Popcorn Culture
Ruminations on TV Shows, Comics, And Music
Now that The Doctor knows who he is, and knows to keep a better eye on his companions, it's time for him to have some therapy sessions about his interpersonal relationships. And once that's over, there is also a problem with planets disappearing. Sometimes, even entire solar systems. Three major interplanetary problems are introduced (and two of them solved) this season, amongst The Doctors and his companions trying to get some downtime, only to be sucked into some really weird traps. Donna is the A+ companion in this season. As The Runaway Bride she encounters two different faces of The Doctor, only...they're the same face? What does that mean 301. The Runaway Bride
(10, Donna) We ended our last season with The Doctor's sad separation from a companion. Then a random woman just appeared on his TARDIS, this is his first adventure with that woman, and serves as a mini-therapy session as he talks about his grief and loss. There's also a spectacularly campy villain. 302. The Doctor's Wife (11, Amy, Rory) The Doctor's...married? Not really. We determined last season that Leather Doctor and Smiling Doctor both belileve they are the last surviving Time People, so when The Doctor received a message begging for help from a fellow Time Person, he rushes to a planet where we get an in-depth look at a relationship that the series usually ignores. 303. The Three Doctors (1, 2, 3, Brigadier, Jo, Benton, Omega) We saw in the first season how The Flute Doctor was exiled to Earth and forced to regenerate into The Kung-Fu Doctor. This Doctor is mostly Earth-bound but occasionally the incompetent Time People need his help in space and send him on very specific missions. Well, they finally have one so important that they need not just Kung-Fu Doctor but also Flute Doctor and Grouchy Doctor too all add their unput to stop a rogue Time Person. 304. The Celestial Toymaker (1, Steven, Dodo, The Toymaker) This is a wacky, mostly animated episode (due to the BBC having erased a bunch of the episodes from the 1960s) about a chaos god messing around with The Grouchy Doctor and his companions. 305. Midnight (10, Donna) Smiling Doctor takes a break from his companion (The Runaway Bride) and goes on a relaxing train trip for tourists where things get real weird and real wrong real fast. 306. Pyramids Of Mars (4, Sarah Jane, Sutekh) Scarf Doctor and Sarah Jane end up being trapped by The God Of Death in a fun, archeology-focused adventure. 307. Planet Of The Ood (10, Donna) A very polite race of aliens is being used as slaves by a greedy corporation. The Smiling Doctor and his Runaway Bride get caught up on the corporation's home planet and are determined to end the slave ring. 308. The Sontarem Strategem (10, Donna, Martha, Sylvia, Wilfred, The Sontarans, UNIT) One of The Doctor's companions from the first season is now working for UNIT and sends a distress signal to The Doctor. A warlike race that we've encountered a couple of times has created technology that threatens human life in a variety of ways. 309. The Poison Sky (10, Donna, Martha, Sylvia, Wilfred, The Sontarans, UNIT) Continuing from the last episode, The Smiling Doctor and his companions try and save the Earth. An evil and easily manipulated tech nerd is involved in the possible destruction of the human race, which hasn't at all been relevant at any point in 21st century history. 310. The Doctor's Daughter (10, Donna, Martha) We know The Doctor has a granddaughter floating around, surely he must have a child that produced said grandchild. While his UNIT friend and The Runaway Bride are still travelling with him, he ends up in the midst of an unusual civil war that creates the circumstances for him to have a child. 311. The Pandorica Opens (11, Amy, Rory, River Song, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Autons, Sycorax, Judoons, Silurians) Bowtie Doctor stumbles into a trap connected to those weirds cracks in the walls he's been seeing since the first season. Also, that woman from the library in the first season appears to be involved. 