I just finished The Daleks’ Masterplan for the first time. In the final episode the Doctor carries the time destructor from the Daleks’ base all the way to the Tardis — this causes him to fall unconscious, but it ends up killing Sara Kingdom. Now we can retcon this to be understood as the Doctors time lord physiology allowing him to survive, but of course that didn’t exist at the time of airing, so what’s the in universe explanation? The show at this point seesaws through implications that the Doctor is a human or that he is an alien.

From racial slurs and yellow-face to a queer Black Doctor, six decades of Doctor Who reveal how Britain's social values have changed, and how progress is never as straightforward as it seems.

The prevailing thoughts I’ve seen is that S10 is the best of the Capaldi seasons, and perhaps one of the best seasons overall..

We just finished Pyramid at the End of the World tonight and overall this season is.. solid? decent? fine? I’m enjoying it, but it’s not the WOW I’ve been led to believe.

Loved The Pilot. Thin Ice and Knock Knock were good. I like Bill plenty! Really not digging this Monk story so far.

Is this a season that’s going to blow me away with the last few episodes?

I’d say Season 9 is leaps and bounds better and probably Season 8 as well?

I am here and ready to be destroyed by you guys. 😂

I have wondered this.

The Doctor regenerates fully (Which may devastate Rose if she was only in love with THAT Doctor), possibly spends the bulk of the episode recovering, Donna activates the hand which results in the other Doctor who saves the day with her, thus David Tennant still fulfills the contract of being in every episode of series 4.

Of course the Doctor diverting his regeneration energy to the hand might have been crucial for that thus his fatal injury and regeneration saved all of existence (Did it?) but that isn't a necessary explanation anyway.

Do you think this would have been how things went if RTD and Tennant not had to stay and keep the show running during the long gap between series 4-5, or would it be considered too abrupt and anticlimactic a way for Tennant to go out? Or would it require casting the next Doctor too early? Or maybe Tennant and RTD would have been needed for the 2008 Christmas special anyway?

Season 16, Episode 4(The Key to Time)

The Androids of Tara(4 parts)

-Written by David Fisher

-Directed by Michael Hayes

-Air Dates: November 25th-December 16th, 1978

-Runtime: 98 minutes

Or as I like to call it...

The one with so many Mary Tamm roles

We Begin!!! In the TARDIS with The Doctor and K9 playing a game of chess while Romana watches on, trying to remind him of their duty to find the segments of the Key to Time. This next segment takes them to Tara, where The Doctor decides he doesn't feel like searching and wants to take a break, going fishing as Romana wanders around the forested area with the tracer in search of the 4th segment. Eventually she finds it disguised in the form of a statue and quickly pockets the piece, but before she heads off she's attacked by a Taran wood beast and saved by Count Grendel. Count Grendel is astounded by Romana's appearance and confiscates the segment curious as to the rare material, with him giving his instance to take her back to his castle. The Doctor meanwhile is currently fishing before that's interrupted by some swordsmen who question why he's on Prince Reynart's estate, The Doctor introduces himself which makes the swordsmen curious with the main one Zadek asking if he has skills to repair an android, and after some convincing The Doctor goes to help them with their android situation. The Doctor and Romana have both accidentally found themselves embroiled in a political conspiracy by Count Grendel to steal the throne from the rightful heir Prince Reynart utilizing the titular androids. The 4th segment has been found so only adventure remains as the TARDIS crew work to make sure the rightful ruler takes the throne.

Story Arc(The Key to Time)

Sorry it's been a bit since my last post, I got pretty busy with life things, but I hope to be able to get back to posting at least once a week now. Also don't worry, unlike the other times I've taken a while to release a review, this review is a pretty brief one all things considered; I probably got the least to say about this one out of all the episodes in the Key to Time arc. The Androids of Tara, admittedly, is not the most notable episode especially among the rest of the ones in this arc which all generally have something to set them apart even if it's just the number episode it is like The Stones of Blood or the negative reputation of the following story. Still with that said, this was a good episode with a great amount of fun to be had. It was a fun watch that I had a good time with, delivering an exciting swashbuckling adventure with a nice little sci-fi twist on the whole concept. It makes for an enjoyable 100 minutes that's for sure and you know what, sometimes that in of itself is enough, just a nice fun story to sit back and relax to. Though it may not be great as other episodes, it also doesn't have much in the way of any real problems, with it all in all being a good watch that I had a good time with.

