Category Archives: Doctor Who

Doctor Who Discussion: “It Takes You Away” and “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos”

The first Jodie Whittaker season of Doctor Who comes to a conclusion, though we’ll get the usual Holiday Episode soon, and another season in… 2020!

“It Takes You Away” poses a fascinating, atmospheric mystery with a bizarre and, IMO, not very satisfying conclusion. “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” brings several elements of the season together.

Here’s the place to discuss both….

Continue reading →

Doctor Who Discussion: The Witchfinders

We really need to return to reviews of this season. We have the standard historical with SF episode this week, but it features a couple of new elements. The Doctor encounters difficulties because she’s now a woman, and King James wanders unaccompanied across the country, acting like Matthew Hopkins. Alan Cumming gives a great performance, but James’s presence, as depicted in this episode, makes little sense, his historical interest in witches (and alleged homosexuality) notwithstanding.

Continue reading →

Doctor Who Discussion: “Demons of the Punjab” and “Kerblam!”

Our reviewer has fallen behind, so we’re going to post a discussion of the last two episodes of Doctor Who, Series 11.

“Demons of the Punjab” gives us a fairly typical Doctor Who “aliens in a past era” episode, except for two notable twists. The first is that we’re not in England‘s past, even if the time and place hold some significance to British history. The second is one of the things that makes this episode interesting.

“Kerblam!” looks at the implications of our latest retail models and future AI developments. It has an interesting premise, and Whittaker remains a standout Doc, but something about this one left me cold.

Anyone else have opinions?

Continue reading →