RugbyRebels

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 11:09 pm Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 3:59 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 11:09 pm Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Oh no, how can you think this? I have to disagree.

Severance is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. The first season was extremely good - hard to fault really. A really original story, great acting, design, pacing - just about the right number of episodes for the story being told. A very mysterious situation, slowly revealed, building to a great ending.

I thought it would be very, very difficult to continue at that level - the cliffhangers seemed to be about to cause the show to self-destruct - but they did a great job of getting the storylines going again. Season two is definitely not as good as one (and one episode - Cobel's return home - was a bit of a failure) but it's still really good TV. There's a big danger that the ultimate explanation(s) won't be very satisfactory but the ball hasn't been dropped yet (even if it looks a bit more wobbly).

Problems:

► Show Spoiler

I am having doubts that there can really be a coherent explanation for why Lumon is bothering to run a severed floor at all (eg since the workers at Data Refinement don't actually know what the numbers mean, why keep it a severed secret from the world?)

Similarly, the holding of Mark's wife and her multiple personalities requires a fantastic explanation.

It's implausible that the boss's daughter would be slumming it amongst the plebs (for such an extended time).

Since it is so important, the severed floor would be far more carefully monitored and guarded than it is - thus preventing the workers from getting up to any mischief.

In general, it seems that Lumon holds all the cards and has too much power over the innies for them to possibly defeat it.

Although the culture and folktales of the severed floor are interesting, I don't see how they can have arisen so quickly (since presumably?? severance is a fairly new technology).

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 4:20 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 3:59 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 11:09 pm Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Oh no, how can you think this? I have to disagree.

Severance is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. The first season was extremely good - hard to fault really. A really original story, great acting, design, pacing - just about the right number of episodes for the story being told. A very mysterious situation, slowly revealed, building to a great ending.

I thought it would be very, very difficult to continue at that level - the cliffhangers seemed to be about to cause the show to self-destruct - but they did a great job of getting the storylines going again. Season two is definitely not as good as one (and one episode - Cobel's return home - was a bit of a failure) but it's still really good TV. There's a big danger that the ultimate explanation(s) won't be very satisfactory but the ball hasn't been dropped yet (even if it looks a bit more wobbly).

Problems:

► Show Spoiler

I am having doubts that there can really be a coherent explanation for why Lumon is bothering to run a severed floor at all (eg since the workers at Data Refinement don't actually know what the numbers mean, why keep it a severed secret from the world?)

Similarly, the holding of Mark's wife and her multiple personalities requires a fantastic explanation.

It's implausible that the boss's daughter would be slumming it amongst the plebs (for such an extended time).

Since it is so important, the severed floor would be far more carefully monitored and guarded than it is - thus preventing the workers from getting up to any mischief.

In general, it seems that Lumon holds all the cards and has too much power over the innies for them to possibly defeat it.

Although the culture and folktales of the severed floor are interesting, I don't see how they can have arisen so quickly (since presumably?? severance is a fairly new technology).

Well I don’t want to keep ragging on a show that you (and clearly lots of other people) love, but I just can’t see it at all. It had completely lost me by the end of the first series, but I thought I’d give this one a go given the praise I was seeing.

Maybe it’s one or two tonal things that mean not buying in to the show as a whole, but I was fully on board for the first few episodes of series 1 until it expanded its premise.

The stakes are raised so dramatically, with a cliffhanger (and accompanying dreadful music that builds to a stark cut, like a bad movie trailer) on virtually every scene, while the motivations of the characters seem to change every 5 minutes.

Some of the individual relationships, like John Turturro and Christopher Walken, were compelling in isolation but got lost in the sauce, for me. It’s like the show expanded far quicker than it could keep up with in terms of writing.

Perhaps you have to enjoy (or at least be able to see past) the way the show is shot/scripted/scored/edited to be able to accept the larger story and actually care what happens to any of the characters. I feel like it could have been a fantastic film or two.

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:01 pm Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:12 pm

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:01 pm Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

The Icelandic show? Yeah, it's good. Love the scandi-scifi.

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:17 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:12 pm

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 21, 2025 8:01 pm Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

The Icelandic show? Yeah, it's good. Love the scandi-scifi.

