All right, it has been a few months since we had any Doctor Who and I was excited to get a new episode, a "New Year Special." So let's get into this one...
So, the story open with a flashback to the 2019 New Year Special, before I was rating the episodes, so I had to use Wikipedia to refresh my memory. You know, these episodes are SO memorable that I completely forgot about it. I may have been asleep when that happened. Likely.
But fine, you have daleks, you have my interest.
Then we have the series' one-dimensional (like everything in DW today) Trump-slot-alike who takes the destroyed dalek casing and begins to manufacture them... BY 3D printing them! *EYE ROLL*
Now at this point I was sound asleep. No joke. I slept from 11pm to about 6am on my couch. At 6am, I got up, went to my bed, and slept another two and a half hours before waking up. Deep, restful sleep, I must add.
So... In the morning, I restarted the show, this time sitting at the computer, to avoid falling asleep.
From there, we have a corrupt politician woman dealing in secret with Trump-slot-alike, who half-tells her and she may become prime minister. *EYE ROLL*
Then, I will say the escape from the judoon prison with Captain Jack was pretty cool, if a little rushed.
From then on, EVERYTHING seemed rushed and in a hurry to get nowhere, and when we got there, we got the tear-jerker for 15 minutes. Let me list:
- Jack Harkness is drowned in the ensemble cast who have to share the screen. Why not ONLY use him, a fan-favorite rather than use him for a few bits, then waste him. HECK in his first appearance he warned the Doctor about something. Then here, he just shrugged with a "you shouldn't have done it." WHAT??? Wasted opportunity
- With the Doctor in a prison, having a fun prison-break episode where Jack, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan seek the Doctor and break her out. OR have an episode with only the Doctor and Jack? That would have been cool, move them to another city and begin the plot where "the fam searches for her." Wasted opportunity
- The Trump-slot-alike has no redeeming quality, to the point of being an unfunny caricature of a person. He has no morals, qualms, or anything. He is "evil straight white man industrialist." It would have been fun to have him use his evil bastard skills to help the Doctor. Failed opportunity
- The dalek vs dalek takes 2 seconds then is done. "We destroyed the mutant daleks." And that was it. Litterally 2 minutes total. No Battle of Canary Wharf or anything that would strike the imagination. A bad shoot out at the OK Corral and the SAS daleks win. Failed opportunity
- There is a MASSIVE battle cruiser over some town, they blow it up, but nothing happens: no debris, no cameras, no footage, no perspective from other people. Again, if we don't care about the crew, why should we care when nothing happens to random people? Wasted opportunity
- Then to make things worse... we have 10-15 minutes at the end where Ryan and Graham leave. I was sad for Graham but fine Ryan, leave. We can catch up with them two later, perhaps a one-off episode where they run into Sally Sparrow Or something. But nah, they are gone and we were meant to cry at the end. I was sad for the first two minutes, but then I just wanted it to end. Wasted opportunity
- Whenever the Doctor speaks to someone that is not Yaz, she is moralizing, preachy, self-righteous, bossy, and frankly I would want the others to tell her off. She is bipolar, going from severe (and understandable) self-doubts to supremely confident and preachy. PICK ONE. Wasted opportunity
- Quite frankly, like the whole season this episode felt rushed. Like he had four episodes: mutant daleks vs pure daleks, Captain Jack, prison break, and the Fam finding the Doctor. Each could have made decent episodes with action and personal investment. But nah... RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN then cry for 15 minutes. Oh I forgot to mention the telegraphing scene in the middle where Ryan talks to the Doctor about "you are who you are but you changed along the way." The sort of wishy-washy bullcrap you can get from a self-help book.
- With a title like this one, I would expect to discover something new about the daleks. But no. Nothing happens. Wasted opportunity
As you can see... this was another episode on par with the rest of the season. Rushed and frankly full of wasted subplots resolved in a line or two.
John Barrowman's presence and excellence as Captain Jack was well worth re-watching it, and the characters of Ryan and Graham who despite the drawn-out ending turned out to be fun and well-rounded characters (they have flaws unlike the perfect Yaz).
My rating: I will settle on a 3/5. I arrived at this rating by looking at the other episodes and how I enjoyed them (the pleasure of keeping track of my ratings).
Would I re-watch? Maybe, but with a lot of fast-forwarding. Most likely no.
No comments:
Post a Comment