Doctor Who Anniversary Specials
Dec. 10th, 2023 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteSo: how about those Doctor Who specials, then? On the whole I enjoyed them, with a few reservations. Which is what I'd say about the first RTD era, come to think of it.
First of all: much as I was looking forward to Tennant and Tate returning, I was unconvinced that the Fourteenth Doctor would feel separate enough from the Tenth Doctor to justify giving him a whole number to himself. However, I am glad to have been entirely wrong about this. While of course he's got a lot in common with Ten, the performance feels distinctive enough that you can really tell that he's been three other people in between. Even if I'm still convinced that RTD really did this to make the number of Doctors line up with the number of actors after Moffat put the War Doctor into the timeline, it ended up feeling right to me.
The Star Beast was good fun, although it got into the weeds a bit at the end, and I'm glad that the metacrisis was resolved in a way that really couldn't have happened fifteen years ago. I rolled my eyes at the 'male-presenting Time Lord' bit - come on, Rusty, if you watched the Chibnall era you know that Thirteen never let go of a single thing in her entire life! - but I mostly enjoyed it otherwise. It doesn't surpass the original comic strip in my heart, but I'm thrilled that it's introduced whole new generations of fans to Beep the Meep. (Did you know that the Meep has a theme song? Warning: about what you'd expect, including exhortations to kill and eat your neighbours and pets. Also very funny.)
Wild Blue Yonder was exactly the sort of thing that makes me love this show - the best single episode since Heaven Sent, IMHO, and the most it's scared me since Midnight. 'My arms are too long' is joining the list of seemingly innocuous phrases that will always send a chill down my spine from this point forward. Absolute tour de force from both leads, and it cracks me up that when presented with a large injection of cash from the Disney co-production RTD put it towards every Doctor Who showrunner's fondest dream: the longest corridor in the universe. Oh, and I'm very glad that we got to see Wilf one more time.
Also, the fact that RTD is dedicated to putting something in each episode to make bigots furious delights me. (Obviously there are plenty of other reasons to have a trans character and a wheelchair user and a Black Doctor exist, and those things aren't only there to make people write angry letters to the BBC. But there is really no other reason for the colour-blind casting of Isaac Newton or for the Doctor to casually say he's hot and I am here for both. I hope he continues to look at every script from this point forward and think 'now, what can I add that will piss off all the right people ...?')
The Giggle was a bit more of a mixed bag for me. There was a lot that I liked about it! Kate and new UNIT scientific advisor Shirley both in fine form, a glorious return from Mel Bush and a terrific performance from Neil Patrick Harris as the Toy Maker. On the other hand, a lot of plot elements really got rushed through so that they'd have time for character development at the end and I thought the climax was weak. Which is a shame, because I did like the way it hearkened back to that Satsuma in The Christmas Invasion.
As for the biregeneration for the end, my feelings are even more mixed. I didn't hate the ending, but I also don't think we actually need yet another loose David Tennant running around the Whoniverse. I am keeping my fingers crossed that - given what Fifteen said about them doing rehab out of order - there's another shoe to drop and both the Doctor and the TARDIS will merge at some point in the future. On the other hand, I'd also be perfectly happy if it turns out that this is the secret origin of the Curator. Anything, really, that doesn't imply that Tennant is the Most Special Doctor that we need to keep around forever like a ratty old security blanket.
Moreover, the only thing about these episodes that actively annoyed me was the idea that the Doctor has never stopped moving and/or had a family. I don't think these episodes needed to spend all their time namechecking things from the past sixty years (really there was more than enough of that by the time they mentioned Mavic Chen) but if you're going to talk about the Doctor having a family I feel like it is time to mention Susan, actually, if only in the list of things he's loved and lost. Not to mention all the time the Doctor spent with the Ponds on Earth, the twenty-four years he was WITH HIS WIFE!!! on Darillium and the sixty years he spent hanging around Bristol guarding the Master. It's great that RTD made what happened with the Flux have real emotional resonance - more than Chibnall managed, frankly - but his use of the immediate past felt pretty selective in some ways. I didn't expect an immediate return from any Thirteenth Doctor companions given they just left, but a line at the end about how Fourteen called Yaz to let her know he regenerated and is OK would not have gone amiss given how they parted.
(As a side note, though, I did love the Toy Maker's 'well that's all right then!' refrain during the puppet show underlining how horribly things turned out for the Moffat-era companions from the Doctor's point of view. Amy, Clara and Bill are actually all fine, obviously, but I can see why the Doctor feels guilty about what happened to each of them and, wow, it really is a lot when you lay it all out like that.)
Most of all though - my very favourite thing about this episode was getting to meet Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor for the first time! From the second that he appears, he had me completely sold on his performance, and I am so excited to see what he's going to do with the role going forward. Glad we only have to wait until Boxing Day to see more. (Well, Christmas if you're actually in the hemisphere where this is made. The specials are a December 26th tradition around here.)
