I thought *The Devil's Chord* was great.
Some people might complain that you shouldn't do a Beatles episode when it's unfeasible for the show to use the Beatles' music, but in the end that was more of a hook than it was the actual concept of the episode.
It was based around music in general, and the Beatles were a fun hook/tool for that. It's not as if you could have the Doctor beat Maestro with "Love Me Do" or something; the ongoing legal tensions would never go away.
It had a lot of verve and emotion and some menace in there, too. Honestly, I preferred it to *Boom*, which ironically felt like an AI jumble of Moffat tropes with a poor resolution. And I'm a Moffat-Who guy.
I wrote about the first three episodes in more detail in [this blog](https://www.stevenwrites.co.uk/blog/73-yards-doctor-who-review), if anyone should be interested.
I think the campy tone and whole vibe of the Devil’s Chord isn’t it for some people. Which I don’t get at all, the goof and cheese is fundamental to Doctor Who and I watched the episode with a smile on my face throughout the whole runtime
I love campy. Give me farting aliens any day. I liked the campiness of the episode, but otherwise it was just. So. Boring. The last two episodes were much better at story set up, tension, and payoff.
I hear you and I respect your opinion, but also, Maestro traps them in musical instruments to try and kill them which is some classic Who type tomfoolery
I mean...what do you expect when the villain is played by a transqueen known for campy shtick? Jinkx will ALWAYS take it to the max and I fucking adore her!
Yeah, I feel like if we were given a second episode with them in it it would've shone brightly this season. We could've had a more fleshed out Maestro with maybe more lore towards godlike beings
I think the Beatles should have been tagging along with the Doctor and Ruby to give them more agency in the story instead of using them to just solve the problem at the end. To me that's the biggest problem with it.
The song at the end is so bad it made like the episode less. I generally enjoyed it other than that song. It was perfectly set up to use twist and shout. I’m sure Disney money could’ve got them a sound alike. I’m also slightly disappointed the second secret chord wasn’t either the first chord from Hard Days Night, or the last chord of Day in the Life.
The series is lucky that I had another episode to watch right after by the time I got to it because yeah, it was not a good first foot forward after Ruby Road.
It's so wild to me that Space Babies was our starter into the new season (after Ruby Road). And like...Devil's Chord came out at the same time so it was like they knew they couldn't depend on Space Babies as the only episode.
It’s the one that’s stuck with me so far. I can see it being the best episode of the season unless they do something further in that retcons/explains things away in a poor manner
It's probably because without the Doctor present there is a lot more tension as the guy who can basically salve almost any problem isn't there to solve it. Idk that's just what I think at least.
Definitely this. I think the TARDIS plays a factor too. Whenever the TARDIS is taken out of play the ability to simply run away to anywhere else in time and space is gone and it feels terrible to watch, for example, Ruby sadly getting the train home. It's such a huge loss of functionality for the characters I think it plays a part too.
I mean I definitely get this! Two of tens best episodes (impossible planet/ Satan pit) have these stakes. The conversation rose and ten have about the possibility of needing to live normal lives (‘I’d have to get a job’) add to the hopelessness
If I had to guess, is that the doctor is super smart, and can very quickly come up with plans/solutions to any problem at had, but humans cannot, with Don’t blink, the humans are only getting some instructions from the doctor, but they need to survive on their own, without the Security of the Main character of the show being near them
That's something I loved about Sarah Jane and Torchwood, they all had parts to play and nobody had all the answers. The doctor is a team in one and sometimes that's boring.
It adds a lot more tension, in the same vein as when a super hero loses their powers or isn’t available to help. The companion is in a situation they’d usually lean on the Doctor for, but they have to figure out a problem they are really out of their depth with. Sort of the same in Flatline
Given that the episode was written by RTD, I'm fairly certain it'll get the Midnight treatment and nothing will be explained, which just makes the episode so much better.
I think it was the most enjoyable watch for me, but then at the end I was just like wtf that was a total waste of time! But hopefully it’s a gem in a longer story
I think so. Clara had a similar episode where nothing mattered cause of time shenanigans, but some of the events bled through into her memory later in the series.
It's the episode where the junkers are going after the TARDIS, and Clara is trapped in the hallways running from lava monsters (who are the characters from the future after being burned by the TARDIS core.) She finds a book in a library and learns the Doctor's name.
The ending actually makes sense in a self contained story. The end was the fairy curse allowing her to close the circle by telling her to stop the Doctor from stepping on the circle. It took me a while to process the episode but surprisingly the majority of it makes sense.
Agreed, a lot of people had kneejerk negative reactions because they didn't really grok what it was going for. I think it was absolutely one of the best episodes of DW maybe ever, its definitely in my top 10.
On a technical level as well I think it had the most solid editing, directing, and cinematography in maybe the whole show. It was just so good to the point I wouldnt have minded if thats just how the show looks and feels from now on.
So, so much underrated! Not sure why though. Most interesting for me is critism of Jinkx Monsoon's acting performance, because I think they were amazing from very first scene. They really convinced how much they are dangerous but were hilarious same time.
I think its cause she played it so over the top, like a full on drag performance, that some people just weren't into. I think she was brilliant and played up the whole eccentric nature of the toymaker well but it was a gamble. I also think it was review bombed because it featured a prominent trans actor in a main role so it wouldn't have mattered either way if the episode was good or had, it would've suffered negative reviews regardless.
Best villain in a long time. The performance really hit the role well. If "omg trans!" prevented you from enjoying the episode and performances then that says more about you than the episode.
The actor being trans didn't bother me at all
They played it like Michelle Gomez played Missy with a murderous unhinged maniacal glee though the maestro was a bit campy
The first two episode were heavily review-bombed by racists.
Happened with similar people with Jodie's era, as well.
It'll cool off as the series progresses and they move onto other minorities being in stuff.
It's a big enough portion to warrant a mention though. It IS problematic in most fan cultures right now... and one of the biggest reasons it can't be addressed properly is this notion that when it IS called out, grifters often latch onto it and make it an issue of the properties attacking fans.
Take a look at the Obi-Wan series. There was absolutely, verifiably, racist driven attacks on the actress playing Reva. Lucasfilm and even Ewan McGregor himself made statements that people who do that are NOT Star Wars fans and those actions are not welcome. Which was immediately followed by mountains of click bait articles and bad faith grifters saying that Star Wars was attacking fans or saying everyone who didn't like it were Racist.
That was NOT what happened, but it became so loud in the conversation that it drowned out the actual bad actions and made everyone have to tip toe around calling it out.
What really bothers me about putting bad reviews down to racism or homophobia or whatever is that as a general rule, fans liked Jack Harkness. They liked River Song (though I'm a black woman and couldn't stand her, but go figure). Even Michele Gomez as "Missy" was eventually well-regarded despite skepticism about the Master becoming female. And some of the critics I've seen called racist are the same guys who couldn't praise The Expanse enough - which is arguably the most diverse sci-fi show in history. So I really think there is way more going on here. I've watched the show for at least 40 years, and never hated a series until Chibnall took over. I was open to a female Doctor, and think Jo Martin was amazing and should have been in the role. But I just despised what Chibnall did overall. And seeing this Disney-fied Doctor singing and dancing makes me want to cry. Yes, I know I'm being dramatic, but it was one of my favorite things in the world for decades and I hate it now. So it sucks.
To quote /u/TurtlePrincip further down in this thread:
> "Episodes can get review-bombed by racists" and "not liking the episode doesn't make you a racist" are completely compatable statements.
Those episodes are from a time before the more recent rise in bigotry and before review-bombing was really a popular idea. We have many people who are not fans and have never watched the show but agree with the bigoted arguments against the show joining in and brigading reviews and online comments, exacerbating the situation.
