Happy holidays everyone, thank you all for stopping by! My review of Church on Ruby Road will be available sometime in January, followed up by 5-part review series of Torchwood: Children of Earth. In hindsight, I can definitely appreciate the idea that Tennant's Doc (who always set his sights on being selfless) would be able to see the fruits of his labours by "retiring". I'm still left conflicted due to the fact he was gifted another TARDIS. I'm not sure if the original plan was to recreate the old TARDIS interior but I still can't settle on the idea of the Doctor settling down if he can still run around in time and space whenever he pleases. I believe it was done to tease his potential return in future episodes, but as we saw in the 50th anniversary - Tennant always can return. For me, banishing the metacrisis Doctor meant he could not return for the logistical nightmare that is having duplicate Tennants on screen (we saw how hit and miss that was VFX wise in Wild Blue Yonder). The bigeneration was a beautiful was of tackling that issue, and as much as I believe Gatwa didn't get enough to chew on in this episode.. neither did any of the previous Doctors in their first appearances. I'm so unbelievably excited to have Gatwa shine on his own (as he tremendously does in a show like Sex Education) and will truly be Christmas gift to see him as the Doctor.
Saw the Christmas day special. Gatwa lacks the Gravitas to play the Dr. Matt Smith in contrast while playing as him a young man also played him as 900 year old being with a young mans face. Gatwa doesn't do that but he's Oscar worth compared to the Companion whose so bland. To be frank none of that matters because the writing was atrocious. Rusty already said they are going away from Sci Fi to Fantasy and it showed. Goblins..... then theres the usual coincidences and contrivance galore. Plus that ridiculous musical number. Sorry but Ruby Road was bad it really was
Honestly I think this episode (the giggle) did Gatwa dirty. They have him run around in his underwear for no reason and they didn't give him a proper regeneration entrance and Rusty made up the Bi Generation crap as an excuse to bring David Tennant back if Gatwa fails and they clearly think he will. Rusty return is almost as bad as Chibnalls run in some respects. I rewatched the Silence in the Library 2 parter and The Day of the Doctor and the writing quality is as different as night and day
Bit late but I did read that during the first Russell T Davies Dr Who run that Steven Moffat was basically an uncredited writer and a gave a lot of help writing the scripts not just his own individual episodes .That makes sense because the writing in this was terrible. It really was bad writing 1 o 1 and showed Rusty doesn't care about Dr Who. He came back for the paycheck nothing else. He's not even trying
@@MaccamatBuxNo. 😂 And even if Russell spelled that out in Unleashed, that’s poor writing to not have such a strange character quirk explained in episode.
The biggest thing for me is - the Toymaker, a being that transcends time, can turn bullets into flowers and teleport, the world is at his fingertips. How does he get defeated? He loses a game of catch. He was hyped up so much, "Donna get back to the TARDIS"... The Doctor is terrified of him, and he gets defeated because he can't catch a ball lmao.
That was covered within the episode, he respects the rules of play. Rules of physics or combat, not so much lol. But when people engage in actual gameplay with him, he won't cheat.
Yeah. It was lame. The big bad loses a game of catch and that's it. Really? Should have known that a long time ago and they could have sorted him out way back when.
There is nothing racist about a European man dressing in Chinese clothing. Just like an Asian man wearing a suit and tie isn’t racist. Or the alien Doctor wearing a Uboat captain costume.
The reason the Toymaker was dressed in Chinese robes was a reference to the Trilogic Game he plays with the Doctor being the Towers of Hanoi. Throughout the serial the Toymaker's various henchmen also dress up in a thematically appropriate costume for each of the various games that the Doctor's companions go through, except this dressing up element of the story has been mostly forgotten because 3 out of 4 episodes from the serial have been lost. Outside of the title of the first episode and the overall accepted title of the serial, the word "celestial" is only used to refer to the Toymaker once when he's first named by the Doctor, and for the rest of the story he's simply called the Toymaker. These two points are important here, because they're the basis for the fan misconceptions. They're the reasons which led to the Toymaker being consistently referred to as the Celestial Toymaker in fanzines and non-TV stories, and consistently portrayed in the mandarin robes. This tied both the Chinese imagery and the "celestial" adjective together in the popular fan perception of the Toymaker, and so both eventually led to this latter-day accusation of the Toymaker being racist, which RTD has now legitimised. It's ironic because The Celestial Toymaker is objectively the most racist story in all of Classic Who anyway, for reasons entirely unrelated to the Toymaker himself.
I read that he was in Chinese robes because they didn't have any budget for the show and had to raid the set of a "Marco Polo" show for costumes and props?
@@jonathancampbell5231I always found it funny how some classic fans rip into the Celestial Toymaker for his costume but gush lovingly over Marco Polo which has the similar or same costume and blackface 😂.
@@Mark-nh2hsfucking true that! Same folks want The Wheel in Space reanimated despite having one of the most racist characters in classic Who included throughout!
@@jonathancampbell5231 That may be true I haven’t heard of that detail but I’m explaining the costume’s role in the story which is to be a reflection of the game that the Toymaker plays with the Doctor
I still dont know why him wearing chinese clothing makes it racist? Also i just watched the classic episode the other day, what part of it was objectively racist? From what i remember theres a game with clowns, then theres a game with playing cards and dolls, a scene in a kitchen and a hopscotch game. I'm not sure what part of that is objectively racist? I would say out of all the episodes that could be considered racist would be the aztec one where its clear even in black and white some of the cast had darkened their skintone but even then it was probably more to do with budget and the state of the world at the time rather than racism.
I agree with what you said about the celestial toymakers name to be bang on. How can you see a multidimensional god like being or whatever he is in an episode of doctor who and think celestial meant anything other than from space
I’m generally opposed to the “Immortal, omnipotent being beyond our understanding actually has a huge passion for late 20th/early 21st century pop culture” trope… but in this case, I’ll allow it 🤣
@@Longshanks1690 I think it sorta works considering if he's implanted his giggle in all the screens including social media ones then he must have seen some songs and stuff. He was probably just trying to... toy.. with them 🫡
"not a bad episode but it could've been better" is probably the best way I can describe all three of the specials. They were so strong but hit bumps along the way. Best episodes we've had in years but there was definitely room for improvement.
NPH was definitely the highlight of this episode, and tbh I love that he kinda acts surprised at both Clara being killed by a bird (just that short pause he does like he’s checking he’s right) and later during the whole bigen thing Tennants face when the Toymaker was talking about Bill was also beautiful. While Amy and Clara both made their choices, Bill really felt much more like a bystander with the closest thing being her admitting to be human getting her killed. While overall it has some mixed parts, what it does right it really does right and the acting was just so good !
Also, Bill was just a kid. I know she was technically an adult but she still felt like one. She still lived with her foster mom and more importantly, the Doctor took responsibility for her. He said so; he had a duty of care. And while Clara and Amy were thrilled by the danger and were even seeking it out themselves at times, Bill was genuinely scared that Missy would get her killed. The Doctor dismissed her concerns and she died.
Honestly, feels like a cop-out. It's a way to keep David around as an emergency button, but then the whole episode had me kinda wanting something more. Like if we really were heading to Tennant's retirement story, we didn't really have enough relevance on the connection between his internal conflict and settling down. Feels like a bandaid to a headache, a perceived cure that does nothing, just cause it was just blurted out at the end. And it takes away from the fact that we have another Doctor we're supposed to focus on when we've mostly had Tennant's story on the fore. So really, it's just super disjointed. It's like many people doing what they want in a story that cannot accommodate all their agendas, so we have a very jarring collab of creative direction.
disagree, its good the show actually addressed all the years of trauma the doctor went through and for a 60th anniversary part of him gets to retire and that's more than well deserved.
I don’t feel like it was a cop-out at all. I feel like it was closure for that era of Doctor Who and specifically that Doctor, (he deserved a happy, dignified ending which he didn’t get before) and now we’re moving on.
@@michaelwoods1701Nah it’s not a retcon cuz everything still happens as it does, it’s just now that 15 is free of all that trauma and has a fresh start
One thing I thought was missing was any sort of depiction of the humans coming back to their senses after the satellite was taken down. I was expecting some wide-eyed bewilderment as the mental fog was lifted and everyone saw the devestation around them. But nope! The actual carnage of the "alien invasion" really took that much of a backseat that not a moment was given to the resolution of what was going on outside of the ivory tower.
One thing? How about in the meep ep when rose went from being "trapped" to suddenly at the controls and magically knowing which buttons to switch to reverse the effect of mind control/blow up the ship/etc? And that said buttons are handily left out so that they can be pressed to thwart the baddie? uggh
@@techniqueswithtodd lol yeah. I was only talking about the episode featured in this video, but that scene was really bad too. The return of RTD has been pretty great, it's a shame it has to be marred by stupid crap like that being jammed into it.
3:00 Seeing those clips of RTD being all self righteous, and mocking fans for caring about inconsistencies, like the clothes regenerating without explanation, makes me feel like his ego has been boosted way too much! I guess he is on his Showrunner Victorious arc! And I thought Chibnall was insufferable!
I had a blast with the episode, very unique and finally a happy ending for Tennant. NPH was phenomenal, and I think the new doctor is gonna be a ton of fun. I was sceptical of how RTD would wrap up the specials, but he definitely stuck the landing for me.
I never thought in a million years I’d ever want the show to end, but honestly my truest feeling is that it should’ve all ended with Capaldi, I think that might just have been as beautiful an ending as we will ever get.
My mates prefered this one ovr the other two, which is fair enough but I was so confused that none of them thought the defeat of the toymaker was anticlimactic. It feels good having someone else repeat your opinion. Wild blue was definently my favourite of these three, the ending to that had me genuinely tense. Cheers for these excellent reviews Harry!
No, it just felt like a returning villain that happened to have a longer gap than usual. There was no previous character or story arc that was resolved on screen. The 50th anniversary, however, delved into the Time War and how it the Doctor personally, provided some resolution and closure to that defining part of his life and instilling hope for the character’s future, as well as bringing back old characters that helped push the overall narrative forward, rather than being more of a monster-of-the-week. Then there’s the fact that a lot of Series 7b was a celebration of Doctor Who’s past in itself, bringing back older villains such as the Great Intelligence and Ice Warriors. The 60th specials felt more like regular Doctor Who episodes, albeit with slightly more significance. The stories were very disconnected from each other, with no overarching plot or advancements for any of the characters; the only important things that happened were Donna getting her memories back without dying and the Doctor working through his trauma, the latter of which we don’t even see.
My biggest gripe with the bi-regeneration isn’t really the canon or lore implications of them, those are relatively easy to reconcile. No, my issue is how it’s already been handled and 15’s character specifically. From the moment he was on screen, Ncuti played 15 with a set personality. He knows exactly who he is, he has his mannerisms down, his personality fixed and his foibles pretty set in stone. To which the obvious question is: Why? Why does he know? In every other incarnation, the first episode isn’t just adjusting the Doctor to the audience but the Doctor adjusting to himself as he comes to terms with the change and processes what’s stated the same and what’s different. This was most explicit with 10’s speech to the Sycorax leader and least with 11 who was also pretty well established but to some degree, they all had that uncertainty and insecurity about who they were now. But 15 just doesn’t. And you’d think of all the Doctors, he would be the most uncertain of them all. He’s the first in an entirely separate body, he should be feeling Mauler Twins levels of confusion about what he is and whether he actually is still the Doctor… but no. None of that will ever be acknowledged as a character angle, he’s just played as confident and suave from the literal beginning of his character. But I can also set that aside too, he’s obviously going to be a more showy and ostentatious Doctor so I’ll let it slide. But that then brings us into the other problem which is that despite being the Doctor, he doesn’t act like he is. Actually listen to the way he talks to 14. He doesn’t talk to him like it’s him from 5 minutes ago, he talks to him like he’s either a whole other person with a separate life experience or someone who is so far ahead in their journey as to have reached a state of nirvana that 14 just isn’t capable of yet. See, unless we say that 15 isn’t the same character as that previous body, and that’s a whole other can of worms to unpack, then he is the same person who mindwiped Donna, who lost Amy to the Angel, who lost Clara to the Raven, who lost Bill to the Cybermen, who failed to stop the Flux and so on. He should not be as cavalier and gleeful as he is about travelling if the idea is that 14 is so worn down and tired that he needs to stop. What 14 feels, 15 should also feel. What applies to 14 also applies to 15. Yet the show treats them as two separate characters entirely, that the trauma 14 feels is something unique to him, and that’s just so fundamentally at odds with who the Doctor is, as is the idea of settling down. Now, the response I’ve heard since the episode aired is “Well it makes sense because 15 was pulled from in the future. 14 will live with Donna until he regenerates into 15 to come back when he’s recovered from his trauma. Like he said, he’s doing rehab in the wrong order.” First of all, that is an INSANE reach based on next to nothing. All that line means is that 15 is magically better, the “pulled from the future” theory is just that, a theory with next to no supporting evidence and quite a lot contradicting it since 15 doesn’t act like he’s seen all this before, he acts like a person seeing it for the first time would. And that’s not even addressing the INSANE implications of not just bi-regeneration but *time travelling through regenerations* as well, which is yet another can of worms Russell isn’t nearly ready to open. But beyond all that is a far more fundamental problem with this theory - what’s the point? Why have his recovery all done off screen? What’s the point in bringing this character arc up if you’re not going to do any of the work to get us to the resolution of it? Why break the golden rule of screenwriting by telling and not showing? There’s nothing wrong with the Doctor having trauma given all he’s lost, and especially since we’re going to be back here whenever Ruby and all future companions leave, why bother? Why go to this insane effort to tell us you’re fixing a problem that not only doesn’t need fixing but is destined to repeat itself by the nature of the show, which is why it’s never been done before? There’s just no way you can rationalise this to have it make sense. Look, I loved that final scene, I was nearly at tears for it and if it were the final episode of Dr Who ever, I’d say that was as perfect an ending for the character as you could possibly get, and that’s what Russell wanted to give David and Catherine… but the shows not over. It carried on from Hartnell, and will carry on from Tennant. So Russell wants to have his cake and eat it too, he wants 14 to have that happy ending while allowing 15 to go on unburdened and you just can’t do that. The finality and the loss and pain defines the Doctor as much as the joy and thrill of travelling. Otherwise why couldn’t a bi-regenerated Tom Baker traveller with Sarah forever or a bi-regenerated Jodie with Yaz? It’s not just that it’s happy for the sake of it, it’s that it’s happy in spite of all the people who’ve had to move on with their lives when the Doctor did too. And the same will happen to 14 too. Unlike the Metacrisis Doctor who had a human life, 14 is a Time Lord. He is immortal. Meaning he will outlive everyone around that table, and in 100 years all the Nobles will be gone but he will still look the same. So what will happen then? He’ll do what he always does - get in the TARDIS and fly away. He will be right back where he started, meaning the whole point of creating bi-regeneration in the first place was completely pointless. The problems with bi-regeneration aren’t just lore based for me, they go to a far deeper problem that betrays a misunderstanding of who the Doctor is, why he always regenerates and why he always keeps travelling in the TARDIS forever. And while I’m sure Ncuti will be great - though he didn’t win me over nearly as much as everyone else tbh - it will be impossible to forget that while he’s there, David Tennant is very much still there too. Or perhaps that is the point, so that he can return when needs be. And if so, that’s significantly worse as a reasoning than anything Chibnall did to the lore of the series, Timeless Child included. That was at least easy to compartmentalise and ignore. This? …Not so much.
