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Doctor Who's Magical Gay Season - Verily Podcasty - Ep 9 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-06-23 15:39:23
Edited:
2024-06-23 19:45:16
Imported:
2026-06
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The new season of Doctor Who is over! Did we like it? Why is it so gay now? How many Susans could a Sue Tech Sue if a Sutekh could Tech Sue? Here's our review of Season 1 of the new Doctor Who! 

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Comments

Ruxandra Grecu

Oooh, feeling good that I binged the whole new series this week and now can listen to this!

The Mad Jay Woman

I finished the finale this morning and immediately thought "can't wait to hear what Verity and Ada have to say about this season, but of course I don't want to rush them" and look at the alert I just woke up to!

Jaye Bullen

I had a lot of fun with this season and it’s been so nice to see the show be queer and about women again!! I loved and grew up with RTD1 and I do miss the queer angst and tension between the companion and the doctor. I found the religiosity of the time war much more evocative than the gods stuff this season, but appreciated a shake up. Magic is great!! I think Russell has run with queer joy this time, with still some political commentary spread thru, which is a minor miracle considering the conservatism of the show of the past decade and the disney + deal. I hope UNIT gets less cosy and there’s more friction, I know “science leads” but I’d rather a council estate than a huge creepy sky scraper, even if it is full of girlboss huns !! Loved 73 Yards!! The respect it had for magic, superstition and the “old ways” was like a balm after the arrogant atheism of Boom. Don’t tread on that circle or facism!! Glad to hear some sensible critique of the show outside of fan circles !! ❤️

allykitten87

I noticed the fake aryan feel in dot and bubble early on. My mind genuinely struggles to understand how people missed the racism. I did like that they intertwined racism and classism, because bigotry isn't confined to one thing.

Joe Trickey

Sorry, this comment came out very long… I thought this season was a real mixed bag to be honest. I have basically the same highlights as the two of you (except I really liked Boom, despite the Moff. I found it much more compelling than the previous 3 episodes, and it was the first time I really felt like Ncuti was The Doctor; but maybe that’s because it’s all classic 11-12 dialogue). I feel the move towards the supernatural has its highs and lows. It’s always been somewhat the case, but this shift really emphasises the fact that basically anything can happen at any time, and I find that quite frustrating when the show is trying to raise the stakes and make me believe it. Like when everyone dies in the first 3 minutes of Empire of Death, I found it impossible to care because I knew a reset was going to come. If they’re bringing magic into the sci fi, I would much prefer more episodes like 73 Yards. Unsettling and inexplicable vibes does a lot for me than ‘the God of Death is killed by walkies.’ I’m keen to see more of Russell’s domestic writing in the future, it’s consistently his strongest part of the show and I am a little disappointed at how sidelined the family was in this season (which seems to be thematically about family??). I hope we can get more focus on it in Season 2(15). I have been feeling quite negative about it the last couple of days, but listening to you two has reminded me of how much of an improvement it is, and how it’s simply fun to watch again, and how it’s fun to be interested in whether next week’s episode will be any good. I’ve been watching since 2005 (I was 8, so perfect time to start) and personally I’ve not been interested in the show since series.. 9? maybe? I watched it all reluctantly, and it feels so great to actually look forward to it week to week again! Side note: I know it’s not a productive conversation, but I would dearly love to hear an episode of you guys ragging on the Chibnall era. I find it hilarious and fascinatingly bad - I still can’t stop thinking about it. I stopped watching midway through series 11, and then got tired of telling people “no, I didn’t stop BECAUSE they cast a woman” so I made myself watch it all just in case.. and it was truly hilariously bad. Every decision they made baffles me and I’m genuinely impressed the show survived it. So if you ever make this, I will be very happy, even if I’m the only person who listens to it

allykitten87

The season was too short. I will happily take a lower production value to have more stories... I miss TV... I think the chemistry between Millie and Ncuti was great, but narratively parts of their relationship felt really rushed and unearned in the moment. Independently I liked the episodes, bit I think there was a lack of a "normal" baseline at parts. Like the Doctor being scared when he isn't normally scared in space babies. Which they haven't established in this new run, being season 1.

allykitten87

The low number of episodes also makes the run really short... I think it is going to harm fostering a new fandom long term if they keep it up. It has been noted for other streaming shows where they are out of the conversation. It is so long until we will get something new in the main franchise. Even 14 episodes means that it is releasing over a quarter of a year, add a Christmas's special to break it up there is still only direct hype for around a third of the year. I really hope they don't do a midnight release for the Christmas special.

allykitten87

If the doctor is going to have romantic storylines I much prefer it to not be the companion. Partly because it avoids unnecessary messiness. And partly because there is always an inherent power imbalance in the companion doctor relationship that I would rather avoid.

allykitten87

Apparently Mandip found out reading the relevant scripts, so Yaz and the Doctor was never discussed or built up to or incorporated into their acting or anything.

allykitten87

And Doctor-Donna did work really well.