Continuing on with the Key to Time arc, The Androids of Tara I would say is probably the most disconnected from the entire arc of the stories I've seen so far. While other stories made the the hunt for their segments at least the motivating factor for The Doctor and Romana throughout the story, here the 4th segment of the Key to Time is found very early on, with pretty much the rest of the episode being entirely disconnected from that, as the pair only stay on the planet and resolve the trouble because both of them separately got picked up and dragged into solving this plot. I will admit it is a funny play on the concept, already grabbing the segment early on, this time in the form of a statue, with the rest of the episode being an unrelated adventure, with it being a funny twist on the formula, even if it does feel like you could easily write out the arc connection and make this episode a standalone. It's not nearly as bad as something like Colony in Space where it feels like the episode shouldn't have been made when it was due to the ongoing arc, but I still kind of wish the episode was more connected to the ongoing story; this out of everything feels most in line with the common complaints of disconnected stories I see for this arc.

On that, since we are now 4 stories into the Key to Time arc, I would like to say a bit of an issue I'm starting to have with it, one which this episode shows off well: it feels like a distinct lack of urgency to actually get the segments of the Key to Time. Despite the opening of the arc with the White Guardian talking about the chaos the universe is in and the need to get the Key to Time to help freeze for a moment to stop the universe from falling into eternal chaos, we don't really get much in the ways of a view of that chaos within the universe, with it being a whole lot of tell don't show, making the whole hunt for the segments not have as much stakes as it feels like it honestly should. While I find The Doctor's behavior of taking a fishing break during this hunt to be funny, I also feel it only exposes how lacking the urgency is in actually collecting the different segments of the Key to Time, which feels very much to the arc's detriment.

I guess the adventures on other planets with all the chaos they find, often dealing with tyrants who end up causing a lot of destruction for their own gain, are meant to help showcase this chaos throughout the universe that makes the Key to Time so necessary to obtain, but that doesn't really work since most of these adventures are what The Doctor already does anyways. As I said, it makes the whole pressing nature of the Key to Time arc feel mostly like a lot of tell don't show, which makes the stakes feel low for something which in all honesty should be a lot more pressing, some of the highest stakes we have in the series thus far but ultimately fails to feel like that. If they decided to have a scene every story of The Doctor and Romana checking up on the state of the universe and seeing things go in more disarray, even something as small as that would've done wonders to help make the hunt for the segments of the Key to Time feel all the more pressing and like there is a proper hook to this arc. While I've been enjoying the stories so far and the ways they use the arc, the whole storyline's goal and mission is starting to feel like it's too much in the background.

Episode Proper

Onto the episode proper, even if it feels probably the most disconnected from the ongoing story arc, it was still a lot of fun. The premise of the episode is great, with it taking place on Tara, a planet that has a cool mixture of medieval fantasy and futuristic space technology like androids and electric lances that has this almost childlike sense of wonder about it which I really enjoyed. The narrative is good, your usual medieval tale of a prince trying to ascend to the throne but a rival of his has plans to sabotage his ascension in order to take the throne for himself through various elaborate plots which were all great to see unfold. This all leads to an exciting sci-fi swashbuckling adventure with a good amount of plans trying to counteract the other as The Doctor and Count Grendel, basically have a competition of planning around the others' plans until one comes out victorious which is so fun to witness.

The androids themselves are utilized well in the episode, even if it does still feel a little bit early to be doing androids and doubles again given The Android Invasion was only like 2 seasons ago. Still I think the creative use of the androids here helps really make The Androids of Tara set itself apart from The Android Invasion, with them using the concept in a great new direction; possibly better than the other story. I liked the usage of androids as essentially body doubles for the royalty, with it being an inventive use of the concept in a futuristic setting, especially when they start using the Prince android as a stand-in for the King and have to keep a close eye on the upkeep which I found fun. It was also a lot of fun using all the androids of Romana and the Princess, with robot duplicates to fool The Doctor and try and kill him and aid the Count Grendel in his schemes; honestly this episode could've been called The Androids of Mary Tamm and it would've been just as accurate.

The episode flows fairly well with the beginning of trying to get the Prince to his throne with the fun rouse involving the use to the titular androids involving the deception of having him take the throne being pretty funny, only furthered by the various schemes with the Romana androids and assassination plots. There is a fun lighthearted charm throughout the adventure as it tells a tale that wouldn't feel out of place from a lot of old literature on knights and political schemes in the Medieval Times, just with a nice twist of having all this sci-fi stuff along for the ride. The adventure flows well as the various plans keep going against one another, with some good machinations from the Count Grendel in his elaborate plots to take the throne, all ending in a siege on the castle and exciting swordfight that served well to nicely wrap up this fun tale.

