Doctor Who Reactions: "Empire of Death" (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

1. "I bring Sutekh's dust of death."  The Red Skull should sue.
2. "There will be birds."
3. The dust billowing through the city gives me "Crisis on Infinite Earths" vibes.
4. "Do you believe in the power of prayer?" I most certainly do." "Then tell your Maker that I will come to storm down His gates of gold and seize His kingdom in my true name."
5. "I had such plans." Villains' plans should interfere with each other more often. "Hey, I was gonna conquer the Universe today, you jerk!"
6. "It is a TARDIS Remembered."
7. "Hello, my old friend."  Darkness, is that you?
8. "The greatest monster I have ever fought."
9. Ah, Tom and Elisabeth...
10. "I have traveled with you for all this time riding the spine of your ship." Still have trouble with this.
11. "...Staring into eternity and evolving into my true godhood."  Well, that's sort of an explanation.
12. "Every living thing is an abomination." I'm not.
13. "I damn you in the name of life itself."
14. I like the nice touch of Mel noticing the Sixtth Doctor's coat.
15. "Doctor, is this thing safe?" "Absolute deathtrap, Melanie B!"
16. So Ruby doesn't remember the events of "73 Yards"?
17. "Venus, Telos, Karn, the Ood-Sphere, and Skaro."
18. "The secret the Chilld carries with her."
19. And then Mel found the Seventh Doctor's sweater.
20. "You great big God of Nothing!"
21. "What happens if you bring death to death? You bring life!" "That's just what Jesus said, sir!"
22. Shouldn't robots have survived the Desth Wave? K-9 shoul dstill be out there, somewhere.
23. "Oh, that clever boy!" Shouldn't Grandma Sunday remember that Mrs. Flood was a jerk and a weirdo?
24. "Vortis, Tigella, Vox, Messaline, Calufrax, Spiridon, Telos, Shan Shen."
25. You thought Sutekh was ded once before, Doc.
26. "Loiuise Alison Miller." "William Benjamin Garnet."
27. "How did she sty invisible from a god?"  I'd like to know that one, myself.
28. "She wss important because we think she's important."  What utter BS.
29. "I think we should leave that alone."  I tend to agree with him. Biological parents don't always welcome the kids they gave up finding them.
30. "Maybe I'll find her again one day."
31. At the end, Mrs. Flood looks as though she's been raiding Roman's wardrobe.

 

Overall: A reasonably good wrap-up, somewhat lessened for me by the nonsensical explanaation of why Sutekh gave a crap about Ruby's mother.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Watched this episode tonight as if for the first time tonight.

Still have trouble with this.

Here's the way I look at it. Sutekh had somehow embedded itself within the TARDIS for all those years. Eventually it gained enough strength to manifest itself as an invisible shadow swarm and project copies of Susan Twist everywhere the TARDIS lands, say, circa the beginning of this season.

So Ruby doesn't remember the events of "73 Yards"?

I wouldn't expect her to. Those events never "happened."

K-9 should still be out there, somewhere.

IIRC, K-9 was left in some other-dimensional realm in the Sarah Jane Adventures protecting Earth from  invasion (or something).

Shouldn't Grandma Sunday remember that Mrs. Flood was a jerk and a weirdo?

Frankly, Grandma Sunday is half senile.

What utter BS.

"Sometime you just have to let art flow over you."

A reasonably good wrap-up...

What I have been waiting to say (since I finished watching season two and you started watching season one) is that, whatever you think of season one, I think season two is better. But everything in season two builds on season one and cannot be truly appreciated without it. Even now, though, seaon two is beginning to fade from my mind. What I think I'll do is, rather than wait for you to have access to season two, I think I'll rewatch it while season one is still fresh in my mind. That way, my hope is that I will have some memory of each episode as you review them (whenever that will be).

[The Baron]

One of mthe extras is a "Tales of the TARDIS" segment with the Fifteenth Doctor telling Ruby the story of his first encounter with Sutkeh by way of an edited down version of "Pyramids of Mars" with some updated FX.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, I haven't watched any of the extras. (I rarely do, on any disc.) Is there anything of interest on those toe "Doctor Who: Unleashed" discs?

I thought I recognized that "TARDIS Remembered" as the one from "Tales of the TARDIS."

[The Baron]

Depends on your interest. There's some behind-the-scenes stuff, RTD will sometimes discuss his inspirtion for a given episode.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

What I have been waiting to say is that, whatever you think of season one, I think season two is better.

I have since gone on to re-watch season two with season one now again fresh in my mind, and I would like to offer a reassessment of season two. I think there is a point at which it becomes better than season one, but the first half (or so) of the season is of a kind with the first (despite there being a different companion). I can't imagine that you don't know about the season two cliffhanger at this point, but everything that follows is a...

[SPOILER for Season Two cliffhanger and speculation about Doctor Who going forward.]

First of all, I cannot imagine that RTD brought Billie Piper back with absolutely no idea whatsover what happens next. (See "Showrunners lie.") Second, I do not believe for a moment that she is going to be the next Doctor. (There's some kind of jiggery pokery going on and, as I indicated, RTD knows exactly what it is.) Third, I do believe that Doctor who will be back... sometime. Actually, I prefer "We don't know whether or not Doctor Who will ever come back" to "Doctor Who will return in X years." for one thing, it maintains interest; and for another, I'm not left counting the days until it does return. 

[The Baron]

Yeah, I would've had to stay off the internet for a year to avoid spoilers on this.

1. I had heard that the closing credits of "The Reality War"  say "And Introducing Billie Piper", and NOT "And Introducing Billie Piper as the Doctor". This in itself makes me think that Big Russ is trolling us. I suspect that he knows if/when the show will continue, but can't say right now for fear of upsetting delicate negotiations or some   such. Piper could be the Bad Wolf or the Moment or something, interfering in the Doctor's regeneration for whatever reasons.
2. The reason that Jon Pertwee didn't appear at the end of "The War Games" as originally broadcast was because he hadn't been hired yet. At the time, the production team knew that the Beeb was planning to cancel the show, and it was only because the BBC didn't have a replacement show ready that Doctor Who was allowed to continue.  Then Pertwee was hired and hit it big, and the rest is history. If Pertwee had tanked, the show would in all likelihood have ended after his first series. If the modern show goes off the air for fifteen years again, putting Piper in there would just be a stunt that would create a headache for whoever the show-runner is in 2040, and RTD knows this. I think it extremely likely that Big Russ has one of his cute little swerves planned for us. It could still backfire on him, of course, if Piper is not available when the show does resume.
3. Personally, I just don't buy Piper as the Doctor.  She's an OK actress, but the qualities that make for a good "Companion" actor are not the same as the qualities that make for a good "Doctor" actor.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, I just thought of something else I wanted to say about season one. You mentioned in a previous post that the 15th is the first Doctor that doesn't have an established "look". (What is up with that, anyway?) He also has a variety of hairstyles, but another thing that sets him apart from all other Doctors is how much he cries. I think he sheds tears in every single episode. It must be on Ncuti Gatwa's resume: "Can cry at will."

[The Baron]

It does seem that RTD wanted the Fifteenth to be a Doctor who was "in touch with his feelings".

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Last night we watched the 2024 Christmas special which came out between seasons (which we realized we had missed when we got to the seaon two finale). I liked that one much more than the first few episodes of the second season itself.

At the end, Mrs. Flood looks as though she's been raiding Romana's wardrobe.

MTG's evidently been poking around in there, too.