Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Revisited) Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Yep, the two recently rediscovered episodes just dropped on to iPlayer this morning, and you probably knew this blog post was coming.

Before I get into the episodes themselves, though, plus revisiting Day of Armageddon because it would have been silly not to, a huge shout out to Film Is Fabulous, a splendid little charity from my neck of the country who specialise in preserving and locating films, telly and other footage for posterity, much of which may otherwise be lost. Importantly, there's no cherry picking or treasure hunting. Instead, they catalogue and preserve entire collections, treating every item with equal respect. 

Through their work, we now have these two episodes, previously thought lost. And, while we should just enjoy these for the time being, there may be more hope for the future, as we now know that cutting copies are a thing. For now, though, please do check out Film Is Fabulous' splendid website, do consider donating if you can, and please don't hassle them- they clearly know what they're doing, and their work can't and mustn't be rushed.

Anyway...

The Nightmare Begins

"If it's brain... or brawn, rather, versus brain..."

This episode, more than anything else, looks AMAZING. Douglas Camfield truly excels himself here. Much as we know damn well that the forests of Kembel are just a tiny studio in Lime Grove, his claustrophobic direction, as well as Brian Cant's desperate acting, really sells the sense of peril for Kert Gantry in particular. It's great to see him and Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon in action. We hardly have time to notice that Varga plants are only spoken of, not seen, and how tense, claustrophobic direction means we don't actually see much of the forest set- a wise decision.

It's amusing to see Mavic Chen being interviewed and discussed by a couple of lazy civil servants whose casual attitude contrasts with the selfless dedication of Gantry and Vyon, and the lady in particular looks very Swinging Sixties indeed. Such a contrast from the very bleak shot of Gantry after the Dalek kills him.

It's fascinating to see the dynamic between the Doctor and Katarina here- he's as affectionate as ever, but she interprets everything in terms of her own culture- she's in the afterlife, heading to the "Place of Perfection". As she says to Bret, they're "on our way through the underworld".

Then there's the visual of the Doctor's magnetic chair, the city, the framing of the shot where the Doctor sees the Daleks for the first time... we're so very lucky to have this back.

Day of Armageddon

"His ambitions exceed his usefulness."

I'm conscious that I've already blogged this, way back during the marathon days, but it would be silly to leave out the middle of three consecutive episodes, especially when this episode contains the key moment with the Doctor swiping the Taranium core. That aside, though, it's marked by three extraordinary performances. Hartnell, of course, but also Nicholas Courtney as the firm but brave Bret Vyon, and the always magnificent Kevin Stoney, whose performance as Mavic Chen is a joy to watch, both because of his line delivery and his physical mannerisms. We're lucky to be able to see his performance. 

The Daleks setting fire to the forest is an extraordinary visual, so much so that you can even forgive the fact that there are only three of them. All the scenes with the delegates are brilliant. And the whole thing is just so damn tense. Then there's the ever-extraordinary musical score from the underappreciated Tristram Cary, whose music both borders on the avant-garde and works perfectly in context.

And the inside of the Spar is a perfectly Sixties space opera future, with the design of the controls being, well, not quite as charming as the fridge magnet-based technology of the baddies in The War Games, but as close as you can get.

Devil's Planet

"All is ready for their space extinction!"

We've had quite a few Terry Nation-isms thus far. Hostile plants, the constant use of "space" as an adjective ("Excuse me while I nip to the space loo for a space number two"), and even a countdown. Here we get a lesser spotted one, later to be reused in the opening episodes of Blake's 7- the prison planet with no guards, where prisoners are just dumped into a Hobbesian existence. It's a rather bleak situation into which to crash one's spaceship.

Everything still looks great, though. The gripping scene leading up to Zephon's killing, for example, showcases Camfield's sublime qualities as a director- particularly his skill at the now-lost art of blocking. And even the (thankfully not overly drawn out) bleak scenes with the hostile convicts are absolutely gripping. So, of course, of more footage of Kevin Stoney's physical mannerisms and facial expressions as Chen.

And then there's Katarina, of whose five episodes, none of which once remained, we now have an incredible three. Yet, when she says to the Doctor, with those trusting eyes which we can now see, we feel a pang...

This episode, as with all of them, is bloody brilliant. 

 

 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 10

 Me? A stranger? Can you imagine me as a stranger, Miss Brown?"

Ah, I love the way all these little Easter eggs in the dialogue keep coming- the choice of quote was no choice at all. Although he Fourth Doctor's parting shot to the Sixth ("I can't hear you over the coat!") was certainly in the running.

So this finale really is a coda, and a kind of character piece... but that's exactly what was needed. We have all these characters together in the Eye of Orion, waiting for the "new flow of history" to catch up, so let's enjoy them. It's a definite positive that, the Meddling Monk's suggestion to Ten about preventing the Time War because Damon's murder by the Valeyard makes it a kind of paradox so therefore sort of ok to break the rules a bit aside (ahem; that's quite the clause there), we need not worry about plot.

So we get a succession of both fun and poignant moments. I'm not sure Benton's lines about the used car salesman story being, well, a cover story, just like the Brig as a teacher, quite fits with the events of Mawdryn Undead, but no matter. Adric, Katarina and Sara Kingdom all get a nice little mention... although (very topical to mention The Daleks' Master Plan this week!) I've never understood why fandom tends to treat Sara as a companion but not Bret Vyon. Here we have Six meeting Maxil... I suppose it would be asking too much for Bret to meet the Brig!

