The Church on Ruby Road

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@janetteb

September, Sunday, Munday, Tuesday… not really sure. Obviously it means something, or nothing. That is, it’s part of an (extensive) anti spoiler strategy. Make noise! Drown the detail.

No. Not all of it can have meaning.

But…

September 1963: ‘She Loves You’ released in the US. Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed… no more atmospheric tests. Upbeat! Common Sense! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

September 2005: Israeli withdrawal from Gaza!

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@janetteb

@ps1l0v3y0u

on the question of Susan Twist, everyone is focussing on the name Susan, but there is a very famous tale of an abandoned baby by Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist.

He is not abandoned in the same way as Ruby (as he is born in a workhouse, and his mother dies giving birth). But his identity (or evidence of his mother’s identity such as a blanket and a neckless) is stolen.

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

OK… returning to an earlier theme… stay with me on this…

Ruby Sunday… references the move of Zchib’s Who to that day of the week.

Munday (Flynn, Boom) & Marti (Bridges, 73 yards) = dies martis, the day of Mars, that is Tuesday… these are the two days of the week to which Doctor 5 was exiled.

Ricky September… I got quite excited by the idea that the autumnal Who series started with Trial of a Timelord followed by 7’s aborted tenure (and the Cartmel masterplan). It turns out Doctors 1, 2 and 4 all featured September stories. Oh well, ignorant as I am of much of 1, we also have Cybermen, The Mind Robber, Zygons, The Mandragora Helix, Rutans, Guardians (boo), Daleks, Foamasi and Argolins (one of my faves actually), or the Valeyard, the Rani (boo again), finally UNIT and all that Arthurian nonsense…??

Take your pick. Obviously, I imagined Russ was going all meta on us, and it was just be the V person. Still, interesting selection.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ps1lOv3yOu

Champion bonkerising!

Am I correct in thinking that the length of the Martian day is one earth day plus 37 minutes?

37…73?
Nah, I am sure I am wrong.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

You say bonkers…

Sunday, Monday, Mardi/Matedi/Martes… surely no coincidence. This is about the show under attack from the corporation.

Saturday is named for Saturn, the Roman god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, and periodic renewal. But there are also associations with Saetere a German deity possibly related to… Loki!

Going back to Doc 1, Galaxy 4 is a September story and you could equate the Finetime Flakes with the glamorous Drahvins in that they both subscribe to the fake cutie trope.

All but one episode was wiped but apparently the story was a dog.

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Well, well. Doctor Who meets the Muppets.

The first quarter was definitely Christmassy, goodwill to all, with Doctor Who as a sort of Santa doing good deeds. All the (human) characters were believable and just nice, pleasant people.

Then we’re deep into Muppet territory with the goblins, or maybe it was more reminiscent of Labyrinth, though David Bowie was a far more personable Goblin King than Jabba the Hutt.

The Doctor singing his way out of danger, though – that’s a new one.

I’m fairly neutral about this episode – it didn’t really grab me, didn’t put me off. I could watch happily it again though I don’t really feel motivated to.

Ncuti Gatwa has enough personal magnetism to carry the role of Doctor. And Ruby seems adequate (we’ll see how she develops as a companion), though she doesn’t – so far – have the same level of individual character as (IMO!) Amy or Clara or even Rose 2 in Star Beast.   I notice Ruby did the standard walk-around-the-Tardis almost exactly as Rose (1) did two decades ago, I’m sure that was intentional.

So far so good, we’ll see how Episode 1 goes (The Church on Ruby Road was Episode 0, according to the DVD set).

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

Ok tis the season to get an earful… backward in time through 2nd tier xmas specials.

Church on Ruby Road; the one with the singing goblins.

Thesis… yeah you can have singing goblins. And a singing Doctor. And companion. It’s alright. A bit odd. But Chib had The Master grooving on down to Rasputin. Moff had Katherine Jenkins. Equally odd.

Context. I don’t really think Russ likes Christmas, it was always like a contractural obligation for him. Of course you’re comparing him with Moff, who (mostly) has it sussed. What do people watch at Christmas??

Invasion… the big movie

Voyage… disaster movie

Next… Christmas historical

End… nine lessons and carols??

Bride… undefinable… he hadn’t really established the pattern in 2006.

So Church would appear to ‘do’ the Christmas family musical except, of course, song and dance will reemerge in Devil and Lux. Add the off beat humour of Babies and the Eagle Annual design of Robot Revolution and fans start pointing fingers at Disney. It’s not popular. But curiously Russ gets the blame. It is actually done best here… but then it has the slightly desultory ‘feel’ of the other missteps and the out of control season ends.

Was it written in a rush? Was it hard to get the stars ‘onboard?’ Did Russ even sabotage the hypothetical Disney wish-list? It’s weird. And there is unrelated noise. And Russ, being Russ, is playing to the shouty gallery.

Song, dance, family fun and fantasy is not actually the worst thing about Church. Rather it’s the boring business of establishing the arc. Because this is all about Ruby who is an obvious metaphor for retelling of the main point of Timeless Children. Now, is it in fact Russ saying ‘you can’t DO it like that, Chris!’ Or ‘this was prime Cartmel 2.0 you idiot, and now I have to fix it!’ Though he would never say that for the sake of the show.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done… only that Russ doesn’t handle the process very well either. There are longeurs and laborious explanations that can only be there to establish the arc, but this is Christmas Russ! I ate too many nuts before midday and Grandma’s here. Light and frothy please.

Of course, it’s a nine ep series including the special (thank you again Disney). No days off.

It’s alright. Not a Moff special. Gatwa and Gibson may seem a bit awkward but then we’ve seen this process before… is that the source of the awkwardness? Better than Whitaker and Walsh!

The Mrs Flood epilogue is the intriguing part… in particular her reaction to The Tardis. Would grousing to the council official or dropping your shopping be the actual Rani’s reaction to a police box? It seems she IS the Rani (we know that now) but the bigeneration does pose the question, what does happen if you ARE two people? Might one of them be a surprise? Someone we recognise, but not in terms of THAT character?

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