Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2024: Joy to the World

Episode:

884

|

Serial:

312

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2024

---

The good news is that Sci-Fi Adventures has finally returned to cover a brand new episode of Doctor Who! The bad news is that it's been six months since I last wrote a full scene-by-scene review like this and I've forgotten how to do it. Honestly it's lucky I remembered I'm supposed to take notes.

Anyway, this is a Steven Moffat episode and that's a pretty big deal, seeing as he's written some of the best stories in Doctor Who history. They haven't all been winners, but that's no surprise considering how prolific he's been. By my calculations this is the 50th episode that Moffat has been credited for writing or co-writing for Doctor Who, which is even more than Russell T Davies' 41. He's still way short of Classic Who writers Robert Holmes (72), Terry Nation (62) or Malcolm Hulke (54), though, and I doubt they'll ever be beaten...

... unless you count full stories instead of episodes, in which case those numbers become Robert Holmes (18), Terry Nation (11), Malcolm Hulke (8), Russell T Davies (33) and Steven Moffat (40... ish). (It's hard to know what to count as a two-parter sometimes.) So Steven Moffat has set an almost unbeatable record here, especially considering how seasons are getting shorter and further apart. At least, it would've been if RTD wasn't so close to catching up.

I should warn you that this review will contain SPOILERS for every minute of this episode and certain minutes of previous stories.

Doctor Who (2023): Season 1 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the latest first season of Doctor Who! It's also known as series 14 or season 40, depending on how stubborn you are.

Filming began on 5th Dec 2022, so it took a long while for this to finally reach TVs. In fact, the last full actual season of the show was in 2021. But it's finally out and now I have opinions about the dawn of the third age of Doctor Who.

Though maybe I should hang on until the next season's out. I mean 8 episodes and a Christmas special isn't much to review. This run of episodes flew by so fast that I'm not sure I was able to get a good enough look at them to describe what I saw. Then again, if I wait any longer I'll have forgotten what happened, so I should probably just get on with it.

There will be SPOILERS for this season, the recent specials, and maybe other episodes too.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-08: Empire of Death (Quick Review)

Episode:

883

|

Serial:

311

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Jamie Donoughue

|

Air Date:

22-Jun-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Doctor Who's latest season one finale, Empire of Death.

It's weird to have reached the end of a season so soon, I'm supposed to get another five episodes! It's been two episodes longer than the Flux season though, I'll give them that. Also, the classic show's first season only had 8 serials, so that's basically the same length... if you don't count the fact that each of those serials had about 6 parts.

There will be SPOILERS below, for a bunch of things. I can't tell you what things exactly as that would be a spoiler, but it'll help if you're up to date with the series.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-07: The Legend of Ruby Sunday (Quick Review)

Episode:

882

|

Serial:

311

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Jamie Donoughue

|

Air Date:

15-Jun-2024

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing The Legend of Ruby Sunday, the first half of the Doctor Who re-revivals' two-part finale!

It's been a long time since we've gotten a penultimate episode written by showrunner Russell T Davies, but I have a pretty good idea what to expect from it. Everything will seem like the most important and dramatic thing to happen in the history of the universe and then it'll end with "TO BE CONTINUED".

But will it be as good as Bad Wolf, Army of Ghosts, The Sound of Drums, The Stolen Earth or The End of Time, Part 1? Honestly I think it's got a shot, as some of those episodes weren't the greatest. Especially on a second watch, when they became nothing but set up for something I'd already seen.

There will be SPOILERS below for the episode, the season so far, and any stories that get referenced.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-06: Rogue (Quick Review)

Episode:

881

|

Serial:

310

|

Writer:

Kate Herron and Briony Redman

|

Director:

Ben Chessell

|

Air Date:

08-Jun-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the sixth episode of Doctor Who's latest first season, Rogue. I'm hoping it's as good as the sixth episode we got in the 2005 series, Dalek, but that's some tough competition.

History is repeating a bit here, as showrunner Russell T Davies wrote most of both seasons himself, with episodes three and six being exceptions. This was written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, who are also the writers of the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Sims. I guess that'll turn out to be a lot like Barbie, except with more people drowning in swimming pools and getting sealed up in walls. Lots of tragic cooking accidents.

Herron also worked on season one of Loki, so she's got some proper time travel experience. Though she was the director, not the writer, so watching that hasn't given me any insight at all into how this episode is going to turn out. It was a pretty good series though!

There will be SPOILERS below for Rogue and whatever classic episodes get referenced in it.

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 5 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of another TV series!

I finished writing about all of Babylon 5 a year back, so this brings my total completed TV shows up to... 2. I was supposed to have finished Star Trek: Picard by now as well, but I had to put it on hold due to a new season of Doctor Who appearing and demanding a slice of my time.

