The Devil’s Chord

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@janetteb

Wondering if the Margaret Lockwood reference was meaningful but can’t see anything on her IMDB that would suggest any link. The Lady Vanishes?

I doubt it in this particular context, but it does have a certain resonance. Margaret Lockwood was indeed in the cast of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938 IIRC), but the film the tea lady referred to was The Wicked Lady  which was hugely popular in Britain when it  came out in the mid 1940’s. In it, ML starred as the titled Lady in question, who decided to spice up her rather boring life by moonlighting as a highwayman – so shades of Me in The Woman Who Lived.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@mudlark @janetteb

Run the Margaret Lockwood thing past me again? Of course, I have my own theories about Me, aka The Knightmare…

Also, just because the Giggle and Maestro both first manifested in ‘25 doesn’t mean they were particularly active at that point. The Toymaker takes the best part of a century to go to town. Music may not have been particularly tasty for Maestro until swing, bebop and rock n roll was on the menu after WW2. So, music might still have been vital enough to attract the John and Paul at artschool.

The Pantheon don’t seem to be respecters of chronology or sequence. Why should they be? But who knows what else came through in ‘25? Or what they then did? Who will be head honcho of The Empire of Death?

Both these stories were a bit underwritten really. I’m  not asking for expo, or the return of Bradley Walsh to state the obvious, but it’s a bit… careless.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ps1l0v3y0u

I just typed a very long post (beginning by agreeing with your point about 1925, of course) which, needless to say, disappeared somewhere into the depths of the internet when I tried posting.

Here is  the truncated version of that post:

I think what RTD is doing here is somewhat similar to what he did with his miniseries “Years and Years”. Something wicked comes to to remake a caring civilization in its own wicked image. That was done as a drama, this is done as fantasy. Fortunately, in a fantasy, we have the Doctor.

The end.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@blenkinsopthebrave. I thought that Years and Years was Turn Left without the Doctor. Great series btw. The “something wicked this way comes to remake a caring civilisation in its own wicked image” could be/is a reflection of our world. Only I am not convinced that we have ever been a caring civilisation, but that is me being a cynic. The Doctor shows us what we should be..

IT seems to me that this is an alternative universe, but is it from 1925 or even earlier, do they have gravity or mavity? I have not heard either mentioned in the past two episodes.

Imperfect these first two episodes might have been but they have given us plenty to talk about  and theorise over. Feels like old times.

cheers

Janette

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@mudlark and @ps1l0v3y0u Yes I realised after I posted that the Margaret Lockwood reference was probably a link to the bandit character she played, ie Me. Probably just a nod for fans but may hint that she knows “things” about the Doctor.

cheers

Janette

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I hate it when that happens (disappearing posts).

I was quite intrigued by Years and Years… not sure why I missed it. Well, competition for screen time. And early days of the culture war, maybe I felt I didn’t need ‘ideological’ guidance!

I still think Russ could have illustrated the difference effects of the demise of music on the human psyche: no melting pot of ideas; no counter culture; culture = nationalism; grinding obsession with The War. Right up his street really. I find it hard to believe he felt he couldn’t do this with The Mouse on his back.

Maybe that’s a bit picky but this is what sometimes stops Russ going to the next level. Looking forward to Moff’s writing credit on Saturday. That will be the acid test.

[Miapatrick @miapatrick]

@janetteb I think Mavity was one of the readings on the screen, though I can’t be sure, I’ve not re-wathced yet.

But yes – so nice to speculate! I think, even when I enjoyed quite a few of Chib’s episodes more than I have these last two, they didn’t give me as much to think about and say.

@ps1l0v3y0u: indeed. But holy high expectations. I don’t know if I could write through that kind of pressure.

 

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@juniperfish — that’s really interesting about the Xena episode. I never knew about that at all. Must check it out. I think @mudlark is spot on that OMWF (and presumably the Xena episode) have their songs deeply integrated into the narrative. Not sure The Devil’s Chord manages that — The Twist at the End number could and really should have leaned into that more. But like the Goblin Song in Church on Ruby Road, the songs are merely m’ok, which is fine. No one expects Davies/Gold (I’m assuming those are the songwriting credits) to be Rogers and Hammerstein or anything. Like @juniperfish, I’m not sure I could handle a musical number every episode but I actually don’t mind the occasional one and I think that Who in its current iteration can accommodate it (it would have been wildly out of place in the Hinchcliffe era tho, for example). And the Gatwa and Gibson clearly have the talent so why not utilise it, I say.

