Holy shit this was the best doctor who episode in YEARS. I got tingles as as soon as they realized they were on the edge of the universe.
How about the fact that this whole episode was just our two leads. They both really showed their acting chops.
What was a really good peice of narrative for our Doctor was the fact that his fast and clever brain was a detriment to stopping our monsters of that week.
Just superb writing and acting through and through.
RTD has always understood well that the Doctor's greatest adversary is himself. Here, they basically took the entity from "Midnight" and expanded that idea just about as far as it could go, while also alluding to some lovely cosmic horror concepts from the classic series - namely the Great Vampires, said to be great shapeless beings from beyond the galaxy who could take any form they chose.
With the Doctor's ominous comment about invoking superstition out here where all things are possible, I wonder if he is afraid that he just created the Vampires. They might have come anyway, but he just gave them their name, and their ties to old world Earth superstitions. It's another chicken and egg thing.
Absolutely amazing episode. Good mystery, clever answer, and it was creepy. Don't even know where to start with the praise for this one... It's nice to see the doctor without the sonic or the tardis, I don't remember any episodes playing around with alien languages so it was cool to see them without the translation matrix.
Also I know some people are gonna be annoyed that the timeless child stuff wasn't retconned, but honestly I'm happy with with they're doing with it. Chibnall had ideas but didn't do a good job of actually making it effect characters. For example, during Flux a few companions were stuck in the past for like 5 years and basically nothing changed about them - no trauma, no growth, nothing. RTD using Flux as a modern "time war" of sorts is exactly what I wanted from it in the first place - it's something that gives the doctor immense guilt and we actually see that in this episode. I totally think that Chibnall's era was horrible but if RTD can make lemonade out of lemons, I'm all for it.
But like, man that was a good premise. Good mystery, amazing setup - that moment when the doppelgangers are revealed was so well done, I thought it was just weird editing until I realized what was going on. Also the two parallel confrontations, knowing that one person in each is fake, but not knowing who it is in either group... Then turning the doctor's need to figure things out against him... Good shit.
Loved it. The No-Things trying to mimic people but getting the arms wrong seemed like the creepy monster version of "AI" trained on manmade images or texts, yet don't have a clue about the real world.
I had the same thought about ANN images watching that part. The "can never get the hands right" bit was very on point!
Amazing episode! I don’t really have much to say except that it felt just like old times. Loved it!
Someone elsewhere pointed out that the aliens were going to become a horse person to enter the universe, like a trojan horse. Also that's why every button was big and round on the ship, it was made for hooves!
But anyway... Wilf!
Managed to go into this without any-trailers/spoilers/etc. Hated the "Children in Need"-esque intro, it felt like the ye-olde cartoon before the movie starts.
I can understand concerns about this being the second of only three Tennant/Tate episodes, that it's the anniversary and we want big celebrations and megabucks worth of explosions and monsters and all that. Instead, we get a full episode with the two stars and their talent, no distractions or crawling through attics. PS. Sylvia and Wilf still - and always will - be awesome.
This was like RDT's and Moffat's lovechild, like Midnight and Event Horizon and Alien. Confidently slow-paced with great writing and time for running around, and still having time for a proper ending rather than a magical macguffin arse-pull.
Properly loved it.
Man, I loved that one. Midnight was great in a similar way but was missing the companion, Heaven Sent only had the Doctor and Don't Blink had hardly any Doctor or the companion in it. This is finally a great bottle episode that is only the Doctor and his companion.
RTD at his best, if this is an indication of his new era I can't wait. And the way he managed to make the whole Flux and Timeless Child thing mean something emotionally almost as a bonus - must sting for Chibnall watching it, who completely failed to do the same thing having an entire season for it
Easily one of my favourite episodes in years. I'm a sucker for creepy monsters, cosmic horrors and monsters whose origins are only vaguely hinted at and this had all of that. Overall much more polished, better-paced and intriguing to me than The Star Beast (which I still liked!). This was Doctor Who back at its best for me.
best episode in the last 3 seasons of the show and much better than Star Beast; still trying to figure out what Tennant is always reaching out for in these promo images, though: validation? acceptance? lost youth?
