Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor |OT| Ncuti Stars (Season 1 debuts on May 10th/11th)

simulationswarm · May 15, 2024

I've watched the show for years, and Space Babies has got to be up there with the worst I've seen. I remember watching Fear Her with a load of friends who weren't really Who and it turned most of them off watching ever again. I don't think they'd have made it through this episode, or even past the first 15 minutes. I realise it had a darker undertone going on but it was largely completely ridiculous to watch, even by the more out-there Who standards.

Episode two was much better, the pretty shonky Beatles aside. Maestro was well played, it looked great, and Gatwa was really good.

Memento Mori · May 15, 2024

I thought Space Babies was okay but it's not something I'm going to rewatch any time soon.

Cinnamon · May 15, 2024

Bleeding Cool gave Moffat's "Boom" a 10 out of 10.

Link

Russell T. Davies, Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson have all talked up "BOOM" as an instant classic that will be talked about for years to come. Your back might be up in defiance here. But guess what? They were right. The hype is real.

For everyone who was afraid that the show being on Disney+ would become lighter and soft, you're not going to get an angrier and more political show on television right now. This might be one of the angriest episodes of the new series and one of Steven Moffat's angriest scripts. There are horrific consequences to what happens in "BOOM." If you think the series was going to be less political on Disney+ or because it's an episode not written by Davies, think again.

You can feel the teeth in Moffat's writing here, and clearly encouraged by Davies.

For any fans of the harder edged version of Doctor Who, "BOOM" is a declaration that it's not gone. It's here to stay, and its teeth are sharper than ever.

Serebii · May 15, 2024

Cinnamon said:
Bleeding Cool gave Moffat's "Boom" a 10 out of 10.

Link

Angrier and political may be why my feed is getting some "It's a dud" review articles in it haha

APZonerunner · May 15, 2024

I've been rewatching from 2005 in the run up to the new run, and reached the end of RTD's original run right after watching these two episodes. What's interesting so far is in Space Babies and Devil's Chord, the one thing they have is a lot more money... but they accomplish less, in a way? Like a lot of the Series 4 and Specials episodes from the end of Tennant/RTD's run have a lot of really high action that is done extremely cheaply (stuff like the final sequences of The Waters of Mars or their big New Hope style space lasers sequence in End of Time), and nothing has really matched that so far in the Ncuti episodes. In fact everything since RTD has taken back over really... there's a little bit of it towards the end of The Star Beast, but that's sort of it. I hope we get a bit more of that towards the end.

A lot of the time it's just cameras shaking and wind machines running and music blasting with a few key lines of dialogue, but that was the one of a few things I think the RTD era did better even than the Moffat era (the other being the grounded earth & family bits), so hopefully they've still got it. Like, it's cheap as anything but that sequence where it seems like they're going to smash that little spaceship into the mansion in The End of Time is just great, tension and excitement-wise.

The thing that comes to mind is that at that time, the show was always operating at like 150% of its actual budget, in a sense, but it was willing to have ideas significantly bigger than what it can afford and was willing to sort of roll with it and feel a bit cheap in places in order to satisfy those ideas. And the worry is that in a new, American-thinking era, RTD etc show more restraint in order to not look cheap. But, no. Just go nuts, I think. I hope!

Cinnamon · May 15, 2024

Serebii said:
Angrier and political may be why my feed is getting some "It's a dud" review articles in it haha

Yeah, that "It's a dud" review is coming from The Telegraph.

The Telegraph review tries to raise this silly point of, "Children watch Doctor Who. Is an episode about war really appropriate?"

Tony72495 · May 15, 2024

Cinnamon said:
Yeah, that "It's a dud" review is coming from The Telegraph.

The Telegraph review tries to raise this silly point of, "Children watch Doctor Who. Is an episode about war really appropriate?"

Is an episode about WAR appropriate for Doctor Who?

Hmm....I'm not sure, let's ask the people who made the Doctor Who TV movie featuring war, the War Doctor, the multiple episodes where they peered back into The Time War, the episode with The Doctor's Daughter where they stop a war there, the 50 billion episodes where the Daleks try to take over a planet or kill people or both.

Or the episode called World War Three, or the episode where the Daleks and Cybermen battle it out in London, or the episode where the Sontarans invade Earth and try to choke the planet to death, or the existence of UNIT and Torchwood which are explicitly defensive in the case of battle or incursion, or the episode where the Twelfth Doctor goes back and unintentionally rescues Davros from a war, or the episode called A Good Man Goes to War, or the episodes where Martha Jones and the rest of UNIT plans to potentially blow up the entire Earth with strategically placed nuclear weapons to save humanity from a fate worse than death, or the episode where....

