#the villengard algorithm

[skirowly]

The Villengard Algorithm

After watching this episode, Boom, for the first time week or two ago it has lingered in my mind. Not only because it was pretty much a good, solid, old fashioned DW episode and I loved the concept, but because it fits so well with the events lately - and sadly - happening. Modern warfare being nothing else but commerce and algorithms keeping it profitable: Did you hear that, Ruby? They advertised their presence. And do you know what that does? Ruby, that activates the Villengard algorithm. The acceptable casualty rate algorithm. Keeps you dying, keeps you buying. Huh? Do you get it? Huh? Do you get it? Do you get…? Do you get it? Do YOU get it? Do you get-get-get it?

[leikeliscomet]

The only and I mean ONLY thing I've gotten out my Joy To The World rewatch is that I think the whole thing was (trying to be) a metaphor for hope to essential workers & ordinary people in the pandemic & lockdown:

All the cast are essential workers or normal people. Trev's a host, Anita's a hotel manager, Silurian guy's a hotel manager and bartender guy does what he says on the tin. Everyone else is just customers.

The suitcase latches onto people person to person, 'transmits' the upload & kills them but no one knew how it 'spread' at first. Joy's anger & self awareness about the govt in lockdown saves her life. Villengard could've prevented the spread on normal people but chose not to.

Fifteen's year involves him doing essential work in hospitality, catering & maintenance. His 'payment' for staying in the hotel is work. His main & only friend is Anita, a hotel manager. He's inside a year, doesn't talk to Ruby & self reflects.

When he gets out he's on the other end of his rant. As past Fifteen he was annoyed but now we 'get it' so its hurtful watching him lash out at himself. He doesn't understand staying inside for that year is important & 'saving' his life for the paradox.

The algorithm is made up of all the essential workers we saw before. Joy becomes the star filled with all those other uploaded people. Joy is made of ordinary people. Ordinary people create Joy.

***Generic disclaimer about how I wasn't on Steven Moffat's personal Google drive when he wrote the script and i have no idea if this was the plan all along & this is just my theory/cope of what we all just watched dont jump me thank yewww 🙏🏾

[world-enough-and-timerogue]

Something that I liked about Boom was that it wasn't strictly anti-AI. It was anti-AI under capitalism. It acknowledges that AI can be destructive with the Villengard algorithm, but it also shows that it can have a sense of justice and be incredibly powerful and caring given the right circumstances - just like humans.

[sam-keeper]

what I have to say about Joy To The World is basically what I have to say about Moffat's script from earlier this year: Boom

which you can still read for free on my Patreon :)

Moffat is obsessed with digital copies of people, fragments of people, things pretending to be people who are already dead, and so on. He loves it. And I love that he loves it! God imagine being a kid at the playground after Silence in the Library, chasing after your friends repeating "Hey! Who turned out the lights?" There's a whole bunch of dialogue interactions playing in this sort of uncanny, ghostly space: "Are you my mummy?" in The Empty Child, the whole "sorry sir, no, the Angel got me sir, I died terrified and alone and in pain :)" conversation in Time of Angels, and now he's added "Thoughts and prayers" and "Kiss kiss" into the mix. Objects or monsters, speaking as people, in particular mimicking people's final words or final thoughts, an uncanny repetition. And it goes beyond horror. I think he must have arrived at some of these motifs through the Faction Paradox City of the Saved, which is strikingly similar to both the false heaven Missy builds and to the mass temporal record made in Twice Upon a Time. And, yes, there's the titular library. We might even invert these concepts as well with the fates of Danny Pink and Bill, both turned into Cybermen, both clinging to humanity within their terrifying transformation. Pearl Mackie in particular brilliantly gets to act out Bill's final story through her own perception filter, her mind fighting like hell to still conceive of herself as human despite her cyberization. It's like he's obsessed with stripping away most of a person, and then asking... what of a person remains? ... And here in this episode, it's this dad's love for his daughter and desire to protect her. Cue the whole audience going "Awwwww". It's very sweet, isn't it? Almost treacly. People always make Davies out to be the sappy emotional one and Moffat the ironic quippy distanced writer but it's kind of the opposite. Davies writes in this really satirical mode a lot of the time, or just plain weird mode, and has this deep cynicism about human beings and about the Doctor. Moffat can't commit to his own cruelties. It's like Sarah says in her video, he wants to have his tragic cake and eat a happy ending too. He can't let his companions stay dead! And he seems to come back continuously to love as this incredibly powerful force. It's powerful enough here that it gives the Doctor a way in to persuade the digital ghost of a man he's never met to go to war with the entire Villengard algorithm for his daughter.

