cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/17566451

Spyfall should've been called Time Spies. If they're not too good for an attempted pun they aren't too good for Time Spies

I mostly like Doctor Who for being a fun, campy show. I stopped watching after Capaldi initially because it felt like the show wasn't really doing that anymore. I've been re-watching the modern show after checking out classic Who for the first time along with family recently. We recently got back up to where I had stopped and... I'm still not really feeling it. But the show has been on for quite a while since then. So I'm kind of curious what it's like now and if it's worth pushing through/skipping ahead to get to a part that I'll like more.

MAITLAND: Doctor, is there no way you can get into your ship?

DOCTOR: No, not unless they return what they stole from my ship.

RICHMOND: But will they'll never give it back to you!

DOCTOR: Oh my dear, they're not invincible, no-no-no. Did any of you notice the peculiarity in their eyes?

MAITLAND: No I can't say I did.

DOCTOR: It's a fallacy of course that cats can see in the dark, they can't; but they can see better than we humans because the iris of their eyes dilates at night. Yes...huh! Haha!

Watched The Space Museum the other night and it slaps so hard. Love the dynamic between Hartnell's Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki. Love seeing the show go all in on anti-colonialism. Some of the world building stuff didn't make sense (Xerons had a bit of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" energy) but I just had a great time watching it.

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/9913175

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

[Edited to get rid of the quotation formatting]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18984454

Greg Austin is a fantastic actor but when I see those eyes it's reeeally hard not to see Travis Leich. 😬

Edit: Btw Class is fantastic. I'd have watched it back then had I known about it. I mean, I'd vaguely heard about another spinoff but I didn't know the particulars. Look man, I'm not on trial here. The real crime was cancelling this show.

https://invidious.privacydev.net/watch?v=qtQ2jTmzIok

Although the TARDIS is technically a time machine, for most episodes the Doctor could rock up in a bus and it wouldn't change anything.

The most obvious answer for me is Blink, with the conversation on the DVD Easter egg. Very cool use of time travel, and seeing it come together is brilliant.

I'll also add Waters of Mars. It's not really got any time travel in, but I feel like the foreknowledge which shapes the plot just about counts.

What are your favourites and why?

Jodie Whittaker returns to Doctor Who  - Big FinishBig Finish Productions, in partnership with BBC Studios, today announces the first ever Thirteenth Doctor audio dramas as Jodie Whittaker returns to the Whoniverse alongside Mandip Gill as Yasmin Khan.

(...)

Big Finish listeners can now pre-order The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures, starting at just £11.99 (per story on collector’s edition CD + download) or £9.99 (download only) exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.A complete series multibuy bundle of all twelve releases is also available to pre-order at the specially discounted price of £126 (on collector’s edition CD + download) or £102 (download only), again exclusively from the Big Finish website.

Would anyone happen to have a source on who portrayed the young Lady Eddison in The Unicorn and the Wasp? I've checked IMDb, Wikipedia, fandom, Shannon Sullivan, and a few sites I wasn't previously familiar with. Fandom had the names of some of the uncredited cast (footmen, kitchen staff, etc.) but I couldn't find anything about young Lady Eddison. Thanks!

What if, instead of sending you into the past, weeping angels sent you into your future? Say the 'harvest' a 20 year old and send them into the future where they are 80 years old - the angel gets the energy of the 60 years.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13742015

> > Speaking to Doctor Who Unleashed, Davies said: “So that’s goodbye to Millie Gibson, except it’s not! You’d have to be mad to say goodbye to talent and a character like that!” > > > > He added: “This is a pause. I genuinely felt Ruby’s story paused there. She couldn’t get all that information about her family, all that emotional overload, and run off in the TARDIS. It pauses there. She’s coming back. > > > > “A new companion is coming in, but you’ll see the three of them together. Three people in this TARDIS fighting evil. There’s good stuff to come. There are really crucial stories for Ruby to come, and her family – the story of that family hasn’t finished yet – that will all make sense when you see it. So more to come.”

> Following the major reveal of the character in the latest finale, Russell T Davies and Anita Dobson address the current status of the mystery of Doctor Who's Mrs. Flood. Dobson made her debut in "The Church on Ruby Road" as the seemingly ordinary neighbor to the Sunday family, though it would be revealed that she has hidden knowledge of the Time Lords that has left viewers guessing her true identity. After having brief appearances in season 14, Flood starred in a guest role across the two-part finale "The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death", which provided more hints. > > With Doctor Who season 14 bringing the mystery of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and the One Who Waits to a close, Davies and Dobson addressed the remaining mystery of Mrs. Flood going into season 15 with Doctor Who: Unleashed. While the showrunner confirmed that Flood was not part of Sutekh's scheme, Davies did tease that she would play a key role in season 15, while Dobson described Flood as ever-evolving. Check out Davies' and Dobson's response below: > >> Russell T Davies: Clearly there’s a mystery with Mrs. Flood, played by Anita Dobson- Dobs, as I call her. We’ve seen way back in "The Church on Ruby Road", where Ncuti first appeared and when Millie first appeared. She was the next door neighbour, but then suddenly ends that episode with a great line to camera, where she goes “Never seen a TARDIS before”. So clearly, that’s saying “Something’s going on here.” She’s popped up then, living next door. We’ve seen her, she’s cast a little line in “73 Yards” on what’s going on. She gets a bit closer to the action in episode 7, she starts to reveal herself in episode 7. In episode 8, she had…. She says “I had such plans”. So she’s not part of what Sutekh was up to. She’s kind of trapped in whatever Sutekh was up to, in as much as the whole world is and says “I had such plans”. I wonder what that means…. I can promise you reveals, I can promise you astonishing reveals and a lot of fun with her as well. She’s so much fun to work with, so good times with Mrs. Flood to come. >> >> Anita Dodson: Mrs Flood is sort of changing. We don’t quite know what into, but she’s definitely changing, yeah. Or else she needs to see a therapist, big time.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16698275

Well that was a blast from the past...

