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

It's rare to get reality-bending sci-fi and heartfelt moments in the same episode of Doctor Who. I thought this was a really good one.

Also I forgot to mention: I don't really understand why, but it's been pretty consistent during this season for episodes to just go to shit in the last 5 minutes. I'm perplexed by this. It's just really weird. Kerblam is probably the best example, it's like the show runners are either scared of how they've written their own stories, or are just running out of time to stick the landing properly.

I really like that they actually cast a blind actress.

One thing I really like about this season so far is that Grace and her death is something that's still having an impact late into the season.

The slightly alternate trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S3YP9xAzRw

less colours? cowards

So it's gotta be Tim Shaw right??

it's definitely not gonna happen but god.. please be the secret dalek finale

I want them to appear just to keep up the conspiracy of their annual contractual obligations

Finale is this but with a Dalek https://youtu.be/ZEwJkB7K9Og

seen a couple of places claiming that the daleks are coming back for the new years special

They've got to bring em back at some point, it would make sense

I'm picturing a bizarre hybrid of that scene with Eccleston going nuts on a chained-up Dalek and that scene where Jodie takes the piss out of a space racist and stomps on his time gadget.

Daily Mail has posted this just now and tbh they're usually pretty spot on. It also means Chibnall didn't lie. There are no returning monsters in s11.

So I've finally caught up with the new series (and just in time for the finale, too...) A few thoughts on each episode and the series overall: The Woman Who Fell to Earth: Solid opening episode, did a good job of introducing the main characters. Shame that Grace's death was pretty much a foregone conclusion given that she didn't appear in any of the promotional material. The Ghost Monument: Kind of weirdly paced, with tokenistic hard nut characters and a rushed ending that made it feel like the episode was just written as a wrapper around the one scene where The Doctor finds the TARDIS. Why did the villain just suddenly cave under the threat of two people who were stranded on a hostile alien planet coming to find him? Also is it just me or was there an ad break written into the episode? When everyone takes a nap on the boat and it faded to black I was expecting them to be suddenly startled by something, instead they just kinda... wake up and continue. Rosa: Again the sci-fi element of the story felt like a plot device simply to justify there being an episode written about Rosa Parks. The human aspect of the episode was handled fantastically by Malorie Blackman, but the bad guy was just kinda two-dimensional. I feel like she could have done better than just "future space racist". That said, the climax of the episode on the bus was excellent -- and the show was educational again! Arachnids in the UK: Hot garbage (and not the kind that produces mutant spiders). Some really inconsistent morality on display ("we can't kill the spiders, but it's okay to lock them in a room with no food so they die because that's not killing"). And obviously the Trump caricature was about as subtle as a sledgehammer, which makes it all the weirder that they reference him in the episode. Also as most other folks pointed out, the fact the 'bad guy' just kinda... leaves was very unsatisfying. The Tsuranga Conundrum: I really expected there to be more to this episode. There was some good buildup (and it was nice to finally see a bit more characterisation, and actual flaws in some of the main characters), but what disappointed me a bit was that as soon as they first eyeballed the monster, everything progressed as expected. And there were way too many side plots for the episode to feel at all focused. You had pregnant guy, sick pilot and self doubt nurse crowding each other out for screen and dialogue time. Demons of the Punjab: Great, simple episode, like Rosa not holding back on portraying the chequered past of humanity. Well-shot and had a powerful ending. Kerblam!: Nice little technological thriller. Although I thought the praise for the company and the system was a bit much, given that it killed someone just to prove a point. I mean sure, it was trying to show the jannie what his plan would make people feel but it wasn't the girl's fault that a psycho fancied her. Still though, the Kerblam delivery service is a nice bit of world-building that, like Magpie Electricals, I won't be surprised to see cropping up again in the future. The Witchfinders: Decent historical romp, though nothing stood out to me as being particularly exciting, so I guess it's a fairly forgettable one that I enjoyed watching, if you get my meaning. And yes, I get that James I was supposed to be the comic relief character but I thought Alan Cumming way overdid it. Even in the serious scenes he was like a pantomime character. It Takes You Away: Best episode of the series by a long way. Emotional yet intruiging, even if I didn't really get the whole thing with the guy and the wasps living in the anti-zone with absolutely no explanation. I love that they cast a blind actor to play Hanne, and there was great character development for Graham and Ryan. There was a shot near the end where Erik sees the message written by the Doctor that I thought was extremely powerful. So overall, S11 has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. I'm hoping it's just Chibnall getting into the groove of being the showrunner, and that S12 will be a bit more adventurous with its stories. Some of the dialogue has been a little flat at times. I don't know if it's from Moffat being a comedy writer originally, but dialogue in previous seasons has just flowed much better, and with far less exposition. I feel like the companions are a bit Mary-Sue like, especially Yaz. She hasn't really shown any character flaws at all. Same with Graham really, despite still grieving over Grace's death it doesn't really seem to affect what he does at all. I like that some of the episodes have shown Ryan to still be bitter about his dad, meaning he comes across as pessimistic and short with people. I was a little worried at first that his sole defining trait was going to be "dispraxic guy" but I've been happily proven wrong as the series progresses. Oh, and I think Segun Akinola's soundtrack is fantastic and just the sprucing up the music needed after twelve years of Murray Gold. As for the finale, since it seems pretty obvious that the episodes takes place on the same planet from The Ghost Monument, I'll say that -- if the prevailing theory is true -- bringing the Stenza back as the main villain for the finale after introducing them in the first episode, making reference to them in the second episode and then not mentioning them at all for the rest of the series will cheapen the eventual reveal. I still feel like the best story arcs were done by RTD, especially series 3. He showed that you can have a satisfying season-long arc that doesn't distract from the plot of each episode, while still neatly tying everything up at the end. TL;DR some good bits, some bad bits, I'd hope for better writing next season

