I thought this episode was great, one of my favourites from this Doctor so far.
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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from this Doctor so far.
Because otherwise it's Blink.
Blink
I'm salty that the promotion for this episode focussed so much on that one scene of animated Doctor and Belinda and then it turned out to be basically just them standing in that same spot for a bit and it's super easy barely an inconvenience to become un-animated. I thought this would be the point, to have an animated episode! Maaaan...
Not the episode's fault though.
Honestly I think that was a great tactic on the marketing front. I was expecting the second half to be animated so when they get out of it, I was wondering where we could go from there and turns out the answer is make the villain a Kaiju which I wasn't expecting at all. Been a long time since Doctor Who surprised me.
And pitch meeting references are tight
Having not seen any promos the animated but was great! It was short so I can totally see how if you were anticipating it, it just sorta happens for a moment and then it's on to the larger fourth wall break.
Yeah, it's why I usually avoid promo for stuff that I'm going to watch anyway. Also why RTD's incessant overhyping of upcoming episodes gets on my nerves so bad. Nothing could ever be as good as he makes it sound, it's bound to be disappointing.
Initial thought:
- Strong start
- I like the idea of bouncing around time and space trying to get back to Earth. Reminds me of the Key To Time saga, as well as the subsequent episodes where The Doctor and Romana were using the randomiser.
- After some brief research into 1950s Miami, it would seem the three characters who interact with The Doctor and Belinda are a lot more friendly and progressive than they likely would have been in real life. Of course, progressive white people did exist back then, and the characters were important for exposition, but it would possibly have been better to cast people of colour in some or all of these roles. Of course, I am not well-versed in what life was like back then, so any corrections would be appreciated.
- The bit where they go into the film was a bit weird, especially with the very literal 4th wall break. Not too bad, though.
- Another member of The Pantheon? It's a neat idea for an overarching "big bad", but I never liked the whole harbinger thing.
- Overall, it was okay. A bit weird, but it also had similar vibes to some of the '80s episodes.
- Next week's episode looks promising.
I don't think casting people of colour in those roles would be a good idea. You'd have to explain why Pye is allowed to work in a cinema, why diner guy is allowed to work in a diner, and why Tommy Lee is allowed to watch movies in the cinema, all in 1952, when we established that those are all white-only areas. It would complicate the story unnecessarily.
Fair enough.
In service to your point though, Davies ... wrote those characters to have those roles. He could have written different characters who would offer some insight into segregation from the other side, whether that meant replacing some of those characters or just adding more. The kid behind the counter at the diner would almost certainly be white, but it wouldn't be unusual for kitchen or cleaning staff to be black. It's not that hard to come up with a way to introduce one of these employees, especially late at night when the leads arrived.