Doctor 2.5 is an interesting loose end, as is the Valeyard's "familiar" regeneration which never does get explained. But there's no need to spoon feed us everything, and the plotting (yes, I've seen the extra stuff, and the flowchart) remains magnificent throughout.

The partings at the end are all perfect. Ten acknowledges that Five was "a good me", Eight realises he has an impossible decision ahead of him- and Nine can't bear to say goodbye to him. But life goes on... in this case right on to Smith and Jones. 

Absolutely brilliant stuff. 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 9

 "Blinovitch had nothing on these guys!"

Wow. I was wondering where on Earth the story was going to go next, with two instalments to go following what looked awfully like a climax. But no!

The scenes of the various Doctor freeing Ten from Dalekdom are not, in the end, any more than a few pages. It's all so very well done, though- we get dialogue from the pasts of each Doctor, the Third Doctor's words being from a certain bit of Shatner-esque "singing" from the early '70s!

And so we proceed to what seems to be a coda of sorts, again with nice touches- Maxil, of all Time Lords, planning to steal a TARDIS and run away...? 

But then it happens. The Doctors all head off... and Ten encounters the Black and White Guardians (now both young, female and no longer quite keen on the "bird on the forehead" look) and we get some rather exciting exposition. That stuff about Davros being a champion of time is because he's the champion of the White Guardian, just as the Doctor has been for the Black Guardian. It's all about Order vs. Chaos, not Good vs. Evil... but not so much in a Michael Moorcock sort of way but its opposite. The universe can't be balanced if it is to survive, a binary choice between Absolute Order and Absolute Chaos must be made- and it's up to the Doctor.

Cue the Ninth Doctor... several of them(!), to assist Ten in asserting that the universe must remain balanced even if that means it will one day end. Appropriately, it's Nine who is asserting that "everything has its time and everything dies."

Cue Reapers, the Death Zone, and lots of timey-wimeyness. I've no idea what the finale will have in store. This is bonkers and brilliant. 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 8

 "You're going to have to invest in a whole lot of nappies."

This feels a lot like a finale for the eighth chapter of ten... next episode presumably sees all ten and a half doctors healing the Tenth Doctor. But then...? I'm sure it'll all work out splendidly, the plotting in particular has been a triumph so far, and I'm sure there will be other plot threads. Such as what was the Valeyard's "familiar" regenerated form? 

This is epic stuff, though, a massive battle against the "Time Daleks" involving everyone, with 8 finally reunited with all his other selves and some nice character stuff, particularly with 9, a Doctor who has suffered things the others can barely imagine. Captain Jack is killed, but that's his party trick. And the dark turn of events with Leela's children is sort of undone... but if you're rejuvenated, and your children de-aged to become innocent babies again, a la Margaret Slitheen, the people they had been are, in a sense, surely worse than dead, as they never existed? But I'm overthinking things; it's an elegant solution that works on an immediate emotional level. 

It all looks great, with a big splash page and massive numbers of characters. The art here is a tour de force. And there are, I think, clues as to where all this is going- a plan to change 8's timeline? Regardless, I'm enjoying the start of the denouement. 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 7

 "Well, well, well, so four of me made it. I wonder what happened to the other six?"

I had to go with the above quote... but I almost went with "The Ultimate Adventure, you might say" from the Sixth Doctor to the Third. ah, nostalgia. I saw Jon Pertwee in that play at the Belgrave Theatre in Coventry in April 1989, the only time I ever clapped eyes on the great man for real, as an early twelfth birthday present. The play, and the associated merchandise, was my first encounter with the world of fandom, I suppose. But it was all so long ago...

Anyway, I shan't repeat myself at length about the impressive plotting on show here, how the complex plot is somehow both easy to follow and feels natural, or indeed the skill with which Rich Morris handles what should surely be an impossible number of protagonists. Especially, as in this episode, as the number of plot threads is starting to reduce and so Doctors interact more often.

There are so many lovely moments here. 6 being annoyed that 4 is alive, because that means he was wrong. The Brigadier's touching speech to 1, surrounded by so many who have been touched by the Doctor's life. Glitz and Mel reunited. The Second Doctor defeating the Toymaker... although I do wince at calling said immortal "Cellie". Still, it's very likely that Rich Morris, like many people, isn't aware of the unfortunate etymology of the word "celestial". And I love that explosion.

And yet... the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey, with all its Cronenberg-esque body horror, feels unstoppable. And what's about Davros being a "champion of time"...? 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 6

 "Doctor! That thing is my son!"

This is a somewhat darker instalment as we learn more of what is going on. There are a few introductions here (Rutans, Movellans, the Brig) but we're more than half way through now, so it's a case of developing and interweaving already established plot threads rather than starting new ones... but still with that same masterful plotting which seems effortless- and, if something seems effortless, it is certainly no such thing.

There real darkness here, though- the Valeyard is turning Time Lords into a new race of Daleks... and poor Leela, an old lady whose family means everything to her, realises that her husband and children have all become Daleks. That's bleak. So is the fact that the Tenth Doctor is undergoing conversion- and the process seems somehow to have started for Eight.

The Valeyard's new face after regeneration is described as "vaguely familiar", mind- but not to me. something's clearly going over my head at this point!

