The music is disappointing in this one because until now Gold has done a pretty good job. The bit you point out with the chords stood out to me. It did sound like there was an error in processing. Had it been at one peak moment, say a pivotal realisation, it might have been a good way to highlight things are going wrong. But it just seems to happen randomly. The rest of the score is kind of bland this episode.

This is a really nice episode. Not the best but definitely above average. It’s a very human one - these are the ones where usually RTD excels, so it’s interesting to see it was written by someone else.

The premise is a very natural one to imagine when you’ve got a time machine. Of course it leads to classic time travel shenanigans - the doctor ends up very upset at what rose has done, which is understandable, but I think he is being a bit unfair. This is rose, and much of the modern audience’s, first real experience with a paradox. The doctor could have done a better job of explaining the stakes instead of leaving an emotionally struggling person to witness their own parent’s death. Throughout this episode he keeps his very frank and pointed style of talking, but he starts being the emotional support for much of the human cast present, which is a great way of showing his heart starting to grow after he has been so pessimistic since we met him. The moment when he is standing up in front, like a priest preaching to his flock, is an especially nice image.

Rose’s dad seems to really have struggled in life. Pete is really smart - he figures out the reality of whats happening fairly quickly, but he seems to struggle socially. He obviously has his own problems with confidence and relationships, and jackie really isn’t helping. She goes on a few tirades here, but its never clear if what she is saying is accurate or whether that’s just her viewpoint. The whole trip seems to break rose’s interpretation of her dad, and that’s possibly the bigger message to take away from this episode than the paradox: If you time travel, you might find out things that break your idealised version of the world.

The tardis losing its inside is a really great way to demonstrate what is happening, and how the tardis itself works. It reminds me of an old tom baker explanation which I really like: https://youtu.be/JJ01T3_E6YQ?t=48. The episode also serves as an example of a fixed point in time - Rose’s dad has to die, so she can be raised in a certain way with her mum, so she can meet the doctor and do everything else she needs to.

The reaper designs are really nice. The flying monster motif makes a reapparance in the next season, and gargoyles get a brief mention in Blink. The gothic image is one that doesn’t appear so often in popular sci-fi so it’s nice to see used here, especially against the backdrop of the church. The monster designs looks pretty good even if the texturing and animation is a little janky. As far as beings in charge of timeline discrepancies go, they are more interesting than the weird bonemonsters from the most recent series finale.

Extras:

• I forgot about the mickey joke - that was fun
• The doctor mentions the isle of wight in 1987, I had to look this reference up. There was a massive storm back then that hit the south of england really badly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_storm_of_1987
• The adults all scream when the aliens are attacking. In the playground none of the kids scream when the same happens. I wonder if that was an intentional choice or if someone at BBC standards had an issue with a bunch of children screaming as they died

The article is saying the petition is targeting steam, but the actual linked petition is addressing credit card companies. The text of the petition doesn’t mention steam or valve. I don’t know what the author of the article thinks is happening here, and they’ve explained it very badly.

My point was that brave’s solution, like Signal’s, is dependent on microsoft playing fair. If microsoft decides they don’t want brave, signal, or anyone else using DRM to interfere with their screen scraping chatbot, there is not going to be an easy way to fix it.

They haven’t blocked the windows feature, they’re using DRM to interfere with it. Microsoft could easily change how the DRM works any time they want, rendering all these hacks useless.

I agree that this episode seems to be pushing more on the 9-Rose relationship than it ought to. It really doesn’t feel like they work as anything other than companionship between two people that have lost their place in their respective worlds.

I am not a fan of this episode. It has some really great plot points and themes but the whole episode fails to bring them together in a satisfying way, and most of the guest characters aren’t really useful.

Simon Pegg, in my mind, made for an OK editor, but this story would have been great with him as the Editor-In-Chief. I don’t see why we needed an alien with an unpronounceable name and a CGI design that has aged incredibly poorly. Humans are perfectly capable of being awful to each other without outside intervention, and here was an opportunity to play that up. Pegg could have been great as an evil mastermind instead of a mere henchman.

With Adam, I’m confused. Rose has changed her look since the last ep, and the way they act in the beginning seems to suggest some time has passed since they left the museum. But then it doesn’t appear that time has passed at all because Adam feigns feeling uneasy and wants to be alone. He leaves at the end of this episode with a character arc so unsatisfying it might be more accurate to say he didn’t have one at all. The doctor does something incredibly nonsensical and leaves him, a known alien artefact profiteer, with the stuff installed in him, even though he makes a show of erasing the phone answering machine. Despite trying to scare him, he would obviously have the ability to analyse, pilfer, and sell what is in him. Nothing about his character makes any sense.

