Entrapta <3 <3
LOVE Flux, spoilers for episode 6 I thought the finale was very rushed, but that’s my only complaint. Great use of classic and nuwho monsters (my favorite use of sontarans and the best weeping angel episode since Blink), I love that the structure means that threats are REAL! Things can get destroyed, people can get killed, there’s a lot at stake! I love the blend between classic who storytelling and nuwho, it feels like a modern version of the classic serial!
Just finished Arachnids in the UK! I really enjoyed this episode, seeing 13 being all awkward with Yaz’s family was so fun.
This exchange was so hilarious:
Yaz’s mum: Are you two seeing each other?
Thirteen: I don’t think so. are we?
Now I’m imagining a time in the past when the Doctor has been in a relationship and not known. I could totally image her being that clueless 
The giant spiders freak me out so much, but I thought they were an interesting concept, and I enjoyed a story with no aliens except the Doctor. I don’t think NuWho has had many, if any.
Also Thirteen always seems so dramatic with her sonic, holding it out in front of her like it’s a magic wand or something 
Love seeing you enjoying that Rewatch a lot, not long, and you are reaching my favorites of that Era 
!
Just read all of the posts in this thread - I know, a bit crazy, but it’s just so nice to see so much positivity for my favourite television period of the show. I love so much about this era, especially how for the first time it really feels like the TARDIS can go anywhere and not just London or Cardiff (which also meant I was a big fan of the recent The Story and the Engine). I could go on (and I did - I wrote three essays on the series on Medium however long ago).
I’m not really a forum poster here, but I’m glad I made sure my profile picture is Thirteen, and I assume my introduction (from… well over a year ago? Wow!) mentions how I’m a big fan of this era. It’s nice to not be alone when a lot of the fan landscape can be quite intensley negative.
Thirteen is the reason I got into Doctor who and despite loving that era, all the negatively around it really affected my feelings about it afterwards.
Since I’ve started this rewatch I’m trying very hard to ignore all the pointless and unnecessary negativity[1]. Thirteen is the best!
100% agree with this!! We need less stories set in present day London
Please do!! I’d love to know your favourite episodes/details/scenes/anything!
obviously there are valid criticisms, but it’s like that with anything ↩︎
Thanks for your response! I’m glad you’re overcoming the negativity - the reason I came back to this place was because it’s so unlike the rest of (online) fandom, which, as I’m sure a lot of people are aware, can sometimes feel like it’s more based on how much you hate the series over how much of a fan you are of it! These forums have really brought back my faith in the fans, lol.
I wonder if I can name my favourites, given I really do love the era as a whole and I think every episode brings something to the table that I am happy to see in Doctor Who. I suppose I can talk in broad strokes about each series without rambling on too much!
Series Eleven still feels fresh and new to me, when I watch it I still have that wonderful feeling of the show doing things I hadn’t seen before. I really love how it has a somewhat slower vibe than previous series, a focus not on the saving of the universe but the people who live and die all around the universe and how each has a story to tell. This is why I really don’t think the finale should be a big world-ending event, and I like that it keeps the vibe of the rest of the series. Even the Dalek story doesn’t get to hog the title like they usually do - it’s explicitly about the Resolution of the story of Graham and Ryan’s relationship. I think it’s beautiful!
Series Twelve feels like a real continuation of these themes, but with the writing team more willing to take characters, images, and themes from the history of the show. I remember watching Spyfall (the reveal still gets me even now) and thinking that Chibnall is now properly putting his mark on what he thinks the Doctor Who universe should be - and that was before the finale! This was the series that, more than any other, had me actually standing up in shock at events in it (Fugitive of the Judoon, and, of course The Timeless Children) and I must say I love the revelations and reveals from the finale, and I’m glad even the relentlessly negative people have to admit that Jo Martin was born to play the role.
Flux is possibly my favourite series. Strange that I talk about loving the slower vibe of Series Eleven and yet this massive space epic can come at the top of my (rather nebulous and really nonexistent) rankings, but I think that speaks to the quality of the show at this point. It feels like everyone is working at the top of their game, and I love its twists and turns, its incredible visual designs, the new characters and villains - and the returning ones - and just everything about it, really. Watching every cliffhanger as they aired with my family had us so invested every single week (plus, I’m a sucker for episodes set on the transmission date, and especially with Flux, it made the series seem so relevant).
If you want (and if I’m allowed? I don’t want to self-promote if it’s against the guidelines) I can send the essays I wrote on the series on Medium - I go into a lot more detail on each series there.
I really liked this as well. I don’t mind higher stakes stuff, but when every season is the end of the universe, it starts to feel a little meaningless.
I’m very much looking forward to getting to series 12 and flux. I only remember bits and pieces, and funnily enough, all the stuff that people talk about, like the fugitive Doctor and the timeless child, I’d pretty much forgotten about!
One of my strongest memories of flux is how cool it looked. The crystal skeleton characters[1] were especially memorable
I’d love to read these! I don’t think it’s against the guidelines 
can’t remember their names oops ↩︎
Learning how to use the features of the forum here! Hopefully I’ve quoted you correctly, haha.
I’ll happily take this down if it does go against anything, but here are the links to the essays:
Doctor Who’s Quiet Revolution - on Series Eleven
Doctor Who’s Stunning Reinvention - on Series Twelve
Doctor Who’s Incredible Resurrection - on Flux
Postscript: Doctor Who’s Incredible Resurrection - on the 2022 Specials
Hope the links work!
All the links work! These all look very interesting, I shall be reading them tomorrow (it’s late and I need to go to sleep haha[1])
although technically it is tomorrow
↩︎
I look forward to giving these a read!
I’m so glad you’ve had this experience. It was precisely what we set out to do with these forums. We’re not perfect but we try really hard to remember that every part of Doctor Who is someone’s favourite and that being positive and enjoying the show is much healthier than wallowing in hate-watching and complaining.
I hope you stick around and join in more of our silly fun.
And the essay links are absolutely fine.
Couldn’t have put it better myself! A simple ethos but strangely rare not just in fan spaces but in the internet in general lately, unfortunately.
Thanks for letting me know about the essay links too.
I just realized today that I’ve seen Orphan 55 (I even had it rated). I watched it before I knew about its reputation and I can’t believe it carries the low opinion that it does. I enjoyed it well enough, but I can say that about every Thirteen episode I’ve seen. I’ve never rated any of her stories under three stars, an honor I can only ascribe to one other Doctor.
Which Doctor is that then?
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What?
The Tsuranga Conundrum was great fun! The Pting was really cute, and I felt pretty tense by the end. I really enjoyed 13 just casually lowering the timer on the bomb and seemingly being unbothered by the fact they could all be blown to smithereens.
I’m really loving all the variation between the episodes, and it really feels like they are just travelling and adventures happen, as opposed: to everywhere the TARDIS lands, there is an alien invasion/world-ending disaster/evil mastermind with evil plans. Not that I’m against those kinds of stories, but it’s very nice to have each story feel different.
The woman who fell to earth was a kind of classic ‘stop the evil alien’ but even then, it only wanted one person.
The ghost monument was a quest-type story and didn’t really have a main villain or monster (there were the remnants, but they didn’t feel like the main antagonist)
Rosa was a nice historical episode with minimal aliens/scifi stuff and gave me classic who vibes.
Arachnids in the uk also reminded me of classic who due to no aliens/scifi stuff, which doesn’t happen a lot in nuwho
the tsuranga conundrum was different to to previous episodes due to being on a spaceship and having an alien that wasn’t really evil
I hope all of this makes sense lol