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Doctor Who [Spoilers]

That'll do! Tonight's wasn't as good as the previous Ice Warriors story, but it was a neat bit of throwback sci-fi and you could tell Gatiss was having fun writing the Victorian dialogue. Sort of Tomb of the Cybermen with a post-colonial twist, and a surprise return of a character I never thought they'd revive. The IWs were a bit louder voiced than we're used to. And Missy's finally out - is the Doc really OK? Is this why the TARDIS popped off?

Looks like they're using that history of the missing Roman legionnaires for next week's. No idea where that's heading.
 
I loved the whole Tomb Of The Cybermen twist for the Ice Warriors, and the return of that much loved character had me whooping with delight!

The Tardis popped off because it detected danger - Emergency Programme One and all that. Missy might go back to the Vault, might convince the Doctor she is "cured" and then run off to cause more problems at the first chance she gets...
 
Noticed the Doctor seems more violent, almost. Might be just cause I was a bit blitzed at the time. But last episode had him leading an attack squad.
Makes me wonder if as he rehabilitate s the Master he starts to aquire the Masters darker qualities.
As for the TARDIS, if she had stayed then the Doctor would have sorted things out differently, meaning they wouldn't have made the sign post, meaning they wouldn't have traveled back in the first place.
 
Not the worst episode Gatiss has written. (Seriously, what was The Lazarus Experiment meant to be?) I could see him writing it with a tab open at TV Tropes, though. ("Ooh, what if this guy starts talking about his fiancée?")

The ending was pure fan service, though. I enjoyed it, and good for them getting the original actress, but it's really Mark Gatiss pandering to his audience (ie Mark Gatiss.)
 
What about those dodgy cockney accents?

Was expecting one soldier to come out with "Gawd blimey, stone the crows! If it isn't a Martian Ice Queen! The missus'll never believe this 'un."
 
Victorians have suddenly stopped noticing how much melanin people have even though it was an issue previously!
Still quite enjoyed it though.
 
It didn't make much sense to me. How would a bunch of Victorian squaddies be able to help an alien repair his ship? How did they manufacture that giant boring machine? And what happened to the soldiers in the end - were they left stranded on Mars?
 
min_bannister said:
Victorians have suddenly stopped noticing how much melanin people have even though it was an issue previously!
Still quite enjoyed it though.
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Indeed. Indian troops in the British army would have been believable in the late Victorian age, but a black African openly mingling with indigenous 19th century Cockney geezers smacks of BBC tokenism.
Despite the silliness, still quite a fun episode though.
 
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Can't find it now, but someone had a picture on Twitter of Victorian soldiers including black people in full uniform. To his credit, in one of the pieces online about it, Gatiss did some research and found black Victorian soldiers did exist, so he was kind of saying he protested the casting, but now admits he was wrong.
 
Tonight's was Rona Munro's first script for DW since Survival, which ended the first run back in 1989. I always liked that story, and liked this one too, the monster was a bit basic but I liked that Mr Capaldi got a Scottish story before he leaves us, and it had a nice 1970s hauntology vibe with some new-fangled 21st C jokes (that were pretty funny). Maybe it was a placeholder before you know who returns next week, but it had a nice theme about not giving in to fear and sticking together, can't argue with that these days.
 
It followed the old classic plan of split the team, and have them meet the two sides of the conflict. Like Genesis of the Daleks, or, for modern Who fans, The Doctor's Daughter.

A good episode, on a par with the rest of the series so far. And next week, someone's gone a full Delgado...and not just Mondassian Cybermen, but it looks like Mondas itself is back. Looking forward to it.
 
About time we had the Mondasian Cybermen back, we've been waiting all series for it! With them back and Capadli regenerating, does this mean every time those cloth faced villains appear with their upside down planet, the Doctor must regenerate?!
 
It looks like the Doctor is using some sort of holodeck-type thing train Missy in next week's episode...maybe the Master only appears as some sort of hologram...or as a memory....

Or here's an out-there theory...the Doctor dies, and is 'replaced' by Missy who takes on the mantle, after having conveniently regenerated into John Simm.

So, John Simm is the new Doctor!

It'll never happen, but imagine how cool that would be.
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
It looks like the Doctor is using some sort of holodeck-type thing train Missy in next week's episode...maybe the Master only appears as some sort of hologram...or as a memory....

Or here's an out-there theory...the Doctor dies, and is 'replaced' by Missy who takes on the mantle, after having conveniently regenerated into John Simm.

So, John Simm is the new Doctor!

It'll never happen, but imagine how cool that would be.
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No reason The Doctor couldn't re-generate into John Simm. After all they did explain why 12 looks like the roman guy from Pompeii. I'm sure Moffat or Chibnall could come up with an explanation why it was important The Doctor now looks like a previous regeneration of the Master? Perhaps to keep a reformed Missy on the straight and narrow by reminding her of her past?

Alternatively, we may have a Two Masters episode(s) and simply have Missy & the Master meeting up, wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.
 
If we can have Two Doctors (two and six), Three Doctors (one, two and three), Five Doctors (two, three, five, four in wibbly wobbly timey whimey and replacement for one) and all thirteen turn up in various episodes, why not two Masters? Very much looking forward to this weeks episode, and to have the Cybermen come back - bliss!
 
I dunno. Isn't Mondas supposed to be in a different reality? How might the Master be if he's in a reality where there is no Doctor?
 
Mondas was destroyed in Tenth Planet, but this episode could be before all that happened anyways...
 
Dinobot said:
Mondas was destroyed in Tenth Planet, but this episode could be before all that happened anyways...
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That would explain why they're old school Cybermen. If it's before Mondas was destroyed, then the Cybermen were quite early on in their evolution, so they should look like 10th Planet era Cybermen more than Revenge era Cybermen. And a any Cybermats should have google eyes.
 
Google eyes, in case they wish to look something up on the internet? Or should that be in Cyberspace?
 
I did type "googly", but Autocorrect is a thing.
 
I get the feeling the big surprise at the end of this episode would have been better if the tabloids hadn't blown the whole twist, but DW was always good at cliffhangers, and this one survived in spite of that. Will next week's finale reveal that Bill actually married Brian Blessed? Very bleak set of events, but the timey-wimey stuff was a neat set-up for the reveal (that we knew anyway). Do we get the new Doc this time next week too? Exciting.
 
And I never thought I'd see/hear The Doctor say "my name is Doctor Who".

Missy calling blueman a Smurf was a nice touch too.

Can't wait for next week.
 
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GNC said:
I get the feeling the big surprise at the end of this episode would have been better if the tabloids hadn't blown the whole twist, but DW was always good at cliffhangers, and this one survived in spite of that. Will next week's finale reveal that Bill actually married Brian Blessed? Very bleak set of events, but the timey-wimey stuff was a neat set-up for the reveal (that we knew anyway). Do we get the new Doc this time next week too? Exciting.
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It might have worked better if they hadn't blown it, especially as I saw through his Ron Moody impression right away. He's rocking that Delgado though.

Bill still seems to be inside the stocking mask, so she might be salvageable. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how they pull everything out of the various fires they've started. Just hoping the scenery can take all that chewing from Gomez, Simm, and Capaldi in full Oncoming Storm mode.
 
I admit I failed to see through the disguise, I had thought that we'd see the regeneration into Missy. Next week looks like a cracker of an episode!
 
min_bannister said:
Victorians have suddenly stopped noticing how much melanin people have even though it was an issue previously!
Still quite enjoyed it though.
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"History has been whitewashed", stopped watching right there. I'm not keen on revisionist history.
 
All history is whitewashed, written by the victor and given alternative facts...
 
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