Yup, that's one, good to know it stays good so

Was on holiday in Iceland/vik 2 weeks ago so enjoying it all the more for that

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 4:16 pm I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Banquo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 6:04 pm

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 4:16 pm I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Landman was great, also enjoying Mobland

Numbers wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 11:35 am

Banquo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 6:04 pm

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 4:16 pm I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Landman was great, also enjoying Mobland

Yeah, I'm watching Mobland too, it's good other than Pierce Brosnan's Irish accent which is appalling considering he's Irish.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Sun May 04, 2025 9:28 pm The current (and possibly last??) season of Doctor Who is halfway through, and it's noticeably better than the last one. All the episodes are at least as good as the best of last season (IMO 'Dot and Bubble'), albeit not a high bar. New companion Belinda is unremarkable but likeable and believable (perhaps because she's not presented as brilliant every 5 minutes) and Varada Sethu acts well.

The Robot Revolution: the worst episode. Childish designs, plot holes and the line 'planet of the incels' crowbarred in without much justification. I hope some explanation is in the pipeline for the plot mysteries but with Russell T Davies we may just be left hanging.

Lux: this would have fitted in best with the previous season but because of the good production work was enjoyable. Extremely light (see what I did there?) on plot - essentially RTD thought what if the villain was a carton character? that's it, story done, no more work needed. More work would have been appreciated. Lux (the character) was well designed and realized but that was it really. And the resolution just made no sense, even in a story where pretty much anything could happen.

The Well: the best 15th Doctor episode so far, by some distance: in fact, a good episode of Doctor Who. Not without its faults but a solid sci-fi mystery/monster story. Yes, the monster's MO is a bit too fiddly and complex, and the link to an old episode doesn't really add anything but most of what we see is high quality. Sethu is very good in this.

Lucky Day: I didn't really enjoy this one although I can't pick too many holes in the story. But its just a Ruby Sunday and Unit story, and that makes it really tedious. About 10 minutes in I was reaching for the tablet to read something more interesting. Yeah, it did liven up but I just find Ruby boring. I don't know if she's badly acted or badly written but she doesn't work for me here. The resolution is very predictable, it must be said.

Puja wrote: ↑Mon May 19, 2025 4:00 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Sun May 04, 2025 9:28 pm The current (and possibly last??) season of Doctor Who is halfway through, and it's noticeably better than the last one. All the episodes are at least as good as the best of last season (IMO 'Dot and Bubble'), albeit not a high bar. New companion Belinda is unremarkable but likeable and believable (perhaps because she's not presented as brilliant every 5 minutes) and Varada Sethu acts well.

The Robot Revolution: the worst episode. Childish designs, plot holes and the line 'planet of the incels' crowbarred in without much justification. I hope some explanation is in the pipeline for the plot mysteries but with Russell T Davies we may just be left hanging.

Lux: this would have fitted in best with the previous season but because of the good production work was enjoyable. Extremely light (see what I did there?) on plot - essentially RTD thought what if the villain was a carton character? that's it, story done, no more work needed. More work would have been appreciated. Lux (the character) was well designed and realized but that was it really. And the resolution just made no sense, even in a story where pretty much anything could happen.

The Well: the best 15th Doctor episode so far, by some distance: in fact, a good episode of Doctor Who. Not without its faults but a solid sci-fi mystery/monster story. Yes, the monster's MO is a bit too fiddly and complex, and the link to an old episode doesn't really add anything but most of what we see is high quality. Sethu is very good in this.

Lucky Day: I didn't really enjoy this one although I can't pick too many holes in the story. But its just a Ruby Sunday and Unit story, and that makes it really tedious. About 10 minutes in I was reaching for the tablet to read something more interesting. Yeah, it did liven up but I just find Ruby boring. I don't know if she's badly acted or badly written but she doesn't work for me here. The resolution is very predictable, it must be said.

