Also, Shaun is in for a very awkward email exchange in about a fortnight when he has to inform TfL Taxi & Private Hire that he’s just got 3 points and a £100 fine for driving the wrong way down Camden High Street. He can’t even blame the Doctor, because he’s already clearly come the wrong way through the junction of Chalk Farm Road and Castlehaven Road to be facing that way in the first place. Shocking behaviour. TfL “expects the very highest standards from Licensed London Taxi Drivers”.
I was the same for this - too stressed to enjoy it. I got the whole family in to watch and made a big thing about turning off lights and everyone being quiet etc, only to spend the whole time worrying if it was any good and if my eldest would leave and if my husband thought it was cheesy.
I haven’t watched it back yet but I’m pretty confident I’ll enjoy it on the second watch. I thought Catherine Tate was excellent but I think I’ve always struggled with RTD on-the-nose tendencies and there were moments that truly made me squirm. I was weirdly reluctant to enjoy the extra budget too - until I saw the new TARDIS (although why has the St John’s Ambulance badge vanished off the front?)
Anyway I’m looking forward to watching it again with my youngest without the stress.
Regarding the concrete moment: I think they recorded the bit where Donna’s bloke corrects the Doctor and explains it is lime mortar in post. I reckon someone pointed out that it’s not concrete and they knew they’d get letters. So that’s why it lands so weirdly. Presumably, they had different lines before that. (That’s what I suspect anyway)
I made UNIT as being on the south east corner of Gracechurch and Leadenhall - Lloyds is opposite the Cheesegrater and UNIT definitely looks further west. I knew if anyone else cared about this, it would be you.
I thought the "male-presenting timelord" line was a bit too much, but I've warmed up on it now that I've realized RTD is just trying to make a very strong first impression and get anyone who'd wanna complain about "woke" to tune out right away.
Still, you're right, it's not really that it's because the Doctor was a man that he messed up with Donna, it's because he was a Timelord. 10's recurring fatal flaw was that he was way too clever for his own good - Midnight is essentially the story of the time he talked himself into a hole while a bunch of normal humans watched.
Donna essentially going "yeah I'm just gonna let the Timelord out of my head", and that being something that 10 would never have thought of fits perfectly! He'd struggle to see that anyone wouldn't want all that phenomenal cosmic knowledge.
In my head, it's basically the reversal of the old "this scanner needs three fingers!" "...you've got three fingers" bit.
Anyway, Catherine Tate is an absolute delight. Her comedy work has always been about playing aggressively boring, perhaps even "cringe", average Britons, which made the role of Donna fit her like a glove. And then it turns out it works even better when she's a mum now.
The fact Donna got fired from her job for spilling coffee on an important work computer is funny. This being used to set up her shorting out the TARDIS console is really funny. But Tate's specific delivery of "aahhhh no, I've done it again!" is what elevates the joke into me cackling.
Oh! And speaking of the TARDIS, nice that after that semi-canon minisode where RTD went on record saying it was a bit outdated to have Davros, a villain, be one of the series' only disabled/wheelchair using characters, it's fantastic that this episode gives us UNIT's science consultant in a fancy, tricked out wheelchair, with dumb spy gadgets.
...and a TARDIS that seems suspiciously wide open, ramp based, and wheelchair accessible. She'll be back I reckon.
Agree that the male-presenting time lord bit came off as a bit gender essentialist, not to mention baffling that the Doctor, who has literally just changed gender, is described as binary. But I'm willing to forgive the clumsiness because they absolutely nailed it with Donna as a fiercely protective mother of a trans kid, and it's just delightful how everyone can't shut up about how beautiful and amazing Rose Noble is. If it was this soapboxy every time it would get old but what a way to bring the show back.
What made it work for me was that it was the culmination of two stories - both Donna and Sylvia - as they realise that they no longer have to be so "protective" of their daughters. It's most obvious with the Donna part (so she starts out saying she will call the mother of the son who just deadnamed Rose, but eventually voluntarily gives up the Time Lord power along with Rose), but it's there with Sylvia as well (she starts out angrily scared that the Doctor will kill Donna just by turning up, but eventually understands when Donna wants one last trip.)
That very much felt like an late add-on and looked terrible. Perhaps it was necessary for much of the audience, but the episode would have been better without it.
I enjoyed 'The Star Beast', not least because I own the original comics from which the story was drawn. If it was whimsical rather than emphatic, and defiantly progressive rather than superbly plotted, then it was at least well told and resolutely aimed at a family audience - which is what the best Who is all about.
Tennant inhabited the role as if he had never been away, as did Tate, which is a testament to both of them, while the new TARDIS interior was a glorious homage to the show's past. It was enough.
While Chibnall always managed to irritate me with excessive preaching, RTD, emboldened in his late middle years, can still tell a story.
As long as he can, the show will see another five to ten years, although hubris is a terrible thing for long-running Who showrunners. Just ask JNT. For now, it's enough that he, Tennant, and Tate, are back.
