The Eleventh Doctor interrupts some Pizza, Booze, Telly in this incredibly polarising episode of NewWho
Apparently there’s just one place in all of Gloucester that sells coffee
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Ruth Clayton is a thoroughly average married woman and unappreciated tour guide to the dribbling dimwits visiting the cathedral city of Gloucester, where if the jealousy and hostility from the failed barman-cum-barista are to be believed, there’s only one place anyone can buy coffee. Although to his credit he does rock a pretty sweet dossier.
Cue the Judoon harpooning the toon with a cocoon, at which point Ruth’s shifty husband Lee makes plans to evacuate, and Doc and Fam intervene to ensure none of the applicable regulations are breached. Turns out Ruth has a past that’s secret even to both of her, and Captain Jack swings back into view with a crucial communiqué of his own.
Horny, leather-clad space rhinos with justice boner spaceships are looking for a fugitive on
Earth.
So naturally they come to….(check notes) Gloucester.
Whether they are unloading on the elderly; dominating cappuccino-making incels; or
aggressively assaulting people’s identities with vibrating cylindrical objects, the Judoon find
themselves in a menage-à-many with The Doctor & Fam. We are then treated to a
wham-bam-thankyou-“more of a canal” thrill ride that shows that some of the greatest mysteries
are only skin deep.
I’m doing my best to avoid using a lot of unnecessary innuendos, but sometimes it gets hard….
Pros:
1) Fairly tight story, unfolding at a medium pace, and satisfying payoffs.
2) Jo Martin and Jodie both were delightful.
3) In all seriousness, the dialog from the fam at the end – really needed more of that
throughout the 13 Era.
Cons:
1) While I enjoyed the Jack sideline, it could have been handled in a more organic way.
Huge waste of a ship set that looked vaguely TARDIS-like.
2) Tracking Lee through his service medal felt kind of cheap.
3) Shouldn’t Ruths TARDIS have recognized 13, and glitched out like in DOTD?
Minor Quibble:
1) I don’t know how to “read” a sonic screwdriver made of pewter and salt crystals, but i’m
fairly certain it should be able to decrypt anything vaguely Gallifreyan. Unless they’ve
really upped their technology game since….whenever Ruth and Gat are from.
2) Weird that there isn’t more of “crossing temporal paths”, eh? Stupid literary corners….
4.5/5 This is one of the best of Jodies run.
Jack’s back, yay! Some thoughts
Could Ryan have said “city is under siege, we’re going to sort it” with any less conviction? And at the end “let it come, you’ve got us”. Very reassuring indeed.
The Doc, Yaz and Ryan are very glib with the Judoon. In fact Whitaker plays it light through most of the early part of episode, reducing any menace – the Judoon are going round killing people! Talking of the Judoon, they look great, the sfx really shows their emotions.
So the Doctor can just teleport into the Tardis now. This is a terrible trope of the Chibnall era. Characters can jump about in space willy-nilly. See every episode of Flux.
Yet again we’re told you can’t have different versions of the same person in the same place but there they all are, no problem at all. As always.
It’s awesome to see Jack back! Great confusion over who is the Doctor.
The interplay between the Doctors is good fun and Martin is kick-ass. Makes you wish that she had been chosen as the thirteenth instead…
This is a decent episode, and no moralising lecture either (*rubs hands together in preparation for next week*). Good solid stuff 3.8/5
Hi folks
Interesting setup and nice that’s it is not set in London. There are other places in the UK you know (yes, I know you know, but the writers could do better at times). It’s been a while seen we last saw the Judoon, apparently Face The Raven though not prominently I think.
Ah, so shifty man is indeed shifty man. Lol.
