Please start calling me a nitpicking twat now No, really, please, I like it

I feel like it would have been interesting to do a time loop story where one or both of the companions are aware of the time loop, but the Doctor isn't. The Doctor basically has to go off what information they can gather each time to offer them further instructions to gather more information and form other solutions. The Doctor finds herself the least knowledgeable person in the room before long, and is forced into the strange position of having to keep up with the others.

I also had enough fun with the episode not to notice this, but now that Stu brings it up, he's spot on about limiting the potential of the time loop - because in a comedy episode stuffed to the gills with great running gags, infinite respawning and how everyone, including the Daleks, react to it in different ways could have been the greatest one of all.

The fact that every Eve review just starts out by saying the TARDIS was causing the loop without that changing anything really shows how pointless hiding that was

why not have Dan and Yaz talk about Yaz's crush on the Doctor over the course of like 3 lives and have them constantly die, interrupting their conversation over and over again? At least that would be fun. I mean why have a time loop story that only has a small handful of loops? Like sure, have a limited number of lives whatever, but have a lot of lives they run through and have creative ways in which they die or in some cases defeat the Daleks

One thing that annoyed me a bit is they had characters say the time loop resets at midnight but I have no idea how any of the characters came to that conclusion because they never actually showed that happening. Like they could have had one loop where a couple of them survived and thought it was over, then the clock ticks over to midnight and they're reset again.

Not a thasmin shipper but in the Mary Shelly episode yaz talks to the lady in love with Byron and says "I have someone like that too"

Stu, did you think Jodie’s speech should have had “you’re the best around” play under it 😂

Honestly, after series 12 and Flux… I’m glad that he finally reigned himself in and did something straightforward for a change. Granted that was probably because of certain restrictions thrust upon him but I’m happy with the results.

My motivation to get through these last few doctor who episodes is to have the context I need to watch these videos

How do you feel Yasmin? ...hahaha, nailed it. The drama is so ham fisted under Chibnall, he uses a paint gun instead of a brush.

For me, I think it's a success when viewed as a comedy episode that does more than just silly comedy, and that's where the concept really comes into its own

Maybe this is just because I don't have Twitter but you have such a needlessly defensive way of getting your point across.

I'm impressed you made it through the whole video without bringing up Chimes of Midnight.

Chibnall has lots of interesting ideas and I can not understand the strange decisions he makes when it comes to exploring those ideas. So I would also love to see how his brain actually works.

The main part of the episode that annoyed me was the complete lack of impact that the time loop shortening had on the plot. I feel like if you're going to have it keep getting shorter and shorter, it should really add a sense of urgency and make things tense, but the fact that in the final loop they managed to take a lift up five floors, load all the explosives into a shopping cart and bring them back downstairs, and then set up the bomb, all in a minute, just felt stupid. I get the time loop needed a limit but could you not just say "oh the TARDIS only has enough power for so many loops" or whatever instead of shortening them? I just feel like shortening them was an interesting concept but ultimately was not used at all. Like the rest of Chibnall's concepts tbh. That said I may have missed something or just be nitpicking too much, but I find it weird that nobody else is talking about it.

Can anyone else remember when Daleks were efficient cold, calculating, death-machines that had pin-point precision with an origin from a backwards, backwater planet, birthed from the nightmare of Nuclear Warfare and Fascism? Pepperbridge farm remembers.. I feel like I should one day do a video essay on the how The Daleks have became... this.

Did you notice that every time they were gonna die, they had to scream in your face about how they were coming back. It’s like Chibnall thinks the audience will have a meltdown if our characters are in any danger

So Stu... What did you think of the Sea Devils?

