“Plus, you were so raw, all of you. And just not afraid of bombing,” Amy Schumer enthuses to Oliver Putnam halfway through the season premiere. “Just really wasting people’s time.” And despite the fact that I groaned to learn that Amy Schumer would feature in the new season, this line made perfect sense with my relationship to Only Murders in the Building. The show is a thorough delight, but so often in its first season hinted at the possibility of going too far and becoming too much. The characters could become charicatures, the bits a little too broad, one fancy guest star too many. I personally wasn’t very impressed with the portrayal of the devoted fans, although I have to admit to enjoying the outcome. That’s also what’s best about the show, though, in that it doesn’t want to cave to standards, it’s not so interested in what other people think is funny, it’s willing to try every joke once. It’s been a while since I’ve felt any show has ever been quite this game to have a good time. (Strange New Worlds is hitting that need pretty hard too.) The success rate, thankfully, has been high, but I had worries about second season sustainability, beyond the characters’ own “murder podcast sophomore season slump.”
The show definitely won out against me this time, although it was sllightly more of a toss up than earllier episodes. First of all, while Amy Schumer as a villain isn’t necessarily a terrible idea, I still have to deal with the Amy Schumer of it all. Plus, there’s now Cara Delevingne, and since I’ve watched her 14 minute house of horrors tour for Architectural Design I can never look her in the face again.
(Particular high/lowlight: the sex pit.)
But there was plenty of great OllieMabel hijinx to assure me that we’re all just here to have fun and solve murders we’ve been framed for. My personal theory? The fans (who were selling those tie-dye sweaters!) did it to generate more content for their favorite podcast. Let the pool begin!
We catch up with the trio as their lives begin taking new shape post-success of the first season and post-third murder. Mabel might have the chance to leave behind all the murder and chaos in her life and become a chic New York artist. Putnam could be optioned by Schumer. Brazzos is getting rebooted and Charlie could be a sexy uncle! All reasons to not continue the podcast, plus the very legitimate one in that they are now persons of interest in the case they are investigating. But once Cinda Canning introduces her murder podcast with them in the spotlight, it’s clear that three will be forced to clear their own names due to the incompetence of the police. A police force which now includes the lovely and lyrical Michael Rapaport, to my, and hopefully everyone’s, delight.
Mabel seems the most at odds with where her life is headed. It seems natural, given her youth, and all she’s experienced, but her story is the most complex and weighted. Her sudden decision to cut her hair and remove herself from her previous life works in name only, but that struggle will be the most interesting to play out. She’s the only who really wants a life outside the building, so does that mean her goal is to move out? While Putnam and Savage are certainly experiencing changes in their fortunes, and that can still have plenty of impact later in life, they don’t seem as fundamentally unhappy as Mabel is, even as genuinely grumpy and lonely as they are. So we’ll see how the show manages to keep finding light in its pitch black comedy.
Notes:
I hate when characters mysteriously vanish, goodbye season 1 boyfriend.
Do: like Mabel’s new haircut. Don’t: like it when straightened. And it’s a big week for haircuts, as I’ve also been catching up on Shining Girls.
The art gallery exterior is also the New Girl Loft and since I recognized it immediately I will also now be distracted every time I see it.
HIS DAD?!?
#bloodymabel is the girl I love, now ain’t that too damn bad
How does one even offer coverage of an episode like that?
The fifth and second-to-last intallment of Flux has a lot to do with survival and offers key background for the Flux, yet doesn’t have much of anything to do with direct survivors of the Flux event. That feels like a pretty good summation of what this episode – many interesting pieces that are kind of fitting together but not delivering on anything that was promised. I’m impressed by how many floating characters have come back to have an actual impact on the plot – who foresaw the Grand Serpent returning as a villain? Yet, while I enjoyed the fan service of early UNIT, I’m not sure why the Serpent is around. From what I recall, he had nothing to do with the Flux, he was simply a morally corrupt character that Vinder interacted and rebelled against. This isn’t to say Craig Parkinson isn’t wonderful in the role, I’d love to see much more of him, but I’m confused as to what he’s doing around. It’s possible I’m simply forgetting a key scene in the third episode that explains all this, but that’s an indicator that there are too many pieces and also this era isn’t exactly known for underexplaining its plots.
