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The Sum of Its Parts

Review of Ascension of the Cybermen
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

The Cybermen (well, one, anyway) crashed unexpectedly onto our screens last week, beating the series finale to the punch. Even so, Ascension had some quality Cybermen content, making them legitimately chilling again.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

Perhaps tellingly, though, what I found most alarming about this version of a Cyber-invasion was how Dalek-y they were. Viewing that pre-credit voiceover through the lens of current events and the rise of neo-Nazism set an alarming tone for me, making the Lone Cyberman’s final declaration of war on all life particularly unnerving.

As far as advancing the series-long story arc, though, it was difficult to get any purchase on events before the final scene (on which, more in a moment). Until then, the plot, though filled with tension for the safety of the fam, didn’t move beyond a typical Cybermen story. Yes, the Doctor’s enemies were (still) out to take over the entirety of the human race. Yes, there’s shitload of them (roughly a thousand per bay, ten bays per level, a few hundred levels works out to a few million Cyber-soldiers on this ship alone). Yes, there’s one particularly off-his-rocker Cyberman who “makes other Cybermen scream.” But it’s still just a story about the Cyberman threat.

Then those final moments arrive, and something plot-y starts to coalesce. There’s Gallifrey on the other side of the Boundary, and suddenly it’s not all about the Cybermen anymore.

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Haunting Choices

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Review of The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

It’s my usual practice not only to watch an episode twice before reviewing it, but also to avoid reading anyone else’s reviews or discussing the episode in detail with anyone else before I write, so my reactions are as free from outside influence as possible. This time, that went out the window before the opening credits even rolled.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

As you may have seen in my Day Three roundup, I had the great fortune to be able to watch the episode at Gallifrey One, in a ballroom packed full of fans. Everyone was so keyed up that I don’t think any of us could help but love the episode. There were simultaneous gasps, raucous bursts of laughter, and immediate cessation of said laughter the moment dialog started back up (a room full of Doctor Who fans know it’s important not to talk over the lines). And it was exceedingly gratifying to have the whole room share my emotions as the story unfolded, confirming again that at this con, I’m completely surrounded by people who get it.

With all that coloring my initial experience, I knew I’d need a second viewing to gain any sense of objectivity whatsoever. Besides, I hadn’t been able to hear a large portion of the dialog and thus to keep track of everything that was going on. So with great anticipation, I dived back in.

I doubt I’ll ever be able to watch this one entirely objectively, simply because I’ll hear my Gally family’s reactions in my head every time I watch it. But even in broad daylight, with a critical eye out, and a clear understanding of every line of dialog, I came out of the episode with the warm glow of a great episode sitting snugly inside my chest.

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Fingers Crossed

Review of Can You Hear Me?
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’m not a fan of the horror genre, whether it be on screen or written, nor have I ever found Doctor Who particularly to fit that description.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

I have to say, though, that whatever they’re doing this series—whether that’s the scripts, the effects, the scoring, or what—has been really effective in giving me that slightly alarming sense of foreboding that lets one know there’s something amiss. And I’ve even enjoyed it. But that chill factor is only the superficial layer dressing up the core of this story.

In one way, the episode is an example of the “visit home” type that has become more and more common over the years of modern Who. The Companions want to dip their toes back into their mundane lives, and the Doctor either gets embroiled in something odd happening where they are—often involving their families—or gets sidetracked on something completely different that turns out to be related. In this case, it’s the latter, and we end up with the convergence of four distinct threads stemming from the Doctor (random creatures in a mental hospital in 14th-century Aleppo) and each of her Companions (Ryan: “My mate’s been taken!” / Yaz: “There was a figure in our flat.” / Graham: “I keep seeing these images of planets like they’re being projected into my mind.”).

In another way, in my opinion, the episode hints at a larger series arc. Although there is eventually a clear reason for the Chagaska, the nightmare creatures of the opening, to be so enigmatic that even the TARDIS can’t identify them, it seems unlikely to me that such a thing happening more than once in a single series is coincidental.

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Catching Our Breath

Review of Praxeus
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Let’s be honest: anything was going to be a letdown after the huge curveball we got thrown last week. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Praxeus came across as merely “adequate” as we catch our breath and let last week’s ideas percolate in our minds.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

Which is not to say it was bad. I just wasn’t one that feels likely to stick out in my mind in years to come when I think back on this series. What it did have, though, was more great character interactions and a high creep factor.

