Share your thoughts, delights, criticisms, and describe your face when
spoiler
the musical number kicked in.
Please honor Bill and Ted’s Law: Be excellent to each other.
So, I rarely like a doctor for the first several episodes, my brain can’t get past the last doctor. Took me forever with Smith. I always end up rewatching them later and loving them, it’s just that I can’t handle the sudden differentness well.
All that said, I really freaking enjoyed this one. I’m not fully in love with Ncuti yet, but I did really enjoy the episode, and LOVED the song. Oddly, the only Doctor I loved first off was Jodi. Ncuti is closer than most, though.
Also. That kilt. Meow.
Also loving the new sonic.
ETA
Forgot to mention, Ruby really reminds me of Clara in the best way.
The only thing about the song was I couldn’t get my head around the logic of it. I know logic is usually pretty far off in RTD’s stories, but it usually at least pretends there a reason for things that happen. Unless I missed it, there wasn’t even a word of dialogue about the singing.
I think the logic was that the goblins were singing, like, as part of their culture. Not like Musical logic, but more like how some cultures pray in song, or some cultures chant. Goblins sing big numbers as a way of worshipping/venerating the goblin king, or perhaps it’s similar to how Christians say grace before a meal. Gotta sing for your dinner. The doctor and Ruby just took advantage of that aspect of their culture and Bugs Bunny’d their way outta there.
I enjoyed it quite a lot. Hopeful for the new season.
Has plenty of heart not just for a holiday special, but for Who at large. Ncuti quickly established his flair and gravitas as The Doctor without having to bounce off of 14.
But seriously, WTF is Mrs. Flood?
As the big theme of the episode was coincidence, if that was something RTD wanted to continue the list would be:
-
Some relation to the Ponds. Pond > River > Flood. Given the personality, maybe some future version of River that somehow managed to survive? I’ve seen others say Amy but the math doesn’t work out from 1938 as it would make Mrs. Flood 110~ but who knows, timey wimey etc. Also, ‘The one who waits’ is what Amy did all her life.
-
Some hidden relation to Ruby. The obvious one being her mother, but then the question becomes why did she decide to watch over Ruby like that from a distance? Also, Ruby was abandoned in Manchester and they lived there long enough for her to develop an accent before moving to London. Mrs. Flood was distinctly from London and perhaps just a coincidence again that they moved in close. Future Ruby/Ruby is a bi-regeneration of X character etc too
-
Some relation to the Doctor. The Master is the obvious one after the tease we just had, and the Master isn’t beyond breaking the fourth wall. The question becomes why would they aid her in joining the Doctor? The other usual suspects The Rani/Romana/Susan all would be coincidences but would we as the audience really care about it? I’ve seen someone say The Nun (the female incarnation of The Meddling Monk) which makes a little more sense as the episode is about meddling with the time stream.
Small aside: It’s potentially a fake out that the woman we see abandoning Ruby is her mother. I’ve seen others say that Ruby could be her own mother even. It’s certainly implied the character we see is her mother, but for all we know the baby from the 42nd Century and is found by Ruby during their adventures. Making a circle anyway while still keeping the mystique.
Knowing RTD and how he likes to tell stories, I wouldn’t be surprised if 1. Mrs. Flood is just someone they meet in the past and it’s a genuine coincidence. Nothing special, just someone who helps them out a bit. 2. Ruby’s history is just of an ordinary foundling girl swept up in time. The mother who abandons her is Ruby after the baby is the only survivor to some future tragedy. Not special In the way fans think, but special all the same.
I’m not going to speculate as to her precise identity, but if we take everything the episode showed us at face value:
-
She knows what a TARDIS is.
-
She did not recognize the Doctor’s police box as a TARDIS until he dematerialized it in front of her, and even then did not seem to know who the Doctor was.
Again, if we are to take all this at face value, I think that narrows the list of candidates significantly, and rules out most, if not all, “familiar” characters.
Could she be a former companion of a pre-Hartnell Doctor? I know the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS appeared as a police box to Thirteen, but it’s very possible the chameleon circuit was operational in those days.
i thought maybe she was ruby’s birth mum somehow but i’m not sureee now. or maybe she’s the equivalent of mrs. figg from harry potter where she watches over ruby from some higherorg. :3
All the discussions of birth mothers makes me wonder if perhaps she’s the Doctor’s mother. They made a point of mentioning he also was a foundling.
Hmm, maybe. She does seem to be aware of multiple dimensions (breaking the fourth wall at the end there).
(Home instance is having federation issues, so reposting some comments on this one. Apologies for dupes.)
I’m wondering the same thing! 4th wall breaking character? Interesting stuff! I wonder if she was the person that picked up the tooth in the last episode. Either way, I’ve got the feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll see her.
Oh, this was a crowded but lovely romp! I feel like it could’ve been 5-10 minutes longer for some of the dramatic and/or emotional bits to breathe, but any story this side of “Eleventh hour” will be sidelined by introducing a new Doctor and companion.
Hopefully the upcoming season won’t have to squash as much into every episode once it finds its pace?
Ncuti is every bit the Doctor I’d expected, he slipped into the part like … a hand into an intelligent glove? 😉 Ruby’s family is particularly warm and wonderful once you see how they’d fare without her. Obviously her biological parentage is going to be an ongoing concern, and I wonder if the hooded (mother?) figure will tie in with the hand picking up the tooth in “The giggle”, or the fourth wall-breaking Mrs Flood.
The gremlins goblins got the short end of the stick, I think any baddie deserves just a teeny bit of motivation beyond their actions. Fairy tale characters are not exempt, RTD 😆
I knew of the main musical number but I loved that the Doctor and Ruby piped in too. This Doctor is up for anything! My face was… howling with delight, I’m not exaggerating.
