[QuickTidal]

One of my crazy theories as to who someone was FINALLY paid off!

[QuickTidal]

That was a messy P1 of the finale for the season,

Spoiler

but they very much made the Rani be her own thing and very much like she always was, a mad scientist, and not just a female Master clone...and I was not expecting Omega, he makes arguable sense since the Pantheon of Gods from beyond the universe....and Omega ruling over the Anti-matter universe....make sense to unite. Is he the Lord of that whole pantheon? Maybe.

Anyways. I enjoyed it. Felt a LITTLE bit like THE SOUND OF DRUMS with he overt "THIS IS WHAT I'M DOING!" stuff and the music choices, but it still works provided they stick the landing.

I admit to feeling a LITTLE robbed that the Wish World shit meant that we didn't get an emotional reaction from the Doctor to another Time Lord having survived in normal space...Tennant and Simm SOLD that relationship and the YANA thing in TSOD and it's why that episode works so well...that connection to his past was like a lifeline even if it's to an old enemy. The Wish World facade robs the Doctor of having a doctor-last-of-the-time-lords moment with The Rani.


So plot mess as I understand it: The Rani, who has been hiding since the Time War, stole a baby who would become one of the Pantheon of gods, the god of wishes, and uses him to remake the world as a WishWorld from Incel-in-Chief Conrad's mind, and did so because that specific world would be SO worthy of doubt that then she brings in the Doctor (who accidentally mapped out the network of power that fuelled that wish world by trying to get Belinda home) who then doubts hardcore and cracks open the remade world revealing the Underverse (Anti-matter universe) to free the First Time Lord, Rassilons bosom buddy with a ridiculous helmet and no real body, Omega from said universe where he has ruled since we saw him last AFAIK...her goals (as revealed in the next time trailer) appear to be bringing back/remaking Galifrey (hence all the time lord iconography in her "palace" with a dash of body horror giant kaiju skeleton dinosaurs to boot...sound about right?

Also, her asking "Where do you think your TARDIS is?" feels like it might be hiding in plain sight and IS that massive palace thing? Maybe.

I'm also now more than convinced that this season was meant for Ruby and some sort of scheduling shenanigans prevented it, because no way does Belinda's story feel worthy of what's going on, when so much of it ties to Ruby instead. And Sutekh being one of that Pantheon that still seem tied to all this? the baby producing the Giggle? All of this is one long 16 ep season split in two and you can't convince me otherwise.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 May 2025 - 01:20 PM

[QuickTidal]

Also,

Spoiler

give me the original Omega mask, and not the later one you Cowards! Go all in on the camp RTD!

[polishgenius]

That... wasn't a good play.

(but the effects were good!)

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 02 June 2025 - 09:01 AM, said:

That... wasn't a good play.

(but the effects were good!)

So I have a few comments, but I largely agree with you PG.

Spoiler

1. You can ABSOLUTELY tell that the Regeneration was a pickup/reshoot. Rumour has it that Ncuti knows his star is on the rise and while he wanted to stay on for another series, the fact that Disney have not given the go-ahead for the next season he probably thought "It's not renewed so I'll move on". Which sucks, but I can see how he might come to that conclusion. But yeah, all the scenes post-Omega felt tacked on...because they were.

2. I'm not sure how RTD managed to make The Rani AND Omega feel wasted, but he did it. The Rani was fine, she gave vibes of the Rani character, but I never felt her as threatening as like The Master can be...and Omega....The copout of making him this big monsterish thing feels like they didn't want to spend any time on him....and frankly, if you're going to do that you may as well just have the Doctor prevent Omega from coming at all and save him for another day. Cause this was not it.

3. Giving Conrad his happiness feels icky to anyone else? He was like cartoonishly evil, and if we are using real world allegories then he's basically Nick Fuentes and Alex Jones wrapped up into a little racist sexist Incel ball of shit...and we are going to FORGIVE HIM? I'm sorry what? He literally ERASED the Trans character from his reality and made being gay outlawed...I wonder how much this reflects RTD's feelings on what we should do with these chuds that have ruined out world.....forgiveness aint in my heart.