312. The Big Bang (11, Amy Rory, River Song, Daleks, Autons) Oh no, is The Doctor the reasons for all those cracks in the walls? Is that woman from the library way more important to The Doctor than we could have possibly imagined? Did one of his companions wait literally thousands of years to re-enter The Doctor's life? What's the deal with the fez? 313. Turn Left (10, Donna, Rose, Sylvia, Wilfred) While The Smiling Doctor checks out a street fair, The Runaway Bride enters a fortune teller's booth and experiences what her life would be like without The Doctor, which, in turn, shows her what would happen to The Doctor without her. 314. The Stolen Earth (10, Donna, Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, Jack Harkness, Sylvia, Wilfred, Harriet Jones, Gwen, Ianto, Davros, Daleks) Luckily for everybody everywhere, The Smiling Doctor and The Runaway Bride did encounter each other and now the two of them, having run into Bad Wolf again, end up encountering a ton of characters from our first three seasons as the Earth is transported away and invaded by Daleks. 315. Journey's End (10, Donna, Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Jackie, Sylvia, Wilfred, Gwen, Ianto, Davros, Daleks, K-9) K-9 is pretty much a kitchen sink, so let's just use the cliche "everything and the kitchen sink" are thrown into this episode as The Smiling Doctor must save The Earth from The Daleks and then somehow get it back into its proper galaxy. 316. The Rebel Flesh (11, Amy, Rory, Mme Kovarian) They're not precisely autons but there is a manaufactured alien race of doppelgangers designed to keep miners from being killed in dangerous operations. This, of course, leads to the problem of Who Are The Real People and Who Are The Dopplegangers? 317. The Almost People (11, Amy, Rory, Mme Kovarian) Things from the last episode get even more complicated as a Doppleganger Doctor gets involved in the adventure. Which one is he? Naturally. 318. City Of Death (4, Romana) Time to go back to The Scarf Doctor Days for a good old fashioned art heist involving The Mona Lisa. 319. The Space Museum (1, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Daleks) Now let's travel even further back as The Grouchy Doctor and a couple of his original companions find a museum in which there are exhibits focused on them! 320. Kerblam! (13, Graham, Ryan, Yas) It's Amazon.com in space. The Steampunk Doctor sees how poorly employees are treated by a space corporation. See how it indirectly helps AI start to kill its employees, even though it was programmed to help them. See how corporations make everything go horribly, horribly wrong whilst, naturally, underpaying their workers. 321. The Star Beast (14, Donna, Sylvia, Shirley, Shaun, Rose Noble) The Smiling Doctor is back but having been regenerated into his old face. He doesn't understand it. Things then take a worse turn when he encounters The Runaway Bride who, last time we saw her, would literally explode if she ever rememberd The Doctor and her adventures with him. Oh, there's also a very cute little alien who needs help. 322. The Giggle (14, Donna, Kate Lethebridge-Stewart, Mel, 15, Sylvia, Shirley, The Toymaker, Shaun, Rose Noble, Vlinx) It's another multi-Doctor, multi-companion episode as that chaos god who we encountered earlier this season has laid a trap in the early days of television that has become a problem in the early 21st century. Can the extensive team The Once Again Smiling But Not As Much Doctor has assembled stop the chaos god from overpowering humanity? 323. The Devil's Chord (15, Ruby, Maestro, Susan Triad) The Once Again Smiling Doctor regenerated into The Crying Doctor during the last episode. This new face has a new companion and a new very campy, very fun antagonist. Buuuuuuut...is she connected to the chaos god from the last episode? And if so, are there more of these gods? 324. Lux (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood) Yes, there are more of these gods! The Crying Doctor has yet another new companion and they end up having to rescue a theater full of people who've been trapped by....a cartoon? It's a mixed media adventure with a lot of meta references but it's really fun. 325. The Well (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood) We end this season with a call back to The Smiling Doctor's train trip. It appears that the antagonist, who we never precisely met, still exists and has become, potentially, much more dangerous. In the background of this story, we learn that The Earth seems to have not just disappeared physically this time but disappeared historically, as if it never existed. This seems like it might be a big problem next season.
