(no subject)

[grassangel]

You know the drill, it’s yeah, ehhh, hmm, nah time for Doctor Who: Resolution

Yeah

• I... actually thought the Doctor was written decently.
• Or rather Jodie Whittaker was given a script with enough substance to really act the part, rather than trying to awkwardly make a speech sound natural.
• Also it’s the tone I like best on the Doctor - determined and deadly
• I even kind of liked the asking the companions permission to kill the Dalek. It sort of felt like it’s a thing - that the Doctor is allowed to kill/permanently disable things as long as they agree it’s the only way, but due to rules they aren’t allowed the same privilege.
• Or that sometimes she asks forgiveness rather than permission, carefully omitting some details...
• Let the Doctor say Brexit! (I did like that little excuse to not have UNIT, except for its potential consequences.)
• Mmmm, delicious archaeology. The Doctor should show up to more. Teach us about stratification and context. Or lack thereof.
• Heee, they reused the Demon’s hive set for the Doughnut’s server room. (Am I a nerd for knowing that’s the nickname for GCHQ? Yes.)
• The Graham-Ryan-Aaron plot was decent. I especially loved the way Graham interacted with Aaron, especially since hey, he’s technically his step dad.
• I don’t think the payoff at the end was quite right, but the coffee shop chat was pretty damn good. Excellent acting from Tosin. (And wasn’t an entire let down after watching Into The Spiderverse earlier today.)
• I love that “[companion]’s [parent]” is a thing. I just hope it’s not going to be more of a thing.
• I watched the behind the scenes and I don’t think it’s a typical Dalek construction and there’s not a person inside it? Either that or they built it smaller so a woman can do it?

Ehhh

• There was more hair discontinuity. Let the Doctor have messy hair! I don’t care this is the special, let her hair be messed up after running around.
• Oh hey, more TARDIS scenes, which apparently people were complaining about a lack of during the series proper? (I mean I was complaining about them not being shown to go back into the TARDIS, but that’s different to this... overuse of the TARDIS to hop around.)
• The Doctor didn’t taste the dalek goo. :(
• I figured out Aaron’s engineering skills would be useful to the story right off. (And then as soon as the microwave oven was brought into the TARDIS, figured out that bit too.) But not quite as disgustingly over explained as some solutions have been previously.
• I know I’ve said that Chibnall’s sketching out of characters is great... but he keeps doing that just to have someone inconsequential to kill off
• Also did we have to have that construction sequence? I know it mirrors the Doctor making their sonic but it felt unnecessary
• At least if you aren’t going to have Lin die from exhaustion/the Dalek pushing her too far/her trying to get rid of the Dalek too hard
• Also... uh.... who has the tentacle porn fetish?

Hmmm

• I feel vindicated with that line about dads. The Doctor went straight to being a granddad. (Also kind of sideways vindicated Moffat’s idea the Doctor was some kind of orphan/in care.)

Nah

• Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
• I am regretting asking for a female Muslim companion when asked who I wanted for the 13th Doctor’s companions.
• I feel directly responsible that she’s a spare wheel, who does nothing except collect phone numbers and be there for the Doctor to explain things at.
• I was hoping for an interesting character who has a unique perspective on their adventures with the Doctor. Instead I get a character who serves the same purpose as Handles, and who Chibnall doesn’t know what to do with almost all of the time.
• Also, add another to the dead gays counter. (Moffat would’ve never.)
• The behind the scenes videos have the same “we’re going to explain this to death” vibe as some of the episodes in s11 have and it’s awful.
• The removal of UNIT as a potential plot device feels... like another contrary decision made by Chibnall to spit in the face of fan favourites.
• Which feels a bit rich considering he apparently asked for them to be back and created/'borrowed' Kate when he wrote the Power of Three.
• Also their exclusion feels like an excuse to have more Earth-bound stories like Woman or Arachnids. (Which weren’t great and I don’t fancy having more.)