Category: Criticality

Culture on My Mind – Oregon Trail

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind

Culture on My Mind
Oregon Trail
May 17, 2024

This week, thanks to the Gaming Historian, I’m thinking about my early days with computer games.

In the mid-1980s, my school had a room full of Apple II computers. They had chunky keyboards, electric green monitors, and 5-1/4″ floppy disk drives. They’re prehistoric by modern standards, but the Apple II was an important milestone in home computing as one of the first successful mass-produced microcomputers.

Once or twice a week, for about 30 minutes or so, we were taken to the computer lab and allowed to play with whatever programs suited the teacher’s whims. My first experience was with the Logo programming language which drove a sprite called Turtle around the screen using simple commands. I also learned to play games like Number Munchers, Word Munchers, and Odell Lake.

But the big one – and the most obvious for members of my generation – was Oregon Trail. I remember trying to figure out the best way to win the game and trying different iterations over several visits to the computer lab. The easiest path was to start as a banker who could buy nearly unlimited supplies and pay for services, but the challenge was to start with fewer resources and learn how to manage everything on the trek across the country.

I remember the sense of victory after finally rafting down the Columbia River and arriving in the Willamette Valley. Looking back, Oregon Trail was a simple game, but that moment was huge for a young kid.

About a month ago, the Gaming Historian published a deep-dive story about the origins and popularity of the game. Over 90 minutes, so many memories came flooding back as I learned all about this simple yet amazing game.

Check it out here or on YouTube, and don’t die of dysentery.

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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #305: Flux – Once, Upon Time

Michael Falkner5 Comments

Timestamp 305 - Once Upon Time

A story that covers a lot of ground only to go full circle.

This chapter starts with a woman named Bel and her story in the aftermath of the Flux. On the run from Daleks, she’s trying to make sense of corruptions in time and space. As a swarm of blue particles consumes a pair of survivors she vows to find the one she loves.

Back at the Temple of Atropos, the Doctor tries to save Yaz and Vinder by pushing Dan on a pedestal as she leaps into the heart of the time storm. The others vanish as a Weeping Angel appears, then she’s swept away. A flashback follows to the Seige of Atropos where the four are commandos with the Doctor in charge.

Dan has his own vision where he gets coffee with Diane in Liverpool. Yaz has a similar vision where she’s on patrol with her police supervisor. Vinder has a vision where he receives an award and a promotion. All of them are aware of the irregularities in their scenarios as the Doctor flickers in and out.

The Doctor’s vision continues as her team infiltrates the Temple of Atropos in search of the Ravagers. She’s returned to the time storm where she stands before three giant Mouri. She’s returned to the temple where she discovers she’s reliving a moment from the Fugitive Doctor’s life. To save her friends, she needs to survive the encounter.

Dan ends up in tunnels where he encounters Joseph Williamson holding a laser weapon. After an encounter with the blue swarm, he returns to Liverpool where a vision of the Doctor tells him not to disappear while she tries to convince the Mouri to help.

Bel’s story continues after stealing a Lupari ship and flying to a new sector dominated by Cybermen. She consults a device called Tigmi before pushing onward.

Vinder’s memories continue as he serves the Grand Serpent. Yaz lives a memory of playing video games with Sonya, learns the truth of their predicament from the Doctor, and discovers that her timestream is being corrupted by the Weeping Angels.

At the Siege of Atropos, the Doctor faces the Ravagers (including Azure and an older version of Swarm). She learns about the Passengers – an endlessly large living prison with five of them holding hundreds of thousands of beings – and captures the Ravagers after they destroy two of the passengers. The Doctor reveals that one of the Passengers belongs to Division and contains the Mouri. The Doctor convinces the Mouri in the time storm to replicate the same infiltration.

Bel escapes from the planet but her ship is invaded by Cybermen. She narrowly survives by shooting all of them only to learn that all of the surviving villains are fighting for the scraps of the universe.

Vinder’s service to the Grand Serpent reveals that his commander is corrupt. When Vinder reports the Grand Serpent’s actions, he is exiled to Observation Outpost Rose. He is allowed to record only one message to his family.

The Doctor finishes her mission on Atropos, learning that one of her cohorts was Karvanista. She is swept to a station where she meets an old woman named Awsok who tells her that the Flux and Ravagers were introduced intentionally to destroy space and time. It was designed to stop the Doctor.

Yaz, Dan, Vinder, and the Doctor emerge in the modern-day temple as Mouri are restored. Swarm and Azure summon the blue Time Force particles and gloat that they have already won, taunting Dan with an image of Diane trapped in a Passenger. The villains teleport away and the team returns to the TARDIS, which Vinder easily recognizes.

Bel sits beside a campfire and listens to Vinder’s message. She promises to find Vinder and reunite him with his unborn child. Meanwhile, Vinder returns to his home planet and finds it ravaged by the Flux. He stays behind to search for Bel as the TARDIS moves on.

Peace on the TARDIS is shortlived, however, as a Weeping Angel appears on Yaz’s phone. It soon emerges and takes control of the ship.

The Angel has the TARDIS.

On the one hand, this story provides a ton of backstory for Vinder and the Doctor, particularly for the latter as a small slice of the Fugitive Doctor’s life is explained. It ties the Doctor to the temple and the Ravagers and provides a thread for the future about the Flux and its engineered impact on the universe. It also provides another plot thread as Bel searches for Vinder.

On the other hand, this chapter spins in a circle, ultimately going where Dan and Yaz went, which is nowhere. In fact, Dan and Yaz are effectively sidelined in safe pockets of time while the Doctor figures out a solution.

The story itself is the most chaotic of Flux so far, ping-ponging to and fro and ultimately resulting in a loss for our heroes. They didn’t achieve anything concerning saving the universe, though, to their credit, they did gain new information by following the path the enemy laid out.

It’s an interesting concept, but the execution felt frantic and anxious. Instead of ramping down at the end, it crashed to a halt with a cliffhanger. Thankfully, though, this intrusion into the TARDIS actually made sense since Yaz brought the Angel with her from the time storm.

Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Flux – Village of the Angels

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The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #304: Flux – War of the Sontarans

Michael Falkner3 Comments

Timestamp 304 - War of the Sontarans

It’s history, but not how you remember it.

Following last chapter’s cliffhanger, the Doctor gazes upon a giant, misshapen, dilapidated house as the Cloister Bell rings. She comes to on a battlefield with Yaz and Dan. The TARDIS stands nearby as the Doctor scans the surroundings, but the team is interrupted by a woman named Mary Seacole who accuses them of robbing the dead.

The Doctor deduces that they have been thrown back in time to the Crimean War, specifically Sevastopol in 1855. Unfortunately, the British aren’t fighting the Russians in this history. The enemy is an army of Sontarans, led by a commander on horseback.

We next catch up with Vinder, who has somehow landed inside a stone temple with a floating diamond-shaped entity called a Priest Triangle. The central chamber contains six plinths with humanoid holographic figures. The triangle explains that the Mouri must never be compromised.

The Doctor and her team arrive with Mrs. Seacole at the British Hotel, leading Yaz to wonder if history is being rewritten. Both Dan and Yaz vanish in a blue glow, the result of vortex energy combining with the Flux. The Doctor tries to enter the TARDIS, but the doors are not visible. Dan rematerializes outside the remains of his former home but finds that time has been rewritten due to the Sontaran invasion. He escapes an army of enforcers after his parents knock out the Sontarans with cookware.

Yaz materializes inside the temple where Vinder did, encountering Joseph Williamson from the year 1820. The temple floor plan keeps shifting and Williamson runs off, leaving Yaz to deal with a Priest Triangle. She agrees to help after reading the letters “WWTDD” on her hand.

The Doctor returns to the British Hotel and meets Lieutenant General Logan of the Light Division. They discuss the general’s battle plans, finding Sontar on a map where Russia and China should be. Since Seacole and Logan vaguely recognize the name Russia, the Doctor concludes that the temporal disruption must have been a recent event.

The Doctor accompanies Seacole on nursing rounds and finds a Sontaran foot soldier named Svild. The Sontaran was captured after being hit by a cannonball, and he asserts his right to silence under the Shadow Proclamation. That decision is quickly rescinded when he hears that the Doctor is nearby. She frees him under the promise that he will relay that information to his commander, allowing her to meet the commander on her signal.

The Doctor and Seacole follow Svild across the battlefield. They find the Sontaran camp under a camouflage shield and with it, a fleet of ships protected by hundreds of warriors. The Doctor asks Seacole to stand watch overnight while Svild relays his intel to Commander Skaak. The commander is impressed but executes Svild for his disgrace.

Back to the future, Dan hides with his parents and learns that the Sontarans arrived after the Three Minute Eclipse (the Lupari shield) and Dan’s subsequent disappearance. Eileen and Neville have learned how to kill Sontarans by hitting the port on their necks. They go to where the Sontarans first appeared, the Liverpool Docks, and Dan decides to scout ahead alone with his father’s wok. He eventually encounters Commander Ritskaw, a Sontarn who executes three innocent humans for spying, and learns of the Temporal Offensive. He then tries to find his way onto a Sontaran spaceship.

In the temple, Yaz meets Vinder. Together they learn that this is the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time. The Mouri, the people on the plinths, harness and control time in the universe. Two of them, however, are broken, and the triangle claims that time is evil and must be harnessed.

In Sevastopol, the Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver to signal for parlay. The Doctor and Skaak meet across the wide, empty battlefield, and the Doctor reveals herself. Skaak tells her they knew of the Flux and took advantage of the Lupari shield to slip onto the planet and embed themselves in a period of deep conflict. Skaak claims Linx first made a claim to Earth in the 13th century, and he chose the Crimean War because he wanted to ride a horse. General Logan ambushes the Doctor and apprehends her, leading to a human massacre.

The Doctor escapes by using Venusian aikido on her guard and meets with Seacole. With the Sontarans engaged on the battlefield, they decide to enter one of the ships. Due to the Temporal Offensive, the ships that Dan and the Doctor are invading are linked, so the two share what they’ve learned. The Sontarans are building ships to invade the entire history of humanity, using Crimea as a springboard. The call is interrupted by Ritskaw, leaving Dan to face off against a handful of Sontarans, but he is soon rescued by Karvanista.

Swarm and Azure visit the Temple of Atropos with a silent black-clad figure called a Passenger form. They promptly destroy a Priest Triangle with a touch. They encounter Yaz and Vinder and display their non-linear knowledge by revealing the WWTD marks – What would the Doctor do? – on Yaz’s hand. Azure and Swarm dodge Vinder’s gunfire and find the quantum-locked Mouri. Swarm kills one of them.

The Doctor and Seacole regroup at the British Hotel. General Logan arrives in distress, and the Doctor details an action plan. Since the Sontarans need to rest for 7.5 minutes every 27 hours, they will be vulnerable in approximately 38 minutes. The Doctor plans to drain the Sontaran supplies while they rest thus leaving them vulnerable to Earth’s atmosphere.

The Doctor faces off with Skaak while Dan and Karvanista destroy the Sontaran fleet and create a temporal explosion. Skaak orders his fleet to evacuate, but Logan gets revenge by destroying the Crimean fleet. The Doctor is furious with Logan but leaves him when the TARDIS calls. She arrives in Liverpool with a sopping-wet Dan and Karvanista, offering the human space on the TARDIS. The Lupari remains behind to protect Earth.

The TARDIS is in a bad state, and whatever is corrupting it hijacks the time capsule. The Doctor and Dan emerge in the Temple of Atropos where Azure leads them to the central chamber. Yaz and Vinder have replaced the two flickering Mouri, and Swarm and Azure count down before allowing the full force of time to blast through them.

This chapter does well by splitting up the heroes and making connections with the secondary characters. The Doctor and Dan get the lion’s share of the work in this episode, but Yaz gets shorted despite connecting with this miniseries’s main character in a major setting.

