Dec 10, 2023·edited Dec 10, 2023Liked by Caroline Siede
Ever since we got that big, sweeping shot of David Tennant running around the new TARDIS interior at the end of "The Star Beast", I had been wondering just what the deal with that set was. It would be weird to construct something so spacious for just a few shots in these few specials, but it would also be weird for the same TARDIS to carry over from the 14th Doctor to the 15th. Something had to give, and it turns out what gave was a Tennant Doctor once again failing the "have a normal regeneration" challenge in the most spectacular way possible. I went from thinking "oh, they're going to have Tennant underplay a sudden regeneration instead of dragging things out again, what a welcome surprise" when he got shot to guffawing when it became clear that nope, he's gonna get weird again. Classic 10th Doctor.
I truly appreciate that, while it turns out that these three episodes did end up quickly cleaning up the Doctor's emotional fallout the Flux and the rest of the 13th Doctor's adventures, it did so in a way that justified doing away with it in-universe. Sure, they could have just hand waved all that stuff away, but it matters that that RTD went the extra mile to show that all that stuff happened, affected the Doctor, and is still being dealt with somewhere, just not during the adventure that we're watching. It's similar to what the first special did with Rose; it would have been fine to cast a trans actress in a key role and leave it at that, but going the extra mile to come up with an in-story reason why that character could only be played by a trans actress makes it all the more meaningful. RTD could have timey-wimeyd the 15th Doctor all the way to emotional stability and good mental health, but instead went just that little bit further to show that that kind of work can't be done in a flash, even for a Time Lord. Maybe it takes a day, maybe it takes a month, maybe it takes long enough for him to become The Curator, but however long it takes, 14 will be OK someday, and that's a comforting thing to see.
But beyond the in-story stuff, setting up a brand new Doctor that is unburdened by the adventures and failings of the 9th-13th incarnations not only makes for a good way to onboard new fans following the Disney + deal, but makes for an easy jumping-back-on point for fans that fell off during the past several years. It's a sound creative decision and a sound business decision, one which was made possible by sound storytelling decisions. Plus, it gave them the opportunity to do a face-to-face passing of the torch from Doctor to Doctor, with the most widely beloved NuWho Doctor giving his new incarnation an on-screen stamp of approval (which feels especially meaningful given that Gatwa is going to face some shit from some seriously shitty people for being Black and queer), gives Donna a well-deserved happy ending with her best mate, and manages to keep the 14th Doctor readily available for audio dramas or reunion specials or whenever else the show feels the need to break Tennant back out in case of emergency. All that wrapped up in such a wonderful episode is quite a feat. If nothing else, it gave us the inevitable gift of a nigh-uncountable number of pantsless 15th Doctor cosplayers running around Dragon Con next year, which is bound to be a delight.
It was so funny the way they literally had half the items of clothing end up on each of the two Doctors at the end...which, by the way, means that Tennant's Doctor is not wearing any underwear in the whole final section. :-)
Really thought they nailed this one; best episode of the three for me. Thanks for the great write-up!
(Perhaps a teeeeeny bit underwhelming that the solution was chucking a ball around; was there even really a thematic connection with the rest of the episode? Nobody was outsmarted; seemingly the Toymaker just, well, dropped the ball.)
But - Ncuti Gatwa is so unbelievably suave and warm and charming! You could practically feel an earthquacke of a million tweenage romantic awakenings.
Had such a grand time with this episode, and was delighted to see this review sitting in my inbox right as I finished watching. Couldn’t agree more with your assessment of the episode, both in and of itself, and as the conclusion to these three specials—really threaded the needle of what I used to love about Who, so playful and serious all at the same time, giving itself permission to have the undeniably campy fun of a Spice Girls lip sync while simultaneously, tragically, killing off background characters in the most insane way possible.
I knew the promise of Ncuti Gatwa would lure me back into the Who fandom, regardless, but I’m so glad to see him already knocking it out of the park in such a short amount of time. Watching the two doctors share these sweet, intimate moments of self-care felt like such a reflection of what we’ve seen of 14’s emotional vulnerability, and the promise of 15’s emotional catharsis. I’m just in love.
I’ll also never get tired of bringing back old companions—seeing these older women coming back with rich inner lives, that they exist beyond the bounds of their time with the Doctor, brings me so much joy and I hope it keeps happening.
I’m just rambling at this point, but GODDAMN. What a great showing. Didn’t have coming back to Doctor Who on my 2023 bingo card, but here we are. I’m so excited.