On the Doctor side of things, she’s mostly on her own doing Big Plot stuff. Being turned into an Angel was just for fun, you see, so that she could easily be transported to Division. There she has a showdown with her anti-mother, Tecteun, where they get to go off about Tecteun being a horrible person and the Doctor being strong in her morality. Division is the division between universes, and since the Doctor has mucked up the one we know and love so much, Tecteun has decided to move on into another one and start over. I have to give credit for an exciting twist on multiverses being introduced to Doctor Who. They’re all the rage nowadays, since comic book adaptations are so big, but they’ve never been presented quite like this and it’s an exciting new chapter in Who lore. We’ve had multiverses of alternate histories, but never an entirely new universe full of galaxies and unknown planets. While a lot of the details of the Doctor and Tecteun interactions don’t sit well with me, the building blocks of their relationship and antagonism feel like classic Doctor angst. It’s a complex dynamic and the construction of a formidable villain who is both incredibly powerful but deeply flawed….which is why it’s a shame she’s immediately killed* off and replaced by the glitter demons. Boring. Yawn. Bad choices.
* As far as any villain can truly be killed in Doctor Who. I suspect she might show up again for a later Doctor.
The trio of companions, as Professor Jericho is absolutely a companion now in my book since he is my favorite, are left stranding in the early 20th century looking for clues as to how and why the world will come to an end. That’s basically it. They cover an incredible amount of ground in a frighteningly short time for 1904 travel conditions, fight over who has to be a stowaway, kill a porter assassin and dump him overboard (it happens), and pine for the Doctor. Well, that last one is mostly Yaz, who is extremely gay, oh my god. The yogi was…funny? I think? But the humor fit in oddly with the rest of the episode. They’re all clearly having a ball though, so that’s nice. Can’t wait for the cosplay because all the costumes were gorgeous and adorable. They send a cute message to Karvanista, who doesn’t have time travel so we’ll see how that works itself out. Oh, and then they run into the Liverpool guy who’s been time-and-space hopping and that’s actually because his mine is a nexus point through which every door is a portal and through that portal a bunch of Sontarans jump through because they’re still bent on world domination although they were thoroughly routed in 1800s.
Karvanista is busy anyway because of a fourth plotline, where one of the Lupa broke shield formation leaving the earth vulnerable. Karv has to recall the last rogue Lupa ship and you know why it was rogue? Because it was the one Bel stole. Just as Bel is about to land on the planet that Vinder lands on, she gets recalled to earth. Vinder then gets sucked into a Passenger and meets Diane, Dan’s lady interest. Which I guess is a thirty second fifth plotline. It’s amazing how all the characters are connecting to each other on this intricate web, but it feels as though the web is wildly spinning out of control. So Karv and Bel bicker but then both team up against the larger threat, which is the Sontarans attacking earth. So I guess they’re attacking earth through time. Which means having the Lupari protect earth from the Flux in only 2021 makes NO sense because it’s both a time and space disease and sometimes I just wish this series would go small instead of large. What happened to the well-prepared meal ethos?
When it comes to the “good” Chibnall episodes – and I will admit this is a good one as it was engaging to watch – it can’t be said that the writing is lazy. The bad episodes have lazy writing but the good episodes have incomplete writing. The writers are there, they want to suceed, they’re invested in these ideas, but they still can’t get everything to click into a cohesive and character-driven narrative. We’re stuck with loose ends and bad plot decisions masked as twists and so many characters it almost seems like a distraction from how nothing is sticking together. I’m always an adovcate of trying hard and failing versus not trying at all, which is why I don’t condemn the Chibnall era, but…I can’t say I enjoy it either. It’s both too much and not enough. I doubt the finale of Flux will be fulfilling (and on the other hand ‘who cares? it was a fun ride’) but it also will be a relief.
Notes:
yes, I’m absolutely zero fun, hate parties, and eat puppies – why do you ask?
the Alisdair cameo has raised UNIT dating questions as well as others
but then again, it might not have been Alisdair but Alasdair, solving multiple problems at once. this is the Who I live for
also KATE STEWART was in this ep, then went dark, but is probably coming back next week. that didn’t even make it into the review!!
Village is a pretty good episode that has very little to do with the Flux.
