Doctor Who - Series 12 (2020)

Without doubt a wonderful Who episode. Hopefully laying the foundations of a continued story arc throughout the rest of the season. So many questions to resolve...
 
Aah missed a bit of it, was washing up. I'll watch it again at some point.
It was her husband. Suggested he was some sort of military person who travelled as her companion and protection. In the metal box that the Jahoon traced was the remains of his service badge. The alternate doctor seems to have come from a more military culture, hence she carried a laser rifle.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Without doubt a wonderful Who episode. Hopefully laying the foundations of a continued story arc throughout the rest of the season. So many questions to resolve...

I thought it started really badly. When we first saw Ruth, her husband and the cafe owner the acting was pretty poor. The reactions of the extras when the Judoon turned up was laughable. Some started running the split second the Judoon materialised. Then when the Doctor showed her inspector badge (psychic paper) and she and ‘officer’ Yasmin just spoke bollocks with no sense of authority. They sounded like a drunk girls night out, totally unbelievable. Then Captain Jack turned up, not really necessary, but added shock value and lines him up for the big Cyberman finale (I expect). Then it went into the arbitration and from that point it really picked up. Once Jo Martin became the Doctor she was really good and stole the show from Jodie. It also makes me think that Jo’s poor acting at the beginning was deliberate as a result of direction that she was living the illusion of a different person. Still think there are two too many companions, all three were pretty useless in this episode, both in storyline and their acting.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I thought it started really badly. When we first saw Ruth, her husband and the cafe owner the acting was pretty poor. The reactions of the extras when the Judoon turned up was laughable. Some started running the split second the Judoon materialised. Then when the Doctor showed her inspector badge (psychic paper) and she and ‘officer’ Yasmin just spoke bollocks with no sense of authority. They sounded like a drunk girls night out, totally unbelievable. Then Captain Jack turned up, not really necessary, but added shock value and lines him up for the big Cyberman finale (I expect). Then it went into the arbitration and from that point it really picked up. Once Jo Martin became the Doctor she was really good and stole the show from Jodie. It also makes me think that Jo’s poor acting at the beginning was deliberate as a result of direction that she was living the illusion of a different person. Still think there are two too many companions, all three were pretty useless in this episode, both in storyline and their acting.

Cheers,

Nigel

There are far too many companions that is true. People have reacted differently throughout Who old and new when aliens arrive so that's not a biggie for me and as for some of the acting it's not the best by any stretch but it is what we currently have. No doubt Jo does a better, more commanding Doctor.

It's the story line that interests me, to a degree regardless of how it comes across, and this unraveling mysterious story line currently has me hooked.

KH
 
People have reacted differently throughout Who old and new when aliens arrive so that's not a biggie for me

Agreed it wasn’t a biggie for me either. I think it was the first couple, who were walking down the street the Jahoon appeared behind them and at that very second they started running full pelt. No turning round to see what that noise was just started running. To be fair, they were probably directed to start running and they did - they never saw the Jahoons as they would have been added later. Just looked wrong. I’d liked to have seen more modern realistic reactions - getting phones out to film for example.

The Captain Jack bit. Dud anyone else feel it felt - “we want to put Captain Jack in but we’ve run out of money”. Looked a bit lie a Children in Need special. They should have done without the scenes of the spaceship getting shot at, they looked really cheap.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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I think the problem with the Capaldi era is that the BBC were under pressure to have a female doctor but they didn’t have the guts to do it at that time. So instead they made a proxy doctor by focussing on his companion and turning the series into the Clara Oswald show. It was some time before the reins were handed across to Capaldi and by that time the damage had been done.

Cheers,

Nigel

I don't think there was any great pressure on the BBC to cast a female Doctor unless they wanted to save money on her salary. :laugh: The reason the Capaldi era was so poor is down to Steven Moffat staying on too long. He was knackered by the end.

Bri
 
I haven't heard anything about them starting work on the next series yet. I wonder if there'll be another delay before we get it next year. Maybe Easter 2021.

Bri
 
Gat and 'Ruth' never ever confirmed they were Time Lords, just Gallifreyan/time travellers .... so pre-Time Lord era Gallifreyans, with Ruth being the pre-Time Lord(Hartnell) 'Doctor' and also perhaps the 'Timeless Child', whatever that is, connected to the lies of the founding fathers (Rassilon, Omega, The Other). Old Tardis interior, trying to look pre-Hartnell, but the Police Box exterior and failed chameleon circuit started with Hartnell, and was reconfirmed in The Name of the Doctor.
 