The plot armour dilemma isn't a problem in of itself as long as the writer can show that they are competent at avoiding it. When it crops up in a place where it didn't have to because the characters COULD die and yet the excuse for not being hit is just "I'm lucky!". That's the problem. It shows the writer doesn't give a fuck. Also the "If StormTroopers had good aim: There'd be no Star Wars!" argument is a non-starter. There are times when the heroes are just standing motionless and still not being hit by laser fire. The fix? Rather than make StormTroopers just a total joke -- Instead make your characters more intelligent. Have them take cover. Use subterfuge. Heck... Even have them use fucking magic! Luke could have used the force a hundred times to dodge incoming fire but often times we would literally see StormTroopers get the drop on someone and yet still miss. Much like this stupid Dalek that has a CORRIDOR to fire down and it MISSES. It just shows that the writer didn't think this through and then didn't care. That's why the plot armour thing is a problem. There are times when sheer luck plays a part in how the hero survives and that's fine... but this wasn't luck. It was incompetence on the part of the most dangerous creature in the Universe. Summary: People defending Chibnall are defending a literal lazy writer who didn't give a shit.

Honestly I'd rewatch Eve of the Daleks just for the Daleks' continual one-liners.

I had a big grin on my face throughout this one, a major relief from Chris' massively overcomplicated lorefests. Not perfect, but a single simple idea given ample room to breathe, a cast and crew clearly having such a ball with it that I'd forgive any 'TARDIS goes wibbly' holes or plot armour in it, and Daleks who aren't in on the joke and thus made all the funnier. A fluffy lower-stakes runaround romp in the vein of The Chase and The Space Museum. On the other hand, it does crib from The Chase and The Space Museum.

If your favorite villains are so easily ruined by Storm Trooper aiming, then they were never great to begin with.

Storm Trooper aiming has never been the worst thing to ruin an antagonist in fiction and it never will be.

On the subject of Yaz and her crush on the Doctor, I'm going to play Devil's advocate and say that there were hints and buildup to the reveal. The problem is that said hints occurred way too sporadically, off the top of my head, I can only think of four episodes that actually gave indication of Yaz's romantic feelings: - The Haunting of Villa Diodati: Yaz's brief discussion with Claire Claremont - Revolution of the Daleks: her general demeanour throughout the episode - Survivors of the Flux: the hologram - The Vanquishers: the final scene between the pair in the TARDIS I've heard loads of people make arguments that there were additional hints in series 11 and early series 12, but to be honest most of it felt like they were reading too deeply into what are fairly standard Doctor-companion interactions in New Who at this point. In general, all the hints felt way too ambiguous and vague, with only the last two entries in the list above actually feeling like they were explicit hints (soft music, long held gazes, quiet wistful voices etc.) What's especially annoying is that a Time Loop story is honestly the perfect environment in which to tell a love story. You have the main character(s) stuck in the same location with the same characters in multiple loops, during which they gradually get to really know each other, and develop a strong emotional bond that makes their ultimate romantic pairing feel like it's been earned. Obviously Groundhog Day does this excellently, but more recently Palm Springs and (arguably) Edge of Tomorrow also understood the potential in this concept and ran with it. If Chris wanted to make this kind of romantic Time Loop story work, Yaz should've realised her romantic feelings for the Doctor way earlier in her run, leading to this episode being the one where the Doctor herself realises her own feelings for Yaz and decides to reciprocate. Instead we have the companion revealing she has romantic feelings for the Doctor, just two episodes before both characters are likely to leave the show, meaning nothing can really be done with this plot thread

People seem to not get the problem with blatant obvious plot armor. It isn't that these characters should die, it's that it's a lazy out of tight scrapes that annihilates immersion and any sense of stakes... They were being chased down a corridor, IN AN OVERSTUFFED WAREHOUSE by a Dalek, how hard would it be to have them think themselves out of it. Pick up something insulative to protect themselves while they retreat... Something that would not only retain the stakes but provide proof there is an actual conflict here... If there is no threat from the new gun when a large group of people are running down a corridor, why are we supposed to see them as a threat?

Okay that proverb at the end genuinely made me depressed. Hats off to you Stu.

