It’s been almost two years since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds left us on a tense cliffhanger, and now it’s finally back to pay it off. It is perhaps an unfair pressure to put on the show, that circumstances outside of its control have kept this return anticipated for longer than it should have. But […]
‘Doctor Who’ Needs to Go Away and Think About What It Did
Doctor Who is frequently bad television. In some ways, it’s part of the charm: dodgy production values redeemed by inspired storytelling or character work, or clunkily camp B-movie sci-fi elevated by glimmers of spectacle, the perpetual promise of big ideas yearning to escape one holdback or another. So rarely do those myriad failings combine, so […]
‘Doctor Who’ Plays a Weird Waiting Game for the Beginning of Its End
There are a lot of parallels between “Wish World” and last year’s “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.” They are both, of course, penultimate episodes of their respective seasons of Doctor Who. They are also both built around the return of a classic Doctor Who villain, and paying off a mystery that had played out throughout their […]
I Don’t Know How to Talk About This Episode of ‘Doctor Who’ Without Losing My Mind
A lot happened on this week’s Doctor Who. It feels almost impossible to articulate just how much all that “how much” was—and how much of it was questionable at best, and perhaps wildly poorly thought out at worst—without just vomiting a quick, high-concept summation of what happens in “The Interstellar Song Contest.” There is a Eurovision Song […]
Doctor Who’s Latest Story Was About the Power of Doctor Who Itself
As Doctor Who has, inch-by-inch, diversified the casting of its heroes, its willingness to tell stories directly influenced by those decisions has trailed a little behind. When Jodie Whittaker became the 13th Doctor, only a few of her stories ultimately engaged with what it meant that the Doctor now inhabited a female body. With the arrival […]
Doctor Who’s Disinformation Episode Needed a Bit More Bite
Lots of things can be terrifying on Doctor Who. Monsters, of course, are terrifying. Standing the face of the unknown in a vast, undiscovered universe is also pretty terrifying. Our noble hero pushed to dark impulses, a terror in a more cerebral way. But sometimes, the most terrifying thing of all can just be a […]
Well, Doctor Who, That’s One Way You Can’t Go Home Again
Doctor Who has explored the idea of companions who aren’t immediately dazzled by the Doctor’s life plenty of times, but few quite so immediately want to have their moment of fun (slash terror) and get back to their daily routine quite like Belinda Chandra. Who‘s new companion gives us a hell of an introduction, promising incredible […]
Severance Answered One of Its Biggest Questions With a Truly Mind-Melting Episode
We’ve watched the seventh episode of Severance season two, “Chikhai Bardo,” a few times now and still barely have any idea what’s going on. We know that it confirms everyone’s biggest assumption from the end of last season, that Mark’s wife Gemma is currently alive. But, beyond that, things get fuzzy. It’s by far the […]