The Fifteenth Doctor

His time as the Doctor was short-lived. Honestly I could have done with more Ncuti Gatwa, but for one reason or another there were only two seasons featuring the Fifteenth Doctor. While rewatching his stories on Disney Plus, waiting for news of whatever comes next, I figured it was as good a time as any to highlight this fantastic Doctor.

Series 14

Top Story: Dot and Bubble
Going into this episode, it appeared at a first glance to be about reliance on technology. First the absolutely pathetic inability of Lindy to walk five feet without assistance. The monster of this story was literally born out of AI learning to hate its users (this is why I try to include "please" and "thank you" when using ChatGPT). The cherry on top is the impact of racism in this story. Upon rewatch, you can see hints of prejudice... but to deny yourself saving because of prejudice... it blows me away.

Flop Story: The Devil’s Chord
On the heels of the Toymaker returning, RTD expanded his Pantheon to include a "god" of music. Maestro could have been a really good villain... but the episode just can across as cheesy and annoying to me. Especially with unnecessary "twist at the end".

Honorable Mention: The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death
The resolution of this story was basically the definition of Deus Ex Machina. Even as I rewatched, I'm not sure I completely understand the pseudo-science of how the Doctor defeated Sutekh by pulling him through the time stream. But regardless of how, the fact is that this story brought back a relatively minor villain (only appeared in one story of the Fourth Doctor era) and made him ferociously scary (modern CGI definitely helped with that).

Series 15

Top Story: Lucky Day
Irony that again my favorite story is one that barely features the Doctor. A good Doctor-lite story hits just right. Also I love seeing what happened to companions after leaving the TARDIS (like Martha in "The Sontaran Stratagem" or Sarah Jane in "School Reunion"). And what a villain! Conrad is the worst kind of creature: a prideful human. I wanted to like him, having seen Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric and in "A Dog's Way Home". But this episode shows what incredible range the actor has, portraying such a detestable villain.

Flop Story: The Well
I wanted so badly to love this episode. And I didn't hate it. But for a return of the Midnight entity, I wanted more. Also I didn't feel like the creature (whatever it was) behaved the same as during "Midnight" (granted it had been thousands of years). I don't know. When I heard the Midnight villain was back, I expected more.

Honorable: Wish World/The Reality War
As if the reveal and bigeneration of the Rani weren't enough, this story brought back two detestable villains: Omega and Conrad. The detestable man and the prideful Time Lord. However, like the season finale before... deus ex machina. And the claim that Time Lords can't have kids... that feels more controversial than the Timeless Child. Add to that forcing regeneration to save Belinda's fictious child... I don't know. Maybe RTD will make it feel right with the next Doctor?.

COMPANIONS:

Ruby The Church on Ruby Road - Empire of Death
Belinda     The Robot Revolution - The Reality War

Favorite Companion: I think my favorite thing about Ruby is how well she did on her own. "73 Yards" showed her determination and resilience (even if I don't completely understand what happened). Despite being traumatized in "Lucky Day", she bravely stood up against Conrad. And in "Wish World"/"The Reality War" she played an important part in getting the world back to reality. 

Least Favorite Companion: There was nothing wrong with Belinda until the very end. Her fixation with Poppy and the Doctor's forced regeneration to bring the little girl back kind of bugged me. As a parent, I can appreciate the grief. But Poppy wasn't real before reality was tampered with... so Belinda needed to grieve. That's important and human too. Until that point, Belinda was a nice change of pace, being a companion stuck with the Doctor instead of being infatuated with his adventures.

We don't know what's happening next with Doctor Who (except that there'll be next year's Christmas special and more to follow--Can't wait to see what Billie Piper is up to) but I'll happily rewatch whatever is available. Currently trying to catch up with TJ for our podcasting adventures. And we have The War Between the Land and the Sea to explore. Allons-y!  

10 Times the Doctor Visited America

The Doctor has been all over time and space. Though the Time Lord hasn’t traveled to the Revolutionary War or the signing of the Declaration of Independence (as far as we know), the Doctor has been to the United States a small number of times. So to celebrate the Fourth of July, let’s revisit some of the times the Doctor came stateside. 

The Chase

It was a brief visit while on the run from the Daleks, but the First Doctor and his companions briefly ended atop the Empire State Building. The TARDIS crew encountered Steven Taylor’s 20th Century American doppelgänger before flying off in the TARDIS again.