Admittedly, I’m a shoe-in for anything set in the 60’s, and Claire’s mod earrings and makeup is nothing to sneeze at, but this episode also features some of the strengths of the Chibnall era. Big creaky houses and mysteries, quietly strong characters, negotiations and betrayals, have all become hallmarks of the 13th Doctor. Part of it is that the hour feels pleasantly stuffed with characters and plot, unlike other episodes that are either overreaching or undercooked (happy Thanksgiving, Americans), leading to endless repetition.
The Angel that stole the TARDIS at the end of the last episode takes the crew to a small Devon village in 1967 where everyone is quietly disappearing and the stone markers in the graveyard are slowly multiplying. Claire, who ran up to the Doctor in the first episode, has been trasported back to the 60s and is undergoing brain monitoring by professor Eustasius Jericho. (Why she has agreed to do this is unclear but my guess is mid-century boredom.) Claire sees things in the future, which I guess is an accepted human trait now, and has seen a Weeping Angel in a vision, allowing the Angel to take root in her brain. That Angel is being tracked down by THE DIVISION (dun dun dun) and so a horde of other Angels are closing in on Claire to try to get at their bounty. Along the way, why not wipe out a community? They send villagers from the 60s back to the 1901, and because there’s an Angel back then too, many of the villagers get attacked again, for a final time. Touch an Angel once, get your time potential stolen; touch an Angel twice, crumble into stone. So the Angels in 1967 clear out a village, sending everyone back to 1901, and then clear out the 1901 village again. Because, you know, a quantum-locked alien’s gotta eat.
This is bad news for Dan and Yaz, who in their search for a missing 10 year old girl, get taken with the other villagers back to 1901. Unlike Amy and Rory, my guess is the Doctor will actually go back for them. Which I guess brings me to the question of how Angels gather the future lived energy from time travelers? But whatever, they’re wonderfully creepy again. I could have done without a lot of the “don’t blink” repetition, and there are certainly plot holes big enough for a kiddie pool but it wouldn’t really be Doctor Who without. The Rogue Angel makes a trade with the DIVISION (dun dun dun) Angels and bargains freedom for…the Doctor. Because the Doctor is number one most wanted on the DIVISION (dun dun dun) list and even though the….organization is everyone and everywhere, tracking all of time and space, the Doctor is only finding this out now. I smell a set up. The D…the DIV (dun) is absolutely a thing that just inserted itself into the timeline out of the blue. I bet it’s like…five years old, technically.
The Flux chapter happens on the edges of the story, through Vinder and Bel. Bel lands on a planet, witnesses a huge massacre, and leaves. Vinder picks up her trail an unspecified amount of time later. The glitter villains are using the Flux survivors as fuel for passengers. Nothing revolutionary, but I was excited to see more of the post-Flux survival universe and I’m appreciating getting to know Bel and Vinder as separate characters as well as how their interactions are handled. They feel like two people in a relationship instead of the relationship being the definitive thing about them.
It’s clear this season is having the Doctor go all in on revelations about the DIV (dun) and her backstory and that it’s going to tie into the Flux somehow. After this episode I’m curious about how that will happen. Is the Flux a spacetime event orchestrated by the evil organization? There are two left to episodes to find out and I feel like the next one will be exposition heavy.
Notes:
some would say having a WWII vet who liberated Belsen is too easy a shortcut to having a Good and Strong character and I would say those people don’t deserve Doctor Who OR Eustacius Jericho, a goddamn delight
oh and the village is quantum extracted from time and space. does that mean it’s safe from the Flux? my original theory for the episode was that the Angels had done the extraction to warn or protect the Doctor in some way
all these excellent side characters (some of whom are white males!) just highlight how unneccesary Dan is and how weak his characterization feels. but hey, he’s funny
As much as I’ve been down on this season, I’ve tried to approach each episode as an opportunity to be better. And you know what? This episode was pretty okay. I mean, it was okay. It wasn’t great, it’s never going to be held up as a standout Doctor Who episode, or even a standout Jodie episode, but it was solid. It didn’t actively upset me. I cared about the characters and the story potential. It, in most ways, made sense, even if a lot of the way that context was delivered was in the standard Chibnall infuriating explain-simple-things-as-though-they’re-incredibly-complicated style. But you know, looking on the bright side this week. As JPC on Hey Riddle Riddle has decided about this being the year of loving riddles, this is the week I love Doctor Who whether or not I like it.
that’s about the state of things
The episode starts with Yaz about to die and in order to save her, the Doctor throws everyone into an unfettered time energy vortex thingy and to prevent all that super powerful energy from ripping everyone apart, the characters disappear into their own time streams of past, present, and future. Basically, we get everyone’s backstories, although to make it ~ interesting ~ it’s presented in a chopped up, non-linear fashion and occasionally the Doctor appears as a hologram to send out warnings.