First of all: much as I was looking forward to Tennant and Tate returning, I was unconvinced that the Fourteenth Doctor would feel separate enough from the Tenth Doctor to justify giving him a whole number to himself. However, I am glad to have been entirely wrong about this. While of course he's got a lot in common with Ten, the performance feels distinctive enough that you can really tell that he's been three other people in between. Even if I'm still convinced that RTD really did this to make the number of Doctors line up with the number of actors after Moffat put the War Doctor into the timeline, it ended up feeling right to me.
The Star Beast was good fun, although it got into the weeds a bit at the end, and I'm glad that the metacrisis was resolved in a way that really couldn't have happened fifteen years ago. I rolled my eyes at the 'male-presenting Time Lord' bit - come on, Rusty, if you watched the Chibnall era you know that Thirteen never let go of a single thing in her entire life! - but I mostly enjoyed it otherwise. It doesn't surpass the original comic strip in my heart, but I'm thrilled that it's introduced whole new generations of fans to Beep the Meep. (Did you know that the Meep has a theme song? Warning: about what you'd expect, including exhortations to kill and eat your neighbours and pets. Also very funny.)
Wild Blue Yonder was exactly the sort of thing that makes me love this show - the best single episode since Heaven Sent, IMHO, and the most it's scared me since Midnight. 'My arms are too long' is joining the list of seemingly innocuous phrases that will always send a chill down my spine from this point forward. Absolute tour de force from both leads, and it cracks me up that when presented with a large injection of cash from the Disney co-production RTD put it towards every Doctor Who showrunner's fondest dream: the longest corridor in the universe. Oh, and I'm very glad that we got to see Wilf one more time.
Also, the fact that RTD is dedicated to putting something in each episode to make bigots furious delights me. (Obviously there are plenty of other reasons to have a trans character and a wheelchair user and a Black Doctor exist, and those things aren't only there to make people write angry letters to the BBC. But there is really no other reason for the colour-blind casting of Isaac Newton or for the Doctor to casually say he's hot and I am here for both. I hope he continues to look at every script from this point forward and think 'now, what can I add that will piss off all the right people ...?')
The Giggle was a bit more of a mixed bag for me. There was a lot that I liked about it! Kate and new UNIT scientific advisor Shirley both in fine form, a glorious return from Mel Bush and a terrific performance from Neil Patrick Harris as the Toy Maker. On the other hand, a lot of plot elements really got rushed through so that they'd have time for character development at the end and I thought the climax was weak. Which is a shame, because I did like the way it hearkened back to that Satsuma in The Christmas Invasion.
As for the biregeneration for the end, my feelings are even more mixed. I didn't hate the ending, but I also don't think we actually need yet another loose David Tennant running around the Whoniverse. I am keeping my fingers crossed that - given what Fifteen said about them doing rehab out of order - there's another shoe to drop and both the Doctor and the TARDIS will merge at some point in the future. On the other hand, I'd also be perfectly happy if it turns out that this is the secret origin of the Curator. Anything, really, that doesn't imply that Tennant is the Most Special Doctor that we need to keep around forever like a ratty old security blanket.
Moreover, the only thing about these episodes that actively annoyed me was the idea that the Doctor has never stopped moving and/or had a family. I don't think these episodes needed to spend all their time namechecking things from the past sixty years (really there was more than enough of that by the time they mentioned Mavic Chen) but if you're going to talk about the Doctor having a family I feel like it is time to mention Susan, actually, if only in the list of things he's loved and lost. Not to mention all the time the Doctor spent with the Ponds on Earth, the twenty-four years he was WITH HIS WIFE!!! on Darillium and the sixty years he spent hanging around Bristol guarding the Master. It's great that RTD made what happened with the Flux have real emotional resonance - more than Chibnall managed, frankly - but his use of the immediate past felt pretty selective in some ways. I didn't expect an immediate return from any Thirteenth Doctor companions given they just left, but a line at the end about how Fourteen called Yaz to let her know he regenerated and is OK would not have gone amiss given how they parted.
(As a side note, though, I did love the Toy Maker's 'well that's all right then!' refrain during the puppet show underlining how horribly things turned out for the Moffat-era companions from the Doctor's point of view. Amy, Clara and Bill are actually all fine, obviously, but I can see why the Doctor feels guilty about what happened to each of them and, wow, it really is a lot when you lay it all out like that.)
Most of all though - my very favourite thing about this episode was getting to meet Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor for the first time! From the second that he appears, he had me completely sold on his performance, and I am so excited to see what he's going to do with the role going forward. Glad we only have to wait until Boxing Day to see more. (Well, Christmas if you're actually in the hemisphere where this is made. The specials are a December 26th tradition around here.)
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Date: 2023-12-13 05:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-17 02:24 am (UTC)