Today (30th November 2023) my wife and I travelled down to Weston super Mare in North Somerset to take a look at the Doctor Who art exhibition which is currently running at the Weston Museum.  There was a wonderful selection of original art works, ranging from the classic Target books to VHS covers to comic strip artwork and a whole variety of magazine materials.  It’s well worth a visit and here below is a slide show with a selection of images I took for your enjoyment. 

ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE – 60 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO ART EXHIBITION
Weston Museum
21 October 2023 – 27 January 2024

Allons-y, time travellers and art aficionados! Weston Museum is all set to take you on a nostalgia-filled ride with “Adventures in Time and Space – 60 Years of Doctor Who Art.” Celebrating the show’s whopping six decades of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey greatness in November 2023. This exhibition promises to be a treat for all those who’ve shared an adventure with the Doctor.

Hold onto your sonic screwdrivers as we journey back to the roots of the longest-running Sci-Fi extravaganza known to humanity. From the classic era that graced our screens from 1963 to 1989, to the modern reboot that’s been stealing our hearts since 2005, this exhibition is a heartwarming journey for Whovians of all generations.

This is the largest collection of original and digital art from and about the programme ever shown in one location.

Expect to be greeted by the images of familiar faces of the Doctors we’ve cherished through the years – from the stern charm of William Hartnell to the iconic scarf-swirling of Tom Baker, the cheeky charm of David Tennant, the ground-breaking brilliance of Jodie Whittaker, and with the excitement of the new Ncuti Gatwa. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Doctor Who affair without our favourite villains – the Daleks, Cybermen, and a host of creatures that have given the Doctor a run for their money across time and space.

The exhibition unfolds like the pages of a well-worn book, displaying iconic book covers, a blast from the past with those VHS video covers we all remember (oh, the nostalgia!), annuals, comics, and graphic novels that have kept us hooked. To add a sprinkle of that quintessential Doctor Who magic, there’s even a painting that made its debut on the show itself.

We’ve dived into the TARDIS of artistic archives, rounding up an exceptional collection from private art collectors and dedicated fans who’ve lovingly held onto these visual treasures. Marvel at the original cover art of the very first Doctor Who Annual from way back in 1965 – the colours as vivid as a freshly regenerated Time Lord. We’ve joined forces with Doctor Who’s very own artistic time-travellers, securing their prized works from their dusty vaults and bringing them to life with high-resolution digital wizardry.

This artistic ensemble features legends like Andrew Skilleter, whose art has become as timeless as the Doctor’s adventures, and Chris Achilleos, the genius behind the iconic covers of the Target Doctor Who novels. There’s also Colin Howard, the artist responsible for those captivating video covers, the legendary Dave Gibbons of Marvel comics fame, pop culture chronicler Jeff Cummins, and storyboard extraordinaire Mike Collins from Bad Wolf Studios. The line-up continues with Jessica Martin, Bill Donohoe, David McAllister, Lee Binding, Lee Sullivan, Sophie Leong, Gwen Burns, Eren Angiolini, and the dynamic duo Anthony Dry & Stuart Crouch.

‘Don’t blink’ for an expedition that transcends time and space, as we celebrate the legacy of Doctor Who through a captivating display of artistry and many other Dr Who events that will take place during the run of the exhibition. The exhibition was organised by the South West Heritage Trust and Events of Wonder.

(Author of three Doctor Who books – Un-Conventional: 13 Years of Meeting the Stars of Doctor Who, The Other Side of the Table and The Man Behind the Master: the Biography of Anthony Ainley) Karen Louise Hollis gives a personal account of her time at The Capitol 2023 convention.

It’s a while since I attended a Doctor Who convention, but I am a bit of a veteran with my first one I went to being back in 1997. It’s twenty-six years since I first met Colin Baker and Wendy Padbury, twenty-five years since I first met Katy Manning – so it was great to catch up with these three, and others, at the DWAS convention The Capitol – Six Decades in Crawley last weekend.

The sold out event boasted a great cast list – one Doctor (Colin), one Showrunner (Steven Moffat) and nine companions (Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, John Leeson, Louise Jameson, Dan Starkey, Nicola Bryant and Frazer Hines) plus assorted other authors, artists, cast and crew.

