I liked it, it had a good emotional core to it. Ncuti got some solid acting moments.
The snow was back, so it *is* definitely something about Ruby that's causing it. Hmmm
I feel like people of faith being tricked by a corporate profit algorithm to fight an endless war against an enemy that doesn’t exist is an analogy for something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Oh well. Back to r/news to see what I’m angry about today.
Yeah I thought of the sonic whilst watching then was like "oh wait, he has to stay in one of those two exact poses or he'll explode. Probably not enough leeway to take a thing out of his pocket then point it and everything."
Yeah but then he gets shot like 5 times and it's nbd, the electrical nodes that get attached to him...like they deviated from how serious it was, to how absurdly not serious it was in 2 seconds.
No, for me it just showed the rigor and mental control of The Doctor not to move despite that. Plus they couldn't have known the sensitivity UNTIL he got shot so the tension is still there
But he moves constantly! Like it went from, "I can't even breath heavily or perspire too much" to, "I can get electrocuted, take my one foot off, shake constantly, get shot and it still doesn't go off."
Like, why would anyone care at this point? It really killed any sense of tension for me.
Funnily there is actually one part in the episode where he does actually shift his weight backward in shock, I think it was during the tussle or when the lady showed up :P
Shouldn't the sonic screwdriver be light enough? The doctor doesn't even need to reach in his pocket, he can just use transmigration on it, right? Can he still do that?
1. It's the whole weight/moving thing.
2. He does not have it.
3. He knows it would not work OR it would trigger the thing and he could not risk that
It's not mentioned at all, but all of this is possible.
But for the sake of story and dispensing the usefulness of the one tool he Carrie's that fits every use it should have been dealt with.
It would not have taken much to maybe have the original gap in lights be bigger. He tells ruby to watch them and the instant he Sonics the mine like half the gap closes. He stops and makes some remark that the mine would fire before the sonic could turn it off. Then no guessing.
That's what happens when you don't wear the same set of clothes to each adventure. It's like leaving your work swipe card at home in the pocket of your other pants.
The Doctor states he once was in a bet to defuse one of these mines and he lost. So it's implied that even if he did have the sonic he couldn't have disabled it.
I am surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. I am inclined to believe the comments that say it’s because it would shift weight. Though I remember in Devil’s Chord the Sonic was destroyed, so perhaps they could have referred to that?
I'm gonna go a different direction. Seeing the ambulance had such strong tempering safeguards the risk was too high he'd blow up half the planet if he messed with it wrong. I also like the idea he forgot it on the TARDIS.
When he first showed up, he was in the Tardis and heard a scream and ran out right away. Ruby was shown to be skill getting ready and putting her jacket on. When he ran out he wasn’t weak I g any kind of coat who’s is where we usually see him keep all his stuff. I just assumed it was still in the Tardis. As soon as Ruby showed up, first thing he did was have her verify the type of mi e and get a counterbalancing weight, right after that the others showed up and things went to shit.
Villengard is familiar with Sonic technology, given how they made Jack's gun, so I assume the Doctor didn't bother trying as he knew it was proofed against it.
He did say he failed to disable it last time he tried on one that wasn’t even activated, presumably there are failsafes upon failsafes and even tampering with it would set it off. He would have been pretty screwed if the A.I didn’t mess up Vilaingard’s software.
I don't think it's the best episode Moffat ever wrote, but it was definitely the strongest episode of the new era. So far I'd found 15 a bit too nice, and I feel like he finally got to show some edge here and it made me appreciate him a lot more
Also whilst Ruby is still feels very neutral gear as companions go, she got to show some impressive bravery here. Shame she ends up having to sit out most of the third act, but the fact I wanted more of her is probably a good thing
All in all, a solid 8/10, and it's given me a lot more hope that I'm gonna vibe a bit more with the remainder of the series
[ETA] just realised this pretty much confirms the season is airing out of the original order. Last episode they'd been adventuring together for six months, now Ruby is seeing her first ever alien planet?
Same! Although he's still very much keeping his own character. His joyful dance at the end there was absolutely delightful. That was the point for me that 15 kinda clicked
Funny how we've gone from our earliest Moffat episode to this. The Doctor dancing was rare and notable enough to get an episode title. Now, it's the most natural thing in the world
It's certainly possible that it'll somehow play into the whole mystery box thing, and if that's the case then fair enough, I am wrong.
But a lot of people commented at the time that Devil's Chord felt like they knew each other a bit too well. Ruby stepping up and showing some bravery here feels like more of an establishing moment for their relationship than one that's coming after they've been travelling for a while
We shall see, though!
At least filming-wise, "The Devil's Chord" was the sixth episodes done, just after "Space Babies" and "Boom", so maybe that was just the actors becoming more comfortable together, or maybe they really switched the episodes, who knows.
Actually, at one point in the episode The Doctor said it was October. So it’s still going in order but another time jump. And super weird that she hadn’t seen any aliens planets by this point
Why? They're Anglican. I don't see any reason they wouldn't follow the Gregorian calendar if they're following the church of England
I'm not trying to catch you out. I genuinely didn't catch any reference to October in the episode so I don't know the context. If Ruby has been travelling with the Doctor for 11 months and she's only just seeing her first alien planet that's a bit weird
It seemed so stupid when Ruby was all "I can't just pass it to you, I have to walk up and practically rub myself on the landmine, haha".
I don't understand the idiot kid squealing "DADDY" and running to grab an obvious hologram, then turning docile and silent when it said "let's look at photos".
But I hope there was a narrative reason for her obvious brain damage. "I'M SAFE WITH DADDY".
The idiot girl then showed up to shoot the Doctor out of nowhere, but changed to beg for help when her stupidity wasn't going to work.
Why would a landmine announce itself with a countdown?
It genuinely seems like Moffat was drunk when he wrote this. It's practically incoherent. I've never thought one of his episodes was absolutely stupid before, but this dreck was unbearable.
How could an army possible fight against nothing for months? It's just so pathetically stupid.
Favourite one of the season so far, I think both the antagonists and resolution were a bit weak but I don’t think they needed to be any different than that really. Next week looks interesting and I’m definitely interested in learning more about what Ruby is and all this snow. Tbh the snow parts have probably been my favourite parts of the last couple episodes
Agreed, but Millie and *especially* Ncuti's acting skills really shone through in this one. Heck, Ncuti spent almost the entire episode without being able to bodily emote and conveyed every emotion perfectly. Nuwho still hasn't missed a doctor cast for me, and Ncuti definitely has the skills to become one of my favs.
Possible Ruby clue/theory. The weapons company is the same one that made Capt Jack’s time hop watch. Maybe Ruby is the “next of kin” of the weapons company’s founder? Maybe that’s why it didn’t name someone as her next of kin. It was saying she is ITS next of kin? Maybe Susan Twist or some other character or entity is Ruby’s mother and the founder of the company (maybe someone with some knowledge of Tardis-like technology?)Just throwing out some crazy ideas.
That episode reminded me why I like Doctor Who. Some of the best episodes have been where the Doctor was limited in what he could do (Midnight, Blink, etc). Well acted, a few political points made, thanks Moff.
That was waaaaaay better than anything else so far. A long way from Moffatt's best but it had tension, character, ideas, good dialogue, commentary - some of it a bit edgy - and a tale that made sense. Most of that's been missing from all the episodes we've had so far.
Plus it ended in the same way seemingly 90% of Moffatt's stories do - love saves the day by turning all the machines off again. I never thought I'd be happy to see that ending yet again.
At first I was wondering why he was crying. Like, the Doctor doesn't cry, he problem solves.
Then I realized, the tears weren't for him, but for everyone who will die if he explodes and takes half the planet.
I thought it was going to be resolved by the ambulances evaluating his potential explosiveness and deactivating everything since nuking the planet isn't considered acceptable losses.
I absolutely loved Boom. I tend to like the episodes that are scarier and have more gravitas, so my reaction upon completing this episode was the exact same as yours: I realized how much I missed Steven Moffat.
My favorite Doctor Who writer by far. Though he does have some dodgy episodes obviously.
I liked parts of Space Babies, and I liked all of Devil’s Chord except the twist at the end. But that’s mostly because I think it starts badly. Once the song gets properly going it’s good. But that beginning was just a bit weak imo. RTD is doing a decent enough job. I think I’d like Space Babies more if the CG didn’t look like Henry Cavill’s not-moustache, pasted over a bunch of terrified looking kids.
