Well after last week's pronoun-a-thon and putting down of the doctor this week was lightyears ahead. Yes I like some people was a bit weirded out by a non white Isaac Newton but it was neither here nor there and set up that funny mavity joke.
I mean spilling coffee on timelord made equipment does that, I mean jeez, why even have a coffee machine.
So they land on some strange alien craft and their natural need to know what's going on kicks in.
Before they go look about the doctor sets the TARDIS to repair. They go take a look and nothing really seems amiss. That is until they come back and the TARDIS auto defence mode kicks in and she leaves them both there. Donna feeling like she won't see her family again and the doctor sonicless.
It then they realise that something has scared the TARDIS away on this ship. Sidetracked again they go and explore further. They meet a robot taking one step down a corridor that is changing itself every few seconds. Also in an alien language.
The doctor doesn't know it it's not in his 55k+ lexicon lol. Donna doesn't as the TARDIS isn't there to translate it. They find a room that looks like a pilot/commander chair situation. Something is looking at them as they tinker. The doctor learns basic language by sampling numbers. They find out they are also out on the edge of creation as it's all black outside.
It all goes awry for them when they go to separate rooms. They are joined by what they think are the other one. Except these are entities that are slowly cloning them. Obviously to get off the ship and spread death in the universe.
This leads to great writing as they are trying to work out which ones are real. Also while the beings are copying them they cant fully control the bodies to begin with which leads to amusing (and life saving) consequences.
So it's a race to find out why the ship is changing, why the bot is walking down the corridor slowly and to stop the evil bad guys!
Suffice to say they do, though the Doctor nearly leaves the real Donna behind. A lovely episode of playing catch up with two of the most loved duo's in the TARDIS, which for me is a brilliant addition to any 60th.
So this episode was amazing compared to last week, pure sci-fi amazement. Enough techno babble to please any enthusiast of who. It was very reminiscent of midnight, in fact I'd like to think these or that creature were some offshoot species of each other. No sonic meant they had to use brains, wits and good old running down corridors to outwit the baddies.
An almost perfect episode for me as I didn't read up any spoilers so didn't have any expectations. And Wilf omg my heart leapt into my throat amazing to see him. Which finally brings me to my nitpicks.
Strangely not many about the actual episode this week, mainly the actual viewers. So okay I mentioned it the Isaac Newton thing, wasn't a massive deal but if that was a white man playing Malcolm X the internet would explode.
The doctor being a bit bi, not a nitpick just seen some people be a bit funny about that, so what?
The whole alien being male or female, thing glad the doctor just went, no it's a her, end of story.
Finally the flux and timeless child stuff, brilliantly handled. Brought up quite heartfelt by the doctor in fact over the flux which made me feel more in those few minutes than i did in a whole chibnal episode, with the flux an almost dismissed child reference too, though I feel we'll see more of that at some point.
Now my two massive problems both with people/so called fans. It seems DWM has some redacted names for cast on this episode. I don't read it so I didn't see it. Those that did along with other small (what they thought) were spoilers seemed to think other doctors or something were coming back.
That's not the episodes fault is it, it's your fault for building up expectations. BUT it also led to these two factors:
Firstly people mistook the beings for full on shape changers/shifters thinking they could change at will. NO they were copying the thing in front of them to become perfect copies. This was EXPLICITLY explained in the damn episode. But because people had these false expectations they seem to have glossed over that explanation in favour of thinking these things could have turned into Capaldi or Smith. NO that would have broken the trying to copy them rule AND also the illusion they were trying to act like their copy.
Secondly temper your thoughts 20+yrs ago you didn't have much else than slow internet and a TV mag to tell you what was going on. Don't get mad that an episode didn't go your way, appreciate you got this episode and spoiler free, how it used to be. Admittedly it just seems the premise was also to above some peoples levels of comprehension so auto shitted on it too due to that.
Wild Blue Yonder was near perfection for me. I hope next week brings a final goodbye to Tennant (and a massive tear from me) with a super finale.
THN awards this episode 5 out of 5