Ok, let’s address the elephant in the room. Ruth and the reveal. The build up is very paced and it does come as a shock. It’s very moffat actually and I remember joking that Chibnall had ripped off his mask to reveal Moffat a la the Master in the Pertwee era. The actual ‘story’ is to come I suppose and should we penalise this one for the crimes of the future? Probably not, though I do remember being afraid back in January 2020 (God, a lot has happened since then). Having had several years of Moffat messing things, I was unsure if this was a wise path to be going down. And…well…
But in the moment it’s a good story with some great performances. Maybe Jack was unnecessary, actually yeah. 3.8/5 Buried Secrets
Cheers
Kieren
First the music for this episode is a win. Next, Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor is the best recurring character for the rest of Jodie’s run, the master being a close second. The reveal for the Judoon was pretty good, and I was pretty excited when they showed up. Graham disappeared, did he die, nope, damn. “More of a canal” is freakin ‘brilliant. Where’s Graham, Oh Captain Jack is back. I met John Barrowman, a pretty funny guy (a long time ago now).
Can they not just open the box, it looks like a regular box? And Yas and Ryan are gone, Nice job Jack. Ruth with those moves taking out Judoon awesome. Buried tardis that’s cool. Great reveal on the Ruth Doctor. The design of this Tardis is awesome and is now the fifth tardis to survive. I think, very confusing. Could Gat be a version of the master? Just a little theory. I love the little banter between the doctors. Gat is a Gallifreyan as proved by The doctor. Gat is Fugitive Doctor’s Master. (maybe) I love this episode so much. Very good ending.
I give this episode a 4.6/5 Judoon platoons near a moon, next to that lagoon.
Ok just a few stray observations. This episode is epic in that it firmly establishes there are Doctors previous to the Hartnell “first” Doctor.
Ruth Doctor is fantastic: great look, self possessed, kicks ass- brilliant!
Husband from America wants to know why she wasn’t the Doctor we got all season long. My thoughts however: it’s easier to be “the Doctor” for a single episode than to carry it off story after story, making it difficult to judge the Ruth Doctor since we only spend part of an episode with her.
I dislike how the Doctors bristle at each other. I want them to banter a little more friendly.
What’s the story with Lee? He registers as human but retains his memories. I demand an explanation!
Lastly I find it interesting that Ruth totes a large gun but sort of doesn’t actually use it. When our Doc says “the Doctor doesn’t use guns” Ruth hisses “I KNOW”. Is this a character trait Ruth has just grown into herself? What a tantalizing glimmer of history to speculate about.
Rating: worlds largest diamond, but it’s invisible
This is my favorite story of the Whitaker era; not because she has to share the screen with another incarnation of herself, but because she really seemed “Doctorly” in this one for a change. Everything was great in it, the timing, the sets, the building to the (spoiled) surprise of a new unknown iteration of the Doctor.
I only had a few issues with this story, and one of them is continuity with the first (Hartnell) Doctor. If Jo Martin’s Doctor predates Hartnell’s, then why is the TARDIS in the form of a Police Box? In episode 2 of An Unearthly Child (The Cave of Skulls) when the Doctor exits the TARDIS for the first time, the Doctor is concerned that it is still in the shape of a Police Box, implying this is the first time the chameleon circuit has acted up. In fact, his exact words are “It’s still a Police Box. Why hasn’t it changed? Dear, dear, how very disturbing.” So this would add fuel to the fire that her incarnation is during season 6B, when the Doctor was being used by Gallifrey black ops to do missions. We never got to see the beginning of the regeneration that led to Pertwee becoming the Doctor.
In most every other episode, when 13 meets new people, usually the first thing out of her mouth is her introduction: “Hi! I’m the Doctor and this is Yaz, and that’s Ryan and Graham.” In this instance, when she and Yaz enter the home, she pointedly does not offer any introduction. If she had, things would have been a lot clearer for Lee, and everything would have probably ended quite differently.
Put a pin in this, but I heard on one of the other podcasts that in Once, Upon Time, the four people the Doctor is getting flashbacks of are her (Jo Martin’s Doctor), Lee, Gat, and Karvanista, working for Division. That would make a really great spin-off series for 2024 on Disney+.