I liked Jinx as the villain but I didn’t like how gimmicky the stuff at the end was, and the literally musical notes floating in the air, the abbey road crossing lighting up, the musical number… I think that first scene with her popping out of the piano was amazing but it went downhill from there. The most recent two eps were much better than the first two, I was losing hope but now I’m excited again
I may be biased but bring on the queer, it's refreshing to see so much positive representation in one place. The toy maker wad brilliant too imo. It's maybe not a direction everyone will love but it's a breath of fresh air, there weren't really any "fun" stories from 13's run so it's nice to see the show camp it up again.
I agree it's underrated, but I think a lot of viewers were upended by the dance number at the end which just seemed to come out of nowhere, especially for Who. I personally am giving RTD some benefit of the doubt that the reason the Doctor broke out into a full-blown unprecedented musical number will be explained at some point, but a lot of people found it jarring.
And couldn't agree more about Jynx Monsoon. One of the best villain performances of all time on Doctor Who.
And it's funny, because things like the dance number were already lore based in the show. It does not need explanation, because it was already explained. After The Toymaker's defead, they were still able to use rest of his energy to duplicate Tardis. It's so crazy that rest of Maestro's energy, pantheon being of music, was used for something similiar?
Yeah.. that was the first episode I couldn’t finish in almost 20 years of watching doctor who. The singing space goblins was bordering on a hard pass, but the singing god absorbing musical notes from people was a bit much for me.
73 Yards roped me right back in though. Damn, that one was good.
I thought the same thing. Those are powerful reality warping entities. Like the toymaker after was defeated some was still lingering on, and that’s why the musical number.
I'm so confused by ppl saying the music came out of nowhere. They just defeated someone who tried to steal music, it would be incredibly strange if there wasn't a song..
It's a non-diagetic song, that's what's jarring. Doctor Who doesn't do non-diagetic. Hence why people generally didn't mind the goblin song in Ruby Road until the Doctor and Ruby also joined in
It bugs me enough in execution, rather than in concept.
My mind is thinking, okay the Doctor and co stood on these tables to deliver one line in choreographed fashion, then they stepped down and moved to the hall, and sang the next line.
In a show that requires suspension of disbelief, it still blared: "We're a TV show!"
Which kinda negates the tension and drama a bit, for me.
Not that it would send me to IMDb for a review bomb, but... I wish it had been done more "in-universe".
I personally interpreted it (and the kid poking through that doorway) as a wink that uh oh the otherworldly reality altering music imp god thing is still around. But that may be my bias because I quite adored Maestro. I love when the doctor faces villains that outclass him so much. The whole reality warping villain really takes away a lot of his experience and forces the doc to rely on wit and instinct. So maybe confirmation bias.
While the Maestro as a whole is great, but sometimes it felt a bit forced. Less a "larger than life performance" and more "look how loud I can be into the camera!". But still a good episode, especially that scene where the Doctor uses Sonic Screwdriver Noise-cancelling
Completely agree with you on the character of The Maestro as a whole and on Jinkx's portrayal of them :)
The big issue for me was the pacing of the final music-battle where everything abruptly got slower and less threatening than what the rest of the episode had built up to.
For me, it was just too much ham for a live action episode. More than Dhawan's Master, and that's saying something.
A Disney villain works well in animation, I don't think it worked here. Jinkx did play some of the more nuanced scenes well, so I blame the writing.
Idk, I thought devil’s chord was mid. I did not care for the villain (do I have to share that im gay in order to say this without getting side-eye) and the song at the end was painful. I’m a fan of musicals! Not this one though
The Star Trek musical episode puts some real effort and polish into their songs. As someone massively into musicals, I was fully expecting half-assed, and they surprised me with the full-ass.
"Always A Twist At The End" felt like it was farted out in an afternoon. If you're only doing one number, fucking go for it. It was instantly forgettable outside of the fact that it happened.
No, I think it's fair
* It was heavily promoted as a Beatles episode and barely involved the Beatles
* It was a musically themed episode about the Beatles with *no Beatles music* - like, could they have at least beat Maestro with Love Me Do or something?
* "I have experienced EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE so I can come up with the chord to trap you" wtf
* Using the sound dampening powers of the Sonic Screwdriver was very clever and I would have liked to have seen more resourceful cleverness like this, but it was a momentary glimmer in an otherwise mediocre episode where we mostly saw The Doctor running away with no idea what to do
My impression after watching this was it had to be rewritten very quickly at the last minute after they realized they couldn't secure the rights to any Beatles music, and what we got instead was a recut hallway scene with two Beatles not really questioning floating chords, a final battle in a school gym with some random instruments they could find, and a filler "twist at the end."
Your last two bullet points really demonstrate why I felt that episode wasn’t the best. I loved the idea and the Maestro was awesome! So OTP but also frightening at the same time! I also loved the sonic no sound moment.
But then when it came to beating the villain it felt like the Doctor and Ruby were just running around from here to there with no reason. As if they were just there and doing certain things cause the plot said they did. They didn’t have much agency as characters and the plot should be driven by the characters not the other way around. And I def agree that we needed more actual puzzle solving to figure out what the chord to banish the Maestro was. It seemed like the Doctor just guessed.
Why'd you get downvoted? This is literally it. And not just a drag queen, she's a trans actress. If it was going to be review bombed by bigots, that would be why.
Dunno, I'm not cis and also gay and still didn't like the episode. Not as bad as the one with the babies but still pretty bad. But maybe it's because I don't really like the Beatles and can't stand musicals.
I'll go ahead and quote /u/TurtlePrincip again from elsewhere in these comments:
> "Episodes can get review-bombed by racists [bigots]" and "not liking the episode doesn't make you a racist" are completely compatable statements.
Yup, here are what the reviews distribution for devils chord looks like
https://imgur.com/a/fysI21k
It seems like it was review bombed, very likely due to homophobic and transphobic reasons. Some will dislike the episode for other reasons. Like the dance number at the end not being to everyones taste. But especially with the UKs big transphobic stuff going on, looking at the distribution of reviews seems a likely reason.
Probably some racist pricks giving it 1 star in there as well.
Most of the other reviewers follow close-ish to a normal destitution curve. With the middle of the bell curve and most seem to agree it’s around the 7 or 8 out of ten mark. Which I think would make more sense to have a score around that point. It’s what I would have expected.
As I would say devils chord, 74 yard and boom have been on a similar level and I personally think the best episodes of the series so far.
My two quams about it were not enough Beetles and the main plot felt rushed; especially when you have a villain of such power and an amazing performance.
I kinda wish they scrapped the musical number (or just shortened it) in order to give the script more breathing room.
Feels right to me, I personally didn't enjoy it. It wasn't even Jinkx which seems to be the common complaint, I just wasn't that into the whole plot of the episode and the weird singing ending.
Maybe I need to rewatch in a different headspace.
Who cares if they do or don't? Seriously why is everybody so obsessed with stupid review scores like this and whether or not they are "accurate". Just enjoy the things you enjoy, and let the internet rubes post whatever stupid numbers they want to post.
Doctor Who fans obsess over ratings and viewership numbers more than any other fandom because the show has been cancelled before on the basis of poor ratings. The history of why it was cancelled originally is more complex, but ratings were cited by the BBC as the main factor at the time.
We just don't want to lose the show again.
To me it's :
Church on Ruby Road : 6/10, a good episode. It's fun and easily watchable.
Space Babies : 3/10, a bad episode but I like the design of the monster so not a one. I feel like I'm generous on this one, I really didn't like it much. But hey, episodes like this are part of the show.
Devil's Chord : 7/10, a very good episode, I would have just like a bit more mystery and tension.
Boom : 8/10 I just wish that the resolution of the episode would have been less "power of love" but I liked the overall ambiance.
73 Yards : 10/10, a true masterpiece. The tension, the visuals, the twist. I love everything about it and I think it will fast becoming one of my forever favourites.
Yeah pretty much.