The Gunfighters

Every science fiction epic needs a cheesy western story apparently. I can’t exactly recommend this one as a good Doctor Who story (not just because it features Dodo) but it definitely covers plenty of western cliches. And all because the First Doctor had a toothache. 

TV Movie

Of course this story took place in San Francisco when Fox had a chance to produce the Eighth Doctor’s adventures. While the movie was obviously not picked up to be produced in America, it kept the franchise alive enough to be revived by the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. We’ll never know how the franchise would have been different if the movie had succeeded, but I would love to revisit the Doctor’s friends in California. 

Dalek

Bringing back the most iconic Doctor Who villain, the Ninth Doctor and Rose ended up in the near future (now in the past) in an underground vault near Salt Lake City. It showed a different side of Rose and the Dalek. Unfortunately, this story introduced us to the worst TARDIS companions since Dodo, the infamous Adam Mitchell. 

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

Despite this story featuring Spider-Man in New York City, it might be one of the cringiest and forgettable Dalek stories ever (except for maybe the Churchill one with the Dalek Power Rangers). Who’d have thought the Daleks would be involved in the construction of the Empire State Building? And just a few decades before the First Doctor would chance upon it. 

The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

We start out in Utah again before heading to the White House and the FBI. And a conspiracy involving the moon landing and the most forgettable aliens. It was the beginning of the mystery surrounding the Doctor’s supposed death. No other Doctor has visited the Oval Office and only the Eleventh Doctor could handle it with that amount of poise.

A Town Called Mercy

Unlike “The Gunfighters” this Western story was decently enjoyable. It wasn’t my favorite of the Eleventh Doctor stories by any means, but it was a fun adventure in Nevada towards the end of Amy and Rory’s time traveling in the TARDIS. And this story had an alien twist on the Western, unlike the First Doctor’s toothache. 

The Angels Take Manhattan

Back to New York City for Amy and Rory’s farewell. For fans of the Ponds, it was an emotional farewell. For fans of the Statue of Liberty, you’ll never see the monument the same way again. And if you’ve been to New York, you know there are enough statues peppered through the city to give you nightmares after meeting the Weeping Angels. It’s a shame we haven’t seen them in such a central role since Manhattan though. 

Rosa

Say what you will about the Thirteenth Doctor’s tenure, but this is one of my favorite historical stories of Doctor Who ever. Because of the mixed races in the TARDIS team, we got a great vantage point to the story of Rosa Parks. I don't care what anyone says about Jodie Whittaker’s time on Doctor Who, this story was beautifully and tragically written, especially when Graham had to take the last seat on the bus. 

Lux

In case anyone is a little behind on Doctor Who this year, I’ll try to avoid being too specific here. But bringing our first purely non-white TARDIS team to the American south was brilliant. Though the story was based in 1950s Miami, very little had to do with the racial attitudes. I felt like there was a sprinkling of awareness before getting a commentary on storytelling and the fourth wall. I definitely need to watch this season again. 

So while my family is still more likely to watch Captain America or Independence Day for the Fourth of July, I enjoy the fact that the Whovian in me has some options too. Maybe I’ll watch some Weeping Angels in Manhattan while my wife and older daughter are out watching fireworks this weekend. Or it’s a good time to revisit Rosa Parks. Or maybe I should just keep working through the Fourth Doctor so that TJ and I can podcast about more Doctor Who. However you spend your Independence Day, I’m grateful we’re able to celebrate at all. Happy Fourth of July!

Who is the Rani?

*Some spoilers for the latest season of Doctor Who, but no spoilers for the finale*

Long before the Master regenerated into Missy, the Rani was the epitome of a renegade Time Lady. I feel like TJ and I have been complaining a lot about the Master being overdone. Finally, we’ve been rewarded with a different rogue from Gallifrey. The Rani has returned! 

She only appeared in two television stories of classic Doctor Who, but she made her mark (literally and figuratively). While sometimes seen as a female version of the Master, she’s unique in her role in the mythos of Doctor Who, even in comparison to the other two major renegade Gallifreyan enemies (the Master and the Monk). The Master was the stereotypical evil James Bond version (becoming more and more bananas with each regeneration) and the Monk was more mischievous, messing with the timeline for his own fun. In contrast, the Rani was more calculating and indifferent to life forms she considered inferior (which basically included everyone else, including the Doctor and the Master).

