Thanks.
Hmm.
“The Devil’s Chord” was very good. The story was strong and there were some very subtle and clever bits.
- The Volkswagen parked at Abbey Road
- The note the Doctor kept playing on the
Piano.
Summary
It sounded like the first notes of “Danse Macabre,” which is played in the background a few moments later.
- The chord the Beatles played to save the day.
“Space Babies” was just OK. The concept was fine, but it didn’t really jell.
I’m about halfway through Boom and it is pretty good.
I was surprised to see it was written by Stephen Moffat.
Okay that was excellent.
Up to now they’ve been way too cute. Not just the stories but the characters.
This is Gatwa showing his chops. The depth we saw him bring in Sex Education.
Yea!
Trapped in a minefield/ standing on a bomb is a very tired trope, but they managed to pull off an okay episode. I say only “okay” because it was tinged with glurge.
OK is my ultimate review as well. I mean, it was a proper episode of Doctor Who, but I felt very little was memorable about it.
My review remains the same: New Doctor? Love him, has potential to be one of the best. New Companion? Yep, that’s a companion, quite adequate.
Writing? Meh.
Out of curiosity, when was the last time an episode hit that “memorable” metric for you?
Me? The last really good one for me was The Giggle, which aired December 9 of last year.
If we go back before David Tennant came back recently, I’d have to say I remember:
Some of the Peter Capaldi episodes. I can’t pick one just off the top of my head, but I did love the one where he talked about forgiveness and ending conflict.
He had others, loved Capaldi’s Doctor.
Jodie Whittaker’s run was very bad, no fault of her own(though this isn’t the type of character for her).
Anyway, I liked the Doctor-Donna episodes we just got.
I think it’s probably not a coincidence that the leader of the space priests is called The Bishop, as is a Time Lord referenced twice by The Doctor in ep 1. From discussion above my money’s on The Bishop being Susan 
(Twist?)
OB
IMHO it has been going downhill ever since the end of the Matt Smith era. This is what I consider to be a memorable episode:
Ah, joy. I remember that. Yes, it was much better back then.
Doctor Who became Poo several years ago. I liked some of the Peter Capaldi episodes.
The last terrific episodes were during Matt Smith’s seasons. Amy and the Doctor meet Vincent Van Gogh was one of my favorites. Vincent and the Doctor aired June 2010.
Hopefully there will be some memorable episodes this season.
I have enjoyed the new season so far. By my wife’s count, we have three secret women and I’m hoping for an answer on all of them.
Giggle was fun. I like NPH and he did great.
The Church on Ruby Road was also good. When I first saw it, I wasn’t happy with space goblins. We rewatched it before the new season and it was better. I think I came around to the language of rope.
Space Babies was there.
The Devil’s Chord was fun. I liked it.
Boom wasn’t great but was solid.
What I have found more interesting is how much this season makes huge statements on current events. Space Babies call out pro birth compared to pro life. Boom calls out the military industrial complex. I mean, wow! Boom even seemed to have the Doctor call out religion, but then “softened” it a bit. I took it to mean he doesn’t mind faith but not blind faith.
We have been watching the Behind The Scenes clips on YouTube. Those are a lot of fun to see as well. I miss Confidential but maybe it just went to YouTube and I missed that. Seeing the sets made and the guest stars talk about their roles is fun. I also liked how they linked the Maestro to the Toymaker in the outfit. I like seeing things like that in the BTS shows because I don’t always see those details but like they are there.
It’s also weird that the new stuff is in its own IMDB Doctor Who listing. Not sure why that happened.
As for good episodes after Tennant’s original run, I thought the Husbands of River Song was fantastic for Capaldi. I liked Eve of the Daleks with Whittaker. For Smith, Vincent and the Doctor. (I can’t forgive Chibnall for the terrible Timeless Child storyline and all that creates and ruins. Sadly, RTD is going with it.) However, those are the only episodes that I can remember well. I looked at their seasons and other episodes are vague in my memory. They didn’t stick in my head. I remember scenes, which is what Moffat is good at, but not stories, which is what Davies is better at. Those are the only ones I really remember of those actor’s run as the Doctor, which is too bad.
Thanks for the discussion!
Disney is resetting the season numbering and calling this season 1.
Two excellent episodes out of three this season (Ruby Road was also in that category). The Devil’s Chord was superb and more imaginative than anything in a long time. Boom took a well-used situation and gave it some strong emotional depth. If you count the specials, that’s four excellent ones and two that were good, and no duds since Davies came back.
My ratings for the first three episodes are:
Space Babies - 3/10
The Devil’s Chord - 4/10
Boom - 7/10
The first two episodes were a bit too silly for me. Boom was a significant improvement, but although the story made emotional sense it didn’t really make logical sense, so I wouldn’t call it a top tier episode. At the moment, Ncuti Gatwa isn’t really doing it for me. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I felt the same about Christopher Ecclestone until about halfway through his run. I think it’s because we’ve not yet seen his full range, although ‘Boom’ went some way towards remedying that. The preview of the next episode looked intriguing.
The fact that they actually found an actress called Susan Twist to play Susan (c’mon, she’s gotta be Susan) is just perfect!
But what if the twist is… she isn’t! 
I mean, that would be sort of terrible to hire an actress solely because you want to use her name for a crude pun, so I’m sorta hoping that’s not all there’s to it…
So far, I think this New New Who (will we eventually get to NN…NY territory?) could go either way. I liked most of what we’ve seen, and I think Ncuti Gatwa could make a formidable Doctor if given a couple great character moments, but there really wasn’t much that I anticipate will leave any great impact.
So I definitely enjoyed this episode but I do not understand what I just saw.
Help?
Apparently he wrote an interesting episode except he couldn’t think of an ending so had her rescued by Moe.