Star Trek: Discovery began in late 2017, but I started writing about it way earlier, when the first teaser trailer was released. It was just a reveal of the hero ship but I was so damn hyped for new Trek that I wrote about it anyway. Now it's five years later and I'm writing about Discovery's fifth and final season. Sorry, I mean eight years later, as they were kind of dragging their heels on releasing season 5.

There have been plenty of people who wrote the show off as being a ratings disaster and said it was going to get cancelled before its time, and I suppose it did. Oh well. But it's eerie how close it's run mirrors Star Trek: The Next Generation's, exactly 30 years later. TNG ran from Sep 1987 to May 1994, Disco went from Sep 2017 to May 2024. In fact, if you count the days from The Vulcan Hello to the release of Life, Itself, Discovery is actually the longest running Star Trek series of all time by 11 days!

Was the fifth season any good though? Was any of it any good? I'll be sharing my own thoughts below, so expect a few SPOILERS for Discovery, Picard, and other Trek.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-05: Dot and Bubble (Quick Review)

Episode:

880

|

Serial:

309

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Dylan Holmes Williams

|

Air Date:

01-Jun-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the second half of Doctor Who's new season 1, with Dot and Bubble. The title isn't really filling me with optimism to be honest, but that's mostly because it reminds me of Short Treks' Tom and Jerry homage Ephraim and Dot. I really hated Ephraim and Dot.

I'm sure this is going to be something very different though, because Doctor Who episodes are always something different. The show keeps switching genre and tone, rarely giving you the same thing twice. Anyway, Dot and Bubble was written by Russell T Davies, same as the last episode, and it was directed by Dylan Holmes Williams, the same as the last episode. I thought 73 Yards looked fantastic, so I'm expecting some pretty visuals at least.

There will be Doctor Who SPOILERS below, but I won't spoil anything that happens later.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-10: Life, Itself (Quick Review)

Episode:

65

|

Writer:

Kyle Jarrow & Michelle Paradise

|

Director:

Olatunde Osunsanmi

|

Air Date:

30-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing Life, Itself - the very last episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The series that kicked the Kurtzman era of Star Trek shows has reached its end of its voyage... a bit sooner than expected. Discovery kind of got cancelled, but they were at least allowed to shoot some extra scenes to properly wrap it up, so I do have some closure to look forward to.

Life, Itself is a member of a very exclusive club, and not just because its a Star Trek series finale. If you disqualify titles starting with 'A ' or 'The ', this is only the third time that a Trek show has had three consecutive episodes that start with the same letter. That's trivia so trivial that you won't find it anywhere else!

(If you're curious, the episodes are: Eye of the Needle, Ex Post Facto and Emanations in Voyager's first season, Sleeping Dogs, Shadows of P'Jem and Shuttlepod One in Enterprise's first season, and now we've got Labyrinths, Lagrange Point and Life, Itself.)

This review is going to include SPOILERS for a bunch of Star Trek stories from across the timeline.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-04: 73 Yards (Quick Review)

Episode:

879

|

Serial:

308

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Dylan Holmes Williams

|

Air Date:

25-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's one of the few episodes of Doctor Who to feature a number in the title. I've no idea what it means though, something to do with sports maybe? It's yards, not metres, so I'm thinking that this is going to be set in the US or the past, but that's all I've got.

I usually try to write all of this intro bit before watching the episode so I can be properly clueless, but I have to jump in from the future to talk about how this is one of the few stories to be missing the opening titles entirely. I can only remember two other regular episodes that do this: Sleep No More and The Woman Who Fell to Earth. So it's a sign that an episode is doing something different... though not a sign that it'll be any good.

Incidentally The Woman Who Fell to Earth was the first episode filmed for the Jodie Whittaker era and this was the first filmed for the Ncuti Gatwa era. It even predates last year's Christmas Special. Gatwa had already made a brief appearance in The Giggle, but this was Millie Gibson's first ever work for Doctor Who.

There will be SPOILERS here for this and earlier episodes. And I mean way earlier, like 1981.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-09: Lagrange Point (Quick Review)

Episode:

64

|

Writer:

Sean Cochran & Ari Friedman

|

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

|

Air Date:

23-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing Lagrange Point, the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery!

It's the last episode by director Jonathan Frakes and writer Sean Cochran, who have produced some of my favourite episodes of the series. In fact, they were both credited on Despite Yourself and New Eden, and if this ends up being that kind of quality I'll be more than satisfied. It's also the first episode for writer Ari Friedman, who picked a great time to join the show! Though she wouldn't have known back then that this was also going to be her last episode, as the news of the show's cancellation came after filming had finished.

There will be SPOILERS below for this and earlier Star Trek stories.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-03: Boom (Quick Review)

Episode:

878

|

Serial:

307

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Julie Anne Robinson

|

Air Date:

18-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm sharing my thoughts on Doctor Who episode Boom.

