Rate And Discuss: the Power Of The Doctor

[Philipnet]

Rate And Discuss: the Power Of The Doctor

In this feature-length Special to mark her last adventure, Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor must fight for her very existence, against her deadliest enemies: the Daleks, the Cybermen and her arch-nemesis, the Master

Who is attacking a speeding bullet train on the edges of a distant galaxy?
Why are seismologists going missing from 21st century Earth?
Who is defacing some of history’s most iconic paintings?
Why is a Dalek trying to make contact with the Doctor?
And just what hold does the mesmeric Rasputin have over Tsar Nicholas in 1916 Russia?


The Doctor faces multiple threats…and a battle to the death

[Leamington]

I found this episode one of her greatest, namely fighting all three foes at once, yet never understanding the why of it all. We got to see old faces and Ace was the first companion I had seen in my younger days. But with the reboot and Russell coming back as a scriptwriter, I think that Chibnell had left a hard decision for the following doctor to go to the front.

Although we get to spend some time with an old face, David Tennant.

I thought from the start that since the cybermen were Gallifreyan descendants that the master will be in this one. Just that he had absorbed the quicksilver yet was dumb enough to underestimate the power of her allies.

[Dino]

Some elements worked. Some didn't. Typical Doctor Who story!
Loved the Boney M sequence. But for the regeneration... Nothing! No feelings whatsoever. Which is crazy. I had a lump in throat for Eccleston. Teary eyed for Tennant's and Smith's departure.
Capaldi also produced warm hearted feelings. Yet for Jodie, her regeneration just didn't seem to do anything for me. I loved her run. She's left very big shoes to fill. Jodie's run had a lot more fun than you'd think from looking online. (Doctor Who and Cult TV forums are exactly the same old people with the same old profile names, making the same old moaning)
I liked a lot of this. One or two "That would have broke her neck!" thoughts.
But the regeneration was just a shrug.
Still! It's coming back next year. Really late next year. Hopefully we'll still have a country, let alone a planet to have survived on.
Can't give it any lower than 8. But would rather stick Flux on again if I felt like watching Jodie Whittaker.

[tony ingram]

Hey, we got Peter, Colin, Sylv and Paul back, plus five classic companions. That made it for me. And once again, McGann stole the show in just a single scene.

[Stuart Wallis]

Some elements worked. Some didn't.

That's certainly one way of putting it!

It largely works if you can overlook the Chibnall loose ends, which we'll come onto.
Great decision to keep Dan's appearances to a minumum. Didn't like him from the word go, and he never got any better. (That said, I'm biased; I can't stand John Bishop.)
Wonderful to see Tegan and Ace back again. Some other wonderful cameos, particularly Sixie, Graham and particularly Ian.
Kate's attempted sacrifice was particularly poignant. Brilliant seeing the Cybermen marching down the stairs slowly. (You try marching down a spiral staircase in that clobber, mark you!)
Ooh! static!

Those were some of the good points. Sadly, 'tis ever easy to nitpick.
A minor one - not every viewer will remember or know Adric, much as it was worth the Doctor and Tegan sorting this out once and for all.
Boney M - normally, I couldn't help wondering why the Dalek and the cyberman would look at eachother like that, but under the circumstances...
The intergalactic tube train isn't a bad way of using hyperspace or wormholes in the series, but it suggests another case of Chibnall thinking of an idea but not thinking his way out of holes he's already dug for himself: namely, I'm going to assume that the universe is fixed now. Otherwise, where did the tube train come from?
On the same subject, who was the girl? Whether was the Timeless Child or not - I for one was expecting her to be - we never find out where she's from, why she's in that box or what happened to her, or the reason why the Doctor was trying to rescue her.
In short, this was the episode we were expecting Chibnall to finally clear up the loose ends from the Timeless Child saga and Flux, but apart from bringing Vinder back, decided not to touch either with a bargepole. It's one thing to have RTD offering little scraps in The End Of Time as suggestions for future storylines (The Woman and the police box in the church window); it's another thing entirely to set up a major storyline, insinuate you're going to explain everything away yourself, and leave your successors to clean up the mess when you don't. Any ideas, Russell...?
Oh, and where the hell did Mel come from at the end. Considering we last heard from her on another planet, in the future.... ( Where was Polly btw? Hope Anneke's all right.

Like the Whittaker/Chibnall period in general, as far as I'm concerned, the jury's still out.

[Andrew Curnow]

I enjoyed it. Storywise it developed well and had a few good twists and turns. I'm not totally sure why the Master's plan was going on in 1916 AND 2022, nor what happened to the 'seismology Master' after he was freed from the UNIT cell, but otherwise it was good.
The real delight though was in the details - the Master's reference s to Logopolis and Survival; Ace and Tegan; Graham's suddenly popping up, and his failure to work the psychic paper; the classic Doctors; the classic companions, celery, the recorder, the scarf... Lots of good stuff to enjoy.
As for the actual business of regeneration - after all the 'who will Jodie change into' debate online beforehand, I thought for a minute they were going to end on that glorious longshot of her bursting with energy and not show the next one at all. Would have been a very good ending, especially if the rumour that this might have originally been a Final episode is true.

[SiHart]

Well it was bloody good, wasn't it?

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Dirk Gently]

...who was the girl? Whether was the Timeless Child or not...

The little girl wasn't a little girl at all. She was a projection of the energy ball thing, a projection to stay hidden behind. The "energy ball" (Sorry, can't recall what the Doctor called it right now) is endangered & was trying to not be used in exactly the way the Master used it.

And the Timeless Child was/is the Doctor...I thought that was clear from previous series?

[Stuart Wallis]

And Chris Chibnall is unanimous in that!