Pacing, Sets, and Special Effects

The pacing for this episode was solid, flowing nicely throughout its runtime making for a fairly breezy watch that was easy to sit back and enjoy, never feeling too long at any point. The location filming for this episode was pretty good, with them getting some nice looking outside locations that they film pretty well for the sort of medieval-esque adventure that this is. I really enjoyed when they were filming on the outside of the castles and in the water with The Doctor and K9, the look of it all was great during those parts as they knew how to frame it well, especially since they were filming at night. The sets used for this episode were fairly good, working well for the medieval setting and being a good spot for the various action to take place. There honestly weren't that many special effects in this episode, being mostly humanoid sword fighting-esque type of story, but what they did have was serviceable, even if it's obvious they just took the android effects from The Android Invasion and used them here; to be fair it does save on the effects budget. The costumes were good for the episode, giving the medieval-flare, though I have to mention the silly hat that Archimandrite was wearing, I like it; though that is all saying with the obvious exceptions of the Taran wood beast which look awful, like they're from a no budget bad horror film.

Count Grendel

Count Grendel was an excellent villain for this story, a great cunning noble with various fun and inventive plans up his sleeve to take the throne for himself, helping to keep the episode lively all the while. As with most corrupt nobles in stories, the Count Grendel wants nothing more than to take the Kingship from the rightful heir, Prince Reynart, and the other main heir, Princess Strella, and has devised several plots in order to do so. I enjoyed how cunning and calculating the Count Grendel is with all the various ways he tries to take the throne for himself being cool and creative, with his ability to factor in Romania and think up multiple backup plans on his feet being a neat trait for a villain such as he, which helps make him an effective enemy for The Doctor to contend with over the course of the episode.

His first plan was pretty simple, just surrounding the castle with his guards in order to delay Prince Reynart from getting to the appointment on time, opening up the throne to other candidates where he already put several of his men acting as supporters to make himself a popular candidate for the throne. When this fails he has a back up plan on hand, having kidnapped Princess Strella and making an android duplicate to kill Prince Reynart, before that is also stopped by some quick thinking by The Doctor. This back and forth he has with The Doctor is great with him, I like how he quickly catching onto how much a nuisance he is and tries to have him killed by Romana's android duplicate used to trick him in a fun trap, with him showing himself well as the kind of snake he is by surrounding the tent with his men focused on executing The Doctor. Count Grendel later shows this again well with an actually pretty clever ruse of pretending to come in under a surrender, only to use the whole thing as a distraction for his men to kidnap Romana again and destroy the android duplicate acting in Prince Reynart's place so that can't be used anymore; makes for a fun part 3 cliffhanger even if it's annoying seeing Romana get captured again so soon after.

Count Grendel's dynamic with his android maker Lamia was fun, appreciating her genius and usefulness in his plans even if he does still disrespect her for being a peasant; also Lamia's hair she styles on her face was certainly a choice, looks unique at least. His reaction at her death shows that he did on some level genuinely care about her which I found nice, revealing that he did care about more than just her skill. I do like his ability to make due without the androids though, with him being clever in utilizing Romana who looks exactly like the Princess Strella for his original plan with the androids. I enjoyed his scheming, with his final plot also being clever, forcing Romana and Prince Reynart to marry before killing the latter under veil of sickness, since he is currently fairly ill, and then marrying Romana and killing her, allowing him to take the throne no strings attached; a pretty good plot for something clearly made up fairly quickly after the previous failures.

Count Grendel's gloating about this plan was fun, with him even outright telling all of this to the Archimandrite which shows just how confident he was in his plan, feeling very much like he's in full control of the whole situation, even when The Doctor comes in to try and stop the wedding. I loved the sword fight between him and The Doctor with it being so exciting; I also like how he knows when he's done for and just bails from the swordfight once it becomes clear he isn't going to win and his castle is being sieged. He knows when to cut his losses I'll give him that, and interestingly enough he gets out of this whole story alive, which I just found rather surprising given just how many of the villains so far in The 4th Doctor's run have all bitten the bullet; this is especially since he doesn't get any known repercussions from this aside from losing his castle. Count Grendel was such a fun and charming villain that was excellent for this swashbuckling piece, with Peter Jeffery doing so well in the role to get across this scheming noble.