Okay I think I made my point.

Alcoremortis · May 15, 2024

I honestly didn't really mind Space Babies. It was on the dumber shlockier side of things, but the underlying message of "the babies had to be born and then nobody will do shit after" was a pretty good core, I feel. However, there is the fact that while the babies were saved, the greater structure that put them in danger in the first place is still going. I kinda wonder if that will play a part later on in the show, since it's not super like the Doctor to leave something like that hanging without even phoning up the people responsible to yell at them/threaten them.

The Devil's Chord was fun, though I do think it's a little bit of a miss to not have a single Beatles song in the Beatles episode. I guess maybe they couldn't get the rights? But I was kinda hoping that at the end they'd have like a short clip of like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or something just to confirm that music is back to normal now (or make it a weird version to say "ooh something is still messed up").

Tony72495 · May 15, 2024

Alcoremortis said:
I honestly didn't really mind Space Babies. It was on the dumber shlockier side of things, but the underlying message of "the babies had to be born and then nobody will do shit after" was a pretty good core, I feel. However, there is the fact that while the babies were saved, the greater structure that put them in danger in the first place is still going. I kinda wonder if that will play a part later on in the show, since it's not super like the Doctor to leave something like that hanging without even phoning up the people responsible to yell at them/threaten them.

The Devil's Chord was fun, though I do think it's a little bit of a miss to not have a single Beatles song in the Beatles episode. I guess maybe they couldn't get the rights? But I was kinda hoping that at the end they'd have like a short clip of like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or something just to confirm that music is back to normal now (or make it a weird version to say "ooh something is still messed up").

Or maybe it would have just been ungodly expensive, that even Disney doesn't want to foot that bill.

Tony72495 · May 15, 2024

Alcoremortis or it's possible they didn't want to deal with all the renewal costs to keep the episode streaming. There are a few licensed songs in Doctor Who, like Toxic, but they're normally few and far between.

Alcoremortis · May 15, 2024

Tony72495 said:
Or maybe it would have just been ungodly expensive, that even Disney doesn't want to foot that bill.

Yeah probably. I appreciate there's real issues that would prevent this, just from a storytelling perspective it felt kinda odd.

Dwebble · May 15, 2024

It costs literally millions to license Beatles songs out for broadcast and streaming - it would have been an outrageous waste of money to do so.

PlanetSmasher · May 15, 2024

Dwebble said:
It costs literally millions to license Beatles songs out for broadcast and streaming - it would have been an outrageous waste of money to do so.

I remember seeing one of the licensing fees for a Beatles song a while back and it seemed unfathomably high. But it also explains why nobody bothers anymore.

Cinnamon · May 15, 2024

If episodes 3 and 4 are really good, then this new series has a real opportunity to become something special.

Episodes 3 and 4 might be the 1-2 punch that this series desperately needs. You can tell that RTD is very happy with how those two episodes turned out.

Look, this series didn't start off great. In fact, I wasn't all that impressed by "The Church on Ruby Road" either. I didn't think it was a great introduction to Gatwa's doctor and his companion. And I didn't think it worked as a great Christmas episode either.

"Indulgent" is the perfect word to describe many of RTD's recent episodes.

Over-the-top villains that are dialed up to 11. (The Toymaker, Jinkx Moonsoon, "The Meep")
Over-the-top musical dance numbers. ("Spice Up Your Life", "Goblin King", "There's Always A Twist")
Lots of juvenile humor, fart jokes
High-energy, fast-paced episodes with incoherent, messy plots.
Controversial decisions: Using "Bi-generation" because RTD is unable to kick his addiction to David Tennant. Changing the Sonic Screwdriver's design to look like a TV remote.

It doesn't feel like a sci-fi show anymore. In fact, it's starting to feel more like "Gotham" where all of the villains are really theatrical and campy and cartoonish.

However, I do think this series has potential to get much better. As I said before, Davies has a history of writing GREAT series finales, so I'm willing to keep an open mind about this series. I'm a big Doctor Who fan, and I'm rooting for Russel T. Davies. I want him to succeed.

Tony72495 · May 15, 2024

Cinnamon said:
If episodes 3 and 4 are really good, then think this new series has a real opportunity to become something special.

Episodes 3 and 4 might be the 1-2 punch that this series desperately needs. You can tell that RTD is very happy with how those two episodes turned out.