As I had my eleven-year-old son with me, we didn’t watch many of the panels, though as he’s a big Katy Manning fan, we did watch her being interviewed by Tony Jordan, which was a highlight of the event. She always has a great story to tell and answers which go off topic until she is nudged back on track. Her variety of voices is extraordinary and she is so entertaining, always worth watching and no two Katy interviews are ever the same.

I also enjoyed the Dan Starkey and Stuart Milligan panel. I hadn’t seen Stuart Milligan before, but he was very entertaining and charismatic. I have met Dan once before and love him as Strax. He was also very approachable and happy to exchange a few words when we saw him around the hotel. His panel was hilarious, he kept throwing in Sontaran lines and it was obvious he loves the character as much as the fans do. He described Strax as “psychotic, but well-meaning” which I loved. He said the Paternoster gang all get on really well and he has particularly bonded well with Neve McIntosh, as they both spend literally hours together in prosthetics getting ready for their roles. In fact, Dan said he loves doing the audios because he doesn’t need to wear all the prosthetics!

The only other panel I saw some of was the last one where Louise Jameson presented John Leeson with the DWAS Award for his Outstanding Contribution to Doctor Who. Let’s just say, it wasn’t only John who had tears in his eyes.

Everyone’s convention experience will be unique. You can watch all the panels, get all the guests’s autographs, have your photo taken with the guests or hang out with your mates. My main priorities this year were to hang out with friends (most of whom I hadn’t seen for four years) and get photos with Colin, Wendy, Katy, Dan and Steven Moffat, which we did. I was excited about meeting Steven, I have loved so much of his work over the years, But when I met him, I decided to tell him I’d loved Jekyll from 2007, starring James Nesbitt. Steven quipped “Oh, you were the one!” I later met him to get his autograph and again found him warm and friendly.

It was also great to catch up with Charlie Hayes – daughter of Wendy Padbury and Melvyn Hayes. We signed together at an event years ago and have been Facebook friends since. I asked the photographer Robin Prichard if I could have a photo with both Wendy and Charlie. Charlie and I were chatting in the queue and she was laughing at the fact she was queueing up to have a photograph taken with her own mother!

Louise Jameson was also really lovely and came over to have a chat to my son. She had met him at a Whoovers event in Derby when he was about two years old and I showed her the photo. She was happy to have another photo taken of them together and he was so pleased she took the time to talk to him.

I’d also like to mention Kammy Darweish who played the brilliant and memorable Kumar in Season 13’s Survivors of the Flux. I got his autograph and had a chat with him and he was lovely, very easy to talk to and incredibly handsome.

The Capitol is without doubt the best event I have been to. It is so well organised and really good value for money. They always have a wonderful mix of guests and it feels a very safe place. My son has ADHD and autism, yet was completely accepted and understood by everyone there and several other fans came to tell me they, or their children, had similar diagnoses.

It is also an event where I have met some of my best friends and this year, I again made new ones in queues and hanging around the hotel. Everyone was really friendly and it’s easy to talk to people because you know you have at least one thing in common!

Next year’s event is due to be held in Birmingham and I am really hoping I can go.

With grateful thanks to Karen Louise Hollis

Support #indie #authors and check out my new #novel – https://t.co/IHrW8YDbml
It's a #second chance #romance set in the #seaside on the #Lincolnshire #coast and features two single parents aged 50 & 48 – can they find love again?#WritingCommunity #amwriting

— Karen Louise Hollis – Author, Blogger & Reviewer (@KarenLNHollis) April 8, 2023

If you have not seen this episode of Doctor Who, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 11. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk. Enjoy!

Many years ago, when a lot of us thought Paul McGann was going to do a series of Doctor Who for FOX, I imagined historical stories to look a lot like what we got in tonight’s episode “Demons of the Punjab”. The locations would be rich with attention to detail that would give us a mouthwatering look at how the production values could be for Doctor Who. Unfortunately, a series was never made with Paul McGann and unfortunately tonight’s story was not a historical.

It should have been! We get a story that tells us how exciting time-travel can be if you want to go back and meet a relative when they were younger. How many of you would love that opportunity? I know I would….badly. Yaz (who’s name I have been spelling wrong for the past 5 weeks) asks the Doctor to allow her to go back to see her Grandmother before she got married. She claimed to be the first woman married in Pakistan. Yaz’s grandmother also gave her the watch of Yaz’s grandfather.

