That felt like the kind of episode you get when a show is cancelled and the writers have to try and haphazardly close out as many open arcs as possible. I mean, it’s fine to focus on character moments and emotional beats, and I think the season has done well on that front, but when everything can be just solved by handwave, you don’t really have any stakes. And yes, there’s always been an element of that to Doctor Who, but leaning into it too much has rarely led to the series’ greatest moments (like e.g. de-aging the tenth Doctor with the power of friendship).
I did like that Ruby didn’t end up the umpteenth extra-special impossible girl, and I also liked the Doctor being clever and noticing Mel had been compromised, and using that to his advantage. I feel like there have been few such moments in recent seasons, with the Doctor often just reacting to events as they unfolded. Both of which however were immediately undercut by the whole dangling business of how Ruby could make it snow and so on, and the final ‘death * death = life’ thing. And it’s not that there weren’t any possible resolutions to these points—Ruby could have acquired the weirdness that surrounds her thanks to the time loop she suffered, and you could still have her ‘ordinary’ origin.
The Doctor killing Sutekh in the end also was intriguing, but ultimately, he was too easily defeated to warrant this sort of ultima ratio.
Louise Alison Miller. LAM, reversed = mal, French for bad?
When the Doctor was mentioning planets coming back to life, was wondering if Skaros was going to be mentioned again (one twist - Gallifrey being mentioned, but it wasn’t)
Indications Ruby Sunday will be back, but not necessarily in episode 1. Mundy Flynn (or possibly another character played by Varada Sethu) will also be a companion (again, maybe not in episode 1)
Metal spoons* should be available, even if the entire planet is dead…
Thanks for sharing that. I hadn’t run across it before and both hubby and I enjoyed watching it. “Happiness Patrol” is one of the first episodes I watched with my husband, who had started watched 5 years earlier.
I thought about that too, that it would have been interesting to see the Doctor’s reaction to Skaro or Mondas reappearing; killing Sutekh also meant bringing back the Daleks and Cybermen. Also, it would have been a nice Easter egg (and completely in character for Gatwa’s Doctor) had he seen and squeed over the reappearance of Raxacoricofallapatorius.
One little Easter egg that I don’t think anyone has mentioned: Gabriel Woolf, who voiced Sutekh, is the same actor who played him in “Pyramids of Mars.” He’s in his nineties now, but still has that nice, evil-sounding voice. For those of us who remember “Pyramids,” it was a nice touch.
I only caught up with the series last night, but I agree with the general consensus that I liked a lot of what Davies was doing, and think Gatwa is fine Doctor, but the ending was weak.
This year’s Christmas special was pretty enjoyable. Some typically stupid science and a seriously syrupy ending, but overall I’ll chalk it up as a win.
The Doctor’s retirement (in Tennant-form) appears to have done his current regeneration good. Matt Smith’s Doctor did not deal well with being stuck in one place for any length of time.
He’s got constant attacks from the fleets surrounding the planet to keep him distracted. Compare with “Power of Three” when he’s stuck on Earth with nothing to do.
