#Doctor Who Episode Reviews

[esonetwork]

Doctor Who: Space Babies & The Devil's Note Review

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Doctor Who: Space Babies & The Devil's Note Review

Embark on an epic journey through time and space with the Earth Station Who Podcast, as we delve into the exhilarating premiere of Season 14 of Doctor Who! Join us as we unravel the mysteries and marvels of the first two episodes, ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord.’ From thrilling encounters with Space Babies to meeting the Beatles and the heart-pounding musical horror of facing off against the Maestro, we explore every twist, turn, and timey-wimey surprise that awaits the Doctor and Ruby Sunday. Whether you’re a devoted Whovian or a curious newcomer, join Mike F, Michael G, and Mary, as well as their guests Elaine Sweatman, Matt Sweatman, and Dave Chapman, for our insightful analysis, engaging discussion, and insider insights that will transport you to the heart of the action. Tune in now and discover the excitement of the new series of Doctor Who, exclusively on the Earth Station Who Podcast, and remember there’s always a twist at the end!!!

We want to hear from you! Please write to us at feedback@earthstationwho.com. Also, please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are found. Feedback is always welcome and much appreciated.

Links Listen to older episodes of the Earth Station Who Podcast ESW on iTunes Earth Station Who on Spotify Earth Station Who on Instagram Earth Station Who on YouTube Make-A-Wish Foundation The ESO Network TeePublic Store The ESO Network Patreon The Rat Hole Creative Criticality Legend of the Traveling TARDIS Monkeeing Aroundee

Promotion Monster Attack

If you would like to leave feedback or comment feel free to email us at feedback@earthstationwho.com

[abossycontrolfreak]

This is Davies taking a massive pile of Disney money and screaming “trans rights” on BBC One so loudly that Saudi Arabia won’t be able to edit it out. There’s something to be said—quite a lot really—for making your point.

@elsandifer being super on point in her Star Beast review

[rapha-reads]

OOooooh my goodness, Doctor Who goes full mythology *full body shiver*

I'm aware it's not the first time, but from what I'm reading, Sutekh appears in only one TV serial before today, and all of his other appearances are in audio, comics and prose. And without doing too much research (edit: I ended up doing too much research), every episode that somewhat touched on the spiritual/mythological before never put the deity at the center of the story (except the pantheon of discord, but the Tardis Wiki article on it isn't very long and I already have done enough research for today). Like, "The Satan Pit", remember, who cares that Satan was chained on an asteroid somewhere in space, that wasn't the point. Interesting to note, "The Satan Pit" was not written by RTD, but did you notice how Carla Sunday was the first one to name Sutekh before anyone else, and call him "The Beast"? The Beast being one of the name of the Devil? And the Egyptian God Set, or Sutekh, having been conflated with the Devil when Egyptian religion met Christianity...? Clearly RTD and his writers have done their research. By the way, the Devil article on Tardis Wiki is fascinating. But unless I read too fast, none of the several Devils, Satans and Beasts the Doctor has encountered are part of the Pantheon of Discord, though Sutekh does use the name Beast too. Go figure.

Anyway... Not really a point to my ramblings. I don't want to do a full review of the episode just yet, I want to wait for the second part. But Set was my favourite Egyptian god as a kid, I've always thought that he's too easily cast as the evil god when polytheist pantheons usually do not have a single figure of evil, but gods representing concepts that can be used for evil (the way Loki in Norse mythology is a trickster god but his representations today turns him into a demon, demon here holding the monotheistic, abrahamic meaning of the word; note to self: check out the academic literature on comparisons and parallels between Loki and Set - how much syncretism at work here?).

Ahem. I don't know where I'm going with that. To revisit later, when I've had time to put my thoughts in order. Things to point out:

Carla calling the shade surrounding the Tardis "The Beast" before anyone else could start to guess anything - something fishy is going on with her.

Mrs Flood. Everything about her.. Is she a Sutekh cultist, like in the old episode "Pyramides of Mars"? Is she another Harbinger? Is she another, last surviving Time Lord?