Joe Trickey

I agree about the lack of a ‘normal baseline’ - something about the run of TDC, Boom, 73 Yards, D&B felt way too experimental, so by the time Rogue came around it felt like it was really needed. Everyone I know was agreeing that the feeling was “finally, a NORMAL episode”

allykitten87

And it is only "normal" for old viewers. Newer viewers have no normal. Individually I loved all the ideas they tried (even if I didn't totally love the execution) but I think even 3 extra "normal" episodes would have really helped the season flow.

allykitten87

Absolutely loved Mel's line, "Finished? Now stop grizzling and fix it." Very few people could have pulled that off narratively, she was perfect.

allykitten87

If you like chibnall era critique Jay exci did a great 5 hour breakdown a few years back... it is actually a well done analysis

allykitten87

This too, the domestic, needed more episodes. The episodes were great concepts but they were all so big...

pants

Having recently seen the Thals for the first time in The Daleks, the discussion of race in Dot & Bubble is especially interesting.

Niamh

Yes I've been dying for your thoughts on the rest of the season!!!

Niamh

I noticed that everyone was white and thought 'that's weird' but then I thought 'maybe the UK just IS that white?' 🤡😂 Honestly I have that experience in America all the time, I'm from nyc which is really diverse but then I'll go to visit family in like, Virginia and have to realize that the scary music is in fact only playing inside my head when I haven't seen a single non-white person for miles. That just is the demographics in some places. Actually, including Ireland, at least when I visited in '98 ish? My mom and I travelled the whole country for 3 weeks and I don't think we saw a single non-white person until we got to Dublin at the end of the trip, and even then it was like 2 ppl. I remember asking my mom about it and struggling so hard to understand! 😂

allykitten87

What I notice originally was how fake some of the blonde hair looked, then there seemed to be a high ration of blonde hair - all rakish looking, and then I really noticed that there were no people of colour there. This happened quicker in my mind than it takes to say. I think the hyperness of it was it deliberate, along with the pastels, to highlight it.

Rhiannon Alwen

I did have a lot of fun this season, but there were a lot of times when I had to just let go and accept that "it's like that because that's what makes the story work or what will make it most fun". I don't think that's really great writing but it's a good thing to do as a person every once in a while, just step back and let it be fiction. Like the biggest one was the slugs in dot and bubble, the dots could and did kill people, you don't actually need the slugs logically, but you need the slugs as a plot device, there's no story without them.

LuLuLizard

Listening to your discussion of 73 Yards really made me appreciate the episode a lot more than I already did, so thank you! Genuinely really liked listening to all of this. I do wonder if a lot of the reception this season has gotten would have been drastically improved if they just marketed it as part 1 of series 14, and then the next season was part 2, since I agree that that does seem to be how they might be attempting to structure this. If that isn't the case then I think overall it makes the season's structure a whole lot worse. I loved most of the episodes individually but when I look at them from a whole series perspective, a lot of them just feel very weird, so fingers crossed that when series 15 finishes airing both seasons can be enjoyed as one lol, because I do really want to like this season as a whole.

DBez

If it helps at all, my interpretation of the slugs was that they were created by the dots for fun to see the rich kids be so oblivious and incapable that they will literally walk into the mouth of the easiest creature to escape. Like when Lindy just had to walk in a straight line past all the slugs (who were just standing still) and in the end could only do it when Ricky helped her. But definitely can see your point!

