Doctor Who (2024) (Page 1 of 3)

Agreed.  I think Episode #1 would have worked a little better farther into the season. Make it an episode that's fun just to be fun. As the 1st episode it was out of place and bad.

Episode 2 had a little more promise.  It started out OK, but quickly lost focus on what the episode was about.

I was happy with Episode 3.  Not overly happy, but just happy.   At least I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time when it was done like I did with the first 2

It always makes me chuckle when people complain about Doctor Who being "all shit now". Have you tried rewatching some older stuff? The new show has always been "wade through all the shit to get to the good stuff", and the original was mostly "the best we could come up with on a budget of 'random generic costumes and someone's backyard'" episodes.

But that's not even necessarily a bad thing, it's what makes watching this show (whichever iteration) fun: you have no idea what you are gonna get.

"Babies in Space" was pretty much the worst thing I've seen on TV (or wherever) in years. "The Devil's Chord" and "Boom" weren't great, but entirely watchable, maybe even enjoyable if you allow it. Pretty much standard Doctor Who.

"73 Yards" though? I think this one was pretty amazing. Scary concept, on an existential level. They didn't even really explain anything in the end, but they didn't need to. It just worked. The episode is currently sitting at a rating of 8.5 on IMDb, and I believe that is accurate.

Looks like next week's gonna be one of the goofy ones again. Those can usually go either way; on spins the wheel.

@merc

I don't know about 'explaining' it, but I can give my interpretation/take on it.

Non-spoiler: It was so far the least-bad of the 2024 reboot.  I'm sure the production people are just thrilled to hear people refer to episodes in terms of "least bad".  But there ya have one man's opinion.

You... might be missing the point? The episode is about a character with abandonment issues (is adopted, never learned why, never really got over that) being put in a situation that literally makes people abandon her without ever giving her any clue why.

The genre here is "psychological horror" of sorts. If they gave us an actual explanation why it is happening, then that would turn it into a technical problem. Something that can be solved. But it would also completely eliminate the effect - the horror of not being able to solve it.

No answer they could have given would have ever been as scary as not knowing. So, no, there is no answer, and there can't be one.

But then again, all of that might just simply not be your thing. Shows that like to play with different genres tend to be like that sometimes. Let's spin the wheel for next time.

Then in my personal opinion you are missing the bigger point: Doctor Who is not an anthology show.  It was never Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone, where every episode is a totally new tale.

Doctor Who has always been at its core an adventure show.  Yes it takes place in science fiction landscape and uses a time machine to broaden the range of story concepts and villains.  But still always the adventures of the Doctor and his companion.

2 musicals, 1 sci-fi, and now a psychological horror - is another way to say "The show is all over the map and doesn't know what it wants to be."

You have hit the nail on the head. What made the old Doctor Who Great were thje storys and we could thus forgive the creaking scenary or acting. The show so far is just clever-dick fluff

It wasn't done for Doctor Who. It was done for the BBC's new masters and overlords: Disney.

Disney+ assumes their audience comprised of 12 year olds, has never seen Doctor Who.  Its a *new* show to them.  And they didn't want to pay for the previous catalogue of seasons when their audience wanted to binge seasons 1-13 with this counting as 14.

In the eyes of Disney (you know, the people destroying Marvel and Star Wars)... If its now called "Season 1" then nobody will ever know there was an earlier show.

Given how bad this re-re-re-branding is... I'm glad they've made a point of distancing and disassociating it from earlier incarnations.

eps 5 the Logo (programing language) episode

Awful.  It was exactly like a really crap episode of Black Mirror.  What the hell have they done to Doctor Who?  I get that they want to bring Doctor Who to a new, clearly young and woke audience, but they're doing this at the expense of their older fans.  If this carries on I'm out, and I've been a fan since the Tom Baker days.

it is not really Doctor Who. More like Doctor where are you? eps 5 and 4 he dont really figure in it?

Maybe someone else already pointed to this here but felt a bit odd that recent eps have had a magical component, when the Doctor has spent 60+ yrs telling their companions  “There’s no such thing as magic!”

I guess according to an interview RTD gave, fantasy is going to be a component of the DW Universe. From what I gather many folks are of the opinion, one of the reasons, he did this was Rusty wanted to make a(nother) change to the Doctor which signified his stewardship. Like making he did the first time around with the Last of the Time Lords. And Chibnall did with the Doctor being the Original Time Lord?! or whatever that is?

I'm not sure I like magic being a thing now... likely won't leave off watching but it doesn't sit all that well whatever inverse rationale. And honestly mostly because I'm not sure many other showrunners have the delicate enough touch that RTD has. Because, I am of the opinion that, despite his flaws, he's a dynamic storyteller. Furthermore, I feel he has given this series the shot in the arm it was in sore need of. IDK about anyone else but I was soooooo bored in the Whittaker Era, not on her performance, I felt she was competent in the role. The stories tho... the stories

But what happens when the next showrunner has no idea how to balance the story for the different types of audiences the Doctor draws to them?! Really this is a symptom of this larger shift the Doctor seems to have been going thorough since it's revival... a continuous regeneration, if I may be so drool. Getting further and further away from that old weirdo in the time booth we thought we knew so well. But as long as the formula hasn't really changed does it matter?

I mean unlike a lot of other franchise we have literally hundreds of hours of other incarnations of the Doctor [not counting audio dramas]. This being something new actually makes plenty of sense for what the Doctor has become more so that what he was... and that seems apt.

I guess I'm just worried about the future which is funny when I should be leaving that to the Doctor. I hope it will stay nicely balanced but I guess if I can make it through Chibnall's shenanigans I can make it through most things, I'm here for the time-and-space nonesense, keep it good and I'll keep praising it!