Cathica and Suki are alright, but I am not sure they really did anything of much consequence, excepting cathica jumping in right at the very end.

The standout guest for me here is Tamsin Grieg as the sales medic. I forgot she was ever in DW. A future where they upsell medical treatment like they would options in a car is freaky, even down to them installing extras that are on offer without even asking. Her creepy performance really sells how weird it all is.

I don’t like the whole body horror “you can see inside your brain” stuff, even with the dated CGI. Gives me the ick. And also makes no sense - if you have a chip, why on earth do you need trepanning other than to shock the viewers?

Which brings me to the themes and major plot points. We have:

• future medical horror show (used better in the next series with 10)
• workplace political drama,
• journalism and its role in politics (I think this alone should have been the plot),
• conspiracies vs freedom fighters,
• privacy rights (very perceptive in ~2000),
• digital money and worker scrip,
• racism (RTD re-used this “you don’t see racism” idea to much better effect in Gatwa’s series); Just to name a few. If the episode had focused more on just one of these that would have been better.

The design of the station itself is confusing, even if the CGI visuals and set design are nice. It has spinny bits, but because they’re always in the central column it clearly has artificial mavity, so why does it need the spinny bits‽ I also don’t rally understand why they needed the “it’s really hot” ventilation plot point - usually larger animals tend to have a lower metabolism, not higher, and the editor was going to invite the doctor up anyway. And you don’t ventilate the get rid of heat in space, you radiate it.

As usual I enjoyed the score, from classic themes to the upbeat accompaniment during the tourism scene early in the episode, and the later conspiratorial detective melody.

The only thing that really happens of any note here is the perhaps unnecessary setup for the series finale, and a deepening of 9 and Rose’s relationship, which could have easily happened in any scenario.

I take issue with this article using the language “lagging behind in the use of generative AI”. That language seems to imply there is something wrong in this behaviour.

Good idea - if you also cap car speeds at 15mph

This is such a good episode. The mood from the very beginning is great, and it’s got a kind of tension that leads right up to the reveal of the Dalek. This is another reveal that really early on made me hate the “next time” trailers, because it interrupts your ability to emphasize with the unknown Metaltron being tortured. Watching it for the first time I knew what the Daleks were, so it didn’t bother me as much that it was being imprisoned and controlled - it’s a deadly killing machine. But that’s not why its in prison, being controlled, it’s there because Van Statten is a horrible human being.

Van Statten is a great character. It can be very easy to verge off into cartoon villain territory with his type, but here I think it got the tone of overly confident self assured rich person you love to hate just right. In 2000s, we thought that in the future they’d be in bunkers, hiding away doing their evil deeds behind the scenes. Instead, nowadays they’re just openly evil out for everyone to see. When the doctor and his assistant plane him towards the end of the episode, that makes for a very satisfying ending. (Van Statten owns “the internet” - I wonder if he got conned into buying a little black box with a blinking light on top?)

The way the doctor is written and directed in this episode is fantastic. It’s a complete role reversal from what we normally expect. Often the Dalek (and Rose) take the position of the caring emotional one, and the Doctor is consumed by hatred. It’s nice that we see more of the background of what makes 9 who he is, and that he finally gets some sort of absolution to move on a bit, all the better that it comes from a Dalek pointing out that he is capable of love again.

I felt that this episode was trying to push a kind of romance, or at least light infatuation, between Rose and Adam, which just bugs me to no end. Rose still has an interest in Mickey at this point, there’s a budding relationship (not really romantic at this point) with the doctor, and Adam is just a completely unlikeable character. He obviously knows that his boss is torturing this alien, and he goes along with it because he gets to play with cool gadgets and have his ego stroked. Rose has more chemistry with the Dalek in this ep than she does with Adam.

The Dalek itself is great. The gold redesign looks amazing and less plasticky than the white and blue of old. The CGI is pretty good too. The contrast between the broken dalek that can’t even do a full 360 with it’s eye stalk, and later having some glamour bullet time shots as it rotates it’s middle section all the way around is really cool. The direction of having some of the deaths happen off screen with screams echoing down a corridor, and the Dalek being smart enough to use water to electrocute hundreds of people at once really adds to the fear, because an episode of death after death can get a bit much, so the variation helps.

