Doctor Who (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

I enjoyed Part 2 as well. One question - when we saw images related to "The Timeless Child" I recognized the first from The Ghost Monument last season. I didn't recognize the second one - couldn't really tell what it was. Anyone know?

 

[Josh Dial]

Orphan 55 was aggressively awful. The worst episode of Doctor Who ever and one of the worst episodes of television ever. The entire cast and crew should feel ashamed of it. The writing, editing, and acting (from each and every guest cast member) were all terrible.

 

[TJPC]

But did you like it?

 

[NeilO]

There were giant plot holes throughout the episode. Not a good job of writing.

One thing I was thinking about is that it seems to be a completely standalone episode, but what if the takeaway we are supposed to get it that the future is not fixed? So, maybe that also applies to Gallifrey and what the Doctor saw that it seemed the Master did to Gallifrey can be adjusted or undone?

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Orphan 55 was aggressively awful. The worst episode of Doctor Who ever and one of the worst episodes of television ever. The entire cast and crew should feel ashamed of it. The writing, editing, and acting (from each and every guest cast member) were all terrible.

That's a pretty bold statement, considering the likes of The Twin Dilemma, Time and the Rani etc. on Doctor Who and certainly a very bold statement when TV as a whole has produced many stinkers over the decades. The mercifully short-lived Peter Scolari series Baby Makes Five from 1983 is one of the absolute worst things I have ever seen, and I can't imagine any modern episode of Doctor Who being worse than that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There were giant plot holes throughout the episode. Not a good job of writing.

The biggest problem I had with the episode was that, in trying to deliver a polemic against climate change, they seemed to break the show's own internal rules of time travel. While time can be rewritten, the show has long stated that there are fixed points in time that cannot be changed, even if everything around them is changed. Presumably a planet-wide extinction level event would be one such event.

If they wanted to set this story on an abandoned Earth rendered largely uninhabitable, they could have set it during 29th or 30th centuries, when the planet was ravaged by solar flares per "The Ark in Space" and "The Beast Below".

One thing I was thinking about is that it seems to be a completely standalone episode, but what if the takeaway we are supposed to get it that the future is not fixed? So, maybe that also applies to Gallifrey and what the Doctor saw that it seemed the Master did to Gallifrey can be adjusted or undone?

I can't believe that Gallifrey is really gone for good. There's just too much story there.

 

[Josh Dial]

That's a pretty bold statement, considering the likes of The Twin Dilemma, Time and the Rani etc. on Doctor Who and certainly a very bold statement when TV as a whole has produced many stinkers over the decades. The mercifully short-lived Peter Scolari series Baby Makes Five from 1983 is one of the absolute worst things I have ever seen, and I can't imagine any modern episode of Doctor Who being worse than that.

While The Twin Dilemma is probably equally bad as Orphan 55 from a writing standpoint, Orphan 55 was worse from a technical and artistic side. At least in The Twin Dilemma the editing, sound, and overall direction were at least serviceable; they were downright abysmal in Orphan 55.

I absolutely stand by placing the episode amongst the very worst of television. Of course there are worse episodes of TV (the entirety of Under the Dome...), but Orphan 55 is in their ranks.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I had no interest in this season but hearing that it produced one of the most abysmal episodes ever kinda has me wanting to see that particular trainwreck. But if I’m gonna waste time on an abomination, I think I’ll see “Cats” first

 

[Scott-S]

Is anyone else having a hard time understanding what the Doctor is saying sometimes? With the thick accent and fast speaking, I am having a real tough time understanding her when she is franticly speaking. I have lived in England before, so I thought I was used to the accents but her Yorkshire (I think) accent is really hard for me for some reason.

Oh, and yea, Orphan 55 was really bad.

 

[David Weicker]

BBC Studios have announced that Season 14 will be the next instalment in the DOCTOR WHO: THE COLLECTION Blu-ray range, now available to pre-order from Amazon UK:

Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 14 (pack shot) (Credit: BBC Studios)


Doctor Who fans will be delighted to hear that BBC Studios is releasing Season 14 on Blu-Ray. Tom Baker’s third series as the Doctor will debut on Monday 20th April, and is available to pre-order now.

Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 14:

• THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA
• THE HAND OF FEAR
• THE DEADLY ASSASSIN
• THE FACE OF EVIL
• THE ROBOTS OF DEATH
• THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG

In 1976, Doctor Who took a dramatic new turn, electrifying audiences with changes in format, companion and appearance of the TARDIS. Season 14 saw the departure of the Doctor’s long-term companion Sarah Jane Smith, and the introduction of Leela. The season contains some of Tom Baker’s most iconic serials, with intrepid investigations in Victorian London, deadly robots in a murderous whodunit, a return to the Doctor’s homeworld, and one of the saddest goodbyes in Doctor
Who history.

Producer Phillip Hinchliffe led Doctor Who through a creative high, joined by Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Louise Jameson as the Doctor’s captivating new companion Leela and guests stars Tim Pigott-Smith, Stephen Thorne, Peter Pratt, Pamela Salem, David Collings, Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter.

With all episodes newly remastered from the best available sources, this Blu-ray box set also contains extensive and exclusive special features which include:

• Immersive 5.1 surround sound - The Deadly Assassin
• Brand new audio commentaries - Tom Baker and Matthew Sweet on selected episodes of The Face of Evil and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
• Behind the Sofa - New episodes with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Philip Hinchcliffe, plus companions Sophie Aldred and Peter Purves.
• Our Sarah Jane – Elisabeth Sladen Tribute - A feature-length look at the life and career of Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen.
• Whose Doctor Who Revisited - Toby Hadoke meets the producers and grown-up stars of the very first Who Documentary.
• In Conversation - Matthew Sweet chats to producer Philip Hinchcliffe.
• Blu-Ray trailer - Louise Jameson has trouble with her new home assistant.
• Brand new interviews
• Rare archive material
• Convention footage
• HD photo galleries
• Scripts, costume designs, rare BBC production files and other gems from our PDF archive

The eight-disc box set also includes hours of extensive special features previously released on DVD

 

[Lord Dalek]

Season 14 is probably the single finest season of Doctor Who ever produced and that's not an unpopular opinion.

 

[Atari]

I don't mind a "Humans are Bad" plot once in awhile, but Orphan 55 was pretty much the worst execution I've seen for that. To really get people to think it needs to be more thoughtful and usually with a twist that you don't see coming, like the original Planet of the Apes. I think they wanted me to feel scared throughout the episode, but all I felt was boredom.

 

[TJPC]

Is this the last new Dr Who episode for a while? My PVR guide says next week is a rerun of “Origin of the Daleks part 1” from 1975!

 

[David Weicker]

Is this the last new Dr Who episode for a while? My PVR guide says next week is a rerun of “Origin of the Daleks part 1” from 1975!

I’m not aware of any breaks.

The next three episodes are:
Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror
Fugitive Of The Judoon
Praxeus

And new episodes should continue into March.

 

[TJPC]

That means the Canadian SciFi channel as usual is crazy. They also listed the new Picard series as TBA for the last month.

 

[Josh Dial]

That means the Canadian SciFi channel as usual is crazy. They also listed the new Picard series as TBA for the last month.

For what it's worth the guide is properly showing both Doctor Who and Picard for me over the next three weeks (Shaw, Calgary).

 

[Scott-S]

There was a couple of major reveals in Fugitive Of The Judoon.
It will be interesting to see peoples reactions.

 

[NeilO]

It was one wild episode. Lots of questions asked and not many answers, but very well done.

 

[Wayne_j]

Definitely one of the most insane episodes of the series.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This was the first episode of the Chibnall era to really grab me. I love that Gallifrey is back in play, and I love that there are multiple characters who are ahead of the Doctor this time around.

The Jo Martin Doctor is especially intriguing; her TARDIS is older than the Thirteenth Doctor's TARDIS, and she seems quite certain that she is in the Thirteenth Doctor's past. But we've seen all of the Doctor's past regenerations, so there doesn't seem to be room to slot the Jo Martin Doctor in like the show slotted the War Doctor in. Before the First Doctor? But if so, why does her TARDIS look like a police box? The TARDIS disguised itself as a police box to fit into 1963 when the First Doctor and Susan arrived there, and got stuck like that. If the Jo Martin Doctor is before the First Doctor, her TARDIS should still camoflague itself. An alternate universe Doctor? That would probably be cleaner for chronology.