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Okay, this one has generated such a lot of posts from me that I've given it its own tag - all posts here!
A couple of extra thoughts from this re-watch:
1. With hindsight, now we know all about the Timeless Child (well, sort of, possibly, a little), I do think Ruth!Doctor is supposed to be from one of the numerous regenerations before the First Doctor. Much as I love the popular idea of her fitting between Two and Three and then getting mindwiped, I don't think Chibnall's going for anything to do with Classic Who here. I think this is totally meant to fit in with the whole idea of the Doctor having had countless lives already before we ever met him. This is Chibnall going bigger and better and 'gotta be original'.
And the fact that she seems so much more like a modern day Doctor, and has a TARDIS disguised as a police box? Careless writing, I strongly suspect, by writers who forgot or simply didn't care that the police box disguise has always been attributed to the First Doctor's long sojourn in the 1960s. I suppose one could say that perhaps the Doctor had always liked 20th century Earth and had been spending time there way before the First Doctor and perhaps that's why the TARDIS decided it liked being a police box…
2. Chameleon arch – refreshing as it is these days not to be constantly bombarded by flashbacks of things that happened as recently as two minutes ago, I do find it interesting that they didn't slip any reminders in about what a chameleon arch actually is. I mean, I love that it was a surprise, even for those of us who know such things exist, but it's weird that there wasn't even a momentary flashback as the Doctor recalled chameleon arching herself as Ten or something, just to remind the average viewer of something that hasn't been referenced for over a decade!
3. Lee Clayton. Just who exactly is Lee? Some of the bits below are from what I wrote last time; some is new from new research.
a. He doesn't have a history. (Because he arrived with Ruth.)
b. He gets weird books out of the library. (To find out how to behave like a human? To try and research the Judoon?)
c. He has no reaction to the sound of the TARDIS materialising when he's in the café near the start. Which is weird as presumably Ruth!Doctor's TARDIS makes the same sound?
d. He's 'married' to Ruth, but I assume this is really just cover to help hide the Doctor. He's obviously very familiar with her and cares for her a lot but doesn't really seem to be in love with her – any more than the Doctor, rather than Ruth, appears to be in love with him, given that she doesn't seem to give him a second thought once she's back to herself and he's dead.
e. He looks after Ruth. He gets her home, he tells her to pack a bag, and when it's too late and the Judoon are coming he gets her out and stays behind himself as a diversion. I thought he was pretending to be her, and that Gat was pretending to think he was the Doctor, but the TARDIS wiki (https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Lee_Clayton) says the dialogue indicates that Gat was actually talking to him, that she knew him - there's the example of him reaching for the weapon in the drawer and her bringing up the fact that they trained together. Yet he registers as human and remembers too much to be another Chameleon-Arch'd Time Lord. The wiki says " he is certainly not of Earthly origins, as he bitterly comments on human behavior under his breath". So perhaps not Time Lord nor human but working with the Doctor on something?
f. He tells Ruth "I've made a mistake" when he's urging her to leave – I wonder what mistake that is. Something he's mucked up, in looking after her?
The way Chibnall's writing seems to go, with intriguing characters and plot points introduced and then never mentioned again, I doubt we're ever going to know any of this, which is frustrating to say the least!
A couple of extra thoughts from this re-watch:
1. With hindsight, now we know all about the Timeless Child (well, sort of, possibly, a little), I do think Ruth!Doctor is supposed to be from one of the numerous regenerations before the First Doctor. Much as I love the popular idea of her fitting between Two and Three and then getting mindwiped, I don't think Chibnall's going for anything to do with Classic Who here. I think this is totally meant to fit in with the whole idea of the Doctor having had countless lives already before we ever met him. This is Chibnall going bigger and better and 'gotta be original'.
And the fact that she seems so much more like a modern day Doctor, and has a TARDIS disguised as a police box? Careless writing, I strongly suspect, by writers who forgot or simply didn't care that the police box disguise has always been attributed to the First Doctor's long sojourn in the 1960s. I suppose one could say that perhaps the Doctor had always liked 20th century Earth and had been spending time there way before the First Doctor and perhaps that's why the TARDIS decided it liked being a police box…
2. Chameleon arch – refreshing as it is these days not to be constantly bombarded by flashbacks of things that happened as recently as two minutes ago, I do find it interesting that they didn't slip any reminders in about what a chameleon arch actually is. I mean, I love that it was a surprise, even for those of us who know such things exist, but it's weird that there wasn't even a momentary flashback as the Doctor recalled chameleon arching herself as Ten or something, just to remind the average viewer of something that hasn't been referenced for over a decade!
3. Lee Clayton. Just who exactly is Lee? Some of the bits below are from what I wrote last time; some is new from new research.
a. He doesn't have a history. (Because he arrived with Ruth.)
b. He gets weird books out of the library. (To find out how to behave like a human? To try and research the Judoon?)
c. He has no reaction to the sound of the TARDIS materialising when he's in the café near the start. Which is weird as presumably Ruth!Doctor's TARDIS makes the same sound?
d. He's 'married' to Ruth, but I assume this is really just cover to help hide the Doctor. He's obviously very familiar with her and cares for her a lot but doesn't really seem to be in love with her – any more than the Doctor, rather than Ruth, appears to be in love with him, given that she doesn't seem to give him a second thought once she's back to herself and he's dead.
e. He looks after Ruth. He gets her home, he tells her to pack a bag, and when it's too late and the Judoon are coming he gets her out and stays behind himself as a diversion. I thought he was pretending to be her, and that Gat was pretending to think he was the Doctor, but the TARDIS wiki (https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Lee_Clayton) says the dialogue indicates that Gat was actually talking to him, that she knew him - there's the example of him reaching for the weapon in the drawer and her bringing up the fact that they trained together. Yet he registers as human and remembers too much to be another Chameleon-Arch'd Time Lord. The wiki says " he is certainly not of Earthly origins, as he bitterly comments on human behavior under his breath". So perhaps not Time Lord nor human but working with the Doctor on something?
f. He tells Ruth "I've made a mistake" when he's urging her to leave – I wonder what mistake that is. Something he's mucked up, in looking after her?
The way Chibnall's writing seems to go, with intriguing characters and plot points introduced and then never mentioned again, I doubt we're ever going to know any of this, which is frustrating to say the least!
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