Totally agree about Who becoming this lovely space for stories about older women! Obviously some of that was there way back in Sarah Jane's return in "School Reunion," but I really felt it in "The Power of the Doctor" where we got to see Ace AND Tegan together in a story that contrasted their different personalities, but also gave them a really strong friendship. It's wonderful to see that continue here, and I'd love for the show to keep checking back in on Classic companions and giving us cool older women characters in sci-fi!
(It's also a savvy gateway to Classic Who too. You fall in love with these characters in a modern context then want to see what their original adventures with the Doctor were like.)
One of the best aspects of this "solution" for 14 is that it also replays the context 11 and the Ponds a bit as were, which we get a direct reminder of from the Toymaker. War torn, beleaguered 9 and 10 needed to heal, but never stopped running long enough to understand how love and companionship are necessary (until that idea is literally stuck away in a pocket universe with Rose). Donna and the extended Noble family start to create the space of the healing that "family" could provide the Doctor, but guilt over Donna's fate resets that emotional progress. And so you end up with 11...who functionally finds himself a full family - including in-laws who will always set a place for him at Xmas dinner. But there is so much loss that comes with the Ponds and he knows the fate of Rover that it doesn't let him rest ever, and so he continues to RUN. All the way through 13....because the one thing Whitaker's Doctor took away clearly was the importance that the Companions were in fact her "fam". Being forced to confront both that need and the failures to that fam - to all of the companions - is what sets up 14 needing to return to 10 to fix the fam he felt the most guilty over and start to heal himself.
Can't wait to see what the next iteration brings us!
As with nearly all of RTD's specials and big-stakes finales, this one was a showcase for both his soaring highs and howling lows. The highs, as always, are the emotional beats for the characters which almost never miss, and the lows are in the swiss-cheese plotting that raises more questions than it answers. RTD's fix for the latter is usually to just run through them at such a breakneck pace that you don't have time to think about it, to varying degrees of success.
(Moffat often swung the pendulum too far in the other direction - complex plots that were dwelled upon for too long at the expense of emotional truth for the characters - but that's an essay for another time.)
I think we can call this one a winner! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Particularly the cake-and-eat-it solution for Fourteen and Donna. They deserved it after so much trauma.
This is just echoing what others have said, but I really do agree that if they're going to do a sort of "soft reboot" for this new Disney+ era of Doctor Who, bringing in new people without burdening them with all this deep lore, this is the way to do it. The Fourteenth Doctor gets to "retire" in peace and has the chance to heal from the past 15 years of trauma (15 years for us, actually centuries for the Doctor), while the Fifteenth Doctor gets to go off on brand-new adventures with all the memories of what happened before, but without the sense of burden and being haunted by that past. Ncuti Gatwa felt like a Doctor who is finally freed of that baggage, or at least has come to terms with it, and can go forward into a new era with a sense of joy and curiosity and a thirst for adventure in a way that new audiences can easily join even if they haven't watched any Doctor Who before. And based on what I've seen the actor do in Sex Education, I know he will be able to pull off anything he's asked to do, whether it's comedy or action or drama. He's also a great physical performer, and I think we're going to get a lot more Doctor dancing scenes in the near future. Already, just in the last bits of this special, we got to see his incredible presence and soulfulness. I especially loved when he hugged Fourteen and just offered up his empathy and understanding. Therapy Doctor for the win!
I also do appreciate that we'll still have David Tennant and Donna Noble and the rest of the Noble clan available if need be for special appearances or even a spin-off series, though I hope they don't overdo it since this was a nice happy ending for them. I kind of wish they hadn't duplicated the TARDIS, just because it will clearly make it harder for his character to truly retire, but I guess they just couldn't help it. We'll see how it all plays out! But it's nice to know he's still there in the universe.
It feels so fitting that the one show runner that could help close out an era and transition it to the next is RTD. I love that he does tremendous service to adventures of Classic Who, the Moffat and Chibnall eras and finally gives the Doctor a chance to rest.
The constant allusion to the 15 years I feel is like a reflection on the 15 years RTD has had to think about where he left the show at the end of his first run, allowing himself to give Donna, Wilf and The Doctor a happier ending.