Look, this series didn't start off great. In fact, I wasn't all that impressed by "The Church on Ruby Road" either. I didn't think it was a great introduction to Gatwa's doctor and his companion. And I didn't think it worked as a great Christmas episode either.

"Indulgent" is the perfect word to describe many of RTD's recent episodes.

Over-the-top villains that are dialed up to 11. (The Toymaker, Jinkx Moonsoon, "The Meep")

Over-the-top musical dance numbers. ("Spice Up Your Life", "Goblin King", "There's Always A Twist"

Lots of juvenile humor, fart jokes

High-energy, fast-paced episodes with incoherent, messy plots.

Controversial decisions: Using "Bi-generation" because RTD is unable to kick his addiction to David Tennant. Changing the Sonic Screwdriver's design to look like a TV remote.

It doesn't feel like a sci-fi show anymore. In fact, it's starting to feel more like "Gotham" where all of the villains are really theatrical and campy and cartoonish.

However, I do think this series has potential to get much better. As I said before, Davies has a history of writing GREAT series finales, so I'm willing to keep an open mind about this series. I'm a big Doctor Who fan, and I'm rooting for Russel T. Davies. I want him to succeed.

I want more horror Doctor Who, the No Things were great, that whole episode felt like I was right back in 2006/2007.

plagiarize · May 15, 2024

PlanetSmasher said:
Watching Council of Geeks' Devil's Chord review, and I guess I can see Vera's point that Maestro EXCLUSIVELY existing at an 11-on-a-scale-of-5 intensity level for the entire episode and never really taking any moments to let the energy cool down so it can flare back up again is kind of exhausting.

I still personally like the performance and think it's fun, but I can totally understand the opinion if it's a bit too much, too consistently, with no real time spent to let the intensity sink in. Maestro's only levels are "camp 11" and "evil 11", which is a lot.

It's a very fair criticism, and I know Vera mentioned that she's sure that Jinkx is giving what she was asked to give, but I just wanted to confirm that.

I saw Jinkx as Audrey in Little Shop and she absolutely played that with varying appropriate degrees of presence depending on the scene. I'm sure the director (and RTD) wanted Maestro to be at 11 the whole time, and they absolutely are. Me? I liked it. I found it both scary and funny and loved how it turned on a dime from full on camp to full on anger and menace.

Jinkx's ability to play a well rounded character though? I can 100% confirm that she can do that when called on to.

PlanetSmasher · May 15, 2024

plagiarize said:
It's a very fair criticism, and I know Vera mentioned that she's sure that Jinkx is giving what she was asked to give, but I just wanted to confirm that.

I saw Jinkx as Audrey in Little Shop and she absolutely played that with varying appropriate degrees of presence depending on the scene. I'm sure the director (and RTD) wanted Maestro to be at 11 the whole time, and they absolutely are. Me? I liked it. I found it both scary and funny and loved how it turned on a dime from full on camp to full on anger and menace.

Jinkx's ability to play a well rounded character though? I can 100% confirm that she can do that when called on to.

Yep. I think it was absolutely a director/production choice and not a lack of talent on Jinkx's part.

plagiarize · May 15, 2024

Tony72495 said:
Is an episode about WAR appropriate for Doctor Who?

Hmm....I'm not sure, let's ask the people who made the Doctor Who TV movie featuring war, the War Doctor, the multiple episodes where they peered back into The Time War, the episode with The Doctor's Daughter where they stop a war there, the 50 billion episodes where the Daleks try to take over a planet or kill people or both.

Or the episode called World War Three, or the episode where the Daleks and Cybermen battle it out in London, or the episode where the Sontarans invade Earth and try to choke the planet to death, or the existence of UNIT and Torchwood which are explicitly defensive in the case of battle or incursion, or the episode where the Twelfth Doctor goes back and unintentionally rescues Davros from a war, or the episode called A Good Man Goes to War, or the episodes where Martha Jones and the rest of UNIT plans to potentially blow up the entire Earth with strategically placed nuclear weapons to save humanity from a fate worse than death, or the episode where....

Okay I think I made my point.

Do the classic run next!

Slowdive · May 15, 2024

View: https://x.com/skywhoprod2/status/1790826594803544314?s=46&t=dI5EuvtR7VBxOlLywUThiA

PlanetSmasher · May 15, 2024

Slowdive said:
View: https://x.com/skywhoprod2/status/1790826594803544314?s=46&t=dI5EuvtR7VBxOlLywUThiA

That is definitely too on the nose to not be deliberate.

