grassangel | (no subject)

Fan panel time! And it’s sweet they still internally name the surveys as Fan Panel.

The email was also very sweet, and enthusiastic about the response to Rosa!

Same questions as always, though this week got a very middling score.

Also a bit vicious in my general response to the episode.

A missable episode. I liked the character beats - getting to meet (if all too briefly) Yasmin's family, Graham's grief and Ryan's frustration with his father. I do wish there'd been more time to get to know Yasmin's family, see her interact with them outside of possible adventure, as it still felt that Ryan and Graham were given weightier and more important issues of their own to deal with, and the fact there were three guest stars didn't help either in helping develop her more. I did like that Graham, Ryan and Yaz all came to the conclusion they want to travel with the Doctor more independently, though the circumstances in which Yasmin left does concern me. The plot felt a little lightweight and flimsy, with a few points that I thought were slow on the uptake - like the limit of how large a spider can grow or how capitalism without checks or standards can kill.

Word ratings again, out of ten for:

Adventurous, Easy enough to follow, Charming, Funny, Gripping, Emotional, For people like me, Fresh, Warm, For all the family, Shareable (stories I want to share & discuss), Scary, Topical (covers topics and themes I care about)
This episode... did not fare well. Easy to follow was highest, followed by for people like me and emotional; while fresh, charming and shareable were lowest. Everything else was middling.

Out of ten again for: The location: Sheffield, UK; The core cast (The Doctor, Ryan, Yasmin & Graham), The monsters/villains, The other characters, The storyline
Where again, compared to the rest of everything the location and core cast won out.

Out of ten again: Yasmin, Mutant Spiders, Ryan, Graham, Najia (Yasmin's Mum), The Doctor, Robertson
Not good scores here either, with Graham being the best, followed by Ryan and the Doctor.

One word descriptions!
The Doctor was aimless, Yasmin was naive, the Mutant Spiders were cute, Najia (Yasmin's Mum) was nosy, Graham was mourning, Ryan was frustrated, Robertson was arrogant

There’s not really much to gush about Jodie in this episode but there’s space for it

The Doctor felt a bit more aimless and less well developed in this episode, which might have been due to potentially having to say goodbye to their new friends and companions. The best parts were when the Doctor took charge - with Robertson, with Jade, with Najia - showing off her authority and expertise. And the excellent face scrunching, which there was thankfully lots of.

And about the relationships between the team

It didn't develop much beyond the team deciding to travel together officially, which I found frustrating. The Graham and Ryan relationship did, with Ryan taking offence at his dad implying Graham isn't 'proper' family. Graham's reason for wanting to travel with the Doctor also felt the strongest. Ryan's stated reason felt a bit of an excuse and not entirely the truth, as obviously the friction with his dad and the still lingering grief over Grace feel like they should have higher priority as reasons. Yasmin's reason felt shallow, as much as I understand wanting to get away from inquisitive family member's who don't care for personal privacy.

‘Course I say that, and feel it’s interesting that Yaz is being promoted as a character who has excellent conflict resolution skills, but apparently doesn’t want to apply them to her home life. Not enough to say that she also feels like she’s lying though.

A middling score for how likely I’m to watch future episodes, plus the usual how much of previous Doctor Who have you seen questions, plus the ‘more surveys, yes?’ question.

Then oooh! A change! Free space! Which is apparently a chance for me to be brutal. (Sorry Chibbs)

I'm looking forward to Doctor Who answering the question of how a Muslim will pray in space. I'm not sure about the direction/method of showing that Graham is still mourning Grace - I think the audience would've been smart enough to get it without necessarily having to show her appearing, as much as I enjoyed seeing Sharon D Clarke again. And as much as I love Graham, Ryan and Yasmin, three companions does feel like one too many for the writers to juggle and pay attention to equally, especially with guest stars needing to be developed as well. While I'm glad that LGBT identities have been mentioned, if briefly, it is frustrating that it's only been marriages and those marriages have had one dead partner.

I do wonder what next week’s email will say about what people thought. I definitely know I’m an outlier who thought the spiders were cute.