work in this season, but the problem is that they never quite fit together.
I had fun overall, but, like the sandwich, it left a bad aftertaste in my mouth after having finished it.
I literally just finished the season today (this video was recommended to me mid finale) and I really loved it. That is because I am of the goof-inclined, but I think it was a fantastic return to form for doctor who. It Definetly had its faults, but I can see these easily being improved upon in the next season, and even my least favourite episode (space babies) at least felt like a pretty cohesive story with good character moments.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’m hoping next season will improve upon this season’s strengths and be even more enjoyable
Fantastic video. Looking forward to hearing more of your opinions.
I have been looking forward to this! I enjoyed your tiktoks about the series :)
Yay, I hope you enjoy!
@@looseleafellie I did!
I would definitely be up for a video about Doctor-Companion romances! I also liked your analysis of the Pantheon and how it might be incorporated into future seasons. It helped me put into words some thoughts I had already had about it.
I think similarly to your thoughts on the episode order. Having 73 Yards before the two-part finale would have been more compelling for me, both with the cross-episode references and the tonal content being related. This would be in a comparable way, if with distinct themes, to how Face the Raven set up the two-part finale Heaven Sent and Hell Bent in Series 9.
I agree that despite the tonal inconsistencies, the series had a charming and fun vibe. I find that, in art, allowing variability is underrated!
Great video, thank you :))
@@RubyC-t8gFace the Raven is another great example of an episode setting up the two-part finale! I feel like a lot of viewers would have forgotten about Roger Ap Gwilliam before the finale, so putting 73 Yards later would keep him top of mind.
I was 1000th substriber, it was a pleasure
Thanks for the video! I love to hear conversation and critique of doctor who that comes from a place of love and appreciation, instead of just cynically hating change
I’m generally of the opinion that if you really really love something, you can engage with it at a thoughtful enough level to critique it
I really don't believe the theory that Rogue was meant to be episode 2. And the biggest thing that makes me think it was always meant to be episode 6 was Rogue's ring. If it was meant to be episode 2 the Doctor would be wearing it in every other episode of the season but you can only see him wearing it again in the two part finale.
@@shanejames13 that’s a very good point! To be clear, I wasn’t saying that I thought Rogue used to be episode two and then they switched it - I was saying I think it would have worked well as episode two plotwise
When it comes to the doctors and ruby’s 4th wall breaks, I’m okay with them because they’re only in episode 2. The episode where one of the pantheon is already altering reality and breaking the 4th wall. It’s sort of like how the lingering presence of the toy maker allowed 15 to use cartoon logic to duplicate the tardis with a big ol’ hammer. In episode 2 the doctor and Ruby are being affected by the lingering presence of the maestro causing them to break out in song and dance at the end.
If these 4th wall breaks were elsewhere I feel like it would detract from the show more. Although if what I posited was their intention they probably should have added in some direct indication that it was the case
My guess for the order change in series 14 could be that they wanted the devils cord to be before the legend of Rudy Sunday but maybe felt like introducing maestro right before sutekh felt like the same premise, with both having the harbingers. Having maestro be introduced in the second episode lets the fans theorized on other gods of the Pantheon.
It might be a stretch but the doctor calls out the Tardis making the groaning noice to Ruby in the devils cord but in Rouge he makes an excuse of what the groaning was. The only other time the Tardis groaned was in Wild Blue Yonder.
TLDR: SerIes 14’s episode order might have changed because having two god reveals one after the other didnt seem like it gave any breathing room for a viewer to connect dots, and having it earlier in the season was a better placement
When you said Two starting with 'R', I instantly thought of Romana. Stuck in E-space, rather that of River.... Ah, well....
a part of me slowly heals each time i find a new comfort whovian yt channel 💙
Capaldi and Coleman and their undefinable 'love'.
Yes, to Clara and a discussion on her toxic relationship with twelve. The fact that here we have in physical form a much older Doctor than his predecessor and after series eight this no longer seemed anything of relevance was great in itself. However, this personality mix where there were more similarities than differences and how that played out was genuinely interesting to watch. Most of all though, I was thrilled with the 'love' that developed between them and that this 'love' is almost undefinable. That is the kind of characterisation and relationships that are fascinating; one's that cannot be pigeonholed. Never is their love for the other questioned as immoral or perverse in any way, nor is there any implied notion of physical attraction. If anything, this was a meeting of two minds who being so similar knew the other as almost a reflection of themselves. Such a relationship could be dangerous in its influence, even power and this is something both the Doctor and Clara come to see and then accept. For me at that juncture in ‘Hell Sent’ where this became obvious was one of the most beautiful and moving segments in all of DW. I myself fell in 'love' with the pairing of them and Moffatt's writing here excelled. This Doctor-companion relationship was like no other. The strength of it and the power it yielded over the Doctor in particular was phenomenal. Somehow though even we the viewer could see the toxicity this bond had. In many ways the viewer came to an understanding that this relationship had to be temporary and come to an end. That was something I for one would love to see explored more deeply. Certainly, if put more articulately than the mess I made of it.