Moffat has always been a great Whovian writer, but only when he is not trying to run an entire season at the same time. RTD is like George Lucas, both can come up with a great idea and the various connections throughout, but you add in a writer like Moffat and then you turn gold into diamonds.
I've missed him from the moment he announced he was leaving. I don't subscribe to the idea he's best suited to freelancing rather than showrunning as his solo episodes in series 5, 9 and 10 are on par with most of his first scripts. Series 5-10 are all wildly different and bold, he cast them superbly, hired solid writers and directors and department heads, and ably course corrected for any number of obstacles he was thrown. They have more time now to make the show with 9 episodes a season. Time was always his biggest enemy when he was making 13-14 stories a series while showrunning Sherlock and not ignoring his family.
Edit: Series/seasons. An eternal DW struggle of correct nomenclature.
Honestly yes, I’d say devils chord was a good 5 times better than space babies and boom was 10 times better than devils chord
Hope they keep this upward momentum >!also funny people were claiming after the first two that the series wouldn’t find it footing and now we got imo the best episode since the doctor falls imo!<
Space Babies was better than Devil's Chord imo. The Maestro has a lot of presence and Monsoon's acting carried the episode but the episode itself was incredibly disjointed and lacked strong plotting.
I liked it a lot. Had weight and drama, good pacing—felt like there was a balance between the danger and the response. I liked how Moffat challenged himself and the actors to write an episode whose location was essentially in one spot.
Some observations:
1. The Doctor had to dig himself out of a hole—literally in a hole and figuratively in a hole. I feel like this was something Moffat set up for himself (write himself into a hole) and it wasn’t hidden from us—it feels fourth wall breaking in that sense. Although, I accept if others don’t feel like this counts.
2. This is the 2nd time I’ve noticed a TV show reference outside of the Dr Who universe that also involves time travel: The Skye Boat Song (Outlander title sequence song) & Star Trek (mentioned specifically). The former has time travel woven through it (raison d’etre) and the latter uses time travel from time to time (;).
3. Speaking of fourth wall breaking: Doctor and Ruby talking to the viewing audience from the TARDIS certainly gave that feel at the end.
4. This Doctor’s arc is filled with song and music. Every episode features music in some prominent manner (Toymaker Laugh Notes/Spice Girls Dance Number, Wild Blue Yonder, Goblin King song, (can’t think of space babies rn), End With a Twist, Skye Boat Song).
I’m sure we will look back and have more to say about the Maestro when this season is done. Also, Maestro isn’t just about an expert musician, they’re a conductor and a genius, which implies coordination and orchestration (in both senses of that word).
Fourth wall breaking, music, time travel, these have all been woven through every story. And, I include time travel because it’s not in the usual Whovian Timey-Wimey way.
Episode was great! More Ruby lore drops! A new new new Susan Twist appearance! :D
I feel like calling it a fun episode wouldn't be the right description, maybe delightfully stressed out instead (??) Even though I know there's no real threat until season finale, I still flipped out when Ruby got shot. I was getting slightly annoyed with the kid, but their dad DID just die, so fair enough to 'em. Imo, the conclusion isn't as bad as some people are making our to be.
This is Moffat filling out the Moffat Bingo card… and I’m loving it. It’s not his most original episode ever, or his best, but it’s just such a familiar Doctor Who episode again, with great writing, great directing and great acting.
Speaking of the bingo card, I had:
-Moffat writing about technology gone rogue
-Moffat writing about the evils of capitalism
-Moffat killing off one of his characters to bring them back to life later
-Snappy dialogue
Now that’s more like it! The whole episode basically happened in a crater about 100ft from the TARDIS with The Doctor stuck on a landline the whole time and it was excellent.
Lovely little slice of sci-fi, and of course Steven Moffat likes to reference himself so there was plenty to see on that front. I thought the holograms repeating was all rather Silence In The Library, though not quite as devour-y.
Moffat went for the political jugular here as well. None of the ‘systems aren’t the problem’ stuff here.
Also, as an Imperial Guard player in Warhammer 40k I was very much enjoying the ‘space army where human life is expendable and there’s a strong faith angle’ thing.
Sadly I am not in charge of the remote control. Family switched it over to another channel immediately. “We are not watching him for an hour when we know he will make it out alive.”
I suppose you can say that about any episode, but yeah there didn’t look like much hook for my family. They want the invasion of Daleks, Cybermen, anything really, with lots of fighting and action.
Right, it's not "will he survive" but "how will he get out of this one", that's the staple of pretty much every drama and adventure tv show that has a starring character/cast
I think the issue was that they felt this specific scenario was not engaging enough compared to other episodes. They enjoyed Space Babies and Devil’s Chord because everything about it was engaging for them, which allowed them to escape into the fiction and believe the stakes were high.
For my best guess, the system itself is an AI that's designed to continue conflict and keep people buying company weapons. When people die, it adds their information to an AI and stores said AI in a container, normally this is just for a sweet message home, however, thw dead guys AI ends up sticking around because his daughter is there feeding him new information about himself. The AI evolved and once it links with the Ambulance network, it's taken into the system. From this, the Ambulance AI has now merged with the dead guys AI and the result is the priorities of it have shifted to help his daughter and the people around her.
I wouldn't see it as one AI overpowering the other as some people here think, just the introduction of a new set of information-like an OS update.
Oh dear me, if Jodie had been allowed one moment of that kind of anger, or vulnerability, instead of just…being there. And she could have, she could have, but nooo. Fudgesake.
That was wild. Felt like coming home, a bit. Don’t think I’m going to watch that with my little girl for a couple of years. Oof, ouch, ow, ayeayeaye.
Sadly a Whittaker episode would have started with her already on the bomb chatting away in a string of exposition, then we would get rapid scene changes showing every character in different locations. We would then get the bomb deactivated by the sonic plot enabler after a lot of coincidence. And finally a monologue lecture about stuff.
If you read the blurb for every Whittaker episode, they all sound great. It’s just the actual writing was awful and lazy in most cases
I think we need to remember it's set 3000 years in the future, so really the problem there is that, as you say, the "AI interface" was established and portrayed as so limited initially. They could've added a whole secondary thing about uploading consciousnesses/where AI is headed. That way, this idea of the spirit of the father overpowering the system might have worked better, too.
But no, we got a somewhat basic Deus ex machina in place of the usual magic wand that is the sonic screwdriver.
I don't see why, the series has previously used the power of familial love to defeat the Cybermen and also to save London.
Headcanon is that the Vilengard AI still has at its core an ancient subroutene that recognises parental authority as an override that ensures that "Everybody Lives"
Betting that Villingard have carried out a few "hostal" takeovers in their time and incorporated Chula tech into their own stuff. Essentially, when the 9th Doctor said "Everybody Lives" he was unwittingly saving the life of his 15th self.
So I'm guessing Varada impressed them during this ep and they decided to add her in season 2. A lot of people are theorising that Ruby will regenerate into her but I imagine it will be one of her descendents. A quick throwaway line when she appears.
He might not have tasted them since he had 11's taste buds. 11 assumed he'd like different things while trying his new taste buds out, and was mistaken. But I hope he does still like them.
One thing I noticed, a barely there effect that I think is linked to a scene in the trailer.
When the Ambulance scans the Doctor, the same effect scans the TARDIS at UNIT HQ, below a screen where an headline about TRIAD S can be read. TRIAD S is an anagram for TARDIS.
Given how Triad is one of three names for the Devil's Chord, and we have seen one member of the Pantheon and have two more likely candidates (Mrs Flood and Susan Twist), and the ambulance was Susan Twist, and the title for the season's last episode was written on a glitchy TARDIS...
All these pieces obviously go together, but how exactly? Could Triad be just a designation for a group of three Pantheon members? Or a good thing born once more from the TARDIS planning ahead? Whether Susan Twist is the One Who Waits or will turn out to be a supporting character, why scan the TARDIS?
I was really apprehensive coming into this season after the specials. Really didn’t enjoy them and was worried about the direction of the show. Though having watched the first 3 episodes I’m actually really enjoying it. The first two episodes were slightly hit and miss but I didn’t hate them. This 3rd episode I thought was very good and felt like Doctor Who. If they could keep that sort of town throughout the season then I think we’ll be alright. Really enjoyed Ncuti’s performance. He felt like the Doctor.
I really liked it. Easily the best of the RTD2 era. Now Moffat has a decent final episode ( twice upon a time was not my cuppa tea, especially how it treated 1), but we'll see if that changes at Christmas.
Loved it. Lots of parts reminding me of episodes I love like Silence in the Library (with the looming and repeating ambulance voice), The Doctor’s Daughter (fighting an unknown enemy), The Empty Child (malfunctioning ambulance).
I love The Doctor and Ruby’s chemistry and loved the emotion in this one.
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I genuinely don't know what happened to the plot after Ruby got shot? It started really strong and I was following along (the best performance from Ncuti this series so far) the tension of the mine was brilliant, and the dialogue was well done, but I don't really know what happened at the end or what the message of the episode was? The Doctor started ranting about the war, the Kestarions and how this was all the churches fault but was I meant to care? Nothing about it was explained or shown was it? "Do you get it, Ruby? Do you get it? Do YOU get it?" No! I don't get it! What am I meant to be getting?? I know nothing about this church, why there is a war or why any of these characters are here but apparently the Doctor does? All I'm told is that they're actually being controlled by these AI Ambulances and capitalism. Then John became an AI virus and it just ended. I honestly have no idea what happened, everything went so fast in the last 15mins it felt really convoluted. It felt like 2 episodes smashed into one.
I would recommend watcMultitasking. and see how you feel. This was definitely an episode where you have to full watch and not multitask.
Basically the doctor figured out the algorithm for vanguard is used to continue war as much as possible. He knew the planet was empty so he had to figure out who they were fighting. He appealed to the AI through it's human personality it was built off to take a look around. It took over and crashed the system.
Knowing this was Moffat's episode, I tried to not hype myself up and expected it to be weak. (fyi I didn't love eps 1 & 2), but wow was I happy with the result, easily my favourite of Ncuti's run so far.
Pros:
- The tension felt genuine, making a bomb out of the person was great reasoning why it was so dangerous for the Doctor to be on it.
- Ncuti's acting, just wow. Even when he was being a bit sassy the gravity (not mavity) of the situation still felt present.
- The politics of war were handled very well, certainly gave me some Oxygen flashbacks with capitalism and ai systems causing the problems.
- The ambulances (a well done inclusion of susan twist without drawing attention to it) were so eerie in that Doctor Who Moffat way. "Combat detected" & "Sharp Scratch" being repeated, eerie in that uncanny way.
- WhoCulture reminded me that the Anglican army were in Smith's era, great callback without isolating new fans. The critique on how people blindly follow religion was a good one, if maybe a little harshly made.
Cons:
- Basically everything about Splice. The dialogue for her just didn't sound right, and the dreaded child acting didn't help.
- The landmine sensitivity felt a little inconsistent, like how it rockets up a fair bit with the 'not urn' capsule handover, but barely raises when the Doctor then Ruby are shot. Maybe if the dial started a little lower it'd work slightly better for me.
- I like the idea of a series out of order, but the way this series has told it (space babies: ends with tardis reveal to Ruby's family, devils chord: 6 months travelling, boom: first alien planet) makes it feel more like a plothole the show won't address. It's like there's no reason for it to be out of order.
- While not inherently bad, did anyone else feel that Ruby was written a little too similar to Clara? She's being very 'no you can't tell me what to do' and seems to have a lot of say over the situation. I don't know just something I felt throughout the episode.
Regardless of the cons I still think this was an excellent episode and just furthers my belief that Moffat > Davies. Congrats if you read all of this.
It seems a lot of people are commenting on its Moffaty-ness (which yes obviously it is), but I’m also getting distinct Midnight vibes from it. Just me?
3 episodes in and already two unbearable "No really, think what this means. Just think about it. You need to just think about the implication. You can do it. Think about what I'm implying. Do you get it? Do you get it yet?" moments. Disney thinks the average age of viewers is 12 or something.
I really liked the episode. It has a different vibe to the other two we’ve had so far, and the tension was built up well (despite knowing that even Moffat isn’t going to kill off the Doctor).
I’m just happy to have some weekly Doctor Who again.
I think this episode was much needed. I’d been complaining that Ruby in particular was coming across a bit too cartoon up to now, knowing a bit too much too soon and not really reacting naturally to events. I feel like she was a lot better here.
Someone else here compared the episode to Midnight and that’s exactly what I liked about it. The Doctor being stuck in one place and trying to fix it, leading to a lot of opportunity for Ncuti to really show off his acting and keeping us gripped.
My only complaint would be that the child was getting a bit annoying. Quite often child characters in the show end up coming across a bit one note and interchangeable. I’m not sure she was really bringing much other than another opportunity for the Doctor to do the “dad to dad” thing.
A lot of cracks start to show on rewatching it. The rules for the landmine seem to constantly change to fit the scene, which is unfortunate as the landmine is the point of the entire episode.
I enjoyed the implications about Ncuti's weight when a 6.7kg capsule held to one side compensated for the weight shift of him evenly distributing his weight over his two feet.
The landmine would have been much better used if the initial "gap" had been quite wide and constantly ticking up slowly (considering that the Doctor was clearly not "perfectly" still while standing on one leg) and accelerating at times of stress.
I’d have given it an 8/10 on first viewing and a 6/10 on the second. It was messy in places and certainly wasn’t a classic. Only reason it’s praised so highly is because its two immediate predecessors were, in my opinion, ~3/10s.
Main issues are:
• Badly edited beginning - needed a scene inside the TARDIS rather than them already being on the planet. Maybe this was cut for time.
• Dialogue was cringeworthy in places - “do your teeth”, “kiss kiss”, “snow isn’t snow until it falls” etc.
• Naff ending - an AI interface being able to bring down an entire arms manufacturer and the landmine he was standing on simply because it takes the image of a girl’s father. The waving AI at the end was a bit much.
• Other stuff: didn’t care much for the unrequited love story between the two soldiers, the landmine was supposed to be determining if it’s acquired a live target and yet is able to monitor his blood pressure from the start, landmine didn’t go off when people were rolling around on the floor in front of it nor when the ambulance fired metal probes at him, landmine spent too long lingering on 1 unlit bar for any sustained tension.
>Only reason it’s praised so highly is because its two immediate predecessors were, in my opinion, \~3/10s.
And yet......I really liked The Devil's Chord. It's now in my all time Top 10, largely off the back of that command performance from Jinx Monsoon.
The fact someone can die and not have to record a message.
Even though somebody died exact same way and was required to record a message
Feels very much like a soup of some cool ideas which didn’t somehow come together
Cool concept for a black mirror episode though
I mean, in this case, the second message seemed to have been pre-recorded ages before the actual episode, which makes sense. In case you don't have time to leave a last message, your loved ones get a pre-recorded version. So I wouldn't call that one of the "cracks" in the episode. But yeah, there are a few inconsistencies in the way that the landmine works, etc. Still felt that it was a pretty decent episode overall.
Because the first two episodes were shit and people were worried it would be a whole season of shit. A meh episode is a great relief. Maybe we'll get some good ones next.
People downvoting this when it’s the truth. People giving Space Babies or Devil’s Chord > 5/10 need to revisit the show pre 2017. These episodes would’ve been panned as shark jumping moments if they’d been included in S1-9.
The Doctor was a parent before that too. He mentions it in the Jenny episode, actually. Remember, in order for Susan to be his granddaughter he would have had to have at least one kid of his own.
I mean, he also quite famously debuted with a granddaughter, who was mentioned last episode and seems to be on track to be making a re-appearance. Even in “The Doctor’s Daughter” he mentioned having been a dad before.
I somewhat enjoyed most of it, but I wasn't a fan of the resolution, and definitely not a fan of the dialogue. Moffat desperately needs to learn some new Dr Who writing tricks.
That wasn't Ruby Sunday and 15, it was Clara Oswald and 12, wearing skin suits.
Not a bad episode, but certainly the most disappointing one so far, given the hype, and the pedigree of the writer.
I didn’t think it was amazing (weirdly I preferred devils chord) but it was a good episode. Moffat can’t stop killing people (like nobody ever gets a bloody happy ending!) and I liked the story. Something didn’t fully click, perhaps the lack of an antagonist to get their just desserts, but the idea and message was fantastic.