I'm now more caught up on the latest season (one episode behind) and have found it a return to form too. The Story and The Engine was good as well, although I am wryly amused that the episode based in Nigeria where the Doctor actually talks about his skin colour is one of the best reviewed, while rated lowest on the public vote on IMDB. Internet people

Lucky Day wasn't my favourite for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the villain was terrifying in terms of being a very real, current issue of influencers and conspiracy theories and weaponised lies, and I really didn't enjoy the reveal scene of him being hateful and smug and confident. It was well done and well acted - he perfectly delivered the "What if the Dunning-Kruger effect was a person" attitude of Tucker Carlson et al - but I see enough of those people wrecking the world in real life and it hit too close to home. Then they went and spoiled it by making him cartoonishly evil. Plus, it was a really weird take to have the moral of the story be, "You are wrong to question powerful secretive organisations because they do know better than you." It was unsurprisingly the same writer as the shitty DefinitelyNotAmazon episode, where the shitty moral was, "Automation is bad because people like working terrible jobs in shit conditions, so a happy ending is for rich corporations to provide more minimum wage jobs and get richer, instead of using the gains from automation to institute luxury gay space communism like in Star Trek".

Also, I'm very much with you that I find Ruby to be incredibly bland and uninteresting, both in terms of characterisation and acting - it's like they typed "Doctor Who young woman companion" into a generative AI and called it job done. It's been a problem for a while - starry-eyed companions simpering about "Oh, Doctor, this is magical" and being overwhelmed by how lovely exploring is, and not paying any attention to the fact that being menaced and imperilled regularly should be quite upsetting and scary. It worked with Rose because she was so young and working minimum wage drudge that she hated, so going backpacking made sense, but the dial's been getting turned up more and more: Clara, Bill, Yaz to a certain extent (hard to tell cause the writing was so shit), then Ruby - companions where if you ask, "Why are you getting in the box again?" there wouldn't really be an answer beyond a moon-faced, "Because I want to see the stars!" Giving Ruby PTSD afterwards just made it worse - you can't retroactively write in that actually it was as traumatic as it felt like it should have been, but we kept going anyway!

Belinda Chandra is far more interesting, as she starts from the novel perspective of not wanting any of this shit. The best bit of the Robot Revolution was her standing him up when he was doing the sales pitch and saying, "Did you say that to her [the prospective companion who died] too?" I like the fact that she's doing this under sufferance and also that she doesn't worship at the Doctor's feet because he's just so goshdarned great. Quite apart from anything else, it'll make it easier when the actor wants to do somehting else, cause they won't have to work out why someone whose main characterisation is they just looooooooved being a companion because it's *so* *wonderful*, abruptly no longer wants to (the two options appear to be death or some bland mush about people needing you, followed by joining UNIT cause you're pining after your glory days).

Puja

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 12:45 am Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a return to form, unless you mean a return to the quality of the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnal years maybe. I still think it's bad, but it's better than last season!

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 12:45 am The Interstellar Song Contest was a bit better. It had a plot. Not a great one but, yes, a plot. But the latching on to Eurovision and the sycophancy towards Rylan Clark and Graham Norton are, for me, signs of a show that doesn't take itself seriously, a lightweight incarnation of the show. As for the plot . . .

► Show Spoiler

it was all wrapped up too easily.

The sonic screwdriver is totally overpowered in this episode - making any device explode at the press of a button (why not use it on Daleks?). It's so powerful that I don't understand why he didn't just press a button and remotely foil the bad guy's plan at the start.

Not sure why he didn't confetti-gun himself to the Tardis - that would have fixed all his problems.

But the worst thing was the Doctor being 'triggered' and brutally torturing the villain. What the hell was that about? The Doctor should never do that (nor should he carry a weapon - which is what the sonic was this episode) - that's absolutely crossing a line.

The backstory about the persecuted Hellions was good, but as with many things in these 45 minute shows, there isn't time to do it justice.

Oh, yeah, and the Rani? Does anyone care that she's a minor villain returning? Please, not another bi-generation. So if Mrs Flood was just another time lord, why was she breaking the fourth wall all last season? That suggested she was something more powerful. Ah well, RTD doesn't need to make sense.

All told, it just about held together but had some big flaws. At least hanging on the coattails of the real song contest seems to have got it a few more viewers, unlike episodes 2-5, which are the 4 lowest rated episodes of all time.

