DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who WAR OF THE SONTARANS REVIEW

[geektalk]

DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who Flux #2 [WAR OF THE SONTARANS REVIEW]

Been away… this week Harry tackles the return of the Doctor’s old enemies The Sontarans in a review of the latest Doctor Who episode “War of the Sontarans”

Harry’s Moving Media

 

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i think and i could be wrong that this

is the first episode that the covid

production issues rear their ugly heads

producer matt strievens would like us to

watch this without thinking oh well but

they made this during the pandemic but

this is truly impossible with the

accompaniment of seriously bad writing

this era is plagued with it looks like

they accidentally admitted to this in an

article by the radio times just to recap

for those at the back that don’t know

exactly what has happened with the

production of this series filming was

delayed due to the director of bbc wales

putting a halt on productions whilst

social distancing measures were

mandatory last year having different

covered rules in england and wales also

made production difficult overseas

filming was obviously not given the

green light and upon realizing this i

now see the allure of making something

serialized like classic who

and having the sontarans looking the way

they do what i’m imagining has happened

is that the showrunners had an episode

set during the crimean war with the

santarans and mary seacole that was

originally set to be a singular episode

without other connections most of the

episode consists of that with the

overarching narrative glittering the

rest of it up with the flux appeal the

episode opens with a reminder of what

happened in the previous one which in

turn reminded me of how the halloween

special hypes itself up like series 6

did 10 years ago the doctor has another

vision this week being drawn to the

shrieking shack floating in the sky the

gang woke up in the middle of the

crimean war where i realized i literally

had no real knowledge about this

conflict whatsoever apparently the

british and russian empires weren’t

exactly agreeable in the middle of the

19th century i say that because of the

anglo-afghan wars that predate the

conflict of this episode which i’ve

already talked about in my review of the

sherlock episode the great game putting

it simply the events in this episode

take place during the turning point of

the crimean war the siege of sevastopol

where this episode takes place primarily

can be seen as an allied victory against

the russian empire when they sued for

peace except in this episode the

sontarans have mysteriously replaced all

mentions of anything and everything

russian curb-stomping the british forces

into the dirt mary seacole materializes

as coincidentally as the trio do making

me wonder why she was out here alone

essentially doing soldiers work hey

get away from him show me your hands

what did you take show me we didn’t take

anything instead of having a large

amount of nursing to do with all the

injuries and deaths shown literally all

around them returning to the british

camp the companions then started

vanishing out of thin air and i

initially believed they were going for a

cool back to the future kind of vibe

until the doctor explained it all the

way collision between flux and vortex

energy you’re falling through space and

time why dan and diaz ended up where

they did remains to be seen the show

doesn’t seem capable of entertaining the

idea of the doctor and by extension the

audience not knowing what happened to

the pair nor the idea of the sontarans

meddling with the past having ripples in

the present more on that later the

doctor tries to return to the tardis but

it is seemingly now capable of deleting

doors as well as growing them the doctor

checked into the british hotel where we

found a general planning and drinking

rum given that there are people arguing

about which nurse held most significance

between mary seacole and florence

nightingale i do appreciate that the

episode did three things firstly not

representing nightingale as the thomas

edison party pooper of this episode

secondly acknowledging that nightingale

claimed in a letter to her

brother-in-law that mary seacole would

do some good and make many drunk and

thirdly didn’t let race become the

episode’s focal point seeing as the

santarans as far as i’m aware have

nothing to do with racism it is written

in mary seacole’s book however that

racism was what prevented her attempt to

join nightingale’s group all this

context made for great narrative roots

in the story they have this big reveal

that the sontarans have been here the

whole time by showing that russia and

china have simply become sonta this

evidently means that the sontarans had

traveled even further back in time to

establish this state it’s not so far

back in time though to suggest that the

characters had forgotten russia entirely

it gives the sontaran’s almost mongol

empire vibes seemingly popping out of

nowhere and swallowing nations whole if

you needed more evidence that the

sontarans were fans of the mongols i

wanted to ride a horse

what a great line that was there was

also a rather effective interrogation

scene with the doctor and this sontaran

grunt that refused all help from mary i

really liked how she used her gender to

hide her own identity and get the

sontaran to lead her to his base stan

starkey’s performance here was pretty

great as well admittedly doing what he

always does but still had me smiling at

moments like these may death ring down

on you both

human scum you will be stamped beneath

the boot of suntan at a future point to

be determined it would seem on the

surface like the sontaran was

conveniently kept here only to be

released shortly afterwards but the fact

the general doesn’t like mary keeping

him here makes his release more

understandable his immunity to

interrogation prevents him from being an

asset to the british as well the pair

followed the discharged patient to a

hidden cave where all the centaurians

were preparing for battle mary’s duty of

care got swept under the rug here though

in favor of

sitting for hours taking notes of what

happens she doesn’t decide to do this

herself but the doctor whom she met 15