The Doctor and friends go to India but little do they realise it’s just as India is broken up with part of the country becoming Pakistan. To make matters worse, Yaz’s Grandmother (who is now a young lady in 1947) is marrying someone who is not Yaz’s grandfather! Unfortunately it gets worse as fighting has started as the split in India is not just about physical location but the separation of Hindu and Muslims. Fighting is breaking out and it’s getting close. All that Yaz’s Grandmother, Umbreen, wants is to marry her love. If all that is not bad enough, the Doctor sees there is interference from assassins not of this world!

This is a story of love and once again how other people’s laws and governance stops people from living the life they deserve. It is a story about choices being made far away from the farm Umbreen and her fiancé Prem just want to live their lives. Prem’s brother Manish believes strongly in his religion and the side he is on even if it means to kill for it. Something I really like, is how the Doctor is wrong. The Doctor thought the two aliens, Kisar and Almek are assassins. She thought they came to Earth to kill the holy man that was to marry Umbreen and Prem. Then she believes they will kill Prem but she is wrong. They show up to be with people who die alone. They are a unique race and they are stunningly designed. I think they are the best looking aliens of the series and perhaps in the series in a long time. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I see a design, whether it is a set or an  alien, that is new and really beautiful in Doctor Who. This is one area of Series 11 that has been give a new leash on life. But it begs a question?

Why did this story need to have an alien influence especially one that really makes no impact on story? Is it possible that Doctor Who could ever have a purely historical story? I am asking as a question that hasn’t been answered since 1982. This is such a deep story of cultural and religious clashing and how love can flourish and be destroyed in a matter of minutes. Why can’t we have this just stand on it’s own without the alien tag? It would have worked so well. It was an emotional ride without that influence. Incidentally the Doctor marrying Prem and Umbreen was beautiful and lovely.

Segun Akinola continues to impress me with the music this series is producing. This is not a bash on Murray Gold, as I adore his music, it is just time for something different. The themes in this episode are haunting and beautiful. Even the closing theme took me by surprise. Plus now, we are way beyond quarries as locations. This was shot in Spain and was incredible! Everything had a golden amber grading that was peaceful but felt old, like in the time it was set in.

This story was non-linear in the sense of the journey Yaz took. What she knew before she met her younger grandmother and where she ended up at the end of the journey were two different places but with the same out come. This truly was a beautiful episode of Doctor Who.

‘I eat danger for breakfast. I don’t, I prefer cereal. Or croissants! Or those little fried Portuguese … never mind, it’s not important!’ -The Doctor

If you have not seen this episode of Doctor Who, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 11. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk. Enjoy!

We have now moved onto episode four of the Series 11 of Doctor Who. I approached the episode with trepidation because quite simply, I do not like spiders. Well, I am sure I am not in the minority otherwise an episode like “Arachnids in the UK” or even “Planet of the Spiders” would never have been made. Clearly many of us do not like spiders. Otherwise they would have done an episode like of “Attack of the Squirrels” or something. Anyway, I avoided watching anything to do with spiders at all costs but because it’s Doctor Who, I am willing to make the exception in this case.

The plot for “Arachnids in the UK” is about as basic and inline with the title as you could get. The story centers around arachnids and they are in the UK. The story starts off very atmospheric. Throughout the set pieces, there are cob webs and as we get deeper into the episode we find out that these spiders are not normal garden spiders but massive spiders that are surviving off killing people. A massive spider to me would be 2 inches but the first one we see in the episode may be about two foot and as we will see, that is a small one.

To step back beyond the spider aspect of this episode, we start off at a hotel/resort that will be opening soon. What we are about to learn is that the general manager is supposed to be Najia Kahn who is Yas’ mum. The hotel is owned by a man named Jack Robertson, who is an American major property owner operating many vacation destinations around the world and is planning on running for President of the United States. He is clearly molded after the current President but says he “hates Trump” yet is clearly a caricature of him. But where is the Doctor and her friends?

In a wonderful visual segment early in the episode, we hone in on the Doctor and her friends in the TARDIS. The Doctor and her friends land on Earth in the UK just about a half an hour after they left 3 episodes earlier. You gotta love time travel! The Doctor’s intention was to bring her friends back to Earth and she has done that. Now, she assumes they will return to their life and leave her behind. This is a wonderful segment as the Doctor is genuinely sad to see them go and, in a way, it shows how lonely she can be. To me, this is a welcome change from the Doctor being all moody and not wanting to be around anyone because of what he has done during the Time War. Admittedly that had toned down especially in the Capaldi era but this new incarnation of the Doctor is more than happy to be around her friends and also her friend’s family.