Honestly, all we miss is the Doctor prattling about for an episode acting loopy. I'd rather skip that this time so we can get to the character himself who looks like a lot of fun this time.
I think it's alright personally that he's sure of himself and it makes sense because the 14th doctor throughout the 3 specials was unsure of who he was. At least the way I saw it was ncutis doctor had been almost trapped inside David's doctor and therefore throughout the 3 episodes and therefore given the time to work out who he was and what he stood for through david. Almost like he is the 14th doctor after he's overcome the identity crisis he had, which gives more reason for him being so confident and sure of himself as a contrast to 14th's unsure and guilt ridden nature. It also kinda makes sense when u put it in the context of Russel trying to start a new era, because hes almost starting from scratch and overcoming the doubt and guilt from his past
@@HellfireComms The prattling is important though because it’s a necessary adjustment period for both the character and the audience. 15 can be fun when he’s established and also it was a mistake to make him so well established right off the bat.
@@Longshanks1690 I guess we'll have to see how Nctui's first episode plays out. If it works and we get some good chemistry between him and the new companion, I can at least live with that.
I think everyone’s missing the point with the whole bi-generation thing and this is partly RTD’s fault for not being properly explicit…or perhaps it’s something he should’ve thought of? But it all works if you see it this way…which is that Ncuti Gatwa ISN’T the 15th Doctor… He’s the FIRST Doctor of Version Two…a whole new Timelord created by the bi-generation and thus he ISN’T burdened by any of the baggage of Doctor Version One which has been built up for 60 years! He does know of what came for Version One before, in the same way that you or I would know of our own parent’s previous traumas but it’s more by relation, not actual lived experience… I see it as a fitting end for The Doctor as we’ve known them for 60 years. That original version is now retired and their remaining regenerations will likely all be revisits of past faces just as 14’s was. However, now The Doctor Version Two has arrived and will carry the torch, taking on the challenges of their various futures so the universe can still be protected by The Doctor…just not the one we would’ve been expecting…😅😁 For me, that makes it all make sense and work…and perhaps set-up some amazing moments in future when BOTH versions are needed to solve a major problem, since Doctor Version One IS still The Doctor, even if that Doctor has now retired from actively saving the universe each and every week yet also still allows Doctor Version Two to continue on their own without their predecessor being expected to show up each and every time… If RTD would explicitly spell this out, then perhaps the rest of us can be a bit more at peace with what the bi-generation brought us…☺️
16:10 The watcher is exactly what I think of with this episode. Theory is that after regenerating into 6, part of the poisoned 5th doctor was cast off to wander the universe and when he was satisfied that he got to keep on existing despite 6 taking over so quickly, he went back to his inception to merge with himself and become himself. Other theories suggest he did that because 4 was having a difficult regeneration and unlike him who got to split into the Watcher, he was alone without Romana and with 3 children to look after, the Watcher wanted to help 4 in his last moments. I think that is also exactly what happened with 14 and 15. They split apart like the Watcher and 6. But I also think that a better cooler explanation could be that after that split, 14 still perished from his wound, or was injured the same way that the Watcher was still poisoned. So 15 traveled back in time from a future after he lived out his life with Donna and absorbed the excess regeneration energy so 14 could keep living. The Tardis splits the same way it did in "the 5 doctors" and the way the console tried to change to suit 3 doctors in "Day of the Doctor"
The Toymaker being in Chinese clothes was because the episode "The Celestial Toymaker" had almost no budget due to the show spending so much money on the prior story (and because the new producers wanted rid of Hartnell), so they were forced to scramble around the BBC studios looking for props, sets and costumes to use in the episode, and what Michael Gough's Toymaker is wearing is actually from a production of Marco Polo. It's ironic that he's considered a bit of a racist character, because the script itself doesn't seem to make him that way at all (he's not even called "Celestial" in anything beyond the title, as far as I know- The Doctor just called him "Toymaker"). The woman who picks up The Master is presumably The Rani, a villainous Time Lady from the classic show...although, everyone thought that at the end of season 3 as well (The Rani has been caught up in copyright issues; maybe they've finally been resolved?). Whether The Rani is this ultimate villain above the Toymaker is questionable though, as she was never more dangerous than The Master, just different.
“I like the idea of the Toymaker using race and accents” So associating disability with evil is bad but associating accents with evil isn’t. Russell has lost it
@@PunkVega7 Sweet sweet irony... Amazing how this man can be so oblivious to the obserdity of it all yet somehow manages to still be in charge of the UK's biggest most influential piece of media of all time...
This is probably one of the episodes of Who I feel the most conflicted about. There is a lot of- and I mean a LOT - of really good, high quality stuff in this episode, the show at its absolute peak. But it’s also got a lottttt of baggage. First, the actual plot that involves the giggle part of The Giggle. While I think the theme is kind of hamfisted and delivered rather bluntly and inelegantly, with several lines of expository dialogue that could have been refined, I really like the overall idea here. That humanity’s addiction to their screens is brainwashing us to make us worse and worse all the time ever since the very first television was turned on. The idea that the thing we rely on for everything is the very thing that’s poisoning us against one another has been done many times before but also feels fresh and interesting in this episode. So while it could have been refined, overall a really solid part of the episode. Which then brings us into the source of these problems, the Toymaker played by Neil Patrick Harris. I *adored* him in this role. His charm, glee and enthusiasm all blend perfectly with the character’s ruthlessness, ambition and drive. He’s written supremely well and Neil acts him to perfection. I thought the Master’s “I Can’t Decide” was the best villain musical the show would have but the Toymaker absolutely knocks it out of the park with his show stewing scene. But more than that, the fact that he knew exactly how to torture the Doctor to compel him to play his games was brilliant and what makes him such a compelling villain. BUT… the way he was defeated was fucking stupid. You can’t even utilise the setup to come up with a clever way to defeat him? 15 just throws the ball and gets lucky? Aight. And… yeah, let’s talk about that elephant. Bi-regeneration is a stupid idea. Not just because there’s no precedent for it or even a hint that it was possible but because there’s not even a good reason for it. It just… happens, with no explanation when it’s one of the most universe shattering reveals ever, you have to justify such a huge addition to the lore and Russell simply doesn’t. It’s dumb, nonsensical and contrived. I will never not be a fan of it. But with that being said, I think they handled it about as well as they possibly could and made it feel as seamless as possible. Overall, this is the only episode that actually feels like a special of the show. Commemorating as much as they can while still delivering a story that feels epic and grand in scale on its own terms to begin 15’s era. If they were not dead set on the bi-regeneration, it would probably be one of my favourite episodes of the entire show. But while that’s the only weight dragging this episode down, it’s a very heavy weight indeed. Like I said, I’m conflicted about it still, and while I liked the episode overall, I don’t think that is something I’m ever going to get over.
For me, I just found bigeneration hard to wrap my head around up until 15 explained they were doing rehab out of order. After that it clicked that if the toymaker didn't exist, 14 would have spent time with Donna's family before eventually regenerating into 15. As it were at the end of the giggle, presumably 14 will regenerate into nothing and his TARDIS will fade away since the toymaker took 15 out of 14's future (hence 15 being older, rehab out of order, etc) Also explains 15 not having to deal with regeneration sickness initially like every other modern post regeneration story. For me personally I found that timey-wimey enough to justify adding bigeneration to the giggle. It didn't exist, up until the toymaker fucked with timelines.
@@clocked0 As I said in my other comment, that is an INSANE reach based on next to nothing. All that rehab line means is that 15 is magically better, the “pulled from the future” theory is just that, a theory with next to no supporting evidence and quite a lot contradicting it since 15 doesn’t act like he’s seen all this before, he acts like a person seeing it for the first time would. And that’s not even addressing the INSANE implications of not just bi-regeneration but *time travelling through regenerations* as well, which is yet another can of worms Russell isn’t nearly ready to open. But beyond all that is a far more fundamental problem with this theory - what’s the point? Why have his recovery all done off screen? What’s the point in bringing this character arc up if you’re not going to do any of the work to get us to the resolution of it? Why break the golden rule of screenwriting by telling and not showing? There’s nothing wrong with the Doctor having trauma given all he’s lost, and especially since we’re going to be back here whenever Ruby and all future companions leave, why bother? Why go to this insane effort to tell us you’re fixing a problem that not only doesn’t need fixing but is destined to repeat itself by the nature of the show, which is why it’s never been done before? There’s just no way you can rationalise this to have it make sense.
@@Longshanks1690 No? 15 literally says he is only fine BECAUSE 14 took that break with Donna, and that they were doing rehab out of order. This is explicitly stated IN THE EPISODE It is also stated that 15 is older than 14, not younger, not the same age, OLDER. All of this means one thing - 15 was from 14's future AFTER rehab with Donna. This is a basic logical deduction, and it astounds me how little you must have been paying attention at that point. They are both The Doctor, from different points in his life. As for WHY you would solve this problem of 14's off screen - Because it involves a whole lot of 14 doing very little. Occasional sightseeing with the niece, but mostly hanging out with the Nobles. That would make for a very boring season of Doctor Who, no? Maybe a spinoff is in order, but Doctor Who isn't about the domestic life, it's about the whimsical adventures of a time traveling madman, none of which would occur during rehab. Better to explain it away and get on with the stories people ACTUALLY care about.
@@clocked0 15 at no point says he is a future version of the Doctor who was dragged back in time to be here now. Because if he is, “we’re doing rehab out of order” is not ANYWHERE even close to justifying that insane of an addition to the lore. You actually have to spell that out as explicitly as possible. And even then, the episode doesn’t support that. He asks what’s going on when he should know. He acts unsure if they can defeat Toymaker when he should know exactly how to. And, most importantly, when he gets the idea to use Toymaker’s hammer to replicate the TARDIS, he looks like someone who just had an idea - not someone who should know exactly what to do because he’s already seen it before. The “pulled from the future” theory is the only rationalisation people have of this plot point but unfortunately for them, it doesn’t make any sense at all. …You are not seriously using Donna’s cheeky banter about 15 being older as definitive confirmation of the “pulled from the future” theory. 😐 That was so, SO obviously a silly joke about who was older by a few seconds, not the episode saying 15 is from their future. 🙄 So your explanation as to why we’re bypassing one of the character’s biggest ever character arcs… is out of universe meta BS that it would be boring for the audience? 😂 Here’s an idea: If you can’t find a way to make a story interesting or compelling to watch, DON’T TELL THAT STORY! 🤣 There is nothing wrong with the Doctor being characterised by his loss, it’s worked for this long for a reason. So if you want to change that, you actually have to put the hard work in to showing that so the end result feels earnt and justified, and not that you just cheated your way to the end because that’s the easier and more convenient route. I agree - Doctor Who is about the time travelling adventures. So why even bother trying to fix the character by giving him a definitive ending when the show is going to keep on going? Especially since we will be in this exact same position in 5 years when Ruby and the companions after her will be lost too, unless they all magically have Martha’s ability to know when to step back, which would be contrived in and of itself. So not only is it pointless to want to give the Doctor rehab because it’s so at odds with the character, but it’s pointless in the long term because we’re going to be in this same position 10 years down the road, rendering it less than pointless as you added such an insane addition to the lore and gained nothing from it.
I just really enjoyed knowing it was filmed in Bristol, the city I'm from. I even took pictures of the area filmed hours before the episode aired and sent it to my Dr who friends being like, nothing bad has happened so far.
I was watching this with my grandparents and when it ended and they both looked at me all I could say was "I don't know how to feel about that." I agree with a lot of the stuff RTD has said and done this year, but I really disagree with the rest of it. It's like having a mate whose heart you know is in the right place but sometimes they're so incredibly out of touch it's boggling.
The lack of subtlety when it comes to morals and all that in Dr Who as it currently is, is a slight issue. But I'm willing to look passed it as long as it doesn't start to get worse. Yeah I wish the 'catch the ball' scene were edited differently so you could see all 3 of them in the same shot. ALSO!!! I just realised that clothes being added to regenerations despite that not making any sense is wierd.
NPH absolutely outacted everyone in the show. The Bi-Generation was a terrible idea and when RTD stated later that every Doctor Bi-Generated he effectively ruined history... again. Awful ending but NPH absolutely did himself proud!
@@friendlyotaku9525 The writer of the show does not give theory, they either give riddles to ideas they have for the future of the show or outright tell us what they plan to do with the show... Davis' stating in BTS that all the doctor's Bi generated at once isn't a theory because it comes from his mouth (The one who is building the story) while it's not cannon until it makes its way into the show it is still clearly what Davis wan't to happen in the story and because he is the written of said story it's almost as good as cannon. If J.K.Rowling came out and said that when harry finally defeated voldamort and hogwarts was cleaned up Professor Magonagle leaves hogwarts and becomes a private magical tutor instead no body is going to sit there and say "Oh it's just J.K's theory" don't be silly...
I somewhat feel as if we haven't seen the last of Tennants doctor, I feel as if he might return for the last episode and then regenerate into Gatwa, who then in turn teleports back to the first episode, because how come he had a juke box in his Tardis? Seems like he collected it at some point. Either this or I don't think it was concluded very well.
As soon as the toymaker gets on the UNIT helipad the episode goes downhill for me. Why is the toymaker, who previously turned bullets to confetti and can do ANYTHING, so enthralled by a big lazer gun? The game of catch is SO ANTICLIMACTIC. Everything up to when they go back to 2023 felt like a fantastic warmup act for the main event. The first game being simple was effective. They were clearly building up to a complex, emotionally challenging, visually mind boggling climactic battle of minds AND THENNN.... they play catch. The Toymaker being beaten by losing a game of catch feels like such a disservice to the character. And after that it feels kinda like a disney wrap up ending. Although I do like the idea 14 could go on to become The Curator and it also leaves the door open for more 14 stories.
