Love This Emerging Genre Of Doctor Who Episode Where You Think It’s A Surface Level Commentary On One

Nooooooo 😭 that's horrible!

I don't WANT them to bring back Tennant whenever they want! I want them to just let Gatwa have the chance everyone else has gotten!!!

They'll probably tie up the loose end whenever they think the publicity's dropping enough for them to bust out Tennant again :/ which could be any time they want.

Does the whole 'bigeneration' thing as an introduction for Ncuti Gatwa make anyone else feel icky? Because I definitely feel like they did Gatwa dirty with a botched transition between regenerations because people are getting a liiiiiiittle too nostalgic with the whole RTD/Tennant thing.

Tennant is a brilliant actor, and I'm not trying to downplay everything he's done for the show, but by leaving Tennant alive, they robbed Gatwa of an introduction that shows respect to his iteration of his character, instead leaving him to be the Random New Person while The Real Doctor is yet to come into the completion of his arc.

It's just a disappointing diversion from giving Gatwa's Doctor the focus and development he deserves.

if i was like an average guy on galifrey and every day i put on my stupid little hat and my scholars robes and got on the Time bus to go to my minimum wage particle accelerator engineering job and i got the telepathic presidential alert that doctor frankenberry and count chocula were once again contesting the fate of our planet to drag out their divorce proceeding. probably i would also be a little high strung

dr. who is trying to open a door. alas; it will not open! but he hides the key and pretends it fits the lock and tells the keyhole very sternly that it matches the key and bam! the door flies open, whacking him in the face and breaking his nose. bloody academy party tricks

FUCK THOSCHEI WHERE MY GOTHRUSA BITCHES AT TO APPRECIATE THESE MESSY FRUITS

Can we take a second to appreciate that from John and Paul’s point of view they wondered off through their recording studio, found a piano with some funny looking notes floating above it, played a little tune a whim, gave each other a gay little side glance before the piano flew away into the next room followed by intense screaming and then their entire reality turned into a musical and they received no explanation for any of it?

Tho to be fair it was the 60s, they were probably high as a kite and were used to this kind of thing by now

I'm watching the edited version of the War Games (it's on BBC4 right now and my parents wanted to see it), so, have some thoughts.

I'm normally a bit iffy on colourisation but this is genuinely very well done. The titles are gorgeous.

Squishing it into 90 mins makes the opening very zippy. The pace feels a shade too quick if anything.

It also gets a bit weird when the cliffhanger is turned into continuous action.

This is despite the fact that they only cut about 10 mins of episode one.

They drink a lot of tea in the War Games but it comes across as even more when you cut out of the non-tea-drinking bits.

OK, there's some very fun editing around the redcoat and Buckingham remembering the mist coming down. (Dare I say possibly an improvement on the original?)

But then it goes back to feeling too zippy, but least because episode 3 is brutally cut. Very little of it left.

Gah, I'm trying to like this, because it's clearly been lovingly made and the colourisation is genuinely superb, but the grinding relentlessness of the War Games has been replaced by rattling through the plot at a frenzied pace and it's not really working for me.

Ooh, Murray Gold's Master theme has been added over the War Chief's appearance. Not sure how I feel about that, but it's certainly an interesting choice.

They've dealt with the cliffhanger issue at the end of episode 4 by taking it out entirely.

The little added CGI bits are not hugely successful - they look oddly plasticky. Which is a bit disappointing, because have I mentioned how good the colourisation is?

It's taken my dad until the episode six cliffhanger to note the place where the original cliffhanger was.

(My mum has given up because she doesn't like how much fighting there is. Not sure if the original edit would have been any better on that score.)

Episodes 6 and 7 are so thoroughly chopped up that it's tricky to trace the original storyline. It's neatly done but it's not really the War Games any more.

More of the Master's theme when the War Chief admits to knowing the Doctor.

My dad comments that this bit seems like it was inspired by the Prisoner (which he also watched when it first aired).

It feels a bit weird when it switches from Murray Gold to 1960s incidental music.

This really centres the War Chief et al over the rest of the storyline.

"Complete loyalty and devotion" - oh, Jamie. This loses a lot of character beats in favour of the Time Lord-centric storyline, but not all of them.

Oof, their last desperate attempt to escape is still just as grim and desperate in the edit. Like there's still part of me wondering if they might somehow get away this time.

There are new Who-style images of Gallifrey on the view screen.

"Is the next episode The Trial of a Time Lord?" asks my dad, who has seen all of Doctor Who, but mostly not very recently.

The middle bit of episode 10 is cut, which means that I can watch the ending without crying for once.

Lots of establishing shots of Gallifrey.

The too old/too young/too thin shows a series of New Who Doctors. Not entirely sure how I feel about that choice either.

And it ends with the Doctor regenerating in the TARDIS - again, New Who style - before the date ticks back and forth erratically between 1970 and 1980, a joke that will appeal to a small number of people that includes me, and finally the very opening scene of Spearhead from Space.

I think if you accept the premise that a 90-min version of the War Games could be done, it's about as good as it could be. A few of the choices make it pretty clear that this is primarily for a New Who audience - particularly that it becomes a very Time Lord-centric story - not really for existing fans of the War Games.

Still, I wasn't expecting to love the colourisation as much as I did, and it made me wish I could watch a colourised version of all 10 episodes.

So close LibreOffice! The word I was looking for was arsenal.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

official bbc doctor who instagram you are insane for this actually

aint no WAYYY THEY JUST TRIED TO SAY THAT. not even "the doctor's" but doctor who's in general 💀💀 so now that they have a disney contract every single gay thing (which they've had for fucking decades) is gonna be a huge big huge first gay thing ever!!1!1!1!! event??? like yeah there's a very specific significance to it i get it but what the fuck do you mean😭 jamie pull up the files