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At its core, the entire modern era of Doctor Who has been less about creating good sci-fi and more about being nostalgic for the 20th century version of the show. And that's ok. It has created some wonderful emotional moments and some genuinely good sci-fi that isn't dependent on you enjoying a random sci-fi episode from fifty years ago. Russsel T Davies was the showrunner for the 9th and 10th doctors, which was a love letter to Daleks, Cybermen, and The Master that also introduced three very different companions who each had their own merit, and got to team up with some classic companions for a big showdown at the end of his run. Steven Moffat, who wrote the 11th and 12th Doctors, liked creating his own villains, mainly The Weeping Angels and The Silence, but drawing in some more obscure 20th century villains like The Zygons. Sure, he also threw The Daleks and some Cybermen in from time to time, and he had a wonderful take on The Master but his series was really a love letter to fairy tales. His ending was flat and uninspiring but there were tons of highlights during his run. Chris Chibnall, who exclusively wrote the 13th Doctor, wrote terrible fanfic in the guise of Doctor Who episodes. Occasionally, one of his writing staff would sneak in a good episode while he wasn't looking. He didn't know The Doctor at all, and so wrote her as a woman who never knew what she was doing and never felt comfortable being herself. It was very frustrating. His Master was initially fun but got bogged down in a terrible storyline called The Timeless Child that also turned the Cybermen into a much stupider and toothless enemy than previous versions. The first two times he wrote The Daleks were very boring but at the very end of his run, he wrote a wonderful time loop Dalek episode and then threw a lot of nostalgia at his final episode, which ended up being one of the very few highlights of his era. Then Russel T Davies came back for the 14th and 15th Doctors, and he wrote...a love letter to his previous time writing Doctor Who. It's very self-indulgent. It really relies on people already loving the series and knowing obscure episodes from the 1970s. There are no Daleks, no Master, no Cybermen. There is a whole new pantheon of villains who are mostly very entertaining but who are also tied to obscure 20th century villains that only Russel T Davies cares about. It was a slog to get into but then early in his second season, he started to do something really interesting and I was totally on board for his finale. And then I watched his finale, and it was awful. But it doesn't negate its interesting setup. If you've been on this Headcanon journey, I think you'll find this to be a really strong season. If you don't bother with the beginning of the 15th Doctor's adventures or his terrible final episode, you get a much stronger Doctor than poor Jodie Whittaker's 14th Doctor from last season. Episode 1: The Star Beast
(10/14, Donna Noble, Wilfred, Sylvia, Rose Noble, Shaun, Ruth) Using an amazing villain from the Big Finish Audio Plays, The Fourteenth Doctor turns out to be the same face as The Tenth Doctor, which seems dangerous when he runs into Donna Noble who, last we knew, would literally explode if she ever remembered who The Doctor was. Her whole family returns, including her daughter for this space shenanigans on Earth story. Episode 2: The Giggle (10/14, 15, Mel, Donna Noble, Kate Stewart, Sylvia, Shaun, Rose Noble, Shirley, Vlinx) An audio remnant from one of the first ever TV shows wreaks havoc on Earth as people start behaving like Youtube comments. Neil Patrick Harris as The Toymaker, is clearly responsible for this mess, and it's up to The Doctor, Donna, Kate Stewart, and a long absent companion of The Sixth and Seventh Doctor to sort everything out. Also, Two Doctors! Episode 3: The Devil's Chord (15, Ruby, Susan Triad) The new face of The Doctor has a new companion, and they decide that their first time-traveling adventure should be seeing The Beatles record their first album. Unfortunately, someone has altered time so that there's no more joy or emotion in music. This is a very silly episode but it's tied into The Giggle and is a campy blast! Episode 4: 73 Yards (Ruby, Kate Stewart, Susan Triad, Carla, Cherry, 15, Mrs Flood) A Doctor-Light episode where Ruby finds herself on her own. Luckily, it's on her own planet, in her own time, relatively close to where she lives. Unfortunately, she's haunted by the specter of a woman who won't leave her, and who drives anyone who tries to talk to her away from Ruby forever. There are some wonderful moments of humor at the beginning, and the overall plot is a nice little slice of political sci-fi tropism. Episode 5: Dot And Bubble (15, Ruby, Susan Triad) Doctor Who has swung wide several times trying to do episodes about social media. They're usually terrible. This one has the nice twist of Russel T Davies channeling Steven Moffat's "Blink" but imagining what would happen if the people The Doctor was trying to save were more revilable than sympathetic. Episode 6: Lux (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood) The