Working episode title: *The Chimes of Fair-to-middling*

i just realised what these videos have been missing... how did I not see it until now? bring back the trippy as fuck intro animation Stu

2 significant points about future episodes: 1) We only have another two specials until we escape the boredom and mediocrity of Chibnall's era and - regardless of whether it's good or bad - we'll get varying ranges of quality under RTD. 2) If Legend of the Sea Devils is worse than their last appearance in Warriors of the Deep, then Chibnall's showrunner period will have reached a new low.

7:20 to 7:28 - Ah, so *that's* the other reason this episode reminded me of Torchwood: Adrift so much. Not just the fact that it was small-scale and halfway decent.

At first I thought it looked cool. Then you realise the Daleks were only given a Gatling laser so their missing had a cool visual. I miss the original Dalek beam. Gunstick raised>Little bit popped out>screen inverted>whoever was being aimed at.. dead. Back when the Daleks used to be threatening.

"If they got shot the story wouldn't happen" yes that's why you come up with a sensible reason why they aren't shot.

I'm honestly so fed up with Doctor Who right now that for the first time in my life, I was actively rooting for the Daleks to kill the doctor and finally put to rest Chibnall's era of the show.

Should have just been Yaz who remembers

Also it's not like plot armour is even necessary for the story. The characters in A New Hope don't have plot armour, because the stormtrooper's misses are explained as them missing on purpose. Have it so that the Doctor uses some way to mess with the Dalek's vision or something if you REALLY need them to miss, but don't just have them miss for no reason!

Surprised you didn't mention whatshisface from the woman who fell to earth.

Your proverb "If one day is repeated endlessly and everyone is aware of it, is it even really a time loop? Or is it just events?" is great but ignores the notion that everything is reset, so it would still count as a time loop. However, in Eve of the Daleks they don't keep going back to the same start point, they lose a minute each time (for unexplained reasons) and so they keep going back just a bit but they're still making some progress, and they change shockingly little during each loop so there is nothing physical to reset. Therefore, it's not a TIME LOOP but a TIME LAG. It's more like a video game checkpoint system than a time loop. It's also funny that Heaven Sent is often cited as a time loop story when technically it's not as the storyworld isn't reset each time, it's a resurrection in a linear timeline; but in Eve of the Daleks you could also have them simply resurrected moments after they all die in a linear timeline and it doesn't change anything, because there's not much to be reset in the storyworld.

If the timeloop is a localised event around the TARDIS, Mammy is the only character not in the warehouse and therefore she's not actually in it. She should only ring 'once' and the loop would then break when the cast are able to use it in their favour. See, if I can offer an explanation that succinctly, why didn't Chris bother? And to counter the obvious answer: that's another reason to junk the 'loop skips forward a minute each time' part, particularly as one of the many things we're not told is how far the time loop actually extends. As is typical with even Chris' better and simpler episodes, it's still entertaining (and I'd watch this one again) but the moment you actually start to think about it, it all falls to bits.

It’s interesting to see your points shift from being overly analytical to just accepting things as it is. I probably won’t watch any of jodi’s new season but I’ll definitely see if Russell can revive the show again

0:07 Straw man, straw man, boring straw man. Getting old.

I thought I clicked on the wrong video for a second...

I mean yeah it would be stupid if the characters ended up dead, yeah... So like, you know, don't write them into a scene where there's a dalek with a machine gun, maybe.

I love how almost none of this was 'about' the episode. It was about the reactions to everything in the episode. Which speaks for the who community as a whole really.

You know Stu I feel like you have the like "Through the flash" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah now that's a good time loop story.

Watch Stargate SG-1 Window of Opportunity to see timeloop done right.

9:03 to 9:14 - That might be just Meglos placing people in a chronic hysteresis loop. Why he'd do so is beyond your comprehension.

This will likely be my last non-Patron comment. I have appreciated your work for several years now and finally have the leeway to start supporting independent thinkers like you.

Daleks do a high concept.... Yeah that's never going to end well.