Magister Xehanort · May 16, 2024

How Ncuti Gatwa Is Bringing ‘Doctor Who’ Into a New Era

The actor on learning to embrace his flaws and strengths, and what it means to star in Britain’s beloved sci-fi series

time.com

KingWillance · May 16, 2024

I have been ignoring some of the reactions because warts and all I enjoyed both episodes and for the first time I have been able to get my wife to watch along. I know it's not all bad faith and that there are legitimate reasons to be turned off by stuff but a lot of the negatives feel like they are missing out on stuff that feels very present to me, such as how much Fifteen's performance matches up with political power of queer/black joy. Or, as plagiarize mentioned, if you look past the Bogeyman you have a really dark story about the indifference to life after birth. Very much looking forward to see what the rest of the season looks like and will probably continue to try and limit my conversations to people I know well, which is a bit sad but also that's modern internet, I guess

Ronnie Poncho · May 16, 2024

Cinnamon said:
"Indulgent" is the perfect word to describe many of RTD's recent episodes.

Lots of fourth wall breaks too, which I don't think has ever happened before. Maestro did it a few times, I seem to recall the Toymaker doing it, and the Doctor did it in episode 2.

StrontiumPawg · May 16, 2024

I didn't like the execution of Devil's Chord as much as I appreciated the idea, but I did enjoy Space Babies even if I understand why others didn't.

I'm not coming into the season as hot as I'd have hoped based off these first two episodes but I'm willing to give it more time. I love Ncuti already and want him to have a run that we don't have to say "he was good, but..." like I kinda mostly do with Jodie.

ArchedThunder · May 16, 2024

Ronnie Poncho said:
Lots of fourth wall breaks too, which I don't think has ever happened before. Maestro did it a few times, I seem to recall the Toymaker doing it, and the Doctor did it in episode 2.

I think those are for a reason.

mclem · May 16, 2024

Ronnie Poncho said:
Lots of fourth wall breaks too, which I don't think has ever happened before. Maestro did it a few times, I seem to recall the Toymaker doing it, and the Doctor did it in episode 2.

I wouldn't say never. Other than the weird Feast of Steven "And a merry christmas to all of you at home" - which is probably easily explained away as less 'plot' and more "Let's do something nice, it's Christmas", there's this lovely aside in Heaven Sent:

(While saying "I'm nothing without an audience" for good measure)

Eintopf · May 16, 2024

There's also a pre-opening credits scene in series 9's "Before the Flood" where the Doctor explains the bootstrap paradox to the audience

Guppeth · May 16, 2024

Ronnie Poncho said:
Lots of fourth wall breaks too, which I don't think has ever happened before. Maestro did it a few times, I seem to recall the Toymaker doing it, and the Doctor did it in episode 2.

Tom Baker broke the fourth wall many times. And one of my favourites is Sylvester McCoy's "I think I might have miscalculated" cliffhanger in Resurrection of the Daleks.

ArchedThunder said:
I think those are for a reason.

But I agree with this. Something is going on.

PaulloDEC · May 16, 2024

Slowdive said:
View: https://x.com/skywhoprod2/status/1790826594803544314?s=46&t=dI5EuvtR7VBxOlLywUThiA

Seems pretty unambiguous, and absolutely the sort of thing Davies would call back to.

LawfulEnder · May 16, 2024

Finally finished both new episodes.

I feel like they're both okay but neither is great. The pacing feels very strange to me so far. Much of "Space Babies" takes place immediately after leaving Ruby's place on Christmas and then in "The Devil's Chord" we're suddenly in June/July of 2024, but that gap felt like it came out of nowhere. Ruby and The Doctor don't seem that much closer, and neither episode really ever slows down to let us spend some time with them, so having a bunch of time pass off screen feels doubly weird, to me. I feel like in general we're moving far too quickly between wacky sequences and not taking enough time to breathe.

Ncuti is amazing though, and neither episode was bad imo, they just didn't feel like they really hit their potential. "The Devil's Chord" really feels like it would've benefitted from being a two-parter, but that's tough to do in an eight episode season.

Maximo · May 16, 2024

Really like Ncuti, but still feel I still don't have a good idea of what kind of Doctor Who he is, every previous incarnations you got a damn good idea in the first 2 episodes.
Main noted traits is he runs and is...scared? His actual performance and energy is charismatic as hell, but the story/script is lacking.

ArchedThunder · May 16, 2024

Maximo said:
Really like Ncuti, but still feel I still don't have a good idea of what kind of Doctor Who he is, every previous incarnations you got a damn good idea in the first 2 episodes.
Main noted traits is he runs and is...scared? His actual performance and energy is charismatic as hell, but the story/script is lacking.