first ever live action/animated hybrid episode is also the first episode that goes full-meta, as The Doctor and a new companion find their non-white selves in mid-twentieth century Florida where they have to flout segregation to solve the mystery of a group of people who disappeared while watching a cartoon in a movie theater. This is a really fun episode that reminds us that the pantheon of gods we started seeing back in "The Giggle" are still floating around wreaking havoc. Episode 7: The Well (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood) A terrifying sequel to the David Tennant era episode, "Midnight", The Doctor and Belinda encounter a planet where a military base has massacred themselves for reasons no one can explain. The one survivor is a Deaf woman who watched all the madness unfold. We also discover that a small problem from the last episode (they can't seem to get back to Earth on the day Belinda left) is a much bigger problem as even humanoid aliens have never even heard of Earth. Episode 8: Lucky Day (Ruby, Kate Stewart, Shirley, Conrad, 15, Belinda, Carla, Cherry, Vlinx, Mrs Flood) Ruby meets and falls in love with someone who, as a child, encountered The Doctor and Belinda and who has become obsessed with them. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and UNIT has to step in and help her pick up the pieces when Conrad turns out to be a very human villain. Episode 9: The Story And The Engine (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood, The Fugitive Doctor) The Doctor goes to his favorite barber shop in Nigeria to relax, only to discover that the shop is being used to fuel a god machine using storytelling. The Doctor is briefly shown as The Fugitive Doctor, as we discover that she left one of her companions behind to become entangled into the storytelling engine. Episode 10: The Interstellar Song Contest (15, Belinda, Mrs Flood, Susan Foreman, The Rani) It's Eurovision in space! With a touch of the comic series "Saga". A terrorist from an oppressed race is willing to commit mutiple genocides to get his revenge on the corporation that destroyed his planet. Of course, The Doctor isn't having it. Holiday Special: Wish World (15, Belinda, Ruby, Shirley, Mrs Flood, The Rani, Conrad, Kate Stewart, Mel, Susan Triad, Carla, Cherry) The Rani and Mrs Flood's plan comes together as they use Conrad and a pantheon baby to create a mid-twentieth-century-like dystopia. This is technically part one of a two-part finale but, trust me, you're better off not ever watching it. The second season of my non-chronological doctor Who watchthrough focuses on two of the most famous villains in the canon. The Daleks and The Cybermen. Each of these inhuman alien races is focused on evolving humanoids from their emotional baggage to create genocidal killing machines. While they are both at the forefront of this season, the underlying story is one of how people process being abandoned. We will see several companions separated from the various faces of The Doctor and see how they cope with life without him. And because this is a season of an action sci-fi show, we'll end the storyline by throwing a bunchh of Daleks and Cybermen at a love story and see how The Doctor copes with it. 201. Dalek
(9, Rose, Adam, Daleks) The Leather Doctor and Rose are visiting a museum when they stumble upon an alien that The Leather Doctor identifies as an ultimate killing machine. Why is it so dangerous, though? 202. Eve Of The Daleks (13, Yasmine, Dan, Daleks) Steampunk Doctor encounters a time loop on Earth where a small band of Daleks keeps resetting the timeline, resulting in them and some innocent humans repeatedly dying. 203. Genesis Of The Daleks (4, Sarah Jane, Harry, Daleks, Davros) Meet The Scarf Doctor! This jellybaby obsessed face of The Doctor has taken his companions all the way back to when The Daleks were invented, and he debates the ethics of destroying them before they become an interstellar problem. 204. Ark In Space (4, Sarah Jane, Harry) Scarf Doctor and the crew from the last episode live out the movie Alien, only instead of the terrifying xenomorphs, they're mostly battling bugs and bubble wrap. 205. Terror Of The Zygons (4, Sarah Jane, Harry, Brigadier, Benton) It's the Loch Ness monster! And weird rubber chameleon aliens. They are Not messing around. It's some good old fashioned mistaken identity shenanigans with The Scarf Doctor and friends! 206. The Brain Of Morbius (4, Sarah Jane, Sisters of Karn) It's a Frankenstein's monster style adventure with Scarf Doctor and Sarah Jane. The lovely Sisterhood of Karn will be reappearing a few times in this continuity, and their first appearance is a fun one. This episode has it all: buggy aliens, a wrecked spaceship, and an assistant with a hook hand! 207. The Hand Of Fear (4, Sarah Jane) A criminal in stasis has his pod blown up but his hand survives (this part of the season has some serious George Lucas vibes), and causes chaos for Scarf Doctor and Sarah Jane. 208. The Long Game (9, Rose, Adam) The Leather Doctor and his companions end up on a sattelite that broadcasts TV shows to Earth and other planets. But it's bad. TV bad. 209. Vengeance On Varos (7, Peri) A corrupt government uses TV to broadcast public executions to entertain the masses. It's not long before The Overdressed Doctor and his companion end up on the chopping block. 