Doctor Who Omnibus Thread

[The Natural]

Only thing I liked about this episode was the return of David Tennant, that's it. Find Catherine Tate mostly annoying. I was looking forward to this which makes the disappointment even worse.

[Control]

It felt very rushed.

I thought the gender stuff was a bit on-the-nose, but they’re broadcasting from TERF island, so I’ll allow it.

[odessasteps]

This popped up in my feed today 

[Matt D]

The 11 year old has been sick so she’s working her way through the Capaldi episodes. Heaven Sent remains a top 5 modern Who episode.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Matt D

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

The 11 year old has been sick so she’s signing her way through the Capaldi episodes. Heaven Sent remains a top 5 modern Who episode.

Even better than when they tried to redo it in the Loki finale. 

[Control]

12 hours ago, Matt D said:

The 11 year old has been sick so she’s working her way through the Capaldi episodes. Heaven Sent remains a top 5 modern Who episode.

The second two Capaldi seasons are quite good, I think, after a pretty mixed bag/ultimately disappointing first season.

Capaldi is also kind of a weird actor, in that he’s more limited than some of the other Doctors, but also is way more capable of subtlety of emotion than most of them.

[The Natural]

13 hours ago, Matt D said:

The 11 year old has been sick so she’s working her way through the Capaldi episodes. Heaven Sent remains a top 5 modern Who episode.

My top five modern Doctor Who episodes:

5. The Girl Who Waited.

4. Blink.

3. Heaven Sent.

2. The Doctor's Wife.

1. The Eleventh Hour.

[Craig H]

I'll echo not ever getting what fans saw in Donna. She always annoyed me. She annoyed me in the first episode too, but maybe less so than in the past.

[odessasteps]

I think part of it, at the time, was casting a known, middle-aged actress, a change from the young unknown ingenue. Off the top of my head, she may the most famous person cast as a companion, where it’s usually an unknown young person. Maybe Bonnie Langford, but I’d have to do the research. 

[J.H.]

"Wild Blue Yonder" was fantastically creepy and fun. RTD's best episode since "Midnight". 

James

[Control]

Despite some janky green screen, the best Who episode since the Capaldi years.

[J.T.]

On 11/29/2023 at 11:11 AM, odessasteps said:

She's definitely in the Adric level of annoyance for me, maybe even more so than Jenna Coleman, who I really didn't like. 

I will tolerate no disrespect for Adric.  He went out like an OG and he was a fucking genius.  Once you figured out what was really going on in that episode, you knew that Adric was doomed and that was pretty tragic.

Tegan is easily the most annoying companion not named Peri.  Both were glorified damsels in distress and sooo fucking whiny..

On 12/2/2023 at 11:34 PM, Craig H said:

I'll echo not ever getting what fans saw in Donna. She always annoyed me. She annoyed me in the first episode too, but maybe less so than in the past.

Donna had depth.  IMO one of the few companions who felt like a real person.  We got to see her character evolve from the asshole runaway bride to a fully realized human being.  It always annoyed me that there weren't too many companions who matured or transformed during their adventures with the Doctor as you'd think that such a journey would be the most life altering thing ever.

Edited December 4, 2023 by J.T.

[Eivion]

Wild Blue Yonder was solid. That green screen felt so strange, but it also kind of added to the creepiness of the situation oddly enough.  Was very happy with the ending. Its nice setup to part 3. 

[odessasteps]

Even Matthew Waterhouse says Adric not that great, at least before he was rehabbed by Big Finish. He’s just the British Wesley Crusher, the annoying kid genius introduced as a POV character who the target demo didn’t like. 
 

and for young Peripgilliam Brown, teenage me was a big fan. 

[Matt D]

Some great moments (including the hide behind the couch bits and general character development stuff) in Wild Blue Yonder though there were the usual Davies plot holes that you could drive a truck through that hurts the suspension of disbelief. He was always worse at getting the sci fi stuff ironclad (or even vaguely tight) even if he had the general shape of things solid. Emotional resonance makes for flimsy glue. 

[Control]

8 hours ago, J.T. said:

 

Donna had depth.  IMO one of the few companions who felt like a real person.  We got to see her character evolve from the asshole runaway bride to a fully realized human being.  It always annoyed me that there weren't too many companions who matured or transformed during their adventures with the Doctor as you'd think that such a journey would be the most life altering thing ever.

Donna was also the first NuWho companion who didn’t want to bang the Doctor, which was a nice change of pace.

She’s far from my favourite, but she’s at least different. Bill, Clara, Amy, and Yasmin barely have distinguishing character traits.

[J.T.]

6 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Even Matthew Waterhouse says Adric not that great, at least before he was rehabbed by Big Finish. He’s just the British Wesley Crusher, the annoying kid genius introduced as a POV character who the target demo didn’t like.

At least Adric wasn't the one usually screaming DOCTOR, NO~!  SAVE ME~!! at the end of classic cliffhangers.  That was usually Tegan or Peri or Jo.

6 hours ago, odessasteps said:

and for young Peripgilliam Brown, teenage me was a big fan. 

Peri was fanservice so everyone was supposed to be a fan.  They even did the Yvonne Craig Batgirl fetish thing to her when she was bound and gagged in that fucked up episode, Mindwarp.

As much as I really hated Peri, I was not cool with her death by mind rape but it did give her character the gravitas it had been lacking.  The retcon that tried undo her demise only made shit worse.

Mindwarp did have the good taste to feature a scene chewing battle between Colin Baker and Brian Blessed, though.

Edited December 4, 2023 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

I think a lot of the JNT characters have been rehabilitated by Big Finish, including Peri, Tegan and Ace. Probably the b/w classic companions too, given how many episodes Wendy Padbury and Fraser Hines have done over the years. 
 

they had a big Who convention in King of Prussia in 86 or 87, and I remember meeting Nicola Bryant and Janet Fielding. I think Anthony Ainsley was there, and I think Colin.

[The Natural]

Wild Blue Yonder did little for me either apart from a poignant sendoff to Wilfred Mott. 0/2 out of the 60th specials for me so far.

[The Natural]

Just now, The Natural said:

Wild Blue Yonder did little for me either apart from a poignant sendoff to Wilfred Mott. 0/2 out of the 60th specials for me so far.

Having said that, the preview clips for The Giggle so far have been top notch especially this one. SPOILER WARNING:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6DXUOsZavQ

[The Natural]

On the subject of Nu Who companions, IMHO Amy Pond is the best by far then Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald and Rory Williams.

Edited December 8, 2023 by The Natural

[Bustronaut]

The Giggle must be a reference to what RTD was doing while writing this special.  Giggling all the way to the bank while trolling "fans"

[Matt D]

I had fun. Doesn’t seem fair to the new guy not to have a clean break but I like how positive he seems.

[Bustronaut]

One thing I noticed, thanks to the captions was

Spoiler

After the bi-generation every Tennant line was labeled "Tenth Doctor" not 14th

Just an interesting tidbit

[The Natural]

The Giggle.

Spoiler

Great first half getting over the threat of the Toymaker. The scene I posted on Saturday was the best part of the episode then the puppet show of what happened to past companions. Neil Patrick Harris and David Tennant were the MVPs. Second half felt rushed to me. Can see the bi regeneration dividing opinion. Gatwa had more to do than usually the new doctor gets in their first appearance. Liked that.