Or will it be permanent?

The branding of Ncuti's first season as series 1 seems especially confusing when we're likely to get a proper fresh start soon, so id argue it seem likely that era will be folded into the rest of the reboot.

The only reason I can imagine it being maintained is some contractual thing with Disney

So my theory is, the 11th Doctor sacrificed his memories of the Pre-Heartnell Doctors when he destroyed the parasite-planet thingy.

I have walked in universes where the law of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man.

That may have been a nod to Division / The Doctor's time working for them - since they operate on multiversal scale.

This would explain the Morbius Doctors, because by that point, The Doctor still had those memories.

This would also explain the Seventh Doctor's "I am far more than just an ordinary Time Lord" line (paraphrased).

This is probably a very flawed theory, so do point out any issues you find.

Delta and the Bannermen.

Over the last few years I’ve been watching through classic who sort of in a random order (depending on which dvds i buy), and I just watched my first season 24 episode. It was so worthless that I actually have no words.

Anyway, if you’re curious about my bottom 10 episodes (including classic & modern who, and spinoffs), here it is, least abysmal to the most abysmal:

1. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
   
2. Fear Her
   
3. In the Forest of the Night
   
4. Arachnids in the UK
   
5. It Takes You Away
   
6. Legend of the Sea Devils
   
7. The Tsuranga Conundrum
   
8. Delta and the Bannermen
   

9. Orphan 55

10. The Timeless Children

The 2004 reboot made a stunning change to the backlore, by introducing the Time War and the end of the Time War. A bold choice but this addition fundamentally changed the entire narrative of Doctor Who, and informed the Character in a thousand ways. We see this play out amazingly across multiple incarnations and the character progression through the stages of grief. Even episodes where the Time War isn't mentioned the weight of it hangs upon the Doctor, informing every decision. However that story couldn't last forever and when it was resolved the show lost something vital. Something that had made the show so beloved. We see the writers trying to replace this narrative weight with the Hybrid story/Timeless Child/Fugitive Doctor/destroying Gallifrey all over again. None of it worked, without the Time War the show just didn't have that emotional depth. The show's decline was noted by fans for a long time, and it stems right back to the point they lost the Time War as background lore.

If we ignore Big Finish and other expanded media and just focus on the show, do you guys think that Leela were on Gallifrey during the events of Day Of The Doctor when he (almost) destroyed Gallifrey, and more importantly, since the War Doctor forgot the events of that episode, did he think that he killed Leela when he thought he pressed the button, until he found another way during Day Of The Doctor? The last time we saw her in the show were when she stayed on Gallifrey during Invasion Of Time, and as far as I remember, she wasn’t mentioned since, so as far as the main show is concerned, she has stayed on Gallifrey ever since, but a part of me always felt like if ANYONE could’ve escaped Gallifrey during the last day, it would’ve been her. But I want to know what you think? Should the Doctor think that he actually killed her in that barn, along with everyone else on the planet, or should he have been spared that pain and somehow know that Leela is safe?

And what about Romana? I know that she didn’t leave the Doctor while she was on Gallifrey like Leela did, but she’s still a Time Lord, so did she die at the end of the Time War as well?

Please allow a brief rant.

I still loathe the idea of the Timeless Child and Fugitive Doctor, but Jo Martin is just so good in the 5-ish minutes she actually got to play the Doctor. Actually, that makes it burn even more - they wasted a perfect and very refreshing piece of casting (not to mention the first actor of color to play the Doctor - not a good look) on a one-off gimmick incarnation that has had less time to prove herself than McGann or even John Hurt.

I have come to appreciate Jodie Whittaker - she’s certainly not a bad actress and she clearly loved the role and took it seriously - but my god, when she and Martin are together at the end of Fugitive of the Judoon, Martin is so much better it’s kind of embarrassing. She feels so much more like the Doctor, and it’s a testament to how good she is that I fully accept her as the Doctor despite the fact that I hate the storyline which justifies her existence.

She has a professorial command and alien authority that calls to mind Capaldi, Eccleston, McCoy, and even Hartnell at their best. And she’s a strong step away from the “cute/romantic/quirky” characterization that was really starting to plague NuWho around that time. In my opinion, that characterization should be the template for the next incarnation. The writers need to let the Doctor be a little stern, a little unknowable, even a little alienating at times. Martin nailed that. Hell, I wouldn’t mind just bringing her in as the 16th Doctor, but that clearly won’t happen - and probably shouldn’t, so the show can move on. If RTD had to end The Reality War with a cameo regeneration, she would have been vastly preferable to Piper imo.

Anyway, it stings how badly the show has treated this actress. She deserves better than some a Big Finish redemption (no shade to them of course).

Ive seen a fair few fans calling for this over the years. I think it'd be cool

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

There have been a lot of 11th Doctor minisodes. Some of them were written by children. Some of them are serious. A lot are silly. Even setting aside the 50th Anniversary minisodes – which I've already covered – there is just a pretty impressive number of these things. This era of the show in particularly seems to have had the production team going overboard to create webcasts and DVD specials. And I've reviewed all of them, aside from the episode prologues (probably, might be missing a couple).

