Spoilers Space Babies grade and discussion thread

[Jayson1]

I liked it a lot. The New Doctor has already blown Whittaker out of the park. Ruby Rose is better than all her campanions as well. The plot was silly and weird in that good Doctor Who way. I felt like I was watching Who again and not just some standard Sci-FI show that thinks it is Star Trek. They even cared about the monster which was nice.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

 

[Guy Gardener]

To begin with, I wondered if the Space Babies were advanced model Daleks or the last generation of Kaleds.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I did like the deep-cut Trek-crossover comment that “We still have to visit them…”

And then immediately move on to show a few of the crew in gold/red/blue shoulder colored uniforms…

 

[JoeZhang]

That wasn't very good and not a great introduction to new fans. She might warm up but there is a difference in quality of the acting of Gatwa and Gibson and she was pretty wooden in a few scenes.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Yuck. Terrible.

 

[Mr Awe]

Ugh. 5. Just couldn't get into this one. Only the nanny filter was somewhat amusing.

I do like Ncuti and Millie though. Likeable characters.

 

[Captaindemotion]

This actually reminded me a little of the first series of the revived Who. Where I’d be sitting thinking “this is all a bit silly”, but would still be enjoying it. Especially Rose, with its anti-plastic and Mickey getting eaten by a bin. Ncuti and Millie are certainly doing a lot of heavy lifting and their chemistry is covering a lot of the cracks. I do occasionally wonder how other Doctors and companions would be in an episode like this, but on reflection they all have had to elevate some silliness.

I liked the references to Susan and the very first season of DW. Can’t help but wonder if it’s going to lead to more…

 

[26138]

Space babies was not good. Doctor and companion seem to be meshing well, though.

 

[Jayson1]

What is wrong with being silly? Same issue with all the hate for the pop tart movie. Have we all become so jaded that we can't enjoy nonsense anymore?

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Let's see. The premise is beyond stupid. It never really progresses beyond "babies run the station" theme and the Nan-E character is barely developed. Under any writer other than Davies, this would be utterly unwatchable.

But it IS RTD writing it, and there's a lot of lovely, beautiful energy going about, and the Doctor and Ruby are excellent. Gatwa is fast-tracking to become one of my favorite Doctors ever, he's so good. But Gibson is definitely giving her all as Ruby, who is clearly RTD's reaction to Moffat's Clara Oswald, and I couldn't be happier.

Honestly, this isn't top-tier, but I enjoyed it. It didn't depress me like it used to and that was good enough for me, Still is RTD's weakest season opening, though (ΟΚ, New Earth is actually a weaker entry than this, but it's not good).

 

[The Wormhole]

I felt like I was watching Who again and not just some standard Sci-FI show that thinks it is Star Trek.

Funny you should say that, given when we see the logs from the station's grown-up crew, their uniforms are clearly Star Trek inspired.

 

[Jayson1]

Yeah the uniforms did seem like that. Though they had no big role in the story. I wonder if that was kind of a message. It is the Doctor and his ways that solve the issue and not the Starfleet like people who were in charge of the station.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

It did feel like it was uniquely Whovian silly. Silly still, but at least it was unapologetic about it and proud of its heritage, instead of being coy and pseudo realistic about it. It feels like Who, and that's certainly nice.

 

[JD]

This one was a lot of fun. It was nice to see the series to go back this kind of campy silliness, it felt like we lost this more and more as the years went on. We got a little bit of it with Moffat, but I don't think we ever got anything even close to this in the Chibnal season I saw.
I thought this did a good job of giving us that silliness, but still giving us a few more serious moments, like the Doctor trying to save the Bogey Man.
I am loving Fifteen and Ruby so far, they're just so much fun together.

 

[Chakoteya]

I rather wanted one of the babies to be called Lintilla.........

(https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Lintilla#Secondary_Phase)

Still going with the 'I'm adopted' stuff then.

 

[RevdKathy]

Not sure I appreciated getting two episodes back to back to start the season. Aside from feeling a little indigestable, it made it harder to process either story.

When I realised the new series was starting my thought was "that'll be entertaining ". And at risk of damning with faint praise, it was. That might have been the best of it though.

A new launch (even down to the new production company partnership) was always going to draw in new people and therefore need a bit of "Who 101" exposition to bring people up to speed. Shame it had to be done with a sledgehammer.

The sledgehammer was in evidence on the throwaway political comments, too, from the pro-life stuff to the refugees comment, you couldn't not know where the show stands.

The new Doctor is fun. But I'm not quite convinced yet. He's got the whackiness off pat, but not yet found the gravitas, or the underlying alienness of the Doctor. I'm hoping that will grow. As yet lines about having two hearts feel more like exposition than that he actually is that strange.

Ruby is Meh. A little wooden, and still finding her feet. But I am so, so over every companion being a special super being. I know that was meant to connect to the point about everyone being unique and uniqueness being a superpower (cue Tigger!) but it actually has the exact opposite effect. Ordinary people don't get to travel in the Tardis - only special ones with magic DNA who are really aliens. I could write an entire screed on how the medieval church did the exact same thing with the Virgin Mary... but you'll be relieved to know I'm not going to. The point of the companion is that they could be any one of us. Only they couldn't.

Which brings us to the predictable, derivative plot. I don't mind Who doing its own call backs - though seeing Ruby in front of that screen looking out made me pine for the energy and emotional depth of Piper and Eccleston at the End of the World. But when I'm unsure if I'm meant to be thinking of Wall-e or the monster from The Forbidden Planet, or quoting Pratchet about humans needing fiction... well, a new idea would be nice. Thankfully the next ep felt fresher.

So I enjoyed it. It was entertaining. But I was not captivated, inspired, moved... it was an amusing hour. But if this had been my introduction to Who, I might not have come back.

 

[Phily B]

This was thoroughly stupid and camp.

I loved it.

 

[Orac]

This was the finest hour of television I have ever seen.

 

[JRob94]

While I definitely found this the weaker of the two episodes, I still found it very enjoyable. There were several surprises aboard the space station and I was very intrigued. 8/10 for me