[celestialorcas]

Doctor Who S1/14 E3: Boom Spoilers Thoughts:

WOOOOOHOOOO Fuck me that was GOOOOOOOD Loving the anticapitalism stuff as always hell yea doctor you fucking tell them. Caught on with the stuff about the truth of the war around half way through and enjoyed it, Susan Twist was the ambulance! Girl is everywhere fr God they really crafted this episode perfectly so you could feel the stress, i was trying to calm down as the doctor was everytime a free moment was got something else happened- Can see him thinking "REALLY?? JUST LET ME BREATHE AND RELAX" "it is killing you just the right amount to keep you buying more" goes SO HARD Next weeks is looking good fr fr wont say much about it here in case some people dont watch the next time (dont blame you theyve been spoilery in the past but so far they dont show too much i dont think) but yea im real excited for next week Reminded me of oxygen a bit, obv god im a sucker for capitalism, ai and algorithm hate, was such a clever episode though, combat activated the ai, so the ai kept them buying weapons and killing them the right amount to meet its quota, anything for the shareholders am i right Really seeing the range of emotion with the doctor here too which i love, hes crying at companions "dying" and him being in a VERY bad situation Didnt see the dadbot taking over as the ending, what I thought was gonna happen was the doctor would explain to the ai that if he blows up, it'd cost the Villengard (loving the call back btw, RTD and Moffat are good at that) AI and algorithm a lot of money, and itd actually be more cost effective to keep them alive, but to be fair that would have been very derivative of Oxygen so, fair. Overall....wow, think it was better the The Devil's Chord which I wasnt expecting, loved it

[hypexion]

Boom is an episode dedicated to preventing the title from happening. How artistic!

Honestly given all the running around he does it's surprising this is only the second time the Doctor has stepped on a mine

You can tell this is a Moffat episode from the dialogue very quickly. In both (affectionate) and (derogatory) ways

Got some real Clara and Twelve vibes when Ruby was delivering the weight to the Doctor

Everybody hates the military-industrial complex

Really someone should do something about Villengard

Personally I don't think you should buy an ambulance that euthanises people based on algorithmics.

Got some more Twelve vibes when Ruby got shot and the Doctor kept up the rambles

Moffat is not afraid to just say "hey you know who is dumb enough to fight an enemy that isn't real? The Church"

Then there is a minimal level of rowing it back. The Doctor might need faith but he doesn't have to like it

And the ambulances say "Thoughts and Prayers" before they murder you this episode is not holding back

Some people might not like the power of love hacking the system ending but come on this is Doctor Who. We knew the Doctor wasn't going to get exploded and that he'd escape via sci-fi magic

Although I gotta say some of the side characters were dense in a way unrelated to being Space Crusaders

good episode overall with many good actings 👍

[frostyclove]

Also might I say everyone should go watch the doctor who episode Boom in light of this weeks events...

"Villengard battle products are fitted with AI. The algorithm maintains a fighting force at just above the acceptable number of casualties. Keeps you fighting, keeps you dying, keeps you buying. The medical services optimise the casualty rate for continued conflict. War is business, and business is booming." -15th Doctor, Boom

Especially considering a certain company had started using ai specifically to deny 30% of claims....

There's a reason Moffat is my fav dw writer anyways thoughts and prayers or should i say thoughts and deductibles

[ryttu3k]

Thoughts on Doctor Who - Boom! Some negativity ahead, maybe a 6/10 overall.