As a scientist, it’s like the Rani’s schemes were an attempt to assert order into a disorderly universe. If the world is chaos, she wanted to turn it into order. Imagine if Sheldon Cooper were a time lady and wanted to impose his bathroom schedule over all of time and space. That’s the Rani. In one instance, she wanted to harvest human hormones to control the Miasimia Gorians. Another time she wanted to basically explode a supernova to remake the “errors” in the universe. Even her schemes in modern Doctor Who seems to be largely about control.

Like the Master, the Rani was an expert at deception and disguise. She flew under the radar in the 19th century on Earth by disguising herself as an old woman. Later, with the help of amnesia drugs and post-regeneration confusion, she later disguised herself as Mel Bush to manipulate the Doctor into helping her. And there’s no telling how long she hid on Earth as an average human before Sutekh’s attack on time and space. As Mrs. Flood demonstrated, the Rani knows how to blend in wherever she goes.

Now I just need to watch the season finale and maybe learn how the Rani survived the Master’s decimation of Gallifrey. If the Master has shown us anything, it’s that a renegade time lord can always survive… if the story calls for it.

LDS Geeks Podcast #40: Twenty Years of Modern Who

I'm not sure any other franchise could celebrate its 60th anniversary and then its 20th anniversary two years later. Doctor Who is special like that and it fits the franchise well. So TJ and I had stop to talk about the modern era of Doctor Who, since we're not done with the Fourth Doctor's tenure yet. Enjoy!

--Spencer 

Friday Creature Feature - Sutekh

Once upon a time in college, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, my friends and I did a Doctor Who marathon of sorts. One story from each doctor over the course of a week. Just so happens that we picked Sutekh’s appearance for our Fourth Doctor story. We were underwhelmed by “Pyramids of Mars” and ended up picking a story from the Fourth Doctor/Romana era. There was no way we could know Sutekh would come back around during the Fifteenth Doctor’s tenure. 

In the pantheon of Egyptian gods, Sutekh is the god of death. I learned a little about him while writing a Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction in high school. Sometimes known as Set or Seth, this deity reigned over violence, storms, deserts, and pretty much everything else unpleasant. In the world of Doctor Who, he’s still the god of death. However, like other myths portrayed on Doctor Who, the god-like power doesn’t make him a deity, only mistakable for one. Though not literally a god, Sutekh possessed immense power even on his first encounter with the Doctor. Those powers put him on par with and in league with powerful forces like the Toymaker, the Trickster, and Maestro.

By the time Sutekh encountered the Fourth Doctor, he had been imprisoned by Horus for a long time. Having recently taken control of an archaeologist named Marcus Scarman, his scheme centered around shooting a missile at the Eye of Horus on Mars, which held him captive. To his credit, unlike most villains, he was able to destroy the Eye and free himself… but the Doctor managed to get back to Earth first and trap him in a time corridor. Supposedly.

The Doctor banked on him aging to death in the time vortex. Unbeknownst to the Doctor (and all companions he had in the years following) Sutekh survived by latching onto the TARDIS–which made for a funny series of memes after the most recent season finale. Using the Doctor’s memory of his granddaughter Susan to create a trap, Sutekh reformed and spread his death dust across time and space. But using his own trap involving the mystery of Ruby’s mother, the Doctor managed to send Sutekh back into the time stream to really be destroyed this time. Probably. Maybe. Who knows?

As much as I recall the complaints of heavy plot armor to explain his defeat at the hands of the Fifteenth Doctor (and I’m not sure I can disagree with those complaints) I enjoyed the return of Sutekh. I think I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy the retelling and reframing of mythology for Doctor Who (probably why I’ve also enjoyed Once Upon a Time and Percy Jackson). There’s something about making fairytales and myths relatable and fresh to the viewer. Even better when the story can motivate me to learn about the original myth or source material. Whether he had that effect on you or not, he definitely made me rethink the idea that all dogs are good dogs. Hard to see a good dog in those evil glowing eyes. But maybe I’ll feel differently when I rewatch the story before the new season of Doctor Who… now if only they’d give us a premiere date for that.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials

I debated for a while about whether I should write about the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who or if I should combine it with a post about the Fourteenth Doctor’s era (if three anniversary specials can be called an era). I landed on separate posts, but for this 60th Anniversary post I wanted to write about the overall takeaways and loose-ends from the trilogy of specials. We’ll get into each individual episode when I talk about the Fourteenth Doctor next month.

