Insta-reaction here: https://unfeathered.dreamwidth.org/378395.html
Right, I need to talk about the actual episode, not just the Fourteen/Fifteen thing. I’m not sure how much I really have to say about it, actually. The story as a whole didn’t really grab me, and I actually sighed when the Doctor and Donna got sucked inside the Toymaker’s realm. At least that didn’t last too long, though the whole thing about them getting separated by a door was just so obviously going to happen! I was yelling at them to stay together, hold hands or something, don’t leave her behind! Again, at least it didn’t last long, though the attack of the dolls was ridiculously creepy.
Loved the whole Spice Girls bit. That was hilarious, whilst also being rather chilling. Very Simm!Mastery. (Perhaps the Master was exerting influence through the gold tooth.)
More Mastery vibes in the Doctor’s appeal to the Toymaker to go and play/fight elsewhere, which felt incredibly like his appeal to Simm!Master way back when! Not sure if that was an intentional rip-off but it didn’t work nearly as well here because obviously he has nowhere near the history with the Toymaker that he has with the Master!
I haven’t got much else to say yet about Neil Patrick Harris. He was very good in the role, but I felt he didn’t really get the chance to shine as much as I’d expected from all the hype? I don’t know, perhaps I’ll notice more on a rewatch.
Random note: I totally felt like I expected to see Crowley and Aziraphale in the Toymaker’s shop rather than the Doctor! I wonder if DT got confused about which role he was playing?
Okay, onto the regeneration, then. I have to admit that my main thought as it began was “I hope we don’t get ‘I don’t want to go’ again”, and we DIDN’T! It was nice to see that the Doctor had grown as much as he’d seemed to in the last couple of episodes, what makes him different as Fourteen, and that this time he was finally okay with ‘going’. Even if, in the end, he didn’t.
Still not sure what to think of DT now being the Doctor for as long as anyone wants him to be, but I guess if it’s kept for special occasions that could be cool. I saw someone suggest that he might turn up in the Disney UNIT spinoff that's apparently happening, which would make a lot of sense given that Donna's just accepted a job with them. (And I loved Donna casually doubling the asking price for a job at UNIT and getting it accepted. You go girl!)
Also, it was Fourteen’s new TARDIS that got the wheelchair ramp, wasn’t it? Just for Shirley in her wheelchair? :-D I have to say, I wasn’t looking forward to a UNIT spinoff, as I find Kate Stewart just incredibly boring to watch (Osgood had so much more energy, but she seems to have disappeared) but with Shirley, Donna, Mel and potentially a bit of Fourteen, that suddenly seems a LOT more interesting!
Also, is this now a whole newSlayerDoctor line or is it a one-off? I also saw someone suggest that once Fourteen’s ‘rehab’ is done he’ll just fold back into the timeline and emerge as Fifteen? But anyway it’s totally reminding me of the whole “there’s a whole new Slayer line running through Faith now” thing! (And I have also seen it mentioned that of course this line could be the one that returned to Tom Baker’s face in The Day of the Doctor.)
If, possibly, this is the last we see of Fourteen, I rather love that he ends with dinner with his friends – the very thing that Ten ran away from in his very first episode (Christmas dinner with Jackie and Rose). Full circle – neat. How sad was it that Bernard Cribbins couldn't be there, though? :-(
P.S. Over the years, I have written soooo many fics and roleplay threads that have had to make assumptions about what kind of underwear the Doctor wears. Now, at last, it is canon. :-D
P.P.S. The gravity/mavity thing never got resolved, did it?
ETA: comments in![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astrogirl's review (as usual): here
And inshivver's review: here
Right, I need to talk about the actual episode, not just the Fourteen/Fifteen thing. I’m not sure how much I really have to say about it, actually. The story as a whole didn’t really grab me, and I actually sighed when the Doctor and Donna got sucked inside the Toymaker’s realm. At least that didn’t last too long, though the whole thing about them getting separated by a door was just so obviously going to happen! I was yelling at them to stay together, hold hands or something, don’t leave her behind! Again, at least it didn’t last long, though the attack of the dolls was ridiculously creepy.
Loved the whole Spice Girls bit. That was hilarious, whilst also being rather chilling. Very Simm!Mastery. (Perhaps the Master was exerting influence through the gold tooth.)
More Mastery vibes in the Doctor’s appeal to the Toymaker to go and play/fight elsewhere, which felt incredibly like his appeal to Simm!Master way back when! Not sure if that was an intentional rip-off but it didn’t work nearly as well here because obviously he has nowhere near the history with the Toymaker that he has with the Master!
I haven’t got much else to say yet about Neil Patrick Harris. He was very good in the role, but I felt he didn’t really get the chance to shine as much as I’d expected from all the hype? I don’t know, perhaps I’ll notice more on a rewatch.
Random note: I totally felt like I expected to see Crowley and Aziraphale in the Toymaker’s shop rather than the Doctor! I wonder if DT got confused about which role he was playing?
Okay, onto the regeneration, then. I have to admit that my main thought as it began was “I hope we don’t get ‘I don’t want to go’ again”, and we DIDN’T! It was nice to see that the Doctor had grown as much as he’d seemed to in the last couple of episodes, what makes him different as Fourteen, and that this time he was finally okay with ‘going’. Even if, in the end, he didn’t.
Still not sure what to think of DT now being the Doctor for as long as anyone wants him to be, but I guess if it’s kept for special occasions that could be cool. I saw someone suggest that he might turn up in the Disney UNIT spinoff that's apparently happening, which would make a lot of sense given that Donna's just accepted a job with them. (And I loved Donna casually doubling the asking price for a job at UNIT and getting it accepted. You go girl!)
Also, it was Fourteen’s new TARDIS that got the wheelchair ramp, wasn’t it? Just for Shirley in her wheelchair? :-D I have to say, I wasn’t looking forward to a UNIT spinoff, as I find Kate Stewart just incredibly boring to watch (Osgood had so much more energy, but she seems to have disappeared) but with Shirley, Donna, Mel and potentially a bit of Fourteen, that suddenly seems a LOT more interesting!
Also, is this now a whole new
If, possibly, this is the last we see of Fourteen, I rather love that he ends with dinner with his friends – the very thing that Ten ran away from in his very first episode (Christmas dinner with Jackie and Rose). Full circle – neat. How sad was it that Bernard Cribbins couldn't be there, though? :-(
P.S. Over the years, I have written soooo many fics and roleplay threads that have had to make assumptions about what kind of underwear the Doctor wears. Now, at last, it is canon. :-D
P.P.S. The gravity/mavity thing never got resolved, did it?
ETA: comments in
astrogirl's review (as usual): hereAnd in
shivver's review: hereTags: