Varada Sethu – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 8 – The Reality War

“Mr Smith is gone. I am the Doctor!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, that’s it for another season – and, it’s looking like, another era of Doctor Who. If you’re one of those unhappy at what has become known as the RTD2 era, there was really no need to be. In many ways, what we got here was a typical Russell T Davies season finale, with all the strengths and weaknesses he’s shown in writing the show since 2005 – great characterisation and dialogue, with plenty of spectacle, undermined by gaping plot holes that were seemingly papered over by fast-paced set pieces.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 7 – Wish World

“Doubt is such a beautiful thing. If you question hard enough, then doubt can crack open the world!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

“Is any of this making sense?”

Well… if I’m honest, not much, no. To be fair to Russell T Davies, this is the first half of a two-part story, so perhaps everything will click into place next week. For now, though, what we had here seemed like a bit of a jumble; there were some brilliant ideas, and some striking images, but it didn’t seem to cohere into any kind of logical story. Not yet, anyway.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 3 – The Well

“There’s something behind me.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Doctor Who has never been shy about stealing from… er, homaging other sources for its stories. I mean, The Brain of Morbius is just Frankenstein, The Androids of Tara is The Prisoner of Zenda, Robot is King Kong, and so on. It’s even, on multiple occasions, plagiarised itself – every Terry Nation Dalek story is basically the same as his first one. So it was hardly surprising, in a slew of well-blended ‘homages’ this week, that several of them were to earlier episodes of the show. The new thing here was the realisation that the ‘new’ show has now been going so long it can plagiarise itself too.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution

“Is this what you do? Are you some sort of time detective?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Wow, I have been very lazy with the writing of late – I haven’t posted anything here for nearly four months! Now, though, Doctor Who is back, to keep me disciplined on writing at least once a week. Well, for a while at least. The internet has been full of rumblings about the show’s apparent uncertain future, with Disney’s investment deal about to expire and Russell T Davies purportedly dropping ominous hints about some sort of “hiatus” in the near future.

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.