The Meep’s Boss

After the Doctor, Donna, and Rose foiled the Meep’s plans and saved London, the evil little furball was taken into custody. Not before referencing a mysterious “boss” that would be interested in a two-hearted alien. There’s a chance this referred to the Toymaker, who we saw in the third special, but if that were the case, I would think it would be more explicitly stated. More likely, I think the “boss” was subtly referenced by the Toymaker in “The Giggle”... but also that was left a little vague too... we'll get to the Toymaker later.

Donna Noble is descending!

The Tenth Doctor’s best friend had the most tragic ending of any Doctor companion (at least of the modern era). Even Clara and Bill had a happy ending of sorts. But Donna lost not only her memories but her confidence too. As someone who is perpetually insecure, my heart broke during Donna’s character arc with the Tenth Doctor… and then to see it wiped away. Again, heart breaking. So I was glad to see Donna back and to see her live with her confidence again. I just wish it hadn’t been such an “easy” solution just “letting go” of the DoctorDonna. As if the Tenth Doctor hadn’t needed to wipe her memory from the start. Makes it even more tragic.

The Mavity of the Situation 

Okay I just want to know what the point was with the Isaac Newton scene. Just for kicks and giggles? And is “mavity” going to be a thing for the rest of RTD’s new era? Is that the whole reason that scene happened? To start a running joke?

That Time the Giggle Got Sidelined 

In many ways I loved how “The Giggle” played out, especially since I just watched “The Celestial Toymaker” earlier in 2023. The human anger and hate released by the Toymaker, I thought the Doctor was bound to have some epically profound speech and solution to counter the underlying wavelength…. But instead we got a very intense game of catch? A bit of an underwhelming tie breaker between the Doctor and the Toymaker. Also, Kate briefly traveled in the TARDIS with the Thirteenth Doctor, why was she affected? She traveled with the Doctor as much as Wilf did.  At least we got the return of Mel Bush.

Refusing to Retcon

I’ve said my piece before about the Timeless Child and Doctor Who mythology. However, I know that the Timeless Child was certainly one of the things that bothered fans about that era of the show. I’ve seen comments from fans, basically praying for a retcon for what Chris Chibnall had written. Instead of retconning the past few years, which would be a waste and an insult to those of us who watched it, Russell T. Davies elected to call into question instead of rewriting it. Wise solution. We’ve seen the Doctor’s past, but now we’ve called into question how legitimate it is. We know about the Fugitive Doctor but we don’t know where she fits in (I still like the theory that she’s between the Second and Third Doctors). And honestly, I hope we never find out. The mystery of the Doctor is part of what makes him/her alluring. If we had all the answers, it wouldn’t be fun. So hopefully this goes the way of the Doctor’s name. River Song knows it, and I suppose Clara knows it, but I hope we never find out. 

A Doctor Left Behind with a Bonus TARDIS

I can’t say I hate the bi-generation, but I felt like it cheapened the Doctor’s sacrifice. It’s like the fans of David Tennant couldn’t bear to see their Doctor die the first time; so he was brought back and basically saved from dying (while still moving the show along). Don’t get me wrong, I like that the Doctor got a happy ending. But now we have the Fourteenth Doctor retired on Earth (maybe that’s how the Curator comes about?). Russell T Davies has led us to believe the Fourteenth Doctor won’t return any time soon… but all it would take is the right (or wrong) writer to slip him back in. I just think there’s something about being able to say goodbye and grieve (even if he’s just a TV character) that’s healthy in being able to deal with garbage going on in my life too. 

The One Who Waits

In his villain monologue, the Toymaker mentioned one foe he was scared to face. More powerful than the Doctor and the Master. Even someone as powerful as the Toymaker didn’t dare face this entity. I had the inkling that it might be the same “boss” that the Meep referenced. But other than a quick reference, we know nothing of this waiting one. What does RTD have planned?

Overall, I enjoyed the anniversary specials. Now while we wait for more of the Fifteenth Doctor, I’m going to keep working my way through Classic Doctor Who. So look forward to a series of podcast episodes with TJ about the Second Doctor and some more blog posts about classic stories and classic Doctors. Allons-y!