Space and Doctor Who? This is the perfect TH-cam channel for me.😂
I’M SO GLAD YOU UNDERSTAND
Great job! I think for episode ordering, I generally like your order, but maybe swapping Boom and Space Babies would be better. As a season opener, Space Babies is weak. The opener should besomething that sets the tone of the season to some degree, and Boom does a good job at that. Both Space Babies and Boom are future travel, as opposed to past, so swapping them doesn't upset that aspect. Move the "butterfly effect" joke to Boom, maybe relax the runtime for it, and give Space Babies a little more time, and I think we have a winner. That said, if this wasn't the first season for an incarnation, I think that Dot and Bubble would have made a good season opener as well, and the feel of the "butterfly effect" joke would have worked even better with the palatte of D&B than with Boom.
I see where you’re coming from, because I do think Space Babies is the weakest episode of the lot, but I think Boom works best a bit later in the season because of the conflict between the Doctor and Ruby. I like that they have a somewhat fun adventure their first time out, and then Boom shakes them out of their comfortable friendship. Ultimately I think the best way to open the season would have just been to make Space Babies better 😅
Great video :) Pretty much agree with all your points, and I am so glad I found someone else who liked the reveal of Ruby's mum 😅. Anyway, even if this series was a bit patchy in some regards, my net enjoyment has been a lot higher than quite a few series of nuwho ( *looks shiftily at series six* )
I can't recall a lot of issues with s6 beyond the finale being really bad myself, then again the finale was probably bad enough to bring the whole season down a tad😭
So glad my thoughts resonated with you! I personally like series 6, but I think it’s most fun on a first watch when you don’t know all the reveals. Subsequent watches have been a bit less enjoyable for me (but still enjoyable)
@wariowarecomix To be fair for the most part it's less series six, and more just my poor taste 😭 at least we can agree that finale is _not_ it
@@wariowarecomix The Wedding of River Song should have been a two parter and I will die on that hill
the musical numbers were ridiculous, sorry
20:01 that’s all great but you must create a big build up that it still making sense. While instant snowing makes no sense for Ruby if she is totally normal.
Clara vid=yes please
I personally didn’t really like this one (aside from Dot and Bubble and Boom) i didn’t really like 73 yards, i thought it was too confusing and even after watching a video explaining it it didn’t help. I think they definitely need to bring back the 12-13 episode series because 2 ouf of the 9 episodes i actually liked. I hope the next season is better.
Hi Ellie. Very good video. Love your accent BTW, where are you from? Curious you say "Si- mult- taneously" the American way.
Tbh despite the season's flaws i really love what it was setting out to do and I'd say the episodes work well individually, unfortunately the narrative sticking it all together isn't the greatest
On the topic of Ruby Sunday and her birth mother, I agree that she was a bit too bland overall, not showing too much personality or even ingenuity. I'm fine with the mother being an ordinary person, but I needed there to be a reason she was being shrouded by time. Maybe she fell into a time rift, or had been touched by a magical alien; bonus points if it justified Ruby having snow powers. Louise would still be an ordinary person who just had an extraordinary accident.
Yeah, Clara video ❤
I enjoyed watching Doctor Who. From the first actor to the 13th Doctor. I have not seen the 14th and 15th doctor series
If you are from the UK, BBC iplayer has the 12 episodes you have yet to watch. Enjoy!
@@robalexander8065 I'm from the USA. Michigan..
@@59Jamesit’s all on Disney plus.
(I'm from the US to eliminate confusion) I don't know if Gatwa is doing this because of the bi-generation, but I can see some of Doctor 10 in Doctor 15. What I mean by this is during an episode, Doc 15 will feel something deeply, we can see it on his face. But, he'll cover it up to get the job done. At the end of the episode he'll act like nothing is wrong like the beginning of the episode, for those of us who've watched Doctor Who long enough we know it's a cover. Like Doctor 10 it seems 15 feels things deeply as well. We don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing...yet. But I see 10 in 15. What do y'all think?