On the ending, if it's a question, is it really a proverb? I have to say, the shooting like a stormtrooper bugged me. And does even more now you point out that it's not permadeath that requires it. Usually I just don't see why you make your warrior villain shoot if it requires them to be such bad shots. In this case, they can be good shots, the pretty lasers can be there for eye candy and not be ridiculous. The Yaz thing for the doctor was predictable, boring, pointless and as with everything else Yaz a complete waste of a character whose background set her up to be a great companion; but was either sidelined or handled wrong ever since. I hope Big Finish one day reclaim what Yaz could have been.

When it comes to the doctor and yaz, I never fully shipped it but I didn't hate it and would be fine with it if it happened but now it's really just to late to do it, there's two episodes left to explore it and that's not great for the first same sex relationship for the doctor, there's no way this can ho that doesn't look bad and I'm no longer fine with it happening and just dreading them doing it badly and just doing a load of bad tropes. Really if they were going to do it they should have done the whole reveal in the second series, have Graham say to yaz that he knows that yaz loves the doctor and as someone who lost someone and who has been with them for a longer time he'll have more weight in telling yaz to tell the doctor, then have yaz tell the doctor in the new years and then you have flux start with them adventuring together and you have a while series to explore their relationship building and then there's enough time to do it properly, you don't have that with two episodes.

With the Sontarans missing in Flux all the time, Chibnall pushed the bad aim thing too the limit. At the very least other writers have tried to make it a little believeable, Chibnall didn't even try.

What really doesn't sit right about this episode is it kind of sets up that all the Daleks have to do to kill the Doctor for good is put a forcefield around any building the Doctor is in and get the jump on her. But somehow on the one day they decide to do that there is coincidently a time loop that occurs to provide the Doctor with a convenient way out... like if they tried the same thing the day after it would work first time...

Stuart, while we know RTD is the show runner for at least 2023, we know the show must at some point move away & go another direction to survive & thrive. My dream show runner would be Ronald D. Moore, he has done outstanding sci-fi drama in BSG, time travel in Outlander, & alternate history with For All Mankind. Who would be your go too new blood for the future?

I was actually wanting to hear you talk about the fact that Daleks have machine guns.

Yet another legendary episode. He Who Moans always gets a click

I really wish they died in that corridor scene. I'm just picturing how they could do it all in what looks like one take. The camera could be panning around as they get shot out of nowhere and then as it continues to pan and you see down the corridor you see the Doctor and co running down it shouting "Get into cover" at Sarah and Nick. Then they all hide in the room they end up in anyway. It wouldn't have extended the run time at all, it would've made more sense and it would've looked cooler.

I didn’t watch this so I am curious, what resets the time loop? Is it the death of one specific person like say the doctor, or is it only occurring once everyone is dead, in which case why are the Daleks not included as needing to die in order for the loop to start again or is it simply happening after a certain amount of time has passed?

dude i just discovered your channel, gotta say, you make some dope shit

Next episodes title Doctor who and the ratings apocalypse

I wonder what young Chris would've thought of an adventure endlessly running through corridors... Or is that too obvious. Sorry. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sLmlq6l8m67Mpqs.html

I think I love this episode because the time loop is more of a roguelike. This really would’ve made for an excellent point and click roguelike, trying to find the right combination of items to defeat the Daleks…like Twelve Minutes but…no incest? I also don’t care about plot armor. Why did that point appear now of all times lmao.

sneed of the daleks

If every one was aware of a time loop the only thing on repeat would be natural events A few media would be repeated as a film/show would take more that a day to film but we find a way to do it. we just won’t be able to keep the data of film or the written strip. But murders would be interesting as when the loop restart they would be alive again we wouldn’t aged You know what I think we found a good story to tell a world where it the same day every day.

I just heard the sentence "ramifications of it" from friendly atheist

The only instance of my giving a shit about plot armour in the history of fiction ever is that Supernatural episode where it’s main characters end up stubbing their toes or getting food poisoning because their special main character privileges have literally been revoked by God himself. Hear that, plot-armour-bemoaners? Beat. That.

