Cyber!Yvonne gave me an interesting insight, she retains much of her identity post upgrade, I think this implies she was an emotionless psycopath to begin with. It fits her character well.

Oh, that’s an interesting take. I wish the first episode had given me any kind of reason to give a damn, but she’s a pretty stock character (though well-cast).

I forgot about the plot point of people debating whether they were alive.

So did I! It’s a little disappointing - that seems like the sort of thing RTD could have made a pretty good episode about.

All of the things I said last week still apply, really, and I won’t dwell on them too much. RTD finales are messy (though this one isn’t as messy as some), the production values are not great (the dimension-hopping devices look particularly cheap and plastic-y). Moving on!

The bickering between the Daleks and the Cybermen is delightful. Turning them into clowns is a pretty fun way to add some depth to two extremely one-dimensional villains.

Another way to do that? Making some of them “special,” with personalities of their own. I quite like the Cult of Skaro, even though they lead to that dodgy episode of Spider-Noir in the next season.

The “reunion” between Pete and Jackie is quite good - good enough that I was able to (almost) forget that they stopped dead in a corridor in the middle of a crisis to have it. The push-and-pull of knowing that the other person both is and is not the person that they knew is well-executed, and elevated by both Camille Coduri and Shaun Dingwall.

The episode is mostly a lot of running around until the Doctor and Rose can use the ridiculous Torchwood levers to activate the deus ex machina, and I’d rather not spend much time on it, because it doesn’t really matter. It’s awfully convenient that Jackie was able to just run away from the Cybermen before her conversion (shame Yvonne didn’t think of that), and that Yvonne was able to overcome her own conversion (Danny Pink earned it, Yvonne - you did not), and that the Daleks and Cybermen were able to be sucked back through the vortex without levelling all of London, and that the Void - explicitly stated in the last episode to contain absolutely nothing of any kind - nonetheless gives off background radiation, but that’s how these things go sometimes.

And then there’s the ending, after Rose is lost. The Doctor with his head pressed against the wall is iconic for a reason, and David Tennant is masterful with his stiff-upper-lipness throughout. Billie Piper also does a very good job, but I don’t empathize with her as much. I’m just not enough of a Doc/Rose shipper. Murray Gold does some of his best work with the bass-heavy music track that’s used in this section of the episode. Apparently the track is called “Doomsday” on the soundtrack, which…sure, makes sense. It’s prompted me to look up who the heck provided the vocals for the various themes in these two series, and the answer is Melanie Pappenheim, if you’re as curious as I was.

And so endeth the life of Rose Tyler, may she rest in peace.

it’s a bit of a reverse rug pull, given she never actually “dies”, unless I am misremembering something.

I was thinking the same thing - I guess being locked in another universe is the equivalent of death, at least from everyone else’s perspective, but it’s still rather weak.

It’s hard to know what to make of this, which I suppose means it’s time for an RTD finale!

There’s some stuff in here that I like a lot - the normalization of the “ghosts” in society is at once silly and realistic, and a very RTD idea. The Doctor quietly assuming control of the situation depite nominally being Torchwood’s prisoner, culminating in his little standoff with Yvonne. Torchwood’s whole “restore the British Empire and defend the borders from aliens” vibe probably works better now than it did at the time. Oh, and the idea of building a skyscraper just to reach a spatial anomaly is great. I like the Void Ship, and it only occurred to me today that it was probably designed to be reminiscent of the spheres on a Dalek.

But there are also plenty of things that I think could have been executed better. The “ghosts” are a neat concept, but sort of a bad fit for Cybermen, since they’re the one villain that have a very distinct way of moving, and the ghosts aren’t like that. The big, goofy levers in Torchwood Tower are silly, especially when you can apparently operate them remotely with some haxxing skillz we haven’t seen the likes of since “School Reunion.” The set design is uninspired, especially when we get to the paned windows that definitely don’t belong on a skyscraper. A lot of the episode seems a little undercooked.

But it’s engaging, and sets the table nicely for next week’s Cybermen/Dalek war. I’m looking forward to revisiting that one.

Five days later, I’ve finally brought myself to watch it. Here’s what I’ve got.

This is “Doctor Who” trying to do an episode of “The X-Files,” and falling flat on its face.

It’s brightly (and flatly) lit, when it should be dark and moody.

Murray Gold’s score is unusually lifeless, and seems to strike the wrong tone more often than not. Give me some mournful cello while they’re in Chloe’s room, examining her drawings.