Is the storm only coincidental, or is it going to be important in the next episode? By which I mean, is it a normal storm, or are we talking locusts and cricket plague storm? (Or sand-of-time-storm, ba dum tse)

Speaking of Harbinger, kinda sad Harriet isn't an actual character, she was cool.

So does this mean that this Susan was another Harbinger, or an avatar of Sutekh, who took on the name to mock the Doctor? EDIT: checked the Tardis wiki, she was an actual woman who was later possessed by Sutekh and turned into his puppet. Okay, one mystery solved.

The way Kate looked at the Doctor after the death of the security officer in the Time Window. Oof. That. That hurts.

The way Mel is not surprised at all by the Doctor's meltdown, and knows exactly how to stop him from spiralling down and getting back up. That's Companion Experience here.

Ruby and Rose immediately becoming the best of friends. Yes please!

Oh, music talk! Did y'all notice that the Saxon theme was played when Susan's prompter started going haywire? I recognised the melody but couldn't put my finger on it, just knew Murray Gold was playing us a throwback, until I read the Tardis Wiki page about the episode. Quite nice!

Okay, I already have 10 different Tardis Wiki tabs opened, I'm gonna calm down before I start writing an entire thesis about Doctor Who and Mythology. .. Do you think there's already thesis like that? I would love to read that.

Apart from all of that, it's kind of a weird episode, though, isn't it? The Doctor usually never seeks out trouble, and they hardly ever ask for help. Like, they don't just pop in for a visit, or to use UNIT's tech unless a crisis has already begun, or UNIT themselves called them in. At least in New Who, main TV episodes, I can't remember one instance of the Doctor appearing in UNIT's HQ or where their former companions are of their own volition (in Class, he appears in Coal Hills, because the Shadowkin are already here; in the Sarah Jane Adventures, I haven't watched it, but Tenth comes to help Sarah Jane because she's trapped in a Time Loop, and later Eleventh is a plot point himself; same in "Day of the Doctor", UNIT calls him in, crisis already ongoing). The Doctor appearing in UNIT HQ, saying "alright, here are two mysteries that I want solved today and y'all are going to help me", that's very new. And maybe very welcome...? If it makes the Doctor reconnect with former companions, and start popping in for tea and scones, that would be nice.

[genderqueerpond]

insane. no notes

[azazel-dreams]

Rogue (Doctor Who) by Kate Herron & Briony Redman

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[chaoticpallascat]

What if David Tennant (person) meets David Tennant (10th) and David Tennant (14th) and David Tennant (10.5)

[marvelmaniac715]

Allow me to recap the first ever Dalek story in Doctor Who for you. The Doctor and co (‘co’ being his roughly sixteen year old granddaughter and her two school teachers) land on a strange new planet and find a case of liquids, they leave them there, find a building and decide to split up to search it. Shenanigans ensue - the male companion Ian is paralysed by a Dalek, the female companion Barbara is handling things quite well all things considered, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan is terrified and the Doctor says “We need drugs” before becoming sick with radiation poisoning. Yes, in the 60s drugs were medicine but the amount of times that people say the word drugs in the story cannot be understated. The drugs will combat the radiation so the Daleks are like “We also need the drugs” and so the Doctor and co have a choice to make - who do they send into the scary forest to pick up the drugs? Will it be:

