shadowhive | Entries tagged with doctor who season 22

So tonight I watched Revelation of the Daleks, the finale of season 22.

One obvious issue with this story is with the name. Like so many other similar eps with a villain name in the title, it gives them away. It probably would be more effective if the ep was called something else, so they’d be a surprise (which of course makes no difference now but still). Same with Davros. He probably should have been held off (at least until after the great healer was mentioned).

Another thing is something I remember reading a bit ago and it stuck with me. That thing is this: The Doctor and Peri don’t impact the story. That is, if they weren’t there, the events of the story would have happened exactly the same as they did here. (The only thing they seemed to do is warn the presidents ship away but other than that…) Which is strange cause clearly Davros lured them there, and for why?

It’s also another one of those eps where virtually everyone dies. In fact virtually every speaking character is dead by the end (other than Peri, the Doctor, Davros and two Tranquil Repose workers). It’s a shame as there are some interesting characters. Kara is cunning and devious (and has a nice outfit), Orcini and his squire are honourable assassins (there’s definitely a story there). And then there’s Jobel, who is less interesting but a total creep. And the DJ who is…. Such an odd addition he feels out of place.

There’s definitely a lot of creepy elements to it. The glass dalek with the human inside, being turned into a dalek (and that whole room). The creepy lower catacombs. Davros curing hunger with… people. The reasoning for calling him the great healer gets a mention, but it’s only in passing and it seems like they should have done more with that.

So now I’m finished with season 22 proper. I still have the special features over three disc, including an audio adventure, which I’ll go through the next few days and week or so. (And speaking of, humble bundle have a bunch of audio adventures here, which I’m gonna get soon cause it’s for charity and they sound pretty good.)

Watching the whole season in context, it’s definitely warmed me to Peri and the sixth doctor. I never used to like either, but I definitely like them more now. I think they got dealt a bad hand, both in the season as a whole (being so dark and grim didn’t help) and then the treatment after. It really is a shame.

I’ve not done this for other boxsets, I probably should have, but I’m gonna do a ranking here so from best to worst.

*Mark Of The Rani
*The Two Doctors
*Timelash
*Revelation of The Daleks
*Attack Of The Cybermen
*Vengeance On Varos

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Foolish’s stream

So I decided to watch the next ep of season 22, Timelash tonight and here’s some of my thoughts on t. (I really should’ve got a sixth doctor icon but ah well. Also I still need to watch the special features on the second two doctors disc as well as on the Varos second disc)

I’d heard bad things about Timelash from some comments and reviewers so was throughly expecting it to be bad, especially since I couldn’t really remember it myself. As it is though, it’s not bad. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either.

It’s often commented in that the doctor has travels off screen, but most of those are just brief mentions (we went to x place, we saw y thing, that sort of thing). Timelash must be one of the few, if not only, episode where an offscreen adventure is important. Because Timelash’s main setting, a planet called Karfel, was visited by the third Doctor and Jo (and possibly someone else as well) and what the doctor did on the trip serves as backstory for the events in the episode.

Honestly, it’s an interesting concept to have included and I’m surprised it’s not something that’s really cropped up before or since.

There are some strange choices along the way though. The main android, while imposing, talks in an odd sing song voice. Tekker was smug and self important, but that was (apparently) due to the actor just deciding to act that way and no one stopping him. And there was the odd thing of Peri (who at least had a sensible outfit and used her botany knowledge) who ended up reduced to a prisoner.

The story was also odd towards the end. It ended up being resolved with about 15 minutes to go and then having to deal with a different problem (albeit one set up beforehand). It reminded me of the end of creature from the pit, which I probably wouldn’t have spotted if it hadn’t been the previous boxset. And there’s also how the villain of the piece, the borad, suddenly had a clone at the end… completely out of nowhere,

But it was a good episode though. It wasn’t as bloody as other season 22 eps (despite having deaths in it) and some of the supporting cast were pretty good. It definitely doesn’t deserve to be treated as bad as it is.

Next is the final ep of the boxset Revelation Of The Daleks.

***

Other than that my mood is… going odd again, which is annoying.

Things are on the way which is good (and my qwertee axolotl tee came) though I’ve still not heard back from loot crate. Or youtooz. Or the uni about sorting the next course. I did get the Xbox code I won Friday, though it’s not yet shown up in game yet.

At least there was a fun stream earlier and Ranboo’s doing a magic one tomorrow.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Today has been a bit tiring, since this morning I woke up and my stomach was funny. I’m not sure, again, if it’s due to heat, something I ate or covid (though I don’t think it’s the latter). It has settled later thankfully.

Shortly after the last post a few things happened.