There are also plenty of mysteries to layer on, including the connection between the miniseries villains and the temple. The Sontarans make a great return here, including ties back to the classic era with both Linx and the same makeup style. It’s a wonderful love letter to the classic seasons.

Historically, this episode’s events could be the inspiration for Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, which dramatizes an actual event in which the Light Brigade marches into certain death during the Crimean War. Notably, the Second Doctor had ties to the same conflict in The Evil of the Daleks and The War Games.

Logan’s revenge on the Sontarans reminds me of Harriet Jones and the retreating Sycorax (The Christmas Invasion) and the Brigadier’s destruction of the Sontarans (Doctor Who and the Silurians). The Doctor is rightfully angry about the murder of combatants who chose to disengage, and it’s good to see her acting the role as this era matures.

All told, I really enjoyed the story and the groundwork it continues to lay for the overall Flux storyline.

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Flux – Once, Upon Time

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The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #303: Flux – The Halloween Apocalypse

Michael Falkner6 Comments

Timestamp 303 - Halloween Apocalypse

He’s not quite Dan’s best friend.

Of all the odd places, Yaz and the Doctor are trapped, upside down, dangling over an ocean of acid.  As an alternative to the locks releasing their ankles in 79 seconds, a supernova is about to consume the planet. As an alternative to that, Karvanista’s kill disks will blast them into oblivion.

The death trap is reminiscent of something from Batman ’66.

After some shenanigans including voice-activated restraints and a well-placed mattress in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Yaz escape and set a course for Karvanista’s next target: Earth.

In Liverpool, 1820, Joseph Williamson digs a tunnel in preparation for the “cataclysmic”, reasoning that would supposedly drive anyone else mad. Two centuries later, Dan Lewis leads a tour group around the Museum of Liverpool. He’s not a real tour guide, however, and a museum employee named Diane escorts him out. Dan just wants to make people happy. The pair make plans for Halloween drinks later that night.

En route to Earth, the TARDIS refuses to land. The Doctor receives a psychic vision of two agents on a planetoid checking on a prisoner named Swarm. The prisoner has been contained in the Burnished Rage battleground since the dawn of the universe, but today is when he breaks free, restoring his vitality by consuming their life forces. The two women were apparently agents of the Division. When the vision ends, Yaz tells the Doctor about a black fluid leaking from the TARDIS. The Doctor scans it and sets their new course for October 31st.

Dan volunteers at the Jenning Street Food Bank, turning down a food box for himself. As he and Wilma lock up, a device scans them. Dan goes home and gives out candy for Halloween, though he refuses a man holding a carton of eggs. He later regrets not taking food from Wilma since his fridge and cupboard are bare, but his lament is short-lived as Karvanista breaks down his door and reveals his canine-like Lupar visage. Dan soon ends up in a cage.

The Doctor and Yaz follow Karvanista to Dan’s house and find evidence of a Lupari fleet waiting to invade Earth. They spring a trap and escape just as Dan’s house is miniaturized. Meanwhile, Dan wakes up in an electrified cage on Karvanista’s ship. Unfortunately for him, the hunter explains that he’s totally irrelevant.

Jumping to the Arctic, two researchers named Jón and Anna hear an alert from a glowing device in their garage. They seem to recognize it, but Anna smashes the device and ignores the warning.

In Liverpool, the Doctor investigates the house. Yaz and the Doctor meet a woman named Claire who claims to know them from the past. The Doctor rushes off at a signal from the Lupari, but the TARDIS seems to have some dimensional issues. Together, the Doctor and Yaz pilot the temperamental TARDIS to find the fleet. Yaz berates the Doctor for keeping secrets from her, but the argument is interrupted by a temporal field around Karvanista’s ship.

Claire returns to her house and finds a Weeping Angel. She seems to know something is coming for her, and the Angel eventually sends Claire back in time.

Next up, we visit Observation Station Rose in the depths of the universe. Observation Officer Inston-Vee Vinder makes (yet) another status report, finding the beauty of the universe a balm to his otherwise overwhelming boredom. He detects an error and watches as a dark cloud consumes Thoribus Minor.

Jón and Anna receive a visit from Swarm. Jón is consumed, but Anna is revealed as Swarm’s sister Azure.

The Doctor and Yaz land on Karvanista’s ship. The Doctor rushes off to confront Karvanista while Yaz seeks out Dan. It turns out that the invasion fleet is a recall fleet, bonded to humanity as guardians to rescue them in an ultimate crisis. Dan is the designated human to which Karvanista was bonded. Also, Karvanista is the only living Division operative left and the Doctor wants answers about her past. Instead, Karvanista tells the Doctor about the Flux.

The Flux, the ever-consuming cloud, bears down on Vinder’s station. With only a few minutes to survive, he launches an escape pod.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan escape from Karvanista’s ship on the TARDIS (which having more dimensional issues). They head to the edge of the solar system as, thirty trillion lightyears away, Sontaran Commander Ritskaw and Psychic Surveyor Kragar prepare to take advantage of the pending destruction. The Cloister Bell sounds as the Doctor receives another vision, this time of planets and entire civilizations being destroyed. She also sees Swarm on a desolate landscape, who reveals himself as her nemesis from the Doctor’s Division days.

The Flux changes direction and pursues the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor to set course for Earth. On the planet below, Azure lures Diane into a trap, but the planet is saved as the Lupari encase the Earth in a protective formation. Unfortunately, the TARDIS is unable to escape the Flux, even as the Doctor uses pure vortex energy as a weapon.

The Doctor stares down the end of the universe as the Flux rushes toward the TARDIS.

The vibe of this introduction is creepy and frantic. It does the job of setting up the game board and building tension as the Flux bears down on Earth, but the stakes are all too familiar in modern science fiction. How do you come back from demolishing the entire universe?

The relationship between Yaz and the Doctor has obviously strengthened since Graham and Ryan left the TARDIS. Yaz has learned to pilot the TARDIS (like Donna and Nardole before her, as well as several others in the audio universe) and has no problem calling the Doctor on her bluffs. It’s a welcome reprieve from being in the backseat for many of the previous adventures.