I loved that for a 60th special we had multiple Doctors on screen and I agree with others that this regeneration does feel like 14 has pulled 15 from the future to help himself heal. The self love and the performances by Tennant and Tate were so powerful for me. Who knows, we may see them again in the future, but if we didn’t, I feel confident that we’re going in to an exciting new era that’s clear of much baggage.
It takes a massive amount of talent to make something this bonkers hang together. Thankfully, it's RTD, who clears that bar and then some. As always, his clarity of emotional storytelling is astounding. I didn't want 14 to go and the solution was he doesn't; we still get him out there in the world, even if just the knowledge of that.
Just a casual Who fan here, but I generally enjoyed these three episodes.
I thought the 3rd episode was the strongest largely due to NPH. He’s one of those actors I sometimes find distracting because he is so recognizable, but I thought he was great here.
I’m a little mixed on the “split” or whatever it was that happened with Tenet and Gatwa. It somehow felt cheap and I probably would have preferred a clean regeneration, but it’s Doctor Who and there are no real rules. So as long as they’ve set themselves up for some engaging adventures, I’ll follow along.
I came into the show toward the tail end of Matt Smith’s run after randomly watching some episodes on BBC America late one night. I did go back and catch up on a lot of Eccleston, Tenet, Smith’s episodes but never fully went down the rabbit hole. I watched the entirety of Capaldi’s run and thought he was awesome, but started to lose interest once Clara was out of the picture. I tried to give Whittaker a chance but just couldn’t get into the series.
I thought Ncuti Gatwa was awesome in Sex Education and am looking forward to seeing more of him here.
This was a wild ride and I loved it. They really swung for the fences with a huge guest star doing a campy take on a canonical villain, the introduction of a new Doctor/bi-regeneration, and the happy ending for Tennant's Doctor and Donna all in an hour and two minutes and almost all of it worked almost all of the time. This was Doctor Who at its near best. If the writing can stay even near the level it's been for these three specials, and particularly for this final one, I'm very excited to see what the episodes with the new Doctor will be like. At this point I think it's pretty clear the problem with the Chibnall era was the writing
Ever since we got that big, sweeping shot of David Tennant running around the new TARDIS interior at the end of "The Star Beast", I had been wondering just what the deal with that set was. It would be weird to construct something so spacious for just a few shots in these few specials, but it would also be weird for the same TARDIS to carry over from the 14th Doctor to the 15th. Something had to give, and it turns out what gave was a Tennant Doctor once again failing the "have a normal regeneration" challenge in the most spectacular way possible. I went from thinking "oh, they're going to have Tennant underplay a sudden regeneration instead of dragging things out again, what a welcome surprise" when he got shot to guffawing when it became clear that nope, he's gonna get weird again. Classic 10th Doctor.
I truly appreciate that, while it turns out that these three episodes did end up quickly cleaning up the Doctor's emotional fallout the Flux and the rest of the 13th Doctor's adventures, it did so in a way that justified doing away with it in-universe. Sure, they could have just hand waved all that stuff away, but it matters that that RTD went the extra mile to show that all that stuff happened, affected the Doctor, and is still being dealt with somewhere, just not during the adventure that we're watching. It's similar to what the first special did with Rose; it would have been fine to cast a trans actress in a key role and leave it at that, but going the extra mile to come up with an in-story reason why that character could only be played by a trans actress makes it all the more meaningful. RTD could have timey-wimeyd the 15th Doctor all the way to emotional stability and good mental health, but instead went just that little bit further to show that that kind of work can't be done in a flash, even for a Time Lord. Maybe it takes a day, maybe it takes a month, maybe it takes long enough for him to become The Curator, but however long it takes, 14 will be OK someday, and that's a comforting thing to see.
But beyond the in-story stuff, setting up a brand new Doctor that is unburdened by the adventures and failings of the 9th-13th incarnations not only makes for a good way to onboard new fans following the Disney + deal, but makes for an easy jumping-back-on point for fans that fell off during the past several years. It's a sound creative decision and a sound business decision, one which was made possible by sound storytelling decisions. Plus, it gave them the opportunity to do a face-to-face passing of the torch from Doctor to Doctor, with the most widely beloved NuWho Doctor giving his new incarnation an on-screen stamp of approval (which feels especially meaningful given that Gatwa is going to face some shit from some seriously shitty people for being Black and queer), gives Donna a well-deserved happy ending with her best mate, and manages to keep the 14th Doctor readily available for audio dramas or reunion specials or whenever else the show feels the need to break Tennant back out in case of emergency. All that wrapped up in such a wonderful episode is quite a feat. If nothing else, it gave us the inevitable gift of a nigh-uncountable number of pantsless 15th Doctor cosplayers running around Dragon Con next year, which is bound to be a delight.