\I'm not. But I@ll make a prediction. The ratings will fall further and further off the map, and it will quietely fizzle out, and by and large, noone will care.
They didn’t need to duplicate the tardis. They are time travellers, give one to Tennent he goes off and eventually just brings it back to the same point
Or actually have him commit to the idea of retiring by forcing him to give up the TARDIS. If the idea is that after all the companions have come and gone, there’ll still be the Doctor and the TARDIS forever, then the Doctor choosing one of his companions thematically necessitates giving up the TARDIS. This is the clearest case of wanting your cake and eating it too.
if 14th gave up his tardis... he'd be at a lower point then he was before. 15th needed his own tardis to go on his own while 14th had his in case of anything happens.
@@InfiniteProductions123 but 14 could just get it to travel back to the moment when they bigenerated and give it to 15 then, that way we dont get a goofy tardis duplication scene
I would've preferred the story if it were either a two parter to fix the pacing issues or if the whole story was just Donna playing the toymakers game alone or something
I wish they'd explained the bigeneration properly in the episode, cause the idea (I think) is that 14 stays behind to "heal" from everything he's been through, eventually regenerating from old age or something. At which point some timey wimey shenanigans occur thanks to the toymaker and the future version is pulled back in time at the point of regeneration. so it's kind of a weird time loop.
While David coming back was great, we shouldn't had a 60th Anniversary with the Toymaker meddling with his regenerations. The clothes was applied to him by the Toymaker so he can get the Doctor back into action with his latest game. In that way, Bi-Regeneration wouldn't be as messy. It would've just been Ncuti taking over permanently with David regenerating with a smile "I'm ready to go." David's just **there** now. Yeah he's the goat but having too much of a good thing takes that away.
Nobody seems to be mentioning it, so I'll say it: When the red-nailed woman picked up the ring in Last of the Time Lords, RTD joked with the idea that it was the "Hand of the Rani". I genuinely think this is a nod to this idea (possibly?) coming to fruition. He's made note that he wanted to bring back older characters / villains, so this might just be her modern debut.
I really wish we saw more of what was happening outside. Like you said, we only really saw it through screens in UNIT Tower. They should've made the episode longer to fit it all in. The episode could've gone on for another hour and I wouldn't have complained
I really like this one, best of the three specials imo. It’s really just an epic conclusion with plenty of great references to the past, a fun villain and a sneak peak at the next Doctor.
Another thing is it kinda deprives Capaldi's speech. "I'm the Doctor, and I save people. And if anyone happens to be listening, and you've got any kind of a problem with that, to hell with you!" The Doctor whining in the Toymaker's hallway was kinda off-putting
Did Russell hit someone in a wheelchair with his car or something? 😂 First retconning Davros to walk again, then introducing Ruth with her Inspector Gadget chair to show disabled people can be badass too then adding a ramp to the TARDIS? It feels like he’s trying to atone for something he feels personally guilty for, and I have no idea why. 🤣
It’s a good change, and harms nobody. He did it because wheelchair using fans talked to him and said they loved the TARDIS and were worried they wouldn’t be able to get in it easily.
17:04 it's so the can bring Tennant back whenever they need to when ratings drop again. I thought the first 2/3s was pretty good of this episode but the ending where they play catch doesn't really test the Doctor how he should be, I think a logic or strategy game would have been better. I would say Chess but that's been done before with 11. NPH was great and I wish he didn't get defeated and could come back later on as an overarching villain
lets look at the overnight ratings for power of the doctor and the star beast (Not a hate comment if that's the impression you're getting and I know that there's more than just overnight, I just dont wanna bother to look for a single comment) for power of the doctor the overnight is 3.71 million overnight The star beast overnight was 5.08 million, about 2 million more... so I guess you're half right half wrong? @@SPM0717
I flip flop between liking biregen, wanting David to just do the whole episode himself and regen at the end after time skip and healing montage. Maybe with elderly Donna. And third option would be for Ncuti to just take it over after Toymaker beams him. Other thing - I wanted them to go all out. It's rare to have reality bender in the show, just let him puppeteer whole street instead. Have multiple dancers or multiple instances of him dancing during the song montage or do it all in smaller place that actually makes it into extremely overblown performance. 11:11 The irony is if Toymaker went for Fam, Doctor would have nothing to say, because Grace is still in fact gone. 11:50 My bet is on Omega or the Vampires. Or Time. 14:35 Well Ncuti's "legs" were the entertainment value here. 15:00 I hope its Missy/Lumiat or that it's Rani. 19:40 Not gonna lie, I am kinda scared for next season. The blondie gal is giving me total reboot with Rose and I actually would love, if we got either an older companion or kid companion instead. I am over "eye candy" companions and this was good opportunity to bring something different. It would give us that young Amy plot we never got. And having a kid as companion would keep the age dynamics we usually have with Doctor. And what I'm scared the most is that RTD just type-casted Ncuti and we end up with girly having her best time playing with her best gay friend accessory or some other gross bs. I really hope they will write him well. And that they don't use too many comics or old villains as crutches. 20:15 Wait I just noticed - those veneers have way too many teeth. That's such good scary detail.
I personally like to think the Bi-Regeneration was for one of two things 14 will visit old faces when he regenerates and becomes the Curator Or even better He regenerates into the Fugitive Doctor so that they can retcon the Timeless Child
Funny because that would definitely be the best way to use this awful plot device... It's also ironic because i guarantee that the idea Tennant will eventually be the Curator is a completely Fan-made idea and there is a very high chance RTD will roll with that while claiming it was his plan all along... The way these 3 scripts were written i refuse to believe for a second RTD was thinking or respecting any old material other than the bear minimum to have Cate and Tennent return... The man probably doesn't even remember the curator exists.
I thought the reason they didn't give the Toymaker chinese outfit because they still wanted to call him The Celestial Toymaker, but to my recollection they never call him that in the episode
Honestly I think that as much as there was things to enjoy about the other 60th specials, that turning all three into a three-part story centered around the Toymaker (with the Donna plot as the B plot developing throughout) would've been so much better. Here's a short description of a hypothetical way you could run this into a three-parter, and no, I didn't take ages to think over every idea, this is more or less a basic example, I'm sure there are problems with it somewhere. Episode 1: Panic in the Streets - The Doctor runs into Donna and is shocked to discover she is one of a small group of the unaffected in a world gone to chaos. With no one to immediately help him understand, and few bread crumbs, he is left on the small-scale to start, ensuring Donna's safety and the safety of her family. This could even result in The Doctor realizing that Donna is safe because of her travels in the TARDIS, and having to bring the whole family on a trip to immunize them. Realizing this could restore Donna's memories of him, he has to keep her blindfolded for the trip and swear her family to secrecy, but the connection between Donna and her daughter (the shared meta-crisis) causes Donna's memories to return alongside those her daughter has inherited... and it's not killing them! The Doctor realizes that splitting the metacrisis has diluted it to a survivable (at least for a time) level, though with the Doctor and two Time-Lord brained people at his side the trio can discover the source of the problem and invent the Zeedex. A clever plan has them strap one on to Kate Lethbridge Stewart, who is able to get UNIT back under control with their help (perhaps some sort of building lock down and knockout gas so they can strap mass produced Xeedex's to those still sleeping). The Doctor still needs to cure Donna and Rose before the metacrisis causes permanent damage, and find the source of the madness as the Zeedex can't be strapped to every person on Earth, it's simply too many people. Episode 2: The Toymaker Returns - With UNIT's resources, and Donna and Rose's intelligence alongside his own, they work out the source of the problem and put a plan in place to halt the madness-pandemic, but are stopped when the Toymaker himself intervenes. A series of minor games are run against the Doctor and his companions (maybe Kate can even get her own challenge) to prove he's "still as sharp as he was last they played". With the Doctor having proved himself, he challenges the Toymaker to a game 1-on-1 to function as a distraction. It's some exciting game of wit and guile that takes long enough that UNIT, Kate, Donna, and Rose are able to take out the satellite and bring the madness to an end. Realizing he's been played, that he's playing the Doctor's game in more ways than one, the Toymaker flies into a rage which gives him an edge. He defeats the Doctor and begins to describe what The Doctor's penalty for losing is when the Doctor points out that as far as their proper challenges against one another goes, they're now tied. Annoyed, the Toymaker relents and declares that he still gets to penalize the Doctor, as he suffered at his own defeat all those years ago, and proceeds to force the Doctor to regenerate. With the comment about having played one game with one doctor, and a second with another, that they will continue the pattern with a final tie-breaking game against a new face. However... as the regeneration is about to occur we cut away from a view focusing on the Doctor and instead pan to a confused and somewhat worried looking Toymaker as the episode hits the TO BE CONTINUED. Episode 3: One Last Game... - The Toymaker's shocked expression from last episode is the opener, as we pan back to the Doctor's regeneration which has him blasting regeneration energy from his body like usual... but the energy isn't simply dissipating... it's being expelled and then swirling around The Doctor, enveloping him in his own energy. The Doctor fades from sight behind the energy field before his voice is heard exclaiming in surprise. At first the Toymaker is unsure what has happened, but a second voice emerges from the same energy field and when it fades away there are two Doctors standing where there once was only one (Personally wasn't a huge fan of the physical splitting, push to separate us thing, but that's just me). They go through their little commentary about how bi-generation is supposed to be a myth, or at least the time lords thought so, but the Doctor knows better. Perhaps some reference to an instance of bi-generation being accomplished by the sisterhood of Karn, who had more control and knowledge of regeneration than any other timelord, even if it had never been replicated could exist. The Doctor assumed it was a quirk of their manipulation of regeneration, but apparently it can be present in normal Time Lord genes, just very special things need to occur for it to happen (I assume all this doesn't end up as wordily introduced as I'm putting here, I'm not a script writer lol) that seem to have triggered under these circumstances. Regardless, we now have two Doctors facing off against the Toymaker, who tries to protest, but when both Doctors agree they are one in the same and challenge him to round three he has no choice but to comply. The last episode will be at least 50% this great game between the Doctors and the Toymaker, before climaxing in the defeat of the Toymaker. After the game they go to check on Rose and Donna and find them lying in UNIT HQ hospital beds, their condition worsening quickly. Just because the metacrisis wasn't instantly lethal due to it being broken off into two humans rather than one, doesn't mean it's not debilitating pretty quickly and all the thinking they've been up to trying to save the world has worsened it to the point of being almost non-functional. 14 leans down to tearfully speak with Donna, unsure of how to fix this, that he put that mental block in place to avoid her death, but that things have progressed to far to save Rose and Donna now... unless... 15 cuts in with an idea. The Meta Crisis was possible because 10 sent his regeneration energy into his severed hand, a non-living but preserved bit of the Time Lord DNA that matched his own genes allowed it to happen, but that also caused the hand to become it's own Doctor when Donna interacted with it. 15 tells 14 that if he wants Donna and Rose to live he needs them to do what he did and funnel their regeneration energy (yes I know they probably can't regenerate, but the energy is visually the same on screen) into 14, but that it may prove too much for him. 14 loves Donna though, and chooses to go through with it, saving Donna and Rose by absorbing everything that was killing them. They begin to recover, able to stand up (on wobbly legs I'm sure) and approach 14, holding him as the regeneration energy is flooding his body. It almost looks like he is regenerating again, but says that with 15 already split from him he doesn't think what's happening will result in a new face, he says he feels himself decaying. Bi-generation isn't for raising the numbers of the species in the long run, it's for a purpose they decide, whether they knew what it was or not, their biology knew this was coming, and prepared to save Donna and Rose any way it could. 14 begins to disappear slowly, held in Donna's arms with 15 by his side, a hand on his shoulder comforting him. He tells him that they still live on in him, that he'll never stop saving the universe, that he can go in peace, and 14 make a comment about how even his own death could prove to be an adventure in itself (implying as they have off and on in Doctor Who, about a potential for an afterlife), and so, with one last adventure before him, 14 says Allonsy before dissolving into raw energy in Donna's arms, Donna collapsing into 15's arms as tears flood down her face. Then we do an emotional rap up, and a goodbye between 15 and Donna and her family, before setting off on a whole new adventure with The Church on Ruby Road. What do you think, any of it seem good to any of you?
I get your disconnect with Mel. I thought she was fine, but I don't really have any strong opinions towards her opposed to, say, Sarah Jane who I loved the moment she turned up in School Reunion.
The problem is that Sarah Jane was integral to not just the story but the theme of School Reunion, it was built around her bitterness over being left on earth and going on her arc to accepting it’s for the best that she moves on. Mel in The Giggle… is there. You could cut her from those UNIT scenes and miss absolutely nothing because she doesn’t contribute to them, except for that one moment with 14 that was just fan service and nothing more. I didn’t see the whole Power of the Doctor episode but Ace and Taegan felt more meaningful in the bits I did see than Mel in this episode tbh.
@@Longshanks1690 Keep in mind though that Mel is going to be recurring, so this is just her re-introduction, she's gonna appear again later and do more stuff there, it's set up really!
Yes, you should definitely watch classic who. Definitely missing out in my opinion and you could always review them also giving the channel more content :) and yes, was also confirmed by RTD and Gatwa on separate occasions that one Doctor gets half the costume and the other gets the other half. So Tennant was indeed going commando
@@NileSWPhotography honestly, since classic Doctor Who has now been given the audio description treatment, it has frankly opened up a whole new era of Doctor Who, which I never thought I would fully be able to appreciate until now :-) so really looking forward to going through the entire year from start to finish
Do you have any recommendations for where to start classic who? I started watching from the beginning on iPlayer (up to the Keys of Marinus rn) but I'm not gonna lie it is difficult to stay interested, so I was wondering if there are any better places to start.
@@tolland4433 I tried to start with the 1st Doctor too and then I tried the 4th (everyone’s favourite) and it was DECENT but still hard to stay interested.
11:09 - that's because they didn't die and got to live normal lives in the present day post-Doctor, whereas the Moffat era companions well... weren't as lucky.
Would love it if the female hand who took the golden tooth containing the master was the Rani and the one who waits who even the Celestial Toymaker is scared of is the Valeyard. Probably too much wishful thinking but a man can hope.
Was so looking forward to this review and I’m the same. I’m very very mixed. “You changed your face.. do you know why? To come home🥹..” when I heard this I was so angry. The whole thing was an absolute dumpster fire. The beginning scene until the laser scene was brilliant but beyond that… sigh.