4. Taking Poppy (Episode 1 of last season; Space Babies where Poppy thought the Doctor and Ruby were here parents), and porting her into this story was...weird. And then to sort of timey wimey force her into Belinda's life as if she'd always been...juxtaposes VERY poorly with Bel's reaction to the doctor taking her DNA without her permission earlier in the season. I can't figure out why they did this.

5. This season felt so little like Doctor Who compared to last season...and I'm not sure why? Perhaps it was the whole arc about them not being able to get back to earth and traveling around with those devices? The front half of the season was good, but the more it went on, the worse it got. Wish World and The Reality War were bottom tier....possibly the worst finale's in the rebooted series history?


6. One good thing the reshoots gave us was seeing Thirteen again (and written by a competent writer this time and not Chibs) and she was incredible. Jodie has not lost her touch. It was a nice interaction reminiscent of Ten and Five together in their short. Jodie is coming to comic con in Toronto and we are going, so I'll be meeting her. She will be my 3rd Doctor I've met and had a photo with (I've also done that with Matt Smith and Paul McGann). RTD's not so subtle dig at Chibnall was unmissable (Thirteen: "I love you? Do I say that now? I should tel Yaz" Fifteen: "You never do"...oof....nice shade RTD.


7. Now the elephant in the room. Billie. Now it's NO secret that my fave companion of all time is Rose Tyler. And I LURVED Billie's turn as The Moment/Bad Wolf in the 50th...so seeing her my wife and I FREAKED OUT. Now, my only issue is that I truly HOPE she's the 16th Doctor for real. Piper is a solid actor and I feel could really make a great Doctor...but I worry that it's a gimmick to play for time while they sort out the real 16th doctor. I want them to give her a proper chance. Way back in the day RTD wanted a spinoff about Rose in the other universe saving the world which never materialized, so he very much seems to enjoy casting her. If she stays on as the actual 16th I'm happy...I can't wait to see her in the role. But if this is a Bad Wolfy gimmick I'll be a bit annoyed I don't mind saying. It's brave as fuck for the Doctor to regenerate into a former companions face like that and it's Never REALLY been done before (the closest is Six regenerating into the face of a former one-off character played by Colin Baker from an episode during the a previous Doctor's run; but never a proper companion yet), so I hope it sticks.

[polishgenius]

From what I understand

Spoiler

it's less that he thinks it's not gonna be renewed and more that the uncertainty means that to confirm Doctor Who he'd have to turn down big roles in America etc with no timeframe for when that ends or he'll be on screen again.


On point 4 I've seen theories that all this arc was written when Millie Gibson was going to be on for two full seasons and they transplanted it onto Belinda. It certainly feels like it - it all fits Ruby's personal and emotional arc a lot better and comes out of absolutely nowhere for Belinda. And yeah, the way they just land her with a surprise baby is all sorts of icky when you think about it.


It also all just needed more time. It needed to be a three-part finale, with Wish World more or less as it is but the mystery of the Rani revealed at the end, not before, Reality War given a full episode on her and Omega (who, yeah, might as well not have been there), and then a full episode on The Search for Spock Poppy. And realistically they needed to seed the 'he'll fight to save one person' stuff earlier in the season, and it wouldn't have been hard. The Well and the song contest both had setups where just a few extra lines of dialogue would have fed into that plot. RTD is great at writing scenes and, mostly, standalone episodes. He sucks at handling arcs.


I'm the opposite to you on Billie Piper tbh. I'd much rather it be Bad Wolf stuff than the actual Doctor- though tbh at this point it's stunt casting either way. She is a great actress, I agree, she'd handle being a Doctor fine- but so could lots of other people who wouldn't feel like a desparate plea for ratings.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 02 June 2025 - 02:33 PM, said:

From what I understand

Spoiler

It also all just needed more time. It needed to be a three-part finale, with Wish World more or less as it is but the mystery of the Rani revealed at the end, not before, Reality War given a full episode on her and Omega (who, yeah, might as well not have been there), and then a full episode on The Search for Spock Poppy. And realistically they needed to seed the 'he'll fight to save one person' stuff earlier in the season, and it wouldn't have been hard. The Well and the song contest both had setups where just a few extra lines of dialogue would have fed into that plot. RTD is great at writing scenes and, mostly, standalone episodes. He sucks at handling arcs.