That aside, though, it's a wonder, and a credit to Rich Morris, how easy this is to follow with so much going on, and how each character gets their amount of time in the spotlight. No character dominates, no character is neglected. Thus far, The Ten Doctors hasn't put so much as a foot wrong. 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 5

 "Who's this bloke, Professor? And why's he sound like he's from the south?"

Five instalments in and, well, let's just take for granted that all the praise I lavished on the previous four apply equally here, shall we? Charm, glorious art (I particularly love the yellow splash of deep colour on the Cyber tombs or whatever they are), incredibly complex storyline which somehow works, fanwank in the best possible way, characterisation... you know the drill. 

There's a twist here- the Sontarans want to take over everything, including the Federation, both Dalek factions and the Time Lords, working with the Master whom, of course, they in no way blatantly intend to double cross, much as the Master in no way so blatantly wishes to betray the War Chief that it's literally a given. Glad that's settled. 

I love the older Leela's firmness with the Eighth Doctor: this is her family and her life, and she won't be fobbed off by (ahem) the "old one". But not as much as I love the fact that the Sixth Doctor and Maxil actually meet, to considerable Renegade Dalek confusion. It would have been a terrible missed opportunity were this not to happen.

Lots of other delights here, of course, such as the Sixth Doctor getting to say "spack off", but Nyssa getting her bloodthirsty revenge on the Master for what he did to Tremas and Traken is deliciously cathartic... and, of course, she handwaves it away to her Doctor with an"I'll explain later"! We even get a cheeky appearance from the Devious Doctor.

Ha;f way through, and I'm very much loving this. 

 

 

 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 4

 "And you, stop fretting. It was nice."

There are only so many times I can praise the tone, the art, the charm, and the sheer fun of this without constantly repeating myself, so just take it as read. But I'll simply note, once again, that the sheer complexity of the plot- now with even more characters- somehow manages to be a breeze to follow.

I love the Rani's reaction to Glitz coming on to her, as well as that he isn't actually selling Davros a sample of Lazar's Disease (Yes, he WOULD do it, such a power would set him up above the gods and all that) but simply "Gumblejack liver oil", which is at once very much in character and top example of all the subtle references. These scenes also help to alleviate a concern that had been evolving in my mind- that the Seventh Doctor was somewhat overshadowing Two. That's much less the case here... and didn't Troughton always used to remain on the edges of the screen?

The clash between Six and Four is interesting... although, so far, Four feels the Doctor most left in the background. I love the reaction from his subsequent selves when he's hurt, though. Oh, and, of course, even more characters! Winifred and Captain Jack, who know each other because of course they do. Grace Holloway... and a lovely little cameo from Martha before the events of Smith and Jones, which is set after this but had been broadcast by now- nice moment!

And yeah... love the moment of mistaken identity with Romana being revived by Grace's kiss! Also love that UNIT have glitter guns because of Sarah Jane (must cost a few bob!) and the Tenth of all Doctors meeting the Valeyard...

Still having enormous fun. I'll keep these coming thick and fast. 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 3

 "You boys need to be supervised!"

Three chapters in, and not only is this brilliant, full of so many nice little touches, in terms of both character and the best kinds of fanwank both overt and subtle, but... well, it's incredibly complicated, its plot a truly tangled web. But somehow it works. It doesn't confuse or overload the reader. Yes, I suspect part of this is the fact that we're having so much fun that the threat of plot fatigue doesn't arise, but we have some masterful storytelling here. And that's in terms of both plotting and (integral to the medium) in terms of the visual storytelling of the art. The little notes at the bottom are a nice touch too.

I mean, the only gripes I have are over two ridiculously nitpicky things. One is that the Third Doctor at one point addresses his archenemy as "my dear old Master", whereas at no point on screen does this Doctor ever directly address the Master as such, and never does- and this can be no coincidence, given the amount of screen time they have, implying a rejection of the Master's claimed title.

I'm also uneasy at the sight of the Celestial Toymaker reporting to Omega. I don't think I'm being influenced by The Giggle in any way when I say that I've always seen the Toymaker as a more powerful, ineffable being than even the most legendary of the Time Lords. The Celestial Toymaker, rubbish story though it is, portrays the character as basically a god. Then there's the novelisation of The Nightmare Fair and the character's appearances in various novels...

That said, I gather from the notes that there's a reason for these two being paired, so I'll reserve judgement. And any gripes I may have are far outweighed by the sheer awesomeness. As well, of course, with the wise and righteous rejection of any nonsense about the War Chief having been the Doctor Master (oops, typo!).

There's so much to praise, though. The plot may be complex, but it makes sense, and the fact that we know all the characters (Drax!Leela! K'Anpo Rimpoche! A full hat trick of K-9s!) is a useful narrative shorthand. The hints about the Keeper indeed being the Valeyard are delicious. There's the intriguing mystery of certain characters not recognising certain Doctors. And... yeah, Leela should never have married Andred.

I may well end up zooming through this. 

 

 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 2

" A gilded tomb is still a tomb."

Soooo much happens in this splendid little instalment, and I certainly have no intention of trying to describe the plot in any way. Suffice to say that there are an awful lot of plot threads and the stakes are very high. But more important than any of that is the wonderful way that Mel's screaming is treated.

Because, yes, the cast gets even bigger at this point. Mel, Sabalom Glitz, Nyssa and the Garm for good measure. Sarah Jane, with her K-9, on the blower to a delightfully realised Harry Sullivan in late middle age, a rather meta yet very touching glimpse of a world in which Ian Marter hadn't died so young. The Rani. Alpha Centauri. And Eight meeting a Keeper of the Matrix who looks "familiar"- the Valeyard, perhaps?