Well that was about as subtle as a sledgehammer XD Yes yes the algorithm is bad, yes yes capitalism is bad, yes yes war industry is bad, yes yes religious extremism is bad. I agree with all that! And tbh there are people who do need that message to be about as subtle as a sledgehammer because they Do Not Get It!

But holy shit, this one made Orphan-55 look subtle XD

(That said, kind of adore the chutzpah of doing the Capitalism Is Bad story in the first season of the show as owned by fucking Disney.)

A… weird aesop at the end. "Blind faith is bad. Also, just because I don't like it, doesn't mean I don't need it, because apparently I need religious people to tell me what to do."

Splice was… odd. Grew up in a warzone, also launches herself into said warzone because Dad sent a weird message. Seems singularly unable to recognise what had happened despite, y'know, growing up in a warzone, but that's okay because Holodaddy mentioned seeing antelopes. I feel she was written to be much younger (like, five-ish), which is an issue with the casting, actually, because as it is she just kind of came across as dense as a sack of bricks. No, stupid child, you do not run into the minefield! I did see commentary about how chilling it was for her to be so easily placated by the AI, though, so that could be a deliberate choice, I guess?

Mundy is okay. Didn't make me go, "Yes, she absolutely needs to be the new companion!", which is a pity, and the whole romantic tension between her and the other dude felt whoppingly out of place. Yes, half the planet is going to blow up but that's okay, her crush likes her back! Hoping that either she's playing someone totally different as companion (like Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan having smaller roles before being cast as companions, to say nothing of some of the actual Doctors!), or that Mundy actually develops some personality beyond 'romantic yearning', 'Christianity', and 'portents of doom'. That said, if she is playing Mundy again, I do enjoy the idea of Mundy Sunday XD

Last annoyance, promise - lmao god if Moffat's head was any further up his arse he'd be a mobius strip. Villengard (although setting the episode in the 51st century is at least consistent with its destruction), the Anglican Marines, preservation of dead people in incomplete digital formats, the president's wife poem/song thing, even fish fingers and custard. Dude. I know. You're still salty about being replaced as showrunner. Doesn't mean you have to yell about how great your era was by throwing in every single self-congratulatory reference you could think of XD

(That said: I much prefer him writing standalone/double episodes. Do Not let him write arcs or be showrunners, but he certainly can work a single narrative.)

Positive notes: Even if it was as subtle as a sledgehammer, I did enjoy the reveal - that there wasn't actually any war, and it was entirely a self-perpetuated conflict based on algorithm and profit. Like the writing could have handled it better, but the premise was really cool.

Ncuti Gatwa's acting was fantastic. Beautiful tension and stress. Loved him monologuing to Ruby's dead body because if he doesn't talk, he can't think right.

"I'm more explosive than I look - and honey, I know how I look."

"Ruby, I forbid this." "Yeah, good luck with that :)"

"- and frankly, your lifespan sucks." (Just wanted Ruby to go, "Dude. I've been dead for the last ten minutes.")

Continuity

Enjoying the continuation of Ruby's snow.

Susan Twist has appeared again, although I still have no idea what this could be building up to. Much bigger role than some of the earlier ones.

This is Ruby's first alien planet, but The Devil's Chord implies she's been travelling with the Doctor for six months? So this would have to be set before Devil's Chord, or else they've just spent six months in space stations and time travelling on Earth alone.

A lot of emphasis on the Doctor as a father, tying in with his mention of Susan last episode, which also dealt with the familial connection between the Toymaker and Maestro and the whole Pantheon thing, and brought up the stuff with Ruby and her lineage again (the AI glitching out when trying to work out her next of kin, although I feel Moffat forgot that… next of kin doesn't mean 'blood relative'… she has a Mum!). I feel there's definitely going to be something about the Doctor's family in this season as well as Ruby's. The TARDIS identified her as human, but could there be a connection?

