Menu
- Podcast
Latest Episodes
N179 The Church on Ruby Road — The 2023 Christmas Special
Inter-temporal infanticide and a divisive song-and-dance number? We spend more than twice its runtime dissecting The Fifteenth Doctor's first big adve...B096 The Fourteenth Doctor Retrospective
Tennant is back, inexplicably yet fabulously, prompting a customary, cocktail-fuelled retrospective... - Articles
Latest Articles
System Notation
"Right now, I’m alone." — A data log was found in a colony in the future. This is what it contained....The Eighth Doctor: An Episode Guide
If you’re hungry for more adventures, you just have to know where to look....It Came From The Backrooms
Zoey Fleetwood finally gets to meet the Doctor! But will her first impression go as smoothly as she hopes?... - Vindex
- Shazam
Shazam!
Do you prefer listening to us rant about episodes we really liked or disliked? Coolio, then head on over to the stats section and find an episode we rated exceptionally highly/incredibly disparagingly!
And there are PLENTY of ways to get involved beyond listening to the show and exploring the article archives. Point your eyestalks at some of these links to learn more! - Merch!
Hi folks
A strong dose of ‘we have always been at war with Eurasia’. Psychic control and a secret police reminds me of series 3 and the Saxon/The Master plot. Any other eps? It feels a familiar plot from general fiction, certainly the fake memories with Torchwood and Star Trek having done that a few times.
Hmm, the Doctor regeneration fakeout twist happened too early in the episode. It happened 18 mins into it, when it should have happened 5-10 mins later. It just left the rest of the story a bit light on content or a bit more drawn out than it needed to be. That was something I felt at the time and still did on rewatch for this review.
That said, I like Bill talking to her mum (I realise that Chibnall nicked that for next series). Nice setup for the end of the episode. Asking the Missy for help feels like the reverse of all those Pertwee stories where the Master realises he needs the Doctor’s help as he’s mis-calculated, though is similar to Logopolis I suppose.
Thinking back to my question in the previous mini, I suppose it was a trap for the Doctor and Bill. The Monks need someone pure of heart and sincere and Bill fits the, er, bill (sorry…). As she’s the lynchpin, the Doctor can’t really take any action against her. The ending isn’t particularly novel, we’ve had ‘love saves the day’ before so that counts against it for me.
A little bit of a let down on the previous couple 3.3/5
Cheers
Kieren
Hello Leon, Drew, Marie, and Jim!
Lie of the Land wraps up the three-story arc of the Monks’ invasion nicely.
I find the odd correlation between your Classic Who and New Who podcasts intriguing, in that there is also currently a three-story arc in classic as well. This also happened when you reviewed Into the Dalek just after Invisible Enemy, which both involved shrinking people, and Journey to the Center of the TARDIS just after Deadly Assassin, where both referred to the legendary Eye of Harmony. I know it has happened numerous times before, too.
I thought Bill did a marvelous job of carrying the episode, especially at the beginning, when we don’t even see the Doctor for a while. I enjoyed Nardole (as always); he has such an expressive face. He’s also a great counterpoint to Bill.
I didn’t understand why the Doctor took so long to send Nardole to get Bill, unless he had some way of knowing whether she had broken through the hypnosis, or he was just gathering other forces.
I loved Missy in this! I thought the part about her feeling regret for each death a nice touch. I think this is the best iteration of the Master since Delgado.
I did not care for the appearance of the monks. Unless they are the literal remains of a long-lived race, I don’t know why they would look like desiccated corpses.
This story emphasized spectacle over substance, so I rate it 2.8 out of 5.
~Tanz Sixfingers
On Instagram @Tanz6Fingers
Likes:
Beefs:
Summary: a disappointing finale to one of the best three parters in New ‘Who.
Rating: 2.3/5 ‘memory criminals’ being summarily zapped. Zoink!
Well, here we are at the end of this long and epic saga. This brilliantly original take on an alien invasion story can be summed up in one word. Unfortunately that word is: anticlimactic. But first, the good stuff.
Nardole’s high-pitched screaming when confronted with a chair made me lol. Every Fraking word Missy says in her scene was pure gold. The psychout of The Doctor’s betrayal was so good it almost had me convinced the first time. Which leads directly to my first BEEF.
Showing The Doctor starting to regenerate when supposedly being shot was cheap and lazy. I’m sure it made for a compelling clip in the trailer but it served no purpose except to trick the audience. Which was completely unnecessary after the fantastic scene which led up to it. Even this though doesn’t compare to the tragedy that is the final act.
This whole serial was so unique and original and it really brought its A game to Capaldi’s final season. So why was the whole thing completely undone by an imaginary memory? Yes, it’s clever that they brought the story of the pictures back around but nothing in this story felt lazy until the trick with The Doctor regenerating, after which EVERYTHING was just sloppily rushed along. Very disappointing culmination to what could have been remembered as a favorite Doctor Who story.
Overall, I give this episode a 2.6 out of 5 sanity saving Sony Walkmans. Until next time, ROCK ON
-Eddie Rock