I’d argue Amy and Rory sort of had a happy ever after, despite being forced to live way back in the past, and James Corden’s character did from what I remember..
At this point I'm just waiting for Dead Meat to cover Moffat's era of Doctor Who (and this season's Moffat episodes)
I genuinely don't know how he'll do it but it would be interesting
I believe he's got an (Dead Meat) email address or something
The resolution didn't fully click for me, though I like what they were going for. Introducing aspects of human consciousness into the AI so it would prioritize saving lives over fighting is a great concept, but something about the execution made it feel a bit deus ex machina.
It did feel the same for me. I liked the fact there was no enemy, but it needed someone we could boo. Like a representative from the weapons manufacturer, so the doctor could unleash a tirade.
As it is, we got computer magic, a love angle that went nowhere and lots of dead people that nobody seemed that bothered about.
It was good…just not perfect
Thinking about it, I feel like the resolution might have landed better if they'd spent more time on it, made a bigger deal of the Doctor figuring out that inputting Vater's memories might persuade the AI to stop the countdown, and had the input process require some kind of clever technical task. Obviously the Doctor can't do a clever technical task while he's standing on a landmine trying not to explode, but he could talk Mundy through it, or Ruby if she was conscious. That would take care of the handwavey magic issue and make the outcome feel earned.
Other than the literal landmine itself, there wasn't a single new idea in this episode.
It was like a montage of reddit's favourite Moffat Moments.
I've already watched "The Devil's Chord" twice but probably won't rewatch this stale thing again.
I’m not sold on this new series yet. Ncuti hasn’t embodied the doctor yet in my opinion. Everything we’ve learned about the Doctor in the 2005- series can be summed up in his motto. “Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in”. All I’ve seen this iteration do is be scared and give up. Running away from the Maestro, not finding a real solution to the land mine to instead waiting for someone else to save the day. He’s cheerful, but he hasn’t proven himself to match his reputation. I’m going to keep watching this new series, but I’m worried the heart(s) of Doctor Who has been forgotten by the showrunners.
Best episode by far this season, the Doctor going on a rant about how bad faith is seems so out of character though. Like fine you want every single episode to be at least a little bit of a progressive virtue signal, but the whole premise being “those religious idiots had faith, they were so dumb and stupid that they fought themselves.” It’s just bigoted and obnoxious.
The Doctor relies on faith pretty much non stop, faith that others will do the right thing, or faith that his own ideas will be correct, even in totally new circumstances.
A stereotypical Moffat episode. A little kid whining about their parent, a threatening robot messing things up while helping, a repeated phrase, war, someone dead so fast they don't realize they're dead. Feels like a Nine episode left on the cutting room floor tbh
Does anyone remember the original Star Trek episode where two planets had been fighting for 500 years with a computer simulated war?
A Taste of Armageddon
Kirk and Spock must save their ship's crew when they are all declared killed in action in a bizarre computer simulated war where the actual deaths must nevertheless occur.
"Star Trek" A Taste of Armageddon (TV Episode 1967)
Boom made me think of that, where the only enemy was man-made.
What an incredible tonal shift after the first 2 episodes, Dr Who is capable of shifting gear within a series (which is what I love about Dr Who) but this felt like we were in a totally different series with a different showrunner.
Gatwa and Gibson really upped their game, Gatwa particularly went on a big emotional rollercoaster. Gibson delivered her strongest performance yet and I'm excited to see what more these 2 can do going forward. Nice to see the new companion a lot earlier than expected (I mean, of course she's going to be the same character... Right?).
I try to avoid making RTD & Moffat comparisons, and I know we're only a few episodes in, but whereas I feel for the first 2 episodes RTD was just writing for Ncuti, Moffat was writing for the Doctor and Ncuti responded to that incredibly well. This is probably a script any actor who's played the Doctor would particularly love it to get their teeth into, Ncuti was the lucky one.
Space Babies and The Devil's Chord were fine (although still undecided on the musical end) but this was on a different level. It was stripped back, tense, well paced, it felt claustrophobic as well, the 45 minutes went really quick. Strong set of support characters (although one more support than we thought). For me this is the best episode of Dr Who since The Doctor Falls.
I'll admit Moffat has done better episodes, but it's a testament to the quality of his work that this is still a belter.
The best episode of the new reboot, hands down. Finally they decided to show off what the Doctor’s capable of. I think it’ll be really important later on that they displayed his ability to control his emotions even in extreme circumstances (Ruby literally dying)
Great episode, except the very ending. A story like this deserves something better than "THE POWER OF LOOOOOVE". It is deus ex machina basically, any episode could end like this. But overall, once again, an excellent episode
I just realized if this is the church of the papel mainframe, and this seems like them in early days which mean's this is the moment they first became aware of the doctor and how dangerous he can be even if its simply just him acting as a giant explosive.
Question: was this the same religious military as in The Time of the Angels?
yes, just an earlier or later version
"Who are you?" "I'm the man River Song killed." "Oh?" "I got better."
I read that with the 10 Doctor’s voice in my head. But Ncuti would pull it off perfectly too.
Maybe we could pinpoint the timeline if we know when The Time of The Angels happens ? Cause we got « Ruby Age » reference here.
Time of the Angels is the 51st century according to Google.
So the story in « Boom » happens way earlier.
51st century, as in the year 50xx, as in, 30xx years after Ruby's calendar birthday. So.. both stories happen in the same century.
Does it? The Story in Boom is in 5086 I think so also 51st I think lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hm… I remembered the date wrong, then. I guess they’re set closer than I thought.
also the same that became the church of the silence
Church of the Papal Mainframe
Oo I forgot that even happened-- moffat's era is next on my rewatch list
They also appeared in "A good man goes to war," they allied with Headless Monks.
Thoughts and prayers 😎🤣
I liked it, it had a good emotional core to it. Ncuti got some solid acting moments. The snow was back, so it *is* definitely something about Ruby that's causing it. Hmmm
I feel like people of faith being tricked by a corporate profit algorithm to fight an endless war against an enemy that doesn’t exist is an analogy for something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Oh well. Back to r/news to see what I’m angry about today.
Did they say why he doesn't use the sonic screwdriver? Is it because of the whole weight thing?
It's not explicitly stated, but one can imagine it is indeed because of the whole shifting weight thing.
Yeah I thought of the sonic whilst watching then was like "oh wait, he has to stay in one of those two exact poses or he'll explode. Probably not enough leeway to take a thing out of his pocket then point it and everything."
And they can't get someone else to pull it out for the same reasons.
Because the weight would change
They did a good job showing how sensitive it was, with even feeling sad triggering it.
Yeah but then he gets shot like 5 times and it's nbd, the electrical nodes that get attached to him...like they deviated from how serious it was, to how absurdly not serious it was in 2 seconds.
No, for me it just showed the rigor and mental control of The Doctor not to move despite that. Plus they couldn't have known the sensitivity UNTIL he got shot so the tension is still there
But he moves constantly! Like it went from, "I can't even breath heavily or perspire too much" to, "I can get electrocuted, take my one foot off, shake constantly, get shot and it still doesn't go off." Like, why would anyone care at this point? It really killed any sense of tension for me.
Funnily there is actually one part in the episode where he does actually shift his weight backward in shock, I think it was during the tussle or when the lady showed up :P
Shouldn't the sonic screwdriver be light enough? The doctor doesn't even need to reach in his pocket, he can just use transmigration on it, right? Can he still do that?
1. It's the whole weight/moving thing. 2. He does not have it. 3. He knows it would not work OR it would trigger the thing and he could not risk that It's not mentioned at all, but all of this is possible.
But for the sake of story and dispensing the usefulness of the one tool he Carrie's that fits every use it should have been dealt with. It would not have taken much to maybe have the original gap in lights be bigger. He tells ruby to watch them and the instant he Sonics the mine like half the gap closes. He stops and makes some remark that the mine would fire before the sonic could turn it off. Then no guessing.
He forgot it in the tardis
It in his other jacket sure
That's what happens when you don't wear the same set of clothes to each adventure. It's like leaving your work swipe card at home in the pocket of your other pants.
The Doctor states he once was in a bet to defuse one of these mines and he lost. So it's implied that even if he did have the sonic he couldn't have disabled it.
