If we include the original, arguably season 41.
This is the thread to discuss the 2025 Doctor Who episodes. Episode 1 airs Saturday, April 12 (12:00 a.m. PDT / 3:00 a.m. EDT)
I say open spoilers are OK after airing - if you don’t want any, don’t read until after you watch it .
Official trailer:
Brian
Ah, my 41st season! 
… and to answer your questions:
)*just one episode, but my favourite
Not a bad first episode. I like the early 20th century retro-futuristic designs.
So we are getting another season of Mrs. Flood breaking the 4th wall.
Have objects on Who obeyed Timecop rules before?
Fun.
I feel like I must have missed or forgotten some things in past episodes though? Why was he chasing after her in the first place? Who told him she was for mysterious reasons yet another most important woman for the universe? (Yeah there do seem to be a lot of them!)
Can’t say I followed the timey wimey elements but didn’t bother to think too hard about it. The ride was fun; don’t want to ruin it by thinking about it.
I do like that this companion is more in the Donna school: a reluctant companion who recognizes how dangerous he is, just wants back to her life thank you very much, not awe struck, not deferential, not crushing on him, and very willing to slap him down.
His reaction when she pointed out how offensively inappropriate it was to just take her DNA without asking, thinking that she’d be wowed, the smile then realizing oh shit I did do that and didn’t even think about how much of a violation that was … lots in that five second transition of expressions.
I feel good about their chemistry.
I loved the moment where she just started working as a nurse because there was work to do. I really like her character.
I don’t think we know that yet. I think we are in medias res.
Decent episode. Not great, but not disappointing.
I loved him in a kilt. With the colors wrong. (Usually, the kilt Is tartan and the shirt solid; this was a tartan shirt and solid kilt.)
I enjoyed the episode, except for the part where they vaporized the cat for comedic effect.
That was not cool.
I re-watched the last 3 episodes of Andor season 1, and just noticed that Cinta Kaz* was played by Verada Sethu (Miss Belinda Chandra)
Brian
* I had to look up the last name
Read only after watching the second episode.
Looks like seasons one and two are basically one story arc.
I did not enjoy this episode as much as last week.
Too cute and smug in its meta-ness. And carried too far. No it is not clever. Been done.
And I was hoping we’d have a very appropriately snarky, suspicious, and a bit cognizant of how dangerous of a force The Doctor is, Belinda for a good long while. But I loved the early Doctor/Donna dynamic best of all.
Okay I get that meta is the big arc theme what with Mrs. Flood’s constant bits. And the fans persisting is a big hit over the head with that: they are creations to mess with The Doctor and they outlast Lux; the overarching force to be reckoned with created them, not Lux.
I’m just not happy about it. That yearned for momentary suspension of disbelief that makes these romps fun are harder to hold when the show is shouting about it being not believable?
I totally understand your objections, but it didn’t bother me as much.*
I know from now on I will try to pay more attention to names and text shown that can easily be changed to “harbinger” ( I assume it will be in the last episode(s)).
“Wish World” airs May 24, “The Reality War” May 31 I would have guessed the season** finale to be May 24.
Brian
I did wear a 4th doctor scarf for the 50th anniversary special, but does not normally wear it for watching (or in general)
* I did like the “it’s puppets not cartoon that want to be real” bit at the end
** Hopefully not the series ending - I’m not paying much attention to rumors
I thought it a great episode. Davies has been doing a great job since he took over again. A couple of duds,of course, but this was another great one.
The big thing is that Davies has made the show fun again. Some people resent this, but it’s what makes it so good.
Loved the metafiiction aspect, and the fact they defeated the villain by giving him what he wanted.
This was the episode that intrigued me in the trailer and got me to return to the show after not keeping up with it since Whittaker’s run, so I might as well do a review.
Overall impressions: a by-the-numbers ep. of new-Who that could have used some tightening, improved by a standout villain performance (man, hiring Alan Cumming so soon after his appearance as King James was a good idea. The man is born to voice an alien trickster cartoon.).
Oh, definitely. The bit with the fans was just about tolerable, but then it went all in on the angst of not existing (how does that work? The fans have been spent hours watching the show, except their whole world was created by Lux and only exists for the time it’s onscreen, so they have fake memories but still get angsty? Did the cop have angst about not existing?). It’s like Davies wanted to do a fourth wall break but was afraid of committing to it.
Also I was slightly annoyed that when the Doctor and Belinda are literally giving themselves depth (which is a great moment), it’s with more anxiety and angst. With the implication that only by being depressing can you be “real”. Why not anything else in addition to the angst to as a sign of complexity.
Getting back to the meta quality, I liked that Lux/Ring-a-Ding’s addressing the audience was a sinister twist (intentionally or not) on the sort of fourth wall-audience interaction gags cartoons used to do.
I thought the 50s setting was a bit too on the nose (like “The Idiot’s Lantern”*). But on further reflection it has to be a time with projected theatrical cartoons, plus then you have Lux’s desire to absorb the looming threat of the A-bomb.
I’m wondering now if I should continue following this season; I guess I’ll do what I’ve done before and check the wiki article after each episode airs to see if it interests me.
*another period piece (set the year after this one) with an alien taking the form of a nostalgic media figure and trapping its victims in said medium. Written by Mark Gatiss, not Davies.
An interesting touch was that, while the fans described themselves as “the kind of characters who don’t get last names,” they were all given last names in the end credits.
I’m trying to pin what part of that schtick bothered me the most and I think I’ve pinned it down. The Doctor going back and forth over the best episode. Yeah I get the joke. RTD pointedly having their favorite being Blink, a Moffit written one, and the actor hurt that none of his episodes are their faves. But having The Doctor be aware of individual episodes? That pushed it way past the edge of tolerable wall breaking.
Yeah actually having last names may come up later. They’ll be back I suspect. The reality of “this” reality or “that” one or any story is arbitrary to the “gods”. That’s what makes them gods? The plane they exist in.
The nitpicking section for the episode at TVTropes notes that not only should the Doctor not know which of his encounters with the Weeping Angels “Blink” should refer to, but which adventures have been televised. That being said, the Doctor is aware his life is a TV show, having gone through this.
He never said he did know - he just recognized that “Blink” referred to an Angel adventure; he had no reason to care which one, since all of them occurred to other incarnations.
Loved it as well. I really, really like Gatwa as the Doctor and he just needs more and more episodes like this where he shines.
Correct, I didn’t think he knew for sure which one. He’s just disappointed it isn’t one of his adventures.
It’s…actually one he isn’t in very much.