Fixed, thanks
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I liked when they get Tennant doing it; it feels very funny. In this I think it makes more sense. Feels more natural from this Doctor definitely. That might just be the incarnation though. Sometimes I think Tennant remembering Zagreus makes me have more questions than answers.
Review:
Liked this one a lot. Wasn’t expecting them to go with that and it really does pave over some character compexities but this is the “Roshana Patel ties up all the loose ends and fan questions from the era” story... but it does mean the lesbian subtext in the David Solomons 13 books is text for Yazmin Khan too now. More text than it was in those books (and it was pretty textual from what I remember). Which is a good thing. This might be my favourite 13DA and Big Finish-made audio drama I’ve heard this week.
Now I’m wondering if she got Scherzo flashbacks when trying to kiss Yaz. And I was already thinking that during Flux. 13 Divergent Universe with Yaz when?
Wonder if Andy Davison from Torchwood will be invited (/ was invited pre-Torchwood Soho as this is concurrent with or a bit after God Among Us.) to pig squad or whatever the police spinoff group was called.
Yaz getting the job offer is see above to Power of The Doctor, and I guess we can get some fan stories with them. Disappointing they decided aliens were secret again in 13’s era; that’s not true on-screen… these behind-the-scenes really haven’t been fun for this series for me. Also agreed on the music. I thought it fit but it would have been nicer to get new music or a reason for the reused music.
3 Likes
That’s not how I remember the Chibnal era. I don’t really remember the issue coming up but we’re well past Capaldi’s era firmly going with “humans just forget”.
MI5 knows about aliens but they’re the government. I also think some ranomd phone opperator who picks up when 13 tries to call UNIT says something like aliens dont invade anymore (and given they do actually invade, that’s probably secret/ignored by people). But thats it. I dont remember anybody mentioning previous alien invasions in the Dalek stories.
5 Likes
I listened to this one yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe the best 13DA so far? Great character work for Yaz with Sonya; I loved Patricia here, whom I hadn’t encountered before, and the Ice Warriors worked well too. Didn’t notice dodgy Northern accents or reused music. The benefits of being Scandinavian, I guess 
The plot was simple and has that Third Doctor era feel to it, which I liked. And it was surreal to hear Thirteen talk about Charley.
8/10 = Very Good
13 Likes
I keep seeing people saying it’s reusing paternoster gang music, but I listened through paternoster gang in three days (road trip) and I didn’t recognize any of the 13DA music. They also say in the extras for The Return of the Doctor that they composed brand new music for this range. Could someone provide an example, if I’m wrong I’d like to know lol
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I don’t have any specific examples to hand, but its the same composer and a lot of the music used or musical cues whatever you want to call them are shared. I did almost every Paternoster series upon release so its been a while, but their recurring theme like “I am the Doctor” but their version, was briefly used in the 13DA the other day in a slightly different format.
Edit: Its hard to give an exact example without relistening again, given the music has no timestamps or track names so it’d have to be a screen recording.
Also, did you get any sleep ? 
8 series in 3 days!?
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This is just that long-standing New Who trope of “people forget” or Torchwood or UNIT constantly telling everyone it was a gas leak haha. But I had the same thought during this ep when Sonya makes a big deal about first contact, it’s like “uh, The Sycorax? The spaceship that hit Big Ben? What about that global army of ghosts who turned out to be murder cyborgs? Remember when the planet got dragged to another star system and Daleks were killing people in the street? The 456?!?” Lolol
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NuWho in particular does seem to love to have its cake and eat it in this regard. Big, high profile on-Earth adventures have automatic stakes. Yet they seem to want Who to remain at least mostly “the world outside your window” which requires occasional resets of the status quo.
Of course you could blame it on shifting time lines, Eleven resetting the universe (twice), the crack in Amy’s bedroom wall or people just accepting Cardiff is weird but a bolder approach might be nice occasionally haha.
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And it is usually Russell who goes so big in his finales BUT also insists they take place on modern Earth, his are so hard to plausibly forget about. I guess both of the RTD2 finales are undone though, right? And so is LOTTL. But not Children Of Earth! Or The Stolen Earth or Army Of Ghosts! And has the entire population just agreed to NEVER again mention how weird Miracle Day was haha “we DON’T talk about Miracle Day.”
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Personally I’m still recovering from stuff that happened during the pandemic,
Never mind “oh nobody can die. Even that guy who fell out of a plane: look, he’s still blinking!”
