“Wild Blue Yonder”

So this week’s Doctor Who episode, then. I have one reservation about it, which is that, frankly, I’m not really into colour-blind casting with historical personages like it does here. I mean, we laugh at the idea of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan, as I think we rightly should, but I’m not sure doing it the other way round—in this case, noted white person Isaac Newton being played by Anglo-Indian Nathaniel Curtis—actually serves much purpose. Anyway, I haven’t observed it directly, but I gather Twitter is having the requisite meltdown over it (and the amusing bit where the Doctor expresses his man-crush on him, and I’m sure some people are losing their shit even more over the episode acknowledging the whole “timeless child” thing), and I’m not even bothered by the casting so much as I am the silliness of the scene.

Be all that as it may, the rest of it is damned fine, and for everyone moaning about the sonic screwdriver’s increasing capabilities over the years and especially the previous episode, this was a particular blessing for them cos the Doctor has to cope without it… John Nathan-Turner would’ve been happy about that, if no one else. Much of the hype around the episode was that the BBC were giving away no information about it, for no apparent reason than that they could, and to be honest I’m not really sure the end result merited that (apart from the closing scene with Wilf that we knew was coming at some point anyway, and which was apparently the only thing they were able to get with him).

On its own terms, though, the end result is, as I said, fine; I was never actually the biggest fan of David Tennant as the Doctor back in the day but I found myself most impressed by him here, cos both he and Tate basically have to play most of the episode as a sort of two-hander, where each is playing their normal roles and also these “not-things” taking on their shapes. They both pull this off really well. Kind of sorry they only have one more episode.

SO… where does that leave said one more episode?

With A FUCKING JUKEBOX in the background, apparently! Trailer’s already out for the next episode and this shot of Ncuti Gatwa is already circulating as a result; I’m guessing this is where UNIT is finally going to put in its appearance, and obviously the Toymaker at last, and I have a feeling it might be a bit hectic. Looking forward to it…