I wonder if they've "parked" 14 for now so he can come back to help face this big baddie that keeps getting referenced. To me it doesn't make much sense for him to sit at the sideline while the world falls apart.
my problem with biregeneration isnt the biregeneration itself. its the fact that they havent explained it at all. like, who has regeneration energy? how is it a myth? whats the idea behind it? how does it work? will 14 be able to regenerate again or not? also, the fact that 14 is now alive and well on earth means that the question of "wheres 14" is always gonna appear now. one thing i also really didnt like how 15 just... loses his trauma? its really lazy writing to write off his trauma with regeneration, even though weve seen it doesnt work like that. just more unexplained things. and also, his clothes changed with his regeneration which i cant shake that tiny detail off
I liked the episode a lot, but My main let down was that game of catch being the means at which the Toy Maker is defeated, and every review I've come across feels the exact same. I don't know how Russell wrote that, and no one else told him; "Hang on, they play.... Catch.... The Toy Maker misses, and THAT'S how he is defeated..?" Everyone generally seems to feel the Toy Maker and the initial stakes of the episode were under utilised!
There were a lot of great moments, but it was really rushed. Needed to be a two or three parter. Actually I'd argue this entire arch of 14 and Donna needed a whole series to work better.
NPH is great. Apart from a couple of odd lines I didn't have a major problem with anything. It's better than the first special but nowhere near as great as the second. I don't have much faith in Russell at this point, I will give the next series a shot but I'm doubtful it'll be good.
How the heck does a game of catch have a winner or loser? What are the rules which dictate a winner or loser? If a Doctor just lobs it dozens of feet over the Toymaker's head so he can't catch it, why wouldn't they win there and then?
@@Y00bi knowing his true origins will always remain anonymous as there is no true answer I was merely expressing speculation of what others have pondered at. I just thought hmmmm!? This could work.
Hmm.... I'm a tad torn. Not because you don't raise some solid criticisms, but because my interests in the last 2 of these specials is nearly inverted from yours. There is always a danger in relying so much on nostalgia in pushing a show like this forward if that is the only focus, and it was the primary issue with the first 2 specials (as well as some unsatisfactory conclusions to lingering plot points). I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the other 2, but it isn't perfect. I think better building up in the previous stories and streamlining the plots a bit more would have helped, but I think I was so eager to see 14's run wrapped up and get 15 started, I was a lot kinder to this special. Still, 15 is finally here, and I'm actually excited to see what happens on Christmas.
It's frankly bizarre that the conclusion of the episode is that the Doctor needs to slow down, settle, and not travel all the time... When 11 spent hundreds of years on Trenzalore, and 12 spent like 50 guarding Missy's prison - all in an episode which acknowledges the past 9 series since Tennant left
I honestly feel like the Toymaker was under-used in this episode, here's why because when the Toymaker first appeared it was around the 1960's and back then we didn't have things like Video games it was just that, games. When I was told the Toy-maker was coming back I thought, omg what if he starts using Video games or even Virtual reality games for his sick twisted plans that would be like some kind of Satire to people getting so immersed in a digital world that in many ways could even be better then reality itself causing people to be so addicted to virtual reality they never wanted to leave VR or something like that, get the idea. And yeah I know the plot does sort of fit what the Toymaker would do and keep in mind take this comment with a pinch of salt because for one, I'm the viewer not the writer. Anything I say what I think could've been is not valid when we're making a review I just thought I'd share this idea y'know? Like I said, don't take this seriously because this is meerly just what I thought they were gonna do with the Toymaker. Anything I say shouldn't be taken as criticism because I'm the viewer not the writer. (edit) Ok nevermind, I just realised the whole digital thing was already done in that episode where the 11th doctor meets Clara for the first time (sort of) so yeah I got nothing, Forget I said anything but I'll leave this comment here because who knows, somebody might find it interesting I guess.
Finally someone looking at the good and the bad instead of just cherry picking all of the bad parts and pretending that the rest doesn’t exist or matter. Personally I enjoyed the episode and I am excited to see the new season with the new doctor. This was a good video.
I think the hand belonged to Missy Maybe she didn’t regenerate like The Doctor. What if she bi-generated like The Doctor and gave ‘birth’ to Sacha Dhawn I like to think The Master left his younger self and stole her TARDIS and left her at Mondas leaving her to escape on her own somehow to track down her older self until now Imagine how the interactions would go The Master: Hello Mum Missy: Don’t call me, Mum, I’m technically younger than you. But regardless, I’m very cross with you The Master grins with a mocking stare The Master: Uh oh, am I going to be punished? Missy: You left me to die The Master: If it makes you feel any better, I was left to die Missy: And was stuck in a celestial being’s gob. Of all the ways I have been defeated that has to be the most humiliating. Actually, I’m curious, what was it like chewing his food? Or does he not eat food at all? Also, what’s with the Rasputin bit? Are you Rasputin or did you take on the form of Rasputin leaving the real one trapped in a matchbox? The Master: Whatever happened to surprises? Missy: I’m not gonna ask again. I’m just going to assume you’re going to be very difficult with that plot hole. Now, down to business what should it be? Torture or a forced life of servitude for you and your next regenerations? Or maybe I could start again. Forced regeneration? I could make you older. Or perhaps younger. Or maybe I could make you into a woman so we can have a girl’s night, sound fun?! Oh you’re me, of course it will be! First things first… Missy pulls out a razor Missy: Lose the beard Gandalf
Having the star beast setting up the giggle doesn’t make logical sense in world. It makes sense from a writing perspective of course. The illogical part is: from the time travellers’ perspectives, they created the cause for the toy maker to alter history after star beast. So history hasn’t been altered yet when star beast ended. The giggle didn’t exist
My opinion on this episode was it finished when it felt like it was only half way through. There was no tension, no big heartbreak that causes the Doctor to regroup and come back for the final battle. It was just a poorly shot game of catch and a soppy ending. Really dull
How can the Doctor retire if he still has a TARDIS? Every time he travels, he could end up in trouble, like has happened for 60 years. It's not retirement, take away his TARDIS, then he won't get into terrible situations!!
Okay, I stopped it at 5:18 because I had enough…you’re clearly grasping at anything and everything you can find to dislike this episode and I find that disingenuous. Don’t even know where to begin here…you blast the whole “is Celestial Toymaker racist” thing because…what? Because RTD made the Toymaker even MORE interesting by making him MORE deliberately racist? It’s the Toymaker, it makes perfect sense that he would play such games with people, if anything, that makes NPH’s portrayal even MORE compelling because he really embodies the idea of a character who binds and is bound by the rules of play. One thing that Michael Gough’s original portrayal suffers from (given the budgetary constraints of the time) is that he doesn’t really appear all that connected to his realm. He clearly commands it but it’s heavily implied that he should be bound to it as well and that doesn’t quite come across on screen…this new portrayal, however, DOES seem every bit as bound to his realm as his realm is bound to him, making him ever the more dangerous when he fully ENTERS the physical realm while still bringing that attachment to the rules of play with him. To me, it all worked PERFECTLY and, being a villain, he’s ALLOWED to cross these sorts of boundaries that the rest of us try to stay within. In short, the Toymaker simply doesn’t care, he dresses HOW he wants, talks HOW he wants, appropriates whatever culture he chooses and insults whoever he wants because he feels himself ABOVE all of those other “rules”…he’s made playthings of literal gods, all he cares about are the rules of play, nothing more and nothing less. Then we get to your basic “show don’t tell” screed where you’re essentially wanting the show to go to excruciating visual detail to show every bit of devastation possible because how ever could a brief scene somewhere in London plus a series of clips from elsewhere in the world observed by UNIT ever come close to making the situation believable? And how dare they excuse our allies for this episode from suffering the same fate because of some technobabbly armband thingamabob that they’re wearing? You ever heard of the phrase “suspension of disbelief”? The modern era of Doctor Who doesn’t get four to six episodes to fully expand upon a story. It typically gets one, just as this one did. In that single hour or less, the episode needs to set up a problem, introduce us to its villain, have The Doctor find said villain, see said problem go even deeper than originally observed, come up with a solution and then also, in this case anyway, also set up another Doctor, close up 60 years of Who whilst opening up the next 60 years, bring us the main players going forward…you get the drift? This episode had a LOT to do and spending too much time showing in full excruciating detail just how bad our initial threat was just so it would be believable enough that overly-pendantic types wouldn’t rip it to shreds would’ve taken up WAY too much of that runtime and THEN you would’ve complained about it being too padded! The episode didn’t fail here…you just refuse to be satisfied, simple as that. Have we NOT debated at length all over regarding how public discourse is being destroyed by these sorts of limited “thought bubbles” that everyone’s getting into now that makes people believe they’re always right and cannot be convinced otherwise? This is how allegory works…yeah, it might seem ridiculous that literally EVERYONE behaving in this way could bring about the end of the world, however, think on this…the airline pilot who announced his “right” to land his plane anywhere he wanted and thus deliberately crashed it. He decided that what HE wanted trumped literally ANYTHING ELSE, including FAA REGULATIONS! We see “Karens” all the time acting like their wishes trump the law and everything else, THIS IS THAT TAKEN TO ITS FURTHEST EXTENT! How much more do you need to see to believe that these attitudes spread out on a global scale could actually be a problem? Because it already IS a problem and this is just one issue “The Giggle” attempts to tackle. And the Zeedex’s? C’mon, you haven’t seen technobabble gadgets in Doctor Who before? If not then you REALLY need to catch up because they are ALL OVER both Classic AND NuWho! The Doctor THEMSELVES started bringing them in way back in the ‘60s, it’s just that UNIT has long since caught up to the game… And don’t you even get me STARTED on Mel! Her portrayal in this episode is LIGHT-YEARS better from what it was in the ‘80s! You’re strongly giving out “old man yells at cloud” vibes here and you’re younger than I am and that’s a shame. As much as I love Classic Who, it wasn’t perfect and so anytime the Modern era can do better I feel it should be allowed to but people like you hold it back. Please stop it, for all of our sakes…
IMO: the best episode was The Star Beast, cause it felt like a classic. Wild Blue yonder was ok, and The Giggle just went into full parody mode. None of them were god awful, like 13s run: but the plot and the threat were secondary to theatrics, substance and filler.
Honestly For Me by generation didn't work and they didn't like because normally every Doctor has their time and then they are gone but this time it feels like there are two doctors and we are following like crisis doctor at the end of season four or something they should have just regenerated life and I left wondering can he still regenerate that we ever see him again what purpose does that serve will he die of old age what will he do when Jonah and her family actually still doesn't take fast normal people we are literally following a copy now I have no negativity towards the new Doctor I have seen some questions for Christmas special and he does look like he's going to be a great but he feels like more of a copy now I hope a couple of Seasons down the line or maybe a couple of doctors down the line eventually one of them ends up dying in front of the David Tennant's doctor who has to actually resume saving the universe and then he regenerates to someone else or something I don't know I just wanted this fixed eventually
I never thought I would see a Limp Bizkit reference in a did it suck, especially a reference that is relatively niche, but my god did that make me happy 💙 Check out yo dad with the swag on the flo
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![DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who [THE CHURCH ON RUBY ROAD REVIEW]](/img/tr.png)
![DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who [VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED REVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fgmMJHrjjuk/mqdefault.jpg)
Happy holidays everyone, thank you all for stopping by! My review of Church on Ruby Road will be available sometime in January, followed up by 5-part review series of Torchwood: Children of Earth.
In hindsight, I can definitely appreciate the idea that Tennant's Doc (who always set his sights on being selfless) would be able to see the fruits of his labours by "retiring". I'm still left conflicted due to the fact he was gifted another TARDIS. I'm not sure if the original plan was to recreate the old TARDIS interior but I still can't settle on the idea of the Doctor settling down if he can still run around in time and space whenever he pleases. I believe it was done to tease his potential return in future episodes, but as we saw in the 50th anniversary - Tennant always can return. For me, banishing the metacrisis Doctor meant he could not return for the logistical nightmare that is having duplicate Tennants on screen (we saw how hit and miss that was VFX wise in Wild Blue Yonder). The bigeneration was a beautiful was of tackling that issue, and as much as I believe Gatwa didn't get enough to chew on in this episode.. neither did any of the previous Doctors in their first appearances. I'm so unbelievably excited to have Gatwa shine on his own (as he tremendously does in a show like Sex Education) and will truly be Christmas gift to see him as the Doctor.
Merry Christmas dude, have a good one.
Wishing you a merry christmas and all the best for 2024
Saw the Christmas day special. Gatwa lacks the Gravitas to play the Dr. Matt Smith in contrast while playing as him a young man also played him as 900 year old being with a young mans face. Gatwa doesn't do that but he's Oscar worth compared to the Companion whose so bland.
To be frank none of that matters because the writing was atrocious. Rusty already said they are going away from Sci Fi to Fantasy and it showed. Goblins..... then theres the usual coincidences and contrivance galore. Plus that ridiculous musical number.
Sorry but Ruby Road was bad it really was
Honestly I think this episode (the giggle) did Gatwa dirty. They have him run around in his underwear for no reason and they didn't give him a proper regeneration entrance and Rusty made up the Bi Generation crap as an excuse to bring David Tennant back if Gatwa fails and they clearly think he will.
Rusty return is almost as bad as Chibnalls run in some respects. I rewatched the Silence in the Library 2 parter and The Day of the Doctor and the writing quality is as different as night and day
Bit late but I did read that during the first Russell T Davies Dr Who run that Steven Moffat was basically an uncredited writer and a gave a lot of help writing the scripts not just his own individual episodes .That makes sense because the writing in this was terrible. It really was bad writing 1 o 1 and showed Rusty doesn't care about Dr Who. He came back for the paycheck nothing else. He's not even trying
I liked the detail he was changing his voice because the Dr defeated him last time by mimicking his voice. I wish it was acknowledged somewhat though.
Was that actually confirmed that that was the reason though?
@@MaccamatBuxNo. 😂
And even if Russell spelled that out in Unleashed, that’s poor writing to not have such a strange character quirk explained in episode.
Ngl I completely forgot about that 😂😅
@@MaccamatBux not officially but it would make sense considering he randomly changes it later on.
@@Longshanks1690it makes sense though, considering he goes from British to American to German to French.
It’s hardly a stretch, like you’re making out
Oh man. The wheelchair ramp was for Wilf, but Bernard passed away before they could film it.