It also employs a really effective method for splitting up a large TARDIS crew and giving all the characters interesting and important things to do. I love that the three locations around the planet allow the “fam” to explore different pieces of this puzzle and show the audience how much the Companions have grown during their tenure with the Doctor.

Watching each of them striking out without her supervision, being competent, and helping to solve the problem at hand, all while shepherding new people along, makes me feel like they’ve all really come into their own. Perhaps best, at one point Yaz even takes the initiative, following her own lead with Gabriela as her sidekick. It put me in mind of Ace, with the way she tended to pick up her own Companions nearly every adventure, and gave me hints of Clara, too.

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Bombshell

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Review of Fugitive of the Judoon
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

In Jodie Whitaker’s first series, I often felt that showrunner Chris Chibnall was playing it safe, not going too far outside the fan comfort zone in his storytelling while fandom got used to a casting choice that definitely stretched some fans’ limits. Not so this series.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

If by some miracle you’ve neither seen the episode yourself nor been spoiled, then by all means stop reading now and go watch it. Immediately. As someone who managed to avoid spoilers, I can attest to the fact that Fugitive of the Judoon is worth watching cold.

I’ll admit that I was actually a little surprised by the magnitude of the reveal. Given the show’s history with teasing news (like the hype before they announced that Richard E. Grant would be playing a guest role), I was unimpressed with the publicity tweets leading up to this week. When they teased “Thought the Master returning was big? You won’t believe what happens this week!” I rolled my eyes.

But writer Vinay Patel (Demons of the Punjab), along with Chibnall, who also got billing as a writer for the episode, caught my attention and kept it the whole way through, ratcheting up the suspense until the key moment. And then I was kicking myself for not catching on sooner.

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Leave the Light On

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Review of Ghost Light (#153)
DVD Release Date: 07 Jun 05
Original Air Date: 04 – 18 Oct 1989
Doctors/Companions: Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story: Battlefield (Seven, Ace, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: The Curse of Fenric (Seven, Ace)

Today begins (with a slight delay, since the regular fourth Wednesday slot was co-opted by a review of the latest new episode) this year’s series of regular reviews, focusing on “Hidden Gems” within the televised canon of Classic Doctor Who stories. Because the Seventh Doctor was next up for keeping the proportion of reviewed stories approximately even, we start with a story from the final regular season of the show’s original run, Ghost Light.

This is one of the stories whose ranking I’m fudging. Coming in at #53 of 254 on io9’s Best-to-Worst list—the highest ranking of those I’ll be reviewing this year—Ghost Light is actually still within the first quartile, rather than the second. However, it’s close enough for my purposes, and with a little handwavium, allows me to fit two of the remaining four unreviewed McCoy stories into this year’s theme where I need them.

Many fans speak highly of this episode, so I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who would agree it’s a “gem,” but why is it not ranked higher, allowing me to claim it as “hidden”? I believe the answer lies simply in the fact that the plot is so complex, even the Doctor can’t follow it. (I mean that quite literally. At one point he declares, “Things are getting out of control. Even I can’t play this many games at once!”) It’s seriously mind-boggling. Admittedly, it had been some time since I’d last seen it, but despite knowing basically what was coming, I’ve never been quite able to keep all the threads of plot straight in my mind.

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AC/DC

Review of Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Last week we had a story that beat us over the head with its message, a moralistic cautionary tale. This week we are bombarded with notes on how brilliant the too-often-overlooked inventor Nikola Tesla was. All in all, I prefer the accolades.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

It seems to me that this series so far is all about the various writers’ favorite topics. Whether it’s championing a particular cause (combatting climate change) or highlighting the awesomeness of lesser known historical figures (Ada Lovelace, Noor Inayat Khan, Nikola Tesla), the focus for three of the four episodes to date has been more on the real world than the fantastical.

Not to say such focus is necessarily bad—there is certainly a place for those things, especially in a show like Doctor Who. I am simply feeling a little overwhelmed by what feels to me like the incessant drumbeat of authorial intent. As a viewer, I prefer to get so swept up in a story that such considerations only sneak into my consciousness indirectly. If I only notice them when I think back on it later—the sweet spot for that being in the few minutes after I’ve first finished the episode—then it feels like the writer has done their job.