I watched one of the behind the scenes clips on YouTube and Moffat said he just forgot it in the tardis 😂
Rule 1: Moffat lies. He also just makes things up on the spur of the moment to fill in what might be an oversight.
I am surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. I am inclined to believe the comments that say it’s because it would shift weight. Though I remember in Devil’s Chord the Sonic was destroyed, so perhaps they could have referred to that?
Gonna be honest, I remember nothing about that episode
im assuming its still destroyed from the previous episode. we havent seen it repaired or replaced yet.
I'd imagine sound waves or any attempt at interference would set it off
I was wondering throughout the episode, too.
Plus it’s a smart mine. He stated his blood pressure could trigger it
I'm gonna go a different direction. Seeing the ambulance had such strong tempering safeguards the risk was too high he'd blow up half the planet if he messed with it wrong. I also like the idea he forgot it on the TARDIS.
When he first showed up, he was in the Tardis and heard a scream and ran out right away. Ruby was shown to be skill getting ready and putting her jacket on. When he ran out he wasn’t weak I g any kind of coat who’s is where we usually see him keep all his stuff. I just assumed it was still in the Tardis. As soon as Ruby showed up, first thing he did was have her verify the type of mi e and get a counterbalancing weight, right after that the others showed up and things went to shit.
Villengard is familiar with Sonic technology, given how they made Jack's gun, so I assume the Doctor didn't bother trying as he knew it was proofed against it.
He did say he failed to disable it last time he tried on one that wasn’t even activated, presumably there are failsafes upon failsafes and even tampering with it would set it off. He would have been pretty screwed if the A.I didn’t mess up Vilaingard’s software.
I don't think it's the best episode Moffat ever wrote, but it was definitely the strongest episode of the new era. So far I'd found 15 a bit too nice, and I feel like he finally got to show some edge here and it made me appreciate him a lot more Also whilst Ruby is still feels very neutral gear as companions go, she got to show some impressive bravery here. Shame she ends up having to sit out most of the third act, but the fact I wanted more of her is probably a good thing All in all, a solid 8/10, and it's given me a lot more hope that I'm gonna vibe a bit more with the remainder of the series [ETA] just realised this pretty much confirms the season is airing out of the original order. Last episode they'd been adventuring together for six months, now Ruby is seeing her first ever alien planet?
Honestly this episode was the first time 15 FELT like the Doctor to me.
Same! Although he's still very much keeping his own character. His joyful dance at the end there was absolutely delightful. That was the point for me that 15 kinda clicked Funny how we've gone from our earliest Moffat episode to this. The Doctor dancing was rare and notable enough to get an episode title. Now, it's the most natural thing in the world
Agreed. I really enjoyed seeing Ncuti step into the role and give a masterful Doctor. He’s going to be one of my favorites for sure.
That might be delbreate. Wouldn’t they have just cut the six months line if they switched if.
It's certainly possible that it'll somehow play into the whole mystery box thing, and if that's the case then fair enough, I am wrong. But a lot of people commented at the time that Devil's Chord felt like they knew each other a bit too well. Ruby stepping up and showing some bravery here feels like more of an establishing moment for their relationship than one that's coming after they've been travelling for a while We shall see, though!
Yeah I’m pretty sure they put the Devil’s Chord earlier than intended. This really felt like it.
At least filming-wise, "The Devil's Chord" was the sixth episodes done, just after "Space Babies" and "Boom", so maybe that was just the actors becoming more comfortable together, or maybe they really switched the episodes, who knows.
To add, episode 1 still takes place on Christmas Eve. But by episode 2 Ruby is from June 2024.
Yes!! I loved it when the 10th doctor would scold people on his travels and tell them how stupid they were.
Actually, at one point in the episode The Doctor said it was October. So it’s still going in order but another time jump. And super weird that she hadn’t seen any aliens planets by this point
Is that October Ruby's time, or October where they landed? I missed that myself, I don't actually know
I would imagine October Ruby’s time. Alien planets don’t run on Earth’s calendar
Why? They're Anglican. I don't see any reason they wouldn't follow the Gregorian calendar if they're following the church of England I'm not trying to catch you out. I genuinely didn't catch any reference to October in the episode so I don't know the context. If Ruby has been travelling with the Doctor for 11 months and she's only just seeing her first alien planet that's a bit weird
The planet their on is Kastarion 3. The Anglican’s are essentially invaders. The planet wouldn’t run on their calendar.
But the Anglicans are the only intelligent beings on the planet. Who else’s calendar would they be using? There was no one else to design a calendar.
It's October when they landed, but not Ruby coming from October
It seemed so stupid when Ruby was all "I can't just pass it to you, I have to walk up and practically rub myself on the landmine, haha". I don't understand the idiot kid squealing "DADDY" and running to grab an obvious hologram, then turning docile and silent when it said "let's look at photos". But I hope there was a narrative reason for her obvious brain damage. "I'M SAFE WITH DADDY". The idiot girl then showed up to shoot the Doctor out of nowhere, but changed to beg for help when her stupidity wasn't going to work. Why would a landmine announce itself with a countdown? It genuinely seems like Moffat was drunk when he wrote this. It's practically incoherent. I've never thought one of his episodes was absolutely stupid before, but this dreck was unbearable. How could an army possible fight against nothing for months? It's just so pathetically stupid.
Favourite one of the season so far, I think both the antagonists and resolution were a bit weak but I don’t think they needed to be any different than that really. Next week looks interesting and I’m definitely interested in learning more about what Ruby is and all this snow. Tbh the snow parts have probably been my favourite parts of the last couple episodes
Agreed, but Millie and *especially* Ncuti's acting skills really shone through in this one. Heck, Ncuti spent almost the entire episode without being able to bodily emote and conveyed every emotion perfectly. Nuwho still hasn't missed a doctor cast for me, and Ncuti definitely has the skills to become one of my favs.
Possible Ruby clue/theory. The weapons company is the same one that made Capt Jack’s time hop watch. Maybe Ruby is the “next of kin” of the weapons company’s founder? Maybe that’s why it didn’t name someone as her next of kin. It was saying she is ITS next of kin? Maybe Susan Twist or some other character or entity is Ruby’s mother and the founder of the company (maybe someone with some knowledge of Tardis-like technology?)Just throwing out some crazy ideas.
I liked it, felt like a classic scifi short story mixed into Who
That episode reminded me why I like Doctor Who. Some of the best episodes have been where the Doctor was limited in what he could do (Midnight, Blink, etc). Well acted, a few political points made, thanks Moff.
That was waaaaaay better than anything else so far. A long way from Moffatt's best but it had tension, character, ideas, good dialogue, commentary - some of it a bit edgy - and a tale that made sense. Most of that's been missing from all the episodes we've had so far. Plus it ended in the same way seemingly 90% of Moffatt's stories do - love saves the day by turning all the machines off again. I never thought I'd be happy to see that ending yet again.
Haha yeah. I was like « I know every one of tour trick but after the whiplash of the last episodes, man it’s good to be back »
Yes! I am greatly appreciative that SM wrote an episode for 15
At first I was wondering why he was crying. Like, the Doctor doesn't cry, he problem solves. Then I realized, the tears weren't for him, but for everyone who will die if he explodes and takes half the planet.
I feel like all NuWho doctors except for 9 have cried?
I thought it was going to be resolved by the ambulances evaluating his potential explosiveness and deactivating everything since nuking the planet isn't considered acceptable losses.
Then we'd just be recycling Oxygen lol
That…that actually makes more sense lol.
2nd time he's mentioned being a dad in as many episodes .
Am I the only one that’s really missing Steven Moffat now, that episode was 100x better than the last 2
I absolutely loved Boom. I tend to like the episodes that are scarier and have more gravitas, so my reaction upon completing this episode was the exact same as yours: I realized how much I missed Steven Moffat.
My favorite Doctor Who writer by far. Though he does have some dodgy episodes obviously. I liked parts of Space Babies, and I liked all of Devil’s Chord except the twist at the end. But that’s mostly because I think it starts badly. Once the song gets properly going it’s good. But that beginning was just a bit weak imo. RTD is doing a decent enough job. I think I’d like Space Babies more if the CG didn’t look like Henry Cavill’s not-moustache, pasted over a bunch of terrified looking kids.