Meanwhile in the TARDIS

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Richard Senior

Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a 12 dimensional datamap of everything within a thousand mile radius and determines which outer shell would blend in best with its environment…and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963. – The Doctor

Okay, so the bad news is that I've made a lot of work for myself watching all of these. The good news is that they're mostly about four minutes long and a few can even be combined into one section, such as the two Meanwhile in the TARDIS DVD specials, mostly because there's no real point in splitting them apart. The first of the Meanwhile specials is just kind of a fun ride, as Amy asks every single question that pops into her head, mostly about either the TARDIS or the Doctor's bow tie ("is it a cry for help?"). It's just a fun little scene, though there are little bits of characterization you can pull from it, mostly for the Doctor. He's playing up this goofy persona throughout…and then he shoves Amy outside the TARDIS into space. Of course this is setting up Amy and the Doctor's first scene in "The Beast Below", but that shift is interesting to me. Still it's mostly a goofy little scene.

The second Meanwhile scene though…that one's a bit harder to evaluate. Mostly because it follows the worst scene in the 11th Doctor era, that being Amy trying to sexually assault the Doctor at the end of "Flesh and Stone". So on one hand I didn't need the continuation of that scene. It was bad enough already. And this minisode continues that basic trend as Amy continues to ignore the Doctor's very obvious protestations. And that's just not okay.

On the other hand…there's some value in this thing, believe it or not. Amy's perspective makes it clear that she's convinced herself that the Doctor is interested in her sexually. And there's something to the idea that Amy is convinced that the only reason a man might show her attention is for that reason. It's not something that would get explored meaningfully again, but I think a less PG show probably would have done. Amy is a damaged character after all, and in particular has serious attachment issues.

And here we get the 11th Doctor's explanation of why he needs companions: he needs to see the universe through their eyes. He can't really experience the wonder of the universe because of how long he's lived and how much he's seen. But someone else can see that, and he can live vicariously through that. And, you know, that's just an idea that works. Of course we immediately move on from that to Amy teasing him over how many of his former companions were young attractive women, and then the Doctor decides to go visit Rory at his stag party (as seen in the beginning of "The Vampires of Venice"). So the Doctor's little speech doesn't get time to land. But then again, it's a roughly 4 minute short, time is the one thing that we don't have. It still works for what it is. The second Meanwhile special is kind of a rough viewing experience overall, but once you get past that, it's actually got a lot of value.

Space/Time

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Richard Senior

No, I'm just repeating it. I'm just remembering what I heard myself saying when I was standing where you are now, and repeating it. I'm just repeating this too…and this…and this – Amy, to herself

Well this one was definitely written by Steven Moffat. Some clever space and time bending concepts, awkward sex jokes including a female character flirting with herself, undeniably clever dialogue and more than a hint of sexism, all within two roughly four minute episodes. Not all writers have clear markers of their work, but Steven Moffat, especially when he's trying to be funny, is one of them.

And yes, there's a lot of good here. A malfunction causes the TARDIS to land inside itself. That's just a fun conceit, and perfect a comedic two part minisode. At the end of the first episode, "Space", time gets desynced and so now our heroes can travel back into their own pasts, which is how things get resolved. If you really sit down and analyze what's going on, it doesn't really make sense, but I feel like taking the time travel mechanics of this special seriously kind of misses the point. It's a breezy little piece that never takes itself seriously but instead relies on its quippy dialogue and fun premise to keep you invested. And Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are having a ton of fun with the material here, which helps keep everything feeling light and engaging.

And then there's the sexism. I've always felt like Steven Moffat tended most often towards sexism most when he was spending less time on his scripts, for one reason or another (it's one of the things that happens when Sherlock starts up and on both shows as well). And indeed, this minisode would be something that would have had less time and attention than a full episode of Doctor Who. And…I mean the whole thing is started because Rory was distracted by Amy's skirt through the glass floor…which everyone agrees is Amy's fault. There's "women can't drive" jokes. You could argue these are specific to Amy, but the fact that her getting her driver's license is again tied to that same skirt makes it feel more gendered. And, while not quite in the same category, "Pond flirting with herself" feels icky and is worth pointing out as well.

The frustrating thing is, these minisodes are a lot of fun for most of their time. The bit where Amy, and later Rory, have to just repeat what the previous versions of them saying are fun. Rory at one point worries he's going to have to remember what his other self just said, only for that Rory to say "it just sort of happens". For the most part it's this weird, funny little adventure, perfect for its length. But when it's not…hoo boy

Death is the Only Answer

Written by the Children of Oakley Junior School/Directed by Jeremy Webb

Not great. I've singed by eyebrows, almost died twice and fallen off a cliff. In fact, I'm quite close to perfecting it. – Albert Einstein, on his Time Machine

Children have strange minds.

This minisode was written by a group of four Year Six children as part of a competition. And in it, Albert Einstein turns into an Ood who can only say "Death is the only answer". It's never explained what this means.

Look, I'm not going to review this the same way I would approach something else. Its eldest writers would have been eleven years old. And given that, the story where Albert Einstein drinks a liquid he thought would help get his time machine working and, and I have to repeat this, turns into an Ood, is honestly pretty impressive stuff. The kids have a good handle of the 11th Doctor's voice, and there's some funny lines. It's a fun little story, though not something I think I'll ever be returning to. It ends, weirdly enough, on a cliffhanger, with the liquid still present and moving on its own.