Oh man I didn’t even think of that
Thanks for that... I'm now depressed :/
NOOOO THAT IS SO SAD
The biggest thing for me is - the Toymaker, a being that transcends time, can turn bullets into flowers and teleport, the world is at his fingertips. How does he get defeated? He loses a game of catch. He was hyped up so much, "Donna get back to the TARDIS"... The Doctor is terrified of him, and he gets defeated because he can't catch a ball lmao.
That was covered within the episode, he respects the rules of play. Rules of physics or combat, not so much lol. But when people engage in actual gameplay with him, he won't cheat.
@@Notanothercrayon true, I understand that! I'm just more surprised a being that powerful loses because of bad hand-eye coordination
He loses due to his folly and his own power.
@@GamingLovesJohn how so?
Yeah. It was lame. The big bad loses a game of catch and that's it. Really? Should have known that a long time ago and they could have sorted him out way back when.
There is nothing racist about a European man dressing in Chinese clothing. Just like an Asian man wearing a suit and tie isn’t racist.
Or the alien Doctor wearing a Uboat captain costume.
The reason the Toymaker was dressed in Chinese robes was a reference to the Trilogic Game he plays with the Doctor being the Towers of Hanoi. Throughout the serial the Toymaker's various henchmen also dress up in a thematically appropriate costume for each of the various games that the Doctor's companions go through, except this dressing up element of the story has been mostly forgotten because 3 out of 4 episodes from the serial have been lost. Outside of the title of the first episode and the overall accepted title of the serial, the word "celestial" is only used to refer to the Toymaker once when he's first named by the Doctor, and for the rest of the story he's simply called the Toymaker.
These two points are important here, because they're the basis for the fan misconceptions. They're the reasons which led to the Toymaker being consistently referred to as the Celestial Toymaker in fanzines and non-TV stories, and consistently portrayed in the mandarin robes. This tied both the Chinese imagery and the "celestial" adjective together in the popular fan perception of the Toymaker, and so both eventually led to this latter-day accusation of the Toymaker being racist, which RTD has now legitimised.
It's ironic because The Celestial Toymaker is objectively the most racist story in all of Classic Who anyway, for reasons entirely unrelated to the Toymaker himself.
I read that he was in Chinese robes because they didn't have any budget for the show and had to raid the set of a "Marco Polo" show for costumes and props?
@@jonathancampbell5231I always found it funny how some classic fans rip into the Celestial Toymaker for his costume but gush lovingly over Marco Polo which has the similar or same costume and blackface 😂.
@@Mark-nh2hsfucking true that! Same folks want The Wheel in Space reanimated despite having one of the most racist characters in classic Who included throughout!
@@jonathancampbell5231 That may be true I haven’t heard of that detail but I’m explaining the costume’s role in the story which is to be a reflection of the game that the Toymaker plays with the Doctor
I still dont know why him wearing chinese clothing makes it racist? Also i just watched the classic episode the other day, what part of it was objectively racist? From what i remember theres a game with clowns, then theres a game with playing cards and dolls, a scene in a kitchen and a hopscotch game. I'm not sure what part of that is objectively racist? I would say out of all the episodes that could be considered racist would be the aztec one where its clear even in black and white some of the cast had darkened their skintone but even then it was probably more to do with budget and the state of the world at the time rather than racism.
I agree with what you said about the celestial toymakers name to be bang on. How can you see a multidimensional god like being or whatever he is in an episode of doctor who and think celestial meant anything other than from space
It means he can't play catch :)
Honestly NPH dancing to spice up your life, made the remainder of my year 😂
I’m generally opposed to the “Immortal, omnipotent being beyond our understanding actually has a huge passion for late 20th/early 21st century pop culture” trope… but in this case, I’ll allow it 🤣
@@Longshanks1690 I think it sorta works considering if he's implanted his giggle in all the screens including social media ones then he must have seen some songs and stuff. He was probably just trying to... toy.. with them 🫡
"not a bad episode but it could've been better" is probably the best way I can describe all three of the specials. They were so strong but hit bumps along the way. Best episodes we've had in years but there was definitely room for improvement.
but wild blue yonder was basically perfect for a doctor who episode
Wild Blue Yonder is one of my favorite episodes of all time, what are you on about!?
My biggest complaint about the 3 specials was how disjointed they all felt. One big over-arching plot would've been better IMO.
That and the fact that they didn't feel anything like an anniv special at all. Just lame eps with lazy writing.
@@techniqueswithtoddI thought the writing in Wild Blue Yonder was the best we've had in years, even if the cold open was lame
( 2:05 ) But 14 says the word “celestial” to the toymaker before he gets shot so why make a thing of not using that word, only to use it?
NPH was definitely the highlight of this episode, and tbh I love that he kinda acts surprised at both Clara being killed by a bird (just that short pause he does like he’s checking he’s right) and later during the whole bigen thing
Tennants face when the Toymaker was talking about Bill was also beautiful. While Amy and Clara both made their choices, Bill really felt much more like a bystander with the closest thing being her admitting to be human getting her killed.
While overall it has some mixed parts, what it does right it really does right and the acting was just so good !
Also, Bill was just a kid. I know she was technically an adult but she still felt like one. She still lived with her foster mom and more importantly, the Doctor took responsibility for her. He said so; he had a duty of care. And while Clara and Amy were thrilled by the danger and were even seeking it out themselves at times, Bill was genuinely scared that Missy would get her killed. The Doctor dismissed her concerns and she died.
Honestly, feels like a cop-out. It's a way to keep David around as an emergency button, but then the whole episode had me kinda wanting something more. Like if we really were heading to Tennant's retirement story, we didn't really have enough relevance on the connection between his internal conflict and settling down. Feels like a bandaid to a headache, a perceived cure that does nothing, just cause it was just blurted out at the end. And it takes away from the fact that we have another Doctor we're supposed to focus on when we've mostly had Tennant's story on the fore. So really, it's just super disjointed. It's like many people doing what they want in a story that cannot accommodate all their agendas, so we have a very jarring collab of creative direction.
disagree, its good the show actually addressed all the years of trauma the doctor went through and for a 60th anniversary part of him gets to retire and that's more than well deserved.
I don’t feel like it was a cop-out at all. I feel like it was closure for that era of Doctor Who and specifically that Doctor, (he deserved a happy, dignified ending which he didn’t get before) and now we’re moving on.
@@DsRelaxingSounds yes, exactly!
It was a piece of crap when one gets past the love of Tennant. And merely a vehicle to retcon the entire 60 years of the Doctor.
@@michaelwoods1701Nah it’s not a retcon cuz everything still happens as it does, it’s just now that 15 is free of all that trauma and has a fresh start
Was feeling a bit low today, but this video really helped spice up my life. Thanks Harry!
SPICE UP YA LIFE
poor martha. the only 10 companion not to get a take-home doctor
That’s because she’s the worst modern companion.
@@Mojo1356being wrong sucks. Why would you choose to be?
One thing I thought was missing was any sort of depiction of the humans coming back to their senses after the satellite was taken down. I was expecting some wide-eyed bewilderment as the mental fog was lifted and everyone saw the devestation around them. But nope! The actual carnage of the "alien invasion" really took that much of a backseat that not a moment was given to the resolution of what was going on outside of the ivory tower.
One thing? How about in the meep ep when rose went from being "trapped" to suddenly at the controls and magically knowing which buttons to switch to reverse the effect of mind control/blow up the ship/etc? And that said buttons are handily left out so that they can be pressed to thwart the baddie? uggh
@@techniqueswithtodd lol yeah. I was only talking about the episode featured in this video, but that scene was really bad too. The return of RTD has been pretty great, it's a shame it has to be marred by stupid crap like that being jammed into it.
He only wore that costume in the 60s because they ran out of budget and pulled it out of the props cupboard
3:00 Seeing those clips of RTD being all self righteous, and mocking fans for caring about inconsistencies, like the clothes regenerating without explanation, makes me feel like his ego has been boosted way too much! I guess he is on his Showrunner Victorious arc! And I thought Chibnall was insufferable!
This would've been amazing if it was a 2 parter or 3 parter
I had a blast with the episode, very unique and finally a happy ending for Tennant. NPH was phenomenal, and I think the new doctor is gonna be a ton of fun. I was sceptical of how RTD would wrap up the specials, but he definitely stuck the landing for me.
I never thought in a million years I’d ever want the show to end, but honestly my truest feeling is that it should’ve all ended with Capaldi, I think that might just have been as beautiful an ending as we will ever get.
“Do you know what you need? A chair” Yeah, Capaldi had _four_ of them. Where did they go, set designers?
RTD saying that whatever somebody says you cant do, that you must do, is the same line of reasoning that will tank this show.
Has tanked. LOL
RTD didn’t read his own scripts. Either that or these were just laying around from the first 2000’s runs and he thought “oh, why not?”.
My mates prefered this one ovr the other two, which is fair enough but I was so confused that none of them thought the defeat of the toymaker was anticlimactic. It feels good having someone else repeat your opinion. Wild blue was definently my favourite of these three, the ending to that had me genuinely tense. Cheers for these excellent reviews Harry!
im just disappointed that it didnt feel like a 60th anniversary
So bringing back an old villain who hasn’t been on TV since 1966 doesn’t feel like a 60th special?
No, it just felt like a returning villain that happened to have a longer gap than usual. There was no previous character or story arc that was resolved on screen.
The 50th anniversary, however, delved into the Time War and how it the Doctor personally, provided some resolution and closure to that defining part of his life and instilling hope for the character’s future, as well as bringing back old characters that helped push the overall narrative forward, rather than being more of a monster-of-the-week. Then there’s the fact that a lot of Series 7b was a celebration of Doctor Who’s past in itself, bringing back older villains such as the Great Intelligence and Ice Warriors.
The 60th specials felt more like regular Doctor Who episodes, albeit with slightly more significance. The stories were very disconnected from each other, with no overarching plot or advancements for any of the characters; the only important things that happened were Donna getting her memories back without dying and the Doctor working through his trauma, the latter of which we don’t even see.
I don’t want a “Day of the Doctor” every 10 years.
My biggest gripe with the bi-regeneration isn’t really the canon or lore implications of them, those are relatively easy to reconcile. No, my issue is how it’s already been handled and 15’s character specifically.
From the moment he was on screen, Ncuti played 15 with a set personality. He knows exactly who he is, he has his mannerisms down, his personality fixed and his foibles pretty set in stone. To which the obvious question is: Why? Why does he know? In every other incarnation, the first episode isn’t just adjusting the Doctor to the audience but the Doctor adjusting to himself as he comes to terms with the change and processes what’s stated the same and what’s different. This was most explicit with 10’s speech to the Sycorax leader and least with 11 who was also pretty well established but to some degree, they all had that uncertainty and insecurity about who they were now. But 15 just doesn’t. And you’d think of all the Doctors, he would be the most uncertain of them all. He’s the first in an entirely separate body, he should be feeling Mauler Twins levels of confusion about what he is and whether he actually is still the Doctor… but no. None of that will ever be acknowledged as a character angle, he’s just played as confident and suave from the literal beginning of his character.
But I can also set that aside too, he’s obviously going to be a more showy and ostentatious Doctor so I’ll let it slide. But that then brings us into the other problem which is that despite being the Doctor, he doesn’t act like he is. Actually listen to the way he talks to 14. He doesn’t talk to him like it’s him from 5 minutes ago, he talks to him like he’s either a whole other person with a separate life experience or someone who is so far ahead in their journey as to have reached a state of nirvana that 14 just isn’t capable of yet.
See, unless we say that 15 isn’t the same character as that previous body, and that’s a whole other can of worms to unpack, then he is the same person who mindwiped Donna, who lost Amy to the Angel, who lost Clara to the Raven, who lost Bill to the Cybermen, who failed to stop the Flux and so on. He should not be as cavalier and gleeful as he is about travelling if the idea is that 14 is so worn down and tired that he needs to stop. What 14 feels, 15 should also feel. What applies to 14 also applies to 15.
Yet the show treats them as two separate characters entirely, that the trauma 14 feels is something unique to him, and that’s just so fundamentally at odds with who the Doctor is, as is the idea of settling down.
Now, the response I’ve heard since the episode aired is “Well it makes sense because 15 was pulled from in the future. 14 will live with Donna until he regenerates into 15 to come back when he’s recovered from his trauma. Like he said, he’s doing rehab in the wrong order.”
First of all, that is an INSANE reach based on next to nothing. All that line means is that 15 is magically better, the “pulled from the future” theory is just that, a theory with next to no supporting evidence and quite a lot contradicting it since 15 doesn’t act like he’s seen all this before, he acts like a person seeing it for the first time would. And that’s not even addressing the INSANE implications of not just bi-regeneration but *time travelling through regenerations* as well, which is yet another can of worms Russell isn’t nearly ready to open.
But beyond all that is a far more fundamental problem with this theory - what’s the point? Why have his recovery all done off screen? What’s the point in bringing this character arc up if you’re not going to do any of the work to get us to the resolution of it? Why break the golden rule of screenwriting by telling and not showing? There’s nothing wrong with the Doctor having trauma given all he’s lost, and especially since we’re going to be back here whenever Ruby and all future companions leave, why bother? Why go to this insane effort to tell us you’re fixing a problem that not only doesn’t need fixing but is destined to repeat itself by the nature of the show, which is why it’s never been done before?
There’s just no way you can rationalise this to have it make sense.
Look, I loved that final scene, I was nearly at tears for it and if it were the final episode of Dr Who ever, I’d say that was as perfect an ending for the character as you could possibly get, and that’s what Russell wanted to give David and Catherine… but the shows not over. It carried on from Hartnell, and will carry on from Tennant. So Russell wants to have his cake and eat it too, he wants 14 to have that happy ending while allowing 15 to go on unburdened and you just can’t do that. The finality and the loss and pain defines the Doctor as much as the joy and thrill of travelling. Otherwise why couldn’t a bi-regenerated Tom Baker traveller with Sarah forever or a bi-regenerated Jodie with Yaz? It’s not just that it’s happy for the sake of it, it’s that it’s happy in spite of all the people who’ve had to move on with their lives when the Doctor did too. And the same will happen to 14 too. Unlike the Metacrisis Doctor who had a human life, 14 is a Time Lord. He is immortal. Meaning he will outlive everyone around that table, and in 100 years all the Nobles will be gone but he will still look the same. So what will happen then? He’ll do what he always does - get in the TARDIS and fly away. He will be right back where he started, meaning the whole point of creating bi-regeneration in the first place was completely pointless.