210. Dot and Bubble (15, Ruby, Susan Triad) If TV is bad, wait until you see The Crying Doctor's take on social media. A planet of influencers is being targeted by a species of monsters that they can't seem to be aware of. (No, it's not The Weeping Angels.) 211. The Empty Child (9, Rose, Jack Harkness) It's London in the Blitz, and The Leather Doctor and Rose encounter a small child in a gas mask obsessed with finding his mommy. Is there something demonic at work, or is it alien in nature? They also meet another time traveler. 212. The Doctor Dances (9, Rose, Jack Harkness) Continuing from the last episode, we learn more about the people wearing gas masks, as well as Jack Harkness. 213. The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (1, Susan Foreman, Barbara, Ian, Daleks) In a dystopian future, Daleks have settled on Earth and completely subjugate the human race. Fussy Doctor, his grandaughter, and the companions he abducted last season must survive in this world, at least until they can get the TARDIS to take them away. 214. A Girl's Best Friend (Sarah Jane, K-9) In the last episode, The Fussy Doctor abandoned a companion when she wasn't doing precisely what he wanted. Earlier this season, The Scarf Doctor abandoned a companion who wanted to leave. Now we catch up with Sarah Jane when she receives a package from The Scarf Doctor, which contains a robotic dog that will help her solve a very Scooby Doo like mystery in her life back on Earth. 215. Bad Wolf (9, Rose, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Jackie, Daleks) The Leather Doctor, Rose, and Jack Harkness are ensnared by the TV satellite from earlier this season. Only now it's being run by Daleks! 216. The Parting Of Ways (9, Rose, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Jackie, Daleks) Everything looks especially bleak, so The Doctor sends Rose back to Earth while he and Jack battle the Daleks. Only Rose refuses to be separated from The Doctor and gets her mother and boyfriend to help her get back to the space station. 217. School Reunion (10, Rose, Sarah Jane, Mickey, K-9) While on a mission to figure out some strange goings on at a British school, The Smiling Doctor and his crew run into Sarah Jane who is also investigating the school. How will she react to this much later face of The Doctor who abandoned her so long ago (from both their perspectives). 218. Rise Of The Cybermen (10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, Cybermen) The Smiling Doctor, Rose, and Mickey accidentally pass through dimensions and land on an alternate Earth where Rose's father is alive and is involved in the creation of Earth's version of The Cybermen. 219. Age Of Steel (10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, Cybermen) The Smiling Doctor and friends must stop The Cybermen they encountered in the last episode from taking over Earth and turning all the humans into a new type of Cybermen. 220. Inferno (3, Brigadier, Jo, Timelords) While we're crossing universes and dimensions, The Kung Fu Doctor stumbles into an approximation of Star Trek's Mirrorverse, where everything is diamatercially opposed to what it's like in our universe. There, an environmental catastrophe looms and The Doctor can't convince anyone to listen to him. When he returns to our dimension, he encounters a similar problem. 221. Resurrection Of The Daleks (5, Tegan, Turlough, Davros, Daleks) When The Cricket Doctor once again encounters the genocidal trash cans who've been haunting The Doctor all season, he decides that this time, he's going to kill Davros in order to protect the universe, which causes one of his companions to decide to leave. 222. 73 Yards (Ruby, Susan Triad, 15, Kate Lethebridge-Stewart, Carla, Cheery) The Crying Doctor's companion gets separated from The Doctor on Earth, where she is followed by a woman who is always 73 yards behind her. Whenever this woman speaks to someone, they become horrified and refuse to speak to Ruby ever again. This includes her family, and UNIT, who initially plan on helping her. 223. The Girl Who Waited (11, Amy, Rory) The Bowtie Doctor and Rory are separated from Amy while waiting to take a holiday. Amy is put in an accelerate timestream and is much older when Rory comes to rescue her. 224. Army Of Ghosts (10, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Daleks, Cybermen, Torchwood) The Smiling Doctor and Rose check in on regular old Earth and discover that humanity has grown accustomed to visits from ghosts, who stop in on a schedule, which people seem to find comfort in. Only they're not ghosts at all but Cybermen breaking in from another universe. When The Doctor is approached by an organization called Torchwood to help discover what the Cybermen are up to, Rose finds a sphere that contains The Daleks who survived Bad Wolf. 225. Doomsday (10, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, Daleks, Cybermen, Torchwood) There are come genuinely funny moments when the invading Daleks and