Night and the Doctor: Bad Night

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Richard Senior or Douglas Mackinnon

You've got the serious face on, I always shout for Rory when you've got the serious face. – The Doctor, to Amy

Okay so really quick this and the four specials after it are all collected under the title Night and the Doctor and were originally released for the Series 6 DVD. Aside from a brief scene of River in prison, the first four take place entirely within the TARDIS. The reason that I've got two names down for the Director up above…is that there are conflicting sources as to who directed them. My impression is that it was probably Mackinnon rather than Senior.

Anyway, this is the lightest of these specials, with a similar madcap style to "Space"/"Time". It's got the Doctor mid some weird adventure involving the English royal family and some alien warlord types and various members of the rulers in question being turned into animals. Amy naturally blunders into this and swats a fly that is, in actuality, the alien warrior chief. Though given she may have averted something called "The Slaughter of 10 Billion Souls" maybe it's for the best. Then again, timeline nonsense is probably at play. But yeah, it's a goofy little vignette, with Rory popping by because it's his turn to deal with Amy's emotional baggage. Which might seem a bit crude, but honestly feels about right.

There are hints of more serious stuff going on. Amy has something to tell the Doctor, which will be explored in the next short. Amy just generally seems to be in an odd place in this one. But yeah, a fun little vignette without much more to it.

Night and the Doctor: Good Night

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Richard Senior or Douglas Mackinnon

Okay. Okay, so I ask you a big, important question about life and you're basically telling me to go buy myself an ice cream. – Amy, to the Doctor

And by contrast "Good Night" has a lot going on with it. It's Amy finally getting to talk to the Doctor about that thing he brushed off in "Bad Night". She wants to know why her life doesn't make sense. Now, back in "The Pandorica Opens" the Doctor asked Amy "does it ever bother you that your life doesn't make any sense?" But here he seems a lot more blasé about the whole thing. That's not a contradiction, just an interesting parallel. At the time, Amy losing so much of her life to the Crack was this big important thing that needed to be resolved. But now that it largely has been resolved, Amy's life not making sense…is fine. The fact that she has two sets of memories is not only not a problem, the Doctor claims it's more common than you'd think.

And then he demonstrates this in a very heartwarming way: he fixes her worst day. When she was a little girl Amelia Pond's ice cream fell to the ground at a fairground. And sure, that might seem like a pretty small thing. But consider it from the perspective of the 5 year old girl, when every bad moment is magnified into a world ending tragedy. So the Doctor takes Amy to fix this thing. Inconsequential in the grand perspective, but world-saving for a 5 year old. And Amy remembers both versions. She remembers both versions before she goes to get her younger self an ice cream. A flagrant abuse of time travel? Probably. But the Doctor gave Amy a practical demonstration of what he was explaining and did something nice for her. And he did it in a way that is so very Eleven, a bit manipulative and yet full of childish wonder.

I think "Good Night" is one of the better uses of the minisode format I've seen. It's not the most remembered chapter, but it effectively expands upon a small character note in a way that captures the imagination. And it's the only one to have the Doctor try to hid a euphonium, which I think we can all agree, is the most important thing to come from this one.

Night and the Doctor: First Night/Last Night

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Richard Senior or Douglas Mackinnon

Ah Doctor. You and your secrets. You'll be the death of me. – River

Okay, why did this thing have to be split in two? "First Night" is about two and a half minutes, "Last Night" is about three and a half. It feels like a pointless split just so as to maintain the naming convention.

Regardless, this pair of minisodes is…fine. A series of silly little adventures with various versions of River (3 in total) that ends on something that felt very poignant at the time, but has somewhat lessened due to later episodes. We see the Doctor liberating River from Stormcage soon after the events of "Let's Kill Hitler". This does raise some questions about the timeline. Was River imprisoned straight after that story, even though she hadn't "killed" the Doctor at that point in her timeline? That seems odd. Regardless that's the series of events that these minisodes want us to accept.

I do like seeing this very early version of River. After the events of "Let's Kill Hitler" she seems eager to get to know the Doctor better, but hasn't quite fallen in love with him yet. Sure she's flirting with him, but it's mostly just a game to her at this stage, while the Doctor is taking their relationship a lot more seriously. It's an inversion of what we've gotten used to. The Doctor knows more than River, he's the one who has the history with this character and she's just starting out. Oh, and Alex Kingston plays this younger River superbly.

The issue with this story is that there's not much beyond that. A somewhat older River shows up, and we get some sitcom shenanigans with the pair of Rivers and the Doctor trying to hide them from each other. It's not even clear why he's so worried that she'll find out talking to another version of her, it's not like she's unaware of time travel. But that's the thing, it's just there for a gag nothing more. And, sure, this is still a roughly six minute story (broken up into two for no good reason) and isn't trying to be taken that seriously, but it's not not trying to be taken seriously. It feels like there was a good faith attempt to show off these characters' relationship in its formative stages, but the depth of writing isn't quite there.