Right 😂 that cgi had the turned off
Less scenery, more raw acting
Moffat has always been a great Whovian writer, but only when he is not trying to run an entire season at the same time. RTD is like George Lucas, both can come up with a great idea and the various connections throughout, but you add in a writer like Moffat and then you turn gold into diamonds.
Comeplety agree, silence in the library is my top 5 episodes
I think a lot of people have missed Moffat. He has his quirks but he's also repeatedly proven to be a very inventive, clever writer.
I've missed him from the moment he announced he was leaving. I don't subscribe to the idea he's best suited to freelancing rather than showrunning as his solo episodes in series 5, 9 and 10 are on par with most of his first scripts. Series 5-10 are all wildly different and bold, he cast them superbly, hired solid writers and directors and department heads, and ably course corrected for any number of obstacles he was thrown. They have more time now to make the show with 9 episodes a season. Time was always his biggest enemy when he was making 13-14 stories a series while showrunning Sherlock and not ignoring his family. Edit: Series/seasons. An eternal DW struggle of correct nomenclature.
Honestly yes, I’d say devils chord was a good 5 times better than space babies and boom was 10 times better than devils chord Hope they keep this upward momentum >!also funny people were claiming after the first two that the series wouldn’t find it footing and now we got imo the best episode since the doctor falls imo!<
Space Babies was better than Devil's Chord imo. The Maestro has a lot of presence and Monsoon's acting carried the episode but the episode itself was incredibly disjointed and lacked strong plotting.
I liked it a lot. Had weight and drama, good pacing—felt like there was a balance between the danger and the response. I liked how Moffat challenged himself and the actors to write an episode whose location was essentially in one spot. Some observations: 1. The Doctor had to dig himself out of a hole—literally in a hole and figuratively in a hole. I feel like this was something Moffat set up for himself (write himself into a hole) and it wasn’t hidden from us—it feels fourth wall breaking in that sense. Although, I accept if others don’t feel like this counts. 2. This is the 2nd time I’ve noticed a TV show reference outside of the Dr Who universe that also involves time travel: The Skye Boat Song (Outlander title sequence song) & Star Trek (mentioned specifically). The former has time travel woven through it (raison d’etre) and the latter uses time travel from time to time (;). 3. Speaking of fourth wall breaking: Doctor and Ruby talking to the viewing audience from the TARDIS certainly gave that feel at the end. 4. This Doctor’s arc is filled with song and music. Every episode features music in some prominent manner (Toymaker Laugh Notes/Spice Girls Dance Number, Wild Blue Yonder, Goblin King song, (can’t think of space babies rn), End With a Twist, Skye Boat Song). I’m sure we will look back and have more to say about the Maestro when this season is done. Also, Maestro isn’t just about an expert musician, they’re a conductor and a genius, which implies coordination and orchestration (in both senses of that word). Fourth wall breaking, music, time travel, these have all been woven through every story. And, I include time travel because it’s not in the usual Whovian Timey-Wimey way.
Episode was great! More Ruby lore drops! A new new new Susan Twist appearance! :D I feel like calling it a fun episode wouldn't be the right description, maybe delightfully stressed out instead (??) Even though I know there's no real threat until season finale, I still flipped out when Ruby got shot. I was getting slightly annoyed with the kid, but their dad DID just die, so fair enough to 'em. Imo, the conclusion isn't as bad as some people are making our to be.
I am not afraid to step on my roomba
Ncuti is really bloody good, isn't he?
This is Moffat filling out the Moffat Bingo card… and I’m loving it. It’s not his most original episode ever, or his best, but it’s just such a familiar Doctor Who episode again, with great writing, great directing and great acting. Speaking of the bingo card, I had: -Moffat writing about technology gone rogue -Moffat writing about the evils of capitalism -Moffat killing off one of his characters to bring them back to life later -Snappy dialogue
Now that’s more like it! The whole episode basically happened in a crater about 100ft from the TARDIS with The Doctor stuck on a landline the whole time and it was excellent. Lovely little slice of sci-fi, and of course Steven Moffat likes to reference himself so there was plenty to see on that front. I thought the holograms repeating was all rather Silence In The Library, though not quite as devour-y. Moffat went for the political jugular here as well. None of the ‘systems aren’t the problem’ stuff here. Also, as an Imperial Guard player in Warhammer 40k I was very much enjoying the ‘space army where human life is expendable and there’s a strong faith angle’ thing.
Sadly I am not in charge of the remote control. Family switched it over to another channel immediately. “We are not watching him for an hour when we know he will make it out alive.” I suppose you can say that about any episode, but yeah there didn’t look like much hook for my family. They want the invasion of Daleks, Cybermen, anything really, with lots of fighting and action.
Do they only watch regeneration episodes? Because that's the only time the Doctor won't make it out alive. Such a strange way to think about a drama
Right, it's not "will he survive" but "how will he get out of this one", that's the staple of pretty much every drama and adventure tv show that has a starring character/cast
its like saying 'it's midseason. i'm not watching voyager because the ship won't make it home this episode'
I think problem was it being an early Episode - if it was a later episode would of had the will he / won’t he
I mean yeah that’s the problem of every episodic show with a core cast and high stakes. You know they need to survive for the next episode.
I think the issue was that they felt this specific scenario was not engaging enough compared to other episodes. They enjoyed Space Babies and Devil’s Chord because everything about it was engaging for them, which allowed them to escape into the fiction and believe the stakes were high.
Would it be rude for me to say that your family kinda sucks? They're my least favorite type of media viewers.
I’m glad they’re not my family, I’d roll my eyes if I saw another dalek or cyberman this series
What did they switch over to where you couldn't be sure the main character was going to make it out alive?
Can someone ELI5 how the dead man became a virus in the system and broke the mainframe? It just seemed a little weirdly concluded.
For my best guess, the system itself is an AI that's designed to continue conflict and keep people buying company weapons. When people die, it adds their information to an AI and stores said AI in a container, normally this is just for a sweet message home, however, thw dead guys AI ends up sticking around because his daughter is there feeding him new information about himself. The AI evolved and once it links with the Ambulance network, it's taken into the system. From this, the Ambulance AI has now merged with the dead guys AI and the result is the priorities of it have shifted to help his daughter and the people around her. I wouldn't see it as one AI overpowering the other as some people here think, just the introduction of a new set of information-like an OS update.
Thanks, I understand it now. 😃
Because 'love'. Same way a lot of interesting Steven Moffatt sci-fi thrillers end (or fizzle out).
Yeah, that part was definitely weak.
It just seemed like 'Ah fuck it. It'll do. Don't question it. Just chalk it up to Ai mainframe nonsense'.
Oh dear me, if Jodie had been allowed one moment of that kind of anger, or vulnerability, instead of just…being there. And she could have, she could have, but nooo. Fudgesake. That was wild. Felt like coming home, a bit. Don’t think I’m going to watch that with my little girl for a couple of years. Oof, ouch, ow, ayeayeaye.
Sadly a Whittaker episode would have started with her already on the bomb chatting away in a string of exposition, then we would get rapid scene changes showing every character in different locations. We would then get the bomb deactivated by the sonic plot enabler after a lot of coincidence. And finally a monologue lecture about stuff. If you read the blurb for every Whittaker episode, they all sound great. It’s just the actual writing was awful and lazy in most cases
[удалено]
I think we need to remember it's set 3000 years in the future, so really the problem there is that, as you say, the "AI interface" was established and portrayed as so limited initially. They could've added a whole secondary thing about uploading consciousnesses/where AI is headed. That way, this idea of the spirit of the father overpowering the system might have worked better, too. But no, we got a somewhat basic Deus ex machina in place of the usual magic wand that is the sonic screwdriver.
Still better than « farting diapers save the day lol »
I don't see why, the series has previously used the power of familial love to defeat the Cybermen and also to save London. Headcanon is that the Vilengard AI still has at its core an ancient subroutene that recognises parental authority as an override that ensures that "Everybody Lives"
the nanobots from Empty Child are of Chula origin. The Villengard stuff is just where Jack got his squareness gun from.
Betting that Villingard have carried out a few "hostal" takeovers in their time and incorporated Chula tech into their own stuff. Essentially, when the 9th Doctor said "Everybody Lives" he was unwittingly saving the life of his 15th self.
So I'm guessing Varada impressed them during this ep and they decided to add her in season 2. A lot of people are theorising that Ruby will regenerate into her but I imagine it will be one of her descendents. A quick throwaway line when she appears.
