askryan

I rank Space Babies pretty highly too, because while I really enjoyed the episode, my daughters LOVED it. They've been obsessed with Doctor Who after seeing it –– my five-year-old made me call her Captain Poppy for a full week.

There’s got to be something with her and companions. At this point she’s got the Pond-River-style name (thank god at this point she doesn’t seem to be part of another tedious River Song storyline), she wore Clara’s Face The Raven outfit and called the Doctor a “clever boy,” and she ended the episode in Romana’s fur coat. I’m fully down with her trolling the Doctor/us like this - I just hope she’s not the Master again. There is no character in Doctor Who I’m as sick of as the Master.

(My outside bet is maybe the Meddling Monk? But that’s probably wrong.)

I wish we had a few more Jackie Tyler opportunities for Carla and Cherry. I was sort of bummed we didn’t get a hero moment for Carla in the finale — and Ruby going on about her “real mum” with Carla right there made me feel just awful for her.

It’s gratifying to see how much the fandom — however split people are about this season — has embraced Mille Gibson, because she’s truly phenomenal.

I was worried when people ran with the “she’s being replaced” story (which they thankfully clarified) and started to go with a classic sexist “she’s hard to work with” story (which turned out to be that she got tired on night shoots, being basically an actual child when they started filming) that the fandom would pile on her, and I’m glad that people are recognizing her talent. However the character turned out, she was pretty flawless in the role. Delivering a performance like 73 Yards on your first week at a new job when you’re eighteen years old is pretty impressive.

She also said the "clever boy" thing while essentially wearing Clara's Face the Raven outfit, then ends the episode in Romana's coat. She's definitely trolling the Doctor/us but who knows why. I'd be fine with any reveal as long as it's not the Master - I would be perfectly happy for him to stay in that gold tooth forever.

This is heart-shattering because I would do anything to see the goofy bug people from The Web Planet make a return

I love this show, but I do not understand how they cannot create a uniform that doesn't look like pajamas (the Cerritos-style uniforms Janeway and her crew wear look great though). The weird gray they seem to be enamored with looks so silly.

What a bizarre three ships to start with

Real M'Benga erasure here

Bonnie Langford is a treasure. Inject "camp as hell" Doctor Who straight into my veins.

I have to say, I did not have "canonizing the Shalka Doctor" on my Doctor Who bingo card for this series

The companions are an issue –– though Graham and, to a lesser degree, Yaz are great when they are permitted their few minutes of personality every so often. It's simply that the show cares a lot less about reasons for them all being on screen than just putting them there and having them say some lines to fill up an hour of television.

But I think Elizabeth Sandifer's brilliant essay over on Tardis Eruditorum about the episode Kerblam! from 13's first season is an excellent distillation of the issues with the Chibnall era, one of the best pieces of writing about why the whole thing is so uncomfortable.