Oh I meant how Rose is a superhero until she sees the Doctor, then becomes a gooey little girl and needs to be bundled off with a David Tennant-shaped sex toy
Also, Shaun is in for a very awkward email exchange in about a fortnight when he has to inform TfL Taxi & Private Hire that he’s just got 3 points and a £100 fine for driving the wrong way down Camden High Street. He can’t even blame the Doctor, because he’s already clearly come the wrong way through the junction of Chalk Farm Road and Castlehaven Road to be facing that way in the first place. Shocking behaviour. TfL “expects the very highest standards from Licensed London Taxi Drivers”.
classic Nick
I was the same for this - too stressed to enjoy it. I got the whole family in to watch and made a big thing about turning off lights and everyone being quiet etc, only to spend the whole time worrying if it was any good and if my eldest would leave and if my husband thought it was cheesy.
I haven’t watched it back yet but I’m pretty confident I’ll enjoy it on the second watch. I thought Catherine Tate was excellent but I think I’ve always struggled with RTD on-the-nose tendencies and there were moments that truly made me squirm. I was weirdly reluctant to enjoy the extra budget too - until I saw the new TARDIS (although why has the St John’s Ambulance badge vanished off the front?)
Anyway I’m looking forward to watching it again with my youngest without the stress.
Regarding the concrete moment: I think they recorded the bit where Donna’s bloke corrects the Doctor and explains it is lime mortar in post. I reckon someone pointed out that it’s not concrete and they knew they’d get letters. So that’s why it lands so weirdly. Presumably, they had different lines before that. (That’s what I suspect anyway)
I made UNIT as being on the south east corner of Gracechurch and Leadenhall - Lloyds is opposite the Cheesegrater and UNIT definitely looks further west. I knew if anyone else cared about this, it would be you.
I thought the "male-presenting timelord" line was a bit too much, but I've warmed up on it now that I've realized RTD is just trying to make a very strong first impression and get anyone who'd wanna complain about "woke" to tune out right away.
Still, you're right, it's not really that it's because the Doctor was a man that he messed up with Donna, it's because he was a Timelord. 10's recurring fatal flaw was that he was way too clever for his own good - Midnight is essentially the story of the time he talked himself into a hole while a bunch of normal humans watched.
Donna essentially going "yeah I'm just gonna let the Timelord out of my head", and that being something that 10 would never have thought of fits perfectly! He'd struggle to see that anyone wouldn't want all that phenomenal cosmic knowledge.
In my head, it's basically the reversal of the old "this scanner needs three fingers!" "...you've got three fingers" bit.
Anyway, Catherine Tate is an absolute delight. Her comedy work has always been about playing aggressively boring, perhaps even "cringe", average Britons, which made the role of Donna fit her like a glove. And then it turns out it works even better when she's a mum now.
The fact Donna got fired from her job for spilling coffee on an important work computer is funny. This being used to set up her shorting out the TARDIS console is really funny. But Tate's specific delivery of "aahhhh no, I've done it again!" is what elevates the joke into me cackling.
Oh! And speaking of the TARDIS, nice that after that semi-canon minisode where RTD went on record saying it was a bit outdated to have Davros, a villain, be one of the series' only disabled/wheelchair using characters, it's fantastic that this episode gives us UNIT's science consultant in a fancy, tricked out wheelchair, with dumb spy gadgets.
...and a TARDIS that seems suspiciously wide open, ramp based, and wheelchair accessible. She'll be back I reckon.
Agree that the male-presenting time lord bit came off as a bit gender essentialist, not to mention baffling that the Doctor, who has literally just changed gender, is described as binary. But I'm willing to forgive the clumsiness because they absolutely nailed it with Donna as a fiercely protective mother of a trans kid, and it's just delightful how everyone can't shut up about how beautiful and amazing Rose Noble is. If it was this soapboxy every time it would get old but what a way to bring the show back.
What made it work for me was that it was the culmination of two stories - both Donna and Sylvia - as they realise that they no longer have to be so "protective" of their daughters. It's most obvious with the Donna part (so she starts out saying she will call the mother of the son who just deadnamed Rose, but eventually voluntarily gives up the Time Lord power along with Rose), but it's there with Sylvia as well (she starts out angrily scared that the Doctor will kill Donna just by turning up, but eventually understands when Donna wants one last trip.)
this is a great insight! thank you. something I've missed about RTD or Moffat Who is this level of richness to discuss
Re the pre-credits sequence ISTR reading an RTD quote that there was a note from Disney which improved e1, so I’m reasonably sure that was it.
That very much felt like an late add-on and looked terrible. Perhaps it was necessary for much of the audience, but the episode would have been better without it.
I enjoyed 'The Star Beast', not least because I own the original comics from which the story was drawn. If it was whimsical rather than emphatic, and defiantly progressive rather than superbly plotted, then it was at least well told and resolutely aimed at a family audience - which is what the best Who is all about.
Tennant inhabited the role as if he had never been away, as did Tate, which is a testament to both of them, while the new TARDIS interior was a glorious homage to the show's past. It was enough.
While Chibnall always managed to irritate me with excessive preaching, RTD, emboldened in his late middle years, can still tell a story.
As long as he can, the show will see another five to ten years, although hubris is a terrible thing for long-running Who showrunners. Just ask JNT. For now, it's enough that he, Tennant, and Tate, are back.
PS: Give McGann his own spin-off series.
Can I be dumb and ask who the other companion in season 4 was who lost their agency because of the Doctor?
Oh I meant how Rose is a superhero until she sees the Doctor, then becomes a gooey little girl and needs to be bundled off with a David Tennant-shaped sex toy
The coffee was such a perfect comic example of shot, chaser - I keep cackling every time I watch it!
I do not understand the finances of UNIT.