My thoughts on Doctor Who: Space Babies and The Devil's Chord. 

Hits?

Ah yes. Gone are the days of Christopher Eccleston, whose first defining words as the Doctor were.... "Run!".

Ten laughing at Rose being a dog in Pete’s World

Dispensing with the timeless child bs hopefully. At the time RTD seemed to get how offensive it was, but now he's parroting it. Depressing. I wonder if RTD is going to go down in history as the man who both 'saved' and 'killed' DW.

Cancelled mine 3yrs ago in similar circumstances. Not giving the Beeb another penny - even BBC Blu-rays & DVDs are obtained on the "used" market.

But that wasn't my opinion.

Saves the creature at the end of Space Babies and figures out how to get the babies to safety. Saved the day. Finds the chord to banish Maestro. Saved the day. Got the Anglicans to surrender. Saved the day. Did not save the day in the episode he wasn't in, sure. Maybe you need to rewatch the episodes?

The creature in space babies was the Villian 99% of the episode- why do you think there were no 6 year olds on board ? They got eaten as would have the one that got rescued. So that plot U-turn without explanation highlights terrible editing - I had to rewind it twice confused as to why the sudden U- Turn. Saving a child eating monster doesn't make him the hero. NANNY is the one who pulls her finger out and saves everyone. The Doctor doesn't find the magic chord, the BEATLES do. He gets sucked into a drum. Maybe you need to rewatch them too.

@@Knaveofspades6 The creature in Space Babies was an innocent victim. That's why the Doctor risked his life to save it. That's the point of the episode. Watch it again. The Doctor finds the chord and it is completed by John and Paul who also have their part to play in the story. They could not have completed it if the Doctor hadn't found it. Watch it again. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the episodes as much as I did, and that you found them confusing, but critising them for things which didn't happen doesn't help anyone.

Remember how much fans despaired at the burping bin...?

@@tomsalinsky1 I do but there was enough there to offset the silly things like that. These two episodes feel like one really long joke. There was nothing to sink your teeth into. For every burping bin there was the 9th Doctor talking about how he can feel the Earth spinning and falling through space. Incredible acting from Eccleston in my opinion.

@@joebees21 And for every bogey monster, there was a speech about why the doctor keeps on travelling despite having no home. To be fair.

@@teamicecream9015 It didn't have the same impact for me as the 9th Doctor. I really wanted it to though and if it did for you then that's great! I really hope you enjoyed it and that I'm the minority.

@@joebees21 Fair enough. I'd definitely stick around for the rest of the series though. RTD has made it clear enough that the first two episodes were meant to bring in new fans especially with fun stories, while episode 3 and after become darker and are meant to hook you!

Really? It didn't seem at all out of the ordinary to me and I thought both Millie and Ncuti were exceptional.

@@tomsalinsky1 Yes, it's a standard style for Doctor Who, so probably not a criticism at this point, but it's what I call "BBC acting", or "Hollyoaks acting". There was one moment that really highlighted it for me: "English exists?", "Humans don't speak one language by this point, a bit like Cantonese" I can't think of any angle to make this sentence make sense. Humans have never spoken one language... and how is speaking (or not speaking?) one language "a bit like Cantonese?". So when Ruby responds with a "ok, makes sense" face, all I can think it that the actors are just pretending to understand the script. If so, that puts a really, really low ceiling on the potential performance. Again, it's nothing new, and fans have already made their choice, so it's not a big deal.. just confirms why I don't watch DW. Equally, no one watched DW for solid time-travel mechanics, but it bothers me that Maestro was released in the Giggle, but the effects on the timeline were somehow delayed until Episode 2.

​@@ian-flanagan The line is: "Humans ALL speak one language by this point." The Doctor then removes the perception filter, showing Chinese-style characters, demonstrating that the one language all humans speak resembles Cantonese. But I don't really understand what the dialogue written for the actors has to do with the style of their delivery.

@@tomsalinsky1 Oh, I misheard it then. If the line was "Humans *don't* speak one language, like Cantonese", that's nonsensical, so the actors would be bluffing it... but as you pointed out, I misheard it. "Ahh" is still a confusingly blasé response to that information, and I'm especially confused/intrigued how humans have ended up adopting traditional characters, not simplified. It makes sense that a random Brit wouldn't pick up on that, but it still annoys me that we're missing what seems like a far more intersting story, for space babies. And I still don't like Ruby's acting. There feel like a lot of forcefully inserted pauses and quirks to be interesting, rather than natural. Again, these are all just my personal preferences and DW fans/detractors will have been filtered in/out by these long ago, so not really valid criticisms. Was the Maestro thing a real flaw, or did I miss something else?

@tomsalinsky1 Yes. Really. There's no comparison to Tennant, Smith, Capaldi. Ncuti just doesn't have the maturity to deliver extraordinary monologues they way Tennant, Smith, Capaldi... even ekelston did. For a queer and diverse cast, I would have tasked Alexandra Billings, T'nia Miller, phenominal actor/actresses, in any of those roles. I'd love to see Eddie Izzard in there, too! Now those 3 can deliver. Ncuti & Jinx fell into the trap of making gay and being trans their whole persona, when there is more to the characters than the surface. It was over the top, shallow. Unrelatable. They just didn't draw you in. I wanted to care, but felt nothing.

You okay?

Fine analysis, there, sir.

I am not “too kind” any more than you are “too harsh”. We had different reactions. Sorry you didn’t enjoy the episodes.