Yes to the Clara deep dive, please
The craziest thing is there was supposedly a bunch of scenes that were actually filmed but left out in the post-production and I don't understand why they deleted a scene where the whistle in the finale is explained to be from Doctor's future and that he got it from the memory TARDIS. Many scenes like that cut off for no logical reason. Also I don't fully buy the whole ''everyone was overworked when we did 13 episodes per season'' crap. I mean they literally started filming series 15 after they wrapped series 14 up so I feel like the real reason is just the deal with Disney. Also how does Russel find time to do spin off(s) if doing all that is so exhausting? Maybe I don't fully understand what is going on but I just find it fishy to say the least. I wish we got more straightforward answers because at this point I trust nothing that comes out of Russel's mouth.
@@saenz7947 I largely take everything RTD says with a huge spoon of salt, though if you read his book The Writer’s Tale, his first run on the show was extremely taxing. That said, my theory is they went down to 8 episodes because of streaming trends, and maybe because the BBC wanted to consolidate the budget into fewer episodes. The BBC is kind of skint at the moment (as evidenced by them outsourcing production to Bad Wolf and looping in Disney)
@@looseleafellie That makes most sense indeed. I now wonder, if a different showrunner might me more capable of handling this new format of the show better that Russel, who is used to have a slow burn mystery box which is simply not plausible with merely 8 episodes per season. Not the way he does it. It would be really interesting to be able to hop into a different timeline where Moffat returned instead of Russel or where a new showrunner was put in his place. That would be interesting to see and I think, eventually, we are bound to see that happen anyway (with the new showrunner) and I hope that they not only learn from their predecessor's mistakes but also listen to the fans and find the perfect balance between pleasing the fans and doing things that are best for the show overall, if that makes sense.
@@looseleafellieI don't think it's simply overworking this time around. VFXs takes far longer than it has before in doctor who history and it now takes up a large part of making an episode. If they were going for the streaming show format they'd likely have made it 6 episodes long. It takes them about 18 months to make these 8 episode seasons, adding on any more episodes would mean gap years which RTD wants to avoid. Essentially, RTD doesn't want to have gap years so 8 episodes a year + Christmas special means they can effectively create seasons quick enough to release them annually
I worry that the Whoniverse is too sharply focused on things that'll age poorly. In ten years time will people get the Bridgerton references. In 2005, he targeted the characters and broad genres on Satellite 5. It just feels a little zeitgeisty, for me.
this is a great analysis and its nice to see someone make a video on this season that isnt just whining about how “woke” it is
One of my problems with the new series is the Doctor himself.
14 supposedly did the rehab. So 15 should be absolutely fine, however he is not. He is as stable mentally as women on her period. He has a temper tantrum while he want to save everyone???
He was not the doctor. He lacked almkst anything doctor like until Moffat wrote him. He was space Erik...
Dot and Bubble being directly before Rogue didn't work as well, they way they had an episode directly saying 'the casting of background characters is part of the story and setting", then immediate follow it with a colour blind casting of English nobility at the peak of the slave trade and empire, wasn't good, sykes only for that episode now we've addressed a black doctor we're going to go back to acting like he's not, and is something I have noticed alot of pushback against, especially from PoC fans on tumblr. Your proposal to put Rogue up front would go a long way to fix that dissonance.
To me, I don't mind the Ruby reveal, what jarred me is a whole season of set up that the mystery and big bad will have something to do with the salt and opening of magic and, it didn't? Dog wasn't released onto the TARDIS by doing it, it wasn't a blue yonder alien turned by TARDIS energy and Doctor's guilt or whatever into Deathdog, it was just, hey random callback that doesn't tie in to this seasons 2 inciting incidents? Like this season had both Toymaker and WBY things that were frequently brought up and viewers pointed to, both things that you'd expect to be the season arc and neither had anything to do with anything so it was weird the show keep pointing attention to them episode after episode?
"Modern doctor who has shown itself to be very capable of delivering good, satisfying 45 minute episodes" - I'd have to disagree. A major issue of Nu-hu has always been their minisode obsession - every episode is both too slow & too rushed. They should do two-parters exclusively, it's better for both story & budget. Nu-hu is more like the average sci-fi show, with way too much season-filler & deep dips in quality.