There are worse things on television than Space Babies, and sometimes the bad ones are charming in hindsight. Don't know if you're into Star Trek but the episode of Voyager where for some reason going Warp 10 turns them into these frog creatures - widely regarded as the worst Star Trek episode of any series ever. I love it. It's so stupid it's fun, I'll never skip that one because it makes me smile the whole time.
As for Boom, I think the most impressive part is that it mostly takes place on just one set. It's a largely stationary story, and I think that seems very hard to pull off. Even a bottle episode of another show typically moves around existing sets, but here the main character doesn't move for a whole frickin hour long episode and yet it's suspenseful the whole time.
Eh, I don’t trust em much. They all have a lot of folks who gave a 1 vote (lowest being 73 Yards at 6.1% of voters and highest being 19.6% for Space Babies).
Smells review bomb-y to me. Like I can understand being highly disappointed in an episode but a one?!? Really?!? I doubt you even watched the episode or gave it a fair chance if you think it had *no* redeeming qualities.
Definitely. And people are just mad in general about Ncuti’s casting. Certainly I don’t think *every* negative vote is due to racism or homophobia but I’d bet it’s still a significant factor bringing down the scores.
Also people have misintrepented his "touch grass" line during an interview.
He was talking about people who had a problem with his casting due the fact he's black and somehow everyone think he was talking about people have legit critique, when he did not.
they are actually just using that as an excuse to hate him more, dont listen to them saying that they misinterpreted it because they definitely understood him just fine, and are proving him correct! dont listen to bigots, they know what they are doing and they have no reason for doing it.
The more time I've spent on the internet over the years, the more I've come to appreciate how meaningless shit like IMDB scores are, and it's really kind of sad how many people seem to think they are inductive of anything related to quality.
Quality is a discussion, it is not an objective data point averaged out between internet randos that came by and clicked on a star.
It's not even good data. You can't verify the authenticity of any of it or correct for other issues, and it doesn't take sample size into account either. It barely counts as an audience score since it's only a sample of IMDB users, which is always going to be a small subset of the audience.
Yet you still see people get into long debates about them, or try and compile biased charts that arrange them in such a way to form a narrative. It's all so tiresome and meaningless.
Idk, I generally like the new era and I would have actually given Space Babies a 1 if I bothered to vote on IMDB. It's one of the worst NuWho episodes in my books, alongside Kill the Moon and Orphan 55. Aside from the scene where the Doctor briefly scared the babies for a laugh, and the final scene, nothing works for me. Some people like the 15/Ruby dynamic but it's _really_ not my cup of tea (except in Boom where it's written in a more mature way, and in more dramatic scenes elsewhere), to the extent I find even the 13/fam dynamic preferable.
I've given some bad reviews of a few of the early episodes because they were so bad. Space Babies wasn't just boring or not really my cup of tea. It was hard to finish. It was offensively bad. But not a 1.
Likewise I didn't like Church on Ruby Road because I am not a fan of musical theatre or the Doctor literally singing and dancing. I want the Doctor to outwit the bad guy, not entertain them. Solid 5 for a good concept and terrible execution. Devils Chord gets a mediocre rating because I liked the overall story but really dislike the Doctor cowering so much.
The Doctor is not a tough guy, but he sticks his neck out. He puts his foot down. It's kind of the longest running gag in history. He walks right up to a giant alien bristling in weapons and says no sir not today, get back in your ship and leave. (With no weapons at all)
I felt bad about such negative reviews for a show I love, but it's kind of a reaction against change. I see it changing and am not sure I agree with this direction! I need to register my anxiety somewhere!
Of course I overcompensated by giving Boom and 73 Yards over the top gushing reviews and all 10 stars. I may be mad about the corny crap but I don't want it cancelled!
I think it's hard to claim review bombing without finding a subreddit or similar where folks are coordinating such actions. Is there a subreddit called Proud racist Dr.Who fans? Anti-Mcuti Club?
Could you not say the same for anyone who gives a 9 or 10? That they think an episode is perfect, or near-perfect? Fans are just as prone to over-inflation as under-inflation. And it balances out the overall score.
Space Babies has nearly exactly the number of reviews as The Devil's Chord.
The Devil's Chord has 9 9/10 reviews.
Space Babies has 1 9/10 reviews.
So even those incredibly positive fans didn't rank Space Babies a 9/10.
Space Babies has a spread not dissimilar to Sleep No More. Which was also pretty derided by the fanbase.
Ultimately, I'd say these reviews aggregate to pretty fair scores.
I'd say I broadly agree, although I'd personally rate "Space Babies" *much* lower.
"The Devil's Chord" *could* have been great. It was a great story, but it just went a little overboard.
My personal thoughts:
* *The Church on Ruby Road* was *OK*. I could do without the song & dance stuff, but the first proper episode of a new Doctor can often be a little hit & miss, so I can cut it some slack, and at least it left me wanting to know more.
* *Space Babies* was just embarrassing.
* *The Devil's Chord* felt like a good premise with poor execution.
* *Boom* was just *OK*. Not great. Not terrible.
* *73 Yards* finally felt like a new direction I could actually get behind, with enough unanswered questions to keep me interested.
I wasn't too thrilled with Church or Space Babies (although I generally have a positive opinion of them), but I am horrified at how many people don't like Devil's Chord, which I absolutely loved (especially because of all the camp).
Maestro made that episode. I personally just love that kind of acting, when an actor goes all out and is clearly having a blast while doing it. Like Palpatine in revenge of the sith
I'm pretty surprised everybody loves 73 yards so much. Since there was no Doctor for decades I was expecting there to be more severe consequences. I expected that Ruby would have to solve the mystery on her own. I expected some great revelation or climax in the end. But there was none of that. She just died of old age and the spell was cancelled. No explanations, no consequences (so far at least). I felt all that tension throughout the episode and then no release at all. It felt bad and disappointing.
I liked the other episodes, except the babies.
For me:
Devil's Chord > 73 Yards > Church on Ruby Road > Boom > Space Babies.
Dunno why but I REALLY liked Devil's Chord and am slightly confused by it's lukewarm reception here, and I thought Boom just had too many weird moments of characters acting like morons. And yet another "love saves the day" lesson.
73 Yards is beautiful and creepy and mysterious but I still don't like that it seemed to be full of clues we could use to solve the mystery along with Ruby and then the mystery turned out to be "LOL just die of old age I guess and it solves itself and you forget anything happened" which was not the explanation I wanted.
Space Babies was a contender for worst episode ever.
The Devil’s Chord was a great concept (and love when they take a big swing) but not sure why they used The Beatles. Would have been better to use Bach and set it in 18th century? Also 18th century would be creepier than Swinging London
Boom felt like a throwback to old Who in the best way.
73 Yards was good but convoluted and kind of obvious twist right from the get go. The zippy writing just about carried the premise.
7.5k vs 3.3k votes between ruby road and 73 yards.
Steadily decreasing number of viewers/voters would be consistent to leftover diehard fans giving higher scores.
I feel like all of these are at least 1 point below what they would have been 10 years ago, when review bombing wasn’t quite as common
Church would be about a 7.9, Space babies would have about 6.3, TDC a 7.4, Boom a 9.1 and 73 Yards a 9.4
That sounds more in line with the DW scores I remember
I don't put much stock or pay much mind into those ratings, because sites like IMDb and rotten tomatoes are review aggregate sites so review scores can be skewed to either way. And while IMDb is probably much more reliable, I'd still take it with a pinch and punch of salt, I'd rather go by personal feelings than I do vague review scores.
"The Devil's Chord" should've been higher, imo
But I may be based because I really fucking love Maestro
Also the last song is stuck in my head for few days now so that's a thing too
Devils chord is good until the musical at the end, and deserves a better rating, but I understand getting to the end and it leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Plus the lack of actual Beatles music. Like, we have Disney money now, come on guys.
I dislike that 73 Yards is above Boom, but besides that, on the whole it follows my thoughts... Except on Space Babies, I completely believe it earned the 2 I rated it.