minutes ago asks her to do it without

any questions or objections mary c cole

just became a note taker for the doctor

whilst all her patients suffered and

died in the british hotel the next

morning the doctor blasted her sonic

screwdriver megaphone to get the

sontaran’s attention she firstly reveals

her identity to this commander character

and he in turn reveals that the

sontarans have developed psychic powers

as they foresaw the flux’s arrival this

not only gave the scene in the previous

episodes and purpose but it does all

feel a little bit overkill considering

the sontarans can also time travel

wait why would they even need a psychic

if they can time travel i mean at least

they claimed not to be the creators or

commanders of the flux aspects that are

still left a mystery i started feeling a

bit troubled though when he started

talking some more he claimed that right

before the lupari brought up the

planet-wide shield they just

zipped inside okay fine but there was

also this why sebastopol the crimean

skirmish seems the perfect place to

start so much conflict so much

opportunity yet they started years

before this event we saw it on the map

with those nations stamped out of memory

suddenly the fog cleared away for these

two massive armies to become visible and

they had a big battle the doctor

returned to mary seacole and once again

without any urge to return to nursing

some soldiers back to health she went

along with the doctor’s vague

instructions and bordered a centaur and

ship this was where the present and past

timelines converged so i’ll just hop

onto what happened in the present before

going any further

we are treated to the first of many

coincidental teleports that brought dan

back to his street in liverpool things

started getting murky when his neighbors

gave him strange signs one neighbor

pointed at her watch which somehow

prompted dan to turn around and see a

giant centaur and ship parked in the

middle of the stadium had it not been

for this line earlier collision between

flux and vortex energy you’re falling

through space and time i would have

naturally assumed the sontarans had been

ruling over the humans for over a

century and dan being ejected back into

the present day was time sorting itself

out santarans have traveled in time

before in the show but seeing as they

aren’t on the ground in the halloween

apocalypse we can rule out the idea that

the present was created because of them

ruling over the earth for a considerable

amount of time therefore i wonder why

they felt the need to have multiple

divisions of troops deployed in

different timelines isn’t there

considerable risk that they might end up

somehow [ __ ] themselves over by doing

this damn was then chased through the

streets with more horrendously

inaccurate shooting when another

miraculous coincidence occurred dan’s

mum and dad appearing as though they

were expecting him and took out two

zomtarons with a wok and frying pan it’s

hilarious that their positioning

indicates them expecting him but their

dialogue says otherwise where the hell

have you been afterwards they’re all

seen in a car hiding from the santarans

seeing as there are no broken windows

i’m guessing it belongs to the parents

this means they would have either driven

out here during the curfew without this

happening

or they parked near dan street and hid

for hours in case their son suddenly

appeared in the street like he does the

mum then said that it’s been two days

since the last episode and that the

lupari shielded the earth for three

minutes and then [ __ ] off this being a

nighttime setting doesn’t clear up

whether the flux destroyed the sun or

not i’m assuming it didn’t because they

haven’t all frozen to death but given

how much damage we saw the flux create

last week it would be good to know how

the sun got off so lightly without

lupari protection they then arrived at

the waterfront which is supposed to be

where the invasion originated it was

rather hilarious to me that after what

would seem to be two strange statements

from dan must’ve been the cavanista

ships

yeah well i’ve had some experience of

dealing with aliens these last few days

he tells his parents to go home and they

just do way to underwrite the bravery of

these two characters going out into the

night smacking sontarans looking for

their son the next scene has dan

overseeing an execution of some

spies i was thinking about how weighty

this moment might have been had dan’s

parents been caught and executed instead

i know it sounds a bit morbid but it’s

just the fact these people who were

killed are so undeveloped and get killed

off screen that makes the whole scene

just a laughingstock we already had a

great couple of moments showing just how

extensively powerful this group of

sontarans are this was just so pointless

if dan had an emotional reaction to

seeing this then i could understand this

being put in here but he just stares at

them like a piece of cardboard no tears

no fear

nothing he’s then seen filming all the

waterfront [ __ ] on his phone before

climbing aboard a sontaran ship without

obstacle this was where the two

timelines converged and it was all a bit

cringe the pair talking simultaneously

despite barely knowing each other the

filming of himself on the ship

shenanigans all just so that the doctor

could figure out the sontaran plan of

having the earth since the dawn of time

why didn’t the sontarans just time

travel there to begin with if that was

their end game maybe they could only

travel in time whilst planet-bound maybe

they can only time travel in increments

of 170 years or so what the sontarans

can and can’t do in relation to time

travel is never explained or maybe i

watched the episode twice for this

review and missed a very important piece

of information or maybe they’re just

gonna reveal it later in the series i

have no idea just in the nick of time

before dan was executed carvinista

showed up to zap the centauron

single-handedly

i see three blasts and five sontarans

what the actual [ __ ] i wanna call deus

ex machina here but i am just so in love

with this idea that there is a species

of humanoid dogs looking out for

humanity that i’m willing to overlook

this rather convenient escape hatch it

took the lupari two days to realize that