This season actually has 16 episodes, but they decided not to broadcast the second half until next year & decided to call the second half "season 2", which is why the first half has a finale. You should ask yourself why a reduced number of episodes only reduced the number of what you would regard as quality episodes & did nothing to reduce the number of filler episodes unlike what would have been expected. I think your impression of the show is higher than the actual show deserves. Actually think about series 1-4 & how much they depended on Steven Moffat's contribution, bringing back old monsters & finales. Without those 3 crutches, each series was rubbish.
The Doctor, like all expats, has always hated his home. This is clear before Nu-hu, & only becomes clear in Nu-hu in End of Time when he angrily tries to send the Timelords "back to hell".
The Doctor's companion has always been an afterthought, making them consistently naff & non-essential with a high turnover rate, which the audience doesn't seem to mind. The only truly popular companions (based on merit) have been the Brigadier & Ace. In Nu-hu it was Rose, only bc they unintentionally made her the main character. River Snog was the most wasted Nu-hu companion. She just became female captain Jack.
They placed Rogue before the finale, because that's where they always place their weakest episode, the second weakest they always make the companion's second episode, in this case: Space Babies. Placing Rogue earlier in the season would have sabotaged it too much. They should have opened the season with their best episode: Boom, even though it's just a rip-off of that scene in Genesis of the Daleks. Have you ever even heard of Genesis of the Daleks btw?
Disney = breaking out into song & dance. Why are British reviewers unable to make this obvious connection?
I gave up on this season after the devils chord, I’d never felt embarrassed watching Doctor Who until the musical number happened
Pity, you missed Boom, 73 Yards and The Legend of Ruby Sunday, which were the three best episodes IMHO.
@@robalexander8065Boom was OK but 73 yards was a complete mess which didn't make sense. Both good sci-fi and good fantasy need to be internally consistent too much of this series wasn't.
I really hate the way they destroyed galifray
I'm not a big fan of this season. If you think about it too much, a lot of episodes can fall apart drastically and I think Dot and Bubble is a very good exemple of that... Why the Dots didn't just muder everyone if they could do that as we see with Rick?
I didn't really feel like we get a proper "I am the Doctor" moment either. With 10, 11, 12 and even 13 we have such clear "I am the Doctor" moments, but I didn't really feel that we got a proper one with 15. Also, you commented about the fourth wall break... That was very predominant in 12's era, especially in the flood two parter in season 10. Also happens a lot with the 4th Doctor in the classic era so that didn't bother me at all and I didn't personally feel like it was inconsistent in that regard. Sutekh's defeat was very disappointing and I found myself getting more attached to Ruby than the Doctor which was pretty weird. The parents reveal... Well, I can buy it for what they were going for, but not for how they actually did it. It felt like they build this mystery and then thought about the answer later on, but couldn't really explain the intriguing bits that they set up and just found a lazy excuse to do that and hoped the public would get the bait. I mean, who dresses frighteningly to give their baby up like that? Who name a baby pointing at a random sign? Why they painted her as a good mom if she just abandoned her child on the ground in the snow without even knocking at the door or anything? It was a newborn, she could've died.
Overall, really enjoyed your video, tho. Great editing and I also liked how you reorganized the episodes order.
Glad you enjoyed the video! In terms of the fourth wall breaks, I totally get what you’re saying, but Twelve’s Before the Flood monologue was in the cold open of the episode, giving it some distance from the main story. It’s unclear whether it’s even canon or not. But the fourth wall breaks in The Devil’s Chord are within the main episode itself, and that felt very strange to me (I’m not super well versed in Classic Who yet though, so it’s possible that people used to watching the Fourth Doctor would find it less jarring)
@@looseleafellie what you said about 12, fair, I suppose. But that also kinda happens in Heaven Sent with the "I am nothing without an audience". 12 was the modern Doctor who used this fourth wall break the most, with the exception of 15.
In the 4th Doctor's case (I'm using him because he's the one I remember doing it the most) there's a moment he was trapped somewhere and tried to use the sonic, but didn't work. He then turns into the camera and says "even the sonic screwdriver can't get me out of this one", or something like that. I think there's a compilation video with all the moments he broke the fourth wall on TH-cam. I do understand that the way 15 is doing it feels weird for NuWho viewers, but I guess that's just one of those Doctor Who moments where we have to say, "oh, so he can do that now" and just go with it. At least this one wasn't something that came out of nowhere.
To be fair, if you think about quite a lot of Who episodes they fall apart. Just enjoy the ride!