 There's so much superior fan service to enjoy here, right from the very beginning, as a Sontaran and a Draconian discuss Dalek continuity and how, by sending the Doctor to meddle with the Daleks' origins in Genesis of the Daleks, the Time Lords ensured that Davros would survive, meaning the Daleks would in turn survive the Movellan virus.

The fact that the Chameleon Circuit never really gets fixed is rather interestingly lampshaded. it's established that the TARDIS's own internal time is always relative to Gallifrey's present. This story is full of such inspired ideas.

And yet the charm, the characterisation, the winsome quirkiness of the art, are what really keeps the reader hooked. I'm recovering nicely from my op, and I'm going to plough right on with this... 

 

The Ten Doctors: Chapter 1

 "Too many Bakers spoil the crust."

Firstly... I've started blogging this, but I'm still only two days after my operation, I need to recover a bit before properly blogging something so crammed with character and lore moments, so bear with me. Love the metatextual nature of the above line between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors though.

While there are hints of a complex overall plot, the events here are fairly straightforward. It's just after The Runaway Bride, so we ought to disregard everything screened after that- including Time Crash. The Tenth Doctor is pining for Rose in the Eye of Orion, when all the past Doctors, plus companions turn up, except Eight, who is in a particularly complacent era on Gallifrey. The Master has plans for him. Meanwhile the Galactic Federation is concerned about mysterious mass deaths, for which an uninvited Sontaran blamed the Daleks, and accuses the Time Lords of arrogant indifference.

But, of course, this is about far more than plot. It's about character and... well, yes, fan service, but of the superior kind. It's about the perfectly judged, part-cartoony artworks, and the little visual Easter eggs outside the panels at the edges. It's about the many monsters amongst the Federation- including the Foamasi and the Mentors of Thoros Beta. It's about Maxil working, it seems, for the Master.

But mostly it's about the Doctors and companions- and  I particularly like the subtitles in which Rich Morris explains his reasoning. While I have to frown at his embrace of the whole Season 6B nonsense, the characterisation is exquisite. I love Rose's increasing exasperation to Nine at his long string of attractive female companions, prefiguring School Reunion. I love Three's concern at Nine's relationship with her, cue Seven's reference to Nine's "second midlife crisis", and when asked about the first- Six gets the perfect entrance!

It's a nice touch to have Five, Tegan and Turlough arrive just after the events of The Five Doctors, and for Four to have Romana do all the exposition for the "not-mes". Overall, yes, this is necessarily set-up, but it's a very strong start. 

It'll probably be a few more days of recovery from the op before I continue with this, but I've started! 

Doctor Who: El Mundo Imperfecto

 "Pablo, if you say again that my chin was the inspiration for Cubism, I'll stop talking to you..."

A Doctor Who fan film, for the 50th, by a particularly awesome group of Spanish fans, set in Barcelona- the city, not the planet, and shown off in all its considerable glory. And... it's in Castilian. I suspect the locals might not approve!

Anyway, I won't discuss the delightfully witty and metatextual plot here as, more so than most of my blog posts, I suspect most of my readers won't have seen it... spoilers! But this fantastic, forty-five minute fan film is on YouTube for anyone to see, courtesy of the No-Nose Dog Project.

Suffice to say, though, it's a love letter to fandom. As well as a meditation on the nature of fiction and reality, and lots of fan-pleasing little character moments during a carefully curated selection of the most popular Doctors and companions spanning all fifty years of the show.

Some of the performances are exceptional, particularly those of Jordi Armengol as the First Doctor, Mat Cruz as Ten, and Rebeca Sanchez as Rose. But the entire cast is magnificent, as is the script, which fizzes with wit but also with heart. A fan film of the very finest calibre.

Doctor Who: The Reality War

 "So much for the two Ranis. It's goodnight from me."

Obviously, the above line is so brilliant that this episode is a triumph for that reason alone. And yet... against all the odds, although I'm sure subsequent viewings will reveal the odd dangling thread, after last episode seemed to promise a finale full of too many elements and loads of fanwank, we ended up with nothing of the sort. Instead... we get an ending that satisfies emotionally as well as narratively. Plus a cameo by Jodie Whittaker that I never saw coming. 

 So...

We resolve the cliffhanger by bringing back Anita and the Time Hotel, another returning character. Yet, with this being Ncuti Gatwa's swansong, it's good to see her again. And we use the hotel's timey-wimeyness to bring the UNIT gang back together, merging Conrad's awful wishes with reality. The plot threads- May 24th never arriving, the future in which the hotel exists existing only barely-just about work. And so we have... UNIT versus the bone dinosaur thingies which, let's face it, is the coolest thing ever.

And, of course, the Rani confronts everyone. It's a reunion with Mel, the sort of sequel to Time and the Rani that we were all definitely waiting for. And... the Rani wants to bring back Omega, and thus the Time Lords. Oh, and Time Lords have been sterile since the Time Lords were destroyed... that is, the most recent extinction, not the time before that. So Poppy is real... but she's an impossibility. And, to the Rani's Gallifreyan supremacist disgust, half human, like the Doctor is. Or isn't. Let's not dwell on this one.