That's just an unintentional effect of these two episodes being back to back. Nothing like that happened in The Church on Ruby Road. In Space Babies he was confused as to why he was scared, and then it was revealed to be because the Bogeyman was literally created to be scary and part of that was that the frequency of its roar induced fear. For The Devil's Chord I feel like they gave a good enough reason for his fear. I feel the speculation that The Devil's Chord was supposed to air later but the episode order was changed certainly makes a lot of sense.

I think some of his main traits so far is how open he is, how in-tune he is with his emotions, how caring he is, and how joyful and free he is.

Ashes of Dreams · May 16, 2024

I think both the acting and writing will find Gatwa's tone as the season goes on.
I say this because didn't they add that one scene with that cop in Church after the fact, like I remember it being said that was written and filmed post-S1 and added in there to give him more of a Doctor-ish introduction. I think we can use that scene as a good foundation of where we're probably going to end up.

Ronnie Poncho · May 17, 2024

ArchedThunder said:
I feel the speculation that The Devil's Chord was supposed to air later but the episode order was changed certainly makes a lot of sense.

I felt that too - Space Babies is set on Christmas Eve 2023, while in The Devil's Chord Ruby says that she came from June/July 2024, and there didn't seem to be a gap between the two for Ruby. So it was probably supposed to air next month.

Qasiel · May 17, 2024

Finished both episodes the other night and although I'm finding the pacing and certain choices a bit off, I'm enjoying it so far.

I really liked Maestro as a villain. There were parts where they seemed truly terrifying and how the Doctor reacted to them (after tangling with the Toymaker) was really good.

Wasn't a fan of the whimsical dance number at the end of The Devil's Chord, though. It's like 40 years of music being obliterated and suddenly it becomes a musical that, frankly, went on a bit too long?

Also, the Doctor said in the canteen that history has changed because of it, leading to the nuclear war in the present day, but didn't go back to stop Maestro when they emerged in the 20s (with Maestro even mentioning that fact to the Doctor).
I know Doctor Who has never been "hard sci-fi" but I feel that there's a lot of inconsistency being thrown around. In Space Babies, we had that fun butterfly effect moment when Ruby was briefly Silurian, but then timey-wimey stuff like her still being around after the nuclear war was explained away by the Doctor as "that's because you're with me".

Nitpicks aside, I'm still enjoying seeing Ncuti in the role. There's a lot of fun to be had, the mystery behind Ruby is intriguing and I'm excited to see what's coming up.

Cyprinodon Martius · May 17, 2024

Slowdive said:
View: https://x.com/skywhoprod2/status/1790826594803544314?s=46&t=dI5EuvtR7VBxOlLywUThiA

For a somewhat lapsed Doctor Who fan like me, who is The Trickster?

Guppeth · May 17, 2024

Cyprinodon Martius said:
For a somewhat lapsed Doctor Who fan like me, who is The Trickster?

Even unlapsed fans like me don't know. I had to look it up!

It's a villain from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

ImaPlayThis · May 17, 2024

Cyprinodon Martius said:
For a somewhat lapsed Doctor Who fan like me, who is The Trickster?

The Trickster was a really cool villain from the Sarah Jane Adventures with an iconic look

The trickster was briefly mentioned in Doctor Who, the Beetle from Turn Left that manipulated Donna's timeline was one of the Tricksters brigade

Cyprinodon Martius · May 17, 2024

Guppeth said:
Even unlapsed fans like me don't know. I had to look it up!

It's a villain from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

ImaPlayThis said:
The Trickster was a really cool villain from the Sarah Jane Adventures with an iconic look

The trickster was briefly mentioned in Doctor Who, the Beetle from Turn Left that manipulated Donna's timeline was one of the Tricksters brigade

Thank you both! I don't think I ever caught any of the Sarah Jane Adventures, but it would certainly be interesting if RTD brings in something from a neighbouring show to be a big-bad.

Serebii · May 17, 2024

And an increasingly noteworthy bit is The Trickster was an alien from outside the universe that was part of the Pantheon of Discord

Sound familiar?

ImaPlayThis · May 17, 2024

Cyprinodon Martius said:
Thank you both! I don't think I ever caught any of the Sarah Jane Adventures, but it would certainly be interesting if RTD brings in something from a neighbouring show to be a big-bad.