Season ranking

As of s40e03:

The Devil's Chord

The Church on Ruby Road

Space Babies

Boom

And on a deeply silly note: I initially heard 'Kastarion' as 'Karstarion' and went :D because BG3 ship mentioned <3

[billpottsismygf]

Boom by Steven Moffat

Welcome back, Moffat! This is his first Doctor Who episode since 2017, and his first under RTD since 2008, and it did not disappoint. This is by far the best episode of the series so far, and in my opinion in the last few years. It was tense and character focused and covered all manner of themes and topics.

It has some very Moffat hallmarks that I haven't exactly missed, but that I am more than happy to see back. This is particularly with regard to his episode mould of there being one specific thing that characters can't do (blink, breathe, think, etc.), here it being that the Doctor can't move. It's an excellent premise for an episode and it's sort of astonishing that it hasn't been done before. It's done very well, too.

It's funny to have the Anglican Marines back. I associate them so heavily with the Eleventh Doctor era that it was a little jarring at first, but why not bring them back! They were really well utilised here. I wonder if some Christians might be angry about the themes of religious culpability in warfare, but I thought the episode did a good job of a) not solely blaming religion and b) showing the good side of faith. The latter specifically being in the girl's faith in her parents not being gone.

Just as it showed the good and bad of faith, it also showed the good and bad of technology. The good being in the comfort it might provide to people, the bad mainly in the way it is used by corporations.

Unsurprisingly, I loved the anti-capitalist streak in this one. It was really nice as well to get a more detailed look at the consequences of the weapon factories of Villengard, something which has only ever been a throw-away line before, and again strongly associated with the RTD and Moffat eras. The culpability of capitalism in warfare; the use of modern technology with flashy lights and brutal consequences; selling to all sides of a conflict; a brutal algorithm in healthcare that only cares about the bottom line rather than human suffering. It's all fantastic and made me think about if Kerblam were good.

This was a very brutal episode, with three character deaths and an almost death from both the Doctor and Ruby. Despite this, it didn't feel too heavy and I think that's in part due to the optimistic ending. The little girl was perhaps a little too blasé for belief about the death of her father, but I appreciated what the episode was going for with that. A dad character doing the impossible for his child is something of another Moffatism, but I don't mind it, especially when it's done this well.

I think I got a better idea of Ruby this episode as well. I absolutely loved the part where she refuses to throw the remains to the Doctor, as well as her dashing up the quarry with a gun to create conflict. The latter reminded me a lot of her banging on the walls and yelling for the Bogeyman in Space Babies.

Finally, I think my assumption last week about The Devil's Chord - that it was meant to air later in the series - is pretty much confirmed by this being Ruby's first alien planet. If we're to believe we've seen things in the right order, that would mean she'd been travelling with the Doctor for six months before seeing an alien planet, and this episode also just feels like an earlier one. My suspicion is that Disney wanted The Devil's Chord to air second, and as part of the first drop of episodes, because it's a flashy exciting one, but I think that was a real error. On future rewatches I think I'll probably watch The Devil's Chord a few episodes in.

This was an absolutely incredible episode and I'm very excited to rewatch it. I never thought we'd get Moffat back writing for the show, especially under RTD, and now that we have I'm over the moon. Although in many ways it feels like a return to an old era rather than a bold new direction, it was so good it doesn't really matter. The performances, the characters and the writing were compelling and tight and I'm just so glad the show is doing great things right now.

[pluralzalpha]

Galactic Gazetteer: Kastarion 3

Type: companion planet or moon

Native inhabitants: none

Immigrant inhabitants: humans, 5087

Affiliation: the Church

Visited by: the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby

Appearance: "Boom" (2024)

Fun fact: when the Anglican Marines landed in 5087, they set off the algorithm on their Villengard weaponry to generate warfare in order to maximise arms sales. They fought a war against themselves, blaming non-existent Kastarions.

Another fun fact: the Doctor rated the planet a solid 7 out of 10.

