TL;DR – it is all fine and dandy to declare that one should cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, but what it the universe was listening?

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Doctor Who Review –

One of the things that defines Doctor Who is how it uses all its sci-fi gadgetry to solve all the many, many odd situations they find themselves in. But what if you striped that all away? Could they survive? But more so, does the show work?

So to set the scene, we open in England in 1666, where Isaac Newton (Nathaniel Curtis) is about to go out and have an excellent idea under an apple tree. When the Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) come crashing into the tree he is sitting under. For you see, at the end of The Star Beast, Donna “accidentally” spilled some coffee on the TARDIS console, and it is a little out of control. After a crash and some flames, the Doctor had to put the TARDIS in rebuild mode, so it was time to work out where they ended up. I mean it should be fine, they have air, light, mavaity, what could go wrong? Which is the point the TARDIS runs away. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Putting aside our Issac Newton detour, what this episode does very well is setting a mood. You end up being abandoned somewhere, stripping all the Doctor’s usual gadgets, and then having an unseen observer watching, an odd opening airlock before you discover they are at the nothing at the edge of creation. It is a perfect setting for ruminations about time and history. But also to be slightly unsettling because you know something terrible will unfold at any moment. This is when you discover that two different conversations happening at different times are happening simultaneously, and that is not Donna or The Doctor.   

All of this is a perfect scenario for some nightmare fuel, a little body horror, and a fair dig at the Venom films. I say a little body horror, but they very much lean into that, to the point that I think this probably will not be suitable for the younger demographic. What happens when you look into a face, and you can’t be sure if it is a friend or foe? What happens when your very thoughts can be turned against you? How can you think of a way out when you could give ammunition to an enemy?   

What I liked about this episode the most is how contained it is. Bar the pro and epilogue, it is just the Doctor and Donna on show. Okay, I say that knowing that practically, many more people and actors were needed to make that work when shooting the same people twice in the same scene. But it was nice to see David Tennant & Catherine Tate get to explore both their vileness and heroic sides. There were moments when you could see they were having a ball with it. As well as this, if you were going to bring them back to the 60^th anniversary specials, it makes sense that you take one of the three episodes to highlight them.

As for the narrative, evil entities at the edge of the universe wanting to hijack a ship to take them back to carve a swath of destruction across the cosmos is a very Doctor Who scenario. On that front, I think the slow count down to destruction was a fascinating reveal, and one of those moments where it makes perfect sense in-universe. The wrong Donna save fake-out was probably a bit too much, but otherwise, it worked. Also, a small tear appeared when they returned home to discover Wilf (Bernard Cribbins) waiting for them. Vale to one of the great ones.

In the end, do we recommend Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder? Well, besides the title and song being an odd choice for the episode. I thought this was a solid episode dabbling in the horror aspects that Doctor Who likes to find itself in occasionally. Well, that is two down and two more to go, but there is only one left with Doctor/Donna, and I hope they all work.         

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Doctor Who yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Doctor Who
Directed by – Tom Kingsley
Written by – Russell T Davies
Production/Distribution Companies – BBC Studios, Badwolf & Disney+
Starring – David Tennant & Catherine Tate with Bernard Cribbins & Nathaniel Curtis and Susan Twist, Daniel Tuite, Ophir Raray, Tommaso di Vincenzo & Helen Cripps