I'd like to see Emma stone or vanessa hudgens play next companion if john and mandip leave the show?

Remember when Star Trek Next Gen did a Time loop when the enterprise exploded.... Im sure they didnt get the idea from that!!!!

They saved Chibnall's Brain!

i don't like nick, he is literally a stalker

This review is great.

1:48 Just checking, have you seen Steins;Gate?

Funny coincidence - several generations later there is actually a Sontaran strategist named General Doctorwhoexperience, descended from the current clone batch Hooex. He was popular enough to get his own salute, and due to their sheltered nature they didn't understand why opponents didn't find "Sontar Hoo Ha" as intimidating as they did.

Sea devils

Eve of the Daleks could've been great if they went down the Big Finish Locum route and have a different doctor appear in this episode everytime the loop resets like the Ruth Doctor Hugh Grant playing an alt 9 and McGann espeically with his interactions with Dan

I agree with all of your points. Although, in my opinion Sarah ruined the episode as she just did my head in TBH this story had a cool concept which was just done in the most basic way possible. It was a decent episode but not amazing and not as good as Resolution IMO

I think Jeff is Jeff Angelo from 11th hour

Oh dear. The whole Time loop getting smaller and smaller until it closes thing was hardly an original idea. I last saw it in Agents of SHIELD, where again the Time Machine they were using (yes, they built one, don't ask) malfunctioned and caused all sorts of issues. Interestingly most of the main cast were killed in various ways, multiple times there to. The biggest problem I've found with Chibnall's writing is not it's spectacular inconstancy, nor the lack of forethought / disregard for the implications of the story (seriously most of the Universe is gone after Flux, isn't someone going to try and fix that?) It's the utter lack of originality. He copies other, popular, stories, gives them a very thin makeover while ejecting anything like subtext, before rushing out what feels like a first or second draft at best. I can almost grantee that in a couple years or so he's going to see all the flaws we're seeing now and be deeply ashamed. But until then he's safe in his little bubble of sycophants and yes-men. Telling how "Progressive" he's being. How the "Haters" just don't see his vision.

You spend almost as much time arguing potential criticisms of your video, as you do criticizing the episode.

Cut it with the strawmen, Stu.

So that's who Pauline McLynn was playing. I like her in things but here she totally phoned it in. *vvvvvt*

