May 2024 – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

Doctor Who: Season 14, Episode 4 – 73 Yards

“It’s taken me all this time to realise what I’m here to do.”
“And what is that?”
“I’m gonna save the world.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, that was a weird one. As if on a mission to demonstrate just how flexible a show Doctor Who can be, this week Russell T Davies veered away from cutesy babies, musical numbers and earnest anti-war polemic to deliver a genuinely creepy, off-kilter ghost story that deserves a place in the show’s long history of nightmare fuel for its child viewers.

Doctor Who: Season 14, Episode 3 – Boom

“War is business. And business is booming.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Old school Who fans who were (perhaps understandably) concerned that last week’s brightly coloured deluge of space babies, farting space stations and musical numbers signalled a show more in the style of CBeebies will have been reassured by the massive tonal shift in the show this week, courtesy of returning alumnus Steven Moffat.

Doctor Who: Season 14, Episodes 1 & 2 – Space Babies / The Devil’s Chord

“I don’t have a people, I don’t have a home – but I don’t have a job either. I don’t have a boss, or taxes, or rent or bills to pay. I don’t have a purpose, or a cause, or a mission, but I have… freedom. That’s what keeps me going. To see the next thing. And the next, and the next.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

So, it’s back, the show I started to write this blog about – and it’s confusing. Not so much the plot – though we’ll get to that later – but as to what exactly the numbering should be. It’s the 14^th full season since the show’s return in 2005. I always thought it was justifiable to refer to the 2005 season as “Series 1”, given the 16 year gap since the end of the original run’s “Season 26”.