What this leads to is a little more background into the main characters. For example, it’s Yas that asked the Doctor to tea. What it feels like to me is that Yas is a bit of a loner herself or doesn’t make friends easily. Maybe that is due to her work as a police officer or things are just difficult for her. Yas noted after they landed that she had no messages on her phone now that she had a signal again. Although it is stated that they were away for only 30 minutes, it feels like this is not unusual for her. Especially when we see the reaction of Yas’ family when they see her bringing in friends to the flat. It sounds like it is very rare for her to bring friends home.

The one absent from the Tea Party is Graham. All the running around, he hardly had any time to mourn Grace’s death. I think we got some nice moments with Graham at his old house with a vision of Grace appearing to him. Trust me, I know Grace was not appearing as a “force ghost” or anything. I know it was just a manifestation of what Graham would think Grace would say to him but it was nice. He would sit there and smell her clothes which in writing sounds quite weird but anyone who had lost someone who meant a lot to them, seeing it you could easily understand what he was doing and mourn with him.

After the Doctor runs into Dr Jade McIntyre who works at an institute that does studies on spiders and after Graham runs into a massive discarded spider skin in his attic they all end up at the hotel Yas’ mum was going to work at until she was fired. At the hotel they run into spiders the same size from earlier and maybe some a little bigger and then they run into a massive spider. The “mother of all spiders” is in fact the mother spider and she is mammoth! The Doctor has a plan to get all of the spiders into Robertson’s secret panic room in the hotel where they will be humanely killed and they have a plan to dispatch the mother spider too. Except, when they meet up with the mother spider, they realise she is growing too big and is basically suffocating in her own body. That’s when Robertson comes in, with a gun he acquired from his dead security guard Kevin, and shoots the mother spider and kills her basically in cold blood. She was more afraid of them than they were of her which makes the death sad and unnecessary. Chibnall has done this before and I don’t like it. I’m thinking of “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”! As for the other spiders, Ryan uses the power of rap to lure the other spiders to the panic room where they will be killed humanely. The vibrations from the rap will lure them. It is finished. Or is it?

I struggle to understand what happened. I really don’t understand it. Did I miss something? First of all, what does it mean for the other spiders when they go into the panic room to die humanely? Because what I thought that meant (and I saw a couple of other people online who thought the same) was that meant they go into the panic room to starve or eat each other. That’s humane? I personally would rather have a bullet in the head than starve to death. That’s not an invitation or a request but an observation.

The story just ends. It is not resolved. The reason the spiders were supposedly there in the first place was because of the land the hotel is built on was a landfill with toxic waste and coincidentally that is where the institution studying the spiders would drop off the dead spiders. Apparently not all spiders were dead. Through the same vein of science that created Spider-Man (in the sense it makes no sense), we have these massive man eating spiders. It is clear that these new nasty big spiders made it around Sheffield. It is also clear that even though Ryan’s rap music may have lured all the spiders in the hotel, which I even doubt that, it would not have lured the rest of them from around the city. It is more than likely that these killer spiders are still around. Also, Robertson seems to have gotten away with what he has done. Him being an American possible politician who only wants to solve problems with guns is too morbid as this episode airs during a bloody violent weekend with a mass deadly shooting in the US. Story and plot wise, this story was a real disappointment to me. I read a lot of fans who loved it based on some scary moments but there are some glaring plot holes bigger than these spiders!

The spiders themselves looked great! Before the episode started, I assumed that they were intelligent and would be speaking to the other characters. I didn’t expect them to be from Metebellis 3 but something more intelligent and did not expect them to be a bio-hazard mistake. I am happy to see what we ended up with for this episode. I think that fits the story better than being an alien species or something. I hate small spiders but something that big was actually kind of cute. Like a little pet or something.

It’s nice to see our regular characters develop more including the Doctor. That being said, her rapid fire dialogue of small talk and awkwardness was just that…awkward but also annoying. I hope we get less of that and more of the other powerful characteristics that Jodie has put into the character. All of the rapid-fire speaking is very Tennant/Smith to me and I just want to see her develop her own style. I know it’s coming and honestly, a lot of it is already here.

I find week after week, Graham is the standout character for me. I didn’t expect that. In fact, he was the character I was least looking forward to before the series started and I find myself really liking him. Graham is very down to Earth. He is well-realized and well-acted. This isn’t a slight to the other characters because I have been really been impressed with the dynamic of everyone.