Boom is one of just two episodes this season that wasn't written by current showrunner Russell T Davies. In fact, this is the Steven Moffat story! That doesn't meant that it's going to be good, I've done plenty of bitching about the episodes produced during his time as showrunner, but the potential for greatness is high. Moffat's episodes dominate Doctor Who 'all time top 10' lists. According to IMDb voters, he wrote the highest rated episode in series 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and he came second for series 5. Second, third, fourth and fifth. And sixth.

Personally, I'm interested in seeing how much this episode has in common with the other Ncuti Gatwa episodes so far. Is it going to embrace the new fourth-wall breaking fantasy tone or is it going to be a throwback to the slightly more mature and realistic style of the 2005 run?

There will be SPOILERS below.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-08: Labyrinths (Quick Review)

Episode:

63

|

Writer:

Lauren Wilkinson & Eric J. Robbins

|

Director:

Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour

|

Air Date:

16-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the antepenultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery! Only two episodes left after this one and then the series is done.

That means that this will be the only Discovery episode that Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour will ever direct, though there are plenty of other Star Trek series for him to move onto afterwards. Well, two of them now. It's also the last episode for writers Lauren Wilkinson and Eric J. Robbins, who each have one other credit for Discovery. Robbins co-wrote my least favourite episode of season 4, All is Possible, and Wilkinson co-wrote my least favourite episode so far of this season, Jinaal. They should've teamed up with Kirsten Beyer, my season 1 and season 2 bad episode champion, and shown us just how low this series can go.

Just to be clear, I don't actually think that they're bad writers. Some of the most acclaimed Trek writers have scripted far worse than anything Discovery's done. Gene Coon - Spock's Brain, Ronald D. Moore - Aquiel, Joe Menosky - Masks, René Echevarria - The Muse, Ira Behr - all of DS9's bad Ferengi episodes, Brannon Braga - oh man, this one could take a while.

There will be SPOILERS below, for Discovery and probably some earlier Trek episodes as well. Plus I might make a reference you'll only get if you've seen Voyager.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-02: The Devil's Chord (Quick Review)

Episode:

877

|

Serial:

306

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Ben Chessell

|

Air Date:

11-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing another episode of Doctor Who already. They went and aired two of them on the same day and it's not even a two-parter. Now that I've seen Space Babies I'm wondering if a decision was made to pair it with another story to show new viewers that Doctor Who had some range to it and it wasn't always going to be... babies in space.

In fact, I'm not even sure this was originally meant to air so early in the season. The series is filmed in two-episode production blocks, each handled by a different director, and this was shot in the same block as episode 6. Then again, maybe everything is going as planned. After all, Doctor Who hasn't filmed a season in order since 1987. The classic series didn't even end with the last serial produced.

Okay, there will be Doctor Who SPOILERS below, but only as far as this episode. I won't spoil what happens next. I actually have no idea what happens next.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-01: Space Babies (Quick Review)

Episode:

876

|

Serial:

305

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Julie Anne Robinson

|

Air Date:

11-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the first proper episode of Doctor Who's third volume, Space Babies! Like An Unearthly Child and Rose before it, it's the start of a whole new regeneration cycle for the series, so this is a major event here.

Though there were four specials leading up to it, so this is actually showrunner Russell T Davies' fifth episode in a row, and that's... a concern maybe. I mean, it's only a matter of time before even the best writer comes up with a terrible story, and he's churning out scripts right now.

Alright, there are going to be SPOILERS below, but only for this episode and the stories leading up to it. And maybe something from the movie Aliens. Oh, plus the Ray Bradbury story A Sound of Thunder.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-07: Erigah (Quick Review)

Episode:

62

|

Writer:

M. Raven Metzner

|

Director:

Jon Dudkowski

|

Air Date:

09-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing the Star Trek: Discovery episode unfortunately titled Erigah.

The episode was directed by Jon Dudkowski, who only has one other directing credit on IMDb, for season 3's Unification III. Though he's credited as the editor on 17 episodes of Discovery, including the pilot, so he probably gets the show's style.

It's the first Discovery episode to be written by M. Raven Metzner, he's entirely new to Star Trek, but it's far from his first credit on IMDb. In fact, I hope this is very far from it, as his first credit is the movie Elektra, which was so bad that it and Catwoman pretty much killed female-led superhero movies for over ten years. Then he became showrunner on the worst Netflix Marvel series, Iron Fist... but it's okay, he was the one who did the second season, not the first one. I've heard that it's a lot better.

Okay, there are going to be SPOILERS below for Star Trek episodes, including this one, obviously. So don't get caught out when I mention something that happened in Deep Space Nine or whatever.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-06: Whistlespeak (Quick Review)

Episode:

61

|

Writer:

Kenneth Lin & Brandon A. Schultz

|

Director:

Chris Byrne

|

Air Date:

02-May-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Whistlespeak, which probably isn't about an expedition to the peak of Mount Whistles, but I've been wrong before. I was way off with my assumptions about the last episode, Mirrors.