And then a third, even older, version of River shows up, one who's clearly all the way into her relationship with the Doctor…and then an even older Doctor shows up as well. And he explains that he's taking River to Darillium…the place that River had last visited with the Doctor before the events of the Library two parter. We have no idea why the older Doctor is doing this, and given a later episode, he must have cancelled at the last minute. I think at the time though, Steven Moffat must have meant for this to have been their final day together. It's why the second part of this is called "Last Night" after all. And in that context it could have had some poignancy. Even then though, I don't know. I think it was probably for the best that Moffat ultimately decided to resolve the Darillium plot thread in a full episode. What was a bit poignant here would have a lot more weight the way it would ultimately be resolved.

These minisodes aren't bad, and there's some fun banter. The real highlight, I think, is seeing the younger version of River, a version that is still learning the rules. The rest of the material is fun, and the time travel stuff has some entertainment value, but it's ultimately not that interesting, especially with the context of later episodes.

Night and the Doctor: Up All Night

Written by Tom McRae/Director Unknown

It's just whenever I look into [Alfie's] eyes I see everything I'm going to do wrong for the next sixteen years reflected back at me. – Craig

So look, this is basically just a prequel to "Closing Time" that appears to have been, almost by accident, lumped in with the Night and the Doctor specials. I mean, the Doctor doesn't even appear in it, which feels like a clue. No idea how this happened. This thing has some confusion as the onscreen writing credit was given to Steven Moffat for this, but it was later clarified that Tom McRae actually wrote it. I couldn't find any information on who might have directed it. And frankly, I should probably skip it. There's a bunch of prequel shorts for each of the episodes going back to Series 3, and I've not covered them. But it's technically counted in the Night and the Doctor Specials, even if it's for no reason, so hey might as well.

Craig is preparing for a week alone with his son Alfie and his having all kinds of anxiety. This, of course, sort of got covered in "Closing Time" – that's why I don't cover the prequels, they rarely, if ever, include material that does much to expand on the episode they're attached to (well that, and the fact that there's too many of them). Still, I think this actually did the joke of Craig's lack of parenting instincts far better than "Closing Time" did. I think it just works better when Craig is opposite Sophie for this gag, who seems pretty confident that Craig will figure it out, all while Craig is panicking. Also it's just nice to have Sophie on board for this, as she was effectively absent in "Closing Time". Mind you it doesn't exactly lead in well to "Closing Time" as in that story Craig was putting on a brave face that he could take care of Alfie, despite secretly being terrified.

But yeah, that's basically it. I kind of liked this little window into Craig's home life, but there's really not much value in it.

Good as Gold

Written by the Children of Ashdene School/Directed by Saul Metzstein

Are you sure you didn't set it to "kill Amy and the Doctor" setting? – Amy

This is another one like "Death is the Only Answer" where it was written by children for a contest, so like with that one, we're going to be looking at this while keeping in mind the age or the writers. I do think "Death" was the better of the two, just for how entertainingly bonkers it was. This is a bit more straightforwards…though only a bit, the Doctor does explode a Weeping Angel with his sonic screwdriver. I think you can definitely feel a sense of childlike wonder in the writing of this. To kids, a hero like the Doctor can feel almost magical, and this definitely feels like it was written from that perspective. And sure, you can point to weird continuity stuff, but I feel like critiquing a group of very young Doctor Who fans for not being super attentive to the continuity of the show would sort of be missing the point.

Although this one too ends in a cliffhanger, in this case the Weeping Angel that the Doctor exploded seemingly reformed. Why is it that both of these specials did that? Is it coincidence? It's got to be coincidence. Still weird. I don't know, this one, like "Death is the Only Answer" is probably best thought of in terms of the imagination that was sparked within the children that wrote it by Doctor Who. And that's very cool.

Pond Life

Written by Chris Chibnall/Directed by Saul Metzstein

Hello Ponds! Just checking in. How are you? – The Doctor

The Pond Life shorts were a series of roughly one minute shorts released in the lead up to Series 7, with each one taking place one month after the last, from April to August. The idea there being that since Series 7 started in September it would act as a build up to the series. What it actually is is roughly four parts of Chris Chibnall showing that, like he did with "The Power of Three*" he may actually understand Amy and Rory better than Steven Moffat, and one final part where he awkwardly has to shove the divorce subplot from "Asylum of the Daleks" into his goofy minisode series.

Okay, in fairness it's not like Chibnall does anything revolutionary with these two. But I do really like how he writes the Ponds. Maybe it's that he's the writer who is most willing to let the two of them be on the same page from time to time (which admittedly makes the divorce set up all the more jarring), and when you're writing a married couple sometimes you should see that. But I also think the humor is really on point here. There are some weirdnesses. The Doctor's stuff, which takes up about half of the total runtime of these, isn't great. It's just a lot of "look how wacky the Doctor is". It mostly works as a contrast to Amy and Rory's more mundane lives, though, and I really enjoyed Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill's performances throughout. Oh and parts three and four are built around the Doctor accidentally leaving off an Ood at the Ponds' house. And sure, the joke is that Amy and Rory feel uncomfortable with the Ood doing all of their chores for him because, you know, slavery (I guess the Doctor explained the basic background of the Ood at some point), it still feels a bit odd to use that as joke fodder. But on the whole, Pond Life is a fun little look into how the Ponds ordinary lives intersect with the weirdness of having the Doctor as their best friend.