I really enjoyed the end of the episode when Ryan, Yas, and Graham decide to join the TARDIS. The Doctor truly treats everyone as equal and invited them to pull the “inaugural switch” as they officially begin to travel with the Doctor. What a great (re)start! What I think have been utter crap are the “Next Time” teasers. They give me no clue about anything that is going to happen in the next episode which I know is sometimes good but the teaser for next week’s episode “The Tsuranga Conundrum” looks like a generic spaceship episode with no clue about what’s going on. It was really boring looking to me. Of course, I will watch and I hope that it’s great but I think these could be greatly improved!

I feel we had an episode with great acting, effects, atmosphere, direction and production values let down by the story. Not every story can be a cracker but I hope this is the exception and not the rule going forward because too much amazing groundwork has already been laid!

‘If She Can Live Here Her Whole Life, A Couple Of Hours Ain’t Gonna Kill Me. It Ain’t Gonna Kill Me, Right?’ – Ryan

If you have not seen this episode of Doctor Who, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 11. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk. Enjoy!

Sometimes television is meant to do more than entertain. It is meant to challenge or evoke emotion in one direction or another. Perhaps it is meant to make you feel uncomfortable about what is happening around you. Should it educate and if so, how far does it go? Watching a program about vile things that happened in our past tends to focus on wars or nasty dictators. What is more difficult, is to look in the mirror to be reminded about what your own country was like (and is still like) and then try to tie that in with my favourite TV show about an alien who travels through time and space.

When it became clear that an episode of Series 11 was going to feature Rosa Parks, I wasn’t sure what to think. Actually, I tell a lie, I knew exactly what I thought: anger. Normally when Doctor Who tackles any historical figure, it is either done from a far, it could be farcical or it could be flippant. Robespierre was shot in the mouth in “The Reign of Terror” but he didn’t play a part in the story, Hitler was punched in the face in “Let’s Kill Hitler” in a comedic sort of way, Shakespeare was treated with a great deal of humour by the Doctor. We also have seen incredibly moving use of historical figures such as Vincent Van Gogh in “Vincent and the Doctor”. None of these portrayals are wrong; I was very worried about how this series would treat Rosa Parks. This felt like it needed to be more delicate.

Mrs. Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the city bus on her way home in December of 1955 in Montgomery Alabama at a time when city buses (and most cities in the South) were segregated. This action lead to a boycott of the city buses and an eventual repeal of the law of segregation on the buses. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

The plot for the episode itself was simple. There is an ex-criminal with a vortex manipulator named Krasko who wants to change or rather “nudge” history. Krasko has a neural inhibitor placed in him by the prison he was in (Storm Cage) so he is unable to kill anyone including the Doctor or Rosa Parks. He just wants to stop Rosa from her history making moment on the bus. If this act does not happen by a day or so, who knows what happens but the Doctor wants to make sure history happens as planned.

This might be the first time I have watched Doctor Who go to Earth and have it feel as deadly as any alien planet. From the first scene of the episode, we see a sample of what Rosa Parks and other people of colour face in Montgomery Alabama in the 1950s. They need to get on a bus from a different door, they are treated like shit just because of their colour. Yes, none of this is new information. Yet watching it reminds me how unpleasant and uncomfortable it is. Seeing our fictional characters run into it is also unpleasant and perhaps sadly more relatable only because we have been following them for a few weeks by this point. Sadly because it shows how easy it is to forget about how people are treated when I don’t deal with bigotry in my own life.

Writing the above paragraph makes me feel like I am on a soapbox; makes me feel I am preachy. If so, I apologise. To me that is definitely what this episode could have been: preachy but it was not. To me, this is one of the finest examples of Doctor Who ever televised. This could have gone wrong in so many ways but the subject matter was handled carefully with respect to the real-life characters. I think what I found the most interesting response to everything going on around was that of the Doctor’s.