First the Xbox controller came, which is very pretty. It does also have a screenshot button, which I didn’t realise until I accidentally pressed it. That’s useful, as the standard Xbox screenshot feature is so awkward.

We ended up having to go to the dentist, because mums teeth broke as she was eating breakfast. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but it’s not the first time such a thing has happened, so I’m not surprised. She had to have them fixed, thankfully for free, and I was due to pick them up today but sickness meant I couldn’t and mum went alone instead. But walking there in the heat Wednesday did mean I was pretty tired Wednesday night and didn’t do too much.

Last night I ended up starting watching The Two Doctors (though I had to finish it tonight after a stream started last night). The ep starts pretty good, showing us some of the second doctor and Jamie together which is nice to see (even if the whole second doctor working for the time lords does create it’s own issues). The opening space station does look pretty good, the sets as well as the model work, even though the neat hanging in the kitchen is a bit much.

The sontarans are in this story, but they feel a tad… surperflous. They basically just serve as muscle and seem only to be there as a familiar enemy. I know I’ve said it before, but for a race that’s mentioned from the start to be at war with the rutans it would be nice to, you know, actually see them fight each other. (Or even see the rutans again.)

Shockeye was pretty... creepy and crass, which I guess was the point. As one of the morals of the story is meat eating is bad (which is a thing I do agree with, even more so after part of my uni course mentioned that one of the reasons the Amazon is being cut down is to be turned into farmland for cattle which is just a shortsighted waste it pisses me off). Still there’s a strange homoerotic undercurrent to his blatant cannibalism, especially how he treats Jamie.

It is a pretty good episode though. The location is nice, being actually in Seville instead of a quarry or somewhere in the uk. And the plot was interesting, despite the you can’t change your nature thing.t does suggest gtom the season 22 thing of violence, with all of the secondary cast (bar one) dying the gruesomeness of one sontaran. And the way the doctor kills shockeye… which seems oddly brutal.
For the Doctor.

I did intend to start the Netflix Resident Evil series tonight, but with my stomach being funny earlier I wanna be careful in case the gory stuff triggers it again.

Tomorrow is some twitch con streams, so I’m glad I’m not going out after all. There’s also the start of season 2 of superman and Lois and then Ad Astra on channel 4. And then? Who knows. Maybe gaming or watching something (and I hope to read in the day too).

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Sonic colours

So today I continued the Who run with The Mark Of The Rani.

Mark is, blissfully, an improvement on the first two eps of season 22. While yeah there’s still bad things happening, including experimentation and death) it’s less so than the last two, if that makes sense.

This is the first episode with The Rani and it’s much better than her second appearance. (It’s a shame she’s not appeared in new Who because she seems shes exactly the sort of person the time lords would have used in the time war.) In large part this is due to her observation’s about the master and Doctor’s relationship, with her openly being disdainful of how the master acts (with needlessly complicated schemes).

The Master shows up here too, for some reason being disguised as a scarecrow…. For no reason. He takes advantage of the Rani’s operation and is generally a nuisance to her.

There’s some interesting ideas here, including bugs that control minds and mines that turn people into trees. (Which is a cool concept despite the execution being… not the best.)

A thing I’ve found so far over this fun is that Peri is a much better character than I remember her being. She even gets to show off her botany knowledge a little in this one. Same with the sixth doctor who, while still brash, is definitely… not as bad as I remember.

All in all a good ep, despite some of the… questionable accents.

Next week is the two doctors, which is the longest ep of the season so I’ll have to watch it earlier.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Ranboo’s stream

So tonight I decided to continue with Doctor Who Season 22 run with Vengeance On Varos (the extended version).

First off you can immediately tell which parts were inserted into the extended version. There was, at times, a dip in quality but more noticeable was an odd bar at the bottom middle of the screen. It made me wonder why they couldn’t get rid of it.

But onto the ep itself… damn it’s grim. As with most old Who eps id not seen it since the first time but it instantly reminded me why. It’s bleak and the planet of Varos is just… awful. You have one guy in the government that’s halfway decent, but restrained by the rules (as well as a second in command that’s corrupt and Sil, who’s screwing the planet over.) At least there’s a few rebels trying to make things right, including one at the start who started up shirtless, chained and tortured by laser.

Yep, tortured. And said tortures are televised and sold. There’s also an acid bath that two guys fall into and you get some shots of them melting. It’s pretty gruesome stuff.

The first ep is mostly focussed on this terrible place, with the Doctor only landing about halfway through (after spending the few scenes prior trying to sort a damaged Tardis and almost giving up.) What follows is people trying to capture and kill him and Peri, with her nearly being transformed into a bird thing.

At least at the end the governor has managed to make a better deal and improve things for the planet but… I dunno. This is gonna be one of those eps I’m not gonna watch for awhile.