Following a fakeout where it's theorized that the mysterious woman popping up in episode after episode may be the long lost Susan Foreman (last seen in the episode "The Five Doctors" in 1983), it turns out they were the villain Sutekh, last seen in the episode "Pyramids of Mars" in 1975.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Foreman

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Doctors

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramids_of_Mars

Season Finale next week!

She died in that room, there were screams & lightening so I'm sure she died.

She also lived which is a paradox so my theory on Ruby stands she simply changed the timeline so she could survive.

As the doctor never went in the room to confirm her death the timline was never set.

Very cool social commentary, I think better than the Orville episode with the Up and Downvote society.

Though, at the end, I did hate everybody and wanted them to be eaten.

I do question having two "doctor lite" episodes back to back.

Imteresting music choices too... Didn't we just have the Flying Purple People Eater? Now we have Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini...

Edit My bad, Flying Purple People Eater was in X-Men '97, which I also just watched. Easy mistake to make!

If next episode is Everybody's Heard About the Bird...

The episode starts with the Doctor stepping into a fairy circle, causing him to vanish and locking the Tardis. I'm not a huge fan of this season's "magic is real" vibe, but so far it tracks.

A woman appears and follows Ruby around. She ends up in a pub where she asks about the fairy circle. After a long build up explaining just how serious the fairy circle is, it turns out no that's just racist. Pretty funny, and it works with the magic theme. So how does the fairy circle actually work then? No fucking clue, they never explain it. As far as I can tell it just exists for this bit.

So this woman makes everyone near her hate Ruby. Everyone. Why? Who fucking knows. They never explain why. It just does. It leads up to a politician getting scared and ruining his career. Again pretty clever. But again no explanation is ever given as to how or why this happens.

Then Ruby dies. And when she dies she becomes the scary woman. Then she goes back in time. How? Why? No idea. It just happens and you gotta deal with it.

So apparently the Doctor stepping on a fairy circle that doesn't do anything makes him vanish for no reason, creates an old copy of Ruby that follows her around for no reason, who scares everyone for no reason, then when Ruby dies undoes everything for no reason.

This. Makes. No. Sense.

To reference another work of surreal social horror, I'm going to say it was that Ruby is actually a giant cockroach

Good episode, maybe a little obvious where it was going. Way too much unexplained.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12357996

> > The two-part finale of Doctor Who season 14 will be shown in cinemas across the UK next month. > > > > Special screenings will kick off around the country at 11pm on Friday 21st June 2024, starting with a showing of the previous week's penultimate episode, The Legend of Ruby Sunday. > > > > Then, at midnight, as the season finale Empire of Death lands on BBC iPlayer (and Disney Plus internationally), a select group of fans will be treated with seeing the blockbuster conclusion on the big screen.

The first one, "Space Babies" was alright, but felt too childish. "The Devils Chord" didn't hit for me because they just didn't have the budget for really being able to explore a higher level being of such power.

But Boom? Boom can be defeated by one simple question. "Where's the Sonic?"

It's never addressed, the Doctor never asks Ruby to go get it from the TARDIS if he doesn't have it on him. And it's never even explained that if she could go and get it, it wouldn't effect the landmine.

It's basic questions like this, that need to be answered in an episode like this. It would have taken a total of 4 sentences to cancel out the Sonic. But they never even mention it.

That's just bad writing right there.

Plus the Doctor's dialogue felt like it belonged more to Matt's Doctor than Ncuti's and DEAR GOD, Moffat cannot write children to save his life.

I'm hoping the season gets better because they're 1.5 for three with me right now.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11809930

> > The overnight ratings for Doctor Who's season 14 launch episodes Space Babies and The Devil's Chord have been revealed, as Ncuti Gatwa well and truly takes over the keys to the TARDIS. > > > > Space Babies, the first episode, was watched by 2.6 million viewers, with The Devil's Chord, the second, having an overnight audience of 2.4 million. > > > > While the overnight figures are close to the lowest ever for the show (with Legend of the Sea Devils only securing an overnight audience of 2.2 million in 2022), it's not the whole story. It doesn't include viewers who watched on BBC iPlayer, who will be more significant than ever due to this season being the first to debut early on iPlayer. > > > > Figures are also likely to have been affected by good weather in the UK. > > > > Season 14 of Doctor Who marks many firsts - it's the first to launch with a double bill, with the first two episodes being available at once, and it's the first to debut episodes early on iPlayer before airing them on BBC One later that day. It's also the first season after the BBC's deal with Disney, meaning episodes are being transmitted globally at the same time for the first time ever. > > > > Gatwa's first episode, the Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road, was streamed a whopping 10.1 million times on BBC iPlayer, setting a new record according to the BBC. > > > > ... > > > > Next week will see Steven Moffat's return with his tense episode Boom!.

I figured this should be made for everyone – I didn’t see one already.

I figured this should be made for everyone – I didn't see one already.

They were coming out with videos pretty regularly but suddenly stopped in the beginning of this year.