Verity Ritchie

The problem with podcasting about the Chibnall era is that Ada refused to rewatch a lot of the Jodie Whittaker stuff last year for the video lmao! She just hates it so passionately, I really would have to tie her to the chair this time! 🤣

Verity Ritchie

I honestly feel like I don't even know how Doctor Who will survive the transition to streaming. I kind of feel like they're almost trying to follow Black Mirror's formula, as an anthology series. The format is going to have to evolve I think, whatever happens next

Verity Ritchie

Yeah apprently they only did Thasmin because they were responding to fan shipping. It wasn't worked in at all. I cut a whole segment from the last video about how terrible that romance was. It was awful

hakugei_

I was so disappointed by the Chibnall era : when they released the teaser revealing Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, I litteraly burst out crying. Because: 1/ a woman, and 2/ I already loved the actress. And the episodes where so bad it was the first time I didn't even bother to watch it all... So even if I love Ncuti Gatwa (and RTD) I was very hesitant to watch the new season. Ten and Donna were my alltime favorites but I was very afraid bringing them back would only be for fan service. I was also hesitant about Neil Patrick Harris playing the vilain. What a great surprise! Finally, great episodes again. And I found it sooooo wholesome that a trans character saved the world, I couldn't stop crying. After that, seeing Ncuti Gatwa as a sexy black Doctor in a skirt, just dancing in a club with a trans woman on stage, I was over the moon. The way that racism is dealt with is also refreshing. It's sad to hear that the ratings for this season are not good... I was amazed too to see the number of people not getting the message at the end of Dot and Bubble... I mean, I noticed everyone was white and something was off, but at the end the reveal just slapped me in the face. He's not perfect (and he still is a white cis man) but that season reminded me why I love RTD's writing so much. My favorite show is back 💕

hakugei_

I say I'm discovering now that the ratings are bad, but if I'm honest I did see that my geeky friends who used to love the show as much as me didn't even watch this season at all, so...

hakugei_

For context: I'm french, 45, began watching when Tennant was the Doctor, went back to watch the beginning of the new era, loved Torchwood too, watched all the way to the beginning of Jodie Whittaker, but never watched the classics or other spin offs. And Ncuti Gatwa is now my favorite Doctor (I would never have imagined someone could one day surpass Tennant in my heart ☺️)

Joe Trickey

I think you have to do it for the bit

Matthew

Overall liked the Season. Loved 73 yards. Felt like the kind of episode you just get out of nowhere that is so special (and also maybe the best episode since RTD left?). Was confused by some people wanting more explanation. Loved the discussion - mostly agreed with everything you said (other than the drive by on Blink 😂). And hope that the next season really ups the emotional stakes

Lois Lane

I've been saying for weeks how incredible it is to have so many good parts for middle aged women in this series. And how shocking it is that RTD isn't giving us endearing supporting characters for a scene before brutally and permanently killing them off this time round!

Lois Lane

Also agree that Boom was just like a collection of Moffat offcuts, while 73 Yards and Dot & Bubble were genius.

Wizard

Honestly wasn't a big fan of 73 Yards. The premise of everyone being turned against you by a mysterious force has already been done in the same franchise and to higher quality tbh. The Sarah Jane spinoff has an episode that explores the concept and also uses it to address homelessness, in 73 Yards Ruby just sits outside for 5 minutes and then buys her own flat lol. And with 73 Yards the conclusion just makes no sense either.

Matthew

Looked up that episode of SJA (which I haven't seen) and it sounds good and may get me to watch that show. Though it doesn't and shouldn't really diminish this episode. Its not just about people being turned against you, though that is the core element, but also purpose and responsibility, the inevitability of life and death and the nature of evil (all in small amounts but I think all those things are there and woven well into the fabric of the episode). I think as far as the ending goes you need to think about it on its own terms - its a ghost story - and it doesn't really make any less sense than 99% of what happens on Doctor Who

Verity Ritchie

Wizard, I see what you're saying, but I think it would be weird for this episode to retread the same ground as SJA with regards to homelessness. This episode also takes place over the course of like 60 years in 45 minutes. The 73 Yards conclusion does make sense, I think people are just looking for it to make sense in a traditional scifi way, which isn't what the episode wants to be. From what I've seen on twitter and youtube of the "Curse of Clyde Langer is better than 73 Yards" crowd, the analysis is in pretty bad faith and just making very inaccurate statements about the episode. It's really been winding me up how certain content creators are....maybe not lying, but making untrue statements and not making any effort to make sure they are correct. And all this bullshit about how it should be viewed entirely as a metaphor for Ruby's fear of abandonment is, um, wrong lol. The media literacy with regards to this episode is low. I guess that's true generally.

Verity Ritchie

I think one of the problems with the Doctor Who fandom is that they want every new episode to fit into a certain mold and when the show does something genuinely new and brilliant, they only read it through the lens of older episodes. So rather than being something brilliant on its own terms, this episode has to be about whether Sarah Jane Adventures is the bestest actually.