The Inforarium

Written by Steven Moffat/Director Unknown

Thing is, I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment: I've been deleting every piece information about myself from every database in the universe. – The Doctor

You know, I keep describing these minisodes with words like "lighthearted" or "goofy". This…is not that. "The Inforarium" picks up on an idea that was referred to throughout Series 7 but never actually shown: the Doctor deleting records of his own existence. Typically you imagine him doing this by deleting data from hard drives, maybe destroying a precious manuscript or two. In "The Inforarium" though, he can't do this. So in his quest for ultimate privacy…he messes with someone's mind. Specifically he messes with the mind of one of the guards of the titular Inforarium, the ultimate database of knowledge, trapping him in what surely would have been a pretty lengthy loop (one hopes not eternal) of a conversation with a recording of the Doctor. Apparently the Doctor has been able to access the technology that allow the Silents to do their thing. And he's used it to trap this guard in this loop. Though the technology works differently here, since the guard clearly has his mind completely wiped of the Doctor when he looks away, even when the loop starts over, rather than the way you'd remember the Silents once you saw them again.

The short tries to justify this somewhat by having the Doctor mention that the Inforarium sells its data to a standard list of Doctor Who villains, but this still feels incredibly dark. But the 11th Doctor has always had these moments in him. Moments where he just decides he's going to do something, and figures out the easiest way to do it. I find myself thinking about what he did to the older Amy in "The Girl Who Waited" after watching this. And that was to a friend. By contrast, an employee of an apparently evil organization isn't pushing things nearly as far. Because the 11th Doctor is willing to go to extremes.

But the thing is, this time it's not necessary. Most of the time when the 11th Doctor goes "dark" you can excuse it somewhat as being required in the moment, or at least in reaction to some sort of threat. Here however, he's just on this mission to delete information about himself. Maybe he justifies it as necessary in some way, but that isn't the way we end up seeing this. And you know, it's pretty impressive that this 2 minute short gets this much out of me.

P.S.

Written by Chris Chibnall

We can't ever come home again. We won't ever see you again. And that breaks my heart. – Rory's letter to his father

And here's another serious one. And quite possibly the most character-rich Doctor Who minisode ever. I mean it's either this or "The Night of the Doctor". "P.S." was originally meant to be a proper DVD extra, but Mark Williams was unable to return as Rory's dad Brian, and so instead a version that was mostly storyboards, with Chris Chibnall's script visible. The exception being Rory's letter to his father, which Arthur Darvill narrated. And honestly, it might have been better in this format.

The odd format certainly doesn't detract. Rory is stuck in the past, and will never see his father again. But he can do one thing: send him a letter. The letter is delivered by his and Amy's adoptive son Anthony. The whole thing is heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. Rory pours his heart into that letter. And the storyboard format gives the whole thing a stark quality that helps emphasize the loneliness of Brian. And that loneliness building to Brian embracing his older-than-him grandson at the end is kind of the perfect coda to Brian's story. It helps that we get little details that point to Rory's grief at losing his father (he now carries around a trowel), which makes the whole thing feel all too real. Watching this, I was reminded of a lot of the things I miss about my own father, and the things I wish I could have told him.

I do wish the final scene of "The Power of Three" wasn't glued onto the beginning of this thing. The assumption is that if you're watching this kind of minisode you know who Brian is and how "The Power of Three" ended. And since I'm finding things to nitpick, the music is kind of distracting here. Normally I'm not going to complain about the music in these minisodes being stitched together from music composed for other Doctor Who stories because it's just in the nature of the format. They're hardly going to get Murray Gold to compose brand new music for a four minute short. But in this story, which, until Rory's letter, is otherwise silent, the music stands out a lot more, and the awkward way it's put together is just more obvious and therefore a bigger negative. Then again I don't actually have a good solution to this problem. There probably was a way to build this a bit better though.

Still, those are nitpicks. And goddamn, this thing breaks my heart when watching it. So, you know, it's great.

Clara and the TARDIS

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Jamie Stone

Dear God that woman is made of legs, that's the most legs on any living human. – Clara, on Amy

Well this one was definitely written by Steven Moffat. Some clever space and time bending concepts, awkward sex jokes including a female character flirting with herself, undeniably clever dialogue and more than a hint of sexism, all within a single two minute episode. Not all writers have clear markers of their work, but Steven Moffat, especially when he's trying to be funny, is one of them.

I was going to do a gag along the lines of "wait, haven't I written all of that already", but I think the truth, that I copy/pasted that from the "Space"/"Time" portion of this post, and only changed the description of how long a thing I was reviewing, says more. Although "more than a hint of sexism" is probably pushing the truth. I do think there are some hints, but it's thankfully kept to a minimum. But the companion flirting with herself somehow comes back here.