My thoughts on the plot armor bullshit. I haven’t seen Flux or Eve of the Daleks, and I’m confident in saying claiming War of the Sontarans and Eve of the Daleks are bad because of Storm Trooper aiming is a stupid nitpick. Criticizing inconsistent aiming could be a valid critique but making it the main point to hate an episode just makes it become a ridiculous nitpick. Plot Armor is a stupid nitpick in general because a plot relevant character surviving is not automatically bad writing or bad tension. If the shit from The Sontaran Experiment and the Invasion of Time didn't ruin the Sontarans and if the potato jokes in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky and Strax comedy didn't ruin the Sontarans, then one scene of Storm Trooper aiming ain't going to ruin the Sontarans. It's hard to believe one character running around one Dalek before getting shot is the worst thing to happen to them with a history of, they can't climb stairs misconception and getting defeated by their own sewers. If you think the Sontarans and Daleks are good villain's then Storm Trooper aiming shouldn't be a horrible horrendous to them. Any moment where a plot relevant character survives can be nitpicked as plot armor. With some Doctor Who examples, that Dalek deciding to spare Rose after killing multiple people and being lock downed with her can be criticized and nitpicked as plot armor for Rose. The Doctor and Peri getting replaced by robots and the robots being shot to death can be criticized and nitpicked as plot armor for the Fifth Doctor and Peri. John Benton survives sometimes because of plot armor. And if being in a dangerous un survivable situation is automatically bad writing, then The Ninth Doctor shouldn't have responded to that Dalek distress signal and the TARDIS shouldn't have landed on Androzani Minor. And John Benton would have just died. Some shoot outs in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul had some missed shots but that doesn't automatically mean bad writing or tension. Game of Thrones still had characters that did not die and where hard to kill off because of their plot relevance despite being an anti-plot armor story. Plot armor is a stupid nitpick because a character having plot relevance surviving is not automatically bad writing. Another reason plot armor is a bullshit nitpick is that it's basically a step closer to the bullshit nitpick of plot relevance is bad. And claiming plot relevance is bad is like claiming a plant is bad for doing photosynthesis or a banana is bad for having potassium. Also acting like the Chibnall era is the only thing that is bad at the negative criticisms you give will either makes you come across as a Not my doctor or a Nitpicking Lunatic. When negative criticism is tarnished by lunatics like not my doctors. Nitpicks like Storm Trooper aiming and plot armor are going to come across as really stupid, especially if it's used as a main point to hate an episode or a special. Not my doctor bigotry itself is a stupid nitpick. So even if you have a criticism that has gotten backlash as a nitpick that has no sexist bigotry in it, there is a higher probability of people thinking "Personally, I really don't see the difference.". If you have a criticism that has gotten backlash as a nitpick, then try using your other criticisms instead of doubling down on the one criticism that has gotten backlash as a nitpick. It's hard to believe that the Chibnall era is the only thing that is bad at Stormtrooper aiming and invented it since the trope of villain's having bad aiming was named after villain's from a movie that premiered in theaters in 1977. What I don't get is why is the Storm Trooper aiming trope suddenly bad now when it existed since 1977 and wasn't that big of an issue before? If Storm Trooper aiming is such a horrible suspension of disbelief and accurate physics is so important to enjoying Doctor Who, then it's good that the TARDIS can travel time and space because our Sun is moving through space with our solar system moving with it while in orbit. Nothing in our solar system or the Milky Way Galaxy can be in the same point of time and space twice. And if accurate science is a requirement to enjoying Doctor Who and science fiction (People actually claimed science fiction needs to be plausible in their anti plot armor arguments) Then I’ve got bad news for you, the inaccurate psychics of Storm Trooper aiming isn’t the only scientific inaccuracy in Doctor Who. Marinus environments wouldn’t have humanoid species like the Arbitan living on it and it’s acid oceans will create an unbreathable atmosphere for the TARDIS team. If the Ambassadors of Death had realistic radiation psychics, then England will be more uninhabitable than Chernobyl. The Inferno project won’t cause a world ending apocalypse, it would just create an artificial Volcano. Androzani minor mud core is scientifically impossible and its mudslide explanation will cause Androzani minor to break eventually destroying Androzani Major. (I suspect the queen bat milk is inaccurate to Earth bats but I don’t challenge animal anatomy I suspect is wrong due to Jeremy Dooley Rito question responses and the shitty Sonic fanbase.) The Ghost Light villain not believing evolution makes zero sense. An immortal being from another dimension cataloging life should have seen evolution and believe in evolution. The Ghost Light villain not believing evolution is like a chemist not believing the periodic table. Lady Cassandra’s 708 surgeries into a bitchy trampoline is scientifically impossible. The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit premise of it’s impossible for a planet to orbit a black hole will become outdated if the theory of everything in the Milky Way galaxy is orbiting a black hole in the center gets proven right. It’s scientifically impossible for the Tenth Doctor to survive a high fall from the sky into a marble floor in The End of Time. Gallifrey heading towards in the End of Time would have killed everyone on Earth. It’s physically impossible for the twelve Doctor to break the wall in Heaven Sent no matter how long he hits at it. The only possible way to break a 20 feet thick barrier wall 400 times harder than diamond with bare hands over any amount of time is that you have to be stronger than the Hulk. The reason Storm Trooper aiming and the scientific inaccuracies I’ve brought up or didn’t bring up don’t bother me is that I use suspension of disbelief and understand that fiction isn’t going to be completely realistic.

it would be good if the fireworks had belonged to Ace

The regular cast totally outshined by the guest cast, as per usual. Aisling Bea made Jodie look like a first year drama school student. Imagine Jodie paired with Michelle Gomez or Catherine Tate, she would be so bad.

