It would have even helped if it had been a better frog instead of what looked like a Halloween decoration.
Loved it. Frog and all! Alternate conscious universe has no need to play into forms that we expect. A little frog pleases it. Fine. That is itself a big idea. Just don’t lick an alternate universe frog is all I’m sayin’
(Goblin guy was more a Gollum riff than anything else.)
Most of all this feels more like The Doctor than she has been. The essential oddness … and curiosity coming through.
My only quibble is that I’d have liked to be more convinced of her regret at having to ask to leave Solitract. But a minor quibble that. Better even than Rosa in my book.
Fun. Trippy. Creative but consistent with the Whoverse to date. Great companion character development.
More like this please!
As the frog was talking, I was thinking, instead of cheesy CGI, pity the being didn’t take the form of Kermit the Frog.
Of course I may have mental problems.
I really enjoyed that episode…except for the toy frog. Jesus, what were they thinking there? It’d have been a perfect opportunity to have the Solitract appear as someone the Doctor misses - River, perhaps, or a version of Donna that remembers everything, or even Missy - which would have made her having to leave more poignant.
The reversed clothing in the Solitractverse was a nice touch - in fact I wonder if they just shot it as normal and flipped everything afterwards. Kevin Eldon as Ribbons was his usual weird and wonderful self, and unmistakable if you’ve seen enough of his work. The implication that he was generated as part of the antizone was interesting. And of course Bradley Walsh knocked it out of the park again.
I’ve come to the conclusion that a big part of the problem with this season is that there are too many companions who are drawing focus from the Doctor, and also that Ryan is the odd one out. I’ve also decided that the problem is the actor; he has no facial or verbal expression to speak of and the endlessly flat affect makes him seem like a big lump. The big emotional scene at the end ought to have packed a punch but he sounded like the fact that an alien universe had resurrected his much-loved grandmother was a minor curiosity to him.
That would have been an interesting way to go, even if a bit off for her attach to a doppelganger that she knows is not real, and a great way to have a have another past character have a reprise. But its potential poignancy would have missed the crucial character development of this Doctor. It would have made her regret about leaving over her ties to her past. That’s not this Doctor. The development here is that unlike the last several Doctors she has moved on and is looking forward. She was actually quite okay with moving on from this whole universe to explore a new conscious universe/friend and had regret at not being able to do so. No regrets at leaving Gallifrey, Earth, humanity, River, Clara, Missy, Bill, or anyone or anything else behind. A twinge about her newest friends but just a tinge, since they are okay and in their own time. This would be a new friend. It’s new and exciting and very different! That’s what mattered.
Had a quick scan over my lunch hour and it does look like they just flipped the screen, as it were, while they’re all in the Solitract plane. The largely symmetrical set makes it less obvious but not only is Erik’s shirt reversed, hair partings are reversed and there’s a subtle change in handedness from the various actors. Cheaper and easier than actually making reverse things, when you think about it.
Nice to see that Harold’s movement finally paid off, though.
Remember when Matt Smith’s Doctor was dying (I want to say this was in “Let’s Kill Hitler”) and the TARDIS was manifesting in various forms before settling on a young Amy Pond? There’s precedent.
I concede the point. But the frog was still terrible.
I liked the frog. I like the new direction. I want the 13th Doctor to establish herself and her own mythos before revisiting the Doctor’s past.
She’s good but is being sabotaged by boring scripts and companions. Keep Graham and turn the rest into Daleks.
Sorry, I’m confused. What does this mean?
Should have more clearly tied the comment back to the Woolly Rebellion.
Harold was that most dangerous of all creatures, a clever sheep.
It seems to me that they’re trying to cut as much ties as possible with previous seasons. Not only have the above people not been mentioned, the words “Time Lord” or “Gallifrey” have not even been spoken this season.
Where, oh where can I buy that reverse Slayer Tshirt? Also that was totally bonkers and terrific fun; it felt almost Douglas Adams at times.
Wow, who wrote that article, the publicist for Doctor Who?
The Doctor having three companions at the same time has been terrible for the show, especially for the Doctor.
They should wipe out two of them like you said and move on.
Io9 and other Gizmodo sites lately tend to have two broad types of media mentions
A.) Chirpy puff-pieces where the writer jumps up and down like an excited puppy praising it and assuming that they also speak for everyone else.
B.) Articles that latch on to some detail that shows how Socially Unjust it is and how angry you should be about it.
The linked Doctor Who article is firmly in category A.
Some posts upthread discussed the speculation that Chirs Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker might not return but all of that speculation involved them leaving after the twelfth series. So this new article doesn’t change anything.
I think that not only has the Doctor moved on from those people she knows she can no longer be with, she would not have been taken in by a doppelganger she knows to be false. And the Soloflex knows this. That’s why it appeared as something weird enough to peak her curiousity (i.e. a frog) as opposed to something tacky like a CGI Sarah Jane Smith.