The character this best serves is Vinder, as we actually get a complete storyline and a reason to care about his survival. I mean, yeah, the pregnant girlfriend stuff (we’ll get to Bel), but also mostly because he’s a whisteblower with a healthy cynicism for authority. My favorite kind of companions! It’s potentially the actor, who charmed me from the first with his ‘go to hell’ sign off, but it’s amazing how much I feel like I know and care about Vinder compared to Dan with significantly less screen time. Dan’s story peaked with his conversation about his doomed relationship with his fiancee, which did provide interesting sadsack context for his life, but didn’t do much in the way giving him motivation in the present. He’s invested in saving his kinda-girlfriend, but their relationship doesn’t have much personality. And putting her in danger to give him motivation/pathos is just….oh well, it happens. A lot. Sigh.
Yaz gets jolted around the most, first on duty with a coworker who is 80% the Doctor, and then with her sister playing video games. Watching 13 and Yaz hang out on the couch was pretty fun, and at least Yaz knows enough about time travel that 13 can actually carry a conversation with her. Even though it didn’t really push her forward in any way, Yaz’s sister was a fun addition and the exposition had to go somewhere.
Ultimately, the most interesting part of the episode had nothing to do with the Doctor or her companions at all. On the other side of the universe, after the Flux has ravaged thousands of planets, the disarray and power vacuum leaves openings for the Daleks and Cyberman to duke out ultimate power over the dying universe. There’s also something else – a blue pixie dust energy that eats any survivors it can find. And here we find Bel, a nomadic survivor, determined to get a ship and reach her mysterious destination at whatever price. Bel immediately reminded me of companions like Ace and Bernice – people who had already experienced Doctor Who‘s world of time and space without the Doctor. Bel knows how to avoid Daleks and talk to Cybermen, how to pilot a spaceship and feels no shame talking to her tamagochi. We don’t know a lot about Bel, and somehow her being pregnant is an unnecessary shortcut to creating empathy, but I’m certainly rooting for her. Do I care about Bel and Vinder’s relationship? Hard to say – but since I like them so much individually I’m excited to see what they’re willing to do for each other. The grand tragedy of them traveling the cosmos as passing ships in the night is too good to pass up.
“Once, Upon Time” isn’t particularly strong, but it’s solid, and it’s certainly settling the season into a place where it can start doing interesting things in the follow weeks. The fact that we’re halfway through the season already is the only thing giving me pause.
Notes:
got a little behind this week with vacation traveling and streaming issues. should get this week’s episode up tomorrow and then ep 5 will be back on track on sun/mon after I wake up from my american food coma
something particularly intriguing about the daleks patrolling an old castle in the middle of a forest, almost fairy tale-esque
I want an update on Sonya’s Husband Hunting. Also the video game line seemed to confuse a lot of people (including me) but I think we’re meant to believe that scene takes place in Yaz’s future?
Really wanted to get this out yesterday but got a migraine at 6 PM and was out for the day. So it goes.
What makes a good Doctor Who episode? A list of things off the top of my head:
adventure with an edge of horror, usually gothic
characters playing different versions of themselves
going undercover
a villain who chews scenery like raisin bran
gallifrey lore
the master, usually
getting involved on a personal level with a major historical event
rocket launches
taking down a political tyrant, who may or may not have your face
robots who have a different survival agenda than humans
running around paris
or amsterdam
the doctor dealing with grief and loss
a dimension of the universe outside our understanding where strange, inexplicable things can happen
the TARDIS has something to say
I made this (very incomplete) list as a reminder, mainly to myself, that there are lots of things that make a compelling Doctor Who episode. When the phrase ‘Doctor Who can do anything and be anything’ gets parroted from producer to fan, it’s usually framed as a positive thing. The show can run forever! It will never get boring! But what I’m finding more and more in my reactions of late is that the show can do and be anything, but those things aren’t necessarily good. It’s great that the show can do whatever it wants, because it means the ability to shed the bad and move on quickly. It’s a way to adapt, not a way to be.