Verity Ritchie

I'm also thoroughly wound up by the comparison of the phone scenes from "End of the World" and "Space Babies" when they serve explicitly different narrative functions. The idea that all phone scenes need to have the same function and weight in different episodes is ridiculous. The phone scene in "Space Babies" is literally just setting up Carla so that returning to Carla at the end of the episode doesn't come out of nowhere. The show has been off the air for 4 months and needs to remind us that Carla exists, that's all. And people lost their minds.

Denni

I’ve never watched Doctor Who before, because I’m from Germany and it wasn’t on any streaming platforms until now (I know that isn’t necessarily an obstacle but it just didn’t interest me enough to watch it illegally somewhere). I had fun with the specials and the new season, but I must say I had to get used to the tone of the show. It was a bit more trashy than what I expected. I didn’t really like the first special a lot because it felt very cringe tbh. Also the episodes are so different from each other? In one episode they have a silly goblin musical number and in the next we’re talking about the part capitalism plays in modern warfare?? It was a wild ride for someone that didn’t really know what they were getting into (I only watched your video essay about doctor who and women beforehand, that’s it). All in all I love Ncuti Gatwa a lot, I think he did a great job, Ruby is fine and some episodes had very interesting ideas. I would consider myself hooked :D

Sunbak-Argent Dawn EU

My views on Boom and Empire of Death kinda mirror each other. Boom I like as a whole, but I dislike every individual aspect of it on its own, whereas with The Empire of Death I think every scene is wonderful, but they just come together poorly.

Elsa

the Doctor's speech about faith just came out of nowhere. There's so many good points to be made about blind faith and weaponized religion but Boom just did not set that discussion up imo. but you're the first people I've heard agree with that lol. I think people just liked it because of the Moffat speeches and Ncuti's performance

Tom 🇪🇸

Your Ruby SunGod theory has me kinda stunned and I have never heard it before! I agree with basically everything you said (but whoa, shots fired for Blink 🥺). As a musician, I actually kinda find the whole music element really inconsistent and frustrating 😂 for example in “The Giggle”, Mel points out that the notes are an arpegio that consist of C,E and G but that is followed by The Toymaker’s laugh not ‘giggling’ those notes. Little things like that I think would’ve gone a long way and I wonder if Russell approached Murray on anything in regards to the plot of “The Devil’s Chord”

G

Yeah I can also confirm that a knowledge of music theory only makes the Devil's Chord less meaningful if anything

Boat Chairs

I agree that Boom was a terrible episode, but I found it interesting that it was seemingly commentating on the UK's changing attitudes to euthanasia. I liked the ambulances as a satire of supposedly compassionate euthanasia schemes which very often become a malignant threat to the disabled. The ambulance recognises a blind man and an amputee as worthy of death; surely this is a direct response to the policy of countries with legal euthanasia, who often include disability as something that makes someone immediately and eternally eligible to be euthanized? I also think it's interesting to understand legal euthanasia as connected to the military industrial complex. One of the main criticisms of legalised euthanasia is that it serves the interests of those who want to get rid of people who are politically inconvenient, like the poor and the disabled. Military funding is intended for the same end, getting rid of people deemed a threat, whose interests conflict with the dominant hegemony. I think these issues should be represented and are very pertinent to our current times, but unfortunately Moffat did a terrible job of leaving the audience with any single clear message, he mixed metaphors and I could barely understand what was actually going on by the end. It's not enough to just leave crumbs of several different discourses without any decent development of any one idea, just making it a messy mush of nonsense. It meant it came across as an immature anti-theist rant for the most part. Compare it to an episode like Midnight, which really does a fantastic job of representing the sort of paranoia the UK was beleaguered with in 2008 (a paranoia that was mostly xenophobic and ableist).

Boat Chairs

I wonder if people think that Moffat is a good writer and good at execution just because the tone of his writing is like prestige TV, which people read as 'good' TV, like Line of Duty is essentially trash but it has the air of prestige.