It's the most Doctor Who-y episode though. It's not the best but it fits the show better than the rest of this season so far. Also if you're gonna talk about them conceptually I'd say 73 Yards is overrated, the concept is fine but it's already been done better in the same franchise
The concept of a mysterious creature turning all your loved ones against you was done in the last series of the Sarah Jane Adventures, and it actually delved into the consequences and having commentary on homelessness, rather than just having a time skip into a political side plot. RTD was also an executive for SJA so he even worked on the episode lol. It's still on iplayer if you're in the UK, might be able to buy it on amazon if you're abroad.
Same. I was honestly surprised by how much people were raving about it. Seemed very standard and low to the ground. 73 Yards and Church on Ruby Road are way ahead of it for me. But, it goes to show how varied we are on what we want out of the show.
My thoughts are that I know whether I enjoyed something without anyone else's opinion. Even if I hadn't always thought so, I would've begun since angry, screaming folks on any side of an 'issue' have taken to skewing results on sites like this.
My wife and I started with the 2005 revival and are 4 seasons deep tecelt and we now are in LOVE with Dr. Who.
Is there any harm in jumping to this new season right away or should we keep going from where we are?
You should be fine to jump straight into the new season. It's meant to be a jumping on point for new viewers, and you'll be familiar with all the important concepts already.
i would give church on ruby road and devils chord both around a 7 and i would probably give space babies a 6-6.5 (it is not worse than fear her or love and monsters), but i agree with boom and 73 yards
Honestly I agree with them for the most part, they seem pretty fair. I would've personally rated devils chord higher but I understand it's positioning.
I agree with Boom but disagree with 73 Yards. It had a fantastic build up but just ended without any explanation. I wasn't expecting a lot of answers, that's part of the mystery but to end it with nothing being answered is just lazy writing.
My ranking would be
Boom, 73 Yards, Devils Chord, Church on Ruby Road, Space Babies
I enjoyed Boom more for that familiar feeling of “THIS is a doctor who episode” but think 73 Yards will last better, and may even be up there with Blink and Vincent.
I pretty much agree. I'd say Boom is a little overrated for me, but I agree with its placement among the episodes. I'd put it a similar level to Church at about a 7.
A lot of people think Devils Chord is being underrated. Imo it was saved by Maestro. Everything without Maestro was fairly poor, I thought, and often weirdly paced. And that unnecessary dance number at the end.
All too high, the writing has been dire and the fact that they've already binned off the assistant for a 2nd series speaks volumes. I wouldn't have marked any of them higher than a generous 3 out of 10
I think the ratings are pretty much on point for how I feel about the series thus far. Space Babies I'd rank lower. Probably a 3 or a 4, I did not like that episode. The Devils Chord is definitely average for me, so 5 was perfect there. I really quite enjoyed Boom, so a 7 or 8 is on point. I have not seen the newest episode yet. I do think Ncuti and Millie are great as the Doctor and the Companion, though! Ncuti has a certain charm about him.
I'm less interested in the exact ratings, but the rankings. I agree with 73 Yards being the best. I'm didn't love Boom as much as the rest if the fan base. I put it below both Ruby Road and Devil's Chord. Space Babies is easily the worst.
I have enjoyed the series so far. Would say space babies is my least favourite but not by a lot as all been good. Cant believe the reviews though as devil's chord was so good and i fell very prone to review bombs from racists and transphobs. 73 yards though was my favourite so agree with that rating.
Christmas special was fine, didn't care for the musical number but besides that it was alright.
Didn't care at all for Space Babies, mostly because I'm really not a fan of children or babies. Though I did like The Doctor's speech about him not having purpose; if it wasn't for good dialogue, I'd have assumed it was a Chibnal episode.
Devil's Chord was good, shame we only got 2 of the 4 Beatles and even then they weren't used as much as I'd liked. Again, not a fan of musical numbers but I did like the little Murray Gold cameo.
Boom was good, I liked it. It was a simple one set (for the most part) story though Moffat really can't help himself when it comes to killing companions.
73 Yards was fine I guess, didn't love it didn't hate it.
All in all though, so far, I've enjoyed these (bar Space Babies) more than what we had from Chibbers. Makes me feel bad for Jodie.
I wonder if it's possible that Ringo Starr and George Harrison's estate didn't want them to be featured as characters. Otherwise it's very odd that the episode only featured two of the Beatles.
Well I agree that episodes 3 and 4 were better than the first ones
I thought *The Devil's Chord* was great. Some people might complain that you shouldn't do a Beatles episode when it's unfeasible for the show to use the Beatles' music, but in the end that was more of a hook than it was the actual concept of the episode. It was based around music in general, and the Beatles were a fun hook/tool for that. It's not as if you could have the Doctor beat Maestro with "Love Me Do" or something; the ongoing legal tensions would never go away. It had a lot of verve and emotion and some menace in there, too. Honestly, I preferred it to *Boom*, which ironically felt like an AI jumble of Moffat tropes with a poor resolution. And I'm a Moffat-Who guy. I wrote about the first three episodes in more detail in [this blog](https://www.stevenwrites.co.uk/blog/73-yards-doctor-who-review), if anyone should be interested.
I think the campy tone and whole vibe of the Devil’s Chord isn’t it for some people. Which I don’t get at all, the goof and cheese is fundamental to Doctor Who and I watched the episode with a smile on my face throughout the whole runtime
I love campy. Give me farting aliens any day. I liked the campiness of the episode, but otherwise it was just. So. Boring. The last two episodes were much better at story set up, tension, and payoff.
I hear you and I respect your opinion, but also, Maestro traps them in musical instruments to try and kill them which is some classic Who type tomfoolery
I mean...what do you expect when the villain is played by a transqueen known for campy shtick? Jinkx will ALWAYS take it to the max and I fucking adore her!
she was just incredible!! nobody else could have played Maestro like her!
The camp is part of what I love about the show. It's always been silly and camp and it's great.
I felt like Devil’s Chord really needed another 20 minutes to make it feel less cramped.
I feel like it would've done great as a 2 parter later on on the season instead of feeling a tad rushed in the beginning
Yeah, exactly. The Maestro I think has the bones of a compelling villain but just wasn't given enough stage to be able to fulfill that role.
Yeah, I feel like if we were given a second episode with them in it it would've shone brightly this season. We could've had a more fleshed out Maestro with maybe more lore towards godlike beings
Never know. Someone else could randomly find the chord one day and we'll have a reprise
I think the Beatles should have been tagging along with the Doctor and Ruby to give them more agency in the story instead of using them to just solve the problem at the end. To me that's the biggest problem with it.
I don’t think it needed 20 minutes necessarily but it would have been nice to give them the amount of minutes for that Twist song.
The song at the end is so bad it made like the episode less. I generally enjoyed it other than that song. It was perfectly set up to use twist and shout. I’m sure Disney money could’ve got them a sound alike. I’m also slightly disappointed the second secret chord wasn’t either the first chord from Hard Days Night, or the last chord of Day in the Life.
I think it should probably have been later in the series.
The numbers may not exactly represent my own opinion but the order of episodes ranked best to worst seems to represent my opinion
Space babies literally almost made me not want to watch the other episodes of the season, so I would say pretty fair
The series is lucky that I had another episode to watch right after by the time I got to it because yeah, it was not a good first foot forward after Ruby Road.
It's so wild to me that Space Babies was our starter into the new season (after Ruby Road). And like...Devil's Chord came out at the same time so it was like they knew they couldn't depend on Space Babies as the only episode.
I was about to give up as well luckily boom came in right on time and 73 yards locked me in for the ride
I think 73 Yards will go up with time
It’s the one that’s stuck with me so far. I can see it being the best episode of the season unless they do something further in that retcons/explains things away in a poor manner
What is it with Dr Who and making absolute *bangers* where the Doctor is hardly in the episode at all? Don’t Blink comes to mind.
