Dr Who S10 E01 "The Pilot" - ❤❤❤

[nenya_kanadka]

Mucca woke me up with this this morning. (The last time she did that was with astoundingly hot clips of Gregory Peck. I appreciate her attention to quality material.)

I loved it. I love Bill! I love what the Doctor's doing with himself at the start of this episode. Nardole's still a sweetie. And Bill is seriously the best. Did I say that already? I love how she logics things through carefully instead of leaping to conclusions she wouldn't have data for. I love the whole thing with the girl. (Bill's going to fall adorably in love with like three separate space princesses this season, right? Make it happen, Moff.) And the pictures, awww my heart. ❤❤❤

Anyway. This one definitely fit my criteria of "silly adventures with heart" for a good Dr Who outing. Moar plz.

(And Missy returns sometime soon! Yesss.)

(Comments may contain spoilers, though if you haven't seen it, I'll try not to spoil it myself in my replies.)

Comments

[st_aurafina]

BILL IS AMAZING! She's so great, and she falls in love at the drop of a hat, and it wasn't a big deal that she falls in love with women, which I appreciated, and I really enjoyed the episode.

(Except for the mean little fat joke at the start. That was something that was unnecessary. Though now I'm gunning for a romance between Bill and the cute fat girl who likes chips.)

I loved how genre savvy Bill was, and that she smiled when things were mystifying, and how she was willing to touch Heather and say goodbye even when the Doctor was telling her it was dangerous.

Bill! <3

[nenya_kanadka]

She's SO FUN! And earnest! And full of feelings about beautiful ladies! (I agree with you about the chips joke, though I like that she says that if she has to choose between beauty and chips she'll go for chips, and doesn't seem to have been put off the cute girl for it, but the rest of that was a bit...ugh.)

I loved that she didn't let go until she'd said a proper goodbye. And then you get that one line from Heather that lets you know she's not just mimicking, but still has enough of herself left to say goodbye. Feeeeelings.

eta: I also liked the recognition that not everyone at university is a student, and since the last black companion was a doctor, having her be in the service sector (like Rose!) but generally clever and inquisitive (companion qualities obvs) made it feel more like, you don't have to be super exceptional and brilliant to be both a woman of colour AND on the TARDIS. Or at least that's my take; I'm a white Canadian.

Also A+ to claiming your own memories and shaming Twelve out of mindwipes--I was like "This feels like a retread, didn't Clara get a lovely rant on the subject already last year? Not that I'll ever mind a good fuck you to Ten about Donna," but then I realized that he probably doesn't remember that because of losing his memories of Clara! So, nice continuity there. And damn refreshing to have zero ~mystery~ about Bill. She's just a breath of fresh air and I adore her already.

("Friends only," omg!)

EMOJI ROBOTS, ALSO

I love your Bill icon and must get one immediately.

[brin_bellway]

Everything you said, but especially

Also A+ to claiming your own memories and shaming Twelve out of mindwipes--I was like "This feels like a retread, didn't Clara get a lovely rant on the subject already last year? Not that I'll ever mind a good fuck you to Ten about Donna,"

HELL FUCKING YEAH

Although, it struck me as...not good or bad, exactly, but odd, that she tried a "Just let me remember for a week" tactic. In her place, I don't think it would have even occurred to me to think that might have any chance of working; it's so obvious that it's at best barely better and probably a lot worse than just letting her keep them. In this day and age, knowledge can and frequently does operate on r-selection. Give her the chance, and by this time next week, there will be twenty thousand copies of her story, in paper and cloth and magnetic tape, in USB drives kept in safes and in far-flung corners of the Internet, in the minds of friends and acquaintances scattered throughout the globe. You may find and destroy a few thousand, but you'll have a hell of a time finding them all.

(I have many feelings about mind-wipes and fighting back against them.)

[nenya_kanadka]

Interesting! I hadn't thought of it from that angle. (That is, about why he'd want to wipe her memories in the first place.) If it's a Men In Black flashy-thingy sort of deal where it's about weird shit getting out, I guess that makes sense...but my question was, does the Doctor generally do that? I mean to some extent there are UNIT cleanup crews who probably are all "nothing to see here, it was totally swamp gas." But he wiped Donna's mind because he thought it would do *her* damage to keep them, not because he thought she'd tell all. So maybe he's thinking of Bill as a bystander still at that point, and then switches to "she's a friend/she matters"? Then again the offer to take the memories was after she said she was hurting and he'd vetoed the "go fix it with time travel" option.

Huh. Hm. Hmmm.

[brin_bellway]

While the pronouns were written as if addressing the Doctor, I was mostly thinking from Bill's perspective: even if "keep this secret from the muggles" isn't among the Doctor's goals, she doesn't know that. When she starts talking about memory erasure, all she knows is that in stories, people who get a brush with this kind of Weird Shit tend to get mind-wiped afterward by the more experienced people, and that the Doctor has adopted a pose traditionally associated with mind-melds.

*checks transcript*

Ah, interesting: after she accuses him of trying to wipe her memory, but before the "just for one week" bit, the Doctor says this:

"I have no choice. I'm here for a reason, I am in disguise. I have promises to keep. No one can know about me."

(Oh, and also, he adopts the mind-meld pose right after this exchange:
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no. No, no. You have to forget about that.
BILL: I don't see how I can.
DOCTOR: I do. Come here, Bill.

So it's actually even more obvious that he's planning to wipe her memory than it would be from the situation alone.)

(Chakoteya is so great. I love transcript sites.)

[nenya_kanadka]

Ooh. That does clarify things, yes. Hmm!

(I was watching it with subtitles but that doesn't always mean I remember all the details later! I totally need to bookmark that website (which I've heard of before) because transcripts are useful as hell. ❤❤❤)

[scripsi]

I think that if Bill contiues like this, she will be a conteneder with Donna as favourite NewWho companion! Loved the interastion between her and the Doctor too!

[nenya_kanadka]

Yes! She's just so...fun. I know I keep saying that, lol. But I really am just plain old *liking* her. It's just working for me in a way Amy or Clara never did. They were fine I guess? But I didn't have FEELINGS.

So much yay!

[scripsi]

I agree! She felt so much fun, and I look forward to get to know her!

[huinesoron]

It was great fun! I liked the distinct madcap feel of the whole episode. celebestel was kind of freaked out by the realism of the 'dead' makeup, so I guess that's a positive?

(I keep seeing all over the internet the question 'why is Nardole there? Why's he hanging out with the Doctor?' Uh, he's a companion, that's what they do...)

[nenya_kanadka]

He can have more than one companion at a time! They're not always young girls either! (I know, this confused me when I was new to Who too, because fandom osmosis. But Nardole being there's not especially weird really.) Maybe some people missed the latest Christmas special, or didn't pick up that he'd been in the Husbands of River Song as well?

Anyway I quite like Nardole.

I'm gleeful about Doctor Who in a way I haven't been in a while. It's such fun when it's fun. :D

Though I must say seeing this episode and then immediately going to take a shower had me a bit O.o for a moment as the water began to run... 😂

(Tangentially, I'm also pleased that if anybody's going to fall in love with the Doctor this time, it will have to be the guy companion. Or the Master, but that's not new news--though I am holding out for some Simm/Twelve *something*, if the former is gonna show up again.)