I also think I’d agree with the comments above that both these episodes just seem slightly undercooked writing-wise and could have benefited from just one more draft or even just a moment’s further reflection for them to really sparkle. But over all, while these eps haven’t really blown me away I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit and they do at least feel wholeheartedly like Who, which I could never really say with utter conviction about the Chibs era.

oh, and never mind the methane, the sheer incandescent rage of the NMD broflakes on Twitter/YouTube could probably propel a space station on a five-year voyage….)

[janetteB @janetteb]

@jimthefish

oh, and never mind the methane, the sheer incandescent rage of the NMD broflakes on Twitter/YouTube could probably propel a space station on a five-year voyage….

Yes it makes one suspect that one of the trickster’s brigade has been unleashed on earth and is wrecking havoc and we don’t have the Doctor to save us.

Cheers

Janette

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

@ps1l0v3y0u  I wonder if SLC stands for the material the 45s and LPs are available on? Perhaps it is short for “shellac” which was of course the material records were made of before vinyl.

As vinyl replaced shellac from the 1940s, perhaps this is another sign that we are in alternative time-line/ universe, one in which vinyl has not been invented to “our” time-sequence. Obviously, shellac records were 78s, so 45s and LPs are vinyl-format in “our” timeline, but perhaps that’s not the case in “this” timeline.

I think we’ll have to look out for more of these little signs that the timeline has branched. We already have “mavity”.

@mudlark and @scaryb you’ve both pointed out that the Doctor and Ruby’s outfits are a bit “off” for 1963. @scaryb you mentioned a Motown influence for the Doctor and nice spot that Ruby’s hair is more 1950s @mudlark.

Of course, this in-episode timeline has been altered by Maestro, and is (presumably) restored when they are defeated so the shellac records and the slightly off outfits may be resolved now we are back to the “original” timeline.

But the bleeding of imagination/ fantasy into “reality”, especially epitomised by the snow falling in the Doctor’s memory that then materialises on the Space Baby ship, is already a through-line.

 

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@juniperfish

or… SLC = Salt Lake City. Closest urban centre to Henry Van Statten’s vault. Says someone on tinternet.

Kind of place where an American Diner might rock up if you ask me.

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@juniperfish

The costume anachronism is a very minor point and can easily be explained away by the fact that for Ruby 1963 is as far in the past as 1902 was for me in 1963. Faced with the Tardis’s vast wardrobe she would just have picked the style everyone tends to associate with the 60s. Or, more prosaically, that’s how the costume designers were thinking.  In fact the style with the very short skirts was introduced by Courreges in 1964 and popularised by Mary Quant in 1966.

This morning I skimmed the BTL comments on Martin Belam’s recap in the Guardian (depressingly negative as ever), and there was one point raised which I had missed. In February 1963 Britain was still knee deep in snow and everything was frozen solid. One of my chief memories of that winter in Edinburgh is of the daily battle across the Meadows to lectures in driving snow. But in the alternative time line maybe it wasn’t the coldest winter of the century.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@mudlark

Apparently there was a brief thaw on the 25th Jan. Then it got colder again with high winds in Feb but maybe not quite as cold as it had been before.

Clearly Russ hoped no-one would think of that.

Lots of snow in The Tardis of course.

[WhoHar @whohar]

Well, I watched this last night. Trajectory is upwards I’d say.  Still seemed aimed at a younger age group though.

A few random points, and apologies if they’ve been covered elsewhere.

The two leads grew into the roles a bit I thought, especially Ncuti Gatwa. Definitely seeing a bit more “Doctor” in his performance, probably because he had a bit more to work with.

Early on, Ruby says to the Doc something along the lines of “but you never hide”. Clearly he does, as in the previous episode. Late change to episode order perhaps?

I was a bit mystified by the alternate timeline. If Maestro did their thing in 1925, then why did the modern era not change immediately? It only seemed to change when the Doctor took Ruby “back” to see the updated 2024.