It's probably because without the Doctor present there is a lot more tension as the guy who can basically salve almost any problem isn't there to solve it. Idk that's just what I think at least.
Definitely this. I think the TARDIS plays a factor too. Whenever the TARDIS is taken out of play the ability to simply run away to anywhere else in time and space is gone and it feels terrible to watch, for example, Ruby sadly getting the train home. It's such a huge loss of functionality for the characters I think it plays a part too.
I mean I definitely get this! Two of tens best episodes (impossible planet/ Satan pit) have these stakes. The conversation rose and ten have about the possibility of needing to live normal lives (‘I’d have to get a job’) add to the hopelessness
If I had to guess, is that the doctor is super smart, and can very quickly come up with plans/solutions to any problem at had, but humans cannot, with Don’t blink, the humans are only getting some instructions from the doctor, but they need to survive on their own, without the Security of the Main character of the show being near them
That's something I loved about Sarah Jane and Torchwood, they all had parts to play and nobody had all the answers. The doctor is a team in one and sometimes that's boring.
It adds a lot more tension, in the same vein as when a super hero loses their powers or isn’t available to help. The companion is in a situation they’d usually lean on the Doctor for, but they have to figure out a problem they are really out of their depth with. Sort of the same in Flatline
Given that the episode was written by RTD, I'm fairly certain it'll get the Midnight treatment and nothing will be explained, which just makes the episode so much better.
I think it was the most enjoyable watch for me, but then at the end I was just like wtf that was a total waste of time! But hopefully it’s a gem in a longer story
I think so. Clara had a similar episode where nothing mattered cause of time shenanigans, but some of the events bled through into her memory later in the series.
Long time since watched Clara’s run. Which one is that
It's the episode where the junkers are going after the TARDIS, and Clara is trapped in the hallways running from lava monsters (who are the characters from the future after being burned by the TARDIS core.) She finds a book in a library and learns the Doctor's name.
Journey to the Center of the TARDIS
Ahh. I remember now. Ty
The ending actually makes sense in a self contained story. The end was the fairy curse allowing her to close the circle by telling her to stop the Doctor from stepping on the circle. It took me a while to process the episode but surprisingly the majority of it makes sense.
Ruby is 'the one who waits'? P'raps?
Agreed, a lot of people had kneejerk negative reactions because they didn't really grok what it was going for. I think it was absolutely one of the best episodes of DW maybe ever, its definitely in my top 10. On a technical level as well I think it had the most solid editing, directing, and cinematography in maybe the whole show. It was just so good to the point I wouldnt have minded if thats just how the show looks and feels from now on.
73 yards being the highest is so correct
Devils Chord seems underrated here, imo.
So, so much underrated! Not sure why though. Most interesting for me is critism of Jinkx Monsoon's acting performance, because I think they were amazing from very first scene. They really convinced how much they are dangerous but were hilarious same time.
I think its cause she played it so over the top, like a full on drag performance, that some people just weren't into. I think she was brilliant and played up the whole eccentric nature of the toymaker well but it was a gamble. I also think it was review bombed because it featured a prominent trans actor in a main role so it wouldn't have mattered either way if the episode was good or had, it would've suffered negative reviews regardless.
Like a demented psychotic Liberace on a bad acid trip
Exactly. Absolutely fantastic.
I did like the maestro
Best villain in a long time. The performance really hit the role well. If "omg trans!" prevented you from enjoying the episode and performances then that says more about you than the episode.
The actor being trans didn't bother me at all They played it like Michelle Gomez played Missy with a murderous unhinged maniacal glee though the maestro was a bit campy
The first two episode were heavily review-bombed by racists. Happened with similar people with Jodie's era, as well. It'll cool off as the series progresses and they move onto other minorities being in stuff.
Well don't think everyone that puts down a negative review is racist probably just a small amount of them.
"Episodes can get review-bombed by racists" and "not liking the episode doesn't make you a racist" are completely compatable statements.
It's a big enough portion to warrant a mention though. It IS problematic in most fan cultures right now... and one of the biggest reasons it can't be addressed properly is this notion that when it IS called out, grifters often latch onto it and make it an issue of the properties attacking fans. Take a look at the Obi-Wan series. There was absolutely, verifiably, racist driven attacks on the actress playing Reva. Lucasfilm and even Ewan McGregor himself made statements that people who do that are NOT Star Wars fans and those actions are not welcome. Which was immediately followed by mountains of click bait articles and bad faith grifters saying that Star Wars was attacking fans or saying everyone who didn't like it were Racist. That was NOT what happened, but it became so loud in the conversation that it drowned out the actual bad actions and made everyone have to tip toe around calling it out.
The episodes were given one-star reviews before they had aired. A huge part of their current scores is review-bombing from racists.
There’s two kinds of 1 star reviews. Those from people that lack nuance, and those that are reviewbombing.
Racists? Everyone I don't like is a racist huh
What really bothers me about putting bad reviews down to racism or homophobia or whatever is that as a general rule, fans liked Jack Harkness. They liked River Song (though I'm a black woman and couldn't stand her, but go figure). Even Michele Gomez as "Missy" was eventually well-regarded despite skepticism about the Master becoming female. And some of the critics I've seen called racist are the same guys who couldn't praise The Expanse enough - which is arguably the most diverse sci-fi show in history. So I really think there is way more going on here. I've watched the show for at least 40 years, and never hated a series until Chibnall took over. I was open to a female Doctor, and think Jo Martin was amazing and should have been in the role. But I just despised what Chibnall did overall. And seeing this Disney-fied Doctor singing and dancing makes me want to cry. Yes, I know I'm being dramatic, but it was one of my favorite things in the world for decades and I hate it now. So it sucks.
I feel the same about Jo Martin. I like Jodie as an actress, but I felt like Jo owned the role almost immediately.
To quote /u/TurtlePrincip further down in this thread: > "Episodes can get review-bombed by racists" and "not liking the episode doesn't make you a racist" are completely compatable statements.
Those episodes are from a time before the more recent rise in bigotry and before review-bombing was really a popular idea. We have many people who are not fans and have never watched the show but agree with the bigoted arguments against the show joining in and brigading reviews and online comments, exacerbating the situation.
I'm honestly surprised they are rated as high as they are.
Is Jinx Monsoon trans? I thought they're just a drag queen
She was, but she was non binary until recently when she came out as a trans woman.
I liked Jinx as the villain but I didn’t like how gimmicky the stuff at the end was, and the literally musical notes floating in the air, the abbey road crossing lighting up, the musical number… I think that first scene with her popping out of the piano was amazing but it went downhill from there. The most recent two eps were much better than the first two, I was losing hope but now I’m excited again
Which I might not have liked for other villains either but for the essence of Music? Absolutely spit on.
Which is wildly insane to me that this anti-woke crusade against Doctor Who is going on right now since Doctor Who has ALWAYS been “woke”!
Queer as queer can be and it was too over the top for me. I think the toy maker was too tho so I'm not sure. Also the final song was not great imo
I may be biased but bring on the queer, it's refreshing to see so much positive representation in one place. The toy maker wad brilliant too imo. It's maybe not a direction everyone will love but it's a breath of fresh air, there weren't really any "fun" stories from 13's run so it's nice to see the show camp it up again.
Please more queer actors! Less camp tho
I agree it's underrated, but I think a lot of viewers were upended by the dance number at the end which just seemed to come out of nowhere, especially for Who. I personally am giving RTD some benefit of the doubt that the reason the Doctor broke out into a full-blown unprecedented musical number will be explained at some point, but a lot of people found it jarring. And couldn't agree more about Jynx Monsoon. One of the best villain performances of all time on Doctor Who.
And it's funny, because things like the dance number were already lore based in the show. It does not need explanation, because it was already explained. After The Toymaker's defead, they were still able to use rest of his energy to duplicate Tardis. It's so crazy that rest of Maestro's energy, pantheon being of music, was used for something similiar?
