I was definitely picking up a connection as the details were unveiling,
But I don’t think the writer did it on purpose.
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They’re both mysterious entities of unknown origin that live several “lives” as a child, carrying vast amounts of memory, with unclear levels of consent, and whose civilizations are extraordinarily dependant on them. In hindsight, after finishing the story, sure they’re quite different, but while listening, as information is presented, there are a lot of parallels.
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For sure the writer did that on purpose. The Tourist is the one who sends them to help this child, so whether or not they’re the same species (or even the same actual individual at a different point in time, which I did wonder about), The Tourist sees them as kindred, which is why she sent The Doctor to help. That’s what slots this episode into the arc.
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I genuinely thought the Anomaly was going to be the child in the box from The Power of the Doctor — but no, it’s just a different child… in a box… on a train.
Knowing that Chris Chibnall originally planned the POTD train sequence as its own episode, I kept wondering if the two were connected and it did distract me from the story at points especially with 13 walking atop the train and referencing the future ??
The similarities are definitley there but I enjoyed the story nonetheless, looking forward to Armageddon Dawn next !!
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Welcome @JoshuaLea. Feel free to hop on over to Introductions and tell us a little about yourself.
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Maybe I’m easily pleased, maybe an accent from my home makes me soft, maybe I neither remember nor care about the lore threads that seem to have bothered everyone else but literally I had fun with this one. Best story ever? No. But it was fun.
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So the only thing that would’ve made it better is if it were on a plane?
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I also thought it was fine! Though part of that was I peeked at the average rating before I got to listen to it, so I was expecting something much more dire
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The average TG rating does seem to suggest people are being really hard on this story, probably more than it deserves.
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I went with 2 and a half stars, because it was a bit below average for me. It was fine, and I certainly didn’t have any major problems with it, I just didn’t connect with it at all and found the messaging a bit mixed and unclear.
I definitely didn’t hate it, it was just fine. Not a story I’m ever likely to think about or revisit.
3 stars seems generous for this one.
Edit: trying to show that box with my score in it, but I can’t figure out how to do it.
Edit: ohhh you have to link your review. I see.
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The most common raitings are 3 followed by 2.5/5. Which seems about right (I’ld even say ever so slightly generous) for a story where the prevailing response seems to just be that it was kinda dull with a poorly explained scenerio
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I didn’t realize the average rating across stories was so low. I’m a little surprised.
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Surprising range of outside references. That stupid 6 7 meme, the Doofenshmirtz nickel meme, AC Rogue (“I make my own luck”).
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Im honestly baffled it took this long for somebody to bring up the fact that the very first line of this story was a 6 7 meme.
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I’m either showing my age and/or general uncoolness, but your post is entirely meaningless to me (I don’t doubt it makes complete sense and is very observant). You’d have as much luck listing Dolly Parton songs to a 12th century French peasant 
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6-7 is some weird youth culture meme. As already mentioned, it’s used in the first line of the story (Station 6-7) To quote Abe Simpson in a flashback (The Simpsons being a very long running American animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family, Abe usually used as the senile grandfather), “I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!”
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In the TV movie for the Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb the mad scientist character Dr Doofensmirtz says this: “If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I’d have two nickels - which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.” It’s turned into a meme where you replace “I was doomed by a puppet” with whatever fits the scenario. In this story the Doctor remarks that if she had a credit for every time she was on the roof of a train she’d have two credits, and while it’s not much it’s still notable for happening twice.
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In the video game Assassin’s Creed Rogue the main character Shay Patrick Cormac (yes, he is Irish) says “I make my own luck” a lot. The Doctor uses that line in this story.
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Ild be surprised if “I make my own luck” is an AC reference as its a very old/common phrase. I feel like Han Solo says it in Star Wars but he might actually not say those exact words and there’s probably ones far older, but its the oldest prominent one I know
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Just listened to this, there are a handful of properly engrossing scenes in the second half once the nature of the Maelin Anomaly is revealed, and between Thirteen and Yaz at various points, it’s just unfortunate that the rest of the story is kind of there and doesn’t really do anything unique or memorable. There’s an intriguing depiction of Thirteen in this one, whereas the best stories in this range so far have really pushed her into slightly more proactive territory this one is a bit more in line with how she is on TV, in the sense that she seems less inclined to take charge and direct the plot. Imagine if Ten had been in this story instead, he would have torn down this whole society and walked away with no regrets afterwards. I think it’s much more understandable for Thirteen to behave the way she does in this story than in something like Kerblam!, where there’s really no reason not to overthrow the regime at the end, here there’s a decent job done of making clear exactly what’s at stake if something goes wrong after a botched intervention by the Doctor. It does help as well that we’ve had a couple of years of additional characterisation of the Doctors on either side of Thirteen that can perhaps explain this character trait a bit - between Twelve and Fourteen both expressing a degree of exhaustion with the mantle of “the Doctor” at various points during their tenures, I think it’s reasonable to infer that Thirteen struggles with the same thing, and perhaps this is the way it manifests in her case.
The other notable thing here is that this is the second time this range has given us an almost direct-timeless child parallel, and while it isn’t really dwelled on it’s making me quite excited to see how the rest of this arc plays out. I think there’s a lot of potential to really delve into aspects of that plotline that didn’t get as much focus as they should have on TV, specifically how the Doctor feels about their treatment at the hands of the Time Lords. Hopefully the last few stories live up to it!
In terms of where this comes in this series as a whole, yeah, it probably is on the weaker end of the scale, but speaking personally I’d still put it ahead of Lionesses in Winter and maybe The Return of the Doctor - three stars from me.
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I know I’m in the minority here but I listened to this one this morning and was a fan! I gave it 4/5 stars. It may be helped by the fact that I’ve only jumped on this range with The Hallamshire Incident so there is definitely still novelty for me in hearing Thirteen and Yaz. But I genuinely think Mandip Gill and Jodie Whittaker continue to deliver really excellent performances in this medium and their enthusiasm shines through.
There are elements of this story that are very “if I had a nickel for every time this happened I’d have two nickels but it’s weird that it happened twice” and the script even calls attention to that. Thinking mainly of the beginning of Power of the Doctor but obviously that hasn’t happened in continuity yet. What starts off as a fun and engaging train heist with some cool supporting characters ends up being a rather intelligently written philosophy debate. It’s short and pacey, the moral dilemmas work for me, and so does the supporting cast and the characterization of Thirteen and Yaz. Good stuff I thought, but I can understand how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe my tastes are weird because I hardly liked any of the 12DAs…
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