Better this week. It’s no Midnight but fine. And I don’t think it bears up to thinking about too hard.
I really do love Ncuti as an actor. I really don’t like The Doctor’s promise given his track record. And my initial great feeling for the relationship between The Doctor and Belinda is not yet coming pass, regrettably.
It’s the only way to be sure.
I was think the same thing…
Wonder how much overlap (if any) for Verada Sethu filming for this and Andor – guess it depends on how much we see her (so far about 30 seconds on Andor)
It has been a while since I saw Midnight – reading the summary helped.
Brian
Another great episode, and a complete change of tone from “Lux.”
When they said “Midnight,” it was delightfully creepy; that was one of the most tense episode of the entire series. I also loved the sting at the end.
Davies is on a roll.
Another possible Easter Egg for other another media franchise: mention of a “restraining bolt”.
I’m beginning to think it’s me: not a great episode.
I’m okay with things not making sense if the ride is fun enough. But the basic bits made no sense (and yet were still telegraphed) and the ride was not much fun.
Total dud of an episode.
Gatwa is a lot of fun (his turn in The Importance of Being Earnest was a joyful romp) but I’m finding the soapbox-du-jour annoying and the teardrop a forced motif.
I didn’t mind a non-Doctor-focused show and the theme was an interesting one but dang did they apply it with a sledgehammer right to the end. The allusions to certain GOP rhetoric was disturbingly on point though.
(I was also going to ask how they knew what the Shreek looked to make the costumes but I’ve just realized how.)
BTW, I think this may have been answered.
Bootstrapped.
I don’t know if it was a deliberate reference or just a coincidence, but a group called “Think Tank” were also the villains in Tom Baker’s first Doctor Who story, “Robot.”
I’m leaning toward coincidence, because the two groups have almost nothing in common.
I though Conrad was possibly using Ruby to get close to the Doctor, but did not see the anti-UNIT aspect.
When Conrad insulted Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart that was going too far, and I never wanted a character to suffer more*
Mrs Flood has been mysterious, but I think this is the most um, evil? we have seen her.
Brian
* ok, maybe an exageration but boy was I cheering for his demise
Yes. That was a line finely honed to enrage the long time fans - and it worked
Whew. Glad to have an episode I love again!
Yeah there are bits that don’t make sense, and other quibbles to be had, but the ride is fun enough! 
Staying with stories creating and powering reality as the arching theme.
So what are we supposed to make of Mrs. Flood being in a story The Doctor tells of a story that Belinda maybe told him?
Well-crafted bottle episode. Stupid science, but that goes without saying.
Another good episode. I’ve been very impressed by the show since Davies came back.
Season 2(?) is better, but I found the back half of last night’s episode to be only OK.
Liking the current Doctor, but both my wife and I thought he should have a moment where he says something like, “Wait…powered by stories…I haven’t seen this before. How interesting…” with a little twinkle in his eye that while dangerous and deadly, he is interested in something new.
I was amused both by the play on the term story engine and the storytelling aspects of barbershops in some communities. (The WWW joke was best left in passing, I think.)
Still fairly hamhanded in the racial soap boxing (not that the points aren’t valid, but they keep getting presented clunkily). That said, I’ve been waiting for some episodes set in Africa for years, although I thought maybe we’d get a Mansa Musa story first.
With an initially brash and self-possessed Musa suddenly turning strangely humble and the Doctor remarking off-hand, “oh, I just gave him a tour of the TARDIS vault”…
Sigh.
I’ll keep it generic and no big spoilers in a first post after most recent ep.
Lots to potentially like and stick for something mid credits. But, let’s just say last week was great.
Mixing up serious dark or horror with camp or comedic is definitely something that can work.
The mid credits bit is of course major but disappointing. I’m hoping that there is at least one more major reveal that ties together to the meta bits of stories creating reality and the fourth wall breaks.
Was Captain Poppy being the spooky alley kid in the last ep, and Kid being from a planet where the Corporation destroyed everything for poppy flavoring into something sweet, just messing with us? Is RTD just having a giggle biting the Disney hand by metaphor, with Disney being the corporation, The Who brand being the flavor bought and put into treacle? Did Disney explicitly choose to cast a little person in a role that their condition was immaterial as a reaction to the whole Snow White kerfluffle?
Again though. Short version. Sigh.