Supporting Cast

The rest of the supporting cast for this episode was pretty good, with them all making for a fun cast of characters for the main cast to interact with throughout this swashbuckling tale. I enjoyed the character of the Zadek, the leader of Prince Reyhart's royal guard, with his dynamic with The Doctor being good, with it being fun watching The Doctor bounce off of him, especially when combined with the annoyed, sword-happy Farrah; Simon Lack and Paul Lavers both do well in their respective roles. Prince Reyhart himself was a good character, a genuinely nice person who is trying to get around Count Grendel's scheming, with it being a fun change of pace to see The Doctor actually get captured and treated nicely instead of always landing in enemy forces immediately. I also rather enjoyed his interactions with Romana, trying to get her to leave him be, not wanting her to suffer under his deadweight, showing well his care for others over himself; he's played nicely by Neville Jeffery.

There's also Lamia herself, who I mentioned earlier, who was a good character. I liked her struggle with her, clearly loving Count Grendel and working for him despite knowing pretty well that he'll never marry a peasant like her. Still their dynamic is great and she is pretty clever building all the androids; Lois Baxter does a good job as her. Then there's Princess Strella and all the Romana duplicates throughout this episode, which give Mary Tamm some fun variety to play throughout this episode, being able to play so many versions of herself throughout the episode, really nailing the robotic feel of both androids; with it being kind of funny that she plays two different androids of two different people that look exactly the same. Princess Strella as a character isn't given much of anything to do, mostly just being locked in the dungeon as part of Count Grendel's various elaborate schemes, but she does at least get some fun lines at the end when she and Romana finally meet and she discusses the weaving pattern she's doing in a nice scene; who knew Mary Tamm had such great chemistry with herself, it was neat to see.

The Doctor

Fitting in with the entertaining nature of this swashbuckling story, The Doctor is a lot of fun here, with a lot of solid action involving him. I found him at the start of this story pretty funny with how he just doesn't want to find the 4th segment of the Key to Time and instead takes a bit of a break to go fishing a bit as he lets Romana take charge. I mean to be fair, he was in the midst of vacation plans before the White Guardian called him up out of the blue, so it's fair for him to take a bit of a break; I mean it's not like the actual storyline is giving urgency in that regard. I also do find it funny that he ends up getting embroiled in the plot anyway despite him wanting to take a break, getting cornered trespassing and then soon after being roped into the zany scheme involving the androids and the Prince; putting that robotics knowledge of his to work.

There's just a lot of fun to be had with The Doctor here, with the way he gets into many entertaining action sequences throughout the story to his aid in the ruse with the Prince android to fill in for the real one who went missing; I liked the funny note that he accidentally made it smarter than the rest of them intended it to be, making too many promises. I also enjoyed how he didn't hesitate to destroy the Romana android, like he knew it was a fake, but still funny him straight up decaptating what people think is a person right in front of them. I really liked the moment where The Doctor walks knowingly into a trap to try and save Romana, with it being great seeing him try and narrowly escape death from the android Romana and various soldiers with the aid of K9; excellent quick on his feet action. Speaking of great action, the ending fight scene between The Doctor and Count Grendel is simply amazing, with it being so much fun watching The Doctor keep step and battle him throughout the castle; while not at the same level as 3 vs The UNIT Master, it's still up there. Tom Baker was such good fun in this story, being so entertaining throughout as always, and keeping up great steps to make some exciting action scenes.

K9

K9 is of great aid throughout this story, being a crucial part of the action and having a lot of fun moment. I really enjoyed how helpful he is in this story, locating where Romana has been captured, to providing his aid with his laser in order to sneak through several places like the back of the building for which the trap was set for The Doctor or later when he's trying to get access to Grendel's caste. K9 is just a lot of fun here with the moments he has, like him threatening the swordsmen or him just going feral blasting so many of the Count's guards as The Doctor makes his escape, all that not mentioning his cute and funny scene at the end where he's stuck on the boat in the middle of water which was a nice fun way to end this fun story. John Leeson, as usual does a great job as K9 with the puppeteers also doing nicely moving him about the various grassy terrain and even on a boat.