Numbers wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 1:05 pm I finished the first series of Mobland and that was pretty good all in all, Paddy Considine and Tom Hardy are particularly good in it as the sweary Mirren tho her character is a bit OTT imo.

Department Q on Netflix is quite good

Mad Unicorn on Netflix which is a Thai film about a young entrepreneur based on a true story, entertaining.

Just started watching Modern Family and I'm enjoying that so far, unsurisingly really as I liked married With Children back in the day.

Sirens on Netflix was also good, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon star.

Puja wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 9:17 am

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 12:45 am Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a return to form, unless you mean a return to the quality of the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnal years maybe. I still think it's bad, but it's better than last season!

I'd say it's way above Chibnall, which was mostly unrelenting turds of episodes, one after the other - Whitaker got badly shafted by the writing and it's a shame cause she did so well with what she had that she could've been a fantastic doctor.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 12:45 am The Interstellar Song Contest was a bit better. It had a plot. Not a great one but, yes, a plot. But the latching on to Eurovision and the sycophancy towards Rylan Clark and Graham Norton are, for me, signs of a show that doesn't take itself seriously, a lightweight incarnation of the show. As for the plot . . .

► Show Spoiler

it was all wrapped up too easily.

The sonic screwdriver is totally overpowered in this episode - making any device explode at the press of a button (why not use it on Daleks?). It's so powerful that I don't understand why he didn't just press a button and remotely foil the bad guy's plan at the start.

Not sure why he didn't confetti-gun himself to the Tardis - that would have fixed all his problems.

But the worst thing was the Doctor being 'triggered' and brutally torturing the villain. What the hell was that about? The Doctor should never do that (nor should he carry a weapon - which is what the sonic was this episode) - that's absolutely crossing a line.

The backstory about the persecuted Hellions was good, but as with many things in these 45 minute shows, there isn't time to do it justice.

Oh, yeah, and the Rani? Does anyone care that she's a minor villain returning? Please, not another bi-generation. So if Mrs Flood was just another time lord, why was she breaking the fourth wall all last season? That suggested she was something more powerful. Ah well, RTD doesn't need to make sense.

All told, it just about held together but had some big flaws. At least hanging on the coattails of the real song contest seems to have got it a few more viewers, unlike episodes 2-5, which are the 4 lowest rated episodes of all time.

Thank you for the spoiler tag - I have now watched the episode. I did actually end up bring spoiled for the reveal of

► Show Spoiler

the Rani, although it wasn't exactly a massive issue cause all I knew about her was the name and that she's blatantly going to be just used as nostalgia-bait. Right there with you on the bigeneration thing - the entire concept was a fanfiction-level fix-it-bodge to give Tennant a happy ending (which I wasn't necessarily against, but by gods was it twee and contrived) and I'd rather we just pretended it didn't happen and forgot about it going forwards. RTD is using it here to try and artificially recreate the fun of double-Master episodes and it feels just as cheap as it actually is.

The bit about the Doctor being triggered and torturing the villain has some potential, as long as it's followed up on. If it's an example of him falling apart when alone like Tennant's fuck-the-rules bit of "Timelord Victorious", then I'm interested. If that, "Yeah, it triggered me," is all the resolution we get, then I agree it's weird and out-of-character. I was expecting Belinda to react with fear and a loss of trust, but she seemed to take someone torturing an unarmed prisoner in her stride - guess you can take the girl out of Britain...

The Hellions thing has so much underused potential - people displaced by an invasion and then treated like an invasion of vermin everywhere they went was very topical, but then they backed off it. Especially the bit about the Doctor branding the guy irredeemably evil and wicked in his heart - feels like there was an interesting story there to be told about how terrorists aren't always some different breed of immutable monster and, more often than not, they're just ordinary people subjected to an extraordinary situation until they break/become radicalised/just happen to throw a stone and get thrown in a dungeon.

But that'd probably be too topical and empathetic a take for the BBC and their current policy of, "Defending yourself includes ethnic cleansing now."

