Space Babies

I don't know how many times this needs to be said. Classic Doctor Who worked because it never patronised its audience. Never treated the show as a show for children. It was science fiction written by intelligent writers that could be enjoyed by adults and children alike.

I don't know how they can get this so wrong. You have the genius idea of being able to place the story anywhere in time and space which opens up a world of possibility. And the best they can come out with is Space Babies. And bogies. I mean come on.

I have to say I really want to like Ncuti and Millie but again the acting seems very forced and far too hyper.

Here's hoping it picks up because that was an awfully weak opening which does not augur well.

Not sure how I feel about this being dealt with as a new "show" rather than a new season of "Nu Who", but I guess it gives me an excuse to jump away from reviewing every episode of that iteration and to start again from here.

Introducing Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) to how the Tardis works lands she, and the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) on a space station manned by a crew of babies, seemingly abandoned by their creators and looked after by an overseeing computer (Golda Rosheuvel). The abandonment isn't the crews only problem though as, in the lower decks, between them and the Tardis is a vicious looking creature nicknamed "The Bogeyman".

Mixed feelings about this episode. The good news is that I liked the elements that are going to stay, for this season at least. Gatwa and Gibson are both great and there's a nice dynamic between them. It's got some funny lines and it's continuing to do what Davies' previous run did and layering in the season story - which looks like it will be focused on Ruby's parentage, the mystery of which began in the last Christmas special.

The actual episode though was a bit confused and had some horrible CGI. The creature effect was fine, if perhaps a little generic. The CGI mouths of the talking babies though was both badly done and off putting, and I really didn't like seeing it. The show also felt confused as to whether they were actual babies though, I think the logic was that they were 6-year-olds that hadn't developed but they didn't act like that sometimes. (Also, that's not how an airlock would work). The Disney Dollars seemed to have been spent on a CGI dinosaur world that appeared earlier and shots of the Tardis.

Davies is perhaps a bolder writer now, from the shows he's written since his first run with The Doctor, and, whilst the show has always been socially conscious, there are explicit analogies made about both the abortion laws and refugee policy within this story.

Whilst this first episode is a bit underwhelming, particularly to proclaim the shows new start, I'm not overly concerned that the shows headed in the wrong direction or anything like that. Hopefully, without the need to do all the introductions stuff from now on, and with more time for the story, things will pick up.

Space Babies is the most painful thing that I've forced myself to watch in a very long time. Appalling intellectualy insulting pun based concept, insulating terrible exposition and cringe worthy acting from the entire cast not that the babies were acting at all. It's shocking that in 2024 something this terrible could be commissioned - also the creature effects remained me of classic Who and not in a good way.

There was a time when Russell T Davies could write a good script and screenplay, I really don't know what happened here, but I'll take a guess that he literally pulled it out of his nose.

It's a day later and I'm still angry about how bad it was.

The chemistry between Ruby and the Doctor was fantastic. They clearly feel off each other as actors and you can just feel the casual connection they have with each other. Gatwa and Gibson physical interaction was the feel of long time friends and shows genuine fun and warmth between the characters. I have a feeling that along with their superb acting will generate a lot of positivity towards this episode. I think after a couple of seasons (since 2 is confirmed with Gatwa) that this will be viewed as one of the weakest episodes.

On to the story, Davies has always had political or social undertones. None of them detracts from the story even though they were clearly complaints/comments. The writing was clearly meant to be juvenile. 6 years olds in onsies. Overall, but the overall poop, smell, and dirty diaper jokes throughout the story is classical low hanging fruit that Davies gets fixated on sometimes. Tarnished a story with a lot of energy and chemistry along with some really funny buts and some scary moments.

Disappointing start to the new season, boggies and fart jokes dont really cut it for me. I had high expectations and wanted to really like it, but a poor opening to the season.

The doctor and Ruby have good chemistry just suffered from a poor script and lame jokes, joking for more from ep 2 and the rest of the season.

Lots of money coming in from Disney but needs to be put into better scripts and jot just thr special effects, which were great, but they never really made doctor who the storylines did.

The bringing on of Disney viewers to the whoniverse was great and best part of the episode, of course I'll be back for more and see how it goes ....