The problems with bi-regeneration aren’t just lore based for me, they go to a far deeper problem that betrays a misunderstanding of who the Doctor is, why he always regenerates and why he always keeps travelling in the TARDIS forever. And while I’m sure Ncuti will be great - though he didn’t win me over nearly as much as everyone else tbh - it will be impossible to forget that while he’s there, David Tennant is very much still there too. Or perhaps that is the point, so that he can return when needs be. And if so, that’s significantly worse as a reasoning than anything Chibnall did to the lore of the series, Timeless Child included. That was at least easy to compartmentalise and ignore. This? …Not so much.
Honestly, all we miss is the Doctor prattling about for an episode acting loopy. I'd rather skip that this time so we can get to the character himself who looks like a lot of fun this time.
I think it's alright personally that he's sure of himself and it makes sense because the 14th doctor throughout the 3 specials was unsure of who he was. At least the way I saw it was ncutis doctor had been almost trapped inside David's doctor and therefore throughout the 3 episodes and therefore given the time to work out who he was and what he stood for through david. Almost like he is the 14th doctor after he's overcome the identity crisis he had, which gives more reason for him being so confident and sure of himself as a contrast to 14th's unsure and guilt ridden nature. It also kinda makes sense when u put it in the context of Russel trying to start a new era, because hes almost starting from scratch and overcoming the doubt and guilt from his past
@@HellfireComms The prattling is important though because it’s a necessary adjustment period for both the character and the audience.
15 can be fun when he’s established and also it was a mistake to make him so well established right off the bat.
@@Longshanks1690 I guess we'll have to see how Nctui's first episode plays out. If it works and we get some good chemistry between him and the new companion, I can at least live with that.
I think everyone’s missing the point with the whole bi-generation thing and this is partly RTD’s fault for not being properly explicit…or perhaps it’s something he should’ve thought of? But it all works if you see it this way…which is that Ncuti Gatwa ISN’T the 15th Doctor…
He’s the FIRST Doctor of Version Two…a whole new Timelord created by the bi-generation and thus he ISN’T burdened by any of the baggage of Doctor Version One which has been built up for 60 years!
He does know of what came for Version One before, in the same way that you or I would know of our own parent’s previous traumas but it’s more by relation, not actual lived experience…
I see it as a fitting end for The Doctor as we’ve known them for 60 years. That original version is now retired and their remaining regenerations will likely all be revisits of past faces just as 14’s was. However, now The Doctor Version Two has arrived and will carry the torch, taking on the challenges of their various futures so the universe can still be protected by The Doctor…just not the one we would’ve been expecting…😅😁
For me, that makes it all make sense and work…and perhaps set-up some amazing moments in future when BOTH versions are needed to solve a major problem, since Doctor Version One IS still The Doctor, even if that Doctor has now retired from actively saving the universe each and every week yet also still allows Doctor Version Two to continue on their own without their predecessor being expected to show up each and every time…
If RTD would explicitly spell this out, then perhaps the rest of us can be a bit more at peace with what the bi-generation brought us…☺️
16:10 The watcher is exactly what I think of with this episode.
Theory is that after regenerating into 6, part of the poisoned 5th doctor was cast off to wander the universe and when he was satisfied that he got to keep on existing despite 6 taking over so quickly, he went back to his inception to merge with himself and become himself.
Other theories suggest he did that because 4 was having a difficult regeneration and unlike him who got to split into the Watcher, he was alone without Romana and with 3 children to look after, the Watcher wanted to help 4 in his last moments.
I think that is also exactly what happened with 14 and 15. They split apart like the Watcher and 6. But I also think that a better cooler explanation could be that after that split, 14 still perished from his wound, or was injured the same way that the Watcher was still poisoned. So 15 traveled back in time from a future after he lived out his life with Donna and absorbed the excess regeneration energy so 14 could keep living. The Tardis splits the same way it did in "the 5 doctors" and the way the console tried to change to suit 3 doctors in "Day of the Doctor"
The Toymaker being in Chinese clothes was because the episode "The Celestial Toymaker" had almost no budget due to the show spending so much money on the prior story (and because the new producers wanted rid of Hartnell), so they were forced to scramble around the BBC studios looking for props, sets and costumes to use in the episode, and what Michael Gough's Toymaker is wearing is actually from a production of Marco Polo.
It's ironic that he's considered a bit of a racist character, because the script itself doesn't seem to make him that way at all (he's not even called "Celestial" in anything beyond the title, as far as I know- The Doctor just called him "Toymaker").
The woman who picks up The Master is presumably The Rani, a villainous Time Lady from the classic show...although, everyone thought that at the end of season 3 as well (The Rani has been caught up in copyright issues; maybe they've finally been resolved?). Whether The Rani is this ultimate villain above the Toymaker is questionable though, as she was never more dangerous than The Master, just different.
“I like the idea of the Toymaker using race and accents”
So associating disability with evil is bad but associating accents with evil isn’t. Russell has lost it
Saying disabled people cannot be evil masterminds is also ableist
@@PunkVega7 Sweet sweet irony...
Amazing how this man can be so oblivious to the obserdity of it all yet somehow manages to still be in charge of the UK's biggest most influential piece of media of all time...
This is probably one of the episodes of Who I feel the most conflicted about. There is a lot of- and I mean a LOT - of really good, high quality stuff in this episode, the show at its absolute peak. But it’s also got a lottttt of baggage.
First, the actual plot that involves the giggle part of The Giggle. While I think the theme is kind of hamfisted and delivered rather bluntly and inelegantly, with several lines of expository dialogue that could have been refined, I really like the overall idea here. That humanity’s addiction to their screens is brainwashing us to make us worse and worse all the time ever since the very first television was turned on. The idea that the thing we rely on for everything is the very thing that’s poisoning us against one another has been done many times before but also feels fresh and interesting in this episode. So while it could have been refined, overall a really solid part of the episode.
Which then brings us into the source of these problems, the Toymaker played by Neil Patrick Harris. I *adored* him in this role. His charm, glee and enthusiasm all blend perfectly with the character’s ruthlessness, ambition and drive. He’s written supremely well and Neil acts him to perfection. I thought the Master’s “I Can’t Decide” was the best villain musical the show would have but the Toymaker absolutely knocks it out of the park with his show stewing scene. But more than that, the fact that he knew exactly how to torture the Doctor to compel him to play his games was brilliant and what makes him such a compelling villain.
BUT… the way he was defeated was fucking stupid. You can’t even utilise the setup to come up with a clever way to defeat him? 15 just throws the ball and gets lucky? Aight.
And… yeah, let’s talk about that elephant. Bi-regeneration is a stupid idea. Not just because there’s no precedent for it or even a hint that it was possible but because there’s not even a good reason for it. It just… happens, with no explanation when it’s one of the most universe shattering reveals ever, you have to justify such a huge addition to the lore and Russell simply doesn’t. It’s dumb, nonsensical and contrived. I will never not be a fan of it.
But with that being said, I think they handled it about as well as they possibly could and made it feel as seamless as possible.
Overall, this is the only episode that actually feels like a special of the show. Commemorating as much as they can while still delivering a story that feels epic and grand in scale on its own terms to begin 15’s era. If they were not dead set on the bi-regeneration, it would probably be one of my favourite episodes of the entire show. But while that’s the only weight dragging this episode down, it’s a very heavy weight indeed. Like I said, I’m conflicted about it still, and while I liked the episode overall, I don’t think that is something I’m ever going to get over.
I agree with everything you said.
For me, I just found bigeneration hard to wrap my head around up until 15 explained they were doing rehab out of order. After that it clicked that if the toymaker didn't exist, 14 would have spent time with Donna's family before eventually regenerating into 15. As it were at the end of the giggle, presumably 14 will regenerate into nothing and his TARDIS will fade away since the toymaker took 15 out of 14's future (hence 15 being older, rehab out of order, etc)
Also explains 15 not having to deal with regeneration sickness initially like every other modern post regeneration story. For me personally I found that timey-wimey enough to justify adding bigeneration to the giggle. It didn't exist, up until the toymaker fucked with timelines.
@@clocked0 As I said in my other comment, that is an INSANE reach based on next to nothing. All that rehab line means is that 15 is magically better, the “pulled from the future” theory is just that, a theory with next to no supporting evidence and quite a lot contradicting it since 15 doesn’t act like he’s seen all this before, he acts like a person seeing it for the first time would. And that’s not even addressing the INSANE implications of not just bi-regeneration but *time travelling through regenerations* as well, which is yet another can of worms Russell isn’t nearly ready to open.
But beyond all that is a far more fundamental problem with this theory - what’s the point? Why have his recovery all done off screen? What’s the point in bringing this character arc up if you’re not going to do any of the work to get us to the resolution of it? Why break the golden rule of screenwriting by telling and not showing? There’s nothing wrong with the Doctor having trauma given all he’s lost, and especially since we’re going to be back here whenever Ruby and all future companions leave, why bother? Why go to this insane effort to tell us you’re fixing a problem that not only doesn’t need fixing but is destined to repeat itself by the nature of the show, which is why it’s never been done before?
There’s just no way you can rationalise this to have it make sense.
@@Longshanks1690 No? 15 literally says he is only fine BECAUSE 14 took that break with Donna, and that they were doing rehab out of order. This is explicitly stated IN THE EPISODE
It is also stated that 15 is older than 14, not younger, not the same age, OLDER.
All of this means one thing - 15 was from 14's future AFTER rehab with Donna. This is a basic logical deduction, and it astounds me how little you must have been paying attention at that point. They are both The Doctor, from different points in his life.
As for WHY you would solve this problem of 14's off screen - Because it involves a whole lot of 14 doing very little. Occasional sightseeing with the niece, but mostly hanging out with the Nobles. That would make for a very boring season of Doctor Who, no? Maybe a spinoff is in order, but Doctor Who isn't about the domestic life, it's about the whimsical adventures of a time traveling madman, none of which would occur during rehab. Better to explain it away and get on with the stories people ACTUALLY care about.
@@clocked0 15 at no point says he is a future version of the Doctor who was dragged back in time to be here now. Because if he is, “we’re doing rehab out of order” is not ANYWHERE even close to justifying that insane of an addition to the lore. You actually have to spell that out as explicitly as possible.
And even then, the episode doesn’t support that. He asks what’s going on when he should know. He acts unsure if they can defeat Toymaker when he should know exactly how to. And, most importantly, when he gets the idea to use Toymaker’s hammer to replicate the TARDIS, he looks like someone who just had an idea - not someone who should know exactly what to do because he’s already seen it before.
The “pulled from the future” theory is the only rationalisation people have of this plot point but unfortunately for them, it doesn’t make any sense at all.
…You are not seriously using Donna’s cheeky banter about 15 being older as definitive confirmation of the “pulled from the future” theory. 😐
That was so, SO obviously a silly joke about who was older by a few seconds, not the episode saying 15 is from their future. 🙄
So your explanation as to why we’re bypassing one of the character’s biggest ever character arcs… is out of universe meta BS that it would be boring for the audience? 😂
Here’s an idea: If you can’t find a way to make a story interesting or compelling to watch, DON’T TELL THAT STORY! 🤣
There is nothing wrong with the Doctor being characterised by his loss, it’s worked for this long for a reason. So if you want to change that, you actually have to put the hard work in to showing that so the end result feels earnt and justified, and not that you just cheated your way to the end because that’s the easier and more convenient route.
I agree - Doctor Who is about the time travelling adventures. So why even bother trying to fix the character by giving him a definitive ending when the show is going to keep on going? Especially since we will be in this exact same position in 5 years when Ruby and the companions after her will be lost too, unless they all magically have Martha’s ability to know when to step back, which would be contrived in and of itself.
So not only is it pointless to want to give the Doctor rehab because it’s so at odds with the character, but it’s pointless in the long term because we’re going to be in this same position 10 years down the road, rendering it less than pointless as you added such an insane addition to the lore and gained nothing from it.
I just really enjoyed knowing it was filmed in Bristol, the city I'm from. I even took pictures of the area filmed hours before the episode aired and sent it to my Dr who friends being like, nothing bad has happened so far.
I was watching this with my grandparents and when it ended and they both looked at me all I could say was "I don't know how to feel about that."
I agree with a lot of the stuff RTD has said and done this year, but I really disagree with the rest of it. It's like having a mate whose heart you know is in the right place but sometimes they're so incredibly out of touch it's boggling.
The lack of subtlety when it comes to morals and all that in Dr Who as it currently is, is a slight issue.
But I'm willing to look passed it as long as it doesn't start to get worse.
Yeah I wish the 'catch the ball' scene were edited differently so you could see all 3 of them in the same shot.
ALSO!!! I just realised that clothes being added to regenerations despite that not making any sense is wierd.
Yes. 14 is commando through the whole Gatwa-shared scene. :P
NPH absolutely outacted everyone in the show. The Bi-Generation was a terrible idea and when RTD stated later that every Doctor Bi-Generated he effectively ruined history... again.
Awful ending but NPH absolutely did himself proud!
that's only his theory, it's not meant to be taken as some kind of official thing.
@@friendlyotaku9525 The writer of the show does not give theory, they either give riddles to ideas they have for the future of the show or outright tell us what they plan to do with the show...
Davis' stating in BTS that all the doctor's Bi generated at once isn't a theory because it comes from his mouth (The one who is building the story) while it's not cannon until it makes its way into the show it is still clearly what Davis wan't to happen in the story and because he is the written of said story it's almost as good as cannon.
If J.K.Rowling came out and said that when harry finally defeated voldamort and hogwarts was cleaned up Professor Magonagle leaves hogwarts and becomes a private magical tutor instead no body is going to sit there and say "Oh it's just J.K's theory" don't be silly...
@@xproflipscarab he literally says it's his theory and he is a Doctor Who fan himself and Doctor Who fans like to theorise
I somewhat feel as if we haven't seen the last of Tennants doctor, I feel as if he might return for the last episode and then regenerate into Gatwa, who then in turn teleports back to the first episode, because how come he had a juke box in his Tardis? Seems like he collected it at some point. Either this or I don't think it was concluded very well.
That's a very good point about the jukebox actually. I did not think of that at all.
i remember seeing a title saying that this is the last of tennant in doctor who. so maybe not?
As soon as the toymaker gets on the UNIT helipad the episode goes downhill for me.
Why is the toymaker, who previously turned bullets to confetti and can do ANYTHING, so enthralled by a big lazer gun?
The game of catch is SO ANTICLIMACTIC. Everything up to when they go back to 2023 felt like a fantastic warmup act for the main event. The first game being simple was effective. They were clearly building up to a complex, emotionally challenging, visually mind boggling climactic battle of minds AND THENNN.... they play catch. The Toymaker being beaten by losing a game of catch feels like such a disservice to the character.