It’s definitely a good start and plays well into Chibnall’s strengths with long-form television. The only question that remains: What’s up with the well-placed mattress?

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Flux – War of the Sontarans

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The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Dragon Con Report 2024 #4: Volunteers

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind

Culture on My Mind
Dragon Con Report 2024 #4: Volunteers
April 26, 2024

One of the ways that I like to prep for Dragon Con is by listening to the Dragon Con Report podcast. Brought to you by the ESO Network, the podcast is a monthly discussion on all things Dragon Con that counts down to the big event over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.

The show is hosted by Michael Gordon, Jennifer Schleusner, and Channing Sherman, and it delivers news, notes, tips, and tricks for newbies and veterans alike. The Dragon Con Newbies community has a great relationship with the show and the network.

The fourth show of the 2024 season explores what it’s like to be a volunteer at Dragon Con. The convention is run by volunteers, from registration to technology operations and more. Mike, Jen, and Channing talk with guests Julia McCure (a volunteer with Information Services) and Andrés Thomas (of the Animation Track) to discuss the lifeblood of the convention. 

The show can be found in video form on YouTube and in audio on the official website and wherever fine podcasts are fed. The Dragon Con Report channels can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You can catch their shows live on those platforms or on demand on their website.

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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp: Series Twelve Summary

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Timestamp - Series Twelve Summary

Jodie Whittaker’s second set picked up the pace.

This group of stories was where the Thirteenth Doctor hit her stride, and it seemed a fitting place to throw a wrench in her confidence with the Timeless Child revelations. The only stinker in the bunch was Orphan 55, a story with one of the most telegraphed plot twists, a serious lack of tension and internal continuity, and an overly preachy ending that lectured the audience and characters instead of using subtle metaphorical elegance.

Much of this series focused on pulpy storytelling and having fun, though Chris Chibnall’s penchant for “oops, we’re out of time” rush endings was a constant companion. I love how this series remembered that Doctor Who can be exciting, whimsical, and thoughtful. The Timeless Child thread was woven fairly well throughout the series, and I appreciate how it only cropped up from time to time instead of being in our faces like Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat are prone to do.

The TARDIS got some enhanced interior deco, finally adding some depth to that claustrophobic set, and the Master got a facelift with an amazing performance from Sacha Dawan. We also got to see the trio of Ryan, Graham, and Yaz in top form (although I would still love to see Yaz doing more) before the fam was broken apart.  It was a fun series that, with one notable exception, I’d easily watch again.

Overall, Series Twelve comes in with a solid 4.1 score. That’s in good company with the classic Fifth Season, the classic Eighteenth Season, Series Two, Series Seven, and Series Nine. It’s a six-way tie for tenth place in the scope of the Timestamps Project.

Spyfall – 5
Orphan 55 – 2
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror – 4
Fugitive of the Judoon – 5
Praxeus – 4
Can You Hear Me? – 4
The Haunting of Villa Diodati – 4
Ascension of the Cybermen & The Timeless Children – 4
Revolution of the Daleks – 5

Series Eleven Average Rating: 4.1/5

Next up, the Timestamps Project continues to the end of the Thirteenth Doctor’s era with Flux and the finale specials.

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Flux – The Halloween Apocalypsecc-break

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Theater & Nerddom: Is Theater Part of Pop Culture?

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind

Culture on My Mind
Theater & Nerddom: Is Theater Part of Pop Culture?
April 19, 2024

This week, I’m playing catch-up with the Theater and Musical Lovers YouTube Channel.

The channel and its associated Facebook group were established as an unofficial gathering of Dragon Con attendees who love theater, musicals, and the performing arts. Their goal is to create a community of fellow thespians and fans at the convention.

Last August, the thespians and stagehands discussed why theater and performing arts are definitely part of nerd and pop culture. Yes, indeed, they answered the question in the first act, but the discussion is really the main attraction. Join Gary, Sarah, Sue, Kelly, and Courtney to geek out on the big stage.

Note: Depending on security settings, you may have to click below to see the video directly on YouTube. You should definitely subscribe to their channel for more updates.

The Theater and Musical Lovers Group will be hosting more of these panels. If you’re interested in participating or have some topic ideas in mind, head over to the group on Facebook and drop them a line. You can also find them on Instagram and coming soon on TikTok.

You can find Gary and Sarah on the socials: On Twitter, they are Gary_Mitchel, SarahRose_KPK, and Daisuki_Suu; on Instagram, they are Gary_Mitchel and Daisuki_Suu; and Gary’s horror-themed podcast that he hosts with Erin McGourn is A Podcask of Amontillado. Of course, the Theater & Musical Lovers channel can be found on YouTube.

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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #302: Revolution of the Daleks

Michael Falkner5 Comments

Timestamp 302 - Revolution of the Daleks

A little bit of cloning and a little bit of open warfare.

It’s been 367 minutes since the Doctor and her team destroyed the Reconnaissance Dalek in GCHQ. An ill-fated truck driver takes the empty casing to Depository 23, but he is assassinated en route with some bad roadside tea. The woman who served the tea stashes his corpse in the truck and drives it away.

Jo Patterson, the Technology Secretary for the United Kingdom, meets with Leo Rugazzi and Jack Robertson to see the engineer’s new defense drones. The demonstration includes a mock riot which is broken up by a drone that looks like a Dalek but uses water cannons and tear gas. The drone is solar-powered and driven by artificial intelligence. Patterson buys into the idea because they will help her win the upcoming election.

Some 79 billion light years away, the Doctor wakes up in her asteroid cell and scratches another tally mark on the wall. She goes through her daily routine, including a walk with restrained Weeping Angels, Ood, Silence, and Pting, before getting ready for bed. She hears four knocks through her wall and knocks four times in reply, but there is no further answer.