It was so funny the way they literally had half the items of clothing end up on each of the two Doctors at the end...which, by the way, means that Tennant's Doctor is not wearing any underwear in the whole final section. :-)
Really thought they nailed this one; best episode of the three for me. Thanks for the great write-up!
(Perhaps a teeeeeny bit underwhelming that the solution was chucking a ball around; was there even really a thematic connection with the rest of the episode? Nobody was outsmarted; seemingly the Toymaker just, well, dropped the ball.)
But - Ncuti Gatwa is so unbelievably suave and warm and charming! You could practically feel an earthquacke of a million tweenage romantic awakenings.
Had such a grand time with this episode, and was delighted to see this review sitting in my inbox right as I finished watching. Couldn’t agree more with your assessment of the episode, both in and of itself, and as the conclusion to these three specials—really threaded the needle of what I used to love about Who, so playful and serious all at the same time, giving itself permission to have the undeniably campy fun of a Spice Girls lip sync while simultaneously, tragically, killing off background characters in the most insane way possible.
I knew the promise of Ncuti Gatwa would lure me back into the Who fandom, regardless, but I’m so glad to see him already knocking it out of the park in such a short amount of time. Watching the two doctors share these sweet, intimate moments of self-care felt like such a reflection of what we’ve seen of 14’s emotional vulnerability, and the promise of 15’s emotional catharsis. I’m just in love.
I’ll also never get tired of bringing back old companions—seeing these older women coming back with rich inner lives, that they exist beyond the bounds of their time with the Doctor, brings me so much joy and I hope it keeps happening.
I’m just rambling at this point, but GODDAMN. What a great showing. Didn’t have coming back to Doctor Who on my 2023 bingo card, but here we are. I’m so excited.
Totally agree about Who becoming this lovely space for stories about older women! Obviously some of that was there way back in Sarah Jane's return in "School Reunion," but I really felt it in "The Power of the Doctor" where we got to see Ace AND Tegan together in a story that contrasted their different personalities, but also gave them a really strong friendship. It's wonderful to see that continue here, and I'd love for the show to keep checking back in on Classic companions and giving us cool older women characters in sci-fi!
(It's also a savvy gateway to Classic Who too. You fall in love with these characters in a modern context then want to see what their original adventures with the Doctor were like.)
YESSSS exactly that! Every time they bring back another companion I get so excited about digging into their classic eps. 😄♥️
One of the best aspects of this "solution" for 14 is that it also replays the context 11 and the Ponds a bit as were, which we get a direct reminder of from the Toymaker. War torn, beleaguered 9 and 10 needed to heal, but never stopped running long enough to understand how love and companionship are necessary (until that idea is literally stuck away in a pocket universe with Rose). Donna and the extended Noble family start to create the space of the healing that "family" could provide the Doctor, but guilt over Donna's fate resets that emotional progress. And so you end up with 11...who functionally finds himself a full family - including in-laws who will always set a place for him at Xmas dinner. But there is so much loss that comes with the Ponds and he knows the fate of Rover that it doesn't let him rest ever, and so he continues to RUN. All the way through 13....because the one thing Whitaker's Doctor took away clearly was the importance that the Companions were in fact her "fam". Being forced to confront both that need and the failures to that fam - to all of the companions - is what sets up 14 needing to return to 10 to fix the fam he felt the most guilty over and start to heal himself.
Can't wait to see what the next iteration brings us!
As with nearly all of RTD's specials and big-stakes finales, this one was a showcase for both his soaring highs and howling lows. The highs, as always, are the emotional beats for the characters which almost never miss, and the lows are in the swiss-cheese plotting that raises more questions than it answers. RTD's fix for the latter is usually to just run through them at such a breakneck pace that you don't have time to think about it, to varying degrees of success.
(Moffat often swung the pendulum too far in the other direction - complex plots that were dwelled upon for too long at the expense of emotional truth for the characters - but that's an essay for another time.)
I think we can call this one a winner! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Particularly the cake-and-eat-it solution for Fourteen and Donna. They deserved it after so much trauma.
None of you are going to say it so I guess I will and I don’t care if the woke mob cancels me. I don’t think I can accept a new Doctor who is…
mustachioed.
