Yes! I absolutely love that bit! Hard to say that for the rest of the episode…
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I wish I could put my finger on why Ruby Sunday only rules as a character when she is very far away from The Doctor? It’s so strange. I can’t think of another TARDIS team where I only like them when they’re separated!
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Interesting idea. I never thought like that before but now you put it like that… Ruby’s character works pretty good standing alone. She feels real when she’s not with 15. When they are toghter, I dunno, it feels like something you post on social media. Doesn’t really work on me
What’s her motive to travel in the TARDIS again?
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I think it’s because she stops being the companion and starts being an independent person. Without the Doctor around, it lets the companion be the hero, and show off their unique strengths that are often overshadowed by having the Doctor there. While when she’s with the Doctor, she’s relegated to the “Wow you’re so cool, Doctor” sounding board that’s there to be a stand-in for audience questions.
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Which is odd, because the companion should also sometimes be the hero, not just the Doctor…
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Yes! That’s it. Maybe it’s just that they pulled the Doctor-lite lever so early and I got to really like her on her own. Then Dot & Bubble mostly keeps the audience separate from both of them, then Rogue isn’t really her story, and then it’s already finale time and for me? The one thing that finale never expressed to me is what the LEGEND of Ruby Sunday was even supposed to be! Then she’s just gone? Then back for a killer episode in the middle of someone else’s series, then she gets the big hero moments in the finale! Then he doesn’t even say goodbye!!! This is the weirdest character arc in the whole show since Kamelion haha.
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This typa poll needs a “none” or “see results” option lol.
Even selecting one was like nails on a chalkboard in my head /lh
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This is fair. I liked it, but I think this is a fair critique.
It doesn’t, but RTD (if we can trust him) had an interesting explanation: The original Toymaker had elements of orientalism (including the word “Celestial,” which if not a slur was slur-adjacent, “in a British Empire sort of way” according to Russell), so Russell wanted to preserve some aspect of racism in his version of the Toymaker, which he did by having him constantly appropriate new accents.
I don’t think it was successful, because it just made him seem like a weird little guy instead of a hypercolonialist, but I can see where he was going with it.
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Given he openly pointed out Sutekh’s cultural appropriation in Empire Of Death, along with the Chuldurs’ plan in Rogue (not written by him, but done under his watch, so I think it still fits), I can also see what he was going for with that. Hell, given the Toymaker’s debut episode is the only instance of a hard R in a televised Who story, I like that he didn’t completely shy away from the fact that racism is kind of intrinsic to the character, slight renaming be damned.
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My apologies, I did not know that word is offensive. I am generally skeptical of RTD’s explanation for changes in characterization, but his one for the accent changing makes sense (even if it came across as weird and not necessarily racist).
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Which shows he doesn’t understand Pyramids of Mars & was yet again being performativity progressive.
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Yeah, he did have that one backwards, but at the very least, I see that as more a case of honest confusion and faulty memory than being outright performative.
There’s definitely arguments to be made as far as Reality War goes, but when RTD2 started out… I mean, he delivered Dot & Bubble, and that was one of the deepest privilege checks I’ve seen in a mainstream work of fiction in yonks.
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Faulty memory? He could do what Doccy Who did, go back & watch it. It just seemed a totally pointless addition.
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As for the line itself, it’s just a quick aside, more a joke than anything else. Personally, I tied it mentally to The Giggle and Rogue, and I noticed quite a few moments in EoD that, in varying small ways, tied in the other episodes from the season. That’s part of the reason I liked it: It felt like Season One genuinely lead up to that story, even the smaller parts.
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I was intrigued and read that article. But I think they’ve mucked up in the reporting…
The line they quote Clara saying and the First Doctor saying are the same despite saying that Moffat wrote Clara’s line wrong…
Weird.
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Okay, that one was my mistake. Moffat’s original tweet has gone AWOL, but I’d seen this reported on elsewhere and… I dunno, must have blanked over that bit because I was already familiar with the statement.
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Man, I really like these all, but The Giggle holds a special place in my heart. One of my favourite episodes of all time. I will say though, TLoRS/EoD is very, very close. As for the s2 finale… flawed, but very enjoyable. I reckon opinion on it will soften in time.
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Maybe it will for other people but I really don’t see how it can for me I’m afraid 
The way Belinda is written genuinely just upsets me on a visceral level lol
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To me it felt like he was trying to make some kind of point, unnecessarily.
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Can I vote for The Giggle Novelisation? No? /hj
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