I rank Space Babies pretty highly too, because while I really enjoyed the episode, my daughters LOVED it. They’ve been obsessed with Doctor Who after seeing it –– my five-year-old made me call her Captain Poppy for a full week.

There’s got to be something with her and companions. At this point she’s got the Pond-River-style name (thank god at this point she doesn’t seem to be part of another tedious River Song storyline), she wore Clara’s Face The Raven outfit and called the Doctor a “clever boy,” and she ended the episode in Romana’s fur coat. I’m fully down with her trolling the Doctor/us like this - I just hope she’s not the Master again. There is no character in Doctor Who I’m as sick of as the Master.

(My outside bet is maybe the Meddling Monk? But that’s probably wrong.)

I wish we had a few more Jackie Tyler opportunities for Carla and Cherry. I was sort of bummed we didn’t get a hero moment for Carla in the finale — and Ruby going on about her “real mum” with Carla right there made me feel just awful for her.

It’s gratifying to see how much the fandom — however split people are about this season — has embraced Mille Gibson, because she’s truly phenomenal.

I was worried when people ran with the “she’s being replaced” story (which they thankfully clarified) and started to go with a classic sexist “she’s hard to work with” story (which turned out to be that she got tired on night shoots, being basically an actual child when they started filming) that the fandom would pile on her, and I’m glad that people are recognizing her talent. However the character turned out, she was pretty flawless in the role. Delivering a performance like 73 Yards on your first week at a new job when you’re eighteen years old is pretty impressive.

She also said the “clever boy” thing while essentially wearing Clara’s Face the Raven outfit, then ends the episode in Romana’s coat. She’s definitely trolling the Doctor/us but who knows why. I’d be fine with any reveal as long as it’s not the Master - I would be perfectly happy for him to stay in that gold tooth forever.

This is heart-shattering because I would do anything to see the goofy bug people from The Web Planet make a return

I love this show, but I do not understand how they cannot create a uniform that doesn’t look like pajamas (the Cerritos-style uniforms Janeway and her crew wear look great though). The weird gray they seem to be enamored with looks so silly.

What a bizarre three ships to start with

Real M’Benga erasure here

Bonnie Langford is a treasure. Inject “camp as hell” Doctor Who straight into my veins.

I have to say, I did not have “canonizing the Shalka Doctor” on my Doctor Who bingo card for this series

The companions are an issue –– though Graham and, to a lesser degree, Yaz are great when they are permitted their few minutes of personality every so often. It’s simply that the show cares a lot less about reasons for them all being on screen than just putting them there and having them say some lines to fill up an hour of television.

But I think Elizabeth Sandifer’s brilliant essay over on Tardis Eruditorum about the episode Kerblam! from 13’s first season is an excellent distillation of the issues with the Chibnall era, one of the best pieces of writing about why the whole thing is so uncomfortable.

I struggle to think of a Trek character more Star Trek than Saru. DSC has its (sometimes severe, sometimes not) flaws, but it has an impressive track record of occasionally absolutely nailing how to make some of the trekkiest Trek characters.

It’s going to be interesting where the series ends up in the inevitable reevaluation once a few years have passed.

Just upfront, hopefully not here (you never know) but definitely elsewhere, you’re going to run into a lot of the usual bigots telling you that DOctor wHO EnDED wiTH cApaLDi. Coincidentally, the end of Capaldi’s run basically dovetails with when social media algorithms started giving these people brain worms, so everything after that is wOkE gArBaGe while everything before it, with exactly the same messages and techniques, is galaxy brain stuff. They can’t deal with a woman or Black man being on screen so just ignore them, please. (That said, the Thirteenth Doctor’s run is…not great, but certainly not because of those reasons.) If you are concerned about things like a “woke agenda” then Doctor Who is very, very much not the show for you - this has been an important part of the show’s DNA since the 60s.

I’ve loved Doctor Who for thirty years, and seen nearly every episode of every Doctor. The thing about Doctor Who is that it’s goofy and campy, and that ends up with it being dated sometimes, sometimes moreso than other shows. This isn’t a bad thing! It’s charming and fun, but depending on the kind of viewer you are, that might mean that you want to start with the current series (it’s loads of fun and the current Doctor and companion are exceptional), and then watch the older ones in context.

However, that’s going to get you only about six episodes so far. If you really want a project, I’d say start with the 2005 series (the Ninth Doctor) and go from there. You’re going to run into quite a bit that’s very early 2000s, but the fun, camp, and drama, are all on display. I know others will say you can start with the first series of the Eleventh Doctor, but to me you’ll run into a really turgid arc of the showrunner tediously and self-referentially mystery boxing over and over far too soon. This is stuff you ignore when you’ve been watching for a while (or can skip) but it might demoralize you to get into it and then get to molasses so soon.

The classic series are very different - not in terms of story, but format. I love them, I started with the Fourth Doctor, but it’s not to everyone’s taste. They are shorter arcs or four or six twenty-minute episodes, with drastically lower production values and slower pacing. One of the best stories involves the Doctor fighting essentially spray-painted green bubble wrap on a set that sort of looks like a bathroom. If you’re up for it, it’s wonderful, but it’s very different visually and structurally than modern shows.

They’re also paying attention to when they need to renegotiate contracts. After the strikes, studio leadership has really doubled down on not giving an inch on writers’ and actors’ salaries even if it means cancelling a successful show. It’s more valuable to them to keep workers in a state of perpetual gig work than anything they’d make from the show.

I loved this issue. If they ever decide to canonize anything in the comics, I hope it’s this one.

The shape of Hy’Rell’s head bumps resemble those of Xindi-Primates, first appearing in ENT: “The Xindi”, one of six intelligent Xindi species that were native to Xindus.

I believe it was mentioned in an interview that she’s an Efrosian, which would be the first time we’ve seen one since TUC! The hair and the blue eyes seem consistent.

Reno partying with Hysperians –– now that is a show I want to watch

Man, you have to watch the one with Giant Spock (“The Infinite Vulcan”)

I just finished watching Space Babies - I have to say, I missed this. It’s been a long time since Doctor Who was fun - I love all Doctor Who, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones) but my heart is really with the bizarre, campy, man-in-a-rubber-suit style episodes like this one. If anyone was worried this was going to get Disney-fied, this is RTD at the most RTD. I might as well have been watching the Ninth Doctor take Rose to the End of the World. Ncuti is the Doctor the very instant he steps on screen, and the Doctor/Ruby chemistry is absolutely perfect. I don’t love her being a mystery box but as long as the explanation is suitably weird I’ll go with it.

A bit of a new experience for me in that this time I got to watch it with my daughter — she’s nine and a huge Trek fan. She liked Church on Ruby Road and we watched a bit of other doctors, but I wasn’t sure she’d take to this, but she was just beaming the whole time. Bit of a new experience for me because other than some Tom Baker episodes on old VHS tapes, I was an adult by the time I came to DW. It’s fun to see it through the eyes of a child.

Also, uh, did the Doctor just suggest that the world of Star Trek is real in his universe?