I love your takes and am so excited about your TH-cam. I personally did not like this season I felt this doctored lacked curiosity ( he likes having a good time and was in awe of things but not curious) and wit ( he was smartish but it felt like based on prior knowledge not quick thinking in the moment and the few times they tried to make him look like he was papering over plot holes) which I feel are core characteristics for me. He also cried to much every other second he was crying or tear stained and it just cheapened the emotional impact. If they had more episodes like you mention this might have helped.
I didn’t really mind the crying, personally. I get the argument that it would become more impactful if he only cried when something REALLY bad happened, but Gatwa has the acting range to dial things up to 11 when necessary. His anguished scream in the darkest moment of Empire of Death was unlike any reaction he’d had before and it broke my heart!
BIG agree that some of his clever speeches/explanations were just papering over plot holes, though. I keep thinking of the moment in Dot and Bubble where he tells Lindy his theory about the dots controlling the slugs - a massive leap of logic that appears to be entirely correct in the end.
Its such a shame videos have to be framed in a negative way to gain traction
please please please make more doctor who content
That’s the plan!
The most obvious problem is that this current series deviates from a British sci serial for all the family. As a dad I had to vet the episodes before I would green light to my son. Rogue was one of them, I watched half before I had enough, my brother is gay and went to his wedding proudly last year. I really don't know who was being targeted here but was inappropriate for young family viewing so not sure why a 2 parter would have an advantage. The character of the Doctor is not this. Notice series 2 being moved up from May to March 2025. I thought maybe January several weeks ago. This move shows me Disney wants rid and they can't cancel until series 2 is released otherwise no one will watch series 2. These are just my views.
Why is it inappropriate for a young family audience?
The doctor has had many romances in the past why is this any different
The show being moved also probably has nothing to do with Disney, RTD wanted to air the season much earlier but couldn’t since the VFX wasn’t done- so airing it in March is what he wanted not Disney wanting to cancel the show (which they can’t do since the show isn’t theirs)
Classic Who is real Who. This abomination feels like a bad parody that can’t totally take itself seriously. The Doctor himself acts way too human thanks to the arrogance of RTD. Gatwa lacks the stoic resilience that other Doctors had. I suspect RTD wants his Doctor to be highly sexual and emotional which makes it feel I’m watching a completely different character. Sack RTD and the Bad Wolf team!
I didn't like the way Sutekh was defeated
Undercooked
I really disliked the overt romance of Rogue. It’s an issue that has come up before, but never quite so explicitly. The Doctor is at this point is more than 1,000 years old; humans would be as children to him. Really unnecessary. (And in case anyone misunderstood: I don’t care if it’s straight or queer overt romance, it’s just out of place for The Doctor.)
this whining about Doctor falling in love is cliche and pathetic really, especially when you remember that he's not exactly a kind who's much regarded by his age (seriously if the age is so important, you should've abandoned the show when his first incarnation turned into a younger man with an entirely different face)
the problem with Rogue is this. The Doctor hasn't fallen in love with anyone, not even with his greatest love story, over the course of ONE episode😒😒😒
I don’t see any problem with the doctor hypothetically falling in love, as it’s clearly part of of the canon that they do form romantic relationships with humans (and has been consistently shown to since 2005… rose, madame de pompadour, river, yaz…). If you feel it’s a problem because of the age gap that’s your own personal preference. In canon there’s nothing to suggest the doctor is averse to romancing humans because they see them as children-that’s just a logical fan leap to make, but in reality the show doesn’t support that logic and it’s all fantasy sci fi anyway… there’s nothing in real life to compare it to.
however i do agree that it’s often rushed and poorly done. i just don’t think that “the doctor sees humans as children” is the logical take away for why these romances don’t/can’t work. especially with the doctor’s characterisation moving closer to one that seems on equal footing with humans.
@@altinaykor364to be fair, I don’t think he fell in love with Rogue (there wasn’t enough time for that), but I think he found a kindred spirit who he wanted to explore something more with, and wasn’t able to. That said, I wish the episode had been longer or a two-parter to flesh out the romance’s development more
If the Doctor didn't snog someone, how else would he alert the fans that his incarnation isn't canon?
The only good scene of this entire series was Ncuti asking Susan if she remembered the different versions of herself, that was well done. And the acting of Sean Clifford in her refugee metal spoon seller scene. The only good bits of this pathetic, dire, horrible, woke, ridiculous, tired season. Apart from that it did literally nothing else right
You say the series is "woke" please define that.