Obviously, I’m having a lot of trouble with this series, and I’m endlessly searching for reasons why. It’s not like all the elements I listed above have been absent. I hated Series 7 but was able to acknowledge that the poor, messy writing was a phase, and one bad season was not going to ruin the legacy of the show. (Well, considering how many fans left that season…but anyway). I loved Twelve but at the same time he was not my Doctor. He was a great Doctor, with much better writing than Smith ever got, but there was that little extra bit of Doctor Who magic that was missing for me. And that was okay. Not every Doctor is my Doctor.
I still want to see Jodie at fan conventions, but I worry that looking back on this era in ten years, when fans work to excavate and recuperate its reputation, that I still won’t be able to join in. There is something fundamentally boring about the episode I just watched – and it shouldn’t have been, considering it had servant robots and temples and Crimean front lines and Sontarans and garbage chutes.
The Actual Review of the Episode
The base of the episode is a fairly standard monster of the week plot. The Doctor, in 1855, is faced with convincing a bullheaded commander to not lead his troops to massacre against an overwhelming number of Sontarans. She enlists progressive nurse Mary Seacole to help, as one does. Dan and Yaz are almost immediately whisked away to their own storylines – Dan to modern day Liverpool, which is also overrun by Sontarans, and Yaz to a weird temple in need of repair. It’s a smart way to run parallel narratives through the episode, with the Doctor and Dan dealing with the immediate Sontaran threat while Yaz is caught up in the overarching Flux mystery. The Crimean-Sontaran conflict is most readily reminiscent of two classics, “War Games” and “The Silurians” (if you don’t want constant comparisons to older episodes you have come to the wrong place). The moral conflict of “The Silurians” came from Brig wanting complete domination over the enemy threat and the Doctor trying to convince him that negotiation with a species that actually had pretty legitimate claim over the land might fare better in the long run. I’m not going to say “Silurians” is ‘good’ Doctor Who, but the last confrontation packs a punch because it’s such a personal and moral betrayal of the Doctor. In watching “Sontarans” I kept wishing that the parallels between General Logan and Skaak had been more heavily leaned on, especially in their face off. Despite Logan contantly rattling on about Queen and country and dismissing the Doctor for being a woman, there didn’t seem to be any personal verve or vitriol behind his actions. If the show wanted to make the argument that humans are just as war-eager as Sontarans, where are the scenes that showed that?
In other news, the Sonataran have gotten significantly worse at war. Weapons that kill them from the front? Never heard of shifts? Why invade all history when you can invade the prehistoric era and go from there? Sloppy, you guys, sloppy.
The other pet peeve specific to this era is Dan just being on board with the Doctor after maybe twenty minutes. Taking camera diary footage narrated specifically for the Doctor seems a little extreme, and we never get a reason why Dan would want to travel with Doctor over, say, his personally assigned savior. I found his fraught relationship with Karvanista much more compelling and plausible. Karvanista as a character seems to work because although ‘dog alien’ is perhaps one of the broadest strokes of character, he is fundamentally a dog despite his better self, and there’s a ton to work with there! While I enjoyed Dan’s comedy, and especially the shots of him waddling around with a frying pan, his particularly brand of cluelessness only took off when paired with Karvanista’s frustration and disdain for humanity.
Which sort of brings me to my last question in this neverending search: Is Flux fun?
A show doesn’t have to be good to be fun, and I know for a fact by evidence of my tears that this show doesn’t have to be fun to be good. But there’s an emptiness at the core to the storytelling here that lacks excitement or pleasure or angst or heartbreak. I mean, could Doctor Who be depressed?
End notes:
Swarm in particular shows promise as a campy and unnecessarily extra villain (my fave) but it’s still hard to connect through the make-up. More often than I not I have to use subtitles.
Yaz didn’t get much to do except wander around a temple and get threatened. Vinder was similarly occupied and didn’t even get as many lines. I was still happy to see him but if he becomes a romantic lead for Yaz I will scream.
so is the sontaran-british war now just…a part of history? instead of the russians? how does that work? what about Sontar the country? crimean war seems like a pretty fixed point in time, in which case, time will fix itself and all those soldiers wouldn’t have died which is even less reason to care. I need this era to explain things to me, just not the things it’s been explaining over and over (like charging up a phone. I understand how charging up a phone works)
the visuals in this ep aside from the LOTR moment were pretty neat
I’m trying not to be a downer bitch about this series, I’m really not
Next week:
Cybermen! Weeping Angels! Falling! Mid-season!