And, RTD clearly missed a trick here. If they were looking for the lost chord, then surely it would have made sense for the Doctor to get Les Dawson to play the piano. QED.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@mudlark

This morning I skimmed the BTL comments on Martin Belam’s recap in the Guardian (depressingly negative as ever)

I, too, have ventured into that nether realm, and it is full of significantly more comments that don’t like the eps than those that do. A few “it’s all woke crap” remarks but not as many as I would have thought. Some decent points made from both viewpoints. And a surprisingly large number of posters there who think the show might not be for them anymore and so are likely to stop watching. Including Martin Belam.

My favourite quote from the comments:

Sorry but it was gobshite middle class brit masturbation

which made me actually laugh out loud.

I can’t decide if RTD is being remarkably clever here, and there is going to be a huge payoff at the end, or whether he is just taking the show in a new direction. I suspect it’s the latter.

I’ve seen a lot of comments online that RTD and Gatwa have been critical of the older (legacy) fans, but I’ve not been interested enough to find out a) if this is true, or b) what they said. Except I did see a US Youtuber saying that Gatwa had used the term “gammon” in one interview, and it wasn’t positively received in the US – possibly because the term would be imbued with racial overtones I guess.

Anyhoo, assuming it is all true, I wonder what’s driving this new level of interaction. It doesn’t seem like a positive development and I can’t see it having any good outcomes.

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

@whohar <waves> I like Martin Bellam as a successor to our sadly missed Dan Martin, but the comments section closes so early on T’Other Place now it’s ridiculous, and it’s always been a bit of a hornets’ nest – hence @craig our Emperor’s creation of this excellent and well-moderated space.

The thing is, the Guardian’s Doctor Who fandom is just one particular slice of (grouchy older) fandom (I like to think we’re the sweeter side of that).

RTD2 has the extremely difficult task of getting the show to appeal to existing fans (across 60 years of the programme!) and ensure the show continues by attracting new young fans, including being “family friendly” (including in Disney terms now) for parents watching with their kids.  His own RTD1 era is “Old Who” (the revival began in 2005, twenty years ago!) as far as fans who were kids when they watched it, and are now in their 30s, are concerned.

I’ve had a look at the official BBC Doctor Who channel on TikTok, where Gen Z are likely to be and yes, there are “No thanks Disney Who” comments but there are also lots of enthusiastic comments saying things like, “Oooh love Jinkxs Monsoon – loved them in Steven Universe” and “loved Ncuti Gatwa in Sex Education”.

It’s difficult to find Disney-per-programme viewing data. I think it may be available via Nielsen, but I can’t find anything yet. And we don’t have figures for BBC viewing yet which captures everything yet (including viewing on catch-up in the 7 days following broadcast):

UK Doctor Who Ratings (2024) Accumulator

Key takeaway is we can’t accurately gauge reaction to the RTD2 era based on one or two comment spaces, but have to look across a range of them, always bearing in mind the way t’internet borks everything because of rage-gagement – the way negative click-baity headlines and takes so readily capture eyeballs, and are thus incentivised by the online engine.

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

@whohar – Addendum – I think this was the interview Gatwa did with the gay magazine Attitude which caused ire in certain quarters:

https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/ncuti-gatwa-attitude-interview-464142/

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@juniperfish – thanks so much for sharing the Attitude article. Really worth a read (great pics as well!). Intelligent and insightful. If Ncuti brings even a fraction of that insight to his role as the Doctor, he’s going to be one of the best ever. And we’re really going to miss him when he goes (which I fear is likely to be sooner than later, he has so much talent).

BTL in the Graun is a cesspit. Sadly they’ve been closing it off very early since Martin Bellam took over; I get the feeling they’re trying to cut it off before the late night keyboard warriors take over. It’s always too early for me to jump in. The first comments are usually more measured (not always favourable but reasoned).

My own feelings about the first couple of episodes is that RTD is having fun (cos he can!) and easing us in gently. I think we  have to wait for the full season to judge his vision for our favourite timelord. And as several people above have pointed out – it’s got us all talking and speculating again, and that is so much fun. Great to see everyone on these boards again. I only watched a couple of Jodie’s more than once (and then there wasn’t much to speculate about), but I’ve already watched these twice, and taken a deep dive into looking for clues, teases and easter eggs.