The dilemma here is a nice one: bring back the real world, and Poppy vanishes. Yes, the story promptly cheats by building a zero room to magic away the paradox but, given what happens later, this doesn't really feel like a cheat. The Doctor confronts the Rani while Ruby (successfully, and psychologically) confronts Conrad. And... there's Omega. A terrifying beast, for sure, but as little like the Omega we remember as, well, Sutekh was last season. And, after gobbling up the newest Rani, he's quickly vanquished. Because, as we'll see, this is an episode where the Big Bad isn't really the point.

At first, Poppy exists. Ruby watches, alongside the audience, as the Doctor and Belinda plan to travel through time and space with her, making sure the TARDIS is toddler proof. Because that's totally what matters, right? In no way will the places they travel to be the real threats to child safety...!

And then... suddenly she never existed. Only Ruby remembers her. Only after much debate does the Doctor realise... and that's when we realise: he's going to regenerate. Sacrificing his life for a child. And... yeah, Ncuti Gatwa was good, but the other side of that is that he was in demand. Doctor Who, especially with this hiatus, was never going to keep him for longer. Which is a shame. We never got Daleks, Cybermen, so much, And two such short seasons...

It's a good send off, though. Nicely done, visually, and surely the most expensive regeneration ever. Nice cameo from Jodie Whittaker, too, doing some nice little characterisation for her in one short scene which knocks everything Chris Chibnall ever wrote into a cocked hat.

The coda with Belinda makes total sense: she always had to get home for Poppy, who is, after all, completely human, with a human father. It all feels as though it fits together, at least on just one viewing, and it satisfies.

But then... what? What? What?

Doctor Who: Wish World

 "This isn't exposition, Doctor."

The opening scene to this episode is decidedly odd, in ways which, I think, are oddly clever. It's Bavaria, 1865. A time and place which is somewhat redolent of fairy tales. And, sure enough, a seventh son is born to the seventh son of a seventh son, which must surely be rather unlikely. And so in swoops Archie  Panjabi's rather wonderful new Rani to steal the baby... and magically turn the rest of the family into violets (evoking Luke being turned into a tree in Mark of the Rani?), ducks and an own respectively.

This is pretty much as fairytale as it gets. Magic, not science, although I suppose there's that famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke. But hasn't there been a lot more of this sort of thing in doctor Who lately, along with the fourth wall breaking? Almost as though reality is not the same as it was. Perhaps since the Doctor and Donna did that thing with the salt in Wild Blue Yonder...?

We then move to a bit of a mini-Doctor Who trope: reality has changed. The Doctor (or "John Smith") and Belinda are a married couple, and Poppy from Space Babies (and as glimpsed in The Story and the Engine) is their Daughter. The likes of Ruby, Mel, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Colonel Ibrahim and Shirley all exist within this world, which is disturbingly trad and socially conservative, especially with regards to gender roles and sexuality. Given this existence's reactionary bent, it shouldn't be a surprise for us to see Conrad, that cad, on the telly. It'll be May the 24th tomorrow. And there's this constant, Orwellian pressure not to doubt this reality, or one may be disappeared.

Oh, and there are skeletal dinosaurs walking all over the place, because of course there are.

There are some nice touches. Ruby remembers a little more because, with the events of 73 Yards, she has previous. Conrad's storybook, about the story of "Doctor Who" (was that the sound of the fourth wall collapsing again?) is by "I.M. Foreman". And even Susan Triad works at "John's" office... from tech billionaire to tea lady.

And yet there are, in another nice little assault on the fourth wall, little plot holes in this reality which make it really rather hard not to doubt. Things cannot hold. Conrad is exhausted from maintaining his ideal reality. The older Rani is beginning to resent her "mistress". The Rani is at the centre of London, with a plan that does not bode well for the continued existence of the populace. And Shirley, with the other marginalised, disabled, lets Ruby in on their plot against Conrad and... well, as in other episodes, I approve of what's been said in the socio-political commentary here, but would it not be more effective if it were a little more subtle? Subtext over didacticism? Never mind.

Inevitably, the Doctor and Belinda find themselves doubting this implausibly reality and captured... via appearances by both Rogue and Susan: with all that's going on, with there be much time to devote next season to the latter? Or is she for Season Forty-Two?

And so we have them both introduced to the Rani, as memories stir and we get some answers. The Doctor "stirred the gods"... during Wild Blue Yonder? The baby is Desiderium, god of wishes, boosted by the Vindicator and a sprinkling of technobabble. It's May the 24th, the stroke of midnight, and the outside world dissolves (the "Bone Palace", conveniently, is a fixed point). And the revelations come quick as the cliffhanger approaches. The Rani is doing this to find the "One Who Was Lost"... Omega! and one last thing... Poppy actually, genuinely is the Doctor's daughter! And... Susan's mum...?

Hmm. I enjoyed this episode, it entertained me, but will they stick the landing? That's the question. It's all contingent.

(Incidentally, I love how, in a world where we Brits have been pronouncing the word "omega" the American way for decades now, Doctor Who has accidentally preserved the older British pronunciation that's archaic in 2025... fandom aside!)

Doctor Who: The Interstellar Star Contest

 "You came back from the dead!"

"Sums up my career."

SPOILERS, obviously.

I'm not much of a one for light entertainment, so I wasn't sure I'd like this episode as much. I don't mean that as a criticism, mind: there hasn't been a dud this season so far, and Doctor Who bloody well should try and appeal well beyond middle aged geeky blokes like myself. Yet I thought it was brilliant, and not only because of that ending. But that we shall come to.