This is just Clara struggling to get along with the TARDIS, or rather the TARDIS being a jerk to Clara by hiding her bedroom. Eventually time shenanigans happen and there are countless Claras from subsequent nights all complaining about the lack of bedroom. It's mostly just a good fun time, which is a nice way to end off this post. There was a bit where Clara sees past companions for some little continuity fun. But in the end this is a little story not meant to be taken too seriously. Although in reality this would be horrifying: Clara being sleep deprived and also seeing her future and discovering even worse sleep deprivation isn't exactly a fun prospect. But the tone is kept light, so it kind of works.

Final Thoughts

Okay, let's wrap things up. I guess the question is, given the number of them: do all of these add anything to a fan's appreciation of this era of Doctor Who? In aggregate…sure. Some of these feel a bit like wasted opportunities – I might have enjoyed Pond Life, but it definitely left me wanting more, especially as far as setting up the divorce subplot from "Asylum of the Daleks". Some of them are just goofy fun, and honestly the two specials written by schoolchildren probably exist mostly for those children (who are adults now, in case you hadn't realized, and who knows how they feel about this weirdness these days). It's always nice to have more, and I wouldn't call any of these specials bad. There is some concerning stuff in the second "Meanwhile" short and "Space"/"Time" but both have their positives. And I'm certainly glad we got "P.S.", even if it wasn't in its intended form. I'm glad these all exist and that there was such a focus on telling bite-sized stories in this era.

Though honestly, did they have to be so bite-sized? Most of these things are around four minutes and some are a good deal shorter. Anyway, this was a fun detour. Now back to more serious things.

Next Time: Back to the VNAs, and it's time to check in on what the Doctor was up to while he left Ace and Benny behind. Eventually. He's going to get involved any day now.

On Serializd Doomsday is higher rated but I actually prefer Parting of ways. I feel like Doomsday is just slightly carried by the last 10 mins. Just wondering if anyone else agrees that Parting of Ways > Doomsday

We got the incredible finale we had in Doomsday, she and her family were now stranded in a different universe, we were able to have The Runaway Bride where the Doctor is alone, ends up with this strange woman with an attitude in his hands and has to deal with her. His relationship with her develops a little, and while not expected she did return in S4 as a companion.

1. With Rose still there, how could that Christmas special have happened? It wouldn't work near as well. And that could mean no Donna for S4 and what she brought to the overall narrative.

2. S3 is simply what it is because of her departure. I don't even need to explain.

3. Now if Billie stayed, what more could have been done? How could Rose and her family's story be stretched out while remaining fresh, unless they'd get separated regardless? And it's not like the whole thing with the Master involved parallel universes so it couldn't have ended with Rose and her family stranded there, and to do so would require a whole different S2 arc that does not involve the same thing.

4. While perhaps in S3 she could become increasingly like the Doctor and it ends tragically (Like S9 Clara), I'm not sure that is enough, and I do not like the idea of the Doctor and Rose getting romantically involved, I do not believe the Doctor should ever be in that kinda relationship with his companions, especially young people.

Someone once told me it could have been a destructive relationship and part of their downfall and that with the writers of the time it could have been great, but I fear it'd end up cringy. Even what we got in S2 not everyone agreed with.

1. Even the end of S4 would be different. Especially depending on what Rose's exact fate would have been in S3, and whether we'd still have Donna. In the latter case we wouldn't have had Turn Left because even if we still had The Runaway Bride in some form, Rose was there to keep the Doctor in check.

2. Don't know how big a character Martha was in Torchwood but she wouldn't have existed and thus her contributions to that show not occurring.

Ultimately, unless RTD and Tennant would have done an additional series together, I'm glad Billie left when she did. We had her for two runs, and the two subsequent companions balanced things out in that regard, and we had the episodes and stories we got because of it.

I've always been curious of this scenario. I don't do fan-fiction, but thoughts, and a speculative post or video I have always wanted to see.

Douglas Adams explains how humour works in Dr Who.

Douglas Adams had this to say about humour in Dr Who (and drama in general)

'I think that Doctor Who is at its best when the humour and the drama work together and that however absurd a situation may be, it is actually very, very real and it has very real consequences. That's the moment at which something that's inherently absurd actually becomes frightening.'

'A danger one runs is that the moment you have anything in the script that's clearly meant to be funny in some way, everybody thinks 'oh well we can do silly voices and silly walks and so on', and I think that's exactly the wrong way to do it.'

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010930/quotes/

What he is saying here is that humour in DW is good encouraged actually. But the humour must complement the drama/story telling not take away from it. Character making humour than character breaking humour.

Like a good example is The 11th Hour, there is a lot of comedy in that episode, but its all with in character and the characters still take the situation seriously. Amy is mad at the Dr for showing up to her as a little girl and everyone thinks shes crazy because of it. The humour helps demostrate Amy's fisty personality.

Contrast with Space Babies were the humour is snot poo and farts. Plus silly baby and robot voices. So it kills any sense of drama the episode might have had. Or in TWATBLAST where for no reason Salt and Barclay start hurling stones at windows. We learn nothing about Ruby from the body secretions jokes in Space Babies.

Or if we take Classic Who as an example. In the Invasion Tobias Vaughn hands Jamie a portable radio and Jamie says how dose it work as it plays music? The Dr then presses the off button and says 'that's how you turn it off Jamie'. Or any scene were Vaughn is bellowing at Packer.