If you want to support me, or even just to spite me, consider donating a cup of caffeine to my kofi
Here we are folks, a new season of Doctor Who, and if we’re to believe the trailer, it’s the most epic adventure yet.
So, you know, business as usual.
Last night I sat down with some leftover Halloween treats and readied myself for a new Who format after almost two years of drought.
Before we dig into this episode and season, I realize I haven’t written weekly reviews of the series before and, considering the vastness of fandom and the millions of opinions out there, I think it’s important to share where I stand in all this.
My Best Version of the show lies somewhere between the Second and Fifth Doctor. At its peak it’s kind of like a science nerd that doesn’t quite get the whole picture but the spirit is there. Someone who inspires excitement, revels in mischief, capable of a dry joke or two, and is forced to make some horrible decisions. Although I love all Doctors, Three and Four probably rank lowest on my list – I just don’t connect as well, although I recognize some of Four’s high points and particularly love Leela.
I started with New Who, so Ninth is my first Doctor, and it’s pretty tough for me in general to rank New Doctors. Each one had such a huge impact on the show and came with the pros and cons of the showrunner. Do I pick Eleven for being my perfect Doctor, even though his last year and half was full of Moffat trash? Do I pick Twelve for a wonderfully complex Doctor even though I had issues with Missy and straight up hated Nardole? Ultimately, it might just be too soon to know. Maybe it takes twenty or thirty years for a Doctor to properly settle in our minds.
THAT SAID.
I haven’t been a huge fan of the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s by far not the fault of Jodie Whittaker, who is doing all she can with the role. Although the companions are a little more hit and miss, I don’t mind them much either. Honestly, there’s something about the new seasons that can sometimes be good television but aren’t always good Doctor Who. As a fan, it’s a hard aura to pin down and describe, and it’s certainly different for every person. Doctor Who can be poorly written, woodenly acted, haphazardly thrown together by the props departement, defunded, censored, and canceled, but there is a core that remains Who-ish. Basically, even when Ace is running around through plastic sheets or crawling in a TARDIS that can no longer afford to have its lights on, it still feels like you’re watching the same show as “Robots of Death.” “The Lazarus Experiment” is the same show as “Hell Bent,” etc.
I love that Doctor Who is a show that can reboot itself and try new formats and styles, can constantly play around with what stories it tells and how – it can choose to focus on the companions, on the Doctor, on the monsters (my least favorite, granted), on the science, on space opera, on history, on anything really. It’s very impressed upon fans, and subsequently espoused by fans, that the show can be any thing at any time and that it’s all the same show. Which is why I’m struggling so hard to articulate how that’s all still very true and at the same time Chibnall’s era doesn’t feel right to me. Series 12 was a huge improvement on Series 11, granted, and I’m still sitting tight for Series 13 and whatever it brings me, but the best episodes of Series 12 were rooted in a particular genre (horror and spy) that I don’t see reflected in this premiere. Although the show has a definite new style and sensibility, and it can often be quite beautiful, that style often mutes the emotions and energy out of the show.
This era is very keen on asking questions, particularly the Doctor asking questions, like, “why is this happening to me,” “why don’t I know about this,” “what’s this guy’s real deal,” “for what reason do these aliens want to invade Earth.” And while these are all very valid questions, they’re set up like central mysteries to the show that are supposed to get viewers interested. But it’s Doctor Who, we’ve had sixty years of Earth invasions! For ages and ages the Doctor has been targeted by enemies – it’s not that big a deal! Pushing every day questions to the forefront really makes the show and writing look weak, like it’s grasping at straws to hold the audience’s attention. It’s like yes, okay, I get that there’s a big monster out there, can we get back to that conversation about the Doctor being awful to her friends? No matter how many times we have that conversation it never feels properly addressed. I’m one of the people who is simply going to patiently wait for the tides to turn, this isn’t the death knell of the show by any means, but I am quite confused by a lot of the decisions being made. While trying to keep as open a mind about this series as possible, it’s inevitable that some of that bias will seep in.
The Actual Review of the Episode
So let’s start with the things I liked! Being Chapter One, of a six-episode overarching story a la “Trial of the Time Lord,” there were quite a few concepts and characters introduced. The Lupari are extremely cute, and I loved their obligatory bond with a human. I wonder how both people who prefer cats and people who are cats feel about this. Karvinista’s little fluffy ears were a highlight. Are there different breeds of Lupari?