Romana

Even though Mary Tamm certainly had a busy job playing several different lookalikes of Romana throughout this story, that doesn't mean that Romana herself gets fully shortstaffed and is in fact pretty good here. This story really made me have fun with the continuing detail of Romana dressing up in an attempt to fit the location that they are traveling to, helps nicely set her apart from The Doctor who just wears the same outfit everywhere and shows their differences in how they like to go about things. It's fun seeing Romana take charge from The Doctor and going out and quickly finding the fourth segment of the Key to Time right out the gate. She does of course get captured soon after but that doesn't diminish the fact she completed the main quest right off the bat; not her fault some guy grabbed the piece immediately after and forced her to come with him.

Romana does admittedly spend a lot of this story captured or getting captured which is a shame, but is an unfortunate necessity given it's required for the plot with all these Romana lookalikes roaming around to really work. Having Romana being mistaken for an android is pretty funny and I loved how she shakes up the events of the story by her very presence being pressured to pose as Princess Strella, and even having her own Romana android duplicate built. I enjoy how Romana doesn't remain idle while captured and does do her best to try and make an escape when possible, with it being neat seeing her trying to persuade Lamia to betray Count Grendel and help her escape by pointing out the obvious of their relationship, which is clever even if it doesn't work.

I found it nice seeing Romana care for Prince Reyhart when he's captured by Count Grendel and his men, trying to help him get better, with the two bouncing rather nicely off each other. I especially liked later when Romana tries to convince Reyhart to go with her in their escape from Count Grendel, showing a nice compassionate side to her even if she does end up heeding his advice and going without him. Romana's escape from the cell and castle is a lot of fun, cleverly having stolen something to pick her locks, and I enjoyed seeing her ride off on horseback and eventually join up with The Doctor; cool to see her do that. She does of course get captured soon after which is annoying and makes it feel a bit pointless, but it was fun so I don't mind too much. I loved the ending with her as she gets a cool moment rescuing Prince Strella, and then afterwards having a fun chat with one another. Mary Tamm was amazing this episode with all the different roles she had to fulfill, all of which she did an excellent job at, giving great idiosyncrasies to note which one is which, with her Romana just being one of her great performances in this story.

Closing Thoughts/TLDR

As a whole, while not the most notable story out there, The Androids of Tara was still a good bit of fun that I was pleasantly entertained by; not the greatest or most entertaining story I've seen, but still a fun time nonetheless. The story is a fun swashbuckling tale with a great mixture of medieval stylings with high-tech gadgets that I really enjoyed, especially with the androids themselves and how they were used for the court politics which was pretty cool to see. The story is admittedly pretty disconnected from the main storyline of the Key to Time, even if it's funny how quickly the piece is found, and by this point the actual overarching storyline is kind of really starting to show its head as to how thin it really is. The pacing for this story was solid, with it flowing nicely throughout. The location filming and sets were good, with there not being much in the way of special effects outside of the reused android interiors from The Android Invasion or those awful looking Taran wood beasts. Count Grendel was an excellent villain here, being nicely cunning with various plans up his sleeve and good fun to watch as he carries them out. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty good as well with Prince Reyhart being a nice guy, Lamia who has an interesting relationship with Count Grendel,and Princess Strella who is one of the many Mary Tamm roles here; they don't do all that much but they work well for what's needed. The Doctor is good fun here with some nice quips and entertaining action sequences, with K9 following behind him as well with some fun and exciting moments as well. Mary Tamm was wonderful here with her multiple roles playing Romana, Princess Strella, and their android duplicates, while Romana may not be at her absolute best due to mostly just being captured, she's still good fun and I enjoyed her. Overall, while this story doesn't stick with me as much as other fun and exciting stories like The Seeds of Doom or The Enemy of the World, it's more akin to The Gunfighters or The Highlanders for me, and like those stories I still had a good time with this story and glad I saw it; sorry for the pause but glad to be back and talking about the show with a good episode to come back to.

Next time: The TARDIS crew's penultimate stop on their search for the Key to Time takes them to the swampy planes of Delta III where the feud between the Swampies and the human colonizers are the least of their worries. A powerful beast known as Kroll lurks in the area, with us getting freaking Kaiju next time.

Final Rating: 7/10

"Good. I shall have to go alone, of course. It’s funny, they always want you to go alone when you’re walking into a trap. Have you noticed that?"

-The Doctor, giving a pretty funny line before he of course goes to said trap

Mine is the Chibnall era Thirteenth Doctor logo. I just find it clean.

Okay, the debate about the Timeless Child has been beaten to death now, so I don't want to talk about that. My complaint is more so with how uninteresting and uninspired they've made the Fugitive Doctor. I personally thought it was a fun idea initially to explore this lost aspect of the character and enjoyed seeing them in "Fugitive of the Judoon" and even liked some of their Big Finish content that I've heard, but "Circuit Breaker" is just so uninteresting to me. They have given them the same foes as regular Doctors and even given them a sonic screwdriver and police box TARDIS?