A. The unconscious old man

B. The paralysed man

C. A perfectly capable able-bodied woman

D. A literal child who is incredibly panicked

That’s right, teenage Susan is sent off on her own for a drug run! So Susan skips off into the uninviting looking woods doing an ungodly amount of screaming, finds the case of drugs, runs into a man who isn’t wearing many clothes, follows his instructions of smuggling back another tin of drugs (which is massive, by the way) somehow, and the Doctor who isn’t really doing much of anything (if I didn’t know that the First Doctor was Hartnell you could convince me that it’s Ian) finally wakes up. Barbra whips out Blue Peter style skills to make her own mud, they blind a Dalek, Ian climbs into the Dalek without an ounce of future trauma, the Daleks try to trick blonde people (like the guy Susan got the drugs from), a lot of blonde people die, the women don’t speak that much, the Doctor is a little bit useless until the end and Susan probably injured her vocal cords with all that shrieking (like seriously is she okay). I’ve probably missed some parts out, like Ian demonstrating an amazing ability to navigate caves or the ‘educational’ part of the episode being something to do with static electricity, but I have to say that if I hadn’t finished all of Doctor Who from 2005 onwards, this episode would not encourage me to continue 😭.

[box-dwelling]

As deeply normal as I am about season 10, Boom really has cemented in my mind that Moffat is a fucking incredible writer when he isn't having to also run the show

[yesokayiknow]

i'm so glad my awful memory means that every time i relisten to the first eight and lucie adventure i get to realise all over again that that's hayley atwell

[glorbysblog]

since I just started this blog mid-marathon of The 3rd Doctor, I thought I should catch up on the previous two for posterity so here are my five favorite 1st Doctor stories (2nd Doctor top five in a later post):

My Top 5 Favorite 1st Doctor Stories

1. The Daleks’ Master Plan - This is a missing story for which there is only a reconstruction available for at this time. Despite not having the benefit of having moving pictures, this is by far the best Dalek story of the era and is extremely effective at making the situation before The Doctor as seeming hopeless. Without spoiling the ending, the final episode is where I truly began to see the person The Doctor would soon become and the impossible situations they have to shrug off and saunter elsewhere.

2. The Tenth Planet - This one is missing the final episode which is unfortunately the final episode William Hartnell acted in, but in many versions, a surviving reconstruction or animated version of the regeneration is put in. This episode really does feel serious and climactic especially with the legacy attached to it for introducing The Doctor’s second most formidable enemy and introducing regeneration.

3. The War Machines - As far as companions go, The 1st Doctor has a bit of a rocky relationship with most of them except for Vicki, but when Ben & Polly are introduced, they are thrown against a Doctor who has been through a very complete character arc where most of their hostility is replaced with righteousness and the hope to do good wherever they land. This story very effectively sets up this new pair in contrast to The Doctor for being the most modern set of companions up to that point.

4. Planet of The Giants - This is Doctor Who’s first attempt at a pure comedy episode and due to the performances, the cozy family vibe that the original set of companions have, as well as the funny concept, this story ends up being one of the most fun of the whole black-and-white era.

5. The Time Meddlers - I had to include at least one Vicki story since she is my favorite companion of this era, and this is a good one since it not only shows off the first adventure with new companion Steven, but also introduced another Time Lord (though they don’t have that name yet) and another TARDIS.

Okay, this was a bit different from my first jokey post, but in order to look to the future, you must look back. I will post a similar ranking of my top five for The 2nd Doctor … when I figure out what my top five for them might be.

[doctorwhogirlie]

My Mum Rates New Who:

Rose:

It’s an okay episode. It does what it needs to do. Introduces important characters. Smart to use a familiar villain. I never got how Rose didn't notice Mickey had been replaced.

(So my mum wanted to join in... She started watching Doctor Who when she was little; her favourite Doctor is 7 - Anyways, enjoy)

[master-missysversion]

Eve of the Daleks was SO good, literally a 10/10 for me. It was so funny, it had an really cool concept, really engaging side characters, it had the emotional scenes with the doctor and yaz, and with Dan and Yaz, albeit they were also about the doctor, but i also generally loved the relationship between Yaz and Dan, it was so Bickering Siblings.

And there was also some really good tense moments, one that stands out is when the power in the elevator cuts off and sarah gets cornered. The scripting was just absolutely fantastic, with brilliant acting to match, I just genuinely couldn't stop smiling through the whole thing

And of course the ending was lovely, with the fireworks display, the direct parallels between yaz & the doctor and Nick & Sarah. Then having the doctor (who is being all evasive after being confronted with the direction her relationship with Yaz is going, oops) and Co continue their travels, while Nick and Sarah start their own. It's just all so lovely.