At this point I'm done with applying real-world logic to the Daleks, in order to protect my sanity I considered the idea that the Daleks miss on purpose for fun, but there's nothing to suggest that in the episode Then again, Eve of the Daleks isn't the only episode guilty of this. Genesis has a Dalek convenient miss a shot aimed at the Doctor, and in that episode the Daleks still have their wide-beam area-of-effect attack from the early days. As stupid as it was, Moffat's explanation that 'the Daleks can't bring themselves to destroy the ultimate exterminator of their own race out of some twisted concept of beauty' is the only one that fits.

In keeping with Chibnall's annoying retro-mythology wank, his last episode is a subversion of the Timeless Child where the Doctor reveals through a powerpoint presentation that their arch-rivals have been named *_darleks_* all along.

Will Self Awareness Level 0 gain enough EXP to LEVEL UP to Self Awareness Level 1?

Groundhog Day is a rip off if 12:01PM, released in 1990.

thasmin shipper here! honestly i feel like a lot of the things that _could_ be read as buildup to canon thasmin don't really count as explicit romantic buildup because most of it is very ambiguous. even the scenes/actions that i would read as canon romance out of context feel ambiguous or non-romantic in context because of the ambiguous nature of everything else between them. and stu is right! like, it wouldn't have taken much to give those moments the extra push into unambiguous romance (longing gazes). said things that i might've read as canon romance out of context were yaz's obsession with finding the doctor after timeless children, the "i miss you" hologram scene, and the convo she had with byron's lady friend in villa diodati, but the only one i would point to as like possible canon confirmation of thasmin before eve of the daleks is the villa diodati scene (yasmin compares her situation with the doctor to an explicitly romantic one between the woman and byron) but even then she doesn't really mention the doctor by name and apparently some people thought she was referring to ryan. any time i did pick up on something that seemed kind of gay, i assumed it was either accidental or fanservice, which i think says something about the way it was written into the show. i'm not even sure if a lot of those things were deliberately romantic, because to me eve of the daleks thasmin feels like it wasn't planned from the get-go, although i could be wrong and chris could've just been too subtle or majorly holding back. to me it feels like your typical big studio trying not to step on conservative viewers' toes type stuff. i do wish that gay romance didn't always have to be a reveal in tv shows, and that it could just be a part of the story like any other relationship, or for this scenario, any other doctor/companion romance. also (this is gonna make my comment insanely long but fuck it), i think the thing about yaz like not knowing she was gay until she liked the doctor was kind of weird. like, she basically reveals that she is at the end of an entire character arc that we weren't privy to even once. it wouldn't have to be like a dramatic monologue, but maybe something like yaz seeing a woman she's attracted to and like trying to stop herself from staring, or like a female character flirting with her and her getting embarrassed or trying to shut it down or something would've made it feel more natural to me. and then she could have little moments where she gradually becomes more receptive to that kind of attention, and then once she says the thing about not wanting to admit to herself that she was gay it's like, aha milestone. she just never really seemed reluctant to express affection for the doctor or talk about how she felt about her before this point, so it's slightly off to me and feels kind of like an obligatory [gay character muct have closet angst] thing. anywho, i actually am happy that thasmin became canon and did like this episode reveal included lol, i just have a lot of thoughts about it

The dialogue for the Daleks was a bit ass tbh. Especially that one bit where the Dalek just explains what’s happening in front of him to no one but the audience was very painful.

what is the hate chibs has with moff?

6:20 Don't worry... there's no knife on Earth big enough to cut up Chibnall's massive brain. Or Moffat's, for that matter.

It was fine enough as light entertainment but it's so emotionless and unambitious. How are you going to have Yaz admit she loves the doctor but not show any emotional build up? Did they have a single conversation this episode?