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Doctor Who: that happened
Jun. 23rd, 2024 11:30 amtl;dr RTD made an RTD season
RTD has a way of making stuff that could be great and then shitting the bed at the end. as is his way, mix of certified classics and cringy garbage.
I love the cast - Ncuti Gatwa is absolutely wonderful (while I love him getting to wear all the clothes I hate that he will be tough to cosplay and the unfairness of that - as someone who wept uncontrollably over a Doctor Who Barbie I think I have a pretty good idea of how big this is), and I'm sorry Ruby seems to be written out.
I genuinely enjoyed a lot, but I'm stuck on the stupid last episode.
because I watched the next-to-last one, said "ooh, Pyramids of Mars" and immediately did a rewatch. which in this day and age, is possible for anyone who is willing to spend five whole dollars on Amazon to stream it immediately, not just grognards with physical media collections.
1. Sutekh is an advanced alien, not a god. He's got psychic powers, robots, and a form of time travel but he doesn't have ultimate cosmic power
2. The Doctor beats Sutekh by sending him to the distant future using his own time machine. Sutekh has no physical contact with the TARDIS, only via people he's mind-controlled
3. the mind control is creepy because there's no physical change and you don't know for sure/want to believe they're okay. the only mind-controlled person who physically looks off is already dead.
like, I get that we have some Disney money now, but more isn't really more. cadaver makeup not needed. dusting people == MCU and needs to be avoided for about 20 years. the Susan thing feels like a retread of Bad Wolf and The Impossible Girl. I'm fine with them glowing up the old effects, but putting the modern cotton-candy time vortex into Sutekh's sarcophagus portal was just weird. (as was calling up the supremely confident and cold fourth doctor while the current one is having a cry every other scene)
in classic RTD fashion we have ridiculously big stakes that are completely undone in way too little time. (and wtf random spoon lady?) I wanted to love the "Ruby's mom is no-one" bit but the unresolved snow and the somehow this woman ignored a national TV search for her but was fine when Ruby accosted her over her coffee break? 🤮
what I find particularly heartbreaking is that it wouldn't have been hard to use the Pyramids of Mars story and write a plausible and scary return of Sutekh the last of the Osirans. hell, they could have even played on the last Time Lord thing (which is mentioned but not used in the way it could have been). I am not a fic writer but it's all there.
I get really tired of RTD failing on the end so that my final memory of the season tastes terrible.
if y'all come across a fix-it fic of the last episode let me know
spoilers for this season and a certain classic story
RTD has a way of making stuff that could be great and then shitting the bed at the end. as is his way, mix of certified classics and cringy garbage.
I love the cast - Ncuti Gatwa is absolutely wonderful (while I love him getting to wear all the clothes I hate that he will be tough to cosplay and the unfairness of that - as someone who wept uncontrollably over a Doctor Who Barbie I think I have a pretty good idea of how big this is), and I'm sorry Ruby seems to be written out.
I genuinely enjoyed a lot, but I'm stuck on the stupid last episode.
because I watched the next-to-last one, said "ooh, Pyramids of Mars" and immediately did a rewatch. which in this day and age, is possible for anyone who is willing to spend five whole dollars on Amazon to stream it immediately, not just grognards with physical media collections.
1. Sutekh is an advanced alien, not a god. He's got psychic powers, robots, and a form of time travel but he doesn't have ultimate cosmic power
2. The Doctor beats Sutekh by sending him to the distant future using his own time machine. Sutekh has no physical contact with the TARDIS, only via people he's mind-controlled
3. the mind control is creepy because there's no physical change and you don't know for sure/want to believe they're okay. the only mind-controlled person who physically looks off is already dead.
like, I get that we have some Disney money now, but more isn't really more. cadaver makeup not needed. dusting people == MCU and needs to be avoided for about 20 years. the Susan thing feels like a retread of Bad Wolf and The Impossible Girl. I'm fine with them glowing up the old effects, but putting the modern cotton-candy time vortex into Sutekh's sarcophagus portal was just weird. (as was calling up the supremely confident and cold fourth doctor while the current one is having a cry every other scene)
in classic RTD fashion we have ridiculously big stakes that are completely undone in way too little time. (and wtf random spoon lady?) I wanted to love the "Ruby's mom is no-one" bit but the unresolved snow and the somehow this woman ignored a national TV search for her but was fine when Ruby accosted her over her coffee break? 🤮
what I find particularly heartbreaking is that it wouldn't have been hard to use the Pyramids of Mars story and write a plausible and scary return of Sutekh the last of the Osirans. hell, they could have even played on the last Time Lord thing (which is mentioned but not used in the way it could have been). I am not a fic writer but it's all there.
I get really tired of RTD failing on the end so that my final memory of the season tastes terrible.
if y'all come across a fix-it fic of the last episode let me know