Sunbak-Argent Dawn EU

I don't like giving episodes ratings like "Umm, it's a 4.4/10 for me" so as such, on a scale from one to then, I would rate the episodes a such: Church on Ruby Road: Baby-Eating Goblin Song/10 Space Babies: Pretty fun/10 The Devil's Chord: Jinkx Monsoon return pls/10 Boom: They accidentally just aired Listen again/10 73 Yards: 73/10 Dot and Bubble: Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Little Polka Dot Bikini/10 Rogue: 1d20/10 The Legend of Ruby Sunday: Nothing happened until the last 10 minutes/10 Empire of Death: TLJ is still the best Star Wars movie/10

NatasaNts

I have been wanting to start watching doctor who since 2019 cause I loved the chilling adventures of Sabrina at the time and Michelle Gomez was my favorite in that show and when I learned she played in DW I was intrigued.I even got the Missy funko pop without haven’t watched the show.Anyways I never got around to watching it but when I learned that there would be a new season on Disney plus I got excited.(if someone knows a good pirating site to watch the older seasons pls do tell me.I don’t live in the UK so bbc is not available).Anyways, i watched all the new seasons episodes (some while they were airing)and also watched the 60 years specials(even tho I haven’t watched the original seasons where those characters appear in).It has been fun overall even without any knowledge from the show’s past.But I have to say that if they wanted to do a fresh start and call it season 1,adding old characters and dropping names and all that got confusing.I was just like “oh that’s probably a reference to smth that I don’t know”.

Natasha Ryan

first of all love seeing devils chord hatred. people hyped up that episode wayyyy too much. the moffat episode i think it's also really interesting that the doctor and ruby's dynamic changed drastically, he spoke down to her more and she was #defiant. very matt smith era. i did really like rouge though! re the conversation about adoption: as an adoptee who's very plugged into adoptee conversations, it's very much segmented into standard adoption advocates who emphasize the importance of the family formed by adoption, and then a small minority (influenced by tiktok) that is like. mad they were adopted. so that has changed things a bit but i'm writing from the perspective of the general standard. i will say however that a lot of people even if they understand that your parents who adopted you are your "real parents," that standard isn't really baked into the way people talk to adoptees. like the doctor who official twitter literally posted "who is ruby's mom!" it's carla. it's carla sunday. and so the narrative focusing on the idea that adoptees inherently seek out their biological parents which is not really the default experience for adoptees, but something that people who aren't adopted assume everyone would think about all the time, is a really frustrating place to start with the narrative. kids are really invasive and confused with their questions to their adopted classmates, and so having a precedent of the doctor constantly asking ruby about her adoption was really grating for me to watch because i worry about that normalizing that classroom behavior for the young kids who are watching the show. though i will totally note and appreciate that his lecture was met with ruby saying "take me to see my mum" and where he and the audience would assume her birth mother, ruby knew better. the moment they totally lost me was when carla asked the doctor if he knew his "parents" (with no qualifier for birth or biological, which should always always come first (thank you ada!!). parents via adoption can be even more sensitive than kids, and every single person in the community knows you don't ask for that information unless someone volunteers it. ok sorry for the three paragraphs. i'm a single issue media voter and this season was Rough for me.

Natasha Ryan

this is such a great point...it also allows for room for the doctor to form those connections without having to break the formula of the show? best of both worlds in a way.

pants

As a Moffat fan I can confirm the brain orgasms are real

pants

Hmm I don’t hate the idea of Doctor Who as an anthology series. To tell you the truth if this fails I’d also be excited to get to live through a Wilderness Years period. I’m sure older fans do not feel this way.

Alma

With the Doctor and Ruby's friendship- he hasn't explained regeneration to her, has he? It was explained to new viewers in Rogue, but she wasn't there. Does Ruby know that Rose N. is living another Doctor as her uncle? How would this not come up if Ruby and Rose end up hanging out more at UNIT? Actually the tension in their friendship I felt in Ruby Road and Space Babies was that the Doctor accidently calls her Rose once, and then does the same trick with the phone reception to call her mum that he did in his second episode with Rose T. This didn't mean anything to Ruby, but I feel like this needs to come up eventually, and we can have more people relationships RTD there.

Gaoth gwyntog gwen

right, all I want to talk about is Susan I haven't seen the new DW yet still, but I did watch the early episodes with Susan (When I'm at my parents's house and want to keep the basement to myself, I put on the old cheesy doctor who because they think it's terrible and I think it's nice background to eat dinner/do mending/wash laundry etc.) Anyways, I have a question.

Gaoth gwyntog gwen

For anyone who has read the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, you remember Susan, the granddaughter of a mysterious otherworldly figure (Death) who takes her round to all sorts of wild places most kids don't get to visit using a magical and beloved form of transport (Binky)? Was that Susan inspired from the Doctor Who one do you think?

Verity Ritchie

It's all so exciting, isn't it?! Okay I'll think about it, it probably won't be in the next few days though if we do. But if we don't, we will definitely do a video. I mean, the next Doctor Who video has already been brewing for a while...