Doctor Who (2005): The Power of the Doctor - Part 3

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the final part of my The Power of the Doctor review. I'm sorry I had to split this into three parts, it's just that my screencaps tend to get out of hand when I cover something that lasts longer than an hour. Especially when it's as frantic as this. The episode's all over the place!

You can find the previous two parts HERE and HERE.

SPOILER WARNING: This will contain extreme Doctor Who spoilers up to and including this episode.

Doctor Who (2005): The Power of the Doctor - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still racing to get my thoughts on The Power of the Doctor typed up. You can find part 1 HERE and there'll be a link to part 3 at the end just as soon as I get it written and published.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm spoiling everything. Every Doctor Who episode up to this point is fair game.

Doctor Who (2005): The Power of the Doctor - Part 1

Episode:

871

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Director:

Jamie Magnus Stone

|

Air Date:

23-Oct-2022

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching all 90 minutes of the Doctor Who BBC Centenary special, The Power of the Doctor!

It's the last episode of the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era, which means it's also a regeneration story! Oh damn, I should've covered all the modern regeneration episodes first! Why is that only occurring to me now? Never mind, I wouldn't have had the time to do it anyway.

I have to be honest, if I'd known that this was going to be 90 minutes I wouldn't have been so quick to tell everyone it was going to be my next review. For whatever reason I can cover a 45 minute episode in a normal-sized review just fine, but a 90 minute story usually means three times the work. So if this seems a bit more rushed, scruffy and downright inaccurate than usual, that's because I'm racing to get it finished. It's going to have some real first draft energy.

Oh right, the SPOILER WARNING. Can't forget that. I'll be going through the whole episode scene by scene so if you want to experience its surprises properly I'd strongly recommend watching it first. This is an anniversary special so I'll probably be talking about stuff from a bunch of other episodes too.

Doctor Who (2005) - Easter 2022: Legend of the Sea Devils

Episode:

870

|

Writer:

Ella Road and Chris Chibnall

|

Director:

Haolu Wang

|

Air Date:

17-Apr-2022

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching a Doctor Who episode... though maybe not the one you're expecting. I know I said that I'd be writing about the episode The Doctor's Wife from the Eleventh Doctor era, but that's because I forgot that Legend of the Sea Devils starring the Thirteenth Doctor was going to be on TV. Don't worry, you'll still be getting that other episode soon, you're just getting a bonus episode first.

Also I usually give my reviews a proper second draft to fix all the inaccuracies, rephrase sentences that make no sense, and catch at least half the typos, but this time I'm in too much of a rush. I want to get this published as soon as possible, so I'm mostly giving you my first thoughts, right off the top of my head.

Here's my first first thought: wow, it's weird seeing these opening titles for the second to last time. Presumably. It really doesn't feel like we've had them long, at least not to me. Legend of the Sea Devils is the second of the three specials we're getting this year in place of a full season, and it's the penultimate episode of the Chris Chibnall-era. Only one more story to go after this, and that's it for Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker.

The episode was also written by Ella Road and it was directed by Haolu Wang, who are both new to Doctor Who. In fact they're both pretty new in general, as this is the first script Road has gotten on TV and up to this point Wang had only ever directed shorts. You've got to start somewhere I guess!

Alright I'm going to go through the episode basically scene by scene and try to write something halfway interesting underneath each screencap as I recap the story and share my thoughts. There will be SPOILERS, though I won't give away anything from the 'next time' trailer at the end, even though I accidentally watched it.

Doctor Who (2005) - New Year's Day 2022: Eve of the Daleks

Episode:

869

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Director:

Annetta Laufer

|

Air Date:

01-Jan-2022

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Doctor Who again! This time it's the 2022 New Year's Day special: Eve of the Daleks, and it's a time loop tale! I hope no one considers that to be a spoiler, it wasn't meant to be. I'm going to be mentioning a lot of time loop episodes in all kinds of TV series so if that's an issue for you should skip the next paragraph and then also the rest of the review. Sorry.

Some of the best episodes in science fiction have been time loop stories. Supernatural's Mystery Spot, Stargate: SG-1's  Window of Opportunity, Red Dwarf's White Hole. Oh and there's Groundhog Day, obviously. So this has a good chance of being something kind of special.

