I know I’ve gone on about it quite a bit, but Chris Chibnall has got a pretty spotty track record with Who in my eyes, so with such and epic title before him can he pull it off?
My good friend, editor-in-chief of Nerdist News, and dinosaur enthusiast Brian Walton returns to the podcast to take on episode 2 of series 7. The Doctor has a gang, Mitchell and Webb are robots and of course there are dinosaurs. It all adds up to a pretty fun episode of “Doctor Who” and a pretty fun episode of this podcast.
Enjoy!
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Well, you’ve lost me as a listener during your new series reviews. I can’t believe you said, “I’m not going to spoil it, but X and Y are returning … but what made last week so great was the preservation of the surprise of returning.” So basically what you mean is that when YOU get spoiled, it’s okay to spoil your listeners. I had no idea about the return of these two characters and you, personally, took that surprise away from me. And the thing is, the point you were trying to make by revealing that point was entirely inconsequential. You were just waffling. There was absolutely no reason in the larger context of your remarks that I needed to be spoiled.
I realise that you normally podcast about stories that have long since passed their sell-by date, so I’m not out for your first-born child or anything. You just made a rookie mistake. But please remember in future that not every one of your listeners makes daily trips to bbc.co.uk/doctorwho, nor do we all go places where the show is endlessly dissected. Some of us watch Doctor Who like any other show — one episode at a time.
Really sorry that I spoiled it for you. To me knowing that characters are coming back isn’t a spoiler. It’s the how and why that would spoil it. Neither of which I know.
Well, I think there was a time where I believed what you’re saying. The “how” and the “why” used to be of paramount importance to me. Until Derek Jacobi turned around and whispered, “I am the Master”. And at that point I instantly learned the value of not knowing what was coming. Because a lot of people I knew were well aware the Master was returning, and what they got out of the scene was merely the appreciation of Derek Jacobi’s acting. What I got was absolute electricity.
It was a lot like the surprise we were recently served with “Asylum of the Daleks”. It’s self-evident that if you knew the main guest star of “Asylum” in advance that you wouldn’t have enjoyed the episode to the same degree.
What I didn’t get was an experience like at the end of “The Parting of the Ways” or “The End of Time”. There, I knew a regeneration was coming, so when it hit I was all too well braced for it.
I’m not knocking your theory that the “how” and “why” of any event are key. But there’s a reason that Space Mountain appears to be a much better roller coaster than it actually is. If the lights are off, and you can’t see the tracks, you’ll swear you’re going much faster than you actually are.