It tries to blend a story about aliens with more “mature” themes like child abuse and depression, and isn’t terribly successful.

The “all it needs is the attention of the world” riff was basically done several episodes ago (and better) in “The Idiot’s Lantern.”

Just a complete failure on damn near every level.

But at least they do a better job of “mature themes” a few years later with “Night Terrors,” and of evil drawings with “Flatline.”

Yeah, I’d like to see a comparison of switching to permanent DST and continuing with the twice-annual changes.

I’m shocked and dismayed by the implication that the BBC execs aren’t visiting this site daily!

All right, I’ve got about $10 CAD, and I expect them to cover my relocation expenses. I look forward to their response.

at the whims of other countries’ laws and size

A hypothetical full membership would instantly catapult Canada to the #5 spot in the EU, in terms of population size. Granted, the other four (Germany, ~85 million; France, ~60 million; Italy, ~60 million; and Spain ~47 million) are all significantly larger.

But in principle, I agree - at the very least, full membership would require a much more in-depth national conversation that we’re simply not having right now.

Yeah, I think you’re right. On paper, this should be the show’s bread and butter. But the execution of this one is dull as dishwater.

Okay, I haven’t watched this one yet. Mainly, I haven’t had time, but I have to admit, I haven’t gone out of my way to make time.

It’s bad. I think it’s probably the worst episode of the revival. It commits what for me is the cardinal sin, which is to be boring. Really, really boring.

In a way, I’m looking forward to revisiting it, just to try to figure out how and why it’s so boring. But it likely won’t be today.

Holy false equivalency, Batman!

Indeed, it’s the name of the entire video series. I think he’s done three of them now?

We are, but I don’t think any country on Earth believes that drones are the solution to every problem. Ukraine has revolutionized drone warfare, but even they are actively working to get new planes.

I don’t believe there is a kill switch, but the basic truth is that they don’t need one - the Americans control the maintenance pipeline, which is just as effective.

As much as I love the Arrow, I think there’s a case for the cancellation - the tide was starting to turn against dedicated interceptors, as the article notes.

But there’s no excuse at all for the absolute gutting of the domestic industry that followed.

I’m NOT a defense analyst, professional or amateur.

Me neither, not by a long shot. From the various analyses I’ve consumed over the last few months, the suggestion is that the F35 is superior if you’re attacking another country, but the Gripens just might have the edge defensively.

Our airstrips, maintenance facilities, fuel depots, all of it would be targeted and destroyed first.

This arguably gives the Gripen an edge, since its most famous feature is that it can be deployed relatively easily from highways and other non-standard surfaces.

But yeah, if you set aside the issue of American relations, there are some pretty big questions of doctrine to sort out.

BRB renaming the instance

“I like ‘Love & Monsters’” might be the most unpopular unpopular opinion of all time, but…dammit, I like “Love & Monsters.” You know, mostly.

It might actually be the most RTD episode of all time, for better or worse.

It’s silly. I think the comedy works quite well, through a combination of the writing and the casting. I feel like RTD has a real knack for making the supporting characters of a story seem like real people, rather than plot devices. Every single member of LInDA seems like a living, breathing person to me, and I care about this band of weirdos almost immediately. Even Victor Kennedy has a slimy charisma to him. Marc Warren plays Elton perfectly as a dopey doofus stumbling through life. The madcap farce of it all works incredibly well for me.

It’s tragic. The episode is packed with ideas about found family, and about not realizing what you have until you’ve lost it. The evolution of LInDA from a group of people with a single goal to a tight gang of friends, which is then disrupted by a newcomer with bad intentions, is great to watch play out. Elton stumbling through it all, realizing too late that he’s become a villain in his manipulation of Jackie Tyler is great, too. The members of LInDA are eliminated one by one in a classicly bloodthirsty RTD fashion. It toys with the idea of people who touch the Doctor getting burned in general, and lays the groundwork for Rose’s impending doom in particular. In the process, it gives Rose perhaps her finest moment to date, turning from furious to sympathetic as she begins to understand some of what Elton has experienced.

And then it’s almost entirely undermined by the terrible decision to have Ursula…survive, I guess? And then tack on a pretty gross joke at the end.

Cut out the last three or four minutes, and I think we’d have a classic on our hands. In the end, it can be nothing more than a guilty pleasure.

Bit of a mixed bag.

reduce duplicative work

Never a bad thing.

and operative costs

Red flag when you’re not also talking about the efficiency and quality of the work being done.

strengthen digital sovereignty and security

I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with that.