[orifu]

i hate reading peoples reviews and stuff because like. what if we have differing opinions. everyone has different viewpoints or whatever.

anyway. welcome back to my doctor who review

last time

right, so last time i left off with space babies getting a 7/10 and the devil's chord an 8/10. im going to revise these scores, and also score all the rtd2 episodes i missed. here we go

the star beast - 6/10

wild blue yonder - 7/10

the giggle - 9/10

the church on ruby road - 7/10

space babies - 6/10

the devil's chord - 9/10

boom - 9/10

i will probably go onto more depth on those scores later (and maybe revise them again) but for now its a friday night so we're obviously going to be talking about the latest addition to the doctor who episode roster, steven moffat's boom.

boom

i mean the episode was engaging and enjoyable. not a huge amount to say honestly. the callback to villengard from moffat's first and former last episodes was i think a great choice. the commentary on capitalism really echoed oxygen's sentiment but through a whole new lens: war.

for me, because im a megagenius with 5 billion iq, i could tell pretty easily that the twist (no, not that one) would be that the war was being fought against no one. it's absolutely a demonstration of late stage capitalism that we've all come to know and hate.

using religion as war again really echoed back to the time of angels and a good man goes to war of course, but with a new attempt to hammer home that religion isn't harmless. it prevents thought, it prevents progress. it manifests ignorance. im not religious myself, but, much like the doctor at the end of the ep, i don't really care if someone is religious. just don't cause a pain over it.

i would say the main part of the episode that makes it not quite reach a 10/10 for me, is that its pretty obvious from the start that the doctor and ruby are both gonna survive. i mean, theyre the show. theyre not gonna die in episode 3. i think that was what really worked in an episode like blink -- these characters arent anyone meaningful. they could die and overall nothing would happen. but here, you can't just kill the doctor.

the AI bits of the episode were some thoughtful commentary. i mean, the day is basically saved by the doctor breaking a corpo filter with a prompt injection. i think the villengard algorithm shows what ai will become. it won't be a tool for the people. it's far too dangerous to be anything but a corporate profit maximiser.

ALSO MOFFAT WASNT WEIRD ABOUT WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

conclusion

unsurprisingly, moffat wrote a banger. moffat'll bring joy to the world one last time before leaving who forever. until them, we have next week's episode, and ive sure heard a lot about it. maybe the twist cameo will be even more blatant than in boom. after all, the one who waits is almost here.

[eloquentornot]

Ohh this is brilliant. Joy being all "oh but we're ascending beyond them now :D" but fridge horror that lovely feeling is STILL the conditioning and Villengard actually caused a cosmic event that ended up contributing to the mythology that eventually led to the religion that kept the soldiers in Boom from realising that the Villengard algorithm was using them!!! :D Moffat!!!

Even if it wasn't an intentional scheme by Villengard, it's so fitting! Especially when the Doctor explains how the star seed's method of manipulation was perfect for starting a religion which was how it ended up buried in that tomb!

And the story of this era seems to be focusing a lot on godlike powers from beyond the universe, but also like with Ruby's mum, humans creating power from their own stories...

The Doctor lashing out at the soldier for her faith putting blinders on, but later apologising and saying faith is good, something about the church being corrupt and making the story fit their goals (Villengard maybe somehow setting it up so the star would appear at the right time for the magi etc) but individuals should still have whatever faith is good for them personally (even if it's tragic and she was manipulated, Joy's joy is still real and a happy ending for her personally...?)

Maybe even, the star seed really was a benevolent force, the hope its carriers felt was real - but it was taken by Villengard and made into something toxic (where they had to die for it and were made to feel like that would be a good thing) instead?

