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Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord
So introductions are over and the show launches into a direct sequel. The first season of Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor aimed to avoid “classic” monsters. Davies introduces a new baddie for the Doctor to fight in the form of Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), a kind of malicious demigod of music. However, Maestro is a being of the…
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Doctor Who: Space Babies
The Doctor is back and for those of us not in the UK, that means Disney+. It also means TWO episodes have arrived at the same time: Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord. I’ve only watch Space Babies, so I probably won’t post a review of the second one until Tuesday (my time). Ncuti Gatwa’s…
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Gatwa Watch: The Church on Ruby Road
Well of all the possible returning villains from Doctor Who history that might turn up this year, I actually wasn’t expecting a time erasing crack in a building. OK, not the same crack and it didn’t do the erasing but the more subtle Smith-era reference in the 2023 special was tears for a person forgotten…
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Smith Rewatch Finale: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
The one thing you never put in a trap is The Doctor, we were told earlier in the season. The one thing you never have to put in a trap is Stephen Moffat because he puts himself in them. The trap isn’t obvious but it closes tightly. Nu-who finishes each season with a big two-part…
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Smith Rewatch: The Lodger
Since this episode was made James Corden has gone from being a relatively famous sitcom actor to an internationally famous vaguely annoying guy. The writer of the episode fell into one of those transphobic mind warps that litter the English countryside and emerged TERFified. So has The Lodger dated as badly? Overall, it still works…
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Smith Rewatch: Vincent and the Doctor
The previous two episodes were an update of the a classic story, while this one is a new story but one that follows an established template. Pick a famous figure from history, cast an interesting actor to play them, add some alien/time-traveller/quasi-supernatural complication and have The Doctor solve it while the companion gets excited about…
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Smith Rewatch: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood
As an adult fan of Doctor Who, I’ve never really engaged with non-TV spin-off media. I’m not into Big Finish audio dramas and even things like restored lost episodes of the classic series don’t really interest me. As a kid though…the Target novelisations of Doctor Who were things I just gobbled up. At the time…
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Smith Rewatch: Amy’s Choice
Toby Jones has a lot of fun in the role of one of those intentionally annoying divine like beings that torture the cast of science fiction shows. In this case he is The Dream Lord, who we eventually discover is just some sublimated chunk of The Doctor’s own self-hate made manifest by psychic pollen. On…
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Smith Rewatch: Vampires of Venice
It is all a bit of a hand-wavy plot, a historical setting, evil aliens up to no good and then The Doctor saves the day. If the basic story is almost a parody of a stock Doctor Who episode, it makes up for that with two other elements. The first is the location. Location filming…
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Smith Rewatch: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
I had been very disappointed in Victory of the Daleks to the point of wondering if the show was no longer really something I wanted to watch. The next story in the Smith era proved to be an absolute classic. As people have already mentioned, this was actually the first filmed but you wouldn’t guess…
Camestros Felapton
FELAPTONL
Camestros Felapton 