Read more of my thoughts on this episode at The Event Library...
I’m not able to offer reviews of every episode in this current series of Doctor Who, but Flux Chapter Four: Village of the Angels captivated with its grim sense of inevitability, its subversion of the Doctor’s control of events, and its group of well-defined lead characters. Remarks follow on some aspects of an episode I found highly successful and the strongest chapter, so far, of Flux. I’ve neglected the Bel-Vinder arc even though it might have something thematic to say about family which complements the theme of the main episode plot.
Read more at The Event Library.
My review of The Timeless Children, like that of Ascension of the Cybermen, appears at Space-Time Telegraph, the blog which is the successor of its writer-editor John Connors's fanzines, which included Top, Faze and This Way Up. I wrote it having only seen the story once and much of my initial enthusiasm was qualified by other people's reservations. Having rewatched some of the episode since, I was reminded of the focused performances throughout and minimizing of languor. Jodie Whittaker's portrayal of the Doctor's fury and disgust at the Master was electrical, combined with eye-rolling expressions of frustration at just how tedious her old friend can be.
I wrote in the review that there had been no indication in Ascension of the Cybermen that the Doctor was periodically experiencing chapters in the saga of Brendan the Irish policeman - 'Gallykissangel', as I've called it, the term having been suggested by Paul Dumont. Ian Bayley has pointed out that there are odd lines of dialogue in Ascension which might suggest that the Doctor is being surprised by new Brendan scenes, but if so I still find them very understated.
As for the review itself:
So it was about authorship after all. Ascension of the Cybermen turns out to have been undermined throughout by a streaming hacker who couldn’t resist introducing it himself at the end and boasting of his reinterpretation of the ensuing acts, of which the Doctor was both audience and unwitting star. The Timeless Children was visually engaging television and I was surprised by some of the resolution it presented, if only because I was expecting something more complicated. Performances were very strong, and as with Ascension of the Cybermen, I felt an energy in the production which I’ve rarely experienced in the Chibnall era. There were a few moments when it seemed The Timeless Children did not marry so well with Ascension of the Cybermen, however, and in hindsight the episode left lingering doubts about the wisdom of the decisions therein.
(Apologies for the large spaces between paragraphs, but this must be what happens when you copy across another site's code.)
Back to reviewing this week, this time for John Connors's Space Time Telegraph site. Go there to explore the thoughts of John and occasional guests on matters Doctor Who present, past and future, including valuable reminiscences of the early years of British Doctor Who fandom. So what did I think of Ascension of the Cybermen?
Ascension of the Cybermen is ‘about’ narratives and their ownership. It teases with an opening narration through which Ashad, the Lone Cyberman, frames the story which follows as his. The discovery of the title sequence within the eyehole of a detached Cyberman head might suggest the Doctor’s victory over the dead Cyberman, or alternatively that only the Cybermen, in their undeath, survive to tell this tale. As the episode unfolds, this question of ownership of the narrative is raised again and again. Whose story are we watching? Whose story is Brendan’s, from its mythically golden morning to its dully nightmarish twilight? It’s left uncertain where his reality lies. The Doctor and friends arrive specifically as visitors to the end of the Cyber Wars, there to make sure the last humans survive and frustrate the recreation of the Cyber Empire, but are swept forward in a small, final refugee wave as their scheme is frustrated, struggling to retain possession of their destinies.
Doctor Who 12.2 - Spyfall: Part Two, at Doctor Who News Reviews
An introductory post on The Event Library adds a little more context.
Afterword on my review, at The Event Library
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Also, news on the publication of issue 42 of the Oxford-based Doctor Who fanzine, The Tides of Time.
Two other reviews with different opinions:
James Cooray Smith at Hero Collector
J.R. Southall at Starburst