Despite this being an episode based on Eurovision (complete with not only Rylan Clark and Graham Norton, at last appearing in Doctor Who by actual design) and set in a space station, which is the most RTD thing ever, we have another new writer this week, which is brilliant.

Anyway, the opening is fun, with Belinda rather amusingly insisting that, yes, this time she actually wants to stay for a bit. Of course, given what we later learn, it's unclear how an Earth cultural institution could have become a spiral arm-wide phenomenon nine centuries later, but such things are easily handwaved. After all, there are nice little nuggets for the fans, such as star singer Cora ostensibly being from Trion, home planet of one Vizlor Turlough.

The threat, with the Hellions, is allowed to cleverly unfold, with a brilliant central performance from Freddie Fox as Kid. It's should make us uncomfortable that there will undoubtedly be parallels in our own world to the atrocities perpetrated by the Corporation upon the poor people of Hellia. Yet, while kid turns to mass murder, Cora instead turns to something both more positive and more effective- and there's a message for us all there in our oh so imperfect world. Blind, angry revenge is not the answer.

Mike and Gary are great as down-to-Earth audience identification characters- and I recognised Charlie Condou as Jonathan Yeah? from excellent sitcom Nathan Barley, in a minor little actor spotting triumph. But there's lots of good character stuff for the Doctor and Belinda, each separated and thinking the other dead, Belinda panicking about her situation and and realising she never got to tell the Doctor he was wonderful. This is an absolute acting triumph from Verada Sethu.

And then we have the Doctor going way too far in his attack on Kid, not so much the Time Lord Victorious but the Time Lord Damaged by Trauma. Ncuti Gatwa, too, is incredible here.

But... yeah. Let's talk about the big reveals, shall we? Susan- actually Carole Ann Ford- was a huge shock. She's only in the Doctor's head, but, with the little seeds planted last season, I'm sure she's out there... a Season 42 thing?

And then the Vindicator is finished, the Doctor can finally take Belinda home, but we get some exposition (from Graham Norton, who else?) telling us that Earth ceased to exist on 24th May 2024... and, as the TARDIS heads towards that date, the door blows off.

And that's all. Mrs Flood is indeed the Rani, which was unfortunately spoiled for me by the thumbnails of videos from inconsiderate YouTubers. But... a bi-generation? Archie Penjabi's Rani and Mrs Flood? Yeah, still processing that.

I definitely enjoyed this a lot. It may be a first viewing thing- watching this a second time without the big reveals may possibly be a different experience. But the episode works on its own terms, I think, with a nice subtext.

Doctor Who: The Story & the Engine

 "This ship is in outer space, and in Lagos, at the same time..."

Yet again, we get another bloody good episode, full of heart and crammed with so many ideas. Not a dud yet this season: every episode has been good or better. And this may be one of the better ones.

After so many episodes concerned with the arc, characters from the past and so forth it's such a relief to get a story of the week. Yes, Mrs Flood appears, but only briefly... and yes, we get a surprising and welcome cameo by Jo Martin. And, although it seems at one point that we're getting another member of the Pantheon, Anansi, that's a clever bit of misdirection. And even if, as seems possible, stories are the concept at the centre of the season arc, the focus on story here is merely thematic.

So we have, near as dammit, a story of the week, with original concepts and a brand new villain. Good. It's also great to have an episode set in Nigeria- the TARDIS can go anywhere, not just an island off the coast of northern Europe. Episodes like this give the series a sense of scale... although one thing about the setting did amuse me: it's 2019, not quite the present, because Belinda can't be in 2025 until the plot demands.

The cold open gives us a fascinating mystery, and I love the little animations as the stories, so wonderfully reminiscent of west African folklore, are told. Omo, the Barber and Abena are stronger characters than the other young men, but this is not a story peopled by redshirts. These characters are far from two dimensional. And there's a fascinating character point for the Doctor, too: he's Black now, and having to adjust to how he's perceived in certain times and places. So why not spend time in Lagos, in a barber's shop, getting to know people in a place where his blackness makes him comfortingly anonymous?

The mystery builds wonderfully, and I love the concept of a barber's shop that is both in Lagos and... not. Even better when the Doctor discovers they're on the back of a giant robotic Anansi spider. This is brilliant. We're in West Africa, Anansi is the most widely known figure from West African folklore, so why not riff on him? And I love the misdirection: The Barber is not Anansi, god of stories (although surely Anansi, like Loki, is more of a trickster god... perhaps the same as the Trickster, come to think of it?), but rather a disgruntled former employee who wants to kill all the gods, which will have consequences for human culture, an excitingly fertile thought. Then there's Abena, another mythological character, who has a grudge against the Fugitive Doctor.

As good as all these breathless, brilliant, science fiction ideas, though, is the Doctor's very human story about Belinda, a simple tale of nurses and what heroes they are.

The ending is perfect- reconciliation and forgiveness for everyone, the Doctor managing to save the day only because of Abena's wonderful story, loads of tension. Maybe I'm still not fully grasping who and what the Barber was, but I don't think I really needed to. This episode was entertaining, ingenious, and deeply, deeply satisfying.

Doctor Who: Lucky Day

 "How committed are you to the lies you've told?"