Once again, I was worried that the Doctor would feel the need to introduce herself to Rosa Parks or maybe do some name dropping. Perhaps remind us that she is the protector of the universe, etc. There is precedence for this sort of behavior but not by Jodie’s Doctor. So far, I have seen a restrained performance. In Montgomery Alabama, the Doctor does not make waves. She does not try to comment on the many instances of racism she sees in Montgomery in her short time there. She knows she has a job to do. She is not a vigilante in this vicious world but has her head down getting the work she needs to get done. The end of the episode where the master plan to ensure Rosa takes her place in history comes to fruition, the Doctor is on the bus with the rest of her friends and she is concerned and looks straight forward and let the outright racism happen. It’s chilling because that is not what the Doctor does but in this case it’s what she had to do so. I was afraid that the episode would deal with the Doctor needing to encourage Rosa Parks to refuse to move from the bus, thankfully that as not the case. In fact, Rosa knew nothing about those strange strangers she met other than they came from another place, let alone another time.

I enjoyed the slight bond that Rosa shared with Ryan. I am sure he saw some of his Gran Grace in Rosa. Grace has played an enormous role in all the episodes thus far even though she died in the first episode. It’s not an overpowering presence but one of good and shows not only how much she rubbed off on Graham but also how incredibly well she raised Ryan.

There were unpleasant bigoted moments. It was hard to watch some of these. At the “whites only” hotel room where the Doctor and her friends stayed, Ryan and Yas needed to be smuggled in. As they are in the room discussing their plan, a police officer comes to the room because it is suspected of non-whites in the room. That scene was unpleasant and the officer looking for Yas & Ryan was as tense as watching any monster search for the Doctor & companions. Even with such a heavy topic in this episode, I felt the main cast did a tremendous job of being more of a team and being at ease with each other. This includes Graham stopping Ryan from escalating a dangerous situation at the beginning of the episode. The man graphically threatens Ryan in a way never heard on Doctor Who before and it’s not fiction, it’s what really happened to men of colour back then. Of course, acts of racism still happen.

I am really starting to warm to this cast. A favourite of mine is Ryan. That being said, I just don’t want every episode to be Ryan not giving in to Graham’s desire to be acknowledged as his Grandad. That will get tedious.

I loved that all research that happens in this episode by the Doctor and her friends is conducted via conventional means. Looking up maps and writing notes on paper and in some cases walls. Remember, you can’t lose a wall! I appreciate minor plot points that explain reasons why things take place. For example, the reason why the Doctor wants to check into the motel opposed to staying at the TARDIS. The reason for Kresko and his plan was light. I am ok with this. It doesn’t need to be massive. I’ve had enough massive convoluted plans over the last 10 series that it’s nice that while the plan is low key; the message is loud and clear.

The music was outstanding. This is a nice mixture of the incidental music we have heard over the last few weeks plus some of the sweeping themes that brought emotion to this episode. I have been enjoying everything Segunn Akinola has been doing. I also am a fan of the use of “Rise Up” by Andra Day at the end of the episode and into the end credits. Unfortunately the BBC continuity announcer spoke all over it at the end of the episode on BBC One ruining the vibe.

There is much more to talk about with this episode but I think you have gotten the impression by now that I thought it was pretty special. Do I need my Doctor Who to tackle heavy thought provoking subjects every single week? No but it is nice to see that a 55 year old program can still make thought provoking drama one week and a story about spiders the next!

Next week: Arachnids in the UK

“My beautiful Ghost Monument…” -The Doctor.

If you have not seen this episode of Doctor Who, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 11. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk. Enjoy!

Doctor Who celebrated quite the week! Not only did we get to enjoy the debut of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor but so did A LOT of other people. We mean record numbers! When all is said and done, there were about 10.9 million viewers watching the series in the UK alone! So far, the new direction has been a huge success. That was all episode one, what about episode 2?

Doctor Who is now different. Really different to me. The part that is the least difficult to get past is Jodie as the Doctor. In fact the opposite. She is great. The pacing, the shots, the music is all different and it is taking a little getting used to for me. That is the fun part of a new era, for a series that is about change, anything can happen. You know, there is something special about a show that can challenge you by being different. Some don’t like it and that is OK but for the others who want to see a 55 year old series and have it turned on its head, then this is a treat!

The Ghost Monument is a bit like the great race! Yet this is the final leg on the planet Desolation and the Doctor and her companions, or excuse me, new best friends are “scooped” out of space by a pair of pilots each in their own ships. To win the race, they need to reach the “Ghost Monument”. The Doctor is extremely interested in the “Ghost Monument” mainly because it includes the TARDIS.