Back on Earth, Ryan, Graham, and Yaz meet in the TARDIS disguised as a house. Yaz is working on a method to find the Doctor, but Ryan and Graham urge her to move on. Graham also shows her footage of the new security drone and the companions decide to investigate.

Patterson convinces Robertson to expedite a national rollout of the security drones at no cost to the taxpayers. Later, the companions confront Robertson about his drones but are forced to leave when armed security arrives.

In the prison, the Doctor finds Jack Harkness during her daily constitutional. He shows her a temporal-freezing gateway disinhibitor bubble which they use to escape by treating it like a hamster ball. Using a vortex manipulator, the pair vanishes.

Patterson wins her election as Prime Minister and party leader. Rugazzi shows Robertson the organic remnants he found in the original casing, which he has cloned and grown into a Dalek mutant. Robertson tells Leo to destroy it, but it eventually takes control of the engineer.

The vortex manipulator drops Jack and the Doctor inside the Doctor’s TARDIS. Jack likes the new interior design. They discuss the Cyberium and Ashad, as well as the Doctor’s imprisonment for being herself while she was trying to figure out who she was. She tells the TARDIS to find her fam.

That fam is discussing the Dalek threat when the TARDIS materializes in the living room. It’s been ten months since the companions and the Doctor were separated, and after she apologizes, the companions tell her about the Dalek.

The Dalek controlling Leo takes him to Osaka, Japan, where he finds a clone farm that has somehow sprung to life in the time since it was cloned. As the companions board the TARDIS, Jack gives them a crash course on his history with the Doctor. They split up, sending Yaz and Jack to find the Dalek DNA in Osaka while Ryan and Graham accompany the Doctor to Robertson’s office.

Robertson shows off his 3D printing operation, but the Doctor warns him he’s messing with something he doesn’t understand. He also denies having a facility in Osaka, which Yaz and Jack find listed as an agricultural park but containing the clone farm. Jack also warns Yaz that she should enjoy her journey with the Doctor because it will end, but is worth the pain in the end.

PM Patterson announces the defense drones in an address outside 10 Downing Street. While she promises a new secure age for the UK, the Doctor, Graham, and Ryan take Robertson to Osaka. The Doctor and Ryan have a heart-to-heart talk during which she promises to find out about herself. Meanwhile, Yaz and Jack set explosives and are besieged by the cloned Daleks. They get some relief when the TARDIS arrives.

The Doctor asks about the farm and Dalek-Leo admits that he infiltrated Earth’s networks and diverted resources to remotely direct its construction. He even fed his clones with the workers just to keep things clean. The Dalek intends to use the planet as a base to conquer this sector of the universe. Yaz and the Doctor note that the light is changing in the facility, gradually becoming ultraviolet to allow the clones to teleport into the shells that Robertson built.

With thousands of shells at their command, the Daleks begin their assault on Earth, including the assassination of PM Patterson. The Dalek controlling Leo kills the engineer and teleports away. The Doctor finally figures out who she is… she’s the one who stops the Daleks. Opting for the nuclear option, she sends the Reconnaissance Scout’s signal through the time vortex and summons the Death Squad Daleks – the SAS of Daleks – who will ignore humans in favor of exterminating the impure clones. They mustn’t realize, however, that the Doctor is on Earth.

As the cloned Daleks wreak havoc in the streets, the bronze-colored Death Squad begin exterminating Robertson’s army. As the Doctor prepares to move on, Robertson approaches the Death Squad and joins them with information about who sent the signal.

The Doctor continues her plan: Once all of the defense drones are destroyed, Jack will destroy the Death Squad ship. Graham and Ryan join him and start planting charges. Jack finds Robertson as the businessman tells the Dalek leader about the Doctor. As the final defense drone is destroyed, Jack calls the Doctor with what he learned and she enacts a backup plan with Yaz.

The Daleks detect the TARDIS hovering over the city and swarm around it. She emerges and baits them into entering the TARDIS as the explosives tear the command ship apart. The Doctor appears as a hologram and reveals that the Daleks are trapped in the “house” TARDIS. Further, she has programmed it to fold in on itself and emerge in the heart of the Void where it will self-destruct.

With the threat eliminated, Graham and Ryan watch the news as Robertson takes credit for saving everyone. Disgusted, the pair joins the Doctor and Yaz on the TARDIS where Jack sends regards from Gwen Cooper. It is then that Ryan declares that he’s done traveling with her because he knows what he wants to do with his life.

The Doctor hugs him farewell. Yaz wants to keep traveling, but Graham doesn’t want to miss his grandson growing up. The fam shares one last hug and the Doctor gives each of the men a piece of psychic paper. The Doctor and Yaz are sad, but they know that it’s okay.

Sometime later, Graham and Ryan are back on the hillside as the latter practices with a bicycle. They discuss strange occurrences like a troll invasion in Finland and gravel creatures in Korea. They decide to make plans, but first, they finish cycling practice.

And a vision of Grace watches over them as they work.

The companions really steal this show as the Doctor struggles with the Timeless Child revelation. It makes sense, given that this is the swan song for Ryan and Graham. We also get a good story where three companions seem to work well together. Unfortunately, that formula still doesn’t include Yaz as she gets very little to do with this otherwise explosive plot.

There are some hiccups along the way. No one addresses the murder that kicks off the defense drone program, and the timing’s a bit suspect when it comes to building the farm. The Dalek wasn’t in charge of Leo long enough to make that work, but the story needed a way to mass-produce Daleks.

On the plus side, the subtle references to Doctor Who history are pretty clever. The Death Squad Daleks are the bronze versions that have popped up throughout the revival era, and the defense drones are voiced similarly to the Imperial Daleks last seen during the Dalek Civil War. It makes sense that they would fight one another.

I enjoyed the crash course on Jack’s history with the new companions. It plays well with the running thread of the companions and their questions about traveling in the TARDIS. I also dug the running gag of not telling Robertson how the TARDIS works while he traveled in it.

Finally, I’m glad that the creative team is embracing the changes they made by way of the Timeless Child. The Doctor has to rediscover who they are while facing a large, looming threat. It’s good drama.

