Doctor Who (41) -2.02: Lux

[nixie]

This was a strange one, complete nonsense. The Doctor is unable to return Belinda to 2025 as they keep bouncing off the date. He decides to try another way and goes to 1952.

I'm not going to say much more but Mrs Flood appearing in USA 1952, leads me to wonder if I'm completely wrong about her being connected to River and now think she's really The Master.

 

[Dave]

This was a strange one, complete nonsense.

I haven't got around to seeing his yet and I'm doubtful that I will watch it today either as I'm busy with real life. However, one of the differences since the Disney deal is that the episodes are available to watch on that channel from early in the morning on the day they are released. So, all day yesterday, there were big spoilers, clips and comments on social media about this episode, with some even saying that this was "the best modern Doctor Who episode ever." This is quite at odds with what @nixie says, and as I respect the views of SFF Chrons members more than fake people of social media, this does make me a little curious to watch it. It just looks like Who Framed Roger Rabbit to me.

I'm not sure that inserting Mrs. Flood as an Easter Egg into every episode is such a great serial story idea either.

now think she's really The Master.

Wouldn't The Master prefer to lie low and quietly do her/his dastardly deeds rather that to deliberately provoke the Doctor, given that they always get trounced by him whenever they meet?

 

[Matteo]

So, all day yesterday, there were big spoilers, clips and comments on social media about this episode, with some even saying that this was "the best modern Doctor Who episode ever." This is quite at odds with what @nixie says, and as I respect the views of SFF Chrons members more than fake people of social media

Err...no. Just no.

Spoiler: that was...

Blink

(and that really is a spoiler - don't look at it).

As for the episode @nixie has it right.

Spoiler

It was weak. The chief villain was one of the gods of the pantheon but what did it do? Nothing except trap a few people on film and the Doctor and Belinda. There was no threat - to the Earth or Universe. He drained the Doctor for a bit (who recovered very quickly by the way) and that was it. The whole thing seemed like a way to be a bit "meta" and clever (though not that clever) with film effects. I would put it as one of the worst episodes of modern Doctor Who

Although I do hope @nixie is wrong re. Mrs Flood - that would be too convenient. A different, as yet unknown, character would be better.

Oh, and it was a few years too early for Roll Over Beethoven.

 

[Dave]

I've seen it now. Maybe the best episode of the Ncuti Gatwa era so far?

Blink

Do you think Davies holding some grudge against fans who like that episode best?

And maybe, instead of meeting three random nerdy fans, the Doctor and Belinda could have left that TV screen to enter a room where Davies was scribbling away screenwriting a script for next week's story. (Much like Eddie and Roland in Stephen King's Dark Tower novel, or Kilgore Trout in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, or John Self in Martin Amis' Money, or Dirk Pitt in a Clive Cussler novel.) Then they could have asked Davies directly why he writes so many social and political issues in his works of SFF, why Torchwood lost its way, and why he can't just write stories as good as Stephen Moffat like Blink?

As for the obsession with overnight ratings for the show, they only include Disney+ figures, and not iPlayer or even the Saturday BBC 1 figures, so any comparison with the ratings of earlier episodes is quite meaningless. Apparently, this episode, which seems to be well received (nobody will agree on everything) was 2 million viewers down on the previous week, however it's streamed and it's a holiday weekend in the UK. You can watch streamed TV anytime you wish to.

 

[REBerg]

Doesn't every cartoon want to be a man?
Hmm. I'd be more inclined to believe the opposite, Mr Ring-a-Ding.

Beyond that, this episode raised another question in my mind: Is Disney where franchises go to die?

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I'm beginning to suspect that Ncuti has it written into his contract that in every episode he has to shed a tear

As for this episode - meh! As I said in the thread asking about the Disney Who link up "It will be a triumph of special effects over plot."

"the best modern Doctor Who episode ever."

It's not even the best in this series, and there's only been two episodes!

 

[farntfar]

Doesn't every cartoon want to be a man?

We know from so many television series, that everything period wants to be a man (or at least a boy.) Whether they're a cartoon, a puppet, a Vulcan, an android, an other type of alien, a slug, a transformer or just a woman.
And men want to be "real" men. And then they want to go back to the 70s when they could be butch and hit each other without shame.