I dunno, I’ve fallen asleep in the last couple episodes. That hardly ever happens to me. Also, I don’t like that they feel compelled to take a ham-fisted shot at U.S. politics in every. damn. episode.
I feel like it had potential, and think Jodie’s an interesting choice, but it just isn’t as engaging as previous installments. YMMV.
Which part of “Demons of the Punjab” or “The Tsuranga Conundrum” did you feel were ham-fisted shots at US politics?
Are those the two after the one with the Trump stand-in as the main villain? Like I said, I couldn’t stay awake through those two, and I’m not going to try again. I’m pretty sure in my haze of sleepiness there was dissing wall building in the last one though.
Sometimes, especially on a children’s show created in another country with a rich history and plenty of its own issues, it isn’t all about America.
What about the first two episodes then?
Of course the Rosa Parks episode dealt specifically with race relations in the US, and the spider episode had the Trump character (though even he was nuanced - many commented in this thread that they felt he was correct about wanting to shoot the spiders). I really don’t recall any other references to US politics in this season.
I’m going to have to concede given that I have no transcripts and I absolutely am not going to rewatch the season for specifics. Suffice it to say I think they are excessive.
“Applicability.” The Partition of India was a very real, very big thing in living memory. The general themes may resonate with present USA/Mexico relations, but the situations are not exact parallels.
Anyone seriously proposing a wall between the USA and Mexico should study the actual history of the Iron Curtain, but also studying the Partition would also help.
Hahaha, oh my god. So any reference to building any sort of Partition-like structure is - to you - a slam on current US politics? Fucking hell. 
The Iron Curtain was to keep people in.
Really the only similarity is all these examples have is a “wall”.
As for the “Trump” character, I thought that was just Chris Noth reprising his Mr Big role from Sex and the City.
Yes, Partition was a very nasty period indeed in South Asian history. I recommend watching the episode of Who Do You Think You Are? with Anita Rani for some particularly harrowing stories. For obvious reasons it still has a strong resonance in modern British society but very little in America, and it certainly has fuck-all to do with The Wall.
However Noth’s character was definitely a shot at Trump. Other than that and elements of the Rosa Parks episode, I’m not seeing a campaign of American sniping.
Bradley Walsh continues to own this season. As a middle-aged white guy, I want to be Bradley Walsh. For those who think that the latest season of Doctor Who is a thumb in the eye to the middle-aged white male, how often do we get to be the voice of quiet reason who thinks we should talk through our differences and discuss our feelings more? Bradley Walsh is my fucking spirit animal.
It’s quite pleasing that ITV - when deciding what to put on against Doctor Who on a Sunday evening - decided on celebrity editions of popular quiz show The Chase which is, of course, hosted by Bradley Walsh.
The scene where Graham was talking man-to-man with Prem before his wedding, knowing full well what was about to happen and wanting to console him but not being able to and having to turn it into congratulations instead was as fine piece of face acting as you’ll see: he made you feel his heartbreak through expression alone.
KERBLAM! was a swing and miss.
Seems like a long way to go to try make kids afraid of popping bubble wrap as presents begin to arrive. As a send up of Amazon it just wasn’t funny. To their credit they didn’t go with “people powered” meant the people were being liquified for fuel, nor the explicit announcement once on the belts that would now be “terminated”.
I thought it was a fairly good and fun episode. I didn’t feel like it was much of a send up of Amazon.
I did think it would have been funny if the bubble wrap was green in a self-referential mocking.
I liked it. It was one of my favorites of this season - a nice, classic Who story.
Haha! I didn’t think of that, but now that you say it, I agree!
Haphazardly spray-painted green for the full Ark in Space experience
A highly enjoyable episode, but I’m a bit peeved that The System just plain executing Kira wasn’t addressed.
That had to be the weirdest episode since emoji world
I am gradually feeling my “blame placement” moving from the writers to…the writers AND Jodie Whittaker.
I keep picturing Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith, or David Tenant in these episodes, especially ones like Kerblam. I can even see Christopher Eccletson smiling his way through it.
All of them would have been more gripping than Whittaker in that one.
I’m cheering for her, but she isn’t elevating the material enough.
Yeah, I really liked it too. Reminiscent of some of the adventures of the 4th, 7th or 9th Doctors. Twirly would make a K9-ish companion (now with added upselling).