Puja

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 2:37 pm And now, the finale, Wish World and The Reality War. This was effectively two stories: the series-ending conflict with the Rani(s) and the possibly show-ending section which finishes Gatwa's time as the Doctor.

The Rani story had a few promising elements and a whole lot of arbitrary, made-up-on-the-fly events. Altogether it made very little sense while it cheerfully trampled over continuity and logic. Just a selection of the problems:

► Show Spoiler

How does the Rani know that the Wish Baby will be born at that exact time and place, and have those abilities?
Why does the Wish Baby appear as a child whereas all other members of the Pantheon have appeared fully grown with an agenda of their own?
Why does the Rani get Conrad to control the Wish Baby? Surely this is a huge risk (he is hardly the most trustworthy person) when one of the Ranis could have done the job?
Why does only Ruby realise something is wrong? And not the Doctor despite finding himself in a heterosexual relationship . . . which surely must ring some alarm bells?
Why does the 'doubt' of a Time Lord have such power? Wouldn't that have caused reality to be shredded when there were billions of Time Lords?
Why didn't the Rani simply cause one of her selves to have big doubts and break Omega out all by herself?
Why mess with the Earth when surely the Wish Baby could have just wished up a fake one?
Why not just wish for Omega to be released?
Why not just wish for the Time Lords to exist again?
How did Anita know when and where to open the door to save the Doctor?
Why was the Doctor talking about the Time Lords' sterility as an established fact when it's totally new this episode?
How do Ruby and the Doctor know that kissing the baby grants them wishes?
Why does the Doctor have the only working Tardis in the universe when we know there should be many others (and that's just what we know of) - Clara's, the 14th Doctor's, the Rani's - and what difference does this make to the plot anyway?
How does Ruby's teleporter take her exactly where she needs to go?
How is the vindicator now a super-powerful gun? Don't know but it sure helped the plot.
Etc etc etc

More general issues:
Although the fake life the Doctor is living is a nice set-up (probably the best thing in the story) it was done a lot better in WandaVision.
What is the point of bringing Omega back if he is nothing whatsoever like he used to be (and his history is rewritten)? It means nothing to new viewers and it will piss off most fans.
We know the Wish World is a fake, so there's no jeopardy. So what if the doctor had hit the ground? He would have just woken up in his bed.
The Rani is just an exposition machine - she spends all her time explaining.
The Unit building's fight with the bone beasts was laughable.

So, broadly speaking, it was a return to the low quality of the previous season. RTD badly needed someone to tell him no, not good enough, write it better.

The last bit was a bit better (most things would be) but ends with a frivolous and truly retrograde casting choice which makes no sense and tries to tie the hands of whoever makes decisions about the future of Who. Issues:

► Show Spoiler

Why is it Ruby who remembers Poppy? Everyone else remembers all the fake Wish World stuff but not Poppy. Surely, if anyone would remember Poppy it would be the Doctor or Belinda who actually seemed to love her?
The Doctor, once convinced that the daughter he can't remember (and was part of a fake reality) really is missing, decides to meddle with reality to bring her back, despite knowing that this will make other small changes, eg ending the existence of other humans, including who knows how many other babies, and no doubt altering the future. But no matter, this is his baby and screw everyone else. Hubris.
Jody Whittaker magically shows up. She just appears and then disappears again by magic. This is how low the standards of the show have fallen. If she has to show up (which she doesn't - she adds little), why not have her Tardis cross paths with Gatwa's?
The Doctor's meddling doesn't have quite the desired effect but profoundly alters Belinda's life. And the Doctor thinks it's okay to leave her like that.
And finally, the regeneration into what looks like Billie Piper. This just makes no sense (even less than Tennant's return). It's totally retrograde. Can we not look forward, to new possibilities? The regeneration should have been left unfinished, or the new Doctor completely unseen by us. As it is, if this is the end for Doctor Who, it is ending on a really bizarre note.

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 4:50 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 2:37 pm And now, the finale, Wish World and The Reality War. This was effectively two stories: the series-ending conflict with the Rani(s) and the possibly show-ending section which finishes Gatwa's time as the Doctor.