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Karvanista (Craige Els)
The guy who worked at Observation Outpost Rose? Pretty dope. I cared about him because they gave him a sense of humor and I could feel how lonely and stranded he felt out there. He fit so much character (wonder at the universe, pissed off at his boss) into his short screen time! More of that guy please. I keep thinking Rose is obviously going to tie into this somehow although I’m willing to just let fandom do that work. I would be so tired if it actually happened but it’s something I would expect anyway.
I love it when the TARDIS goes wonky.
Glitter demons? Fairly rad. Like, medium rad. I don’t really care about how evil they are or their history with the Doctor (are you trying to retcon the Master, really???) but the sister has bomb ass blue glitter eyeshadow and the affect they have while disintegrating people is pretty. Also glitter demons is pretty great as a monster concept. I wish they took themselves just a bit less seriously, but this era isn’t really going for camp, is it. Or is it? Hard to tell.
The episode did a lot of work to set up a problem on an epic scale. It also, obliquely, continued some of the themes and questions of “The Timeless Child.” (Writing down how I feel about that development would take another thousand or so words so I’ll just skip it for now.) The Flux, we learn, is a huge mass in space of…something… that is disintegrating everything in its path, causing planets to fold in on themselves and wiping out galaxies. So, our overarching enemy is a faceless object/concept that apparently can’t be stopped. This makes the Sontarans happy, as they prepare for war and continue to be awkward comic relief. This makes the Lupari work to save humanity and protect the earth. The Weeping Angels react by…being around. The Doctor’s oldest enemy that she can’t even remember and whose name didn’t even stick with me (it’s Swarm) is re-establishing long dormant psychic links and generally excited to rehash centuries old rivalries because turning people into glitter is fun. And while Swarm is a visible face to the evil this season, the heavy prosthetics and masks make it incredibly hard for the actor to emote and get anything across the the screen. Dampening. While an alien lifeform unlike the corporeal ones we generally know it’s an instant plot killer – at least Star Trek doesn’t seem to think so – it is a much more difficult narrative to handle, and I’m not sure I have confidence in the current Doctor Who team to do it. So far the Flux has killed a bunch of planets and hovered menacingly in the atmosphere while people react to it. Maybe learning more about it (and the way it moves, if it can be directed somewhere) will make the arc and themes clearer.
My new boyf (not Dan)
Dan, now joining the crew, probably only through happenstance for these six episodes, certainly has listable personality qualities, but I don’t feel them. I know he’s selfless, loves Liverpool, doesn’t mind impersonating a tour guide, is too proud to take donated food, lives to help others, likes football, and likes to smile – but everything he does and says still feels very ho hum and by the numbers. I think is part of the mattefying effect I was talking about earlier, but there hopefully a future episode will give more nuance. It’s funny, though, how quickly I took the the bored station worker who very endearingly signed off to his superiors. In terms of quick character sketches and introductions, it’s a lesson in polar opposites.
I can’t help but feel a little indifferent to this chapter. There has certainly been worse Who, but, as is almost always the case with Chibnall, there has certainly been better. It’s mediocrity becomes a sort of exhaustion because you’re just waiting for the show to do something – and then when it swings for the fences it’s almost too much at once with no pay off. We were introduced to a couple in one scene and they died in the next. If we were supposed to care about them the show didn’t communicate it very well. This episode was heavy on set up and teasing out where the rest might lead, so by nature it was never going to be the best of the season. By introducing all the familiar (and unfamiliar) monsters and setting up some personal mysteries, we got some cute setpieces (I particularly enjoyed the good use of angels again) but mostly just characters standing around telling the viewer who they are. How does 1820s Liverpool tie in? Who can say, we’ll find out next week.
End Notes:
what the hell is with an indescribably old monster, straight out of supermax prison saying “trick or treat” straight to the camera as some sort of threat directed at the Doctor. Why did Yaz repeat it. Why was it supposed to feel significant in any way? I’m tired.
the use of “long way round” makes me a) incredibly excited and b) hope we’ll see Gallifrey by the end of the seeires
a lot of nice history nods in this one: nitro-9, the TARDIS doors landing sideways, Scottish voice activation
Yaz and the Doctor just have a mattress casually set up in the TARDIS console roome presumably for soft landings and…other things
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