Note that this is the final appearance of Captain Jack Harkness (as of early 2024) due to allegations of sexual misconduct leading to John Barrowman’s blacklisting by the BBC.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Series Twelve Summary

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The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Dragon Con Report 2024 #3: Photo Shoots

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind

Culture on My Mind
Dragon Con Report 2024 #3: Photo Shoots
April 12, 2024

One of the ways that I like to prep for Dragon Con is by listening to the Dragon Con Report podcast. Brought to you by the ESO Network, the podcast is a monthly discussion on all things Dragon Con that counts down to the big event over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.

The show is hosted by Michael Gordon, Jennifer Schleusner, and Channing Sherman, and it delivers news, notes, tips, and tricks for newbies and veterans alike. The Dragon Con Newbies community has a great relationship with the show and the network.

The third show of the 2024 season talks about the vibrant community of photo shoots at the convention. Mike, Jen, and Channing talk with guests Bill Watters and Danique Cosplay to discuss everything you wanted to know (and some things you didn’t) about the intersection of cosplay and professional photography. 

The show can be found in video form on YouTube and in audio on the official website and wherever fine podcasts are fed. The Dragon Con Report channels can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You can catch their shows live on those platforms or on demand on their website.

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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #301: Ascension of the Cybermen & The Timeless Children

Michael Falkner7 Comments

Timestamp 301 - Ascension Timeless Children

The story that broke so many fans.

Ascension of the Cybermen

In the depths of space, Ashad speaks of the Cybermen. The mechanical menace has finally been defeated after winning a billion battles, and after a reign of terror, the empire has fallen. But that which is dead can live again in the hands of a believer.

The adventure plays out in two stories: One follows our heroes on a refugee planet in the far future, and the other follows a mysterious man named Brendan in Ireland.

Brendan’s Tale—

In mid-twentieth century Ireland, a man named Patrick finds a baby in the middle of the road. He takes the baby home to his wife Meg, and together they report the incident to the Garda police. With no leads, they couple decides to take care of him until the parents are found. After a year, they adopt the boy and name him Brendan.

Brendan grows up, attends school, and learns to farm. He applies to join the Gardaí and is welcomed into the police force by the sergeant who met him as a baby. While on duty one day, Brendan chases a thief named Michael near a cliff. Michael pulls a revolver and forces Brendan toward the cliff. Brendan is shot and falls to his death, but by some miracle, he springs back to life.

Brendan attributes it to luck, but everyone else is confused and afraid. Nevertheless, Brendan is awarded with a commendation. Many years later, Brendan retires from the Gardaí and is faced by his father and his sergeant, both of whom have not aged. They take him to the back office where he is strapped into a chair and has his memory wiped while he screams.

The Refugees’ Tale—

The Doctor, Graham, Ryan, and Yaz follow Shelley‘s coordinates to a planet in the far future. The Doctor parks a half mile out and breaks the news of humanity’s near extinction at the hands of the Cybermen. They find the last remaining human settlement comprised of seven surviving humans. The travelers arrive just in time to help establish a defense against the arriving Cyberman fleet.

With the help of Feekat, Ravio, Ethan, Yedlarmi, Fuskle, and Bescot, Team TARDIS gets to work: Graham sets up a neural inhibitor system that can restore Cyberman emotions; Yaz builds a particle projector to attack the automatons with gold dust; and Ryan establishes a forcefield. Unfortunately, a swarm of Cyberdrone heads arrive and destroy the gadgets. They also kill Fuskle and an older woman.

The drones leave and the Doctor orders the survivors to escape in their ship. She tells her companions to join them since the TARDIS is too far away. She promises to find them after she holds off the invading force. As the humans escape, Ashad confronts the Doctor with two additional drones. The drones pursue the companions to the ship, and Ryan is left behind with Feekat and Ethan as the rickety craft takes off.

The Doctor prepares a grenade as Ethan distracts Ashad. Ashad calls Ethan’s bluff and kills Feekat, then tells Ethan to carry his message of the Cybermen’s power. The Doctor uses her grenade and runs with Ethan and Ryan to the nearby Cyberfighters. The group hotwires Ashad’s ship and rockets into space.

The refugees aboard the gravraft limp toward Ko Sharmus and a phenomenon known as the Boundary, which can teleport people to random locations in the universe. On the Cyberfighter, Ethan also sets course for Ko Sharmus. Ethan talks about his upbringing and lessons about destroying cyber tech. Ashad makes contact and threatens to destroy humanity, even if it costs him his imperfect life. He believes that he was chosen to resurrect the Cybermen, and the death of everything is harbored within him.

The gravraft’s systems fail, leaving the ship on emergency power. A series of collisions prompt Yaz to look outside and find a Cyberman graveyard. A ship sits dormant in the debris and Graham convinces the survivors to use their remaining power to board it. They succeed, but as the ship powers up around them, Ashad and his guards arrive in a Cyberfighter.

The Doctor’s craft arrives at Ko Shamus. The planet has a single temporary settlement, and Ko Shamus is the elderly man who maintains it. He is stunned to see living humans and explains that he helps survivors pass through the Boundary. He fled with a handful of others, but as the word spread, more survivors sought sanctuary.

Graham, Yaz, and the refugees explore the Cyberman war carrier. They reactivate it and decide to use the ship as a mobile settlement to rescue what’s left of humanity. Graham and Ravio explore the rest of the ship and discover millions of dormant, battle-ready drones of a new design. The pair runs from Ashad, returning to the control center as the team continues to Ko Shamus despite the threat. Meanwhile, Ashad begins the ascension with his new army.

The Doctor, Ryan, and Ethan investigate the Boundary. It manifests as a rippling sheet of purple energy. As the carrier approaches the planet, Yaz calls the Doctor and explains the situation. The awakened Cybermen rampage through the ship and the Doctor urges the humans to evacuate. Unfortunately, they are trapped.

Then the two stories come together as the Boundary clears.