The Rani story had a few promising elements and a whole lot of arbitrary, made-up-on-the-fly events. Altogether it made very little sense while it cheerfully trampled over continuity and logic. Just a selection of the problems:

► Show Spoiler

How does the Rani know that the Wish Baby will be born at that exact time and place, and have those abilities?
Why does the Wish Baby appear as a child whereas all other members of the Pantheon have appeared fully grown with an agenda of their own?
Why does the Rani get Conrad to control the Wish Baby? Surely this is a huge risk (he is hardly the most trustworthy person) when one of the Ranis could have done the job?
Why does only Ruby realise something is wrong? And not the Doctor despite finding himself in a heterosexual relationship . . . which surely must ring some alarm bells?
Why does the 'doubt' of a Time Lord have such power? Wouldn't that have caused reality to be shredded when there were billions of Time Lords?
Why didn't the Rani simply cause one of her selves to have big doubts and break Omega out all by herself?
Why mess with the Earth when surely the Wish Baby could have just wished up a fake one?
Why not just wish for Omega to be released?
Why not just wish for the Time Lords to exist again?
How did Anita know when and where to open the door to save the Doctor?
Why was the Doctor talking about the Time Lords' sterility as an established fact when it's totally new this episode?
How do Ruby and the Doctor know that kissing the baby grants them wishes?
Why does the Doctor have the only working Tardis in the universe when we know there should be many others (and that's just what we know of) - Clara's, the 14th Doctor's, the Rani's - and what difference does this make to the plot anyway?
How does Ruby's teleporter take her exactly where she needs to go?
How is the vindicator now a super-powerful gun? Don't know but it sure helped the plot.
Etc etc etc

More general issues:
Although the fake life the Doctor is living is a nice set-up (probably the best thing in the story) it was done a lot better in WandaVision.
What is the point of bringing Omega back if he is nothing whatsoever like he used to be (and his history is rewritten)? It means nothing to new viewers and it will piss off most fans.
We know the Wish World is a fake, so there's no jeopardy. So what if the doctor had hit the ground? He would have just woken up in his bed.
The Rani is just an exposition machine - she spends all her time explaining.
The Unit building's fight with the bone beasts was laughable.

So, broadly speaking, it was a return to the low quality of the previous season. RTD badly needed someone to tell him no, not good enough, write it better.

The last bit was a bit better (most things would be) but ends with a frivolous and truly retrograde casting choice which makes no sense and tries to tie the hands of whoever makes decisions about the future of Who. Issues:

► Show Spoiler

Why is it Ruby who remembers Poppy? Everyone else remembers all the fake Wish World stuff but not Poppy. Surely, if anyone would remember Poppy it would be the Doctor or Belinda who actually seemed to love her?
The Doctor, once convinced that the daughter he can't remember (and was part of a fake reality) really is missing, decides to meddle with reality to bring her back, despite knowing that this will make other small changes, eg ending the existence of other humans, including who knows how many other babies, and no doubt altering the future. But no matter, this is his baby and screw everyone else. Hubris.
Jody Whittaker magically shows up. She just appears and then disappears again by magic. This is how low the standards of the show have fallen. If she has to show up (which she doesn't - she adds little), why not have her Tardis cross paths with Gatwa's?
The Doctor's meddling doesn't have quite the desired effect but profoundly alters Belinda's life. And the Doctor thinks it's okay to leave her like that.
And finally, the regeneration into what looks like Billie Piper. This just makes no sense (even less than Tennant's return). It's totally retrograde. Can we not look forward, to new possibilities? The regeneration should have been left unfinished, or the new Doctor completely unseen by us. As it is, if this is the end for Doctor Who, it is ending on a really bizarre note.

I can answer some of those questions:

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Why does the Rani get Conrad to control the Wish Baby? Surely this is a huge risk (he is hardly the most trustworthy person) when one of the Ranis could have done the job?
Why mess with the Earth when surely the Wish Baby could have just wished up a fake one?
- I believe the point is that changing the whole world isn't a minor wish and needs to be done by someone who genuinely desires and wishes for it, but they also need a world riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies to create the doubt that's powering the plot macguffin, hence UKIPland.

