DoctorRy

Well I suppose that's Lungbarrow out of continuity... The Timeless Children closes off a season that is without doubt a step up from the previous one, giving us episodes that are of a much higher quality in terms of writing than what we had before, a more confident performance from Jodie Whittaker (though it would appear at the cost of her companions' performances) and Chibnall learning to give 'em the old razzle-dazzle. After watching the episode I kinda thought I liked it. Lots of surprises, shock revelations that would "change everything" and my favourite monsters - the Cybermen. Working with the Master again. Wait-a-minute. Gosh, there's so much I want to say, and in truth most of it is a criticism, which is going to sound very negative, but it's hard to grab hold of the positives. Sorry Chibnall, I'm not sure your end-of-series finale quite pulled it off. I love the Cybermen. They should be brilliant. They were astonishingly scary in the black-and-white days, lumbering around

The Cybermen are an odd Doctor Who monster. As a concept they are wonderfully creepy, but all too often they are used as a standard "monster of the week". In those situations, there's a real problem with how to deal with them, and so as a result they have convenient weaknesses that can be exploited to deal with them. Arguably they aren't the most effective monsters, but when used well, they are definitely the most creepiest. The Lone Cyberman is a great use of the Cybermen, let's be clear. The partially converted head beneath the helmet is disturbing and gives us a better idea of what the Cybermen are supposed to represent. This one, though, is odder than most - an arm from the originals, a body from the most recent, a head from Davies era; he's less a partially converted Cyberman, and more a Frankenstein's monster of Cybermen - pun, presumably, intended. But he works. He has an anger that plays against his emotionless offspring. He's scary because he's a stepping stone, and that

One of the biggest problems about Doctor Who is that fans - actually not even fans, anyone really - all have their own on idea on what Doctor Who is, and what makes it good. It's part of the reason why Doctor Who feels so different everytime a new producer takes over, and a big part of the reason Doctor Who fans argue over whether the current series is "proper" Doctor Who or not. I won't lie, I've long learned that Doctor Who is anything and changes frequently, but I obviously have a preference and that is scary. Doctor Who needs to be scary. Action/adventure is the secondary genre for me. As such "The Haunting Of Villa Diodati" was always going to have a leg up in terms of brilliance for me. Ghost house...you can't go wrong really. Meeting Byron and Mary Shelley has been a surprisingly long time coming (or not if you like the Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories, and if you do, you probably spent a lot of time fretting over the fact this episode over-writes those). With the Doctor