And after that it feels kinda like a disney wrap up ending. Although I do like the idea 14 could go on to become The Curator and it also leaves the door open for more 14 stories.
The UNIT stuff was poor and not necessary. I can't stand the Marvel Avengers style headquarters.
I'm really curious to see what's going to happen in the future of this new doctor who era
\I'm not. But I@ll make a prediction. The ratings will fall further and further off the map, and it will quietely fizzle out, and by and large, noone will care.
They didn’t need to duplicate the tardis. They are time travellers, give one to Tennent he goes off and eventually just brings it back to the same point
Or actually have him commit to the idea of retiring by forcing him to give up the TARDIS.
If the idea is that after all the companions have come and gone, there’ll still be the Doctor and the TARDIS forever, then the Doctor choosing one of his companions thematically necessitates giving up the TARDIS.
This is the clearest case of wanting your cake and eating it too.
if 14th gave up his tardis... he'd be at a lower point then he was before. 15th needed his own tardis to go on his own while 14th had his in case of anything happens.
@@InfiniteProductions123 but 14 could just get it to travel back to the moment when they bigenerated and give it to 15 then, that way we dont get a goofy tardis duplication scene
@@fieldmarshalgaig4856 future 14th would break some time laws and make a bootstrap paradox. besides, just easier for 2 tardised
@@InfiniteProductions123 why would he break some time law and bootstrap paradox?
I would've preferred the story if it were either a two parter to fix the pacing issues or if the whole story was just Donna playing the toymakers game alone or something
I wish they'd explained the bigeneration properly in the episode, cause the idea (I think) is that 14 stays behind to "heal" from everything he's been through, eventually regenerating from old age or something. At which point some timey wimey shenanigans occur thanks to the toymaker and the future version is pulled back in time at the point of regeneration. so it's kind of a weird time loop.
While David coming back was great, we shouldn't had a 60th Anniversary with the Toymaker meddling with his regenerations. The clothes was applied to him by the Toymaker so he can get the Doctor back into action with his latest game. In that way, Bi-Regeneration wouldn't be as messy. It would've just been Ncuti taking over permanently with David regenerating with a smile "I'm ready to go." David's just **there** now. Yeah he's the goat but having too much of a good thing takes that away.
Nobody seems to be mentioning it, so I'll say it: When the red-nailed woman picked up the ring in Last of the Time Lords, RTD joked with the idea that it was the "Hand of the Rani". I genuinely think this is a nod to this idea (possibly?) coming to fruition. He's made note that he wanted to bring back older characters / villains, so this might just be her modern debut.
I really wish we saw more of what was happening outside. Like you said, we only really saw it through screens in UNIT Tower. They should've made the episode longer to fit it all in. The episode could've gone on for another hour and I wouldn't have complained
I really like this one, best of the three specials imo. It’s really just an epic conclusion with plenty of great references to the past, a fun villain and a sneak peak at the next Doctor.
Another thing is it kinda deprives Capaldi's speech.
"I'm the Doctor, and I save people. And if anyone happens to be listening, and you've got any kind of a problem with that, to hell with you!"
The Doctor whining in the Toymaker's hallway was kinda off-putting
i hope we get a special by 14 trying to find Jenny, his daugther. After a new refound idea of 'family'. But that would be to smart.
Roaring laughter at the wheelchair accessible tardis 😭😂😂😂😂
Did Russell hit someone in a wheelchair with his car or something? 😂
First retconning Davros to walk again, then introducing Ruth with her Inspector Gadget chair to show disabled people can be badass too then adding a ramp to the TARDIS?
It feels like he’s trying to atone for something he feels personally guilty for, and I have no idea why. 🤣
It’s a good change, and harms nobody. He did it because wheelchair using fans talked to him and said they loved the TARDIS and were worried they wouldn’t be able to get in it easily.
Honestly, should have been there earlier, for K9s sake.
@@Sparx632the Daleks are gonna be happy that’s for sure
how did k9 get in and out of the tardis to begin with wasn't it already flat enough?@@rhodrage
17:04 it's so the can bring Tennant back whenever they need to when ratings drop again.
I thought the first 2/3s was pretty good of this episode but the ending where they play catch doesn't really test the Doctor how he should be, I think a logic or strategy game would have been better. I would say Chess but that's been done before with 11.
NPH was great and I wish he didn't get defeated and could come back later on as an overarching villain
Even when Tennant was brought back this time, the ratings didn't drastically improve.
lets look at the overnight ratings for power of the doctor and the star beast (Not a hate comment if that's the impression you're getting and I know that there's more than just overnight, I just dont wanna bother to look for a single comment)
for power of the doctor the overnight is 3.71 million overnight
The star beast overnight was 5.08 million, about 2 million more... so I guess you're half right half wrong? @@SPM0717
I flip flop between liking biregen, wanting David to just do the whole episode himself and regen at the end after time skip and healing montage. Maybe with elderly Donna. And third option would be for Ncuti to just take it over after Toymaker beams him.
Other thing - I wanted them to go all out. It's rare to have reality bender in the show, just let him puppeteer whole street instead. Have multiple dancers or multiple instances of him dancing during the song montage or do it all in smaller place that actually makes it into extremely overblown performance.
11:11 The irony is if Toymaker went for Fam, Doctor would have nothing to say, because Grace is still in fact gone.
11:50 My bet is on Omega or the Vampires. Or Time.
14:35 Well Ncuti's "legs" were the entertainment value here.
15:00 I hope its Missy/Lumiat or that it's Rani.
19:40 Not gonna lie, I am kinda scared for next season. The blondie gal is giving me total reboot with Rose and I actually would love, if we got either an older companion or kid companion instead. I am over "eye candy" companions and this was good opportunity to bring something different. It would give us that young Amy plot we never got. And having a kid as companion would keep the age dynamics we usually have with Doctor. And what I'm scared the most is that RTD just type-casted Ncuti and we end up with girly having her best time playing with her best gay friend accessory or some other gross bs. I really hope they will write him well. And that they
don't use too many comics or old villains as crutches.
20:15 Wait I just noticed - those veneers have way too many teeth. That's such good scary detail.
I personally like to think the Bi-Regeneration was for one of two things
14 will visit old faces when he regenerates and becomes the Curator
Or even better
He regenerates into the Fugitive Doctor so that they can retcon the Timeless Child
Er, naa, it was just so they could say the word bi.
Funny because that would definitely be the best way to use this awful plot device...
It's also ironic because i guarantee that the idea Tennant will eventually be the Curator is a completely Fan-made idea and there is a very high chance RTD will roll with that while claiming it was his plan all along... The way these 3 scripts were written i refuse to believe for a second RTD was thinking or respecting any old material other than the bear minimum to have Cate and Tennent return... The man probably doesn't even remember the curator exists.
I thought the reason they didn't give the Toymaker chinese outfit because they still wanted to call him The Celestial Toymaker, but to my recollection they never call him that in the episode
They didn't really call him "Celestial" in the original story either.
They brought back David Tennant but didn't bring back the Doctor's daughter. Missed opportunity.
Honestly I think that as much as there was things to enjoy about the other 60th specials, that turning all three into a three-part story centered around the Toymaker (with the Donna plot as the B plot developing throughout) would've been so much better.
Here's a short description of a hypothetical way you could run this into a three-parter, and no, I didn't take ages to think over every idea, this is more or less a basic example, I'm sure there are problems with it somewhere.
Episode 1: Panic in the Streets - The Doctor runs into Donna and is shocked to discover she is one of a small group of the unaffected in a world gone to chaos. With no one to immediately help him understand, and few bread crumbs, he is left on the small-scale to start, ensuring Donna's safety and the safety of her family. This could even result in The Doctor realizing that Donna is safe because of her travels in the TARDIS, and having to bring the whole family on a trip to immunize them. Realizing this could restore Donna's memories of him, he has to keep her blindfolded for the trip and swear her family to secrecy, but the connection between Donna and her daughter (the shared meta-crisis) causes Donna's memories to return alongside those her daughter has inherited... and it's not killing them! The Doctor realizes that splitting the metacrisis has diluted it to a survivable (at least for a time) level, though with the Doctor and two Time-Lord brained people at his side the trio can discover the source of the problem and invent the Zeedex. A clever plan has them strap one on to Kate Lethbridge Stewart, who is able to get UNIT back under control with their help (perhaps some sort of building lock down and knockout gas so they can strap mass produced Xeedex's to those still sleeping). The Doctor still needs to cure Donna and Rose before the metacrisis causes permanent damage, and find the source of the madness as the Zeedex can't be strapped to every person on Earth, it's simply too many people.
Episode 2: The Toymaker Returns - With UNIT's resources, and Donna and Rose's intelligence alongside his own, they work out the source of the problem and put a plan in place to halt the madness-pandemic, but are stopped when the Toymaker himself intervenes. A series of minor games are run against the Doctor and his companions (maybe Kate can even get her own challenge) to prove he's "still as sharp as he was last they played". With the Doctor having proved himself, he challenges the Toymaker to a game 1-on-1 to function as a distraction. It's some exciting game of wit and guile that takes long enough that UNIT, Kate, Donna, and Rose are able to take out the satellite and bring the madness to an end. Realizing he's been played, that he's playing the Doctor's game in more ways than one, the Toymaker flies into a rage which gives him an edge. He defeats the Doctor and begins to describe what The Doctor's penalty for losing is when the Doctor points out that as far as their proper challenges against one another goes, they're now tied. Annoyed, the Toymaker relents and declares that he still gets to penalize the Doctor, as he suffered at his own defeat all those years ago, and proceeds to force the Doctor to regenerate. With the comment about having played one game with one doctor, and a second with another, that they will continue the pattern with a final tie-breaking game against a new face. However... as the regeneration is about to occur we cut away from a view focusing on the Doctor and instead pan to a confused and somewhat worried looking Toymaker as the episode hits the TO BE CONTINUED.
Episode 3: One Last Game... - The Toymaker's shocked expression from last episode is the opener, as we pan back to the Doctor's regeneration which has him blasting regeneration energy from his body like usual... but the energy isn't simply dissipating... it's being expelled and then swirling around The Doctor, enveloping him in his own energy. The Doctor fades from sight behind the energy field before his voice is heard exclaiming in surprise. At first the Toymaker is unsure what has happened, but a second voice emerges from the same energy field and when it fades away there are two Doctors standing where there once was only one (Personally wasn't a huge fan of the physical splitting, push to separate us thing, but that's just me). They go through their little commentary about how bi-generation is supposed to be a myth, or at least the time lords thought so, but the Doctor knows better. Perhaps some reference to an instance of bi-generation being accomplished by the sisterhood of Karn, who had more control and knowledge of regeneration than any other timelord, even if it had never been replicated could exist. The Doctor assumed it was a quirk of their manipulation of regeneration, but apparently it can be present in normal Time Lord genes, just very special things need to occur for it to happen (I assume all this doesn't end up as wordily introduced as I'm putting here, I'm not a script writer lol) that seem to have triggered under these circumstances.
Regardless, we now have two Doctors facing off against the Toymaker, who tries to protest, but when both Doctors agree they are one in the same and challenge him to round three he has no choice but to comply. The last episode will be at least 50% this great game between the Doctors and the Toymaker, before climaxing in the defeat of the Toymaker. After the game they go to check on Rose and Donna and find them lying in UNIT HQ hospital beds, their condition worsening quickly. Just because the metacrisis wasn't instantly lethal due to it being broken off into two humans rather than one, doesn't mean it's not debilitating pretty quickly and all the thinking they've been up to trying to save the world has worsened it to the point of being almost non-functional. 14 leans down to tearfully speak with Donna, unsure of how to fix this, that he put that mental block in place to avoid her death, but that things have progressed to far to save Rose and Donna now... unless... 15 cuts in with an idea. The Meta Crisis was possible because 10 sent his regeneration energy into his severed hand, a non-living but preserved bit of the Time Lord DNA that matched his own genes allowed it to happen, but that also caused the hand to become it's own Doctor when Donna interacted with it. 15 tells 14 that if he wants Donna and Rose to live he needs them to do what he did and funnel their regeneration energy (yes I know they probably can't regenerate, but the energy is visually the same on screen) into 14, but that it may prove too much for him.
14 loves Donna though, and chooses to go through with it, saving Donna and Rose by absorbing everything that was killing them. They begin to recover, able to stand up (on wobbly legs I'm sure) and approach 14, holding him as the regeneration energy is flooding his body. It almost looks like he is regenerating again, but says that with 15 already split from him he doesn't think what's happening will result in a new face, he says he feels himself decaying. Bi-generation isn't for raising the numbers of the species in the long run, it's for a purpose they decide, whether they knew what it was or not, their biology knew this was coming, and prepared to save Donna and Rose any way it could. 14 begins to disappear slowly, held in Donna's arms with 15 by his side, a hand on his shoulder comforting him. He tells him that they still live on in him, that he'll never stop saving the universe, that he can go in peace, and 14 make a comment about how even his own death could prove to be an adventure in itself (implying as they have off and on in Doctor Who, about a potential for an afterlife), and so, with one last adventure before him, 14 says Allonsy before dissolving into raw energy in Donna's arms, Donna collapsing into 15's arms as tears flood down her face.
Then we do an emotional rap up, and a goodbye between 15 and Donna and her family, before setting off on a whole new adventure with The Church on Ruby Road.
What do you think, any of it seem good to any of you?
My issue is why were the zygons not fighting to be out their skin if they thought they were right
Could be wrong but the behind the scenes footage showed nph was on set with ncuti and david but That might be how they cut that too on purpose
9:43 I watched this a few times and everytime I hear "a hollow beneath the under universe". What could that mean?
I get your disconnect with Mel. I thought she was fine, but I don't really have any strong opinions towards her opposed to, say, Sarah Jane who I loved the moment she turned up in School Reunion.
The problem is that Sarah Jane was integral to not just the story but the theme of School Reunion, it was built around her bitterness over being left on earth and going on her arc to accepting it’s for the best that she moves on.
Mel in The Giggle… is there. You could cut her from those UNIT scenes and miss absolutely nothing because she doesn’t contribute to them, except for that one moment with 14 that was just fan service and nothing more.
I didn’t see the whole Power of the Doctor episode but Ace and Taegan felt more meaningful in the bits I did see than Mel in this episode tbh.
@@Longshanks1690 Yeah I think I agree with you there.
@@Longshanks1690 Keep in mind though that Mel is going to be recurring, so this is just her re-introduction, she's gonna appear again later and do more stuff there, it's set up really!
This may be a hot take, but it should have been Martha instead of Mel.