Yeah it's going to take some kind of masterstroke from Chibnall for Tim Shaw's Big Return to not be a bit of a flop, like if every episode was secretly tied in to the arc in some way that totally makes sense. I'm not too hopeful

I mean I think the entire series does indeed have a chance of being connected. I feel like it might not be a coincidence that the Stenza are the conquerors of nine systems and there were nine other episodes this season (I don't know how stuff like AitUK would tie in but who knows). That said even that wouldn't make it suddenly all fine imo, things need to be really well written here to work out (as always, I guess).

The number of people on Reddit and other places who still don't realise that we're never seeing any of these characters again https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/165/abfb1abf-ed82-4aba-bd5f-0faffea88159/Screenshot_20181208-140013__01.jpg

The female voice in the trailer sound SO much like Madam Kovarian I'm convinced Chibnall is going balls to the wall and bringing back The Silence in a big way (The Timeless Child could very easily be a reference to River) or they've recast the same actress. Go and compare the voices, it's mad. Obviously this won't happen but you cannot deny the similarity in the voices. Also, I'd bet on River coming back either in s12 or s13. I think s12 is going to be heavy on stuff from the show's past, partially because of the kinda backlash towards the lack of real inclusion of the past and also because it'd mirror RTD's first series, the only returning monsters were the Autons and Daleks, which was a very clever way of RTD going 'look, it's new but this is still the Doctor Who you grew up on deep down', which was very necessary to bring the show back in the first place. We're having a totally fresh series with 11 because the audience has had 13 years to get used to the concept and they can afford to take this risk. Plus, y'know, we know Chibnall is going to introduce some older stuff due to the fact that the Daleks are all but confirmed for the NYD special. Alex Kingston does regular work with Big Finish now so we know she likes the role and would probably reprise it on television, it's only been a few years since Husbands anyway so it wouldn't be a massive miraculous comeback. I personally think River Song and Captain Jack are shoe-ins for appearances in the next couple of series.

I hope we never have to see River or The Silence or any of that overconvoluted back-forth Moffat bollocks again.

There's nothing wrong with River. When she's not written by Moffat she's good.

Her character has been given too great a prominence, at least IMO, for her to work without seeming crowbarred-in and overcomplex. Kingston is a fantastic actor but they really pissed her away on some bad stories that makes it impossible for me to endear to the character.

I do sort of agree, I don't like the romance side of it all. She'd be much better if she was introduced as the Doctor's best friend or something, you can keep the meeting out of order thing and you can keep her dying in the Library to keep it tragic. You could even do a thing where the Doctor is reluctant to get close to her because he knows she's going to die because of him eventually but they just get on too well, I dunno why Moffat didn't try this anyway. It'd be nice if they bought her back and said she isn't into women or something, then you could remove all the romance and just have a solid character there.

Starting 5 minutes earlier this week, friends. Don't get caught out!

I'd be absolutely flabbergasted if any of the recent characters / monsters (we're talking introduced by Moffat) appeared in the finale. Chibnall didn't spend months before the new series talking about it being a fresh start only to bring all that convoluted nonsense back again in his first series. Looking back, I think the only references to events of previous series were Stormcage in Rosa, the fez in Kerblam and the mention of the Zygons in It Takes You Away (none of which were written by Chibnall) -- and even then they were just incidental references you didn't need to understand for the plot.

There was also the reference to Unicorn and the Wasp in Kerblam.

I like to think the bit in Kerblam! where she said she knew someone called Roger Wilco is a reference to Space Quest

it was ok the stenza stuff gave off kind of star wars vibes in parts and it had nice enough thematic meaning with grace and all that nothing crazy great but good also that's so clearly a dalek that's been buried for centuries in the new years trailer which I am extremely hyped for, what a great concept for a story and so hyped to have those bad boys (or, bad boy) back

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dt_rQX_WsAAtoXO.jpg yay.

Jeez that sucks so much. I thought we specifically took all that time off for series 10 so we could go back to having yearly Doctor Who when it returned...