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chicafrom3Happy Who Day/Merry Christmas!
Usually I have two ways of writing a DW reaction post, either a) liveblogging my reaction as I watch it, or b) watching it twice and considering my thoughts before I make a post. This is neither, as I am currently at my parents' place for the holidays. I watched with my dad and I won't have a chance to rewatch the episode for a bit, so this is a reaction post after a single watch.
Oh, in case anyone's curious: my dad really liked it. (Also he thinks they should bring Clara back.)
That was a solid Christmas special and a solid companion introduction episode. It doesn't really feel like a Doctor introduction episode - it feels like we're being skipped several episodes into his character arc - but that's a pretty minor quibble.
And I do mean a minor quibble, because I adore Ncuti's Doctor. If I can compare him to any past incarnation, it's Colin Baker's; brash and self-assured and quick to take offense at any perceived slight, compassionate and thoughtful and empathetic, funny and lovely and charming and sarcastic and always the center of attention. And incredible fashion sense (not sarcastic, don't at me). But mostly he's so completely his own interpretation, undeniably Ncuti Gatwa, running around in a giant leather coat filled with manic glee and total devastation. (The "I was adopted" scene is just . . . it's a lot. In a good way.) The "pram at midnight" bit! Love him so much.
I'm already emotionally attached to Ruby, too, with her intense love of her family and her total willingness to buy into the weirdness. For all her saying "this isn't happening" when she ended up tied up on a goblin cloudship, in fact she rolled with everything that happened, from chasing the goblins who stole her foster sister to chasing after the time traveller who was just going to peace out without saying goodbye. Total willing suspension of disbelief. Love to see it.
The plot was, you know, there. It happened. I don't ask a lot from a Christmas special. It hung together, mostly, I think. I'll have to watch it again to see if it totally hangs together. (Up until the end, when the goblin ship just disappears because we're done with the plot now and RTD isn't interested in resolutions. Whatever, it's a Christmas special, I can forgive it, that's the kind of thing that happens. We're not here for the plot.) There's bits that didn't work for me - I am the kind of person for whom the musical number should've been a very easy sell, but it was too overproduced and slick to fit into the episode which made it feel like something that was just stuck in there because. If it had been the exact same song but performed rougher it would've been a great moment, I think. This is not a large complaint and nothing else that bothered me is big enough to complain about. The story was a vehicle to deliver us the Doctor and Ruby.
And also to deliver us Mrs. Flood looking at the camera and saying "Never seen a TARDIS before?" which is clearly a plot hook that I am excited to find out more about. The Rani?! (I know, I know, it's never the Rani. BUT IS SHE THE RANI!?)
Usually I have two ways of writing a DW reaction post, either a) liveblogging my reaction as I watch it, or b) watching it twice and considering my thoughts before I make a post. This is neither, as I am currently at my parents' place for the holidays. I watched with my dad and I won't have a chance to rewatch the episode for a bit, so this is a reaction post after a single watch.
Oh, in case anyone's curious: my dad really liked it. (Also he thinks they should bring Clara back.)
That was a solid Christmas special and a solid companion introduction episode. It doesn't really feel like a Doctor introduction episode - it feels like we're being skipped several episodes into his character arc - but that's a pretty minor quibble.
And I do mean a minor quibble, because I adore Ncuti's Doctor. If I can compare him to any past incarnation, it's Colin Baker's; brash and self-assured and quick to take offense at any perceived slight, compassionate and thoughtful and empathetic, funny and lovely and charming and sarcastic and always the center of attention. And incredible fashion sense (not sarcastic, don't at me). But mostly he's so completely his own interpretation, undeniably Ncuti Gatwa, running around in a giant leather coat filled with manic glee and total devastation. (The "I was adopted" scene is just . . . it's a lot. In a good way.) The "pram at midnight" bit! Love him so much.
I'm already emotionally attached to Ruby, too, with her intense love of her family and her total willingness to buy into the weirdness. For all her saying "this isn't happening" when she ended up tied up on a goblin cloudship, in fact she rolled with everything that happened, from chasing the goblins who stole her foster sister to chasing after the time traveller who was just going to peace out without saying goodbye. Total willing suspension of disbelief. Love to see it.
The plot was, you know, there. It happened. I don't ask a lot from a Christmas special. It hung together, mostly, I think. I'll have to watch it again to see if it totally hangs together. (Up until the end, when the goblin ship just disappears because we're done with the plot now and RTD isn't interested in resolutions. Whatever, it's a Christmas special, I can forgive it, that's the kind of thing that happens. We're not here for the plot.) There's bits that didn't work for me - I am the kind of person for whom the musical number should've been a very easy sell, but it was too overproduced and slick to fit into the episode which made it feel like something that was just stuck in there because. If it had been the exact same song but performed rougher it would've been a great moment, I think. This is not a large complaint and nothing else that bothered me is big enough to complain about. The story was a vehicle to deliver us the Doctor and Ruby.
And also to deliver us Mrs. Flood looking at the camera and saying "Never seen a TARDIS before?" which is clearly a plot hook that I am excited to find out more about. The Rani?! (I know, I know, it's never the Rani. BUT IS SHE THE RANI!?)
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Re: It doesn't really feel like a Doctor introduction episode - it feels like we're being skipped several episodes into his character arc - for me personally this felt extremely like Nine's first episode, perhaps intentionally. We met Nine presumably quite a while after he'd regenerated (if you take the number of sightings of him pre-Rose rather than the 'seeing himself in the mirror for the first time' thing) and this felt very similar to that. New companion, slightly more established Doctor.
I'm intrigued by the comparison to Colin Baker - not one I would have made myself since Six gets my hackles up a lot, though I don't mind him as much as I think I do, if you know what I mean? But I'm fascinated by the idea so I'm going to go into my rewatch and see if I can spot any similarities to Six myself!
I was fine with the goblin ship disappearing as I wasn't at all interested in it beyond what it meant for the Doctor and Ruby. A similar mess-free resolution to vampires turning to dust and not needing to get rid of bodies in Buffy.
I do agree about the musical number though. I love musical numbers too but I totally agree this felt too slick. That's exactly what I felt so thanks for putting it into words for me!
I would love Mrs Flood to be the Rani but how many times have people said that in Nu Who now? I don't think it's happening...