Loved this last one, but mostly for the incidentals. You know, the "holy shit swimming pool for three seconds finally" and a bunch of other pretty cool stuff as compared to the last few decades worth of rare Tardis-interior shows. We actually get to see a bit of of the thing's innards for once, beyond running through the exact same barren corridor set over and over. Though there was still a fair share of that, with the obligatory lampshade. Bonus points for the weeping willow full of what I'm going to have to call Tardfruit (DO NOT PICK THE TARDFRUIT*.) Really, this is the most we've seen of the thing since a little bit of "hey, they added some clothes racks to the console room and called it a wardrobe," or Baker's cloister and aux. console room.
*Meme just waiting to happen for srsly.
Nice little side plot... but really, they could have done anything to flesh out the supporting characters. Maybe just a throwaway line about how that eye-and-brain wrecking accident had something to do with the Androzani or the Blorgons or whateverthefuck. Flashback to dad and relevant sibling rivalry? I'd take anything to tie them into the universe here, or even establish some new mythology. They exist in a vacuum otherwise. Guys in jumpsuits who I utterly fail to give half a fuck about. Other than the fact that this shit's obviously going to be the brother rule 3X Combo.
And hey, did that Tardisfucker bomb that got thrown through a crack in time resolve that huge "why did the Tardis blow up for no adequately explored reason" thing from a couble seasons ago? Because I really thought it might have gone there, what with the pretty familiar crack and all... but... nope. Unless you want to pretend some shit happened where it didn't. It'd be so damn neat and pat I really want to believe it, but apparently it just wiped out everything significant and revelatory that happened today. Straight up Voyager shit here, yo.
Just joshing. Nothing significant or revelatory ever happened on Voyager.
... and on the list of inane disappointments, I kept reading Clara's handbrand as "816 FR13NDLY 80770M" and expected River to show up.
Also, rewatched last week's and I'm still pretty annoyed that the Tardis has a bunch of cables running out of it to power the psychic hat thing and its weirdly mispronounced crystal. Maybe the emphasis in the middle of Metebelis is the Time Lord equivalent of "your anus" and he just wants to gloss over that now. But they just say fuckit about the lady's psychic pain hat being attached by cables and the Tardis flying around somewhere else for a while. Eat shit, continuity.
Anyway, I think I might rewatch Warrior's Gate after this one. Not sure why. Don't think I've seen it since I was a wee sharkling catching this shit beside my obliviously stoned father, but there's defenitely a thematic similarity.
So... silver medal on this one, but much as I like "The monsters were you all along," it's not like it's hard to guess when there're a grand total of two characters with tits, one of whom isn't an actual character and there are well established time shenanigans happening. And there's a huge vacuum of explanation here. So... you guys turned into contagious red-eyed crackly-skinned corridor-scratching time zombies... fucking why? Who cares. We've gotta have a monster, and that shit'll do.
You can do an awful lot with a monster-of-the-week story, and that's pretty much the only way it's been. But holy hell, so much more could be done with this if it'd just shake off the formula once in a while. Yes, it's a kid's show, but really, "reverse Scooby Doo" wears thin even with children. Especially when it fails to make any damn sense most of the time.