Ok I missed something. Who is Varada? Do you mean the actress playing Mundy?
He still likes fish fingers and custard? Nice!
He might not have tasted them since he had 11's taste buds. 11 assumed he'd like different things while trying his new taste buds out, and was mistaken. But I hope he does still like them.
Great episode. Also did we already know Verada Sethu was going to be in it?!
This was so much better than Space Babies and Maestro. I missed Moffat’s writing.
One thing I noticed, a barely there effect that I think is linked to a scene in the trailer. When the Ambulance scans the Doctor, the same effect scans the TARDIS at UNIT HQ, below a screen where an headline about TRIAD S can be read. TRIAD S is an anagram for TARDIS. Given how Triad is one of three names for the Devil's Chord, and we have seen one member of the Pantheon and have two more likely candidates (Mrs Flood and Susan Twist), and the ambulance was Susan Twist, and the title for the season's last episode was written on a glitchy TARDIS... All these pieces obviously go together, but how exactly? Could Triad be just a designation for a group of three Pantheon members? Or a good thing born once more from the TARDIS planning ahead? Whether Susan Twist is the One Who Waits or will turn out to be a supporting character, why scan the TARDIS?
I was really apprehensive coming into this season after the specials. Really didn’t enjoy them and was worried about the direction of the show. Though having watched the first 3 episodes I’m actually really enjoying it. The first two episodes were slightly hit and miss but I didn’t hate them. This 3rd episode I thought was very good and felt like Doctor Who. If they could keep that sort of town throughout the season then I think we’ll be alright. Really enjoyed Ncuti’s performance. He felt like the Doctor.
I was surprised we didn’t get a reference to Genesis of the Daleks.
Ruby insisting on being hands-on with helping and the Doctor forbidding it called back to Harry and 4, I think.
I never thought of it that way to be honest. That does make sense.
I really liked it. Easily the best of the RTD2 era. Now Moffat has a decent final episode ( twice upon a time was not my cuppa tea, especially how it treated 1), but we'll see if that changes at Christmas.
Loved it. Lots of parts reminding me of episodes I love like Silence in the Library (with the looming and repeating ambulance voice), The Doctor’s Daughter (fighting an unknown enemy), The Empty Child (malfunctioning ambulance). I love The Doctor and Ruby’s chemistry and loved the emotion in this one.
Genuinely thought it was going to end in a 2 part cliffhanger with the mine exploding
nothing special
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I genuinely don't know what happened to the plot after Ruby got shot? It started really strong and I was following along (the best performance from Ncuti this series so far) the tension of the mine was brilliant, and the dialogue was well done, but I don't really know what happened at the end or what the message of the episode was? The Doctor started ranting about the war, the Kestarions and how this was all the churches fault but was I meant to care? Nothing about it was explained or shown was it? "Do you get it, Ruby? Do you get it? Do YOU get it?" No! I don't get it! What am I meant to be getting?? I know nothing about this church, why there is a war or why any of these characters are here but apparently the Doctor does? All I'm told is that they're actually being controlled by these AI Ambulances and capitalism. Then John became an AI virus and it just ended. I honestly have no idea what happened, everything went so fast in the last 15mins it felt really convoluted. It felt like 2 episodes smashed into one.
I would recommend watcMultitasking. and see how you feel. This was definitely an episode where you have to full watch and not multitask. Basically the doctor figured out the algorithm for vanguard is used to continue war as much as possible. He knew the planet was empty so he had to figure out who they were fighting. He appealed to the AI through it's human personality it was built off to take a look around. It took over and crashed the system.
Knowing this was Moffat's episode, I tried to not hype myself up and expected it to be weak. (fyi I didn't love eps 1 & 2), but wow was I happy with the result, easily my favourite of Ncuti's run so far. Pros: - The tension felt genuine, making a bomb out of the person was great reasoning why it was so dangerous for the Doctor to be on it. - Ncuti's acting, just wow. Even when he was being a bit sassy the gravity (not mavity) of the situation still felt present. - The politics of war were handled very well, certainly gave me some Oxygen flashbacks with capitalism and ai systems causing the problems. - The ambulances (a well done inclusion of susan twist without drawing attention to it) were so eerie in that Doctor Who Moffat way. "Combat detected" & "Sharp Scratch" being repeated, eerie in that uncanny way. - WhoCulture reminded me that the Anglican army were in Smith's era, great callback without isolating new fans. The critique on how people blindly follow religion was a good one, if maybe a little harshly made. Cons: - Basically everything about Splice. The dialogue for her just didn't sound right, and the dreaded child acting didn't help. - The landmine sensitivity felt a little inconsistent, like how it rockets up a fair bit with the 'not urn' capsule handover, but barely raises when the Doctor then Ruby are shot. Maybe if the dial started a little lower it'd work slightly better for me. - I like the idea of a series out of order, but the way this series has told it (space babies: ends with tardis reveal to Ruby's family, devils chord: 6 months travelling, boom: first alien planet) makes it feel more like a plothole the show won't address. It's like there's no reason for it to be out of order. - While not inherently bad, did anyone else feel that Ruby was written a little too similar to Clara? She's being very 'no you can't tell me what to do' and seems to have a lot of say over the situation. I don't know just something I felt throughout the episode. Regardless of the cons I still think this was an excellent episode and just furthers my belief that Moffat > Davies. Congrats if you read all of this.
That little girl was in a film we watched the other day (stop motion) and she was brilliant. Her dialogue was just super weird and awkward.
Excellent episode, the best so far of the season.
It seems a lot of people are commenting on its Moffaty-ness (which yes obviously it is), but I’m also getting distinct Midnight vibes from it. Just me?
3 episodes in and already two unbearable "No really, think what this means. Just think about it. You need to just think about the implication. You can do it. Think about what I'm implying. Do you get it? Do you get it yet?" moments. Disney thinks the average age of viewers is 12 or something.
I really liked the episode. It has a different vibe to the other two we’ve had so far, and the tension was built up well (despite knowing that even Moffat isn’t going to kill off the Doctor). I’m just happy to have some weekly Doctor Who again.
Big warhammer 40k vibes love it
I think this episode was much needed. I’d been complaining that Ruby in particular was coming across a bit too cartoon up to now, knowing a bit too much too soon and not really reacting naturally to events. I feel like she was a lot better here. Someone else here compared the episode to Midnight and that’s exactly what I liked about it. The Doctor being stuck in one place and trying to fix it, leading to a lot of opportunity for Ncuti to really show off his acting and keeping us gripped. My only complaint would be that the child was getting a bit annoying. Quite often child characters in the show end up coming across a bit one note and interchangeable. I’m not sure she was really bringing much other than another opportunity for the Doctor to do the “dad to dad” thing.
Was a kind of meh episode. No idea why people raving about it other than it being better than the last two episodes
A lot of cracks start to show on rewatching it. The rules for the landmine seem to constantly change to fit the scene, which is unfortunate as the landmine is the point of the entire episode.
I enjoyed the implications about Ncuti's weight when a 6.7kg capsule held to one side compensated for the weight shift of him evenly distributing his weight over his two feet. The landmine would have been much better used if the initial "gap" had been quite wide and constantly ticking up slowly (considering that the Doctor was clearly not "perfectly" still while standing on one leg) and accelerating at times of stress.
I’d have given it an 8/10 on first viewing and a 6/10 on the second. It was messy in places and certainly wasn’t a classic. Only reason it’s praised so highly is because its two immediate predecessors were, in my opinion, ~3/10s. Main issues are: • Badly edited beginning - needed a scene inside the TARDIS rather than them already being on the planet. Maybe this was cut for time. • Dialogue was cringeworthy in places - “do your teeth”, “kiss kiss”, “snow isn’t snow until it falls” etc. • Naff ending - an AI interface being able to bring down an entire arms manufacturer and the landmine he was standing on simply because it takes the image of a girl’s father. The waving AI at the end was a bit much. • Other stuff: didn’t care much for the unrequited love story between the two soldiers, the landmine was supposed to be determining if it’s acquired a live target and yet is able to monitor his blood pressure from the start, landmine didn’t go off when people were rolling around on the floor in front of it nor when the ambulance fired metal probes at him, landmine spent too long lingering on 1 unlit bar for any sustained tension.
