Could you elaborate a bit? I find this trend interesting (The weird thing is I got so hyped when watching the first 2 eps but I don’t rate them that high, like 3/5…)
2 Likes
Same here. I rated them at 3/5 and 3.5/5 respectively.
2 Likes
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the ‘magical’ parts of Who. That and ‘deus ex machina’ type conclusions don’t mesh with what I like in Who. If it’s in a fantasy story then I’m OK with it, but I view Who as science fiction and as such there needs to be a rational explanation.
RTD is more light and whimsical, and as such will lean more into this type of writing. I prefer a more ‘grounded’ approach.
This is just really personal preference. I in no way deny or diminish anyone’s enjoyment of this part of Who. Its just not for me.
Hope that helps explain it. If you want further clarification, just ask.
7 Likes
2.5 across the board from me. Meh.
I understand that completely. Every time Brax pull that deus ex machina trick in Gallifrey it gets so ridiculous to the point I just laugh it off.
I simply can’t have that cognitive dissonance so I tell myself the show is just interesting in another way. I find that I’m enjoying the stories more this way, even it’s absolutely ridiculous lol
5 Likes
I can’t believe people are not as receptive to this one as I was. I had an incredible time overall and just love the music and energy of this one. 10/10 from me!
6 Likes
I agree with everything you write here. For the meantime Doctor Who is leaning on the fantasy aspect - suddenly this “breach” or whatever created in Wild Blue Yonder will be resolved and we’ll probably move on to sci-fi aspects of the perils of AI or something like that. Just roll with it, Doctor Who can be anything the writer wants it to be - this is the “Land of Fiction” and RTD is it’s Master at the moment. Just find the things in the stories that bring you joy, it isn’t “The Death of Doctor Who” (that’s an episode from the Hartnell era 
).
As you say Jinkx did exactly what one would expect, and the story kind of hinges on the spectacle of their portrayal - and I kind of think the narrative structure of the story paid the price. Spectacle as the pillar of narrative choice rarely works for me.
The story did very well in increasing the mysteries of the season, and I am looking forward to rewatching the entire season as a whole and pick up the subtle clues we were dropped along the way.
11 Likes
I think the biggest thing that’s really dragging this one down for me is that as a musician I unfortunately just can’t get over how nonsense the “secret chord” thing is. Especially when it’s implied that the secret chord that brought Maestro in that only a “genius” could find was just a tritone (which is very common and also not actually a chord), and nothing that was played at the end was any sort of uncommon chord. I think if you want to do any sort of “secret chord” thing you’ve gotta use an instrument that can do microtones and conceivably play like unique resonances, not a piano where basically any chord that can be played on it already has been.
Which kinda brings me to some other issues that are admittedly much more kinda vibes-based and not necessarily real criticism or anything that I expected differently, but the whole “without music the world goes to war” thing feels so much like a “music is our universal language” kind of take and annoys me a lot, and that feels especially off to me when it only features Western music. And like I said I didn’t really expect anything else or even think that it’s like a real problem, it just stands out to me and kinda irks me.
18 Likes
Fair enough,. From what I remember, that’s about how I felt when watching “The Bells of Saint John”.
(Though I only ever watched that episode once, and it’s been years, so it’s hard to give any details at this point…)
I thought the same. I wouldn’t claim to be a ‘musician’ but I can read music and I can play the piano and flute (although haven’t for years and am very very rusty). But the whole ‘secret chord’ thing felt really weird because it was just a combination of notes. Admittedly the ‘odds’ of hitting the right combination must be pretty low but it didn’t seem unachievable. I also thought the bit with Lennon and McCartney finding the last note a bit underwritten.
8 Likes
This, all the way.
5 Likes
The way they pull Brax ex machina so often that it becomes a joke is ridiculous and hilarious
So true, it’s irritating that the implication seems to be that 60s pop is the only music that can have that impact - not that the Beatles are bad or that’s at all the message I think they meant to show, but for an episode about music, there seems to be very little music in it at all. I mean think how cool it could have been to get some Rwandan music in there, as well as literally anything else
7 Likes
They could even have gone later in the Beatles career to when they were heavily influenced by Indian music…
7 Likes
Expanding the musical influences is all good in theory but we are talking about a family adventure show squeezed into 50 minutes that needs to hit a lot of broad strokes and appeal to the widest possible viewership. I don’t blame RTD for going the obvious route.
6 Likes
Like I said, I don’t even think it was really the wrong choice for the episode, it’s just definitely a thing that I picked up on where the “without music the world goes to war and ends” is running along the same lines as the sort of “music is a universal language that can break down cultural barriers” type sentiment that seems to forget that there are actually many diverse musical traditions and it’s not at all a universal language. None of this I think makes the episode bad and I don’t at all blame RTD for not trying to dive into all of that in what’s meant to be 50 minutes of entertaining TV and not an ethnomusicology lesson, it just definitely contributes to why the whole thing doesn’t quite land for me.
7 Likes
Based off the huge difference in ratings when the SB and TDC were first released, I thought I was going to be in the minority of people who didn’t care for TDC, but that seems to not be the case three days later.
I was most excited for TDC, but it turned out to be an incredibly boring episode to me (2/5 stars). SB, on the other hand, I loved (despite a few critiques I can easily handwave away). I gave SB 4/5.
7 Likes
A couple of other things I forgot to mention or that have occurred to me since:
-
I did love Maestro playing the opening of the theme tune. Probably too meta for some but I thought it was fun. But there are a LOT of fourth wall breaks going on and I wonder if it will lead anywhere.
-
The Susan stuff seemed loaded and I wonder if, finally, we will see Carole Ann Ford return to the series.
-
Toby Hadoke pointed out something I had missed - the actress Susan Twist is in every episode - she’s on of the video message crew in Space Babies and she is the tea lady in Devil’s Chord. She’s seen briefly in the pub in Ruby Road and she was Newton’s housekeeper in Wild Blue Yonder. It’s obviously going somewhere but I don’t know where!
8 Likes
She’s not in The Giggle, leading to speculation that it was her hand picking up the Toymaker’s tooth (where he trapped the Master)
10 Likes
Or The Star Beast for that matter… but the pedant award is yours
5 Likes
I have mixed feelings about this episode.
I loved Maestro. Once I got over the cringe factor of a very eccentric and very drag performance, I just felt they had an amazing presence and energy - perfect villain!
However I thought the story itself about the Devil’s Chord didn’t make much sense and the resolution was also very handwavey. It could have benefitted from being a bit longer, perhaps a two-parter. The villain being the Toymaker’s child could have even made this finale material — the Doctor was terrified, and the stakes were raised, only for the resolution to be really easy.
I also agree that the placing seemed off - they mentioned the date, it was months later, and it seemed a bit like a later adventure and a bigger villain than the second episode. The only bit that made me think it was the second episode was the fact that this was Ruby’s first choice of where to visit, but that TARDIS scene could have been filmed later to slot it into place. I think maybe they wanted to show this episode earlier than planned because it’s a good one, but it may have suffered from that placement by some references not yet making sense.
And they cut all of Cilla Black’s lines! I saw the actor tweet about that. Shame.
Ncuti and Millie though are absolutely note perfect, they were born for these roles!
Overall very enjoyable but like everything so far I feel it could have been amazing, which is a shame.
14 Likes