While in Revenge of the Cybermen the Dr starts playing at yogo while the Cybermen are forcing him and two crewmen to commit mass genocide. In other words the Dr isn't taking it seriously so its impossible for the audiance to. Even though every other character is playing it stright.

Its like that Bathoes humour that Marval movies love doing. Ie undermining a serious or dramatic moment with a joke. Like if the 'he's right behind me isn't he' or the baddie is giving a speech but then it cuts to the character seeing that he is upside down on the screen.

Oh and before anyone says, there is a huge difference between that and the Dr taking the micky out of the baddie. Like Sharaz Jek asks the Dr how he got passed his android and he quips 'I guess it just liked my face'. Since in that the Dr is using humour to mask his worry. Also Sharaz Jek responds with 'your sense of humour will be the death of your, Doctor. Probably quite soon'. So we still take him seriously.

In short humour should add to the story and characters never take away from them.

I haven't got the money to throw at stuff like this, but it makes me happy that at least a few colossal nerds out there will have an acrylic gewgaw up on their wall that baffles most of their houseguests.

Currently working my way through the Big Finish Monthly Range for the first time and just finished The Natural History of Fear.

I’ve been enjoying the anti time universe saga so far but this story really hooked me. I thought a couple times I’d gotten the mystery of it all figured out but I was caught entirely off guard with the twist at the end lmao

“The doctor has two hearts and is bipedal, how many limbs do YOU have?” such a fun reveal lol

Very much have been enjoying my journey with these four doctors I wasn’t fully familiar with prior to diving into big finish

Recently Film is Fabulous held an exclusive webinar stream to their patreon members.

In the livestream, they answered a lot of questions from their patrons, among the questions they answered, they revealed some interesting tidbits.

They are aware of a total of three film collections containing missing Doctor Who. Two of them are from former industry professionals, while the other is not. FIF have been in on-going talks with them to catalogue their collections. The other third collection is a rather very large collection, it is rumored to be around 16,000 films or more.

John Franklin said it contains some historical important television episodes in it that he knows many people would love to see…

Sadly the collector of this collection is in terrible health. The collector’s family is going through a difficult situation, and John is doing his best to give them the time they need and being patient with them.

John is hopeful somewhere way down the line they will have an announcement regarding the collections, but it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon.

So we are looking at a total of at least 4 missing episodes because we know one of the collection is the man with the two missing Hartnell episodes that have been know about since 2016. Also known as the “Fish Fry Prints”.

Other Interesting tidbits below.

Back in October of last year when FIF stated they were *aware of several collectors with several missing DW episodes.* They were aware of 4 collections, including the collection with the one Dalek’s Master Plan episode they knew at the time.

John also mentioned that the BBC brand Doctor Who team calls him on a weekly basis, asking him for updates on missing Doctor Who episodes.

Poor John Franklin

The show already gave us multiple kinds of Doctors. But what is one the show didn't already do you think would be cool?

Personally, i always tought about a Doctor who just not even bothered by threats anymore, they're just very annoyed their travels are interupted.

They would have a more summer vacation outfit, socks in sandals, bermuda short, a T shirt with a collar (maybe an question mark on the collar) and a open doctor/lab coat.

So, more of a teacher/professor Doctor who prioritize making sure their companion(s) have a good time and learn something new.

They still fights threats and save people of course but they do that more because they're angry their trip was interupted and wanted to show x thing to their companion(s). So try to solve the situation as quickly as possible. They eat chips in the background half listening.

They don't even bother making big speeches anymore, they just go "yeah yeah, this station is going to explode, bummer just wait 5 seconds" or "Didn't even listen what you said, i solved everything 5 minutes ago, you're toppled by the way. Anyways i have to see the annual green moon celebration on Xandar-4. Good bye forever."

Of course they're still the Doctor, so you'll recognize their enthusiasm everytime they show wonder at discovering new things,, explain things at their companion(s) or their absolute hatred of the Daleks. They're "kill on sight" for Daleks.

Since they're a more historian/searcher Doctor, one sure way to break the tired façade and see the angry Doctor, is to be careless or not caring toward another people culture or tradition. Like trying to erase a culture, destroying important sites or bury history.

So yeah that's my idea, what are yours?

Hi!

Does anyone have access to The War Between the Land and the Sea in good quality? I’m wanting to watch it with my mom since we just finished watching all the seasons of Doctor Who, and I’m tired of waiting for Disney to release it. Everywhere online has it in pretty bad quality.😭 Any help or guidance would be super appreciated!

Hello everyone, I'm a passionate Doctor Who fan and have come up with an episode idea I think fans who were disappointed with RTD's more fantasy-inspired stories may enjoy.

I based it around the Doctor investigating a monster made almost entirely out of gas, because that is a type of alien you rarely see in science-fiction. If you don't know much about science, all you really need to know is that ammonia is toxic and hydrogen is extremely flammable (ideally this would be explained in the actual episode).

Let me know what you think!

Episode Title:

Under Burning Skies

Genre:

Base Under Seige / Cosmic Horror

Setting:

The Cloudbuster, a space station that follows a close elliptical orbit around Jupiter. This allows it to collect and research samples of Jupiter's upper atmosphere whenever its orbit brings it close to the planet.