@@resent29 the introduction of forced over the top disproportionate progressiveness, messages and casting choices that are chosen purely to fill quotas and push diversity. Progressiveness for progressiveness sake to the detriment of the story, to the chagrin of the majority audience and used in such a way that has not been done before in the previous successful popular history of said show.
@@obiwankenobi687 progressive messages and casting choices? What do you mean by that?
@@resent29 swapping the doctors race because we now race swap main characters in Hollywood and tv nowadays. It’s a trendy thing to do, just like 13 was a consequence of the era of gender swapping all male roles and rebooting franchises with failed gender swapped remakes. And swapping his sexuality to make him gay. Ncuti was therefore tokenistically cast to be the first black and first gay Doctor. Just like we race swapped the first ever Doctor before William Hartnell to be a black, female child. A deliberate progress choice for progressiveness sake. More tokenism.
We then race swap Isaac Newton in the second 60th special as there was a cast of only four people and bbc diversity quotas require a percentage of those to be black. Therefore we race swap issac Newton. Another tokenistic progressive choice made for the sake of quotas and progression.
The changing of the sonic screwdriver design as it ‘looks too much like a gun’. The dropping of the celestial moniker from the toymaker as we’re pretending it’s racist, the cancelling of Davros, to state henceforth this is Davros now and he will always be able bodied as Davros is now all of a sudden offensive. Another change made in the sake of progressiveness. We can’t have David tennant regen into 13’s clothes as it will be offensive to the art of drag. It’s ‘about time’ there’s a wheelchair ramp in the TARDIS,
The lecturing about pronouns, twice. Despite 99% of the human population being simply male and female. But oh no we need a non binary daughter who saves the day by the very fact she is ‘non binary’. That’s literally it, I am non binary I can now let the metacrisis go. Jesus Christ. Then we have a non binary drag queen. We have rubys transgender band mate. Over representation as trans is now the trendy issue after women’s rights and blm. An entire episode about racism now we’ve race swapped the Doctor, a sexuality swapped Doctor snogging a bloke out of nowhere. Comments about cultural appropriation around Egyptian imagery. A camp, over the top Doctor, an emotional sobbing doctor made gay and black as a self insert by the writer. Look at how progressive we are.
It’s forced, it’s tokenism, it’s hamfisted, it’s badly done, it’s in your face, it’s intentional, it’s what the script focuses on the most, it’s box ticking.
There used to be a time us gays were able to simply exist on tv, we were part of the team, we were Jack, we were Ianto, we had Martha, Bill, Mickey, all heroes, all some of the best members of the teams, they were allowed to exist as characters. Now people are included to BE the minority. The Doctor has been MADE black, he’s been MADE gay. People exist to be black, to be their race, to be their sexuality, to be disabled. Again, it’s forced tokenism and did not happen in the past, in the proper show that was about drama and story and character.
But now let’s look at series 14. Episode 1 - abortion, Episode 2 - non binary drag queens, episode 3 - war, episode 4 - the far right, episode 5- racism, episode 6- gays, episode 7 and 8 - we now pretend there’s a story. With still enough time for some social commentary jabs about cultural appropriation.
We now presume Martha will return, a bad ass character, universally loved by everyone, who was the equal to the Doctor in every way. But we know full well, in this era of forcing things into people’s faces, her return will be all about her race, she’ll be undermined for being black, she’ll have to fight because of her skin tone, she’ll struggle because of her blackness. Something that….we never cared about. We adored her. But nowadays, this is all we ever have to draw attention to. In the process of being ‘progressive’ they have ended up othering literally every single minority as that is all they are. That is the sum part of their character. And that’s what woke is. And it’s so wrong, it’s so offensive and it’s hated by the majority audience of every project it’s forced into.
To pretend this isn’t the case is naive, just look around you and observe the failure of every single show and film that does this.
@@obiwankenobi687 i'm going to go through this bit by bit, but first of all, with the bbc diversity quotas you mentioned, where a certain amount of the cast in an episode has to be black, asian or non caucasian, how do you then explain the episode dot and bubble? Where all but one character(the doctor, who is barely in the episode) are white people?
Let’s just all be honest for once.
This season was shit. The ending had little to no payoff. Made no sense canonically. The acting was desperate. And since when was Doctor Who a musical?
since when? how about Christmas Carol episode? watch it again, cause although the story was good, but not even a single singing scenes in any of Disney shows made me that much cringe