Through the portal, the Doctor sees the Citadel of Gallifrey. The Master leaps through the Boundary and tells the Doctor that everything is about to change… forever.

The Timeless Children

The Master forces the Doctor to join him in Gallifrey. If she doesn’t, he will kill the humans. As she crosses the Boundary, the Cyberman carrier arrives at the planet. Once on Gallifrey, the Master gloats about burning Gallifery to the ground and then takes the Doctor on a tour of the ruins.

On the carrier, the humans hide in a storage area after Bescot is killed. Graham develops a plan to use Cyberman suits as disguises. The team sets to work removing the biological remains and disconnecting the neural nets. Meanwhile, Ko Sharmus shows Ryan and Ethan his limited weapons supply.

In the Citadel, the Master is notified that the Cybermen have reached the Boundary. He invites Ashad to join him on Gallifrey and to leave some Cybermen behind to destroy Ko Sharmus, Ethan, and Ryan.

Graham and Yaz take a moment to talk about what happens if they don’t survive. He is quite proud of her and impressed by her resolve. With a tear in her eye, she jokes that he’s not so bad either. As their team puts the plan into motion, Ashad is alerted to their presence. Ashad searches for the humans but cannot find them in their disguises, and he gives up when the ship enters the Boundary.

The Doctor questions why the Master would surrender Gallifrey to the Cybermen. He deflects, directing her to the Matrix instead. He is driven by an unbelievable truth that he discovered in Gallifrey’s history, and he traps the Doctor in a paralysis field so he can share that truth with her. He sends her deep into the Matrix with a promise that it will hurt.

The Master presents a history of Gallifrey. In the time before the Time Lords, the Shobogans were the native population of the planet. An explorer named Tecteun found a gateway on another planet, with an orphaned child at its base. Tecteun and the child explored the cosmos before returning to Gallifrey, where she ran experiments trying to determine where the child came from. One day, the child fell off a cliff, but instead of dying, the child regenerated.

This was the first time regeneration happened on Gallifrey.

On Ko Sharmus’s planet, the humans wage war on the Cybermen. Ryan takes out several with a basketball-shaped bomb, but the drones keep marching. Meanwhile, the carrier literally lands on the Citadel. Ashad meets with the Master and introduces the Death Particle, a device created by the Cyberium to wipe out all organic life. Ashad has purged the new Cybermen of organic components in preparation for his takeover of the universe, but the Master offers an alternative to fully robotic life. He accompanies Ashad while his consciousness remains with the Doctor.

The Doctor’s story continues as Tecteun experiments on the child, forcing the child to regenerate time and again. Finally, Tecteun cracks the mystery and injects herself with the solution. Tecteun regenerates. With this new technology, Time Lord civilization exploded with the Timeless Child at its core, limiting each individual to twelve regenerations.

The Doctor asks what happened to the Timeless Child. The Master tells her that she is that child.

Meanwhile, Ko Sharmus, Ethan, and Ryan continue their guerilla campaign. They take out several drones, but Ethan is eventually captured. He is almost executed, but Graham’s team destroys the execution squad. Ryan is surprised to see his friends.

Ashad and the Master arrive in the Cybermen storage bays. The Master uses his Tissue Compress Eliminator to kill Ashad and release the Cyberium. He absorbs the Cyberium and pockets Ashad to keep the Death Particle nearby.

The Doctor awakens on a vast green landscape. She struggles with the revelations but the Master promises his story is true. He continues the story with Tecteun and the child becoming part of a secret group called the Division. Despite the Time Lord philosophy of non-interference, the group intervenes in time when necessary. The vision flashes in parallel with Brendan’s story, then stops altogether because the files were redacted. It is impossible to tell how much was lost, but what remains was encoded with a perception filter that looks like Brendan’s story.

The Master wonders how many lives the Doctor has lived.

As the Doctor revives from her experience, the physical version of the Master reveals that he kept the corpses of every Time Lord he killed. He has combined the power of regeneration with the durability of the Cybermen.

He has created CyberMasters – festooned in Time Lord regalia and armed with the power of regeneration – and he leads them into a conquest of the universe. Meanwhile, the human survivors cross the Boundary and arrive on Gallifrey.

The Doctor’s mind swims in the Matrix’s redacted void when the Fugitive Doctor appears. The Thirteenth Doctor wonders about her life before their First, but the Fugitive Doctor tells her it doesn’t matter. They’ve never been limited by who they were before, and the Thirteenth Doctor has the power to stop the Master now. But first, she must harness the power of the Timeless Child to overload the Matrix. She unleashes the memories of the Doctor into the Matrix and blows out the paralysis field.

She comes to and finds her companions and the human survivors standing over her. The humans explain their plan to destroy the carrier, and the Doctor devises a plan to use the Death Particle to destroy the CyberMasters. The humans place explosive charges throughout the ship while Team TARDIS tracks down the Master. They find Ashad’s miniaturized form and the Death Particle, and the Doctor telepathically offers one last meeting with the Master in the Citadel.

Unfortunately, the bombs are activated early, so everyone has to run. The ship is destroyed as the Doctor ushers everyone into a TARDIS. She asks Ko Sharmus for a bomb – it only has a hand detonator – and explains her plan to unleash the Death Particle on Gallifrey. She sets the TARDIS for the twenty-first century and sends the humans to Earth.

The Doctor returns to the Matrix Chamber on her suicide mission. There she finds the Master and his CyberMasters. The Master goads her but the Doctor doesn’t fall for it. His revelations have strengthened her. She pulls out the bomb and mini-Ashad, but before she can pull the trigger, Ko Sharmus arrives. He sent the Cyberium into the past, and he takes the detonator as his penance for not hiding it well enough. As the Doctor runs for a TARDIS, the CyberMasters shoot Ko Sharmus and he detonates the Death Particle.

The new Cyber-Empire is dead.

The humans arrive on Earth and their TARDIS disguises itself as a house. The Doctor materializes on the refugee planet near her own TARDIS, and the TARDIS she used to get there disguises itself as a tree. Unfortunately for her, three Judoon materialize inside the TARDIS and arrest the Doctor, finally closing the cold case on the fugitive.