Also I personally love the Karl cameo, I love full circle moments like that

[rapha-reads]

The Church on Ruby Road [spoilers]

First of all: Fifteen is AMAZIIIIIING. I swear I'm going to try and be normal about him, but his energy! His joy! His connection to his feelings, the emotional depth! That moment when he says "I've adopted, I've just discovered that recently", and then his tears when he realises what happened to Ruby, and then how soft and gentle he was with baby Ruby.

I keep remembering Bill's words about Twelve: "With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes." - and that's exactly it with Fifteen. You can feel not only the age, the experience, the heartbreak and trials the Doctor has gone through, but also, and maybe more importantly, the healing, the love, the joy, the endless curiosity about the universe, the limitless desire to always learn and discover new things. Fifteen is the sum of all the previous Doctors, and he's carrying that weight, but he's also something new, something exciting. The trauma is still there, but he's not letting it weigh him down anymore. Even when he has a moment of doubt, when he says "Maybe I'M the bad luck", a previous regeneration would have left - he stayed and let Ruby make her choice. There's growth there.

We definitely are in a new era of Doctor Who. New New Who? New Who 2.0? Modern Who? Do we have a name yet or is still being debated?

Anyway, secondly. Ruby! Aw, she sounds so cool and kind! The mystery around her birth mother is thrilling without taking the precedent over anything else. Either her birth parents aren't that important, though it's Doctor Who - there's always something else, and I wouldn't be surprised if she's a Time Lord kid, or even the Doctor's child themself - or maybe Jenny's child, the Doctor's granddaughter? I'm just wildly theorizing at this point, never mind all of that.

What's interesting is her relationship with her adoptive mother. That scene where Ruby disappears and her mother forgets about her, and the colours themselves literally bleed out, and the joyful, kind, generous woman we've come to know suddenly turns bitter and sad and cold... Man, that scene messed me up. Makes you think about coincidences, about how and when you meet people and you can never know how important they are in your life, because sometimes the influence they have on you are so subtle, so diffuse, it's impossible to see it. Not the first time this happens in Doctor Who, though, time travel does have that impact. Butterflies and all that. But the impact is always the same heart-wrenching feeling.

Third, the language of rope! By which I mean, I was talking with my brother (huge Whovian like me), and he was telling me that he's a bit worried about RTD's decision to go towards fantasy stories. Well, magic is just another language, after all, isn't it? It's just science that we haven't been able to decipher yet. So, fantasy and science-fiction? They go hand in hand, actually. If the TARDIS is a wooden box that's bigger on the inside and can travel through time and space, then sure, why not, goblins exist, they eat baby, they can also move around time, and their science is the science of ropes and wood. Totally plausible in this world. Wouldn't be weirder than that time Ten met Satan in a pit, or Eleven had an ongoing feud with evil snowmen, or Twelve rode on Santa's sleigh, or Thirteen talked to a frog from another universe. That's cool. Love it.

Right. Well. I'm excited for this new series. It's shiny and fresh, it's something else! Moving forward without forgetting the past. And apparently we're going to meet the Beatles? I love historic episodes! And go to some new planets, meet some new aliens, deal once again with holes in the fabric of the universe (not new, but maybe done in a new way?)... This is going to be great. Next episode in Spring, though? At least it's not another full year of wait.

[travel-hopefully]

Doctor Who Series Rankings: Series 2 - if you have time, please give my latest blog post a view - my personal review of all episodes of Doctor Who series 2 and ranking them in order of preference :)

(via Doctor Who Series Rankings: Series 2)

Also, if the mood takes you, feel free to follow or comment on my WordPress blog at https://thespirallingmind17.wordpress.com/ <3

[azazel-dreams]

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤

[timetravelbypen]

Okay that episode ACTIVELY made no sense.