The Doctor Who Spoilers and Speculation Thread V3 - "Oh, brilliant." - Film, Television and Music

I'm probably in the minority here but I've found these first few episodes, this one in particular to be faar to preachy. They have a message and will beat you over the head with it over and over. I just wish it could be a little less drama, a little more adventure.

I think it would've been more effective as an easter egg if after the third knock the TARDIS gave him a quick zap or something when he tried for a fourth, like Ten put a little failsafe on the outside that's stuck for a thousand years.

I don't think it was an easter egg at all I think it was just someone knocking on a door

One thing that would have elevated the episode was hearing just why Future-Racist guy was racist in the future, like I know it's not going to be a sensible reason, but it would drive home the point that even today people are still illogically blaming problems on minorities and he'd say something like "accepting blacks as equals in America set a bad precident that we're still paying for" or whatever. And then zap him. I dunno, they just could have made more of a focus that racial prejudice isn't something that just goes away over time but a fault in people, young and old, that needs to be set right with care, sympathy, and education. Also enough with the goddamn brass horns already, it's like a CoD game with all the brrh brrh brrhing.

For anyone who hasn't been watching the BTS stuff.. there's a big catch-up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoIn182zstU

for some reason I keep internally assuming next episode is going to be part one of a two parter even though when I stop to think about it of course it isn't and I'm not completely sure why I think it might be the "companions go home after a while of travelling" thing giving off the same vibes as stuff like the slitheen two parter and the sontaran two parter (and even army of ghosts/doomsday to an extent)

Apologies if this comes out wrong, but I hope we get some more varied villains soon. All of the antagonists have so far been masculine "I get what I want" types and that's kind of lame, especially with the show's new focus on diversity. As much as I hate Overwatch's shallow characters, they're all distinct and unique on either side of good and bad.

I'm curious as to whether this is an attempt to build up a new universe (a true 'soft reboot') or whether stuff like the Stenza being hyped up as a major force for evil in the universeis just an attempt to give the series somewhat of an overarching plot whilst not being too committal to a Moffat-style arc. I almost get the impression that it's the former, since the Stenza seem to be approximately halfway between the Daleks and the Klingons from what we've seen so far.

I honestly hope we do get more villain factions alongside the Cybermen, Daleks and whatnot (although it'll be good if they take a break for a while). There's really been nothing new on that front since the Weeping Angels. I'd like it if we got a "Take two" in that regard, with a faction that's not actually evil and more a force of nature. It's been a long time since Doctor Who felt like a consistent universe, things like Torchwood falling completely to the wayside as time moves on. Anything new that's introduced is quickly forgotten or was one-off by nature - werewolf, vampires, the Flood, the Boneless, the mummy, Vashta Nerada, clockwork droids, Judoon, etc. And of those, some are really fantastic - I'd kill for another episode with the Vashta Nerada, the Flood or the clockwork droids, it's just that it'd be difficult to make another episode out of any of them without ruining them somehow. We got Zygons back but they've only showed up once since their reintroduction. We don't even have to see them on Earth since that arc is basically finished, because there's plenty of opportunities to use shape-shifting aliens in a story.

What RTD did was pretty amazing, building up a Marvel-before-Marvel universe of characters who all came together in the final season. I'd love more worldbuilding like that

The degree to which this rich dude is a thinly veiled Donald Trump

that episode just kind of ended, huh?

Well, it didn't so much as end as much as it stopped. I am not going to lie, I didn't like this week's story, not really sure how to put into words my full feelings on it right now but, I hope this is only going to end up as the one true weak one of the series and not a taste of things to come.

I think we're starting enough in now that we can say Chibnall really does seem to be crap at endings/resolutions and he needs to get better

Occasionally strange judgements based on "no shooting things while I'm around" is nothing new for Doctor Who, but man, did the climax for this episode feel off. "These spiders have the right to live! To give them a 'natural death', we're going to lock them in a small closet to starve and feast on each other." Then Discount Trump wickedly pops the big spider - but it was already suffocating painfully, so I'm not sure what the moral of that was.

Okay, honest thoughts: I really liked this episode. Not on par with the pilot or Rosa, definitely, but what I liked is that it wasn't those. I would question the timing a little bit. To go from "serious and sober discussion of racism both in recent history and into the present day" to "the music of Stormzy saves not-Trump from giant mutant spiders" was a bit of a leap, but I can understand why people might want a bit of levity. Cheesy, dodgy-effected, one-step-short-of-technobabble sci-fi silliness. It might have been that this was on purpose to alleviate concerns that the show's going to turn into a series of 'very special episodes', but I don't know. All in all: good, silly fun, maybe could have done with being one episode later in the series though. If this is the worst the series has to offer, this is shaping up to be a pretty good series.

I don't like how they use Ryan for comic relief. It's pretty cringe.

John Smith has been watching Star Trek Discovery.

Oh yeah totally forgot about the new vortex. Love it.

I liked the Yaz family stuff, felt legit and RTDesque. More o that pls

I liked the new vortex apart from how much camera shake they gave it - I want to actually see it!

Isn't there still a spider in that flat?

Trump popped in and shot that one too

Was this the first episode of nuWho with the crisis of the day being entirely Earth-based without any alien involvement? I kind of hope Not-Trump shows up again later, because if not our last glimpse of him being him murdering something in front of the Doctor and then sauntering off scot-free is going to feel off to me.

I can't help but get the feeling that all of these convenient disappearances are building up to something... either that or Chibnall's REALLY dropped the ball, multiple times in a row. I'd be extremely disappointed if this wasn't intentional.

Yep, and remember that map with all the giant spider sightings that made up a large portion of the City? Well, unless some how every one of the was lured to the Hotel with the music then there will still be some still out there. Goodness, there still could have been some in the old mines under the hotel that for one reason or another couldn't make it up in time for the lure. But of course it is IcantbeliveitsnotTrump who is the bad guy for killing the spider and building his hotel on wasteland and not the scientist who made them and just threw them out like they were rubbish without thinking what the end result could well be! So, unless this is going to be built upon later in the series this is going to be one major clanger

He's probably gotten over being a massive space sexist after being a woman for a while. He needs something else to occupy his time.

never thought fucking grime would save the day in doctor who

That one spider walking down the hotel hall was cute. The horde of them that appeared next was not cute.

I enjoyed the exposition in this episode, but the ending was lacking (think The Power of Three). Wasn't wrapped up all that well. Also, theTrumpcaricature was a bit too on the nose. Almost cartoonish, at times.