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Tag: Thirteen

Welcome to Year Thirteen

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Triskaidekaphobes may not care for the idea that I’m highlighting this as the thirteenth year of the blog, but in my household thirteen is actually one of our favorite numbers. Further, we’ve just ended the Thirteenth Doctor’s era, and I can look forward to meeting Jodie Whittaker herself at Gallifrey One next month. I’d say Year Thirteen is worth celebrating.

This year will, as I’ve hinted before, be the last for the blog. Now that I’ve finally sold some fiction (you can find my first published story here, if you’re interested; I use a pen name), I want to focus more of my time and energy on that kind of writing. There are also several other personal stressors that have ramped up recently, and I simply have less energy to dedicate to blogging.

That’s not to say this year will be lax. I hope to be able to announce my part in that project to which I alluded a couple of years ago. I’ll be reporting on my experiences at Gally as usual, with the bonus of having one of my kiddos with me to provide fresh eyes. And I will finish up my Everything Else series of reviews of the Classic adventures.

Given that there are only five of those left, the blog schedule gets a bit loose around mid-year. But here is the schedule for those final five stories:

  • Jan 25: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
  • Feb 08: Enlightenment
  • Mar 22: The Invasion of Time
  • Apr 26: Frontier in Space
  • May 24: The Pirate Planet
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The Power of Fan Service

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Review of The Power of the Doctor
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

There was nothing subtle about The Power of the Doctor. It was pure fan service, from start to finish. Some of it we knew about beforehand, and some of it came as a surprise—again and again—but it was blatantly obvious that showrunner Chris Chibnall wanted to check off every single item on his bucket list on the way out.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2022 BBC

For the most part, I was happy to go along for the ride. Only in the final thirty seconds or so did I balk. (Yes, we’ll talk about that more, but under the cut.) It made me want to use my full-on Mom Voice: I’m not upset with you; just disappointed.

But let’s back up for a while, and leave that moment for later. First, let’s talk about the bonkers hour-and-a-half of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode in the lead role. This was Chris Chibnall’s ultimate fanfic moment; he threw in every plot thread and character he could think of (and book), and wrote a huge fix-it fic.

For those who may not be familiar with fanfic (I am only peripherally so, as I don’t read fic myself, though my kids do), the biggest purpose of the genre—as far as I can tell—is to tell the stories with beloved characters that the fan writer really wanted to see/read in the original media property, but was never given. (In other words, all of modern Who is basically fanfic of Classic Who, show-run by Classic fans.) And one sub-genre of fanfic is the “fix-it fic,” in which the fan writer fixes something that they felt was inherently wrong with the original.

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Confession #159: I Am Excite

It’s been a heckuva week! First, and relevant to the usual content here, Gallifrey One announced last Friday that their headline guest for the 2023 convention would be none other than Jodie Whittaker herself!

That’s quite the feather in Gally’s cap! Not only will it be Whittaker’s first-ever dedicated Doctor Who convention (we’re going to set her standards high), but it’s amazingly fast turn-around between final on-screen appearance and first convention appearance—less than four months! She’s also only the second modern-era Doctor to appear at Gally.

I had thought three years ago that I was getting spoiled by Gallifrey One’s excellent connections in the Doctor Who scene when they brought Christopher Eccleston to LA. (And, indeed, I was.) He had been notoriously hesitant to take part in the convention circuit at all, so when Gally brought not only its first modern-era Doctor, but a somewhat reluctant one at that, I didn’t think that feat could be topped.

But here we are.

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Confession #158: I Already Miss Jodie

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Although the exact date hasn’t yet been confirmed (to the best of my knowledge), we know that Jodie Whittaker’s final episode as the Doctor, one billed as a “centenary special” as part of the celebrations to honor a hundred years of the BBC, will air some time in October. Presumably she will regenerate at the end, or at least begin the process (maybe we’ll get that long-since-filmed sequence next year instead, at the official beginning of Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure), but we don’t even know that for sure.