Next week is The Mark Of The Rani, which is much better.

Last night I did watch the last special feature of Attack Of The Cybermen, which was A Conversation With Colin Baker which proved to be pretty interesting. He trained to be a lawyer, he went to acting school with David Suchet and was in Helen Mirren’s first televised appearance. What I found sad though, that I didn’t know before, was that he lost his 7 week old son just a few months before becoming the Doctor. It was so sad to hear him talk about it and it just sounded so awful.

***

Friday I went to pick up meds. Mine were there, mums weren’t. Apparently hers weren’t there due to the doctors not sending the prescription in which… is annoying.

This weekend there has been a storm, as well as some… bleh ness with mum. (In a nutshell it’s to do with the washer and unrealistic expectations. Things seem calmer now but we’ll see.)

Yesterday I watched the new Doctor Strange film on Disney+, I dunno how many people have seen it so I won’t mention spoilers but suffice to say it was different than I expected. (In mostly good ways bar one.)

I’ve got all the Dead By Daylight masks now though I still need to do a few more things before the event finishes in a few days. I wish they’d have extended it a bit but… Ah well. I might do some more tonight.

Star Wars celebration tickets are going live in a few days which… is annoying, cause I’m not ready. Hopefully they don’t sell out quick.

Tomorrow I’ve got food shop coming as well as some Guinea pig food (I’d have got some when I got meds but there wasn’t any there) so I can’t do much as I’ve gotta keep aware for it arriving.

I might be able to start The Umbrella Academy tomorrow night though, we’ll see.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Blacklist

So the new Doctor Who boxset arrived. It was meant to come yesterday but didn’t. It said it was due by 10pm, but 10 hit and then it said it was due to today. It came just before I had dinner, which was good timing really cause it meant I could watch the first ep tonight.

Like always this is only my second time watching the eps and I’m hoping watching them together in context softens my thoughts on the sixth Doctor and Peri.

The first ep of the season is Attack Of The Cybermen and, as the name suggests, the villains for this story are the cybermen. The episode was actually pretty good, although there was an obvious problem with it due to it being…. well timey wimey.

You see the ep is a follow up to previous cybermen eps, The Tenth Planet and Tomb Of The Cybermen. So what’s the problem with this? Well those eps at the time of this ep were lost to history (hell Tenth even has a missing ep even now), but also…. Those eps were from the first and second doctor (remember this is the sixth doctor). So chances are people at the time hadn’t seen them. As such people watching would be confused by some of the plot of the ep (hell, buying these boxsets might have the same sort of issue if they’ve not seen the DVDs).

As such the plot is a bit… odd. The cybermen want to use Harley’s comet to destroy Earth so that Mondas (the titular Tenth Planet) isn’t destroyed one year in the future. This is ignoring that Mondas needed the energy from the Earth that it overloads on so even if it had survived it would still have an issue. The titular cybermen of this ep are also from the tombs on Telos (from the titular tomb of the cybermen) but something is wrong with them that’s not elaborated on.

So yeah the plot is a bit of a confusing mess in a lot of ways. I can see that it just about stands on its own but that back knowledge is necessary.

It’s also one of the few eps of who where virtually everyone dies. Only the doctor and Peri are shown surviving the ep. It’s possible the Cryons could have survived but given the tone of the ep it’s unlikely. (It’s also pretty bloody, there’s literally blood in one see, Cryons are shown boiling alive and one of the many characters is beaten to death.) I did feel sorry for the poor Cryons, even though they were odd.

There’s some fun moments though. The Tardis’ chameleon circuit is temporarily fixed so it’s not a police box. However this being the Tardis ‘fixed’ is a loose term as it’s forms (a wardrobe, a pipe organ) don’t exactly blend in. The Doctor and Peri are also quite fun together with some nice banter between them. (Such as Peri’s response to the doctor feeling conspicuous ‘I’m not surprised given that coat’).

Next time is Vengeance On Varos. And I’m gonna try and watch Cybermen’s special features tonight or tomorrow,

In non-Who news there is a video from an MCR gig of Ray showing skin by doing this and damn I hope there’s more pics and vids.

Also today was a bit annoying because I went for the blood test… only for me to be a ‘slow bleeder’ and not enough coming out (though it looked like there was enough) so I have to go back in a few weeks to try again. Ugh.

Tomorrow I’m gonna be at the library in the morning (with only morning at dinner time tonight) so I guess that gives me an excuse to read my book. The rest of the day will be spent watching the Xbox uk dead by daylight stream (in case there’s a giveaway) and trying Fall Guys (which goes free to play tomorrow).

And last night there was Tommy and Quackity doing a hot tub stream which was…

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Tv