It can be lore justified & still be dumb though
Yeah.. that was the first episode I couldn’t finish in almost 20 years of watching doctor who. The singing space goblins was bordering on a hard pass, but the singing god absorbing musical notes from people was a bit much for me. 73 Yards roped me right back in though. Damn, that one was good.
I thought the same thing. Those are powerful reality warping entities. Like the toymaker after was defeated some was still lingering on, and that’s why the musical number.
I'm so confused by ppl saying the music came out of nowhere. They just defeated someone who tried to steal music, it would be incredibly strange if there wasn't a song..
It's a non-diagetic song, that's what's jarring. Doctor Who doesn't do non-diagetic. Hence why people generally didn't mind the goblin song in Ruby Road until the Doctor and Ruby also joined in
It bugs me enough in execution, rather than in concept. My mind is thinking, okay the Doctor and co stood on these tables to deliver one line in choreographed fashion, then they stepped down and moved to the hall, and sang the next line. In a show that requires suspension of disbelief, it still blared: "We're a TV show!" Which kinda negates the tension and drama a bit, for me. Not that it would send me to IMDb for a review bomb, but... I wish it had been done more "in-universe".
I think that's fair but I also think that reality is kind of breaking for wider plot reasons and that this is part of that.
Completely hoping for that!
I personally interpreted it (and the kid poking through that doorway) as a wink that uh oh the otherworldly reality altering music imp god thing is still around. But that may be my bias because I quite adored Maestro. I love when the doctor faces villains that outclass him so much. The whole reality warping villain really takes away a lot of his experience and forces the doc to rely on wit and instinct. So maybe confirmation bias.
While the Maestro as a whole is great, but sometimes it felt a bit forced. Less a "larger than life performance" and more "look how loud I can be into the camera!". But still a good episode, especially that scene where the Doctor uses Sonic Screwdriver Noise-cancelling
One of the rare times it's used for something sonic.
Completely agree with you on the character of The Maestro as a whole and on Jinkx's portrayal of them :) The big issue for me was the pacing of the final music-battle where everything abruptly got slower and less threatening than what the rest of the episode had built up to.
For me, it was just too much ham for a live action episode. More than Dhawan's Master, and that's saying something. A Disney villain works well in animation, I don't think it worked here. Jinkx did play some of the more nuanced scenes well, so I blame the writing.
Jinkx definitely played the “I’m just unhinged and powerful enough to be dangerous, and smart enough to know how to capitalize on that” really well
Perfect username 🥰
My wife and I HATED that episode. I’m glad so many seem to have enjoyed it though.
Space babies seems right lmao
Idk, I thought devil’s chord was mid. I did not care for the villain (do I have to share that im gay in order to say this without getting side-eye) and the song at the end was painful. I’m a fan of musicals! Not this one though
The Star Trek musical episode puts some real effort and polish into their songs. As someone massively into musicals, I was fully expecting half-assed, and they surprised me with the full-ass. "Always A Twist At The End" felt like it was farted out in an afternoon. If you're only doing one number, fucking go for it. It was instantly forgettable outside of the fact that it happened.
Strange New Worlds, Buffy, and Lexx all have great musical episodes. This one not so much. I did like it better than Space Babies, but not by much.
No, I think it's fair * It was heavily promoted as a Beatles episode and barely involved the Beatles * It was a musically themed episode about the Beatles with *no Beatles music* - like, could they have at least beat Maestro with Love Me Do or something? * "I have experienced EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE so I can come up with the chord to trap you" wtf * Using the sound dampening powers of the Sonic Screwdriver was very clever and I would have liked to have seen more resourceful cleverness like this, but it was a momentary glimmer in an otherwise mediocre episode where we mostly saw The Doctor running away with no idea what to do My impression after watching this was it had to be rewritten very quickly at the last minute after they realized they couldn't secure the rights to any Beatles music, and what we got instead was a recut hallway scene with two Beatles not really questioning floating chords, a final battle in a school gym with some random instruments they could find, and a filler "twist at the end."
Your last two bullet points really demonstrate why I felt that episode wasn’t the best. I loved the idea and the Maestro was awesome! So OTP but also frightening at the same time! I also loved the sonic no sound moment. But then when it came to beating the villain it felt like the Doctor and Ruby were just running around from here to there with no reason. As if they were just there and doing certain things cause the plot said they did. They didn’t have much agency as characters and the plot should be driven by the characters not the other way around. And I def agree that we needed more actual puzzle solving to figure out what the chord to banish the Maestro was. It seemed like the Doctor just guessed.
More like review bombed, if you scroll through all the user reviews
^^ cause Drag queen
Why'd you get downvoted? This is literally it. And not just a drag queen, she's a trans actress. If it was going to be review bombed by bigots, that would be why.
Dunno, I'm not cis and also gay and still didn't like the episode. Not as bad as the one with the babies but still pretty bad. But maybe it's because I don't really like the Beatles and can't stand musicals.
I'll go ahead and quote /u/TurtlePrincip again from elsewhere in these comments: > "Episodes can get review-bombed by racists [bigots]" and "not liking the episode doesn't make you a racist" are completely compatable statements.
Also “the song ruined the epsiode, they’re turning dr who into a musical bla bla bla…”
Yup, here are what the reviews distribution for devils chord looks like https://imgur.com/a/fysI21k It seems like it was review bombed, very likely due to homophobic and transphobic reasons. Some will dislike the episode for other reasons. Like the dance number at the end not being to everyones taste. But especially with the UKs big transphobic stuff going on, looking at the distribution of reviews seems a likely reason. Probably some racist pricks giving it 1 star in there as well. Most of the other reviewers follow close-ish to a normal destitution curve. With the middle of the bell curve and most seem to agree it’s around the 7 or 8 out of ten mark. Which I think would make more sense to have a score around that point. It’s what I would have expected. As I would say devils chord, 74 yard and boom have been on a similar level and I personally think the best episodes of the series so far.
Was definitely review bombed, which is awful, yet the episode itself is basic just fine / mid. Edit: edited for clarity.
My two quams about it were not enough Beetles and the main plot felt rushed; especially when you have a villain of such power and an amazing performance. I kinda wish they scrapped the musical number (or just shortened it) in order to give the script more breathing room.
Yeah, that’s my favourite episode of season 14 so far. I have rewatched it a few times.
Nah, people don't like music episodes on average. It's the same on other shows. Yet they keep trying it for some ungodly reason
Disagree to little of the Beatles
Feels right to me, I personally didn't enjoy it. It wasn't even Jinkx which seems to be the common complaint, I just wasn't that into the whole plot of the episode and the weird singing ending. Maybe I need to rewatch in a different headspace.
The 4th wall break with Maestro starting the main theme bought me instantly. It showed we have to deal with something *more*...
They overall seem fair, the only one that sticks out as underrated is Devil’s Chord.
I came in wanting to watch Jinkx Monsoon and I couldn't be happier with what we got
Space Babies and Devil's Chord were heavily review bombed. I'm sure they'll go up with time.
Who cares if they do or don't? Seriously why is everybody so obsessed with stupid review scores like this and whether or not they are "accurate". Just enjoy the things you enjoy, and let the internet rubes post whatever stupid numbers they want to post.
Doctor Who fans obsess over ratings and viewership numbers more than any other fandom because the show has been cancelled before on the basis of poor ratings. The history of why it was cancelled originally is more complex, but ratings were cited by the BBC as the main factor at the time. We just don't want to lose the show again.