I haven't bothered with this since last year, as I found Whittaker and her crew a bit of a dud. Has it improved along the way with them bedding in?
 
Gat and 'Ruth' never ever confirmed they were Time Lords, just Gallifreyan/time travellers .... so pre-Time Lord era Gallifreyans, with Ruth being the pre-Time Lord(Hartnell) 'Doctor' and also perhaps the 'Timeless Child', whatever that is, connected to the lies of the founding fathers (Rassilon, Omega, The Other). Old Tardis interior, trying to look pre-Hartnell, but the Police Box exterior and failed chameleon circuit started with Hartnell, and was reconfirmed in The Name of the Doctor.
The fact
they both spoke the same things at the same time made me think Ruth was also the Doctor but from an alternate dimension.

The Sonic Screwdriver and the Judoon/Gallifreyan scanning kit both seemed to confirm they were both "the Doctor."

Is this not all complicated enough already?

The medal in the guys chest. I wondered if it was from the Time War and he was another Gallifreyan?
 
I haven't bothered with this since last year, as I found Whittaker and her crew a bit of a dud. Has it improved along the way with them bedding in?

The first 4 episodes were very dull for me but last night's was a corker. It was also a set up for the rest of the series. You would need to watch at least the first 2 to fully appreciate last night's if you wanted to start rewatching.

Bri
 
I've just thought if
the other Doctor is from another dimension how come she doesn't know that?

Bri
Because she didn't pay close attention

 
Isn't the new one more likely something to do with the War Doctor?
 
Gat and 'Ruth' never ever confirmed they were Time Lords, just Gallifreyan/time travellers .... so pre-Time Lord era Gallifreyans, with Ruth being the pre-Time Lord(Hartnell) 'Doctor' and also perhaps the 'Timeless Child', whatever that is, connected to the lies of the founding fathers (Rassilon, Omega, The Other). Old Tardis interior, trying to look pre-Hartnell, but the Police Box exterior and failed chameleon circuit started with Hartnell, and was reconfirmed in The Name of the Doctor.
Although Ruth said was the Doctor. So if just a Gallifreyan/time traveller the Doctor would just be that as well. I doubt Hartnell was awarded Time Lord status for stealing the Tardis...

And the radio times link above confirms they are both the doctor and that Ruth fits into the sequence as number 2 after Hartnell so bumping the rest up by one (or two if we include Doctor Donna). It's all getting a bit of a mess and may just turn out to be Chibnail doing a substantial retcon to the canon, 'everything you think you know is a lie' is directed to both the audience and the doctor...
 
I now think
the above is correct and it is an "early" doctor though I still hope not.

This seems like "a cheat" and a lot of messing about with history.
 
Well, if you retcon out the Tennant to Tennant regeneration then that would free up a regeneration from the original cycle. Or you could go BACK to the idea that Troughton was a ‘Rejuvenation' not a regeneration (as The Doctor himself actually says in Troughtons first story, I think). Where she would slot in to the original cycle though, is a mystery, as all the other regenerations are accounted for (We see each Doctor become the next Doctor onscreen - except Troughton to Pertwee....). I have a horrible feeling she will end up being pre-Hartnell, although that raises the issue that it was Hartnell's TARDIS that got stuck as a Police Box in episode 1 of Unearthly Child. Unless Chibnall hopes we don’t notice that, or we learn this new Doctor disguised her TARDIS as a Police Box, a shape it got stuck as when it reassumed it under Hartnell. But that would also contradict what we have previously saw showing Hartnell leaving Gallifrey to begin with. Another possibility - and the one I hope they go with - is she is a Future Doctor with HER memory wiped. Either way, a show I was about to bale on after 40 years as a fan has now become must watch again.
 
Well this sets
Jodie Whittaker back a bit. It could turn out she wasn't even the first female doctor.
 
That this was the best episode of Jodie Whittakers run is beyond doubt judging by the way its set minds racing on here. And, if you watch it again,

All three of them were Timelords, as confirmed by the Doctor when she said 'Timelord to Timelord.' And then mind linked with one of them. Intriguing...
 

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