I’m sure this has been mentioned, but I don’t want to read eight pages to find it.
I don’t like the sonic sunglasses. They make The Doctor look too much like an aging hipster. Next thing you know, he’ll be going around playing an electric guitar. Oh, wait…
Ditch the glasses. The Doctor needs his screwdriver.
Yep. And the writers’ attempt to inoculate themselves from criticism–by being the ones to point out that “sonic” doesn’t really fit with “visual” (i.e. glasses)–failed abysmally.
I do not like this season. Not at all.
And you’re entitled to your opinion, however wrong it is. 
I don’t think anyone mentioned it yet, and I’m referring to last week’s episode anyway, but…
Those tumbleweeds? In the town of Truth or Consequences? Very witty.
First shot we saw one blowing along, okay, yes I get it we’re in the American wastelands but a bit cliche don’t you think… then the very next shot has another one blowing along and I think oh COME ON and then another shot with TWO of them blowing along and suddenly… I realise what’s going on. Nicely done.
I 100% believe that the one Osgood is human.
And I’m guessing it probably doesn’t matter, but then having the Doctor and Kate constantly trying to find out only to never get an answer is kind of a dick move on the part of Moffat and/or the writers.
And reading here gives me the answer to the question.
Considering where I used to live… Nope. Pretty normal.
Or else when one Osgood dies another takes her place… sort of like how when the Doctor “dies” he regenerates and another man takes his place…
We never learned the details of the original peace treaty - it could be there are several individuals on each side who have agreed to become an Osgood when an Osgood is needed.
Er… I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.
That is pretty much what tumbleweeds do, roll along either singly or in clumps, and in arid environments they grow like… well, like weeds.
Tumbleweeds are so iconic Old West that I was surprised to learn that the Russian Thistle was only introduced to the US in the 1870s. They do get around–one rolled down my street a few years back.
Is it me or are the people playing companions this time around MUCH better actors than in Old Who?
I don’t know about MUCH, but thinking about it yes they are better.
Think about what people look like after the Zygons kill them. Those are not tumbleweeds…
I disagree, but I think the decision to make this story a two parter may have played better for an English audience than an American one. It was deliberately made very obvious that the Zygon splinter group was intended to be a direct parallel for ISIS. Hell, even the Zygon flag (scroll down about half way) was deliberately designed to look like the ISIS flag.
In Britain, where nearly twice as many British Muslims have joined ISIS than have joined the British army issues like radicalisation, of not knowing who to trust, and of militants using violence to poison the image of an entire group, are all tremendously relevant. One in 20 Britons are Muslim, compared to only about 1 in 500 Americans. Needless to say, Britain has had significantly larger problems with integration, ghettoisation, and homegrown radicalisation than America.
This story wasn’t just meant to be a fun sci-fi story. It was also an attempt to explain serious contemporary social issues to a young audience in a way that was both hopeful and honest. In that, I think it succeeded brilliantly, and there was absolutely no possible way they could have done all that in just 45 minutes.
A staggering difference in quality between the two halves of this story - the limp setup paid off in a much more interesting and intense conclusion. Some thoughts:
It was strangely refreshing to see a few normal solutions to perilous situations. Kate defeats the menacing alien not by confusing it with paradoxes or zapping it with a magic raygun but by simply shooting it with bullets. The Doctor and Osgood escape from the plane not by recalling the TARDIS using a Time Lord dogwhistle or using a wrist teleporter engineered from the plane’s navigation system, an old boot and some leftover sausage but by jumping out of it wearing parachutes. Sometimes the ordinary ways are better.
I wasn’t sure which incident the Doctor was referring to when he said Clara stopped him from pressing a similar button. Wasn’t it a simulated Rose that made him stop and think before destroying Gallifrey? I must have forgotten something.
The convoluted Prisoner’s Dilemma at the end worked for me - each box (according solely to the Doctor) had a “one button you win but lots of others die, one button you lose and die yourself” choice - a clever formulation with a WOPR-style resolution. Despite the heavy talkiness of it, I thought it was one of the better endings.
Love the Osgoods. The show is awfully good at coming up with strong female characters, some of which I wish we would see again (e.g. Lady Christina, “Jenny”).
Ah! I saw that and was trying to remember what it was. Thank you!
I kept thinking of the Donald Sutherland Bodysnatchers film where we see garbagemen carting away similar-looking detritus that was the remnants of duplicated humans (minus the electrical discharges, of course).
And of course it also covered the issue of the non-radicalised - the millions of ordinary Zygons/Muslims who just want to be left alone to live their lives without harassment by either their radicalised brethren or the government reacting to the radicals.
I forgot to comment on the other Osgood point - whether she was human or Zygon. I can understand why she never answered the question; in a way, she herself is an Osgood box, where ignorance of her true nature is key. What I wasn’t sure of was why the Doctor kept asking. It would have mattered if he thought she might be affected by some Zygon inversion gas, but since he knew (and he knew that she knew) that the boxes didn’t do that, and since he must have known where her loyalty lay by that point, why did he “need to know”? Or did he think she was a (different) Zygon duplicate of the surviving Osgood?
A good part of that is the writers are writing them as real people with real personalities, as opposed to plot devices and question askers.
Classic Who’s view of companions as “stuffing” was never more apparent to me than in Logopolis. Tegan transitioned from confused and a little frightened to full fledged prop in less than three scenes.
eta Sarah Jane was a notable exception, however. But she didn’t bloom until Four came along.
Heh - I’m reminded of Mitch Benn’s song “Doctor Who Girl”:
None of the NuWho companions would put up with that crap (which is of course part of the joke of the song), and indeed they’ve been spending more time saving the Doctor and the day themselves (most notably Donna and Clara) than any of the original companions.
(Incidentally, Benn reports that Elisabeth Sladen’s daughter said her mother was a fan of the song and used to dance around the kitchen to it).
When did Bonnie decide to become an Osgood? I must have missed that.
At the very end - the Doctor is talking to Osgood and then a second Osgood turns up, who is revealed to have been the erstwhile Bonnie/Zygella. The two Osgoods go off together with their respective inhalers.