It's also the third New Year's Eve Dalek story in a row, so that's become a bit of a tradition. I feel like it might be the last of them, seeing as Russell T. Davies is coming back next year and he introduced Christmas specials, but you never know, maybe it'll stick. We could even have a Merry Cyberman Christmas, a Happy Dalek New Year and a Master Easter special all in the same year!

I'll be going through the whole episode scene by scene writing my thoughts down under screencaps, same as usual, so beware of SPOILERS.

Doctor Who (2005): Series 13 - Flux Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the 13th series of the Doctor Who revival, which has been given the shiny golden title of Flux. It's pretty unusual for an entire season to have a name and it's also unusual for it to be one long continuing story like this. You'd have to dig pretty deep into Doctor Who history to find anything like it, to seasons like The Key to Time in the 70s and The Trial of a Time Lord in the 80s. Honestly, I'm in the mood for some proper cliffhangers so this works for me.

Incidentally, The Key to Time was also the last time we got a six-part serial like this, even though they'd been part of the Doctor Who format since series 1. They were around for 15 years, then disappeared for the next four decades, but showrunner Chris Chibnall has finally brought them back! Well he's brought one back anyway; what happens next is out of his hands as this is his and Jodie Whittaker's final series. It's not their last story, they've still got a year of specials after this, but it is their final full season. Jodie Whittaker decided not to try to beat Tom Baker's record as the Doctor who spent the most years on the show. Though her run will span from 2018 to 2022, five years, so technically she's in joint second place with Jon Pertwee!

Alright I've already written enough about chapter one: The Halloween Apocalypse, so I'll give the other five episodes a bit of a review each and then wrap this up by assessing the season overall. There will be SPOILERS.

Doctor Who (2005) 13-01: Flux - Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse

Episode:

863

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Director:

Jamie Magnus Stone

|

Air Date:

31-Oct-2021

---

Hi, Sci-Fi Adventures should still be on a break, but I felt the urge to write something about Doctor Who... because Russell T Davies is coming back! Can't say I saw that coming. I'm not sure his next run is going to be the second coming of the Eccleston/Tennant era of the show, and I'm not sure I even want it to be, but I do feel cautiously optimistic about it. More optimistic than I am about Chris Chibnall's final series anyway.

Though with this series the Doctor Who revival does finally pulls ahead of Red Dwarf, which aired its Series XII in 2017 (even though it's really only had 11 seasons). Even more importantly, this is the first season since Doctor Who began where the Doctor's number is the same as the season number! (Neither of these two facts are important).

Series 13 is going to be massively cut down compared to a normal Doctor Who season, as COVID meant they were only able to produce six episodes, but for the first time since Trial of a Time Lord in 1986 we're getting one story playing out over an entire series! This is also the first six-parter since the Fourth Doctor's The Armageddon Factor in 1979, though the episodes are double the length these days.

To be honest I was seriously considering skipping the rest of Chibnall's run and waiting for the RTD episodes, but when I learned how short it was going to be I figured I might as well stick with it. It's the best marketing they could've done! Though the Doctor Who team also tried a bunch of other clever tricks to get me to watch, like projecting a spaceship in the sky and deleting their social media accounts. Plus they've brought in a new companion from Liverpool! Tom Baker and Liz Sladen were both from Liverpool as well, so I'm considering this to be a good sign.

What am I expecting from series 13? Fewer people on screen, less location filming in South Africa, and a frustratingly reactive and ineffective Doctor. I'm not expecting a regeneration though as I know we've got three Jodie Whittaker specials to come after this. I'm not expecting to enjoy it much, but I wouldn't mind being surprised.

Okay I'll be screencapping the episode in its entirety and writing some commentary underneath so this review is going to be full of SPOILERS.

Doctor Who (2005) - New Year's Day 2021: Revolution of the Daleks

Episode:

862

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Director:

Lee Haven Jones

|

Air Date:

01-Jan-2021

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who again! I felt like I was probably done with the series after that last season, at least until Chris Chibnall stepped down as showrunner, but I needed to write about something new to break up all the Babylon 5 I've been reviewing and this one-off special aired at just the right time for me.

I mean I didn't hate series 12, but every now and then Doctor Who makes a real effort to sever my emotional investment in it and The Timeless Child did a better job than most episodes. Plus after two seasons of Chibnall Who I'm well aware of what to expect from it and I know it's not really my kind of thing.