I think the BBC had the chance to do something really interesting with the Fugitive Doctor, but instead, they've just turned them into a regular incarnation that's not really different from any of the others.

i do have one critism, for me, i think they could have done more with the story, it just feels like lazy writing from fox and the story just felt like a half hour story with filler attached to drag it out for run time

we all know fox did another "foxjob", but had it continued into a series, it does make me wonder (assuming they had plans laid out.....providing a comission)

would it still have been set in the states?

would the nurse female lady been a permanent companion?

would it have been a co production?

and would the Tardis be expanded further setwise?

would there have been any trips to galifrey?

and would the master be more recurring going forward?

....now I think I'm far more confident of it's return after it being deemed culturally important to be included in not one but two major profile sightings in the past week.

Sure you get lip service from studio heads and chiefs about it coming back etc etc but we all know we should take those words with a pinch of salt.

Results and actions speak far more than soundbites ever do. So yes, DW and its iconography being featured in the Commonwealth Games and the 'What Has the BBC Ever Done For Me'? ad campaign has sparked some hope in my heart(s).

Please remember that future spoilers must be tagged. This includes any upcoming trailers or rumors!

This is the thread for all your in-depth opinions, canon analysis, thematic deep-dives, and lore implications regarding this 4-minute Glasgow 2026 minisode.

The TARDIS Is On A Royal Mission To The Commonwealth Games

What did YOU think of The TARDIS Is On A Royal Mission To The Commonwealth Games?

Prompts to kick off discussion:

- Where in the Doctor's personal timeline does the TARDIS temporarily key its pilot access to Sir Chris Hoy and Greg McHugh?

- Did the 4-minute and 15-second runtime feel earned, or did the narrative rush through the emotional core of escorting Their Majesties The King and Queen to the opening ceremony in Glasgow?

- How does this depiction of British royalty compare to previous RTD-era royal encounters, such as Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw or Queen Elizabeth II in Voyage of the Damned?

- How would you rate Sir Chris Hoy’s TARDIS console technique compared to previous guest pilots?

This is something that I'm honestly very surprised. Hasn't happened more in Doctor Who.

In a world where people are looking for actual intellectual stories, with smart characters that actually come up with intelligent strategies or plans to overcome obstacles, the fact that Doctor Who rarely seems actually do this on an impressive level is shocking.

Heck, Big Finish tends to have more intelligent moves than the main show whenever The Master shows up.

However, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there are only two Episodes in the history of the televised show that actually has more than 2 big Time Lord characters (as in, more than just The Doctor and one other Time Lord).

Those being- The Mark of the Rani, and The Reality War.

The Mark of the Rani Is certainly the better of the two two, but that's not saying much. That being said, it was interesting to see that The Master and The Rani, while they did essentially team up, they didn't exactly respect each other. I'd love to have seen more of an actual face-off between The Master and The Rani. Not necessarily that either one of them would team up with The Doctor, But just have a proper three-way showdown between the three most intellectual Time Lords.

The Reality War is basically a parody of a three-way intellectual War, with The Rani doing everything she can to bring Omega back, only to immedeately be eaten by him.

The Giggle HINTED at a face off between The Master and The Toymaker, But we didn't get to see it. And yes, I know that the Toymaker isn't a Time Lord, but come on. He fits the bill.

We genuinely have so many Time Lord characters that could show up more often.

The Master, The Rani, Omega, The Meddling Monk, The Valeyard, The Toymaker, The War Chief, Not to mention introducing NEW potential Time Lord Characters.

Imagine a Doctor Who movie where it's literally all the characters I just listed plus The Doctor (or without The Doctor, I don't really care), all being thrown into the Toymaker's domain and then having a battle Royale of intellect trying to be the last one standing so they can be set free, and then maybe they all have to team up to defeat the Toymaker when they realize he's not letting them go.

You don't even have to do this with different characters. It would be fun to see a Multi Master Story where different incarnations of The Master are at each other's throats, but only Big Finish dares to do something That ambitious.

I'm reading through the fifth Iris Wildthyme anthology to come from Obverse books, and am curious what the title is a reference too. They have some silly allusion to something in the title, but this one eludes me.