What we do know is that in a matter of weeks, Whittaker will be gone, and fandom will be awaiting the reign of a new Doctor. (Although it’s probably both a bit on-the-nose and Too Soon™, saying “The Queen is dead; long live the King” here does seem to fit…) And I already miss her.

It’s strange the way human brains work. We have this amazing capacity to anticipate the future, which can be a fantastic advantage. But it can be problematic, too, because sometimes we spend far too much time either looking forward to or dreading things to come. And that’s exactly where I’m at in my current Doctor Who mindset.

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Confession #155: I Am Behind on Casting News

I had hardly finished posting the last casting news when more casting news hit the streets. I’m basically a month behind on the news of David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s return, and Yasmin Finney’s debut in Doctor Who, but since Tennant’s rumored return was a hot topic a few months ago, I figured I go ahead and add my 2¢ anyway.

For the most part, my feelings are the same as they were before we knew Ncuti Gatwa would be the new Doctor: I’ll be excited to see Tennant back for the 60th anniversary, but I don’t want him for more. RTD has been very cagey about the whole thing, as he is wont to do, so I don’t believe we’ve had any solid indications of whether Gatwa will actually be portraying the Whittaker Doctor’s immediate successor (rumors to the contrary are rife). Although I will be extremely disappointed if he’s not, I will wait to see what RTD has up his sleeve with Tennant and Tate before making any final judgements.

The fact that they’ve also announced Finney, a Black trans woman who shot to popularity for her role as Elle in the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s webcomic Heartstopper, and told us her character’s name is Rose, means that (a) RTD is committed to continuing the trend toward more inclusive casting (which I applaud heartily) and (b) he’s totally trolling us. I am over-the-moon excited to see Finney in Doctor Who, and utterly suspicious about how her character will fit into the overall Whoniverse, because there’s no way we’re going to have any real idea until the show actually airs.

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Ships and Shipping

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Review of Legend of the Sea Devils
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

The middle installment of Jodie Whittaker’s last hurrah of three specials, one that thankfully has nothing to do with Easter or any other holiday despite the timing of its broadcast, Legend of the Sea Devils is enjoyable nonsense. Although certain details of the plot don’t make a whole lot of sense (par for the course), it had a great soundtrack, fantastic costuming, and impressive effects—just the sort of thing one needs for a fun one-off episode.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2022 BBC

I had really, really been looking forward to finally getting a story set in historical Asia—something I think we could use a whole lot more of; anything outside of Britain/Europe, really—and I think this episode proved that it’s possible to do that respectfully within the Doctor Who format. But I had to laugh at myself for how, after more than two years of soaking in Asian dramas, I just couldn’t make sense of the panicked villagers shouting to each other in English in the opening scene. (Yes, yes—TARDIS translation circuits. That’s just not what my brain was expecting in that setting.)

There was a lot to love here (and a fair amount to decide not to look at too closely). Having Madame Ching herself on screen was fabulous (though I felt they could’ve done more with her; after all, at her height she commanded hundreds of ships). The rebooted Sea Devils looked fantastic (though we never really got an answer as to why this particular individual had such extreme views or how they rose to power). And the cast all did a fantastic job with what they were given (though I might personally have given some of the guest characters something different/more to do).

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Confession #152: I’m Experiencing the Cycle Differently This Time

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Even though her successor hasn’t yet been announced, with the second of Jodie Whitaker’s final three specials confirmed to air at Easter time, it’s finally starting to hit home that the Thirteenth Doctor is on her way out. That inevitable cycle of grief, denial, and acceptance of each Doctor’s incarnations is having its way with me again.

I remember the last time we were here. Capaldi’s Doctor was one of my favorites, and I was extremely sad to see him go. In particular, I really wanted to see what he could do under the pen of a different showrunner. Alas, that doesn’t seem to be something I will ever get with a modern Doctor.