I'm the opposite to you on Billie Piper tbh. I'd much rather it be Bad Wolf stuff than the actual Doctor- though tbh at this point it's stunt casting either way. She is a great actress, I agree, she'd handle being a Doctor fine- but so could lots of other people who wouldn't feel like a desparate plea for ratings.

Spoiler

I think that he's been hit or miss with arcs. Vote Saxon, and Davros/Journey's End both worked very well for me as arcs. But some of the others were much weaker. I also think his episode writing is best when is idea for the story or the character is simple. Like The Well is just like Midnight for me, exquisite. Joy to the World was Moffat as HIS top as well in a singular story where he knew that the character interactions were what really made the writing shine, so you get a character like Steph de Whalley's Anita who was wonderful and like Sally Sparrow and Shona before her had INSANE companion potential...and she outshone Belinda by scads in this episode and would have outshone Ruby if Ruby hadn't had a whole season to back her up...

I dunno if it's a desperate plea for ratings really, I just think RTD really likes working with Billie, she's shown up a lot on the show even after her "supposed" end. But you could be write. Do we even know ratings now since it's on Disney?

[QuickTidal]

Okay wonky theory my buddy and I just scribbled up:

Spoiler

Weird things that have not been solved during Fifteen's era:

Mavity - Gravity got replaced with this word after Ruby's first episode. It was present still in episodes this season, so it's still a thing.
Susan - I this she was present and planted by RTD for a future reveal that we never got to due to the sudden regeneration.
The Pantheon of Old Gods - Sutek (Death), Toymaker (Games), Maestro (Music), The Mara (Beasts), Trickster (Traps), Reprobate (Spite), Lux (Light).....never fully dealt with, and still ostensibly "coming"...
Boss of the Time Hotel - who is this?

If Billie IS Bad Wolf, in that the TARDIS has kicked out the energy (there was that lone shot of the console during the regeneration) into this reality when the skins between the universes were thinned perhaps that's why....is she Bad Wolf/God or is she actually the Doctor? If she's Bad Wolf, perhaps she's appeared to set the gods right and push them back?


Those unsolved things from 15's era are absolutely going to figure into RTD's next season, Susan at the very least was planned to have some sort of closure...

[polishgenius]

We don't know the worldwide ratings but I don't think they ever factored hugely into the BBC's thinking. It'll matter to whether Disney renew and the subsequent potential budget boost, obviously, but the BBC will be looking at their own. The actual domestic BBC ratings aren't that great. It's harder to judge than it used to be because, ya know, streaming, iplayer, most episodes are online before they air on telly, so they've got to factor all that and the dropoff isn't as big as the raw numbers make it look. But it's definitely not the dominant show it was during RTD1 anymore and they definitely had hoped it would be.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 02 June 2025 - 04:01 PM

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 02 June 2025 - 03:55 PM, said:

We don't know the worldwide ratings but I don't think they ever factored hugely into the BBC's thinking. It'll matter to whether Disney renew and the subsequent potential budget boost, obviously, but the BBC will be looking at their own. The actual domestic BBC ratings aren't that great. It's harder to judge than it used to be because, ya know, streaming, iplayer, most episodes are online before they air on telly, so they've got to factor all that and the dropoff isn't as big as the raw numbers make it look. But it's definitely not the dominant show it was during RTD1 anymore and they definitely had hoped it would be.

I feel like the BBC would have it go on even without the Disney Money, but the budget cut would be large...which is fine with me, you can put nit together with rubber, and string, and paper machier if you want, as long as the stories are good, I'll tune in. In fact, some of the VERY best DW episodes had next to no money to spend on budget.