I watched the Sarah Jane Adventures for the first time when they were recently added to BBCiplayer, it was a lot better than I thought it'd be, so perhaps check it out sometime

mclem · May 17, 2024

Qasiel said:
Wasn't a fan of the whimsical dance number at the end of The Devil's Chord, though. It's like 40 years of music being obliterated and suddenly it becomes a musical that, frankly, went on a bit too long?

My fanwank theory is that it's the same principle as 'Some of the Toymaker's magic was left behind' that led to the two TARDISes at the end of The Giggle; this is The Doctor and Ruby having a bit of fun with what's left of the Maestro's music magic.

ImaPlayThis said:
The trickster was briefly mentioned in Doctor Who, the Beetle from Turn Left that manipulated Donna's timeline was one of the Tricksters brigade

It's also had a throwaway mention in Torchwood.

Albeit in Miracle Day, so I'll understand if you've not seen it!

SPRidley · May 17, 2024

simulationswarm said:
I've watched the show for years, and Space Babies has got to be up there with the worst I've seen. I remember watching Fear Her with a load of friends who weren't really Who and it turned most of them off watching ever again. I don't think they'd have made it through this episode, or even past the first 15 minutes. I realise it had a darker undertone going on but it was largely completely ridiculous to watch, even by the more out-there Who standards.

Episode two was much better, the pretty shonky Beatles aside. Maestro was well played, it looked great, and Gatwa was really good.

Space Babies is better than Fear her becuase at least it was not boring. Fear Her is the worst type of what Doctor Who can be, which a lot of the Chibnall era actually feels.
Still a mediocre episode, with an actually good underlying message, and i would have NEVER put it as a season opener.

And the Maestro had such a good premise, but it fumbles oit all the way, that i dont know if i actually prefer space babies to it.

Still, one thing both episodes arent is boring.

munchie64 · May 17, 2024

Wow the weekend crept up on me. So excited for Boom!

Rassilon · May 17, 2024

the whole feeding off the potential unmade music of Earth reminded me of the Weeping Angels feeding off an un-lived timeline or whatever.

Looking forward to Boom!

Soap · May 17, 2024

I love Moffat episodes so I am down for this tonight… Hopefully this doesn't disappoint. I feel like Moffat and RTD working together balance out their writing styles and weaknesses.

apocat · May 17, 2024

I don't get the hate Space Babies gets. It's a bit silly, and it's not the best Who episode ever, but it's too fun for me to hate on it. The only real criticism that I think makes sense is that it's a bit weak as a season opener, but it's not even the first episode of the season in the playlist, so.

mclem said:
My fanwank theory is that it's the same principle as 'Some of the Toymaker's magic was left behind' that led to the two TARDISes at the end of The Giggle; this is The Doctor and Ruby having a bit of fun with what's left of the Maestro's music magic.

I wouldn't even call that fanwank. I assumed that this was the case. The effects of these entities lingers after they've been defeated.

madbuk · May 17, 2024

Slowdive said:
View: https://x.com/skywhoprod2/status/1790826594803544314?s=46&t=dI5EuvtR7VBxOlLywUThiA

I did wonder if we might be building up to a Trickster-style story. In Series 5 of SJA it was planned for Skye to be a child of the Trickster, placed where Sarah Jane would encounter her and take her in (like Luke) before pulling the rug out from under her.
The set-up here is a lot like that, and series 5 tragically ended before it could be completed, so maybe this is RTD wanting to re-explore that idea?

OneTrueJack · May 17, 2024

Maximo said:
Really like Ncuti, but still feel I still don't have a good idea of what kind of Doctor Who he is, every previous incarnations you got a damn good idea in the first 2 episodes.
Main noted traits is he runs and is...scared? His actual performance and energy is charismatic as hell, but the story/script is lacking.

Gatwa feels young in a way that the character had never felt before. The Doctor has been childish but never truly young.

He goes to clubs, he flirts, he dresses well, he's hot and he knows it.

A young, hot, queer, black man flirting his way across the galaxy and having a laugh with his gal pal Ruby.

PlanetSmasher · May 17, 2024

Guppeth said:
Even unlapsed fans like me don't know. I had to look it up!

It's a villain from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Trickster has also been referenced in DW proper a few times, though always on the fringes. The memory crab from Turn Left was sent by the Trickster, I believe.

Eintopf said:
There's also a pre-opening credits scene in series 9's "Before the Flood" where the Doctor explains the bootstrap paradox to the audience

Such a fun scene.

Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor |OT| Ncuti Stars (Season 1 debuts on May 10th/11th)

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