It is mad how Who earth just recovered from that with ease
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And honestly, this is why I never really mind it in these stories, there is something so very plausible about the mass of humanity just agreeing to pretend they didn’t see all the Cybermen they definitely saw haha. It’s a good trope because it sort of rings true (as long as you don’t go absolutely crazy big haha, or draw too much attention to any one thing as first contact!)
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Yeah, but RTD also just let humanity deal with it. Voyage of the Damned has a plot point about how London is abandoned on Christmas because it kept getting invaded. And humans were constantly going “Oh yeah, like that other time aliens invaded”. Even RTD2 was setting up a public facing UNIT (I haven’t watched War Between yet, so don’t know if it supports or contradicts this). It’s really just Moffat who started it with his cracks and universe reset. Than giving up and just going “meh, people forget things no matter how impossible that is”. Than Chibnall just didn’t really touch the isssue.
Edit: I’ve just remembered Aliens of London had a “it’s a hoax” plotline, but to be fair that was early days in a humanity that was generally accepting aliens by the end.
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I literally drove for 12+ hours each day, listened to:
All of Paternoster gang
Unit: Eras
The haunting of Thomas Brewster
And Aegis again cause I liked it so much lol
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Adored this. Rochana Patel has rocketed to the top tier of Doctor Who writers for me over the past 12 months. I love her approach to character, and she really knows how to craft a plot that feels both classic and modern/fresh.
I have quite a lot to write about this story (well, there’s a surprise - not!) and will save it for a review. Working on one right now.
Superb stuff!
10 Likes
Finally got around to listening to this one. Loved it! It has good moments for Yaz, both as a police officer and in her interactions with Sonya, it also has some of Thirteen’s best moments on audio so far. 9/10
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Enjoyed this one! Mostly because I LOVE Menzies – I’m so glad she was brought back for a North Yorkshire-set episode! And I enjoy Sonya a lot too. Love a companion sibling relationship (they’re surprisingly rare) and I enjoyed her presence in this one.
Pretty standard plot, but full of enough fun lines to keep momentum going. Solid 7/10. Love Sonya trying to land a date with an Ice Warrior at the end!
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Yeah, I love that too. I wonder if that bit at the end can be counted as a Stacy and Ssard reference…
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New double date premise right there.
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Finished this tonight and thought it was brilliant, even if the Ice Warrior plot was a bit run of the mill. It was all the stuff with Yaz and Sonya that made it for me. Great examination of what happens when a companion disappears, but is here and there every now and again. Even though we’ve had similar with Rose et al, it still felt fresh. I particularly liked how they used Menzies to better explain how Yaz could keep her job whilst being away and I REALLY hope that her special unit comes back (with or without Briggs).
I think what I liked best about this one was how it felt really like it was part of the TV series and build on various strands from that whilst telling a fairly traditional ‘Ice Warrior not what they seem’ story.
10 Likes
Bit late on adding my thoughts here as it took a while to get round to a relisten, but this is absolutely up there as one of my favourite 13 episodes full-stop, and probably features her best speech - something I felt was lacking on the TV side of things. Won’t post my review because it’s pretty pish, but I do recommend (at risk of being a complete sycophant) @realdoctor 's for continuing to make me smarter each read, and I also really appreciated @AdamFinch 's - both identify the “My armor” line from the Doctor being about their emotional deflection, whereas at the time I read it as their acknowledgement of her friends and loved ones being her armor, in response to Yaz’s obvious attempt to tell her her feelings. I think both of your readings are more accurate, haha.
I do ask for those of you who are the musical experts, were the scores for the Yaz and Sonya emotional discussion and behind Jodie’s terrific speech originals? I thought these were exceptional, and really help elevate the scenes. As a non Paternoster Gang listener, I do wonder if the motifs you’re all referring are those god awful fairy-tale plinky-plonks whenever something funny has meant to happen, or when there’s a scene change. I hate hate hate them, and do not remotely fit the era or the stories. But I did think the music in the two scenes I mentioned actually did feel like they suit the era and material better, so I’m curious.
My only hesistation about giving this the perfect score is Eve of the Daleks is one of my favourite episodes, and I think Yaz’s reveals to her sister are just in complete jarring opposition to continuity here that it’s weird - Patel is so fantastically specific at rooting her stories exactly where they are in the timeline that it feels unlike her. Still, not enough to ruin a great story, and it’s nice to have more Yaz spotlight and Sonya was great, even if a little too mature for what I was anticipating.
10 Likes