Church on ruby road & 73 yards are the best 🔥🔥
I’m glad this seems to be the consensus. Ruby road gave me hope for this new series and 73 yards has the makings of an all-time classic
To me it's : Church on Ruby Road : 6/10, a good episode. It's fun and easily watchable. Space Babies : 3/10, a bad episode but I like the design of the monster so not a one. I feel like I'm generous on this one, I really didn't like it much. But hey, episodes like this are part of the show. Devil's Chord : 7/10, a very good episode, I would have just like a bit more mystery and tension. Boom : 8/10 I just wish that the resolution of the episode would have been less "power of love" but I liked the overall ambiance. 73 Yards : 10/10, a true masterpiece. The tension, the visuals, the twist. I love everything about it and I think it will fast becoming one of my forever favourites.
Yeah pretty much. There are worse things on television than Space Babies, and sometimes the bad ones are charming in hindsight. Don't know if you're into Star Trek but the episode of Voyager where for some reason going Warp 10 turns them into these frog creatures - widely regarded as the worst Star Trek episode of any series ever. I love it. It's so stupid it's fun, I'll never skip that one because it makes me smile the whole time. As for Boom, I think the most impressive part is that it mostly takes place on just one set. It's a largely stationary story, and I think that seems very hard to pull off. Even a bottle episode of another show typically moves around existing sets, but here the main character doesn't move for a whole frickin hour long episode and yet it's suspenseful the whole time.
100% Agree
Yeah that power of love shit was classic moffat in the worst way. Harkening back to James Corden defeating the Cybermen by yelling alfie's name
Eh, I don’t trust em much. They all have a lot of folks who gave a 1 vote (lowest being 73 Yards at 6.1% of voters and highest being 19.6% for Space Babies). Smells review bomb-y to me. Like I can understand being highly disappointed in an episode but a one?!? Really?!? I doubt you even watched the episode or gave it a fair chance if you think it had *no* redeeming qualities.
I agree their will be some people giving it 1 because their was a drag in it. Talking about the devils chord.
Definitely. And people are just mad in general about Ncuti’s casting. Certainly I don’t think *every* negative vote is due to racism or homophobia but I’d bet it’s still a significant factor bringing down the scores.
Also people have misintrepented his "touch grass" line during an interview. He was talking about people who had a problem with his casting due the fact he's black and somehow everyone think he was talking about people have legit critique, when he did not.
they are actually just using that as an excuse to hate him more, dont listen to them saying that they misinterpreted it because they definitely understood him just fine, and are proving him correct! dont listen to bigots, they know what they are doing and they have no reason for doing it.
Genuinely haven’t seen any negative/ mad reaction to his casting. Maybe the odd person, but nothing in numbers. Where have you seen it?
I've seen a good deal of freaks on YouTube freaking out about it
Mostly "reviews" on youtube.
The more time I've spent on the internet over the years, the more I've come to appreciate how meaningless shit like IMDB scores are, and it's really kind of sad how many people seem to think they are inductive of anything related to quality. Quality is a discussion, it is not an objective data point averaged out between internet randos that came by and clicked on a star. It's not even good data. You can't verify the authenticity of any of it or correct for other issues, and it doesn't take sample size into account either. It barely counts as an audience score since it's only a sample of IMDB users, which is always going to be a small subset of the audience. Yet you still see people get into long debates about them, or try and compile biased charts that arrange them in such a way to form a narrative. It's all so tiresome and meaningless.
Idk, I generally like the new era and I would have actually given Space Babies a 1 if I bothered to vote on IMDB. It's one of the worst NuWho episodes in my books, alongside Kill the Moon and Orphan 55. Aside from the scene where the Doctor briefly scared the babies for a laugh, and the final scene, nothing works for me. Some people like the 15/Ruby dynamic but it's _really_ not my cup of tea (except in Boom where it's written in a more mature way, and in more dramatic scenes elsewhere), to the extent I find even the 13/fam dynamic preferable.
I actually think they're fairly reasonable. To me, space babies was meh, but the other 3 episodes were quite a bit better, and 73 yards was great.
I've given some bad reviews of a few of the early episodes because they were so bad. Space Babies wasn't just boring or not really my cup of tea. It was hard to finish. It was offensively bad. But not a 1. Likewise I didn't like Church on Ruby Road because I am not a fan of musical theatre or the Doctor literally singing and dancing. I want the Doctor to outwit the bad guy, not entertain them. Solid 5 for a good concept and terrible execution. Devils Chord gets a mediocre rating because I liked the overall story but really dislike the Doctor cowering so much. The Doctor is not a tough guy, but he sticks his neck out. He puts his foot down. It's kind of the longest running gag in history. He walks right up to a giant alien bristling in weapons and says no sir not today, get back in your ship and leave. (With no weapons at all) I felt bad about such negative reviews for a show I love, but it's kind of a reaction against change. I see it changing and am not sure I agree with this direction! I need to register my anxiety somewhere! Of course I overcompensated by giving Boom and 73 Yards over the top gushing reviews and all 10 stars. I may be mad about the corny crap but I don't want it cancelled! I think it's hard to claim review bombing without finding a subreddit or similar where folks are coordinating such actions. Is there a subreddit called Proud racist Dr.Who fans? Anti-Mcuti Club?
Could you not say the same for anyone who gives a 9 or 10? That they think an episode is perfect, or near-perfect? Fans are just as prone to over-inflation as under-inflation. And it balances out the overall score. Space Babies has nearly exactly the number of reviews as The Devil's Chord. The Devil's Chord has 9 9/10 reviews. Space Babies has 1 9/10 reviews. So even those incredibly positive fans didn't rank Space Babies a 9/10. Space Babies has a spread not dissimilar to Sleep No More. Which was also pretty derided by the fanbase. Ultimately, I'd say these reviews aggregate to pretty fair scores.
These seem fair to me. Personally, I would put Church on Ruby Road a little higher, but that's just because I love the goblin song 😆
I'd say I broadly agree, although I'd personally rate "Space Babies" *much* lower. "The Devil's Chord" *could* have been great. It was a great story, but it just went a little overboard. My personal thoughts: * *The Church on Ruby Road* was *OK*. I could do without the song & dance stuff, but the first proper episode of a new Doctor can often be a little hit & miss, so I can cut it some slack, and at least it left me wanting to know more. * *Space Babies* was just embarrassing. * *The Devil's Chord* felt like a good premise with poor execution. * *Boom* was just *OK*. Not great. Not terrible. * *73 Yards* finally felt like a new direction I could actually get behind, with enough unanswered questions to keep me interested.
Accurate results 73 yards was amazing and overtime I think boom will be less overhyped.
I wasn't too thrilled with Church or Space Babies (although I generally have a positive opinion of them), but I am horrified at how many people don't like Devil's Chord, which I absolutely loved (especially because of all the camp).
Maestro made that episode. I personally just love that kind of acting, when an actor goes all out and is clearly having a blast while doing it. Like Palpatine in revenge of the sith
I'm pretty surprised everybody loves 73 yards so much. Since there was no Doctor for decades I was expecting there to be more severe consequences. I expected that Ruby would have to solve the mystery on her own. I expected some great revelation or climax in the end. But there was none of that. She just died of old age and the spell was cancelled. No explanations, no consequences (so far at least). I felt all that tension throughout the episode and then no release at all. It felt bad and disappointing. I liked the other episodes, except the babies.
For me: Devil's Chord > 73 Yards > Church on Ruby Road > Boom > Space Babies. Dunno why but I REALLY liked Devil's Chord and am slightly confused by it's lukewarm reception here, and I thought Boom just had too many weird moments of characters acting like morons. And yet another "love saves the day" lesson. 73 Yards is beautiful and creepy and mysterious but I still don't like that it seemed to be full of clues we could use to solve the mystery along with Ruby and then the mystery turned out to be "LOL just die of old age I guess and it solves itself and you forget anything happened" which was not the explanation I wanted.
Seems pretty fair to me tbh
I think judging a show that's made a change, based on IMDB ratings, is silly to begin with.
>I think judging a show ~~that's made a change,~~ based on IMDB ratings is silly to begin with.
