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Welcome to the TARDIS! This week on “Don’t Blink”, we discuss the season 11 episode 4 of Doctor Who called “Arachnids in the U.K.” This year the Doctor Who crew continues to delivery on the promise of something new and different. This wonderful spooky story, that’s just in time for Halloween, tells a tale of giant spiders and megalomaniacal businessmen. Yet it also shows us the truer nature of this incarnation of the Doctor. She is a doctor who cares.
The story starts with introducing Jack Robertson, a business mogul as slimy as they come. Right off the bat he fires a woman who we will soon come to find out is Yaz’s mom. Through a series of scenes, we find our TARDIS Team finally back home. After some tea at Yaz’s flat and a few ghost images of Grace (rest her soul), the team are hot on the trail of the mystery of the giant spiders.
What ensues next is an excellent example of character development and storytelling. With the Doctor advocating for life, the Friends making poignant decisions about the future, and the obvious commentary on the currently corrupt American political landscape, Chibnall and crew have truly delivered us yet another reason why this show is the greatest!
Join us as we discuss all this and more!
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I give this episode a 7 because the hotel owner stuff was just so annoying and coming from other heavy handed scene executions on topics it just added to the annoyance so it might be better than that but emotionally I can only ever go to about a 7 with this one. I loved the stuff about Yaz as I’ve been waiting for more on her but the hotel owner stuff just brought it down so much for me.
Ugh Graham imagining Grace was DEFINITELY the highlight of this episode!
Overall the CGI on the spiders was well done, they definitely brought the creepy vibe.
I really loved Doctor being real with this group and saying it’s not all fun and games and if you come with me you may not come back but if you’re okay with that lets go and then them pulling the lever together was just great!
I agree Wayne, give us at least two years with this trio as they are some of the best Doctor friends yet and to have them work so well as a group on top of being good individuals that is rare so lets use it while we can! Also I’m good with any who die staying dead because while I get the appeal of them living on it would keep the good emotional work this season has going going. That said if they were going to bring back someone I’d want them to make a point about how it’s not the them the group knows as they haven’t had those experiences yet and how does that effect them or if they say bring Graham back then I’d want Ryan to start with calling him granddad instead of waiting because he knows better now so you see the consequences of the actions it’s not just “fixed it” if you will.
They are setting up a Ryan/Yaz opening but let’s not forget Yaz’s mom also ships Yaz with Doctor so that may be possible flirting also; also note that Doctor didn’t say no to the possibility of it just “Are we?”. 🙂 Again if Yaz does date Doctor no killing her or anything like that happens with others who have gotten close to Doctor in that way!
I think Yaz’s mom is just curious as to who this stranger is her daughter is friends with, she knows Yaz knows Ryan and Graham is related to Ryan but no one could really explain Doctor. Also again she had asked Yaz was she dating Doctor so it could be she didn’t buy Yaz telling her to drop it the first time. 🙂
It would be smart to test a new character in an episode or two to see how fans liked them then by the time you’re writing for next season you have an idea of who to bring back in situations. Although on the topic of bringing back – it’s okay to bring back originals so Jenny Flint Chris, keep it in mind! 🙂
A small nitpick Jada, I am a she but thanks for the addresses regarding my “Rosa” comments. 🙂
I’m perfectly fine with all new villains or challenges for the team because if you just keep repeating cybermen and such then they lose some of their shine; you can still be excited for them but it does scale down the world in feel when you encounter the same group over and over. As Wayne says Jodie’s next season as Doctor though you can do recurring characters again for that nice mix of new and old. Again here’s hoping Jodie has many seasons as the title character because she is killing it; I’m hoping she ties or passes Smith but I will take a minimum of 48 episodes please!
I’m sure they will do romance or at least tease it just for drama and to test the waters with pairings but as Wayne says give us one season where we don’t have that with this group; let’s feel everyone out first to see what would make good multiple episode stories instead of “oh this didn’t work let’s quickly put these two together so fans forget about the bad”. The only one who should have a romance hardcore right now is Graham and that’s only because he’s still missing his love Grace so he’s still talking sweetly about her spirit; also if he did move on next season – just because you’re older doesn’t mean your dead so I think it would be a great contradiction for Graham to start dating again before the younger characters. He could have some fun with that. 🙂
Also ha to Wayne about to slide into the rabbit hole of “which season is this”, way to catch yourself sir but the answer to that would have fun to hear also.
Hey Aaron, thanks for all of your great comments on the Don’t Blink posts! Also, thank you for the clarifications! Looking forward to watching this week’s “The Tsuranga Conundrum” episode, hearing what you thought of it, and talking about it all on the Don’t Blink podcast. Thanks again Aaron! – Wayne