the invading Cybermen interact while trying to take down Torchwood but it's otherwise a dire affair as The Doctor realizes he and his crew create the problem when they broke into the alternate world way back in "Rise Of The Cybermen." The only way to stop both invasions is to close the barrier forever. Having been watching Doctor Who on and off but mostly off for the last forty years, I am excited by the current re-re-rebooted series featuring the fourteenth and fifteenth doctors. After a divisive Twelfth Doctor, and a Thirteenth Doctor who was, herself, very interesting and entertaining, but whose overall storyarc was less than satisfying, I'm relieved to be optimistic about the show, even if it still had a couple of clunker episodes. I've already done a How To Watch Doctor Who project that focuses just on the great episodes, and how to watch them in order for most enjoyment. This is something different. If you love continuity, you're going to either want to skip this one or watch it very, very closely. This is Doctor Who told incredibly out of order. Each series will have a theme and/or a complex storyline. Each season will use multiple Doctors and companions, and will rarely (but not never) follow their adventures in such a way that you see a companion's growth as a character. I did this, not just because I think it's fun to try and experience the series in a new way but I offer this to people who haven't watched Doctor Who, who would like to see some of the old episodes but can't stomach watching the 20th century episodes for several months in order to get to the modern stuff. We start modern and bop around so that you're never stuck in the black and white era or the 4,000 minute long serial era for very long. The first season is all about learning who The Doctor is. He's a seemingly somewhat immortal time traveler, and when he gets really ill, he regenerates into an entirely different looking/behaving person who tend to have a sort of temporary amnesia. We're going to be introduced to the first thirteen Doctors (except 4) in this season, out of order, usually including their first episodes where they are unsure what kind of person they are and struggle to get a handle on their new personas. 101. Blink (10, Martha, Weeping Angels) Some argue that this a terrible introduction to Doctor Who because The Doctor is hardly in it. That's why I enjoy it as an entryway. This is a fun sci-fi/horror story with a mysterious character who we're soon going to get to know. And there are really imaginative monster antagonists. We'll call this face of The Doctor, The Smiling Doctor. 102 & 103. The Family Of Blood / Human Nature (10, Martha) Now we find out who The Doctor i---oh, The Smiling Doctor has to go into hiding during World War One. His companion is there watching over him but racism is making things difficult. As are aliens. 104. Time Heist (12, Clara) Meet The Grouchy Doctor. He and a new companion find themselves in the middle of a bank heist with no memory of how they got involved and what their aims are. They puzzle it out as shenanigans unravel around them. 105. The Woman Who Fell To Earth (13, Ryan, Yasmin, Graham) The Steampunk Doctor crashes to Earth and acknowledges she was just a raving Scotsman (aka The Grouchy Doctor). She meets a new crew of potential companions tracking down a monster who appears to be hunting humans for...teeth? 106. The Invasion (episodes 2, 7 & 8) (2, Jamie, Zoe, Brigadier, Cybermen) It's Cybermen vs UNIT (we are meeting both for the first time), as a black and white era Doctor (The Flute Doctor) must make military alliances on Earth to keep it from being destroyed. 107. War Games (2, Jamie, Zoe, Timelords) The Flute Doctor and his companions find themselves in the midst of a very confusing war. Just as they begin to sort everything out and plot their escape they're taken to The Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. While The Timelords (The Doctor's race) keep everyone separated, we learn a little bit about how The Doctor's face keeps changing. 108. Spearhead From Space (3, Brigadier, Liz, Autons) Picking up from the previous episode for the first time, we meet Kung Fu Doctor, and see him interact with someone who was familiar with The Flute Doctor and is confused as to why he looks and sounds so different. We also meet the Autons, an odd race of mannequins. 109. Terror Of The Autons (3, Brigadier, Jo, Mike, Autons, The Master) More mannequins! More Brigadier! The introduction of another Timelord called The Master. 110. Rose (9, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Autons) We follow The Autons to twenty-first century London, where their plans intertwine with The Doctor's, just as he has been regenerated into The Leather Doctor. He meets a woman named Rose, who he invites to be his new companion. 111. The Christmas Invasion (10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Harriet Jones) Oh, hey, it's The Smiling Doctor again! Only, oooh, this is his first adventure with that face. Rose and some friends we met in the last episode help a seemingly exhausted Smiling Doctor remember who he is and what he should be doing: saving Earth from aliens! 