Discovery used to have 13-15 episodes each season, but they slashed that to a miniscule 10 episodes for its final year, which means that I'm already past the halfway point. That's kind of crazy, as it feels like the season's only just started. Either the episodes so far have been well-paced and engaging, or barely anything's happened yet. Or both.

Alright, there will be SPOILERS below, for this and for earlier stories from series like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Strange New Worlds. But mostly this.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-05: Mirrors (Quick Review)

Episode:

60

|

Writer:

Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco

|

Director:

Jen McGowan

|

Air Date:

25-Apr-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the 60th episode of Star Trek: Discovery! Okay that's not really that notable as a milestone, not compared to 50, but it's the last round number that the series will ever reach. And honestly, I don't think we'll see another Trek series reaching 60 in the foreseeable future. Short Treks made it to 10, Picard ended at 30, Prodigy seems like it's ending at 40 and Lower Decks is ending at 50.

It's a shame, because 60 episodes was nothing to the '90s shows; that'd barely get you into season 3. Though on the other hand, it brought Doctor Who from the start of Christopher Eccleston's run all the way up to Matt Smith, and it was all the Original Series had in it before it started going downhill, so you can be plenty iconic in just 60 stories. If they're really good.

Anyway, the episode's called Mirrors, and 'mirror' is an important word for Star Trek, especially when it's next to the word 'universe'. I don't think that's where they'll be going with this, for all kinds of reasons, but hey the episode could surprise me.

There will be SPOILERS below for this and other Star Trek shows. So if I do have reason to start talking about TOS' Mirror, Mirror or DS9's Crossover, I will.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-04: Face the Strange (Quick Review)

Episode:

59

|

Writer:

Sean Cochran

|

Director:

Lee Rose

|

Air Date:

18-Apr-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing my thoughts about the latest Star Trek: Discovery episode, Face the Strange.

You can't judge an episode by its title, though it can certainly give you clues about what to expect. Like if you're watching a Star Trek episode called 'Prophet Margin' or 'Give Us a Q' or 'Those Bloody Tribbles are Still Trouble', you basically know what you're getting. So I'm going into Face the Strange expecting characters to face strangeness and if this doesn't happen I'm going to be very disappointed. Discovery's often been at its best when it's leaned into the weird, like in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad and An Obol for Charon, and the series is about due for its next injection of creative chaos.

There will be SPOILERS below for Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek in general.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-03: Jinaal (Quick Review)

Episode:

58

|

Writer:

Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Wilkinson

|

Director:

Andi Armaganian

|

Air Date:

11-Apr-2024

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's final season, Jinaal.

I've mentioned this before, but it's rarely a good sign when Star Trek decides to go with a short made-up word for an episode title. Sometimes it works out and you get a Sarek or a Darmok, but no one's dying to see Melora or Rajiin again. Personally I prefer the more poetic and evocative titles. Give me something like The City on the Edge of Forever, The Measure of a Man, or Parth Ferengi's Heart Place.

I mean, which of these sounds like it's going to be the better written episode: The Girl in the Fireplace or Praxeus? GROPOS or Intersections in Real Time? Though don't bring up the critically-acclaimed and beloved Star Wars series Andor, we're not talking about how it gets away with half its episodes having names like Kassa, Aldhani and Narkina 5.

Anyway, writer Kyle Jarrow has done a couple of episodes of Discovery's fourth season, one I liked, one I didn't like so much, but Lauren Wilkinson is new to the show. She's known for writing the novel American Spy and working on spy thriller series Citadel, so maybe this is going to have some spy stuff in it? That might not be so bad!

There will be SPOILERS below for Star Trek stories released on or before 11th April 2024, including this one.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-02: Under the Twin Moons (Quick Review)

Episode:

57

|

Writer:

Alan McElroy

|

Director:

Doug Aarniokoski

|

Air Date:

04-Apr-2024

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about the second episode of Star Trek: Discovery's final season, Under the Twin Moons! I need to pick up the pace though, as I'm falling behind. We waited two years for the series to return then they dropped two episodes on us on the same day, so they're a week ahead of me.

There are some familiar names up there under the picture. Director Doug Aarniokoski had been with the series since the beginning, or since the episode Lethe anyway. But he had more success over on Star Trek: Picard, with series highlights like Nepenthe, The Star Gazer and Penance having his name on them. Writer Alan McElroy hasn't impressed me as much, but I did like An Obol for Charon at least. I think there's the potential there for this to be a good one.

There will be SPOILERS after this point. Though I won't spoil anything that happens later, partly because episode 3 wasn't even out yet at the time I wrote this.