But this series…

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When I Say “Run”…

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Review of Orphan 55
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

It’s never a good sign when I procrastinate my second viewing. The first time I watch a new episode is just to experience it; the second time is to take notes about the things I want to talk about in my reviews. When I’m not keen on watching again right away, I know I’m in trouble.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

There are some interesting ideas in Orphan 55, but for me they were overshadowed by an overwhelming darkness and a storyline that was a bit too on-the-nose to be a good cautionary tale. In fact, when I review my notes, the only wholly positive ones I find are either quotes I liked (“If I had crayons and half a can of SPAM®, I could build you from scratch!”) or praise for Yaz’s quick thinking.

Most of the rest involve either nitpicks or outright cringing, and I’m having a tough time separating out what is an inherent flaw and what is merely a sign that this particular episode is Not For Me™.

For instance, I know for a fact that neither resorts nor post-apocalyptic wastelands are my jam (either in fiction or real life), so the episode was bound to be a hard sell from the get-go. The whole grimdark flavor did nothing to improve matters. But is it then the setting and tone that make the episode so hard for me to sit through, or is it the “scratch the surface and the flaws all show” construction?

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Terms and Conditions Apply

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Review of Spyfall: Part 2
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I really hate it when something I’m enjoying trips at the finish line. If I could just ignore those last few minutes, I think Spyfall would have ended up firmly in my “win” column. As it is, I’m left with an unpleasant taste in my mouth.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

Much like Part 1, this episode was full of callbacks to earlier eras. Many of them left me grinning in glee, like the nods to Blink (“Don’t talk back to the screens. Obviously, I’m a recording and I can’t hear you.”), The Three Doctors (“Contact.” “Contact.” “Old school.” “You’re not the only one who can do classic.”), Logopolis (“It’s cold up here. It’s worse that Jodrell Bank.” “Did I ever apologize for that?” “No.” “Good.”), and even “The Curse of Fatal Death” (“I’ve just had the most infuriating 77 years of my life.”).

Other callbacks were gut-wrenching in all the wrong ways. Though I didn’t recognize it as such at the time, the way RTD chose to write Donna out of the Doctor’s life with a violation of Donna’s personal autonomy by altering her mind without her consent (in fact, as she begs him not to) was extremely problematic. To see a Doctor who has (one would hope) grown and evolved since then, one who occupies a female-presenting body, pull the exact same shit soured me on the entire story.

The Doctor asks neither Noor nor Ada before removing herself from their minds. Noor, at least, doesn’t seem overly concerned in that last second that she has to react. Ada’s protests, however, sound all too familiar. The Doctor may think Ada doesn’t need any outside help to become the amazing part of history she is (that sentiment, at least, is one with which I heartily agree), but taking unilateral action without even trying to bring her around to the Doctor’s point of view is contemptible.

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An Intrigue-ing Start

Review of Spyfall: Part 1
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I haven’t enjoyed an episode that much in a long time.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2020 BBC

After exactly a year’s absence from our screens, Doctor Who came screaming back with Chibnall’s first two-parter since Series Five. Giving its own special take on another British classic, Spyfall has the Doctor and her “fam” taking on a freaky unknown alien adversary in true James Bond style.

Flitting from location to location, the TARDIS team gets the full Bond film experience, including MI6 gadgets, some infiltration work, data decryption, visiting another agent to get intel, crashing a black tie party, and even a chance for our titular hero to intone, “The name’s Doctor. The Doctor.”

Despite the trappings of spycraft and intrigue, though, it never felt like anything other than Doctor Who (with the possible exception of the first appearance of the aforementioned aliens, when they seriously reminded me of the Suliban from Star Trek: Enterprise). There were so many moments that hinted back to older stories that it made my head spin. At various times I wondered if these new baddies were anything like a whole raft of past ones: the Vocs robots from Robots of Death; the 456 from Torchwood: Children of Earth; the ATMOS device from The Sontaran Stratagem; the Host from Voyage of the Damned; the Cybermen from Army of Ghosts; and particularly the Cybermen from The Invasion (where Daniel Barton looked like a 1:1 correspondent to Invasion‘s Tobias Vaughn).

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