112. The Eleventh Hour (12, Amy, Rory) The Bowtie Doctor, also confused, lands on Earth and discovers cracks on a young girl's wall. As he and a potential new companion investigate the cause of the cracks, he scares off some aliens by revealing several of the faces he's already had on this weird journey. 113. & 114. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (12, Amy, Rory, Silurians) The Bowtie Doctor's companions from the last adventure join him on a drilling expedition where they go too far beneath The Earth's surface and get involved in interspecies warfare. 115. Vincent & The Doctor (12, Amy) After the previous episode's events, The Bowtie Doctor takes Amy to visit one of Earth's greatest painters. 116 & 117. Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead (10, Donna, River) The Smiling Doctor and a friend are drawn to a library where an expedition has arrived to research why there are no people there. One of the members of the expedition seems to know The Smiling Doctor but he has no idea who she is. 118. Time Crash / Castrovalva (10, 5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master) This is a fun, weird continuity floof. Our friend the Smiling Doctor runs into a face we haven't met yet: The Cricket Doctor. They suss each other out. Then we follow The Cricket Doctor into his first adventure where he wakes up surrounded by companions who know him but, as we're becoming accustomed to, he isn't sure who he is or what he should be doing. Oh, and The Master is around, which is annoying. 119. The Enemy Within (7, 8, The Master) Two new faces in one! The Umbrella Doctor has The Master's remains, and is trying to determine what to do with them when, of course, something goes awry that ends up causing The Doctor to regenerate in America where everything is a teensy bit darker and more violent, and we meet The Goth Doctor. 120. The Fugitive Of The Judoon (13, Yasmin, Ryan, Graham, Judoon, Fugitive) And now we're back to the Steampunk Doctor. A military alien race has quarantined Earth as they search for a criminal who, you're never going to believe this, turns out to be The Fugitive Doctor. 121. The Two Doctors (6, 2, Jamie, Peri, Sontarans) Another multiple Doctor affair, featuring The Flute Doctor and The Overdressed Doctor, sees some Sontarans and some Earthlings and some other rogue aliens teaming up. One of the alien races is always searching for new and more refined culinary experiences and they bring a very silly element to an otherwise grave situation. 122. War Of The Sontarans (13, Yasmin, Dan, Sontarans) There's not a silly culinary alien in sight when The Sontarans due to some weird timey-wimey scenario, end up on Earth during World War One and therefore on Earth for the entirety of the 20th and 21st century? Steampunk Doctor must try and correct a very jumbled history. 123. & 124. The Time Meddler (1, Vicki, Steve) Reaching way back into the black and white era, we meet The Fussy Doctor and his companions. Another time traveler, The Meddling Monk, is messing up history by exposing ancient civilizations to twentieth century technology. 125. An Unearthly Child (1, Susan Foreman, Barbara, Ian) This is actually the first episode of the original run of Doctor Who. A teenage girl is followed home by concerned teachers who discover that she lives in a dump with her grandfather, The Fussy Doctor, who then abducts them to take them on adventures in space and time. If we know each other in real life, or if we are friends on social media, you know I am a huge fan of Doctor Who, in general. I'm critical of parts of it, but, for the most part, as long as I don't see Mark Gatiss's name as the writer of an episode, I go into it with an open mind. I was incredibly excited for the Thirteenth Doctor. I like Jodie Whitaker as an actor, and I enjoyed the first season of Chris Chibnall's Broadchurch (I haven't seen the other seasons). I, uh. I don't love it. I love Jodie Whitaker as The Doctor. I love some of the risks they've taken in the interest of writing a more progressive series. I like the idea of the companions. But ... it took me years to be able to finish an honest Twelfth Season comprised only of episodes that I like. Chibnall's take on the characters is Super Clunky. His companions are rarely given enough time to be interesting, and his Doctor never quite figures out who she is, which didn't work when Moffat/Capaldi tried it for a single season a few years ago, and it didn't work for Chibnall/Whittaker. But in November 2019, I started rewatching the modern Doctor Who episodes with my partner. And I used this series of blog posts as a guide. It's been great, and helpful. I had made some mistakes in episode selection when I created the original list, and we would watch a Not So Great episode, talk about why it didn't work, and then I'd find an episode that I'd previously left off, and update the list. I stand by the current incarnation of this list. And I'm glad through three full seasons, I was finally able to get ten episodes that I enjoyed watching. Even if it took until the final episode to reach that number. Season 12: Flux |
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