Also known as the one that was shrouded in mystery. I still remember my jaw hitting the floor the first time I watched ‘Wild Blue Yonder’. I think it will be remembered as a modern classic.
Fenslaw… Collis… Brate…
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I’m glad you enjoyed it. For me, this one just didn’t hit. It was one of my least favourite episodes of Who.
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I think this one was a victim of fans making up wild fantasies about what it was going to feature. Everyone thought it was going to be packed full of cameos from old Doctor and companions because of the redacted cast list and when it came to it, it was redacted because…there was no other cast really.
This is definitely a story that will need to be re-evaluated in the future by fandom without the baggage they chose to bring to it when it was broadcast.
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I had no idea about the theories, I went in blind. For me, there just wasn’t any substance in the actual episode. The acting was solid, but what do you expect from these two. The VFX were laughable bad. Overall, it left me kinda empty.
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That’s fair. Think you’re the first person I’ve encountered that didn’t enjoy it.
Personally, it reminded me of some of BigFinish’s best experimental and character focused stories - stuff like ‘Broken Hearts’, and especially ‘Scherzo’.
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Yeah, it was fun to read fans speculate what could happen. Perhaps Susan would be returning? Or Matt Smtih and Peter Capaldi? Or the Master? Personally, I really loved this episode despite the fact that it had no secret cameos. It’s a very unique and atmospheric adventure.
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Well if we all like the same stuff the world would be boring. 
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I honestly think had it been full of cameos, it would have cheapened the whole experience.
I also love how it managed to do more with the Flux than Series 13 did. That scene where Fourteen is tripped into opening up about it to the Not-Thing and his outburst afterwards, easily one of my favourite Tennant performances.
Hope when BigFinish eventually get the rights to this era - which likely wont be for years yet - they give Fourteen and Donna more adventures set following ‘The Giggle’.
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I completely agree.
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I found them pretty disconcerting and knowing that some of it was practical and not CGI adds an edge to it.
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The arms were cool…but that was it.
This is one of the reasons I prefer the Classic era over the Revival. CGI can look alright at the time, but it starts looking awful quite quickly as the technology evolves.
One of my favourite Classic era stories in terms of practical effects and set design is ‘Planet of Evil’. The whole world looks absolutely stunning!
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This was the episode that convinced my partner to start watching New Who. I first made a shot to introduce her when the 13th started but she did not like it then. Then she gave it a new chance with 60th. She liked Star Beast but this was the episode that she really liked. After the 60th and the Christmas special, we started from 2005 and are now in the middle of season 3.
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I, too, was a victim of speculating that this one would be packed full of cameos.
It was because it was so secretive.
Matt Smith has said he’d like to return! Karen Gillan changed her twitter bio to include a Doctor Who reference, she’s definitely in this one!!
When RTD came online and warned people that no, that’s not happening, this is just a normal episode, it almost made it worse for me because I had a niggling part of me saying “is this doubling down on the secrecy??”
So when it aired, I was waiting for Matt Smith to pop out of the corner at any moment. About halfway through, when it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, I started to feel cheated. By the end, I decided I didn’t like the episode. I felt duped.
Then… a little while later I watched it again. And I absolutely loved it.
Free of the burden of having to be a big, bombastic cameo-filled 60th special, and knowing that it was just a simple, creepy episode, I found myself absolutely enthralled.
So it definitely took a couple of watches. I may have watched it a couple more times after that too. It’s an excellent episode.
Great review!
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My pet theory for a while was that this episode was going to be set inside 15’s tardis, sometime around the season 1 finale, so we would get a multi-doctor story from the perspective of a “past” doctor, and then revisit it with context at the end of the next season (specifically I was pitching a loose adaptation of a certain VNA (Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible), but with 15 and Ruby instead of the Phazels).
That said, I figured I was probably wrong and tried to go into it without any expectationss, and I ended up loving it.
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That would have been an amazing episode @NyssaUnbound !
And a very rare chance to do something special like that, with both Doctors in the roles and available.
Oh well. Maybe in a few years time!
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