Hang on, hang on… does Villengard still end up using the star as a power source and is it implied that Villengard precipitated Christianity intentionally

I think this needs clarification

[variousqueerthings]

this episode really does have lots of m*ffat's greatest hits

sex joke that's not funny

doctor monologues a lot in a way that's kind of arrogant and is written in the way m*ffat writes all the doctors

companion mostly asks questions and/or acts motherly

companion "dies" and is brought back

hamfisted statements about something political that don't really have any depth to them

a deeper more successful political statement alongside that

declaration of love immediately followed by death

as many m*ffat callbacks as possible, whether or not they make much sense

EDIT: also the Very Serious Grim Stuff that isn't actually all that deep (which it's funny we pin all of that on chibnall -- he took it into overdrive for sure, but it was m*ffat who did that first)

specifically on point the fifth, and maybe I'll be in the minority, but i wasn't a fan of its attempt to make a point about religion, its collating "faith" and "organised religion," and its use of the anglican priests. the episode wasn't really about any of that, it was just a useful callback because m*ffat had used them before, but, like before, they're never really a well-developed order or religion or people, they're just set-pieces. I also don't think DW is very successful when it's trying to make "points" about faith vs... i guess atheism? it's a show that's all about faith in some way or other, the doctor's personal belief-system is important to the world (you'll never be the impossible planet/satan pit and certainly not the god complex)

in the end the things it was saying about organised christianity had nothing much to do with the episode itself, and simply seemed to be in there in order to point and go "you, the viewer, recognise these sayings and ideas" and while im all for demonising "thoughts and prayers" as concept, this wasn't a story that was... about what that saying is about...... it was clunky. and, ironically, it was holier-than-thou

things i think were successful:

fighting a never-ending war based on algorithms, in order to continue to sell weapons. always a fan of stories like that

the inherent simplicity of its structure -- doctor steps on a mine, we do not want it to explode, countdown

the isle of skye singing and the poem

the dynamic between ruby and the doctor still feels strongly based on mutual respect in the way they choose to interpret/act the words they say

the "kiss-kiss" bit

ncuti gatwa's acting, simply outstanding -- between him and millie gibson's bubbly excitement, they do manage to make this episode theirs and not simply "any doctor and companion"

the bit where they're just watching the planet and basking

i liked the villengard specific callback, im actually quite a big fan of villengard

the continued feeling that this doctor's being relentlessly positive in a way that is... highly suspect. mental health-wise

anyway, it was fine. obvs i was gonna be paying more attention to Things Wot It Does, because i am not a big m*ffat fan, and i do think he's stuck in his greatest hits and will probably never write anything genuinely "new and also good" but hey, who knows. this episode was serviceable and didn't overstay its welcome. definitely reminded me once again of how much i would neeeeever want another full show written by him

okay we have reached boom

i know im going to go into this one biased

[eloquentornot]

Yeah! When I saw her eyes sparkle golden and then she was talking to the seed, I still felt like it was really ominous, but then... like the Doctor, I got caught up in the "joy" of it all, the only danger was that it was going to bloom on Earth and destroy everyone, so since it turned out to have benevolence to it and along with the people it absorbed decided to fly away, it was a good thing after all... but still, those people were killed. By Villengard.

And I guess, for the Doctor, also, maybe he got distracted with his own "it's supposed to be me saving you" which then of course the moral of that moment is that he can let them do the heroic sacrifice instead sometimes, and yeah I guess overall it just got forgotten that originally the problem was that Villengard are the bad guys using a time hotel to test a new power source with no regard for Earth's history... actually if they're from a future where humans are big customers (if they're not entirely human themselves even) then it doesn't make sense for them to want to plant the seed on Earth in the past which would also destroy the time hotel probably... maybe making it want to shoot away from Earth at just the right moment was actually part of their plan!!

(Still, might have been an accident that it became That star? And even if not, there can be arguments of, if they knew it would become that star, is it their fault for just following the destiny of a bootstrap paradox? Or are they from a timeline where that didn't actually happen and they decided to change history to make it so there really was a star there around that time that could change the outcome of a debate about Biblical historical accuracy or something at some point in future history and that leads to making the Anglican Marines more extreme/blind faith/etc and less likely to question the wars perpetuated by the algorithm???? But this is getting a bit too far outside of what's shown in the episodes, lol!)

Hang on, hang on… does Villengard still end up using the star as a power source and is it implied that Villengard precipitated Christianity intentionally

I think this needs clarification