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Wild Blue Yonder Review (Spoilers) || Chatsu Shorts
179 Plays1 year ago
Doctor Who is back again this week for its second special, this time taking us to one of Doctor Who's most mysterious episodes. But what danger awaits Donna and the Doctor this time? Can they find out the secret behind what is going on? And do you have arms that are too long? Without any further ado, let's find out!
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Transcript
Introduction to Chatsunami Episode
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Chatsunami.
Doctor Who 'Wild Blue Yonder' Discussion
00:00:39
Speaker
My name's Chatsunami and I'm joining you again this week for another unscripted review of the latest Doctor Who special, Wild Blue Yonder. Now last week we discussed the Starbeast which I have to say seemed to garner
00:00:53
Speaker
mainly positive reactions but a little bit of a mix if I'm honest and I was quite surprised at that but I have to say I was really looking forward to this episode because this is probably the episodes that we knew the least about the BBC for once where advertising who the villains were going to be and like a certain doomsday special so I was actually really really surprised about what they were going to do with this special. I had
00:01:23
Speaker
absolutely zero clue but I was really curious. So I think the main question is was this episode as good if not better than last week's episode and I'm gonna say off the bat yes and no there is a lot to love about this episode. I feel as if there's a lot that they did better than last week
00:01:44
Speaker
at the same time I feel as if there was a lot that they dropped the ball on but without any further ado let's jump into the wild blue yonder.
Space Mishap Comedy with Coffee and Isaac Newton
00:01:53
Speaker
So right off the bat we got an introduction to Donna and the Doctor flying through space uncontrollably because of Donna in the last episode spilling coffee all over the console which I have to admit is
00:02:05
Speaker
it's pretty much a Donna thing to do but they ended up crashing beside Sir Isaac Newton. And honestly while I thought this intro was quite fun and light-hearted I'm not really sure why it was necessary. The only thing I can think of really is there's a kind of running joke throughout the episode where the Doctor and Donna make a gravity pun to Isaac Newton and he mishears them.
Intimate Cast and Stalking Villains
00:02:30
Speaker
So instead of labelling it as gravity he calls it mavity which
00:02:34
Speaker
throughout the episode they say things like, oh he's stuck in the mavity field, oh you're at the centre of mavity and all of this and while I get the joke I feel as if it distracted just that little bit from the seriousness of the episode and again I'm not one of these people that thinks that Doctor Who should be uber serious 100% of the time but I don't know, it just felt really weird in a way but
00:03:01
Speaker
But going off at that point and I just want to start off with a positive. I absolutely loved the idea of this episode. The fact that it was just such a intimate cast in this one. You only had the Doctor, you had Donner and you had the new villains which we are going to talk about later on but I have to admit I loved the idea of them floating in a spaceship
00:03:23
Speaker
that they had no idea what was going on, there was some stalking them in the shadows, absolutely loved that. And I have to say this episode implores two of quite possibly my irrational fears, that of course being body horror and doppelgangers, because those are the kind of things that really unsettle me and when it's eventually revealed that the not
00:03:43
Speaker
things. At least I think that's what they're called, these kind of doppelganger creatures come out and they're slowly adapting.
Doppelganger Villains: Intriguing or Goofy?
00:03:50
Speaker
I have to say I absolutely love the idea and the concept behind it, but one thing before we go on to talk about these villainous creatures one,
00:03:59
Speaker
I just want to point out, and it kind of annotated me in a way, is when they go to the cockpit and they find out that they're on the age of the universe and the doctor says something silly like, oh I've never been this far out and this is such a nerdy nitpick. It's not, honestly I'm not pushing up my glasses here going boy I hope someone got fired for that blood now but
00:04:19
Speaker
pretty sure the Doctor escaped the universe and the flux but who the ends and Doctor Who aficionados please correct me if I'm wrong there because initially I was trying to think if he had gone to the end of the universe and time wise he has of course in the season but one of three of the final episodes of season three when it goes to the end of the universe time wise and utopia but I don't really remember him going to the edge of the universe and tell the flux when he's in that weird
00:04:47
Speaker
spaceship thing. I don't know, it's just that it's weird. Time to wipe me, if you will. But then of course we get to the doppelgangers, to your cold but not things, I think. They'll be in top trump cards, I'm sure. But here is my controversial take for this episode, because a lot of people say, oh these were amazing villains, they were crazy, just
00:05:07
Speaker
oh they were horrifying, I think to a certain extent they were. And the reason I say that is because initially I was watching this episode with a friend and then of course I watched it with my partner again just to see if I missed anything. Initially it was quite creepy to be like, wait a second, why is the doctor having a conversation with Donna in one room but then they're also having a conversation in the other room?