Revolution of the Daleks is following in the tradition of classic 'R of the Daleks' stories like Resurrection of the Daleks (Davros tries to cure a Dalek virus), Revelation of the Daleks (Davros runs a funeral home) and Remembrance of the Daleks (Dalek vs Dalek in WW2 London). But not the last New Year's special, Resolution, as they forgot to include the 'of the Daleks' part for that one. Its title was announced before it aired, but it wasn't shown in-episode until the end credits so it seemed like they were going to reveal it was really Resolution of the Daleks... but it wasn't.

This time the title's up at the front of the episode, where it usually is, and... that's about all the trivia I can think of to write about here. Anyway, this I'm going to do the full recap and commentary thing with this one, so there'll be SPOILERS for the entire story, and perhaps other stories too.

Doctor Who (2005): Series 12 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the latest season of Doctor Who!

Series 12 was apparently Jodie Whittaker's second season as the Doctor (and Chris Chibnall's second year as showrunner), but I only vaguely remember there being a first one. It seems so long ago now. In fact the show disappeared for exactly a year after 2019's New Year's Day special! It would've been the longest gap between episodes since the series was resurrected in 2005, but 2016's hiatus has it beat by one day, due to being a leap year.

It apparently took them bloody ages to film the last couple of seasons, possibly because they were always flying around the world to shoot on location, I don't actually know. It's worked out well for me though, as I've only got 10 episodes to cover here. Sure I still have to somehow fit everything I want to say into 1/10th of the space of one of my normal reviews, but with these episodes I don't expect that'll be a problem.

Oh by the way, I wrote the first draft of these reviews right after each episode aired, so if I sound weirdly clueless about what's going to happen next, that's because I genuinely didn't know at the time of writing. I should also inform you that there will be SPOILERS below, but I won't be spoiling anything that comes after series 12. Partly because it hasn't aired yet and nobody knows anything about it, but mostly because I don't want to.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (Quick Review)

Episode:

850

|

Serial:

286

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

09-Dec-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I would've been writing about Doctor Who series 11's epic two-part finale, but they decided to end the season with a relatively low-key one-part story this year so I'm stuck writing about that instead.

I feel like I should be talking about how The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is actually the first and only one-part finale in the revival series, as modern Doctor Who seasons always get ridiculous at the end, but I checked and it turns out that The Wedding of River Song and The Name of the Doctor both packed their absurdity into 45 minutes, so it ain't true.

But I can talk about its singularly awkward name, because Chris Chibnall's gone against 55 years of tradition here. You get one made up word per Doctor Who title, that's the rule, and unless I've overlooked something it's never been broken until now. Mostly because writers typically gravitate towards titles that people are able to remember, spell and say. They really tripped up a lot of podcasters with this one.

Anyway, I won't be going through the full episode scene by scene this time, I'm just sharing observations and opinions here, but if you continue reading past this point you'll find yourself knee deep in SPOILERS for this story and maybe earlier ones as well. The Pirate Planet jumps to mind. Castrovalva too, but ain't no one wants me to go off on a tangent ranting about Adric and block-transfer computation so I'm pretending I didn't think of it.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-05: The Tsuranga Conundrum (Quick Review)

Episode:

845

|

Serial:

281

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

04-Nov-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm talking about Doctor Who again! Why? Because I feel compelled to finish this season and I can't write about two shows a week anymore because I burned up all my enthusiasm and determination a couple of months ago when I wrote about the entire classic series.

Uh, I mean I'm writing about this episode because I have many opinions on it... probably! None of them are really leaping to the forefront of my brain but I'm sure there must be some in there somewhere and I'm dying to share them with people.

I've also got at least one fact for you, which is that the episode was written by showrunner Chris Chibnall. That might not come as a huge shock considering that his name's on the title card up there and he was credited for the four that came before it as well, but you may not know that this is going to be his last for a while. The next four episodes, basically the second half of the season, were all written by new writers. So any one of them could be the next Blink or Flatline... or the next Fear Her or Sleep No More. They'll be a change at least. Hopefully.

There will be SPOILERS after this point, for this episode and maybe earlier ones as well.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-04: Arachnids in the UK (Quick Review)

Episode:

844

|

Serial:

280

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

28-Oct-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's Arachnids in the UK: the fourth episode of Doctor Who's 11th season to be written by showrunner Chris Chibnall. In a row.

