Cyberwoman is just as bad!
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Then it can’t be that bad!
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It is bad! But I don’t like most of the two first seasons of TW and is not a good guide for you.
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Cyberwoman is a decent episode with an bad costume
Day One is a bad episode with some decent moments
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To be honest, this makes me more excited for this episode!
I actually enjoy going into something knowing what other people think of it. It makes me look forward to seeing if I’ll agree or not.
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Watching “The Impossible Astronaut” 
Love it! 
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Love the Silence!
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I’ve heard somewhere that it must fall… Can’t remember where…
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But I do know when
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I am looking forward to the TV club for it. It will be interesting to re-watch it and hear your thoughts on it.
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Oh, just you wait, I’m already working on my review (read: 5k words of meta analysis, probably) of it. I will defend Cyberwoman to the death!
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Kinda is the stop-off on the chronological Fifth Doctor watch tonight; I really loved this first episode. One of my favourite genres of story, one done well I think by Five but also by Eight, is a story where by the time The Doctor and gang turn up, things are basically already far too late to retrieve and we are at a tipping point. Half of the crew have disappeared and Hindle is very clearly one stubbed toe away from going absolutely ballistic, and when he inevitably does it’s such a frustrated lunacy that he plays it with that lifts the scene to a highlight of the episode when it could have fallen really flat.
All the stuff in Tegan’s subconscious is also delightfully creepy; those two chess-players are a striking and enigmatic image to hinge the scene around, and then the introduction of Dukkha (a name meaning pain, or the suffering of life, according to a rapid Google, how very fitting) introducing something genuinely warped that I don’t think Doctor Who had had before in its villains. There’s something deeply personal about Dukkha that sets his menace apart from the other threats going on. Really just gripping viewing. Really enjoying Season 19 so far - it’s so so weird.
EDIT POST PARTS TWO AND THREE
Hoo boy this is a cracker. I really wish I had more coherent things to say but I don’t - the barest of criticism I can muster up is that once they transfer the Mara from Tegan to Aris we lose her again for basically a third of the story, which is disappointing because her performance as the Mara is so good that it’s disturbing. Janet Fielding is rescued from being the least obviously skilled actress mostly on the misgiven virtue of being one out of three companions giving inconsistent and wooden performances, but she’s shining bright here, so it’s a shame to see her so quickly sidelined for just some bloke.
The surreal dream/transportation sequence that ends Part Three could 100% be billed as a modern A24 folk horror movie with no changes. The music is also exquisite, providing a stable backbone but not overriding any of the tension and atmosphere. It’s giving me the same sort of bleak dread that Waters of Mars does, compounded by Richard Todd’s unnerving childlike cheeriness as he happily rigs the dome to explode and devastate thirty square miles with it. His smile is the smile of a man emptied out and replaced with something else, and he’s got it down. Chilling. This is, honestly, really scary, scarier than Deadly Assassin for sure, but for some reason (probably the lack of overt violence) this didn’t, afaik, get much flak from the moral crusader types. Probably because if you squint your eyes and give yourself a minor head injury with a camping mallet, you could read it as a story about temptation, etc. There’s plenty enough Christian allegory. In fact there are layers and layers of subtext, I’m sure I’ll be continuing to read about Kinda for days. It’s definitely sticking with me, enough that I’m up at near enough 2:30am editing this post and wondering if I’m gonna stick the kettle on and just dive into Part Four.
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I watched Destiny of the Daleks today, it’s my favourite comfort story, I just love it
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Ah, could you tell me the rules of rock-paper-scissors then, I seem to have forgotten them
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Here’s a handy tardiswiki article for you. However, they neglect to mention what happens if you choose Jelly Baby
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Doesn’t really work as well without hearing Jim Parsons saying it does it? 
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Just watched Episode 2 of the Sun Makers. Leela’s speech about honor is quite quite good, and I love Gatherer Hade.
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You better be looking forward to excellent duodecaphonic sound.
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The Visitation today - there are things about Eric Saward’s script that I like, I think? Mace is an interesting character but is clearly mostly there to crack jokes and provide color, but all of the inter-companion talk is pretty banal and there’s a noted lack of characterization across the board. Absent from this is Peter Davison, who seems to be channeling a rather terse and abrasive energy in this story; the spirit of Saward infecting us already?
Watching Season 19 it is impossible not to draw parallels between Davison’s performance and Tennant’s performance as the Tenth Doctor - the physical mannerisms are all there, but also there’s an undercurrent of iciness in Davison’s Fifth Doctor - he’s very quick to snap at his companions, even quicker to snap at Mace in this story, actively treating him with contempt rather a lot of the time. This trait is a nice through-line that I think is carried by the Doctors we traditionally consider the “nice ones” - Five, early Eight, Ten and Thirteen. All superficially very human Doctors, but all of them with a diamond-hard center and a sense of the alien that is quick to emerge and lash out at the companions, almost as if those superficial human qualities are being used to cover up that darkness.
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