Really good episode, and it has a nice message driving throughout that you should question your instincts. Also it continues a running theme of RTD’s in doctor who that a lot of the problems that happen do so because of greed.

I’m pretty sure those guts are just instant noodles with green food dye :)

I wonder if they ran out of budget there

The character interactions in this one are really nice. Especially the doctor and Jackie, him being blunt and her being caring.

I think this part 2 is much better than part 1. its a bit more grounded on the characters, there’s a bit less of the fart jokes, but it’s still got some good action and comedy.

How terribly designed are those neck braces if they can transmit a massive electric shock over… presumably radio? still, cheap easily resolved cliffhangers are par for the course with DW

On dialogue - there are some great quips from the doctor in this episode. The dialogue from the slitheen is a bit cheesy - but it actually fits well considering they’re a rag tag bunch of criminals playing big bad.

The unit computer has “buffalo” as a password. Ugh. this does remind me the bbc had a series of flash games and one of them was this interface that you could play “hacking” into. that was fun. all we get from media tie ins these days is some funny gifs on social media, if we’re lucky.

The political play here is actually quite clever. If i can theorise, i would guess getting the earth to destroy itself with its own weapons would skirt around any shadow proclamation rules outlawing their behaviour. Allowing the slitheen to operate a bit more freely and profitably.

That harriet jones being the pm for 3 terms got retconned fairly quickly.

I enjoy this episode, though it certainly has its problems. I took notes as I was watching. Lots to say.

The sub-plot of Rose having vanished for a year is a really nice idea, especially as she just up and left without saying anything to anyone. It is a useful way to set up the tension with MR ickey. It’s a testament to his overall blandness that even when Rose comes back pretty much everyone forgets to tell him. Mickey in the tardis later gets a chance to flesh himself out a bit as what we would probably now call an open source intelligence guy. I think that the doctor works better when he’s got a smart entourage he can bounce off, whether it’s individuals like Mickey, SJS, or the modern unit crew with Kate. Mickey though never really felt particularly interesting as a character.

Some part of this episode have not aged well at all. The slaps (which the policeman present doesn’t even try to intercede in) and a remark later ‘you’re so gay’. I get that this is the way people spoke, but still… Other parts though still hits me the way it did when I first watched it - During the crash scene Murray Golds soundtrack is fantastic, and the visuals aren’t too bad considering how old this is.

The writing really gets the era right here - mid 00s, 24hr news, a few years after 9/11, after a major event this is exactly what people would be doing. The doctor as the one person in the room really paying attention while everyone else is chatting and gossiping is great. If this were rewritten for today, I wonder if everyone would be chatting, or if they’d all be shown doomscrolling instead.

Inside downing Street we met Harriet Jones for the first time. She seemed like such a grounded politician as a backbencher, it’s a shame she ended up going mad with power. Reminds me a bit of Kier Starmer - starts off fairly innocuous, just trying to do the right thing, and then faced with actual responsibility starts to go a bit too hard down on protectionism.

The fart Jokes begin as soon as we enter downing street, and as juvenile as they are, it is mildly funny to see the camera cut immediately afterwards to show the on duty security guard in the corner of the stairwell, unable to move away. This might be the only time I actually found it funny. A later scene in the cabinet office is one of the worst for fart jokes and it goes on too much here to be funny, and completely ruins the tone of what should be a horrific scene.

To this day I’m still not sure how the aliens managed to kill the prime minister and subdue the entire chain of command - if they had the resources and were able to do that the rest of the setup seems kind of unnecessary. Does the whole UK chain of command / succession really boil down to these three? We get some hints, particularly when the general tries to impose martial law as to how things ought to be working, but it doesn’t go anywhere. No deputy, no home sec, just straight to the sugar minister. And the cabinet we know are still available, they’re just waiting to be “airlifted in”, as if they wouldn’t all immediately be jostling to get in.

The doctor being apparently unaware this is humanity’s first contract moment is interesting : it’s either retconning; or the doctor who started coming to earth in the 60s hates spoilers and just wants to follow earth’s development in real time?

Rose getting the tardis key is different to how I remember watching this as a kid, I can now see its more like her getting to move into a new friends house rather than just access to a vehicle.

