The Randomiser here on TARDIS Guide is fantastic when you know you want to watch Who but can’t decide on a story because you’ve watched them all a hundred times before 
So I thought I would make a thread where we can say a couple of words on stories the Randomiser spins up for us - maybe a personal highlight or something new you discovered on this random rewatch 
Celebrating having spun around the sun once more today in style by using the Randomiser to choose a few stories for me.
First up was Legend of the Sea Devils.
The prosthetics for the Sea Devils are fantastic and basically everything in this story is utterly gorgeous - the scenery, the costuming (well maybe not for Dan ), the underwater shots, the pirate ship and the sea monster that I’m headcanoning as being a cousin of the Myrka.
The story itself is a mess, the script is incoherent and all over the place and in desperate need of editing or rewrites. It is the small character moments that shines that are interesting here.
The highlight for me is on the beach at the end - but probably not the moment you might be expecting.
Dan’s voicemail to Diane is so heartfelt and the fact that she calls him while he is recording it as she is thinking of him at the same time as he was thinking of her is one of the best little moments of romance in the Whoniverse for me.
I felt so much more from the Dan and Diane beach interaction than 13 and Yaz’s scene.
Dan Lewis is probably the companion that I see the most of myself in - and his approach to love is something to aspire to. Fantastic stuff - and that the beginning of The Power of the Doctor is bringing Dan back for a date with Diane is amazing 
I just pressed it at random to see what it would say, and I was delighted that it spat out Flatline - I feel like this is an episode that received a mixed reception (though I could be misremembering), but I always enjoyed it. The supporting cast are very strong in this one, and there is a somewhat novel take on the idea of a 2-D creature which is fun. It’s probably not one of my favourites, but it’s a solid episode in a series of solid episodes.
It gave me the story “Past Lives” from Once and Future. I’ve never listened to it, and although it is on my list to eventually listen to because Six is involved, it’s not something I’m chomping at the bit to hear. I wasn’t a fan of Two’s Company, but I did like The Artist at the End of Time.
It ain’t brilliant (but it does come before the two you have listened to).
The entire Once and Future event was hugely disappointing. Most stories were very generic and forgettable and it rarely felt like a 60th-anniversary celebration.
I really wanted to love Once and Future but I was devastated that I didn’t really enjoyany of the stories that much - most of them were fine but I didn’t really see the point of the ‘degeneration’ thing and I didn’t feel like any of the episodes were very much of anything. It was no Zagreus that’s for sure 
Yeah, I thought Two’s Company was dreck. A bunch of random characters tied together with a boring plot.
I find that I don’t tend to enjoy these BF Epics. I listened to The Avenue of Possibility from the Legacy of Time set and that was terrible also. I don’t recall The Worlds of Doctor Who being all that either.
The Artist at the End of Time and Time Lord Immemorial were enjoyable to me, but I do like The Curator and Jenny and The Lumiat.
Absolutely. I rarely pre-order anything from BF and wait for sales or birthday/Christmas presents but do make an exception for very special releases. This series of releases lacked any sort of direction or cohesion and the ‘let’s stick as many disparate characters in a story as we can’ seems to have been the only directive. It felt as if they had literally put all the characters into a randomiser and gave whatever came out to each writer.
There were a couple of good stories - A Genius for War and The Artist at the End of Time but then there were stories that should have been amazing. How you make a story with a cast including Christopher Eccleston, David Warner, Nicola Walker and Gina McKee uneventful and aimless is quite the feat of scripting.
Once and Future was the first box set I bought on actual physical CDs, because I thought it would be really special and kinda a collector’s item. I feel duped lol.
But going back on topic…
I hit the Randomiser and got Flesh and Stone. It’s almost as if it knew I was thinking about River Song 
(Don’t worry @deltaandthebannermen , my threats to add River Song more frequently than anyone else in the randomiser were just empty threats).
Such a great episode. I know some people complain The Weeping Angels started losing their charm by being in too many stories, but I think they are brilliant and love everything they are in. This two-parter is one of my favourites!
I love the Randomizer so much but my cocktail of mental illness has to be in the right mood. On good days, I will be able to hit the randomizer, happily go with what it gives me, and then that will give me inspiration (via writer, monster, year, whatever) to go and look at some other stuff for that day.
On bad days I will sit at the Randomizer for ten minutes clicking going “no that’s not right…no, that’s not right either…”. Double-edged sword.
This time I got Spyfall 
It’s not very realistic is it? A greedy and evil tech company billionaire? Who has ever heard anything that farfetched? Technology that registers our slightest movements? Get out of here! 
Lenny Henry does an amazing job of it
Sasha Dhawan kills it from the second he is on our screens, with two very different portrayals in the episodes. He channels the classic Master vibe in excess. Tissue Compression Eliminator for the win! And the Doctor and Master makes “contact” 
Ada Lovelace is fantastic through and through and such an excellent celebrity historical figure for this story.
A bit of a shame that that was it for Stephen Fry - I liked C.
Wow I got Extremis as the next one, the Randomiser is good to me today!
Are you watching them or just posting your remembered thoughts?
Watching them.
A bit of a birthday treat to have the time to do it
Last randomised story of the day was Extremis.
This story is really good though it feels a bit stretched for time - when it is first realised it is a simulation it slows a bit down and explains the science fiction trope of living in a simulated world several times.
Bill and Nardole are a really good duo.
“Are you a secret badass?”
Kind of wish the other parts of the Monk trilogy were as good as this one.
Limited to just TV so I’d at least have passing knowledge of it
Got The Mind Robber and realised I hadn’t rated it (watched it as part of Tales of the Tardis a few months back), solid 8/10, such a fun premise and they play around with it in some really interesting and enjoyable ways
Happy Birthday! 
Cheers 
Happy Birthday!