Doctor Who Series 13: Goodbye, Mr. Chibs

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

"incalcuble"

I noticed that too. Jodie Whittaker presumably knows how to pronounce 'incalculable', she just flubbed her line. Would it have killed them to do another take?

Strange, as it was a very well-directed episode otherwise.

[JamesTC]

She's just channelling Hartnell.

[Replies From View]

Chattering Hartnell

[Bad Ambassador]

With 4.67m viewers and audience appreciation of 75%, Once Upon Time is both the least-watched and least-liked episode since 2005.

[pigamus]

I noticed that too. Jodie Whittaker presumably knows how to pronounce 'incalculable', she just flubbed her line. Would it have killed them to do another take?

Strange, as it was a very well-directed episode otherwise.

The reason I'm writin'
Is how to say amateurish

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

With 4.67m viewers and audience appreciation of 75%, Once Upon Time is both the least-watched and least-liked episode since 2005.

The Chibnall Masterplan continues apace.

[mjwilson]

Talulah, really!, that's an interesting theory, but would feel totally at odds with the prosaic nature of what we've seen of The Division so far; characters sat behind desks, people dressed as french policemen, guards holding guns. Even compared to the deliberately archaic Time Lord society, The Division seems utterly bereft of anything alien, of Galifreyan, or threatening - beyond the fact they work with some of The Doctor's villains, of course.

They also didn't know about the destruction of Galifrey when they first met the Doctor.     

When was that, by the way? I was vaguely wishing on Saturday that some of the Divison stuff had been in the "Previously Ons" but your post is making me think I have forgotten more than I realised.

[olliebean]

I know some people don't like her, but putting this in an official behind-the-scenes video is a bit much:

[Kelvin]

When was that, by the way? I was vaguely wishing on Saturday that some of the Divison stuff had been in the "Previously Ons" but your post is making me think I have forgotten more than I realised.

Unless I've misremembered, Whittaker's Doctor first met The Division in the episode with Doctor Ruth. They capture them both (I think), and its suggested they're from Galifrey, but know nothing about the fact it was apparently destroyed - which was first revealed in the series 2 opener.

Then we see The Doctor (or the person implied to be the Doctor) getting signed up to the Division in the series finale's infodump.

Finally, the two people who turn up to check on Swarm in the first episode of Flux are apparently members of The Division.

I think that's everything I referenced in my post.

[Replies From View]

Maybe The Division are a group of renegade opticians.

[JamesTC]

Super secret uber cool spy organisations are all the rage now, aren't they? They are so fucking shit. Star Trek not only dragged up an old one and fundamentally misunderstood it (Section 31) but they then introduced a secret organisation to a race which already had one in Picard.

[Malcy]

Maybe The Division are a group of renegade opticians.

Should have gone to Gallifrey...

[Malcy]

Chibnall's era gets a lot of shit and I cant say I agree with a lot of it but that Gardai shite was fucking awful.

[Norton Canes]

Clearly The Division are being run by the Fifth Doctor

Spoiler alert

- Peter Division

[close]

[Norton Canes]

God that was cathartic. Weeks of Chibnall's shit finally brushed (mostly) aside by Maxine Alderton's straight-for-the-jugular white-knuckle thriller.

Utterly criminal that the incredible cliffhanger had to be ruined by further superfluous rubbish from the main arc.

[Alberon]

Yes! You had a genuine, proper cliffhanger and then you cut to a soppy videogram left in the side of a mountain.

Makes little sense even considering it's a scene featuring the Doctor's mum and dad.

[canted_angle_again]

Why did Chibnall write everyone from the 60's in a way that dumb Americans think every English person speaks.

'Oh top of the morning to you old chap, would you like a spot of tea in the afternoon'.

[Exposition]

Putting the list in spoilers so it doesn't clutter the page, but are these now the characters we are currently keeping track of, heading into the final two episodes?

Spoiler alert

The Doctor
Yaz
Dan
Vinder
Bel
Karvanista
Jericho
Claire
Little Girl (Peggy?)
Swarm
Azure
Joseph Williamson
Ruth Doctor
Diane
Grand Serpent
Awsok
Passenger
Namaca (Mr. Inbetweeners)
and now on with ep 5 we'll have to add Kate Stewart

[close]

Have I missed anyone? We're pretty fucking overwhelmed here.

[mothman]

I think we can scratch:

Spoiler alert

Jericho
Claire
Little Girl (Peggy?)
Grand Serpent
Namaca (Mr. Inbetweeners)

[close]

They've served their purpose.

[Exposition]

Grand Serpent and Jericho are in the trailer for the next episode, and I don't know why the little girl would just disappear (would Dan, Yaz and Jericho just leave her?. It would also be weird to just leave Claire like that without showing what actually happens to her. Namaca I just assumed must be coming back after appearing even in the mid-credits scene.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Press blurb for the New Year's Day special.

Spoiler alert

The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends will kick-start 2022 with an action-packed spectacular episode set to air on BBC One on New Year's Day. The festive special will feature guest stars Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Living With Yourself, Quiz), Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black, Enterprice) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless).

Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year's Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned...

The festive episode is the first of three Doctor Who Specials airing in 2022. The second Special airs in Spring and Jodie's final feature-length Special (in which the Thirteenth Doctor will regenerate), will transmit in autumn 2022 as part of the BBC's Centenary celebrations.

[close]

[Kelvin]

Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year's Eve

Sounds riveting, Chris.

[JamesTC]

Bit of a shame Aishling Bea isn't going to be in a good one.

[holyzombiejesus]

Why are they doing a Christmas story set on New Years Eve? Fucking stupid.

[Norton Canes]

By the description, it's a New Year's Eve story

[mjwilson]

By the description, it's a New Year's Eve story

ELF storage doesn't sound like an attempted Christmas pun to you?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The press release explicitly states that the episode is set on New Year's Eve.

[JamesTC]

New Year's Elf.

[Thomas]

Nice images in that last episode. Good ideas, too.

Some appalling dialogue, obvs, and we've evidence that Chibnall has attempted to make Flux far more Moffaty complex and interwoven than the plot requires:

In the first episode, we were given the impression that Claire was out of time, in that Sally Sparrow/River Song kind of way, bumping into the Doctor mid-adventure. Here we learn that her apparent foreknowledge of the Doctor was merely the result of a vision(?), and nothing had actually happened for her yet. Unless the importance of her vision gets addressed later (see following paragraph), it seems we didn't actually need her extraneous addition to the already-bustling first ep.

There's a delicate balance between a) generating new questions to keep us tantalised and b) supplying answers and substance along the way. So far, Chibs has only achieved the latter in his mechanical, workmanlike, Wiki editor way. I don't really care about Vinder or Bel or whoever - they only seem to exist so that we wonder what will be revealed about them in episode 6. Swarm, at least, with his similarly obscure purpose and motivation, is performed with entertaining relish.

[holyzombiejesus]

ELF storage doesn't sound like an attempted Christmas pun to you?

and "Nick".