Doctor Who Series 15
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
1501: The Robot Revolution 2025 April 12
(First watched 2025-04-13) That was a pretty solid episode, moreso than most of last season's I feel.
Belinda is in her mid-30s, so automatically becomes another one of the "older" companions the show has seen.
The thing about... the same object can't exist in the same place at once? Feels as bad here as it always does in fiction. What we saw was NOT the same object at the same place at once, just... relatively near each other. ANY two objects in EXACTLY the same place would cause problems, that's like... beyond fusion.
So we saw two copies of the star paper cause the weird explosion (with a pretty nice trippy sequence following), at least one of which was left over afterward which the Doctor stored away. And now we saw another copy floating in space from the... destruction of Earth on May 24, 2025? Though I gotta say, considering all that rubbish we saw at the very end, the Doctor sure was absolutely zero of it when he looked out the doors.
Leading up to May 24, 2025 reminds me a lot of Series 5 when from the beginning we saw that an important date was the date of the season finale. Though in this case it appears it's episode 7 of 8 that airs on that day.
Russel T. Davies's Doctor picking up his second companion in a hospital... seems a bit familiar.
1502: Lux 2025 April 19
(First watched 2025-04-20) That was all very cleverly done. Living cartoon pulled off very well. Doctor and Belinda trapped in film. Flying a bit close to the sun when they stepped out into a room of people watching Doctor Who, but I think it was pulled off.
Between blowing some to heal a burnt hand and Lux sucking out enough to create himself a proper body, just how much regeneration energy did the Doctor lose this episode?
So it seems like the overall thing this season is trying to get back to May 24, 2025 since they just _bounce_ off it when trying to go directly. Similar things have happened before (Doctor saying he can't go back to the time when Amy and Rory ended up for instance), but once again it seems like they avoid mentioning various possibilities because it could blow a hole in the story they're trying to tell. Like, if they're specifically bouncing off May 24... would May 23, 2025 work? Just land and chill for a day?
1503: The Well 2025 April 26
(First watched 2025-04-28) What is going on? It seems like this series was made pretty much back-to-back with the previous one. No major behind-the-scenes shakeups as far as I know. So why is this series so much stronger than the last?
Not an episode type we haven't seen before, just executed tightly. Mysterious deaths, mysterious survivor, rescue team doesn't know what to believe.
1504: Lucky Day 2025 May 3
(First watched 2025-05-04) To start it felt like... a Doctor-lite episode that was somehow leftover from last year. But then the twist kicked things up. Conrad's initial success was pretty stupid. "We made a hoax, therefore this is proof that UNIT is a hoax." But disinformation about everything being deep government conspiracies and wastes of tax dollars feels very relevant today.
I think that sound effect was used when Conrad entered and left the building with the Shreek early on, but I"m not positive.
1505: The Story & the Engine 2025 May 10
(First watched 2025-05-10) So the Doctor meets and remembers someone from his time as the Fugitive Doctor? Since when can he remember any of that? This seems like kind of a big detail that's going very unexplored.
1506: The Interstellar Song Contest 2025 May 17
(First watched 2025-05-18) For what started out seeming like another silly future take on British pop culture, this one had a lot of surprises. Like, it's still a future with dead Earth, and this seeming continuation of Earth culture was basically the result of archaeology.
Oooor how after teasing us with the possibility of her last season, bam, there's Susan! At least in the Doctor's head so far.
And Mrs. Flood is the Rani... another one of those middle-years things I know is supposed to be a Big Deal but I don't really know about. Also, she also bi-generated. Is there a reason that's become a common thing?
1507: Wish World 2025 May 24
(First watched 2025-05-24) Well, I guess we were overdue for one of these. A season-ending story that opens up on a screwed up world that everybody thinks is (mostly) normal, with little to clue us in on how things got to here from the previous episode.
So uhh the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son is some kind of wish god? That doesn't seem like an incredible rarity. Or at least, seems like something somebody with the power of time travel could manipulate and cause more of.
So using the power of the baby, Conrad is making the world a pleasant and nice-weather place, as long as he remembers to wish about it, which is... a strain. And the Rani's plan is for this to fail, because screwing up a world so much rips a hole right through the hell of everything to a place where the creator of the Time Lords is? Well, whatever.
1508: The Reality War 2025 May 31