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Review: The Power of the Doctor (spoilers)
So farewell to Jodie Whittaker and bye-bye to the Chibnall era with one last special. Whittaker was an entertaining Doctor who was poorly served by many weak stories and poor dialogue and poorly executed ideas. So, The Power of the Doctor followed that pattern. It wasn’t unwatchable but it repeated the same error Chibnall has…
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Friday’s Rag Tag Crew: Doctor Who & the Legend of the Sea Devils
Those of you with memories of longer than six days will recall that I explicitly stated that the TARDIS crew really don’t count in this sub-genre of pirate space cowboys that I’m exploring. I’m sticking with that claim. The Doctor is whatever the Doctor is and really doesn’t fit with the dashing-but-dodgy ship captain we…
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Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks (spoilers)
The Doctor Who New Year’s Eve special featured Daleks, Manchester and Irish comedian Aisling Bea. Despite a few missteps, it’s an entertaining time with genuine humour and some touching moments. More after the fold.
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Review: Doctor Who Flux
Season 13 of nu-Who is over and it is time to sum up Chris Chibnall’s experiment with the format based on covid-curtailed episodes. There’s a big mix of good and mediocre here and I could damn it with faint praise by saying I expected the finale to be worse or I could be more upbeat…
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Review: Doctor Who – Revolution of the Daleks
The New Year’s special provides a hit of Doctor Who but that is about all. The episode is inoffensive, it plays around with one interesting idea about the theatre of policing and the aesthetics of fascism but doesn’t know what to do with that. Above all, it exemplifies the frustrating aspects of the Chibnall era.…
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Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Child
The two part finale is over and can be summed up in a single word: divisive. There are positive reactions to the story, particularly focusing on the scale and dramatic stakes it provided. There are substantial negative reactions. When both veteran Doctor Who critic Elizabeth Sandifer and theocratic blowhard John C Wright hate something (for…
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Short Review: Doctor Who – Ascension of the Cybermen
Part 1 of this two part finale to the season is very, very much a ‘part one’ sort of story. As a single episode it is barely coherent and difficult to evaluate. The most pertinent observation is that there is a lot going on, including a fascinating side story set in 1950s Ireland about a…
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Doctor Who: The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Yet another historical episode where the Doctor takes the crew to visit a famous moment in literary history. Near Lake Geneva, Lord Byron has rented the Villa Diodati where he is staying with his friends Percy Shelley, Mary Shelly, John Polidori and Claire Claremont. The actual historical holiday would result in Polidori composing one of…
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Doctor Who Hair
My drawing of “Ruth” Doctor’s hair needs more work but there are few reference images for Jo Martin’s version of The Doctor. We also don’t know where she fits in with the sequence of Doctors yet, so I put her at the end under #13. “Film” doctor here is Peter Cushing’s version. Both him and…
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Doctor Who: Can You Hear Me?
This episode is simply described as a mess. Lots of positive qualities to it and even some very moving moments but it feels like a very enthusiastic kid telling you a story that wanders off in ways that clearly make sense to the story teller but not to the audience. I won’t detail the plot…