(But seriously, really looking forward to this new Doctor and curious to see if Davies can pull off this new season without any farting aliens.)
This is just echoing what others have said, but I really do agree that if they're going to do a sort of "soft reboot" for this new Disney+ era of Doctor Who, bringing in new people without burdening them with all this deep lore, this is the way to do it. The Fourteenth Doctor gets to "retire" in peace and has the chance to heal from the past 15 years of trauma (15 years for us, actually centuries for the Doctor), while the Fifteenth Doctor gets to go off on brand-new adventures with all the memories of what happened before, but without the sense of burden and being haunted by that past. Ncuti Gatwa felt like a Doctor who is finally freed of that baggage, or at least has come to terms with it, and can go forward into a new era with a sense of joy and curiosity and a thirst for adventure in a way that new audiences can easily join even if they haven't watched any Doctor Who before. And based on what I've seen the actor do in Sex Education, I know he will be able to pull off anything he's asked to do, whether it's comedy or action or drama. He's also a great physical performer, and I think we're going to get a lot more Doctor dancing scenes in the near future. Already, just in the last bits of this special, we got to see his incredible presence and soulfulness. I especially loved when he hugged Fourteen and just offered up his empathy and understanding. Therapy Doctor for the win!
I also do appreciate that we'll still have David Tennant and Donna Noble and the rest of the Noble clan available if need be for special appearances or even a spin-off series, though I hope they don't overdo it since this was a nice happy ending for them. I kind of wish they hadn't duplicated the TARDIS, just because it will clearly make it harder for his character to truly retire, but I guess they just couldn't help it. We'll see how it all plays out! But it's nice to know he's still there in the universe.
It feels so fitting that the one show runner that could help close out an era and transition it to the next is RTD. I love that he does tremendous service to adventures of Classic Who, the Moffat and Chibnall eras and finally gives the Doctor a chance to rest.
The constant allusion to the 15 years I feel is like a reflection on the 15 years RTD has had to think about where he left the show at the end of his first run, allowing himself to give Donna, Wilf and The Doctor a happier ending.
I loved that for a 60th special we had multiple Doctors on screen and I agree with others that this regeneration does feel like 14 has pulled 15 from the future to help himself heal. The self love and the performances by Tennant and Tate were so powerful for me. Who knows, we may see them again in the future, but if we didn’t, I feel confident that we’re going in to an exciting new era that’s clear of much baggage.
It takes a massive amount of talent to make something this bonkers hang together. Thankfully, it's RTD, who clears that bar and then some. As always, his clarity of emotional storytelling is astounding. I didn't want 14 to go and the solution was he doesn't; we still get him out there in the world, even if just the knowledge of that.
Tremendous.
Just a casual Who fan here, but I generally enjoyed these three episodes.
I thought the 3rd episode was the strongest largely due to NPH. He’s one of those actors I sometimes find distracting because he is so recognizable, but I thought he was great here.
I’m a little mixed on the “split” or whatever it was that happened with Tenet and Gatwa. It somehow felt cheap and I probably would have preferred a clean regeneration, but it’s Doctor Who and there are no real rules. So as long as they’ve set themselves up for some engaging adventures, I’ll follow along.
I came into the show toward the tail end of Matt Smith’s run after randomly watching some episodes on BBC America late one night. I did go back and catch up on a lot of Eccleston, Tenet, Smith’s episodes but never fully went down the rabbit hole. I watched the entirety of Capaldi’s run and thought he was awesome, but started to lose interest once Clara was out of the picture. I tried to give Whittaker a chance but just couldn’t get into the series.
I thought Ncuti Gatwa was awesome in Sex Education and am looking forward to seeing more of him here.
This was a wild ride and I loved it. They really swung for the fences with a huge guest star doing a campy take on a canonical villain, the introduction of a new Doctor/bi-regeneration, and the happy ending for Tennant's Doctor and Donna all in an hour and two minutes and almost all of it worked almost all of the time. This was Doctor Who at its near best. If the writing can stay even near the level it's been for these three specials, and particularly for this final one, I'm very excited to see what the episodes with the new Doctor will be like. At this point I think it's pretty clear the problem with the Chibnall era was the writing
My thoughts on each of this specials boils down to being pretty good except for one thing at the end that I need time to process:
- Star Beast - Donna surviving/passing on her curse
- Blue Yonder - 14th almost leaving Donna to die
- Giggle - Basically everything you just said