Space Babies

I was looking forward to the new Dr Who series, but the first episode is disappointing. The plot has no nuance or substance, a far cry from the intelligent stories of seasons past. The pacing is strange going from a frenetic beginning to slow and erratic finish. It feels like the writers ran out of ideas and needed to pad out the show to an hour.

The big problem however that will be difficult to fix in future episodes, is that the two main characters are just cringey and unlikeable. The show may have worked, with a little more substance to the characters. It feels like the Lego movie where, "everything is awesome" but without the comedy.

Give it a past, watch to older seasons, much better.

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.

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.

I really wanted to like the entry of the new Doctor. If theres definitely a positive thing to say, its the music. Murray Gold nailed it again. The new Theme is up there with "I am the Doctor", putting the adventurous character of the Doctor into a perfect piece of music.

BUT.....speaking "Space Babies"? This is a strong competition to some of the worst movies from the 90s and early 2000ths. You should never, ever let babies speak. Not mentioning the uncanny valley effect when looking at the voiceacted and animated babymouths.

It got better towards the end, even though its "We have to save everybody, no matter what" - message doesnt quite fit, but its understandable.

Really hope the next Episode will convince me more.

This isn't Dr. Who. This is some of the worst TV I've ever seen. Seriously, the writing here is abysmal. I can't imagine how it could get any worse. Worse is not conceivable.

This was not worth the wait. I honestly don't know how something this bad was conceived in the first place.

It's not the characters. It's 100% bad writing. RTD what were you thinking?

Seriously, this is the best that you could come up with?

Honestly, I think the best parts of the show are the opening and closing credits. It's looks amazing. But if the best part of a sandwich is the bread, then I'm afraid that misses the whole point of the sandwich in the first place.