I also like that RTD has picked up and run with the “foundling” idea. it doesn’t really change who the Doctor is, but adds a layer of mystery again and a foregrounds the whole “found family” which is a concept that always ran through Who (and resonated with a lot of the fandom).

This new iteration won’t be for everyone (and that’s OK) but if DW wants to last another 60 years it needs to evolve and change, not just the backstory, but how they tell the stories. It needs to be bold.

Would love to have heard the lovely Dan Martin’s thoughts on it all. RIP Dan

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Some more thoughts on the episode itself…

As @mudlark said – the Doctor’s and Ruby’s costumes are slightly out of time – which could either be down to an alternate timeline, or the TARDIS wardrobe doesn’t have an accurate dating system – or BBC wardrobe dept doesn’t either! or they (all) just thought these looked cool! (Which they do).

Been puzzling about the idea about why the Beatles are trying to record a new record when music has disappeared. Again it could be an alternate timeline, but my fave theory at the moment is that Maestro first appeared in 1925 (the same year as her father The Toymaker (maybe due to the Dr disempowering salt  (in WBY ep) as a means to keep out the out-of-our-universe bad guys)), and then disappeared from our world to reappear in Feb 1963. So that music has been there – the people in the nearby buildings know about it, the Beatles are in the studio, there are instruments and recording equipment – but that it has only very recently been sucked out of our world.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

There are so many lovely little moments in this!

The Doctor and Ruby on the rooftop of Abbey Road (as the Beatles would/will be in about 6 years time), but also the doctor looking wistfully over to Shoreditch (and Totter’s lane). Is his old/younger self there yet? Susan was at school there for a while so maybe they are. (Haha – the Doctor’s been on 1963 a few times – the timelines must be pretty wibbly wobbly by now). The crossing as piano keys (thanks @mudlark).

And who is Henry? Surname Arbinger (or Harbinger…?!) – the kid at the beginning who reappears at the end? Not to mention Susan Twist  (my brain ties itself in knots about her as it’s the actor’s name, not the character! Yet there’s always a twist, haha!! Maybe diageticness(?) is a key to this season ie it’s all just a big ball of meta!

Picking up on a post earlier by @ps1l0v3y0u – 1963 was BLOODY FREEZING!! (I was very small but I remember it being snowy (really deep) for months!). But we were in Scotland – was it as snowy as that in London? (Even in 2010 London seemed to escape most of the worst of the snow after the first chunk of it landed in early winter).

[WhoHar @whohar]

@juniperfish <waves back>

Thanks for the in-depth response. Very interesting and good points raised.

I do tend to agree that t’internet “borks” (i am stealing that btw) views and reviews for just the reasons you say. It’s a broader problem in most media online these days – sadly we are losing the ability to apply any sort of nuance. Another illustration of technology changing social behaviour. Performative anger is rarely helpful and often leads to non-performative anger IRL.

I think there was a groundswell of legacy fans that were expecting an immediate uptick in quality after Chibnall and a return to more RTD-type stories. Neither of which has happened, and hence **Backlash**

I’d imagine there are a lot of compromises being made and a lot of what RTD would like to do he may not be able to do, given the multitude of opinions he’ll have to deal with. I also imagine there is a lot more juggling to do than when he first rebooted with the BBC.  Even then, there was a lot of “the show’s ruined”, “It’s not DW” etc. The more things change eh?

But, people have a right to express an opinion and that should be valued, even if you or I don’t agree with it. After all people generally don’t complain about things they don’t care about. That said, it would be good if the complaints were considered before posting (ha!), and addressed the show itself, rather than just complaining about DEI. This is another complicated topic for another time (Pleasssseeee no WhoHar, I hear you all cry), but I think if things are viewed only through that lens, then it leads to certain outcomes and behaviours which are themselves problematic. If you think you’re a hammer, all you will see are nails…

Anyhoo, I’ve rambled on for far too long there.