they left prematurely and poor

carvinista getting the blame gave

further context for his resentment

towards humans the pair do have really

good chemistry and jokes but i still

found the whole ram the sontarans out of

all timelines and locations thing to be

super convenient either lupari smashing

up other sontaran sites across the globe

whilst this is all happening i guess

there’s always next week back at the

hotel the doctor gave the commander and

mary a big lecture on how to defeat the

sontarans it was such a cringe fest

essentially watching her talk for three

minutes straight whilst giving mary gold

stars and having a good jab at the

general for sending his men to die all

these drawings here were apparently done

by mary during her overly long

note-taking session how did she have

enough light to draw in such detail even

stranger to me was the idea that the

earth’s atmosphere has damaging gases

for the sontarans sure it gives them

reason for gassing the entire planet 13

years ago but i thought that was just to

feed clones adding this detail raises

one rather major question why would they

ever take their helmets off if the

earth’s atmosphere was so harmful to

them how did that sontaran they had

chained up earlier survive without a

recharge so they all go outside to empty

the sontaran’s supply chain which

conveniently happens to be right at the

tip of the legs that are planted into

the earth afterwards the doctor and the

commander are then seen just

outside somewhere foggy without an

acknowledgement of the conflict that

should be ensuing right now if this is

what happens when the supply is drained

out

surely this should be happening

throughout the entire division with

troops dispatched to put the sabotage

down instead we shall make

a strategic withdrawal um

what this was made even more frustrating

by the general magically making a [ __ ]

load of explosive barrels appear beneath

the ships destroying them all with the

gas they’ve just unloaded just like the

barrels of dynamite appearing out of

nowhere the tardis also does the same

thing not only that but the front doors

that previously went missing

materialized because the doctor did just

the right amount of begging she then

grabs dan for the cliffhanger of the

episode where they find the tardis has

gotten even weirder than merely having

extra doors it only clicked with me just

now that the tardis’s interior design

does have a very crystalline feel to it

this connection with the design of the

crystal siblings definitely made me

suspicious of their involvement in this

hijacking that took place so let’s talk

about what happened on this episode’s

final front shall we

the final coincidental teleports of the

episode brought vinda and yaz to the

temple of adropose for some reason she

found the guy digging the great hall of

1820 here too he seemed to have dementia

or something unable to even make

conversation with yaz and wandered off

without being seen again for the rest of

the episode i am not kidding he is

literally there for just over a minute

with yaz being pulled away by that

repetitive diamond-shaped voice thing

can you repair

yeah oh man i laughed so hard at this

when the hell did she have the time to

write that down i only seem to remember

her using or even having a pen in her

first [ __ ] episode why would she need

to write this down even though it was

painfully obvious what this acronym

stood for they still felt the need to

spell it out to us in a later scene i

guess yaz doesn’t wash her hands very

much either disgusting

the pair then come together to do some

repairs what they were repairing

this

i mean those banisters have seen better

days it’s not exactly clear yet what’s

going on with these lots only that there

are now three meanings to the word time

the planet they are on just happens to

be called time and the beings within

this room are preventing time as an evil

force from being unrestricted and

unleashed on the universe the crystal

duo then appear with a third person

named passenger this character had a

rather robert strong kind of vibe except

without the jumbled or convenient

backstory the other two have i wonder if

the passenger has something to do with

them kidnapping diane from last week

this mental speculation that’s going on

in my brain about the character i like

very much the three then went to where

yaz and vinda were can you repair

yes

sure

you got identification how did yaz

immediately suspect these three of foul

play the doctor might but she’s not

exactly here right now she didn’t seem

to have a problem with the vanishing old

man and vinda despite never meeting them

before had they said yes we can repair

but we need you to step into that

position and the task will be complete

it might have made for an interesting

test as to whether these two characters

are gullible enough to believe this

stuff or are too easily trusting instead

they’re just forced into these positions

off-screen vinda tries uh

shooting the siblings and they just

teleport around for reasons that should

be explained later down the line the

doctor and dan then arrived and swarm

clicked his fingers and there’s not

really a lot else to say here until next

week

so

did it suck

this episode was quite hit and miss it’s

got a few moments here and there worth

appreciating but by the end i found

myself frustrated and dissatisfied by

the plot the only aspect of the previous

episode that had literally no

involvement was the claire character and

the weeping angels they did a great job

of making the sontarans appear powerful

in the past but are a bit of a laughing

stock in the present day i’m still quite

lost by all the crystal [ __ ] mary c cole

felt very underused without sufficient

characterization and i can definitely

say the same thing about vinder and

dan’s parents too you can support the

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youtube thanks for watching see you all

next week

[Music]

i’m feeling really pretentious today i’m

feeling really pretentious today i’m

feeling really pretentious today given

that there are people arguing about

which nurse held most significance

between mary seacole and florence

nightingale

mary’s duty of care got swapped

swapped under the reg wow

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