Yes, you should definitely watch classic who.
Definitely missing out in my opinion and you could always review them also giving the channel more content :) and yes, was also confirmed by RTD and Gatwa on separate occasions that one Doctor gets half the costume and the other gets the other half. So Tennant was indeed going commando
I tried and I just couldn’t 😩
@@NileSWPhotography honestly, since classic Doctor Who has now been given the audio description treatment, it has frankly opened up a whole new era of Doctor Who, which I never thought I would fully be able to appreciate until now :-) so really looking forward to going through the entire year from start to finish
@@NileSWPhotography
Try again. It has some real gems. Just go to the next one if you encounter one you don't like.
Do you have any recommendations for where to start classic who? I started watching from the beginning on iPlayer (up to the Keys of Marinus rn) but I'm not gonna lie it is difficult to stay interested, so I was wondering if there are any better places to start.
@@tolland4433 I tried to start with the 1st Doctor too and then I tried the 4th (everyone’s favourite) and it was DECENT but still hard to stay interested.
Strangely, NPH was in the same room for the catch scene.
11:09 - that's because they didn't die and got to live normal lives in the present day post-Doctor, whereas the Moffat era companions well... weren't as lucky.
Would love it if the female hand who took the golden tooth containing the master was the Rani and the one who waits who even the Celestial Toymaker is scared of is the Valeyard. Probably too much wishful thinking but a man can hope.
Did we watch the same episode? Ncuti was absolutely not outshined by Tennant?
Was so looking forward to this review and I’m the same. I’m very very mixed.
“You changed your face.. do you know why? To come home🥹..” when I heard this I was so angry. The whole thing was an absolute dumpster fire. The beginning scene until the laser scene was brilliant but beyond that… sigh.
I wonder if they've "parked" 14 for now so he can come back to help face this big baddie that keeps getting referenced. To me it doesn't make much sense for him to sit at the sideline while the world falls apart.
my problem with biregeneration isnt the biregeneration itself. its the fact that they havent explained it at all. like, who has regeneration energy? how is it a myth? whats the idea behind it? how does it work? will 14 be able to regenerate again or not?
also, the fact that 14 is now alive and well on earth means that the question of "wheres 14" is always gonna appear now.
one thing i also really didnt like how 15 just... loses his trauma? its really lazy writing to write off his trauma with regeneration, even though weve seen it doesnt work like that. just more unexplained things. and also, his clothes changed with his regeneration which i cant shake that tiny detail off
I liked the episode a lot, but My main let down was that game of catch being the means at which the Toy Maker is defeated, and every review I've come across feels the exact same.
I don't know how Russell wrote that, and no one else told him;
"Hang on, they play.... Catch.... The Toy Maker misses, and THAT'S how he is defeated..?"
Everyone generally seems to feel the Toy Maker and the initial stakes of the episode were under utilised!
There were a lot of great moments, but it was really rushed. Needed to be a two or three parter. Actually I'd argue this entire arch of 14 and Donna needed a whole series to work better.
NPH is great. Apart from a couple of odd lines I didn't have a major problem with anything. It's better than the first special but nowhere near as great as the second. I don't have much faith in Russell at this point, I will give the next series a shot but I'm doubtful it'll be good.
I’m so happy Mel is here ❤😭
Well at least I wasn’t bored *stares at Chris Chibnall
How the heck does a game of catch have a winner or loser? What are the rules which dictate a winner or loser? If a Doctor just lobs it dozens of feet over the Toymaker's head so he can't catch it, why wouldn't they win there and then?
i would love to see him back in ss1
What is a Toymaker?
Answer:
1:another race of Timelords
2:the time vortex given physical form
We just don't need to know.
Having him be something unknown and primally cosmic is far more interesting than knowing why he came to be.
@@Y00bithis. I despise how people seem to think everything needs to be answered!
A cosmic otherworldly god
@@Y00bi knowing his true origins will always remain anonymous as there is no true answer I was merely expressing speculation of what others have pondered at. I just thought hmmmm!? This could work.
Just gotta be grateful they didn't fully update The Toymaker for 2023,
and make him some master at Fortnite or whatever..
lmao tennant and ncuti playing duos
Well now I know what I want in a future episode. Thanks
Hmm.... I'm a tad torn. Not because you don't raise some solid criticisms, but because my interests in the last 2 of these specials is nearly inverted from yours.
There is always a danger in relying so much on nostalgia in pushing a show like this forward if that is the only focus, and it was the primary issue with the first 2 specials (as well as some unsatisfactory conclusions to lingering plot points). I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the other 2, but it isn't perfect. I think better building up in the previous stories and streamlining the plots a bit more would have helped, but I think I was so eager to see 14's run wrapped up and get 15 started, I was a lot kinder to this special.
Still, 15 is finally here, and I'm actually excited to see what happens on Christmas.
It's frankly bizarre that the conclusion of the episode is that the Doctor needs to slow down, settle, and not travel all the time... When 11 spent hundreds of years on Trenzalore, and 12 spent like 50 guarding Missy's prison - all in an episode which acknowledges the past 9 series since Tennant left
12:00 Ffs just lost The Game, Thanks Harry
There were many things I disliked about this episode, but Murray Gold wasn't one of them.
When Barabera passed out after the first dematerialisation what the heck did she sit on when she recovered?
Oh yes... a CHAIR!
I honestly feel like the Toymaker was under-used in this episode, here's why because when the Toymaker first appeared it was around the 1960's and back then we didn't have things like Video games it was just that, games. When I was told the Toy-maker was coming back I thought, omg what if he starts using Video games or even Virtual reality games for his sick twisted plans that would be like some kind of Satire to people getting so immersed in a digital world that in many ways could even be better then reality itself causing people to be so addicted to virtual reality they never wanted to leave VR or something like that, get the idea.
And yeah I know the plot does sort of fit what the Toymaker would do and keep in mind take this comment with a pinch of salt because for one, I'm the viewer not the writer. Anything I say what I think could've been is not valid when we're making a review I just thought I'd share this idea y'know? Like I said, don't take this seriously because this is meerly just what I thought they were gonna do with the Toymaker. Anything I say shouldn't be taken as criticism because I'm the viewer not the writer.
(edit) Ok nevermind, I just realised the whole digital thing was already done in that episode where the 11th doctor meets Clara for the first time (sort of) so yeah I got nothing, Forget I said anything but I'll leave this comment here because who knows, somebody might find it interesting I guess.
4:31 Careful, you're getting a bit close to The Closer Look territory with that kind of insert.
Finally someone looking at the good and the bad instead of just cherry picking all of the bad parts and pretending that the rest doesn’t exist or matter. Personally I enjoyed the episode and I am excited to see the new season with the new doctor. This was a good video.
the story had too many flaws for me to enjoy it, you pretty much pointed out all the ones I had on my mind after watching it
stooky bill was reminding me of billy the puppet from saw quite a lot of the time
I think the hand belonged to Missy
Maybe she didn’t regenerate like The Doctor. What if she bi-generated like The Doctor and gave ‘birth’ to Sacha Dhawn
I like to think The Master left his younger self and stole her TARDIS and left her at Mondas leaving her to escape on her own somehow to track down her older self until now
Imagine how the interactions would go
The Master: Hello Mum
Missy: Don’t call me, Mum, I’m technically younger than you. But regardless, I’m very cross with you
The Master grins with a mocking stare
The Master: Uh oh, am I going to be punished?
Missy: You left me to die
The Master: If it makes you feel any better, I was left to die
Missy: And was stuck in a celestial being’s gob. Of all the ways I have been defeated that has to be the most humiliating. Actually, I’m curious, what was it like chewing his food? Or does he not eat food at all? Also, what’s with the Rasputin bit? Are you Rasputin or did you take on the form of Rasputin leaving the real one trapped in a matchbox?
The Master: Whatever happened to surprises?
Missy: I’m not gonna ask again. I’m just going to assume you’re going to be very difficult with that plot hole. Now, down to business what should it be? Torture or a forced life of servitude for you and your next regenerations? Or maybe I could start again. Forced regeneration? I could make you older. Or perhaps younger. Or maybe I could make you into a woman so we can have a girl’s night, sound fun?! Oh you’re me, of course it will be! First things first…
Missy pulls out a razor
Missy: Lose the beard Gandalf
I want Missy back.
The the bacteria. Candle. The bacteria is universe microorganism
Uh.... Okay? Whatever the hell that means
I am infertile from eating scented candles @@InfiniteProductions123
Ngl I disagree, as soon as Ncuti appeared, tennant felt like a spare part. They did a good job showing Ncuti was the doctor now
Having the star beast setting up the giggle doesn’t make logical sense in world. It makes sense from a writing perspective of course.
The illogical part is: from the time travellers’ perspectives, they created the cause for the toy maker to alter history after star beast. So history hasn’t been altered yet when star beast ended. The giggle didn’t exist
My opinion on this episode was it finished when it felt like it was only half way through. There was no tension, no big heartbreak that causes the Doctor to regroup and come back for the final battle. It was just a poorly shot game of catch and a soppy ending. Really dull
How can the Doctor retire if he still has a TARDIS? Every time he travels, he could end up in trouble, like has happened for 60 years. It's not retirement, take away his TARDIS, then he won't get into terrible situations!!
Okay, I stopped it at 5:18 because I had enough…you’re clearly grasping at anything and everything you can find to dislike this episode and I find that disingenuous. Don’t even know where to begin here…you blast the whole “is Celestial Toymaker racist” thing because…what? Because RTD made the Toymaker even MORE interesting by making him MORE deliberately racist? It’s the Toymaker, it makes perfect sense that he would play such games with people, if anything, that makes NPH’s portrayal even MORE compelling because he really embodies the idea of a character who binds and is bound by the rules of play. One thing that Michael Gough’s original portrayal suffers from (given the budgetary constraints of the time) is that he doesn’t really appear all that connected to his realm. He clearly commands it but it’s heavily implied that he should be bound to it as well and that doesn’t quite come across on screen…this new portrayal, however, DOES seem every bit as bound to his realm as his realm is bound to him, making him ever the more dangerous when he fully ENTERS the physical realm while still bringing that attachment to the rules of play with him. To me, it all worked PERFECTLY and, being a villain, he’s ALLOWED to cross these sorts of boundaries that the rest of us try to stay within. In short, the Toymaker simply doesn’t care, he dresses HOW he wants, talks HOW he wants, appropriates whatever culture he chooses and insults whoever he wants because he feels himself ABOVE all of those other “rules”…he’s made playthings of literal gods, all he cares about are the rules of play, nothing more and nothing less.
Then we get to your basic “show don’t tell” screed where you’re essentially wanting the show to go to excruciating visual detail to show every bit of devastation possible because how ever could a brief scene somewhere in London plus a series of clips from elsewhere in the world observed by UNIT ever come close to making the situation believable? And how dare they excuse our allies for this episode from suffering the same fate because of some technobabbly armband thingamabob that they’re wearing?
You ever heard of the phrase “suspension of disbelief”?
The modern era of Doctor Who doesn’t get four to six episodes to fully expand upon a story. It typically gets one, just as this one did. In that single hour or less, the episode needs to set up a problem, introduce us to its villain, have The Doctor find said villain, see said problem go even deeper than originally observed, come up with a solution and then also, in this case anyway, also set up another Doctor, close up 60 years of Who whilst opening up the next 60 years, bring us the main players going forward…you get the drift? This episode had a LOT to do and spending too much time showing in full excruciating detail just how bad our initial threat was just so it would be believable enough that overly-pendantic types wouldn’t rip it to shreds would’ve taken up WAY too much of that runtime and THEN you would’ve complained about it being too padded! The episode didn’t fail here…you just refuse to be satisfied, simple as that. Have we NOT debated at length all over regarding how public discourse is being destroyed by these sorts of limited “thought bubbles” that everyone’s getting into now that makes people believe they’re always right and cannot be convinced otherwise? This is how allegory works…yeah, it might seem ridiculous that literally EVERYONE behaving in this way could bring about the end of the world, however, think on this…the airline pilot who announced his “right” to land his plane anywhere he wanted and thus deliberately crashed it. He decided that what HE wanted trumped literally ANYTHING ELSE, including FAA REGULATIONS! We see “Karens” all the time acting like their wishes trump the law and everything else, THIS IS THAT TAKEN TO ITS FURTHEST EXTENT! How much more do you need to see to believe that these attitudes spread out on a global scale could actually be a problem? Because it already IS a problem and this is just one issue “The Giggle” attempts to tackle.
And the Zeedex’s? C’mon, you haven’t seen technobabble gadgets in Doctor Who before? If not then you REALLY need to catch up because they are ALL OVER both Classic AND NuWho! The Doctor THEMSELVES started bringing them in way back in the ‘60s, it’s just that UNIT has long since caught up to the game…
And don’t you even get me STARTED on Mel! Her portrayal in this episode is LIGHT-YEARS better from what it was in the ‘80s!
You’re strongly giving out “old man yells at cloud” vibes here and you’re younger than I am and that’s a shame. As much as I love Classic Who, it wasn’t perfect and so anytime the Modern era can do better I feel it should be allowed to but people like you hold it back. Please stop it, for all of our sakes…
IMO: the best episode was The Star Beast, cause it felt like a classic. Wild Blue yonder was ok, and The Giggle just went into full parody mode.
None of them were god awful, like 13s run: but the plot and the threat were secondary to theatrics, substance and filler.
The tardis was not duplicated the second one Was brought back from the future
I wish the best of luck for Ncuti
So wait does that mean silvie and Shaun were effected by the giggle?
Honestly For Me by generation didn't work and they didn't like because normally every Doctor has their time and then they are gone but this time it feels like there are two doctors and we are following like crisis doctor at the end of season four or something they should have just regenerated life and I left wondering can he still regenerate that we ever see him again what purpose does that serve will he die of old age what will he do when Jonah and her family actually still doesn't take fast normal people we are literally following a copy now I have no negativity towards the new Doctor I have seen some questions for Christmas special and he does look like he's going to be a great but he feels like more of a copy now I hope a couple of Seasons down the line or maybe a couple of doctors down the line eventually one of them ends up dying in front of the David Tennant's doctor who has to actually resume saving the universe and then he regenerates to someone else or something I don't know I just wanted this fixed eventually
I never thought I would see a Limp Bizkit reference in a did it suck, especially a reference that is relatively niche, but my god did that make me happy 💙 Check out yo dad with the swag on the flo
Nph was the best thing about it. It felt like a drag in the beginning and at the end. I feel Chibnell and RTD have damaged the doctor has a character.