I think Mark Gatiss is unduly criticised in some fan forums. He does fine little standalone scripts that stand out not for excellence, but for their atmosphere, attention to detail, and a good bit of quirk.

He’s an old school fan, and here he clearly wanted to make a Classic Who-style historical. Ironically, the Coronation element is overshadowed by the Wire plot, the advent of television (which RTD swiped in “The Giggle”), and the terrible family dynamics.

[Edit: Duh, you’re right. Moffatt also used the transmission thing to defeat the Silence in season 6]

Personal gripe, I preferred faceless Rose. They could have left her like that for a few episodes for all I care.

I will say this for the episode, the Wire is a memorable adversary for the Doctor. To this day, my family will imitate her “Hu-u-ungry-y!” part regularly. Mostly just before dinner.

Am I right in believing you’re currently living your best life? 🖖🙂

In his case, photons.

Neelix? This is the proposed Legacy show, next next generation.

Make that Alexander/Naomi Wildman/Jack Crusher…

Well, Seven would still be the captain, and it would probably be wise to have the main story not be about her, but how she leads the crew through it. I would even say, an adult Alexander who has lived a life on his own — could be interesting if done right. Which is a big if.

But with the junior LaForge and the secret Picard heir already on the crew… It all starts to reek of those franchises where generation after generation of one or two bloodlines are magically hurtled to power. Not at all what I think of with Star Trek. But I suppose that should be expected from a show called “legacy”.

And I’ve already said my part on Terry Matalas’ ideas for a geopolitical metaphor…

The Klingons were always stand-ins for the Russians

In 1967, perhaps. The movie versions sort of took a step back from 1:1 interpretations. If anything, the Romulans are a better simile to the (Cold war/Soviet) Russians from a Western standpoint.

Echoing today, there was an unstable element in the Empire

Really, you look at contemporary Russia, and you think dissidents are the most obvious issue? Not oligarchy, state disinformation and war mongering?

TL;DR — don’t let Matalas anywhere near your favourite franchise.

You and me both. I tried to lure my SO into a series rewatch before watching the new season, and she was like, “… but we can skip the lame episodes, right?”

Putting it like that, there really isn’t more than (generously) four watchable episodes per season. The writing on this show is as goofy as Voyager, and as aimless as Enterprise.

Season 2 has wrapped production, but Paramount+ canceled the show, prompting an all-too-typical passionate Star Trek fan campaign to revive it.

Oh, excuse the passion, we didn’t want to act against type /s

Yeah, the first season can drag a little. I wrote it off as an X-files rip-off at first viewing, but it comes into its own towards the end of that season. And then it’s just a good ride from there on.

John Noble carries more than his part of the show as mad scientist Walter Bishop. He’s a joy in himself with all the character quirks he adds to a role that’s essentially irredeemable.

A news anchor says London is “now under martial law”. It already was, we saw military checkpoints in the last episode.

No no, it’s even more martial this episode. You have to go through multiple checkpoints to even get to a checkpoint!

Yes, I also remember wanting to see more of the prime Whoniverse Mrs Moore when I’d watched this episode!

Once again, it’s fun to imagine how these 20 years old broadcasts would have been received by our current, terminally online culture. “Doctor Who is canceled, man. This is the weakest season ever, RTD has lost the plot!” 🥸

Going off on a tangent here, this double episode set the parallel universe signifiers for another show, Fringe, that stated airing a couple of years later. The Zeppelins in particular, but also the in-ear headsets (although without the Cyber-implications) and the need to carry identification.

The later development, from “Doomsday”, that crossing over impacts the stability of the parallel universe, also comes into play in Fringe. The Zeppelin escape scene from the episode discussed here is copped almost verbatim in season 4 of the latter show — with Cybermen substituted by zombies.

There is also a time travelling character whose apperances are telegraphed pretty much the same way that Clive (RIP) presents the Doctor in “Rose”. It would be shameless, if the creators and writers of Fringe weren’t gleefully and openly borrowing from pretty much every scifi-adjacent show out there.

X-files and Twin Peaks are directly referenced more than once, and there are obvious callbacks to Cronenberg’s The fly, as well as The Manchurian candidate, Firestarter, Altered states, and more.

Tangent over, the scheduled discussion will continue as planned.

The “absolutely” was my emphasis, you’re right. But I stand by it, and I think it’s more realistic.

The BBC has the money

Clearly not, since production stopped completely when Disney+ dragged their feet and eventually neglected to renew the show. You say it yourself, they absolutely need co-funding to make the show.

I.e., they do not have the money to produce it on their own. I think Chibnall puts that quite plainly.

There is certainly failure to understand here, yes. You’ll want to look up the concept of publicly funded media like the BBC, and how they differ from purely commercial ones.

And it’s not sudden, I think in most countries public service media have suffered cutbacks over decades. Again, that is spelled out in the linked article.

Thanks for TL;DR’ing the linked article. No, really.

Fans have as many individual “solutions” to making Doctor Who as there are… fans. What Chibnall is saying is, the BBC actually want to make the show, but there just isn’t money for it at the moment. Hence the tender process they’re going to have.

All and any fandom wishes come after that.

Those are all very valid points. These rewatch posts really remind me how all of the criticisms against the latest couple of seasons… were always there in Davies’ writing. You sort of have to shrug and roll with it, or you miss the good parts.

Your father had a bike

That’s such a strange offhand remark. It seems to imply that Ricky’s dad had a (weirdly identical) child with another woman. But what that has to do with bicycles I dunno.

If it’s suspicious to ride a bike I guess people who drive cars must have extra families all over the place, given the extra ground they can cover? 🤔 Or it’s some kind of inscrutable British idiom. Probably the latter.

Disappointingly, Replacement Theory doesn’t involve exact duplicates replacing the population 😞

Did anyone ever apply that dumb theory to actually invading, extraterrestrial aliens?

I’m grateful it isn’t going to be legacy characters. There has been a certain fetish for recasting the TOS crew as nauseam, and I’m optimistic that it won’t be more of that.

Still, after the Section 31 show TV movie, I’m not too confident that it isn’t going to be about a bunch of “lovable” space pirates doing un-Starfleet-like things because that seemed to work for Star Wars and the DCEU…