Like, I trust, most of us, I was somewhat displeased by the dismaying tendency of so many people to vote Reform UK on Thursday. The disease of far right populism is a very present danger. So it's highly gratifying to see good old RTD write an episode addressing this, with the real monster not being an alien creature but a cynical, far right grifter, a thinly veiled version of Tommy Robinson. Good. On this occasion I don't even care about the total lack of subtlety towards the end, as the Doctor turns up to give Conrad a proper good bollocking. 

To paraphrase what a wise man once said... there are parts of the Internet that have bred some terrible things, things that oppose all that we believe in. They must be fought.

One may question, of course, the need for Doctor-lite episodes where seasons are only eight episodes long, but heigh-ho. After that brief scene at the start, in 2007, we don't see Belinda again at all (then again, if she appeared, we wouldn't be able to have a story set in 2025...) and the Doctor appears only for the later scene with Ruby from just after The Devil's Chord and, of course, for the aforementioned bollocking. Instead, it's down to Ruby Sunday, her family, and the UNIT gang, to hold the fort in the Doctor's absence. And, actually, this is an interesting long term writing choice to use Ruby in this way. Are we going to keep checking in on her, focusing on the after-effects of being the Doctor's companion and adjusting to "real" life? Having had this experience- betrayal, doxxing, worse- is going to have a deep effect on her character.

The episode is very clever: until the twist arrives, the relationship between Ruby and Conrad develops in ways that are rather sweet, only for the rug to be pulled from underneath us as Conrad turns out to be the cynical leader of some vile conspiracy theorists profiting from insinuating that UNIT are just faking all these alien invasions, which will ultimately result in Earth being vulnerable. They remind me in many ways of anti-vaxxers (Conrad, I note, doesn't take the antidote), and remind us that conspiracy theories- all of them- are dangerous.

The final showdown (it's a shame Mel was missing) is fascinating- yes, it's satisfying to see Kate release the Shreek on Conrad, and the result seems to discredit him, but I suspect the harm has not gone away entirely. And Kate, it very much seems, will have to face the consequences.

There's a satisfying resolution, of sorts- well, until bloody Mrs Flood turns up- but these people will never go away, never stop endlessly flooding the zone with their bullshit and their dead cats and their hate. But the future doesn't belong to the incels, the MAGA morons, Nigel Farage, or Elon Musk. It belongs to us.

So that's four bloody good episodes out of four so far. Good going. Here's hoping they can keep this up.

Doctor Who: The Well

 "It's not appropriate to call me 'Babes'!"

This episode was, of course, absolutely brilliant, if not quite up there with its prequel, and I suspect that it will be rather well-received by fandom. I should emphasise that I thought it was brilliant. yet, despite that, it also felt like a variation on things we've seen before, and I mean that in more than the sense that this is a follow-on from Midnight- although, yes, there certainly are an awful lot of references to stuff that happened many years ago in the current era. Fine for people like me but might this put off newer viewers? Every now and then, yes, but this often? This is something that RTD used to carefully avoid explicitly doing the first time around, after all. 

This in many ways feels like an old-fashioned Troughton base under siege, albeit with it being the deputy and not the base commander who takes a dislike to the Doctor. The antagonist- something that hides behind you and can only be seen out of the corner of your eye, that kills anyone behind it, and will go behind your back if you kill its host- is sublimely creepy and clever. Yet the combination of the concept and the episode's look gives off vibes that are more The Satan Pit than Midnight. And, while a bloody good bit of telly, it falls into a pre-existing story type, it feels to me. Are we, er... going back to the well a bit too often...?

Ahem. Sorry...

There's so much to like, though, right from the start with Belinda's fear that something has happened to earth, and her parents. And here we have the Doctor, again, making rash promises about things being fine that he may not be able to keep- perhaps setting up a future clash? And I love the pre-titles bit: the two of them land, are given helmets, and... out of the airlock and into space.

I also like Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alice and, while some of the social commentary this season has been a bit too unsubtle and ineffective here, I think the emphasis here on how "Signing still makes some people paranoid" is justified. Interesting, too, how these people have never heard of Earth, or of humans- we're clearly meant to wonder if this means that Earth ceased to exist in May 2025. But surely, 500,000 years from now, if humanity has colonised the Galaxy, would Earth be seen as any more than one of many, many inhabited worlds, its place as the cradle of humanity forgotten?

It's interesting how the Doctor perhaps learns what the entity is, but we don't. But the ending is clever, satisfying and nicely tragic. Although that Mrs Flood... blimey, she gets everywhere. But, well, I liked this episode a lot. But I liked it for reasons that perhaps feel a bit too familiar?

Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution

 "Apparently I'm the Queen of Outer Space. If you could tell the police..."

Well, that was rather good, I thought. One of the better season openers of recent years, certainly head and shoulders over Space Babies. It's a solid concept, a satisfying plot, a good introduction to new companion Belinda Chandra... and it's actually about something. Even better, while social commentary in Doctor Who can sometimes err on the unsubtle side, this time the balance is nicely judged.

So... yeah, fairly long blog post coming up. I'm in the mood. And it's Doctor Who, always the core of this blog, however much it's grown. 

So we begin seventeen years ago, with teenage Belinda and her boyfriend, with Belinda being given a certificatre naming a star after her, a cheerfully blatant example of Chekhov's gun. It's a cute little scene, with Alan's adorable nervousness about kissing her, so much s that we ignore the fact that Belinda blatantly looks Varada Sethu's actual age. But it's a nice, innocent start... or so it seems.