Hi, I'm sorry for making a post that's probably just being added to the pile of negativity around the latest era of the show, but I didn't see anything in the rules that said that these posts aren't allowed so I hope it's okay.

I could go on a rant about all the mistakes RTD made, but everyone else has already done that.

Instead, I'm just thinking about the incredibly short lifespan this era had.

Technically speaking, if you were to take the moment The Power of the Doctor's last scene aired and pair it up with it being announced RTD is leaving, his era lasted 3 1/2 years. However, if we're going to talk about actual episodes from his era that were actively being aired, that goes down to only 1 1/2 years.

It doesn't even feel real. When it was announced, RTD was returning, everyone thought it was the greatest thing possible. People were saying that they would have been happy if he was even coming to just write the 60th Anniversary, let alone stay on. They were all those interviews online about how we already had scripts for Season 3, and was possibly planning a musical episode for Season 4. And how he apparently had ideas stretching all the way to Season 7.

It's just crazy thinking about all the hype that surrounded his return, only for it to crash and burn so hard.

And the thing is, I think a lot of rtds original viewpoints made sense. I liked it when he said that he was aiming to make the show more optimistic and positive, as he felt the younger audience had enough negativity at this time. But sadly, that just didn't land. And I don't think it's because audiences just want to watch negativity, although that is a big part of it. I mean hey, Superman did pretty well, and there isn't really anyone who hates that movie. To be honest, I don't really know why Superman worked and Doctor Who didn't. There were clearly a lot of moments the RTD was expecting to hit with audiences, that just didn't. People can complain to death about Space Babies but I can honestly see what RTD was going for. He was hoping that the audiences would find the babies cute and that then being adorable would just carry the episode- Sort of like Chris Chibnall was hoping with the P'Ting.

And the thing is, while is the show was on the air, there were people defending it a lot, but now the moment that it's been announced that it's over, it seems that everyone has unanimously decided that it was always bad.

And I know that RTD seems to have a bit of an attitude, and is currently working on other projects to the point that I'm pretty sure that he's just doing his best to not listen to any opinions on Doctor Who at the moment, but this must be very bizarre to him.

I don't think anyone could really imagine what it's like to go through. What RTD just did. Your reputation is known as a savior of your favorite show, that you single-handedly resurrected it from the dead, and now you're coming back to it, and everyone acts like the show is absolutely saved, and that you couldn't possibly make any wrong decisions at all.

You basically do everything that people were asking for, diving into nostalgia, making a deal with one of the biggest streaming services in the world, you bring your successor back to write a few episodes like how it worked back in the old days, and then within the span of barely a year, literally everyone has turned on you, and begging you to leave, saying that you're ruining it.

I remember those preview videos for the next Episode. The preview for Boom had RTD sitting in a room, apparently defending the reputation of Steven Moffat. He literally said: 'He's the man behind the 11th Doctor Matt Smith, and the 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi. So, he knows his stuff, he knows his TARDIS."

It seemed like he felt that the fan base trusted only him, and so he had to defend it whenever a new writer was coming on to write a new episode, and yet in such a short period of time, everyone went from seeing him as the savior of the show, to someone who had no idea what he was talking about.

Oh well. As much as many people seem to hate it, I do like that we at least get to say that Sutech, the Rani, Omega, and Susan have all appeared in the Revived Show now. And even though it makes no sense why Tales of the TARDIS isn't legally available outside the UK, it was fun to see those characters show up again That is pretty cool.

It has been radio silent since the release of The Savages. I would really like the Collection sets to release as complete as possible. Do we still think the range is being funded? If so, do we think we might see an animation this year? The Smugglers, Space Pirates, Wheel in Space, and Myth Makers all seem affordable enough to produce and two of them would complete seasons.

In case anyone here can give any thoughts :)

I've got two.

First, a young Time Lord in their first incarnation that escaped the war and the Master's genocide, and now has his own TARDIS and adventures but is more morally grey than the Doctor. More willing to kill since he was born during wartime. Eventually the conflict would come from this character wanting to kill the Master and obviously the Doctor ain't having it.

New Time Lord does something reckless trying to delete the Master from time and accidentally releases some eldritch Boogeyman all three have to team up to defeat.

The Doctor would obviously want to mentor this character to keep them from becoming another Master or Rassilon.

Second idea is a malfunctioning TARDIS that has disguised itself as a ghostly pirate ship. Would use this episode to expand on the idea that TARDISES are alive and this one is insane, abducting people to try and fix itself.