I actually discussed that with friends at Gally this year: although in modern Who we’ve occasionally seen Companions stay with the Doctor into another regeneration (Rose, Clara), there has never been either a Doctor or a Companion who has bridged showrunners. That strikes me as a real failing of this era. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to see multiple captains’ hands on the tiller for any given Doctor? Alas, it’s long been clear that Jodie and Chibnall were a package deal. Despite my wish to see Doctors transcend their showrunners, now is most certainly not the time.

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Countdown to the End Game

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Review of Eve of the Daleks
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Welcome to year 12 of the blog! I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue to update (at least through the middle of 2023, but more on that in my second January post), but for now I’m looking forward to continuing to share the journey with you.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2022 BBC

During the Thirteenth Doctor’s tenure, the tradition of a Christmas special has shifted to that of a New Year’s special. This year is no different, though we also get a special countdown to New Year’s in the deal.

In a shocking turn of events, at least on first viewing, the pre-credits sequence shows the Doctor and her friends bolting from the TARDIS as it does a self-reset, only to be confronted by Daleks—and summarily exterminated.

But we all know the Doctor can’t die here and now—she can’t even regenerate, since we know she’s got two more specials to go before that, and her replacement hasn’t been announced—so it’s not a complete surprise when the TARDIS team, not to mention their soon-to-be new acquaintances Sarah and Nick, are back. It’s a little surprising that everyone remembers having been exterminated, but that, of course, makes things all the more interesting.

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Solid, If Not Perfect

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

I didn’t hate it! I know that sounds like I’m damning The Vanquishers with faint praise, but for the final installment of a multi-parter—especially a series finale—in modern Who, that’s actually a pretty glowing endorsement on my part.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2021 BBC

To use a gymnastics metaphor, this series was attempting a high-difficulty routine with lots of twists, flips, and unexpected combinations. It’s been looking pretty good in the air, but the question we’ve all had on our mind is whether or not it could stick the landing.

I don’t think I can honestly say it felt like a stuck landing to me, but neither did it miss and fall on its ass. There was a little hop there, worth a deduction to the final score, but I’m a little surprised to discover I don’t think it’s worth more than about one tenth of a point.

To analyze how this final installment performed, we need to look at the series as a whole. Way back in the first episode, we got a ton of seemingly disparate story threads thrown at us: Yaz and the Doctor, Karvanista, Williamson, Dan and Diane, Swarm, Azure, Claire and the Angels, Vinder, the Sontarans. Later we added Bel, the Grand Serpent, Jericho, Tecteun (as incarnation of Division), an Ood, and Kate Stewart to the mix. It seemed nigh impossible to tie them all together in a coherent and satisfying way, especially in the context of the overall threat of the Flux.

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Surviving “Flux”

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

I’m starting to wonder whether or not I will be among the survivors of Flux. I really thought the story was rolling along well, going in an interesting direction last week, but this week… Well, at least all the major threads are finally coming together.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2021 BBC

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure last series how I felt about rewriting the Doctor’s history so thoroughly. I like the idea of shaking things up and throwing a spanner in the works, so to speak, but making it so Everything Is About the Doctor™ is less interesting to me. And Chibnall is definitely doubling down on that angle with this year’s Flux storyline.

I haven’t quite put my finger on what changed between part four, where I was all in, and part five, which left me feeling somewhat flat. Perhaps it was the assertion/confirmation of how over-the-top “special” the Doctor is in Chibnall’s version of the show: the entire universe is under attack because of her, and she may or may not even be from our universe!

At least Chibnall has been consistent in switching up the style of each episode. That part I still like. This time we’re flipping from plot thread to plot thread with notations for the various time zones (which, in the case of Yaz and Dan (and Jericho), includes various locations). We come in mid-adventure for Yaz, who is taking on a very Doctor-y role, with Dan and Jericho effectively acting as her Companions. It’s a bit reminiscent of Clara in her later days (somewhat worrying, when I think about it like that…).

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