This was nice from the interview (Ncuti on Doctor Who):

Doctor Who…is a special show that lives in people’s hearts. People have had it passed down to them. They watch it with their grandparents. It is a thing you have to care for

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@scaryb

All I said was there was a brief thaw in late Jan. Yes, Jan was apparently record-breakingly cold. Then the snow returned with high winds and blizzards in Feb.

I have been told (many times – I don’t remember) there was lying snow in the south east until march. London does have its own microclimate: lots of chimneys and in 63 very insulation, but then not much central heating either.

It ain’t a big deal. Like the fashion thing… who’s to say Ruby and Doc didn’t set the fashion? They don’t know: a pair of cultural tourists… worth a joke really, Russ.

I think if there’s a problem it’s here. Interesting, really fascinating, ideas, even in Space Babies, not really explored. Maybe Disney era Who will ‘have’ to be like that. Which is obviously not a good thing.

And this is nothing to do with ‘woke’ being shouted at everything. Maybe the same Pictish bard who taught the crows to say ‘caw’ got fools to shout ‘woke!’

[Miapatrick @miapatrick]

@whohar I noticed in the babies episode as well wen he runs from the snot monster he says, he never runs – wasn’t ‘run’ the first rebooted doctor line? It seemed to be that he was saying he runs towards things not away but that’s… canonically untrue. Inconsistency? Or something about this character, he doesn’t get scared, he doesn’t run away, he doesn’t hide, only now he is and does. Of course, maybe scary things are more scary when you’re with someone you care about.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@miapatrick I thought he said “run” but then also went to hide – which is what Ruby commented on. “Run” is definitely the Dr’s thing, as you said. Need to watch again, as I may (very well) be wrong..

@ps1l0v3y0u I wasn’t having a go at you, your comment just brought back vivid memories of how snowy that year was. (Maybe it’s the alternate timeline thing again. Or maybe removing the music also affected the climate, LOL).

@whohar BTL at the Graun is as bad as Tripadvisor! Unlike here where we can disagree, criticise episodes without resorting to cliches like RTD’s destroyed my childhood and complaining about vile woke rubbish being shoehorned in. (Or the passive/aggressive ones who say they have no problem with the Doctor being female/black/gay/alien but have a go at the “lazy, sloppy writing” instead. When you know they actually have a problem with the actor).

On the subject of the online trolls and keyboard warriors I have been ROFLing at the current comments (mainly on twitter/X) with people salivating at the return of the Moff tonight. Very probably a lot of the same ones who were moaning about his too convoluted plots/ruining their DW  a decade ago.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@miapatrick @scaryb

I do wonder if all these little apparent errors and anachronisms are deliberate. Maybe the world we are watching is not our world but another. And not in an alternative universe type way. I am thinking back to what @janetteb said on one of the other forums in a discussion about the 2nd Doc ep The Mind Robber.

In that ep the Tardis lands in the Land of Fiction, which is inhabited by a character called The Master (not that one, another non TL guy, actually human IIRC), and a whole bunch of characters from fiction.

Is it possible that RTD has planned a similar thing here? We are looking at a fictional TV show set in a fictional world. And maybe even the Doc himself is a fictional character. Very meta and it would be controversial.

Or, Occams Razor and all that, its just probably mistakes….

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@whohar

Occam, almost certainly.  Take the weather conditions, for example; nobody under the age of sixty will have any direct recollection of them*, and even if it occurred to the production team, the problems of recreating conditions in London at that time would almost certainly have posed too many problems. The snow in the Tardis might, at a stretch, be seen as a nod in that direction, but in reality the latter is clearly going to be a significant recurring theme.

As for the costume anachronisms, that is pretty much par for the course with TV wardrobe departments when it comes to historical drama. The attitude seems to be that so long as it is in the general style of dress which people associate with the decade in question, that is enough. Hairstyles, for that matter, are almost always wrong.

When I nit-pick about such matters, as I tend to do here, it is usually in a spirit of mischief.

*I’m old enough to remember the winter of 1946/47, which was probably not quite as bitterly cold, but equally prolonged and with even more snow which accumulated and lay for months.

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@whohar  @scaryb

P.S.  As regards the perennial moaners, and the ARSE brigade, I sometimes get the impression that they have this Platonic ideal of Doctor Who in their minds which no episode can ever live up to.

