Doctor Who IV - Everything Whovian - Would you like a jelly baby?

[ChrisIII]

I'm guessing it might be one of those times where they're kind of thrown in there but not the main drive of the plot (Five Doctors, Pandorica Opens etc).

[CosmiComic]

Has his mannerisms down too. It's why some people questioned last week if it actually was Bettany. But it isn't. It's Sam Spruell and he has been around in everything from Taken 3 to Valerian.

Yeah, I can hear some resemblance. But the BBC probably blew its budget on the effects so I doubt they'd hire a Hollywood actor for that episode.

[ChrisIII]

Funny thing is Paul's father was in State of Decay (Fourth Doctor story from his final season about Vampires in E-space).

[Somecrazyaussie]

Really good episode, I liked the setting and as usual, the spotlight on interesting historical figures.
I agree that there were few callbacks to 10's era, especially with the Doctor being angry at the general for blowing up the Sontarans being similar to 10's reaction to Harriet Jones in his first episode.
I like the bits of the season-long arc. I wonder what the purpose of the coal miner is. I like Vinder so far, I hope we will see more of him in upcoming episodes. I am also interested in the story of the planet called Time and why Doctor doesn't know about it.
The promo for the next episode though. spoilers:

Cybermen, really? Haven't we had enough of them in last season's 3 episodes? I certainly had.

end of spoilers

I agree regarding the spoiler part. They are my favourite monsters (moreso the classic series) and even I am sick of them.

[CosmiComic]

Funny thing is Paul's father was in State of Decay (Fourth Doctor story from his final season about Vampires in E-space).

Oh, I didn't know that.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Cbr.com posted a fan theory that Swarm is an early incarnation of the Master. I'm mixed on it but what do you'll think?

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-swarm...ike-qualities/

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-theory-swarm-master/

At least Big Finish will benefit from this .

[Indian Ink]

Hasn't the Doctor always acted a bit confused when he/she meets people in the wrong order? River, Sally, Clara etc

Yes, but as much as I recall the information was being presented to the Doctor in a confusing manner. This seemed pretty straight forward, I understood immediately. I don't want to feel as though the Doctor has an IQ two standard deviations lower than myself.

I haven't seen the second episode. I have a fear. I do hope now that the woman Clair has been sent back in time by the Weeping Angel that this won't be where she mentioned meeting the Doctor. If so, how can she remember meeting the Doctor before her own experienced timeline? I should trust the writer, but there we are.

[thwhtGuardian]

The second episode was a vast improvement over the first in that it told an actually coherent story. I still feel like the other fragments should have been removed and told in their own episode as it would have allowed more time to showcase Mary Seacole and the Crimean War but it was a definite step in the right direction.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Cbr.com posted a fan theory that Swarm is an early incarnation of the Master. I'm mixed on it but what do you'll think?

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-swarm...ike-qualities/

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-theory-swarm-master/

At least Big Finish will benefit from this .

Still scratching my head over how that would work, honestly. Swarm has been imprisoned since the beginning of time, right? Yet he and the Doctor have battled countless times before. Encounters that he DOES remember. It would take alot of backflipping to explain how he ended up there and why do it to an earlier incarnation whom hasn't had the battles we've seen over the Doctors history?

This is why making The Master the Timeless Child works much better. It gives him a reason to hate the Time Lords the way he does. It also explains why they'd cap his regeneration cycle/ability. It'll explain his fear of death after experiencing it so much. Plus, if Swarm was The Master, making him the Timeless Child and imprisoned somewhere for all time by The Division to hide him, would make more sense.

[ChrisIII]

And that's my problem so far: too many plotlines are being tossed at us and each episode so far doesn't stand on its own. In really hope Chibnall hasn't bit off more than he can chew here.

Other points -
1. So, the Mouri priests are basically like the time version of Logopolitans? Holding back bad/evil time from eroding the universe?
2. I think the went a bit too far in trying to show how badass Swarm and Azure are. Did we really need all that to just show how impressive they are? Less is more Chibs.

Complete with giant skull-faced silent henchman (Passanger).

[Jokerz79]

Still scratching my head over how that would work, honestly. Swarm has been imprisoned since the beginning of time, right? Yet he and the Doctor have battled countless times before. Encounters that he DOES remember. It would take alot of backflipping to explain how he ended up there and why do it to an earlier incarnation whom hasn't had the battles we've seen over the Doctors history?

This is why making The Master the Timeless Child works much better. It gives him a reason to hate the Time Lords the way he does. It also explains why they'd cap his regeneration cycle/ability. It'll explain his fear of death after experiencing it so much. Plus, if Swarm was The Master, making him the Timeless Child and imprisoned somewhere for all time by The Division to hide him, would make more sense.

Not a bad idea and could always be done. Me personally I'm just going to ignore Timeless Child for my own head canon and pretend the Master was just messing with the Doctor you know for the lols.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-comic...eighth-doctor/

Preview for the Eight/Ten comic crossover event. It releases next week(11/17) and it's called "Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf".

[Celgress]

Not a bad idea and could always be done. Me personally I'm just going to ignore Timeless Child for my own head canon and pretend the Master was just messing with the Doctor you know for the lols.

A wise choice. I detest the Doctor being reduced yes reduced to Space Jesus. The Chosen One From The Beginning trope is so lazy and overdone in fantasy/sci-fi.

[ChrisIII]

https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-comic...eighth-doctor/

Preview for the Eight/Ten comic crossover event. It releases next week.

Kind of distracting that the Eighth Doctor's poses are copied from publicity stills for the TV movie.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Still scratching my head over how that would work, honestly. Swarm has been imprisoned since the beginning of time, right? Yet he and the Doctor have battled countless times before. Encounters that he DOES remember. It would take alot of backflipping to explain how he ended up there and why do it to an earlier incarnation whom hasn't had the battles we've seen over the Doctors history?

This is why making The Master the Timeless Child works much better. It gives him a reason to hate the Time Lords the way he does. It also explains why they'd cap his regeneration cycle/ability. It'll explain his fear of death after experiencing it so much. Plus, if Swarm was The Master, making him the Timeless Child and imprisoned somewhere for all time by The Division to hide him, would make more sense.

It would make more sense as a future version of the Master than an early incarnation. Having the Master go from Dhawan to Swarm could be cool.

Granted the Master has more incarnations we haven't seen and they are less likely to stick to humans. So having an early incarnation be an alien makes some sense. But the question is do people care which Master fight the Doctor beyond the diehards?

Kind of distracting that the Eighth Doctor's poses are copied from publicity stills for the TV movie.

It's not that big a deal. I'm just surprised they are using his early days. Most of Eight's appearances recently have been time war adjacent.