And then we move to Belinda's life in the present day, as a nurse, with all the overwork and dedication and stress and being lovely that is implied by that. We briefly see that, as well as the fact that she lives in straintened circumstances with housemates. Little does she know that things are about to get worse, and she's going to be desperate to get back to this life.

This is Doctor Who, so naturally a spaceship lands and some mech type robots kidnap her to be "queen" of the planet named after her, which is a hilatriously brilliant Doctor Who idea... and feels very Moffat in an RTD script.

Interesting that she knows Mrs Flood, though: Ruby must be a neighbour too, and they may even know each other too. That's as much of a coincidence as the stuff the Doctor later pontificates about regarding her 51st century descendent. But she really is in a rather entertaining pickle. And it's very admirable indeed how RTD manages to make the exposition itself highly entertaining- at first it seems these people welcome their new robot overlords, but all this stuff about every ninth word is clever and highly entertaining. And yes, if you feel like questioning why words should matter to a machine instead of syllables and, indeed, you feel that this makes no sense... ah, actually that's a clue, and after the reveal at the end it makes perfect sense. Nicely done.

Also nicely done is a little subversion of the trope of aliens that look exactly like humans- with Belinda being a nurse we learn that these people's internal organs are very slightly different from ours. And then there's the timey-wimey stuff, with the two star certificates from different time zones and the Doctor lightly lampshading that the two objects must never, ever touch, or else. Yes, Chekhov has a fair few firearms in this story, but I'm fine with that.

I'm also fine with the Doctor's emotions- Ncuti Gatwa's tears show us just how much the loss of Sasha 55 (his partner?) meant to him. He's such a bloody good actor, best since Capaldi and possibly even Eccleston.

And then... Belinda betrays them all, shock horror. Except she does it in order to sacrifice herself in order to save all these people, whom she's only just met and who haven't, on the whole, been particulartly nice to her. This tells us a fair bit about her- she's brave, selfless, a good person, but not one for just blindly doing what she's told. 

And so we have the reveal... it's not AI, it's Alan, and the "planet of the incels". This is brilliantly done, with Alan's coercive control of Belinda given a much bigger canvas in the shape of an entire planet. It's clever. Mind you, I hate planet-wide robot tyranny as much as anyone, but could we still just send that imbecile Andrew Tate into space anyway? Please?

And then the really clever bit. I'll confess I'm a bit worried aboiut Belinda being "important"- why do companions always have to come complete with a pre-existing mystery these days?- but it's delightful how the Doctor isbeing his usual self with a new companion but Belinda calls him out on his behaviour, including scanning her DNA without permission, as crossing a line into being controlling. This is brilliant, reminding us that all pf us, even the "good guys", need to watch ourselves for this kind of behaviour.

So we have Earth of 2025 repelling the TARDIS, meaning that Belinda who, like Ian and Barbara all those decades ago, just wants to go home, is unable to do so. I like her. She has depth, and doesn't just defer to the Doctor.

So yes, not really sure we need that much mystery, but this episode is an excellent start to the season. Let's keep this level of quality, if we can...

Doctor Who: Joy to the World

 "I don't usually live like this- one day, after another, in the right order..."

I love blogging Doctor Who.As far as this blog is concerned... well, that's how it all started with this blog. I was doing a Doctor Who marathon with a group of people on Outpost Gallifrey between 2008 and 2010, from An Unearthly Child to The Pandorica Opens, uploaded all my entries to this blog, and then... kept on going with new Doctor Who, along with soooo much other stuff. This blog has now been going for so long that Doctor Who comprises only a small part of it, but it will always be the beating heart of this blog.

This time I'm doing something different, though. Because yes, I watched this yesterday; yesI paid attention; but... I didn't take notes, as I almost always do, because I was with my family for Christmas. Also, while by no means further in that a couple of glasses of wine, I'd started on the booze. So this blog post is more of a memory test than usual, especially as I'm deliberately basing it on the one viewing and haven't read or seen any other reviews.

So... with one reservation, which I'll come too... i liked this a lot. It has all the wit we might by now expect from Steven Moffat, but also the brilliant concepts (the Time Hotel; using time and a suitcase to birth a star) and the very clever way it all fits together. It's standalone, funny, and the complexity is well explained and accessible for a slightly sozzled Christmas Day audience.There's Villengard, and a character who just simply happens to be a Silurian, but continuity does not loom large.

There's a heart tothis, though. Joy may seem in the surface to be nice and unthreatening, but her story is truly heartbreaking, and I loved Moffat's anger at the "one rule for me and one for thee" aspect of the lockdown parties. No doubt culture warring lockdown sceptics will decry this as "woke", whatever that is, but no one cares hat they think.

Nicola Coughlan is excellent.Yet, as ever, Ncuti Gatwa is simply superb. This is a very lonely Doctor who has just said goodbye to his companion and could do with a reminder that he needs a friend to travel with. Yes, I know; we've seen this before. But it's well handled here, with the Doctor taking the "slow path", as Reinette would have said, spending a year working in a hotel and making a good friend. and more than that... he learns again what friendship truly means. And the importance of chairs. That especially.

All this and a Mr Benn reference.

That said... the big reveal at the end that Joy and the others had become the Star of Bethlehem wasa bit much, one step too far. But it's Christmas, dammit. And this sort of episode is exactly what we need in this increasingly worrying world.