Why not just wish for Omega to be released?
- They do say it requires a lot of power to do, so probably beyond the skills of a wish-granting baby.

Why not just wish for the Time Lords to exist again?
- As above

Why was the Doctor talking about the Time Lords' sterility as an established fact when it's totally new this episode?
- A nerd on the internet directed me to the fact that this is apparently canon from Old Who: https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Loom

How does Ruby's teleporter take her exactly where she needs to go?
- It's a previously established macguffin that taps into the user's thoughts to take them where they want to go - Martha used it back in one of the Tennant episodes.

We know the Wish World is a fake, so there's no jeopardy. So what if the doctor had hit the ground? He would have just woken up in his bed.
- We didn't know that at the time the Doctor was falling - the reveal that the day reset came after that.

The fact that the rest of the questions have the answer as either "Because plot" or "Uhhhh, a wizard did it?" isn't great though. Still, there have been far less internally consistent Dr Who episodes, even back in the glory days. Will agree that the thing with the Bone Beasts and UNIT was utterly risible.

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Agreed on the fact that, "completely rewriting Belinda's existence for the past few years" was considered an acceptable happy ending. Mind, it's on brand for RTD who has a history of shockingly retrograde treatment of female characters - Rose's happy ending was getting a man of her own, Martha and Donna were both given codas in Journey's End showing that they'd achieved their happy ending of being happily married to a man - I'm not surprised that he thought it was okay to just make Belinda a single mum.

I didn't mind Jodie Whittaker getting a brief run, nonsensical though it was. She got so badly screwed over by terrible scripts that most of her run was utterly unwatchable and she deserved having a brief go with a semi-competent writer. Felt more like a "Children In Need additional scene" than an actual part of an episode though.

The worst part of Doctor Who has been the ever increasing time that regeneration takes as each incarnation gets a longer and wankier and more self-indulgent send-off than the last. Ecclestone got a short speech, which was fine, but the rot set in when Tennant got to go on a mid-regeneration victory lap, visit every companion, tie up every loose end, and generally have more denouements than the extended edition of Return of the King. From there on out, it seems like every Doctor had the ability to delay a regeneration as long as they liked, use various bullshit magical powers that it endowed them with on an ad hoc basis, engage in a hundred bits of nostalgia bait, recite an epic poem, and generally allow the leaving actor to engage in a leisurely and lengthy hand job celebrating just how great they were and lean on the fourth wall about how much they were going to miss playing the Doctor.

From a Watsonian perspective, it's really weird watching a character who professes to hate himself suddenly start a solilique about how great he'd actually been, and from Doylist, it's really boring watching Matt Smith pretend he's hallucinating Amy Pond or Peter Capaldi list his requirements for what the Doctor should always be, and it's losing wonderful character opportunities from having a sudden shock change. Just about every regeneration episode could have had a solid 10-20 minutes cut from it and been much better for it.

This particular regeneration was made significantly worse for me by the BBC making the decision to put this front and centre on the BBC News website immediately after the show aired, and before I watched it on Sunday:

In the age of the internet, it must've been really hard to completely hide that this episode was going to have a regeneration and that [Redacted] was going to be there, so why on earth would you go to all that effort to successfully pull that off and then decide that everyone who didn't watch it live could fuck right off?

To add insult to injury, if you click into the article, it actually has the gall to open with, "CAUTION: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS."



On the actual regeneration,

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I agree that it'd be retrograde and cheap if they were actually going with having her as the next Doctor, but I don't think they will. It's RTD poking fun at the bookies always putting her name into the odds when a new Doctor is being cast, plus a talking point and cliff-hanger to drive the internet wild and try and encourage Disney to renew. It'll turn out to be some Bad Wolf/The Moment thing that he'll pull a plot out of his backside for that will take up the first episode back and there'll be a proper Doctor by the end of that episode (assuming that a next episode will happen).

Puja

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Jun 11, 2025 3:13 pm The Gold series 2 - Entertaining viewing

Which Tyler wrote: ↑Wed Jun 11, 2025 8:38 pm And Then Tephere Were None.
2915, but missed me at the time.
Excellent adaptation (yes, they change the rhyme)