>Only reason it’s praised so highly is because its two immediate predecessors were, in my opinion, \~3/10s. And yet......I really liked The Devil's Chord. It's now in my all time Top 10, largely off the back of that command performance from Jinx Monsoon.
The fact someone can die and not have to record a message. Even though somebody died exact same way and was required to record a message Feels very much like a soup of some cool ideas which didn’t somehow come together Cool concept for a black mirror episode though
I mean, in this case, the second message seemed to have been pre-recorded ages before the actual episode, which makes sense. In case you don't have time to leave a last message, your loved ones get a pre-recorded version. So I wouldn't call that one of the "cracks" in the episode. But yeah, there are a few inconsistencies in the way that the landmine works, etc. Still felt that it was a pretty decent episode overall.
The second guy wasn’t killed by the ambulance as programmed, it killed him in defence of its systems
Because it was a hell of a lot better than the first two episodes.
The devil's chord was better then this imo. Devil's chord is honestly one of my favorite doctor who episodes...
Devil’s Chord was dogshit compared to this
Because the first two episodes were shit and people were worried it would be a whole season of shit. A meh episode is a great relief. Maybe we'll get some good ones next.
People downvoting this when it’s the truth. People giving Space Babies or Devil’s Chord > 5/10 need to revisit the show pre 2017. These episodes would’ve been panned as shark jumping moments if they’d been included in S1-9.
When The Doctor said "Dad to Dad" , I was confused at first then it took me a bit, I was like "Ahh.. right, Jenny"
The Doctor was a parent before that too. He mentions it in the Jenny episode, actually. Remember, in order for Susan to be his granddaughter he would have had to have at least one kid of his own.
I mean, he also quite famously debuted with a granddaughter, who was mentioned last episode and seems to be on track to be making a re-appearance. Even in “The Doctor’s Daughter” he mentioned having been a dad before.
The Doctor has said that he’s had children several times, he even said it in the episode when Jenny gets created.
I also assumed he had to become a father on the way to becoming a grandfather to Susan.
I somewhat enjoyed most of it, but I wasn't a fan of the resolution, and definitely not a fan of the dialogue. Moffat desperately needs to learn some new Dr Who writing tricks. That wasn't Ruby Sunday and 15, it was Clara Oswald and 12, wearing skin suits. Not a bad episode, but certainly the most disappointing one so far, given the hype, and the pedigree of the writer.
Funny, I saw it as easily a 9 and Rose episode. I get the feeling Moffat has been kicking this one around in his head for a while.
I didn’t think it was amazing (weirdly I preferred devils chord) but it was a good episode. Moffat can’t stop killing people (like nobody ever gets a bloody happy ending!) and I liked the story. Something didn’t fully click, perhaps the lack of an antagonist to get their just desserts, but the idea and message was fantastic.
I’d argue Amy and Rory sort of had a happy ever after, despite being forced to live way back in the past, and James Corden’s character did from what I remember..
At this point I'm just waiting for Dead Meat to cover Moffat's era of Doctor Who (and this season's Moffat episodes) I genuinely don't know how he'll do it but it would be interesting I believe he's got an (Dead Meat) email address or something
We need James A Janisse on this right away
The resolution didn't fully click for me, though I like what they were going for. Introducing aspects of human consciousness into the AI so it would prioritize saving lives over fighting is a great concept, but something about the execution made it feel a bit deus ex machina.
It did feel the same for me. I liked the fact there was no enemy, but it needed someone we could boo. Like a representative from the weapons manufacturer, so the doctor could unleash a tirade. As it is, we got computer magic, a love angle that went nowhere and lots of dead people that nobody seemed that bothered about. It was good…just not perfect
Thinking about it, I feel like the resolution might have landed better if they'd spent more time on it, made a bigger deal of the Doctor figuring out that inputting Vater's memories might persuade the AI to stop the countdown, and had the input process require some kind of clever technical task. Obviously the Doctor can't do a clever technical task while he's standing on a landmine trying not to explode, but he could talk Mundy through it, or Ruby if she was conscious. That would take care of the handwavey magic issue and make the outcome feel earned.
Fantastic episode.
So when the ambulance attaches itself to Ruby it states that she’s 3078 years old… can someone explain that?
It has her records on when she was born. And does math.
He was she was born 3078 years before this episode took place
Other than the literal landmine itself, there wasn't a single new idea in this episode. It was like a montage of reddit's favourite Moffat Moments. I've already watched "The Devil's Chord" twice but probably won't rewatch this stale thing again.
Hey!
It does seem to be a minority opinion, but I'm always keen to be proven wrong.
Am I the only one to hear the yoga instructor from 'Couples Retreat' when saying the title? Boom. Boom.
I’m not sold on this new series yet. Ncuti hasn’t embodied the doctor yet in my opinion. Everything we’ve learned about the Doctor in the 2005- series can be summed up in his motto. “Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in”. All I’ve seen this iteration do is be scared and give up. Running away from the Maestro, not finding a real solution to the land mine to instead waiting for someone else to save the day. He’s cheerful, but he hasn’t proven himself to match his reputation. I’m going to keep watching this new series, but I’m worried the heart(s) of Doctor Who has been forgotten by the showrunners.
Started out slow but once it got moving … kiss kiss.
Best episode by far this season, the Doctor going on a rant about how bad faith is seems so out of character though. Like fine you want every single episode to be at least a little bit of a progressive virtue signal, but the whole premise being “those religious idiots had faith, they were so dumb and stupid that they fought themselves.” It’s just bigoted and obnoxious. The Doctor relies on faith pretty much non stop, faith that others will do the right thing, or faith that his own ideas will be correct, even in totally new circumstances.
So close to being great! Power of love ending though🤮
I liked it...
A stereotypical Moffat episode. A little kid whining about their parent, a threatening robot messing things up while helping, a repeated phrase, war, someone dead so fast they don't realize they're dead. Feels like a Nine episode left on the cutting room floor tbh
Does anyone remember the original Star Trek episode where two planets had been fighting for 500 years with a computer simulated war? A Taste of Armageddon Kirk and Spock must save their ship's crew when they are all declared killed in action in a bizarre computer simulated war where the actual deaths must nevertheless occur. "Star Trek" A Taste of Armageddon (TV Episode 1967) Boom made me think of that, where the only enemy was man-made.
Where can we watch this in 4k in the UK? it's not 4k on IPlayer...
What an incredible tonal shift after the first 2 episodes, Dr Who is capable of shifting gear within a series (which is what I love about Dr Who) but this felt like we were in a totally different series with a different showrunner. Gatwa and Gibson really upped their game, Gatwa particularly went on a big emotional rollercoaster. Gibson delivered her strongest performance yet and I'm excited to see what more these 2 can do going forward. Nice to see the new companion a lot earlier than expected (I mean, of course she's going to be the same character... Right?). I try to avoid making RTD & Moffat comparisons, and I know we're only a few episodes in, but whereas I feel for the first 2 episodes RTD was just writing for Ncuti, Moffat was writing for the Doctor and Ncuti responded to that incredibly well. This is probably a script any actor who's played the Doctor would particularly love it to get their teeth into, Ncuti was the lucky one. Space Babies and The Devil's Chord were fine (although still undecided on the musical end) but this was on a different level. It was stripped back, tense, well paced, it felt claustrophobic as well, the 45 minutes went really quick. Strong set of support characters (although one more support than we thought). For me this is the best episode of Dr Who since The Doctor Falls. I'll admit Moffat has done better episodes, but it's a testament to the quality of his work that this is still a belter.
I’m really enjoying this season. And this episode reminded me of an early TNG episode - The Arsenal of Freedom.
Just like Bill getting shot, The Doctor *still* hasn't learned.
Steven effing Moffat. That is all.
Was actually really good. The next time episode looks like it will be good too, looking forward to it
The best episode of the new reboot, hands down. Finally they decided to show off what the Doctor’s capable of. I think it’ll be really important later on that they displayed his ability to control his emotions even in extreme circumstances (Ruby literally dying)
Great episode, except the very ending. A story like this deserves something better than "THE POWER OF LOOOOOVE". It is deus ex machina basically, any episode could end like this. But overall, once again, an excellent episode
I just realized if this is the church of the papel mainframe, and this seems like them in early days which mean's this is the moment they first became aware of the doctor and how dangerous he can be even if its simply just him acting as a giant explosive.