The Doctor is taken to a maximum security prison to serve a life sentence, and her companions have no idea if she survived.

It’s the most controversial story in modern Doctor Who history… and I like it just as much now as I did when it first aired.

I understand the complaints. Fans of most major sci-fi franchises don’t like to see things meddled with. From Star Trek to Doctor Who, the complaints remind me of the oft-memed scene from The Incredibles 2: “I don’t know that way. Why would they change math? Math is math. Math. Is. Math!”

But… here’s the reality check. Doctor Who has never been consistent with continuity, and there are several extensive parody lists on Reddit about how changes in the franchise have “ruined the show forever”. Yet, somehow, the franchise continues on even under periodic threat of cancellation (in various definitions of the word).

Of the complaints I have seen regarding the Timeless Child revelation:

  • “This change disrespects William Hartnell.” How? Show your work. Because his stories still exist (even in telesnap form) and are even being preserved in high-definition format. If anything disrespects the legacy of William Hartnell’s work on Doctor Who, it’s how “An Unearthly Child” won’t be available because of Stef Coburn’s efforts. Otherwise, Hartnell’s legacy as the First Doctor remains intact.
  • “This change removes the mystery from the Doctor.” If so, please explain the history of the pre-Hartnell incarnations. Because all I see is massive story potential for the Doctor’s time with the Division and the implications of whether or not the Time Lords deserve to come back at all. We already knew they were arrogant and self-righteous, but now we get some context behind the regeneration limit. I also look at the events of The Time of the Doctor and how the Time Lords view the Doctor with a different lens, especially after thirteen incarnations risked their lives to save Gallifrey from utter destruction. Those Time Lords either gave the Doctor another set of regenerations or unlocked the Timeless Child’s potential that they had previously tried to stifle, allowing the Doctor to be who they truly are. In the end, the mystery is still there, effectively fulfilling the so-called “Cartmel Masterplan.”
  • “The Morbius Doctors aren’t real.” To the contrary, it was Philip Hinchcliffe’s intention that they were previous incarnations. The dialogue is also pretty clear: “Back! Back to your beginning!” followed by the eight faces. What happens on the television screen is part of the official continuity unless retconned later, and showrunner intentions fall into that same category for me. Showrunners are in charge of the show’s legacy while they hold the reins. Fans don’t have that responsibility. Philip Hinchcliffe has even seemed amused that fans ignored the obvious in  Morbius but readily attached themselves to the regeneration limits a mere four stories later.
  • “The Timeless Child isn’t canon.” We’ve already covered that. Unless retconned later, what happens on the screen during the show is official continuity.

Boiling it down, fans just don’t like the change. While that’s their prerogative, it’s also a personal choice. I don’t agree with that choice, but I respect it. We all need to remember that fan opinion is not continuity.

That said, it’s not all puppy dogs and marshmallows for me. I do have issues with the revelation.

First, is it even true? The revelation is provided by the Master, the man who massacred his entire civilization and is known for lying. Even if he is telling the Doctor the truth, is it based on his own interpolation of redacted events? Even with the Doctor having lives before the First Doctor, could the Timeless Child be someone else? Say, Susan, for example?

Imagine that storytelling potential. Taking Susan away from Gallifrey to protect her and remove some leverage from the Time Lords. Especially considering that Chris Chibnall’s screenplay suggests that the Time Lords who join Tecteun at the dawn of their society could be Rassilon and Omega.

10:27:40 INT. GALLIFREYAN CORRIDOR – DAY

TECTEUN walking down a corridor — at the far end, two Gallifreyan figures (with the collars up) in silhouette. We can assume these might be Rassilon and Omega.

I’d buy that. It would be a stronger story, leave some room for future work, and make the Doctor a bit more vulnerable in the future. It also provides a dramatic reason for the Time Lords to return. Note that the script says “assume” and that these characters were not credited on screen, so we can’t verify that it’s true.

As far as what happened to the Time Lords? I don’t like it. It feels disgusting, which makes it work dramatically. The fact that I physically recoiled from seeing Cybermen that can regenerate tells me that the Master is a villain of the highest order. While Missy had a path to redemption during Series 10, I don’t think this incarnation has a path back. He’s a monster.

I had a similar feeling toward Tecteun and her experimentation on the Timeless Child. She literally killed several incarnations of the child to unlock the secrets of regeneration for her own selfish desires. Yuck.

I also don’t like how the Timeless Child revelation was handled from a writing and production standpoint. The entire sequence with the Doctor in the Matrix was handled in a “tell don’t show” manner. I think it would have been better for the Doctor to experience Brendan’s story in A Christmas Carol format, then have the Master fill in the blanks in a much shorter manner. Having Brendan’s story in Ascension of the Cybermen was more confusing and probably made viewers more defensive from the start. A little rebalancing between the two episodes would have worked wonders.

Otherwise, I liked the balance of action and drama in this pair of episodes. The Doctor doesn’t have all the answers and has to figure things out with us. The companions get a huge chunk of the spotlight, and everyone has to use their wits and smarts to save the day. And Yaz getting some dues was a great thing to see.

In terms of franchise lore, there wasn’t much in terms of callbacks aside from what has already been mentioned. The Timeless Children does have the most extensive use of archive footage in Doctor Who at the time of airing. It’s also the first time clips from William Hartnell’s and Patrick Troughton’s eras were shown in full color.

It also features the first on-screen female-to-male regeneration.

Finally, for something to chew on, this adventure fulfills several elements of the Series Nine Hybrid prophecy: A hybrid creature (the Master and the Cyberium) stood over the ruins of Gallifrey and unraveled the Web of Time (the Master hacked into the Matrix and revealed the Timeless Child secret), and broke a billion billion hearts to heal its own (the slaughter of the Time Lords).

Probably not Chibnall’s intent, but a nice parallel nonetheless.

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks

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The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.