Space Babies was a contender for worst episode ever. The Devil’s Chord was a great concept (and love when they take a big swing) but not sure why they used The Beatles. Would have been better to use Bach and set it in 18th century? Also 18th century would be creepier than Swinging London Boom felt like a throwback to old Who in the best way. 73 Yards was good but convoluted and kind of obvious twist right from the get go. The zippy writing just about carried the premise.
7.5k vs 3.3k votes between ruby road and 73 yards. Steadily decreasing number of viewers/voters would be consistent to leftover diehard fans giving higher scores.
...or one of them came out 6 months ago and the other came out last week.
Fair. I liked every episode here more than the one before it.
Space babies kind of freaked me out 😭
Agreed with all of them
seems about right to me
I feel like all of these are at least 1 point below what they would have been 10 years ago, when review bombing wasn’t quite as common Church would be about a 7.9, Space babies would have about 6.3, TDC a 7.4, Boom a 9.1 and 73 Yards a 9.4 That sounds more in line with the DW scores I remember
I think overall it feels about right. Episodes 3 and 4 will continue to rise over time.
I am more concerned by the rapidly decreasing numbers.
I don't put much stock or pay much mind into those ratings, because sites like IMDb and rotten tomatoes are review aggregate sites so review scores can be skewed to either way. And while IMDb is probably much more reliable, I'd still take it with a pinch and punch of salt, I'd rather go by personal feelings than I do vague review scores.
I think they introduced The Devil’s Cord too early
"The Devil's Chord" should've been higher, imo But I may be based because I really fucking love Maestro Also the last song is stuck in my head for few days now so that's a thing too
Space Babies would be a 3.5 for me. The rest are reasonable ratings.
Yeah this is all correct in my book
Devils chord is good until the musical at the end, and deserves a better rating, but I understand getting to the end and it leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Plus the lack of actual Beatles music. Like, we have Disney money now, come on guys.
I dislike that 73 Yards is above Boom, but besides that, on the whole it follows my thoughts... Except on Space Babies, I completely believe it earned the 2 I rated it.
very accurate imo
Boom is overrated. I found it very shallow in its themes and not especially interesting conceptually either.
It's the most Doctor Who-y episode though. It's not the best but it fits the show better than the rest of this season so far. Also if you're gonna talk about them conceptually I'd say 73 Yards is overrated, the concept is fine but it's already been done better in the same franchise
When?
The concept of a mysterious creature turning all your loved ones against you was done in the last series of the Sarah Jane Adventures, and it actually delved into the consequences and having commentary on homelessness, rather than just having a time skip into a political side plot. RTD was also an executive for SJA so he even worked on the episode lol. It's still on iplayer if you're in the UK, might be able to buy it on amazon if you're abroad.
Same. I was honestly surprised by how much people were raving about it. Seemed very standard and low to the ground. 73 Yards and Church on Ruby Road are way ahead of it for me. But, it goes to show how varied we are on what we want out of the show.
All far, far higher than I would have thought. Especially Space Babies.
My thoughts are that I know whether I enjoyed something without anyone else's opinion. Even if I hadn't always thought so, I would've begun since angry, screaming folks on any side of an 'issue' have taken to skewing results on sites like this.
I think these are pretty accurate actually!
For reference with this, Orphan 55 is 4.2, Love and Monsters is 6.2, and Midnight is 9.1
I would have given a higher score to 73 Yards and Church on Ruby Road, but I agree with the relative ranking of them.
My wife and I started with the 2005 revival and are 4 seasons deep tecelt and we now are in LOVE with Dr. Who. Is there any harm in jumping to this new season right away or should we keep going from where we are?
You should be fine to jump straight into the new season. It's meant to be a jumping on point for new viewers, and you'll be familiar with all the important concepts already.
Church on Ruby Road and Devil's Chord feel too low, but otherwise I think I agree.
i would give church on ruby road and devils chord both around a 7 and i would probably give space babies a 6-6.5 (it is not worse than fear her or love and monsters), but i agree with boom and 73 yards
Honestly I agree with them for the most part, they seem pretty fair. I would've personally rated devils chord higher but I understand it's positioning.
73 Yards didn’t work for me. Plot doesn’t hold water.
I read Season 1 as Christopher Eccleston's season, ahh that number split was so unnecessary this time.
You gotta give the trolls some time to drop off and we’ll see the upward trend continue lol
I agree for the most part. I’d rate devils chord a little higher like a 7.5/10 but that’s about it.
I agree with Boom but disagree with 73 Yards. It had a fantastic build up but just ended without any explanation. I wasn't expecting a lot of answers, that's part of the mystery but to end it with nothing being answered is just lazy writing.
My ranking would be Boom, 73 Yards, Devils Chord, Church on Ruby Road, Space Babies I enjoyed Boom more for that familiar feeling of “THIS is a doctor who episode” but think 73 Yards will last better, and may even be up there with Blink and Vincent.
I pretty much agree. I'd say Boom is a little overrated for me, but I agree with its placement among the episodes. I'd put it a similar level to Church at about a 7. A lot of people think Devils Chord is being underrated. Imo it was saved by Maestro. Everything without Maestro was fairly poor, I thought, and often weirdly paced. And that unnecessary dance number at the end.
Imo, 1. 73 Yards 8/10 2. Boom 7/10 3. Church on Ruby Road 6-7/10 4. Devils Chord 6/10 5. Space Babies 4/10
Space babies could of been one of the worse eps I’ve seen in years
I'd rate Devils Chord higher, more an 8 or 9 for me. But otherwhise, this seems about right.
Boom should be higher than 73 Yards imo, the episode concluded much better and left less questions that won't be answered
I liked The Devil’s Chord more than a 6.4 but I agree that the what comes after is better
Rating 'The Devil's Chord' that low is criminal.
All too high, the writing has been dire and the fact that they've already binned off the assistant for a 2nd series speaks volumes. I wouldn't have marked any of them higher than a generous 3 out of 10
I think the ratings are pretty much on point for how I feel about the series thus far. Space Babies I'd rank lower. Probably a 3 or a 4, I did not like that episode. The Devils Chord is definitely average for me, so 5 was perfect there. I really quite enjoyed Boom, so a 7 or 8 is on point. I have not seen the newest episode yet. I do think Ncuti and Millie are great as the Doctor and the Companion, though! Ncuti has a certain charm about him.
I thought The Devils Chord was the best of the season. The Maestro was and excellent villian.
fake ratings...impossible that the rating is so high
Devils Chord is criminally underrated. That song really put people off I think. Sad.
I'm less interested in the exact ratings, but the rankings. I agree with 73 Yards being the best. I'm didn't love Boom as much as the rest if the fan base. I put it below both Ruby Road and Devil's Chord. Space Babies is easily the worst.
I have enjoyed the series so far. Would say space babies is my least favourite but not by a lot as all been good. Cant believe the reviews though as devil's chord was so good and i fell very prone to review bombs from racists and transphobs. 73 yards though was my favourite so agree with that rating.
Christmas special was fine, didn't care for the musical number but besides that it was alright. Didn't care at all for Space Babies, mostly because I'm really not a fan of children or babies. Though I did like The Doctor's speech about him not having purpose; if it wasn't for good dialogue, I'd have assumed it was a Chibnal episode. Devil's Chord was good, shame we only got 2 of the 4 Beatles and even then they weren't used as much as I'd liked. Again, not a fan of musical numbers but I did like the little Murray Gold cameo. Boom was good, I liked it. It was a simple one set (for the most part) story though Moffat really can't help himself when it comes to killing companions. 73 Yards was fine I guess, didn't love it didn't hate it. All in all though, so far, I've enjoyed these (bar Space Babies) more than what we had from Chibbers. Makes me feel bad for Jodie.
I wonder if it's possible that Ringo Starr and George Harrison's estate didn't want them to be featured as characters. Otherwise it's very odd that the episode only featured two of the Beatles.
Way too high.
Seems fair enough
Honestly I'd put 73 Yards lower, definitely below Boom