[Mudlark @mudlark]

the problems of recreating conditions in London at that time would almost certainly have posed too many problems.

oops!  Note to self, proof read before submitting 🙄

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

I went back for a rewatch and am thinking about the “hidden song deep inside her soul” that Maestro discovers with some shock that Ruby has inside her, Carol of the Bells, the song that was playing the night she was born.

“How can a song have so much power, and power like him… the oldest one… he can’t have been there… the night of her birth…what for, what for, what for?” Maestro says.

Snow starts falling in the room as the song erupts from inside Ruby.

So the Oldest One, is that the oldest of the Toymaker’s legions? Perhaps that is also Beep the Meep’s boss?

Carol of the Bells was originally a Ukrainian song with different lyrics which are:

“Bountiful evening, bountiful evening, a New Year’s carol;
A little swallow flew into the household
and started to twitter,
to summon the master:
“Come out, come out, O master,
look at the sheep pen,
there the ewes have given birth
and the lambkins have been born
Your goods [livestock] are great,
you will have quite a sum of money (by selling them)
If not money, it is worth nothing (literal translation “money is chaff from all the grain”)
You have a dark-eyebrowed beautiful wife
If not money, it is worth nothing
you have a dark-eyebrowed beautiful wife.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shchedryk_(song)

Let’s just notice that “The Master” is summoned in these lyrics… hmmmmm….

I’m warming up to my theory that the Doctor and the Master once had children together.

[WhoHar @whohar]

@mudlark

When I nit-pick about such matters, as I tend to do here, it is usually in a spirit of mischief

As it should be @mudlark, as it should be.

I’m old enough to remember the winter of 1946/47

Blimey!

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@juniperfish. I think there was a hint during the Capdoc era that the master had once had a child, and it seemed then to imply that might have also been the Doctor’s so you might be “one the money” with that theory.

@mudlark. Weather conditions are one of the hardest things I find to research though old papers are full of references to the weather. As soon as I need to know if a particular summer was especially hot and dry or when the rains started in a particular year it gets tricky, not helped by the human propensity to always grumble about the weather, so i give the writers some lee way on this.

Cheers

Janette

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@juniperfish

The child of The Loon? ‘I knew him (the Doctor) when he was a little girl…’

Or grandchild. I have wondered if that was Bill Potts… at some point. The pictures on Capdoc’s desk. Bill’s mum previously appeared (briefly) as a Timelady.

And why plant the Missy’s vault in the basement of THAT university?

But Lucy was clearly unhappy about some of Saxon’s shenanigans on Cloudbase.

Is Ruby human or Timelord? River only became a Timelady because she was exposed in vivo to The Vortex.

Well Rory believed/chose to accept that.

So Ruby might manifest as human but…

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

 

@ps1l0v3y0u

Is Ruby human or Timelord? River only became a Timelady because she was exposed in vivo to The Vortex.

Well Rory believed/chose to accept that.

 

Well I snorted at that – poor faithful old Rory – but of course if what you imply were the alternative, the Doctor would, in marrying River, have actually married his own daughter so… yikes…

So Ruby may manifest as human but….

Yes, quite – and of course now I think about it, the Doctor, as The Timeless Child, is in some sense the “parent” of all the Time Lords because Tecteun gene-spliced the child-Doctor’s (alien) regenerative powers into the DNA of Gallifrey’s native Shobogans to create the new “race” of Time Lords.

A more directly biological descendant of the Doctor’s (daughter, granddaughter etc.) would have more of the Doctor’s unknown origin-species DNA, than most Time Lords, and perhaps, like the Doctor, unlimited-to-twelve regenerative powers. Which might mean Ruby, if she is a direct descendant, is a lot older than she looks!

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@juniperfish

I’m sure timelord dna is practically perfect in every way; consanguinity being the main issue for us apes.
But of course ‘it’s a kids show!’

Anyway, they were woven on a loom according to 10.