Everyone knows that the title's a play on the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the U.K. but there's also a subtle clue in there that the episode's about spiders. By an interesting coincidence the fourth serial of the classic show's 11th season, Planet of the Spiders, was also about evil spiders! Well okay it was the sixth serial, but close enough.

This is a spooky story just in time for Halloween, but I have to admit that I wasn't overly hyped for it. Mostly because I was worried it'd put me off my food. Writers should be more considerate of people who watch TV while they're eating their dinner!

There will be SPOILERS below this point, for this episode and perhaps even earlier ones, but no SPIDERS. I realise that most people reading this would've watched the episode already and have no problem with scrolling down to a surprise spider screencap, but I figured I'd play it safe. 

Doctor Who (2005) 11-03: Rosa (Quick Review)

Episode:

843

|

Serial:

279

|

Writer:

Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

21-Oct-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I've got another relatively brief Doctor Who review for you! It's all opinions, no recap, and like the shiny text says it's for an episode called Rosa.

The shiny text also claims that it was written by showrunner Chris Chibnall, continuing his streak of writing every episode this season, and Malorie Blackman, who's new to the series. I was going to make a dumb and shameful joke about her being both the first Blackman and black woman to write for the series, but it turns out that the situation's more depressing than that, as she's apparently the first non-white writer that the TV show has ever had. Still, I can't say that the Rosa Parks episode was a bad time to bring her on board.

This is the first celebrity pseudo-historical of the Chris Chibnall era, arriving right on schedule. Russell T Davies brought in Charles Dickens for his third episode and Steven Moffat had Winston Churchill, so it seems like it's become a tradition now. Hopefully it's a little better than those two stories though. I mean I don't actually know if The Unquiet Dead's any good or not, I've never seen it, I just hope this is better than it anyway.

There will be SPOILERS for this episode below this point and I might mention something that happened in an earlier story too. Like just then when I carelessly mentioned that Charles Dickens was in The Unquiet Dead.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-02: The Ghost Monument (Quick Review)

Episode:

842

|

Serial:

278

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

14-Oct-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I've got a quick review of The Ghost Monument for you. All opinions, no recap. Here's a bonus opinion right at the start: it's nice that they've given me a proper title to put at the top of my review this time so I didn't have to screencap the end credits instead.

This is the second episode of the season to be written by showrunner Chris Chibnall and it seems that I'm going to have to get used to seeing his name under the titles as he's written a good percentage of the episodes himself. I suppose that's nothing new though, as if you look at the writing credits for the stories filmed during Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat time in charge you'll see their names show up on half of them. It's a big change from the classic era though, where the job was sort of split between the producer and script editor, and neither of them were supposed to be writing episodes (but they sometimes did anyway).

There will be SPOILERS underneath, both for this episode and maybe earlier ones too.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-01: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Episode:

841

|

Serial:

277

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

07-Oct-2018

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who series 11, episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth. It's the very first Jodie Whittaker story, arriving just 14 months after the end of series 10.

We're actually in year 13 of the revival series now (we didn't get seasons in 2009 or 2016), and the classic series ran for 26 years so it's halfway to matching it! If you're curious, if the classic series had started airing in March 2005, we'd be up to The Talons of Weng-Chiang right now, three years into Tom Baker's run. Somehow I don't think they'd get away with airing that in 2018 though.

There's been two distinct eras to the modern series so far: the Russell T Davies era of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and the Steven Moffat era of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors. But with this we've entered the third era, of Chris Chibnall and the Thirteenth Doctor. Man, it's going to get awkward writing the Doctor's names out like this once we reach the One Hundred and Twenty-First Doctor. The transition from RTD to Moffat was pretty noticeable, and that was with a lot of the team staying on, including composer Murray Gold. This time around they've apparently got a lot of new people working on it and it seems like it's going to be a much bigger change in tone and style. But I don't know yet as I'm writing this intro before I've watched it.

I have seen a few of Chris Chibnall's episodes before though, like The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and The Power of Three, and to be honest I don't see this series being disappointing in the same way Steven Moffat's run could be sometimes. Because I had sky-high expectations for Moffat's episodes after he amazed me with his early stories and I'm just hoping I'm not too bored during these ones.

There will be SPOILERS for the episode below and perhaps earlier ones as well, but I'll say nothing about happens after it. And not just because it's the latest episode and I don't know what happens next. I won't be spoiling the David Bowie movie The Man Who Fell to Earth either as I've never seen it.