For this to be a race then logically there needs to be a clear winner to actually “win” the race, the only time the two pilots are not with each other is at the beginning of the episode. Why do they need to work with each other? The planet is so deadly that they need to work together to reach the end alive plus, they catch on really quickly that the Doctor is their only key to staying alive. Everyone has to endure flesh eating water, Sniper Robots, acetylene gas skies and the living tapestries that go into minds to use fear against their prey called Remnant. The teams go through it together, and the pilots jointly claim their prize.

There are parts of the episode I really like but what is hitting me over the head is that there is absolutely no conflict amongst any of the characters. If there is, it gets resolved too quickly. The two pilots, Angstrom & Epzo, get along pretty well for being part of a massive intergalactic race. They decide to take the winnings together and want the race to be declared as a joint win. That was a 2 sec conversation although Epzo tried to put up a little bit of a fight. Then, after they tell Llin they want the race declared as a joint win, he refuses. It’s only after Epzo gives some uninspired threat towards him does Llin change his mind. Ryan and Graham have a little bit of conflict mainly about Graham wanting to be respected and called Grandad. That doesn’t last either.

Look, I don’t want conflict where people die or anything. I just feel like these characters get along too well. The first two episodes are told in a very straight forward manner with no real twists. I am just hoping we get something a little better in future episodes.

The Ghost Monument is the TARDIS. This is a big deal for me in the episode. I mentioned that, for me personally, there is a lot of change that is great, but it is too much for someone averse to change, that I do need something familiar. Thus, the reveal that the Ghost Monument is the TARDIS and seeing it in the hologram was a little emotional. It was like seeing an old friend. I didn’t pick up in the dialogue being said around that scene that it would be the TARDIS but it was cool. Even more so when The Doctor and her friends were left behind by Llin after the race was declared, we hear the familiar sound of the TARDIS and it appears. It’s only two episodes since we last saw the TARDIS in “Twice Upon a Time” but it’s been almost a year and I have to admit, I got a little too emotional watching that. Then there is the interior.

I kind of wish there would be an uncomplicated version of the console room. I think the closest we got was in the second Matt Smith/Peter Capaldi console room. Maybe that is too boring? It didn’t feel like a defined shape which is fun. It just felt to me that there is so much going on in it, it is hard for me to focus. I love the way the doors are in effect the entire Police Box. That seems so obvious but never done. There are some of the other walls with metal and almost glass that are beautiful. The console itself reminds me, in a lot of ways, of the first console from the Eccleston/Tennant era.

Once again, this episode like that last one takes some time to breathe. It starts off frantic and then slows down. That’s great but I feel like the plot is pretty standard with nothing remarkable about it. It’s a story about finishing the race and the whole point is for the team to find the TARDIS. That is fine but I feel like there could be something a little more dynamic about the episode. I didn’t dislike it but I am not sure it’s one that I will go back to often.

The Doctor herself is still enjoyable. Jodie does a great job of being frantic and a little flippant. I’ve read some say that her lines and the way she reads them is a lot like David Tennant which I think is true but I like it when Jodie does it. When she does slow down, it’s really good. I particularly liked it when she told the Remnants to get out of her mind. Jodie’s Doctor is fallible and in a believable way. And although I said similar in the first episode, I really appreciate she doesn’t come into a room basically stating she is the Oncoming Storm but rather approaches like she is everybody else. She doesn’t need to state her superiority upfront, she does it through actions. She also remembers Venusian Akido!

Now what about the lack of story arcs? I remember Chibs, if I may be so informal, oh alright Chris Chibnall say that each episode stands on their own but clearly there are some arcs a brewin’! It’s clear that there is more to the Stenza (See “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”) than we (or maybe I) first thought! What I found most interesting is what the Remnants were saying about the Doctor. Calling her ““The timeless child. “The outcast abandoned and unknown.” I love it! I can’t wait to find out what all that means! For the first time, this is an arc I am really interested in learning more about.

Of course one last bit of business: the new title sequence. It a weird one in that I like it and I don’t. It sort of looks like you are submerged with water gushing all around you while someone is flashing a light down on you. The CG on this is leaps and bounds better than what we have seen over the last few years. It’s just not super engaging for me. It looks like a really high tech screen saver. The opening is better than the closing. It is interesting to note that this is the first time since the series returned in 2005 that the “sting” doesn’t open the music nor is the TARDIS featured. I like those changes. I also felt the opening theme needs to grow on me.

As it is a new era, things just need to settle in. There is so much love I have for this, let’s call it what it is, a reboot, that the I am sure the other things will just get better over time. I can’t wait to see this new vision continue to evolve.