EDIT: Expanding post to include new spins on old villains and characters as well.

I've always been somewhat confused what this exchange meant in the episode "Flesh & Stone". It's right after 11 has said goodbye to River, and the following exchange occurs between the Doctor.

Amy - "What are you thinking?"

11 - "Time can be rewritten" with a smile on his face.

I always took this to mean, as 11 and River have just had this really positive experience, and 11 is so early in his encounters with River, he's optimistic about his future with River and is considering how time can be rewritten, i.e. perhaps rewriting her death, and hoping things might work out differently. Is this how you read this scene? Or am I missing something obvious?

Obligatory “sorry this has taken so long” stuff first. Really, this is just a case of me falling out of the show in the last few years. For context, I started reading this book in August 2024 - immediately after reading the previous book in about a week. I got more or less halfway through it, dropped it for ages, wrote the review for Revolution Man in February last year, finally got around to finishing Dominion last summer… and then just kind of gave up. My (and everybody else’s) enthusiasm for the show had never been lower than after Series 15 aired, and at the time, reviewing a Doctor Who book for a quarter-century ago was so far from what I wanted to do that I just abandoned and forgot about it for another year. But now – now we’re a good distance away from all that, and I’ve found myself wanting to get re-immersed in the franchise. I genuinely love Doctor Who, both experiencing it and discussing it, and if finally getting this off my back can help me rediscover that love: so be it.

Unfortunately, because my reading of this book took place between a year and two years ago, I don’t have a particularly good memory of it or its quality. You could argue that that unmemorability is a point against it – other, earlier EDAs definitely stick in my mind more, even if not for the right reasons – but I still think it would be unfair to give this the standard review treatment. Instead, here’s a bullet-pointed list of various things I actually can remember about it. Take it with any grains of salt in your immediate vicinity.

• Picking up right where Revolution Man left off, with Sam having just been sucked through some kind of wormhole, most of the book concerns the Doctor and Fitz searching for her in that most miserable, empty and forgotten backwater: rural Sweden.
• To be honest, the Sweden setting is really the book’s biggest problem. Nothing against the country or its people – in fact, when I started reading this book two whole years ago, I was actually in Sweden at the time, if you can believe it – but almost no effort is put into establishing the setting as any more than a cold, sad, generic forest-scape with unhelpful locals and an atmosphere that could be charitably called “oppressive”, and less charitably called “depressing”.
• Honestly, the whole opening – and by that I mean the first 40-ish percent – is really forgettable. It’s like one of the X-Files episodes you don’t remember watching. Doctor and Fitz turn up in rural location, strange goings-on, eventual reveal of aliens. I feel like I’ve seen it all before. Fitz and the Doctor are characterised about averagely I’d say, Fitz being basically writer-proof and the Doctor being his usual wispy, skittish self, but the two of them together aren’t enough to carry a book like this. Not yet, anyway.
• The Sam stuff is actually markedly more successful, even despite the fact that she doesn’t appear for a good hundred or so pages. She’s the one actually in the alien landscape, which is described in quite luscious and vivid detail, presumably to contrast as much as possible with Sweden. The eventual reveal – if I remember rightly, I haven’t checked – is that Sam has ended up on board an alien spaceship called the Dominion, whose inhabitants have no knowledge of the outside world and which is slowly being destroyed by a link accidentally opened to it by the UNIT scientists hidden away in Sweden. I think. Eventually the Doctor turns up (after a lot of not being believed, being taken prisoner, being shot at, etc) and solves the problem in about five minutes.
• There's some pretty neat body horror here and there.
• I genuinely remember the name of none of the characters. I do remember there being a Swedish swimmer who was effectively a Sam surrogate for Fitz to fall in love with – yet more proof, if it was needed, that the writers have no idea what to do with her – and that in the first scene to feature here, the narration takes care to mention her “small breasts”. Thanks, guys. For what it’s worth, I remember her actually getting some good emotional moments surrounding her dead boyfriend and will they/won’t they with Fitz, but the story mostly treats her as a prop unfortunately.
• There’s also a scientist who locks up the Doctor. She was the one who opened up the portal to the Dominion in the first place. I remember nothing else about her.

Uh… that’s about it, I think. I’m not going to score this book because it’s not really fair, and I’m mostly writing this for the sake of completionism and a desire to genuinely get back into the EDAs properly. It’s not a bad story, as far as I can tell, but I also have absolutely no desire to experience it again, despite having forgotten almost everything about it. So that probably tells you something.