People who even only joined last season will know straight away who she is. With the Master coming back in Utopia, there was the whole fob watch, last of the Time Lords thing so that had weight.
The Rani? You’re right, it’s a bit of a headscratcher. Didn’t they have a Rani video on the YouTube channel a few weeks ago or something? That doesn’t really cut it in the narrative of the show. My other half reacted with a shrug, she had NO idea why the reveal was meant to mean anything to her.
Yes, Susan’s not coming completely out of nowhere, I agree. But I do think newer viewers might still be confused and think they’re missing something. Not saying it’s bad they brought her back, of course, I’m all for that. As for the Rani, we’ll see .
I think that they tried to do YANA again. He talked a lot about how all timelords died and have done it a lot throughout the series and did again in this episode. I am not sure if it worked as good this time but it can also just be because we have seen it before just like destroying Gallifrey a second time also did not work as good.
You can kind of tell Mrs Flood is a Time Lord based on the gallifreyan writing on her device, but that is a very blink, and you miss it moment. Other than that I had no idea until she mentioned the double brain stem which would new viewers even know is a Time Lord thing?
Nah, YANA worked because the fob watch had been set up and the language of it all was structured incredibly well, down to why the Doctor didn’t know he was not alone.
Here though, while he has mentioned being the last of his kind, it’s just, “Lol, here’s another one.” It has nowhere near the same narrative flair that Jacobi’s reveal had, not even close. There’s likely some weight to her being another Time Lord yes, but the identity of this woman who has been teased for nearly 2 years then has to just be “another Time Lord” for people who don’t know the Rani. And is “another Time Lord” enough?
Maybe it is, I can’t comment because I know who the Rani is and have been irritated by Mrs Flood’s seeding enough that even knowing it’s the Rani isn’t satisfying enough. But I do remember people not knowing who the Master was being absolutely floored by Utopia and this time getting messages from people not knowing who the Rani was going, “Huh?”
To be honest, I am 99% that the whole starting over the Season Numbering was just done to please Disney. I am fairly certain they wanted it as a Series 14 and 15 rather than a fresh new start
In the same way Jacobi’s reveal as the Master worked, past Doctors showing up didn’t have as much of an emotional reaction but they got it. Previous companions, same.
But they weren’t dropped as bombshell cliffhangers to end the episode on, which I think is an important distinction.
My other half (who I use as a good control experiment, she has little to no familiarity with the show) had no idea who Tegan and Ace were, had no emotional reactions therefore to their scenes with Davison and McCoy. But she did understand what they were. Had The Power of the Doctor ended on a BIG REVEAL with Aldred and McCoy then she’d have reacted the same way she did to the Rani.
Not quite what you asked, but when I first watched DotD when it first aired, I wasn’t quite as aware of Classic Who as I am now, and I completely missed the fact that the Curator was played by Tom Baker, or even that he was the Doctor at all .
Honestly, I think that’s pretty fair of Disney, and probably a good thing tbh. I’d imagine a lot of people wouldn’t even start the show if they saw that new episodes were from Series 14, yet Series 14 is the only one that’s actually av alible on Disney+.
I mean, I don’t disagree. I get the Logic behind it totally, it makes sense. That said, I am not quite sure if the new numbering is particularly warranted with this current Era. To just quote Shauny how starting with RTD2 can be a bit of a tricky Situation:
I am not sure if that explains my Point as well, as I would hope. But to cut the Chase short, I think it’s tied too much to the Past to be really an ideal Spot for a Beginner. Then again, who knows, maybe some People didn’t get too confused about it and thought it was a perfect Starting Point.
This definitely occurred to me and I’m actually quite looking forward to seeing how that’s handled.
For all my eye-rolling at how the reveal was done and the bigeneration and Mrs Flood arc etc, Archie Panjabi was really good in that brief scene and I’m intrigued to see her fully assume the role. Bonnie Langford was hands down the best thing about last year’s finale so a Mel/Rani rematch is probably the thing I’m most looking forward to going into this one.
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