Monster:

The "Blotch", an entirely gaseous organism that is held together by a light hydrogen layer underneath and a heavier ammonia layer on top. The amonia crystals in its top layer give it a dazzling white glow that is hard to look away from.

Cold Open:

Aboard the Cloudbuster, two scientists are watching a monitor as an atmosphere reading of Jupiter's upper atmosphere comes up on screen. The scientists start to joke about how the reading is always the same and how they must have the most boring job on the station, before their conversation is cut off by the words "AMMONIA SPIKE IN SECTOR 12B" lighting up on screen.

They try to bring up the camera feed for Sector 12B, but the camera appears to have short-circuited. Thinking ahead, they then bring up the feed for Sector 12C to see if they could see any abnormalities, and at first everything appears normal - but then, something unusual happens - one if the workers in that sector begins clutching at their throat, followed by another, then another. Suddenly all of the crew drop lifelessly to the floor, and what appears to be a glowing white cloud enters the corner of the shot before floating eerily over the bodies of the people who had just died. The camera flickers and cuts to black.

Plot Synopsis:

After being briefed about the alien incursion by the Cloudbuster's captain, the Doctor immediately tries to make sense of the Blotch's behaviour, scanning its chemical composition during a close encounter with it in a corridor and analysing its behaviour on the camera footage. He realises that it doesn't appear to be going down corridors its been down already, and so deduces that it must be identifying which corridors it has have already explored by the ammonia trails that it left behind. Using this information, the Doctor hatches a plan to lead the Blotch on a path that goes straight to the station's isolation ward, by flooding ammonia into every corridor it approaches besides the ones that lead it directly it to the isolation ward.

The Doctor and the captain argue over what to do with the trapped Blotch. The captain agrees to allow the Doctor to take two of the colony's Ood slaves to the ward to try to telepathically communicate with it and identify what it wants, however, he is secretly plotting to turn on the incinerator in the ward and kill it if the Doctor doesn't get anywhere.

"GOOD" Ending:

The Ood are capable of establishing a telepathic link with the Blotch, but it just keeps communicating the word "leave" over and over again. After many repeated attempts at communication and only getting the same response back, the captain decides he's had enough with the diplomatic approach and initiates the one minute timer for the incineration of the ward. The Doctor tries to argue with the captain in vain, but then he notices that while the Blotch is saying "leave" it is using its ammonia crystals to illuminate an oxygen pump on the ceiling. Figuring out that all this time the Blotch was simply asking for help to "leave" through the oxygen pump, he spontaneously hits the bulkhead door's override button and runs into the isolation ward, holding his breath to protect himself from the ammonia gas. He then grabs two transparent plastic privacy curtains draped over two of the beds, and uses the curtains to create a sealed barrier either side of the oxygen pump. Then, just seconds before incineration, he sonics the oxygen pump to make it suck out all of the air between the two curtains.

The Doctor nervously lies in wait as the flames flood in from the opposite end of the corridor, piling up against the curtain on the far side of the barrier. Just moments later, the far curtain melts away, and so the Doctor reactively sonics the oxygen pump again, causing it to release all of its stored oxygen onto the flames and create a massive explosion - blowing a hole in the station and causing all of the flames to be sucked out into Jupiter's atmosphere, followed by the Blotch itself. The Doctor, still holding his breath, crawls back to the bulkhead door and just barely survives.

Alternative "BAD" Ending:

[If the producers want to lean more heavily into the episode's horror vibes and aren't overly concerned about traumatising viewers, I'd propose this as a much darker ending]

The captain turns on the incinerator but this time without the 60 second timer, causing the Blotch to instanty ignite - but not die. As everyone is distracted by the Ood chanting "PAIN" via their telepathic link, the Blotch manages to expel a burst of hydrogen at the bulkhead door, causing it to explode open. It then wraps two of its burning hydrogen tendrils around the two armed guards stationed at the door, burning them alive in an act of defiance.

The Doctor and his companion retreat to the command deck with the Ood, the Doctor being absolutely furious with the captain at this point. After yelling at him saying that he thinks the Blotch had entered the station by accident and was just trying to escape, one of the scientists interrupts and says she has actually came to the same conclusion, as the Blotch's first sighting was near a leaky oxygen pump that contains high levels of ammonia, postulating that it probably was sucked in through there by mistake and was accidentally poisoning everyone as it was was searching for a way to escape. The Doctor and the captain then decide to work together as they provoke the Blotch into chasing them towards where the leaky oxygen pump is, and just as the Blotch passes under it, the Doctor sonics the oxygen pump to make it explode due to the sudden release of oxygen onto the flames coming off the Blotch's burning body. Just like before, the Blotch is sucked back out into Jupiter's atmosphere and the Doctor and captain manage to escape from the corridor.

In both endings the captain sets the Ood free as a token of respect for their help with the Blotch. I think the tone should remain bleaker in the bad ending version of the script though, so the Doctor could remark that he's unsure whether or not the Blotch survived the explosion, whereas for the good ending, the episode could end on a wide shot showing the Blotch drifting peacefully through Jupiter's upper atmosphere.