I love when sci fi settings/devices get organically woven into character arcs, so I'm a sucker for the "who's who" trope (heh). The situation with the doubles let us see Donna and the Doctor want to be vulnerable but also scared and angry. They do get that tender hug at the very end but even then that's sandwiched between the Doctor confusing the double with the real Donna and him not wanting to talk about "15 years."
I really wonder how the relationship will round out in just one special.
And lord, that moment when the real Donna gets left behind as the station starts to explode and you just see it on her face that that she knows this is it for her, that really got to me. Tennant and Tate are so insanely good in this episode.
Enjoyed this tense episode. What bugged me was the overuse of "The Volume" in the wide corridor shots. Like early blue screen work, it's distracting and takes you out of the action. Once they slip into the real sets, everything looks better. At any rate, a great callback to "Midnight" and good to see Wilf!
People rag on the Volume just as much as they rag on "too much CGI", the same they used to say "too much green screen" or "too many rubber suited aliens". It's all just storytelling tools, and you either suspend your disbelief or you don't based on the strength of the writing. If you can show me a seemingly endless corridor with giant hydraulic pistons that reconfigures every ten minutes, and that's actually a part of the story, that's pretty damn great in my book, no matter how it looks.
And just for the record, I thought this looked great too.
Ok, a couple questions...
The Flux. Is this a #13 plot?
What the hell was the Mavity thing about? How could they have known Newton misheard them like that?
Loved the episode. Not what I expected as an anniversary episode, but regardless, this was a really cool monster, and it was great to see this side of the Doctor, which I suppose is what makes it work for the anniversary.
Edit: Also, I hope the edge of the universe comes up again. I'd have liked to see more about that.
What the hell was the Mavity thing about? How could they have known Newton misheard them like that?
They altered time so Newton discovered "Mavity" instead of "Gravity". How The Doctor still knew it as gravity is interesting, but any human would only know it as mavity.
The Doctor actually says mavity first, talking about how they could be stuck in a "mavity well" to explain the lack of stars.
Donna actually says mavity before that, when she is explaining the good things about the ship they are on, a bit after they first crash on the ship.
The flux is 13th doctor's last season arc. But it's kinda weird because it's not referenced in the last few specials before 13th regenerated
I suspect the mavity bit is either a tease for an upcoming plot point about changing history or just a running gag that will get called back later.
They didn't know Newton misheard them. Couldn't have. Donna said it as 'mavity', and the Doctor gave her a momentary odd look. But then when he said it as 'gravity', she didn't know what he meant and he corrected himself to 'mavity.'
What that means is that history was changed, and the word is now 'mavity' and always has been. Nevermind Latin etymology and the fact that of course Newton didn't actually invent the word but only popularized this specific use for it.
The point was that the change affected Donna but not the Doctor, because he's a Time Lord. Whether it's just a joke or a hint at something to come remains to be seen.
Decent enough ep. The tone seemed a bit muddled, as they seemed to be going for a spooky vibe while simultaneously keeping the "lighthearted" mood they were pushing last episode too. Kind of threw me off. I liked the baddies, though, and I appreciate a story where the sonic or TARDIS can't be used to just magic out a solution (except for the TARDIS Ex Machina at the end, I suppose). Also was very happy to see Wilfred! I was entirely unaware they had gotten scenes with him before he passed and was just expecting references. Overall I enjoyed it and am looking forward to next week!
*One little minor technical nitpick - if there's literally nothing outside the ship, and the captain wasn't wearing a helmet, how did they decompose?
Some anaerobic gut bacteria that happens to be able to survive vacuum? It was an alien…
Probably would be seemed stranger to most people if they weren't decomposed - they'd assume she wasn't really dead. Best to supercede scientific accuracy for the sake of clarity.
I'm glad everyone else enjoyed this one. My wife included but it just didn't hit for me. It never felt to me like The Doctor or Donna actually got it right but that the Nothings just got it wrong. I didn't feel like they did anything really. And if they weren't there the ship would have exploded and there would have been no issue to begin with. And the Doctor grabbing the wrong Donna at the end really felt wrong to me. I dunno. Felt like an okay episode but I wanted more from a special that brought back The Doctor Donna.