[VickyMallard @vickymallard]

Finally managed to continue with this series. Not entirely sure what to make of this episode – I loved a lot of it, especially MAestro and the general concept of what would happen to the world without music. And the idea (and meansto use that as a weapon! I had also been looking forward to some Beatles music, but the end felt more like High School Musical.
I loved the beginning with the piano teacher (who probably was historic figure I should actually have recognised?) and “the chord banned by the Church”, and Maestro suddenly appearing out of the piano. And the kid being his, sorry their harbinger. And the kid appeared again at the end, does that mean we will see Maestro again? I very much hope so.
What I also loved was the Doctor*s vulnerability. I don*t think I have ever seen him run away from something like that – except for the Bogeyman of course, but that was different. This was real, true panic in the face of an opponent he feels he cannot face. Okay, I haven’t seen that many episodes yet, but it struck me as very un-doctorlike. Which is kind of interesting. I loved the bit about the Giggle and the Toymaker, all that “he ripped my soul and I will not survive going through that again”. It made me wonder whether he was referring literally to the bigeneration, or whether he means all the devastation caused by the Toymaker? Or maybe both?
(If he did mean the bigeneration, and if according to RTD all previous regenerations also suddenly became bigerations, then the Doctor’s soul must have been ripped in half quite a number of times…. which quickly brings me into Harry Potter Horcrux territory. So I better not go there unless I know a lot more).
I also liked the reference to – apparently – an earlier incarnation of the Doctor which existed at the same time, I presume the first Doctor? And he has a granddaughter who may or may not have been killed in the time war, did I understand that correctly? Anyway, I love a bit of emotional angst and drama, so right up my street.

So that was all great. However I still felt I wasn’t really the target audience for this, and with all the music and singing in between I felt like the story could have been told equally well in about half the time. People suddemly bursting into song is not my cup of tea, although it did suit Ncuti and Millie very very well. And the bit with Ruby on the roof playing that song she wrote for a friend was just wonderful and really touching.
The other thing I really still struggle with is the new Tardis interior. I know it’s all fancy and modern, but to mee it is just way too sterile and lacking any kind of personal touch (except the jukebox). I mean… it’s the Doctor’s home, isn’t it? It looks like he’s living in a lab! Or maybe I’m just old and need to be more open to modern desings.

Anyway, from the previews I’ve seen the next episode will be right up my street, so I’m looking forward to it!

[janetteB @janetteb]

@vickymallard. The new Tardis interior is very white and clean but it does at least look like a spaceship. After the last Tardis interior which was just ugly and weird I don’t mind it.

I think you will enjoy the next few episodes.

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Now this is definitely looking like an improvement. The Beatles impersonators are – good enough, I thought. They look and sound near enough to the originals that I could accept the illusion.

Well that was a better episode. Certainly – different. I thought the villain was a little bit naff, actually, but I’m being picky here – certainly a better villain than most of Chibs’. And the battle of music was original. I’m sure the episode was crammed with musical references that went right over my head.

The music itself, I didn’t find particularly good. I guess it was – adequate enough to carry the storyline. And the storyline was quite straightforward, just a series of skirmishes between the Doctor (and Ruby) and the Maestro. But I kept wishing for some really good music to appear (of course, ‘really good’ is so absolutely subjective even stating my opinion of that might start a minor war. Still, I think I’m going to listen to Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane/A Day in the Life after I’ve posted this. Yes I know it’s anachronistic by a couple of years, I don’t care).

Reading the various comments – I was surprised that somebody even bothered to object to the Maestro’s gender (non-gender?) status. The character was obviously as camp as a row of frilly pink tents – but that’s hardly new in the music scene. Besides which, as a non-human non-terrestrial (?) identity, why would it have a gender? The status of the actor is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Come to that, I have only – just this minute – realised that Ncuti Gatwa is gay (cf his interview in ‘Attitude’ referenced by Juniperfish). I must be slow on the uptake, but so far as I can tell it doesn’t show in his portrayal of the Doctor, therefore it doesn’t matter to me. (I accept that it may matter very much to him).
Tbh I thought RTD’s thinly-veiled comments on refugees and abortion in Space Babies were far more likely to cause eruptions in some circles, than a bit of ambiguous trans-gendering. Shows how much I know.

Anyway, definitely better than Space Babies. And the next ep is by the Moff. I hope it lives up to the anticipation.

[Author]

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