When Harriet encounters the open cabinet door as the invaders are leaving, we get my favourite pet peeve - an immensely secure area and they just leave the door unlocked and important documents lying on the table. Eyeroll.

In the hospital the pig reveal actually spooked me as a kid for some reason, it’s laughable now. Poor animal.

On the design of the slitheen - The skinsuit idea is a pretty neat concept, a good twist on the changeling invader concept. The obvious zip we see in some of the shots is a bit silly though, and inconsistent. When we finally see the aliens I think their designs are really impressive. It’s the first time we get a real big bad alien costume (after a few background ones in episode 2). The eyes are dead though, that’s the big thing I wish they had done differently.

The overly dramatic phone call from Jackie to the helpline is great. It makes no sense that sirens would be going if like that in some random room at downing Street, but it makes for a good TV shot, and is a decent tool in showing how important the doctor is.

When Rose realises she’s going to number 10 she seems elated. That one was always a bit weird to me - is that a place the average person dreams of visiting? I don’t feel it has quite the prestige that say a royal household, the white house, or the palace des Élysée has.

This episode has a “next time” teaser, and honestly kind of defeats the cliffhanger ending. I always hated those, I’m glad when they get bumped either to the end credits or off entirely.

As a one of episode of doctor who this one has a lot of problems. But, in the context of being the first two-parter of the revival, and watching it as a kid years ago, it stuck with me. I loved the juxtaposition of aliens against the mundane every day life that goes on, and the behind the scenes of what governments would do in scenarios like this. And I think it was a formative experience for the kinds of disaster film and scifi drama i like now - less focus on the death and chaos and more on the logistics and the how and the why. Re watching it there are some things that stick out in a bad way but overall its still an enjoyable watch.

I agree about the gelth - initially they seem able to inhabit dead bodies on their own, but then they need a conduit to come through, but then they aren’t able to stay in the bodies when there’s gas around them, which is a bit inconsistent.

I missed the first couple of episodes of this rewatch, so joining in here.

Compared to the newer episodes a lot of the direction in this one feels more like the classic series - more like a stage play than a typical TV drama, which fits the theme of the story well.

There’s lots of jokes sprinkled throughout this story, and it really works well with Christopher Eccleston. I missed that mad grin he does.

Acting - In the theatre, I did notice some of the bg extras not really running quite as fast from the ghost as they should have been, which was amusing. And the actors playing the reanimated dead bodies was really cheesy, felt less like an entity controlling them and more like they were playing stereotypical zombies. I did enjoy the portrayal of dickens as the sceptical and haunted artist.

The gelth needing the dead bodies because they’ve lost their own reminds me a bit of that voyager episode where the aliens take dead bodies to reuse them. It set up a nice conflict between Doctor and Rose - but after the tense conversation it doesn’t go anywhere, and an exploration of what it could mean is undermined by the twist that they’re evil. I didn’t really like the cgi, even considering it’s a couple decades old.

It’s not the best episode, but certainly not the worst. I think this might actually be the first time I’ve rewatched this episode since I saw it live when it aired.

Random bit I noticed at the end - they look at dickens through a viewscreen monitor on the Tardis console just before they leave. The Tardis often has futuristic looking interfaces in modern series, seeing a plain cctv camera view is very retro (and dare I say it seems more useful than a semi transparent screen with a bunch of circles for no good reason ;) )

I was mildly confused, as I suspect a lot of fans were, I don’t know if that quite constitutes “backlash”. Are there people really getting that militant about this?

This is why you keep a several hundred megabytes history file set to remember “forever”

fiercely confident of their own independence

In fairness, if you let the average cat out into nature it would be fine. Dump the average libertarian into nature and they wont last the night.

The retcon of Belinda’s history also bothered me. It kind of gave me those Moffat-era vibes, where women could go on fun, exciting adventures and all of that but eventually they’d settle down in the wife and/or mother role that represents the person they’re really supposed to be. Boo. I didn’t think RTD2 would echo Moffat like that and I’m as much disappointed that Ncuti Gatwa only had two seasons as that Varada Sethu is gone after just one.

This bugged me as well. I was very surprised in the last ep and the beginning of this one to see just how protective and loving Doctor and Belinda were being to poppy. But then by the end, only Belinda is the one that seems to care deeply for the child. The doctor is given a chance to make a farewell, but then he just leaves with (as I understood it) the implication that he is never going to come back and that he’s been replaced by a human dad. It just confuses me why any of that needed to happen.