The Energon Pub

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:14 pm

News Credits: 33 · by **Glyph** » Thu Jul 04, 2024 2:33 pm

Taking aim directly at my childhood.

News Credits: 10 · by **JazZeke** » Tue Jul 16, 2024 9:27 am

So if the 15th Doctor is supposed to be the result of 14's therapy, which was all done off-screen, that means we never get to see the Doctor ORGANICALLY grow into this version of themself. And with the radical changes to the character, being more emotional and even romantically inclined... it's a jarring disconnect. And two of the eight episodes we got barely even featured the Doctor. Fifteen just doesn't "feel" like the Doctor to me.

Even his relationship with his companion is all apparently developed off-screen in a random weird six month time skip. From the audiences POV they're instant besties with no learning curve, no growing pains. And just to be clear, I'm not saying Hashtag Not My Doctor. I'm just saying Ncuti's carrying the role on charisma alone because the writing for his Doctor has been so generic and bland.

Cold is not an opposite force to hot; it is the ABSENCE of heat energy. Dark is not an opposing force to light; it is the ABSENCE of light. Death is not an opposing force to life; it is the lack of life. It's entropy. You can't "bring death to death" and suddenly everything comes back to life. Sutekh wasn't actively imposing a force on the universe that was somehow "holding life back" and removing it would suddenly allow life to come flooding back.

Also, how does dragging Sutekh through the time vortex, the very forces that caused him to evolve/ascend and become more powerful in the first place, now kill him?

A friend compared this season of DW's recent "power of belief" magic to Discworld. But Pratchett baked that into his own sandbox from the very beginning. You can't have wish fulfillment magic plot devices suddenly be a thing in fiction that has been scifi for the last 60 years. Continuing the baking analogy, Discworld is cake through and through. It always was cake. Throwing magic into a scifi universe after sixty years is like putting frosting on a quiche.

And with the power of belief/assumption literally used to handwave the mystery boxes...

Ultimately, Series 14/Season 1, whatever you wanna call it, felt lazy and sauceless. Honestly I'll take Moffat's predilection for paradoxes and closed time loops to get himself out of the corner he painted himself in over RTD using the power of wishful thinking.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Fri Jul 19, 2024 2:07 pm

It's why I continue to say that Ncuti reminds me of McGann's 8th Doctor (pre-Big Finish). He's the best part of his story, but that story ain't the best.

I also like how we are supposed to accept it is perfectly normal for a teen mother abandoning a baby in the 2000's to be wearing a full body cloak??

I read a comment online that said they wish Sutekh wasn't a one and done villain. The issue being that in his original story, he threatened to do the thing. In this story he did the thing. There is nowhere else for him to go. He doesn't have any other desires or schemes that could be explored. The God of Death is a one trick pony.

Personally, upon reflection. I am hoping for a little course correction with the next Season. He's the lead of the show. They should wait for him in future. Instead of "working around" scheduling conflicts. Also when a season is smaller than many of the Classic era serials. Any character development is going to be minimal at best.

News Credits: 6 · by **AllNewSuperRobot** » Mon Jul 29, 2024 4:53 pm

News Credits: 10 · by **JazZeke** » Tue May 06, 2025 6:37 pm

So... is anyone still watching?

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Tue May 06, 2025 8:06 pm

JazZeke wrote:So... is anyone still watching?

Yes

News Credits: 10 · by **JazZeke** » Wed May 07, 2025 1:24 am

"Lucky Day" was a pretty intense episode, even if it was a Doctor Lite story in an already Doctor Lite era. Ncuti has had fifteen episodes as the Doctor now, and he's only been fully present in 4/5ths of them. But hey, at least his main scene was well acted.

"The Well" was a perfectly good base under siege story. But making it a sequel to one of the scariest, atmospheric bottle episodes was where it made a mistake. This was a perfectly average outing of Doctor Who but it also pales in comparison to "Midnight."

by **Psycho Warrior** » Sat May 10, 2025 12:37 pm

JazZeke wrote:So... is anyone still watching?

Nope. Peter Capaldi gave it his best, but had terrible scripts, and Matt smith was I think was too much of a watered down David Tennent. And the way things went with jodie whittaker I officially bailed out. And when I saw ncuti gatwa's doctor I just threw up my hands and stopped caring.

I'm one of the types that really liked eccleston's doctor but sadly he didn't last very long.

News Credits: 767 · by **Dead Metal** » Fri May 16, 2025 1:29 am

JazZeke wrote:So... is anyone still watching?

Yes, but to be honest more out of the novelty of getting to officially and easily stream it legally for once.

It's not very good.

I think RTD has been doing everything wrong for setting this incarnation up.

Ncuti Gatwa is wasted on this, first they start if off by revealing that the Doctor is now a multi cell bacteria that whenever he regenerates splits off into two. The dialogue tries to make it sound like he's actually been pulled in from a later point in time, but the visuals and RTD in interviews make it clear that there are now two Doctors, and I can't help but think they did it just so they could have a David Tenant on backup in case people didn't like a black Doctor.
Gatwa doesn't get an iconic outfit, changing his look every episode, so the only distinguishing feature he has is that he's "the black" Doctor.
On top of that he's barely in the series, the first season basically featured him as a glorified cameo, there are Stan Lee cameos that feel like more impactful characters than the Doctor in most of last season.

On top of that, most of the episodes feel like they're just running with the first draft, including notes of the scripts. Oh the god is defeated because he's somehow forced to tell them how to do it.

Oh this social media guy hates UNIT and wants to expose them, just because.

I can't wait to see how underwhelming and disappointing the ass pull ending for the finale is. Hope they get a different creative team for future seasons.

News Credits: 10 · by **JazZeke** » Fri May 16, 2025 2:09 am

Dead Metal wrote:
JazZeke wrote:So... is anyone still watching?

Yes, but to be honest more out of the novelty of getting to officially and easily stream it legally for once.

It's not very good.

I think RTD has been doing everything wrong for setting this incarnation up.

Ncuti Gatwa is wasted on this, first they start if off by revealing that the Doctor is now a multi cell bacteria that whenever he regenerates splits off into two. The dialogue tries to make it sound like he's actually been pulled in from a later point in time, but the visuals and RTD in interviews make it clear that there are now two Doctors, and I can't help but think they did it just so they could have a David Tenant on backup in case people didn't like a black Doctor.
Gatwa doesn't get an iconic outfit, changing his look every episode, so the only distinguishing feature he has is that he's "the black" Doctor.
On top of that he's barely in the series, the first season basically featured him as a glorified cameo, there are Stan Lee cameos that feel like more impactful characters than the Doctor in most of last season.

On top of that, most of the episodes feel like they're just running with the first draft, including notes of the scripts. Oh the god is defeated because he's somehow forced to tell them how to do it.

Oh this social media guy hates UNIT and wants to expose them, just because.

I can't wait to see how underwhelming and disappointing the ass pull ending for the finale is. Hope they get a different creative team for future seasons.

Can't say I disagree with most of what you're saying.