00:05:31
Speaker
And I thought this was going to be a psychological horror or something that they were losing their minds and then they dropped quite possibly one of the silliest lines I think I've ever heard of in a Doctor Who episode and that's coming from someone who grew up with episodes like The Doctor Dances with Are You My Mummy and all of those kind of catch-raises.
00:05:53
Speaker
Yeah, well, I appreciate that it was trying to combine practical effects and CGI. I felt as if it looked far, far too goofy looking. I realise this is an all-ages show, so, you know, you've got maybe slightly older kids who are watching a, you know, families are watching this show, so you don't want anything.
00:06:13
Speaker
too scary, I suppose, but I don't know, the big hands when he's dragging them. It reminded me of those old video game cheat codes that you used to get where you could make big heads, the big hands. In fact, if anybody has played Goldeneye for the N64, you'll know exactly the cheat code I'm talking about here. That's what it felt like. And when they kept saying, oh my arm's too long and then they pulled it up, I burst out laughing because it reminded me of that old Japanese advert, you know, the
00:06:42
Speaker
log log bug long long man
00:06:50
Speaker
Then you had things like not David Tennant's jaw unhinging and falling down. You had legs bending backwards, which don't get me wrong, that was really disturbing. But the jaw falling and them getting bigger and not having any concept of how to structure themselves. This is the thing I adore the idea of this episode. I adore the idea of the shapeshifters. I think shapeshifters are creepy. They are
00:07:18
Speaker
tricky as hell when the idea that someone can manipulate their form to be someone you love or you know and trust and really end like that because I thought there was a lot of really creepy moments like that but then it was just ruined by the effects.
Critique on Effects and Story Format
00:07:34
Speaker
So, for example, one of the highlights of the episode is when the note Donna tries to manipulate the Doctor and talks about the flux and how he says he's from Gallifrey but he actually doesn't know which
00:07:47
Speaker
I have to admit, it's a bold choice taking Chris Chibnall's Timeless Child and making it even more canon. I feel as if that is going to tick off a lot of Doctor Who fans, but you know what? That's not my place to go into. At least not in this episode. But on the flip side, you also had me, not Doctor, not being able to comprehend object permanence, and I thought that was really interesting. You know, it was like an infant
00:08:12
Speaker
was trying to learn and grow so I thought that was really interesting but at the same time I felt it was deeply ruined when all of a sudden not doing our turns into like a weird puddle on the ground and it almost gave me loving monster flashbacks.
00:08:29
Speaker
Do you know that woman is now trapped in a square of concrete? Yeah, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch Season 2's Lovin' Monsters from David Tennant's era. It's one of the worst episodes you'll ever watch. But yeah, then you've got no David Tennant bending backwards like The Exorcist, but then his
00:08:47
Speaker
head is coming out his backside and I know why they did this. It's supposed to be very uncanny and unnatural but nah. I feel as if that really undercut a lot of the dramatic tension, the horror and everything that you just felt as if you weren't rolling your eyes. And I think if you're a child you would find this scary and I feel as if if you're watching it with your family then you're gonna be scared but yeah for me it just it didn't quite
00:09:12
Speaker
And this is the thing, I feel as if this had been a big finished story, then I 100% would have been behind this. I think that if you weren't able to see the monsters, if you were able to just visualise them and think, oh my god, it's a creature with an unhinged
00:09:29
Speaker
jaw that's crawling and bending its body and I feel as if not knowing what it looked like was a lot scarier compared to what we actually got. This will find a good scene that Doctor Who has always been like this with its cheesy effects and I get it but at the same time it is 2023 and don't get me wrong, I think that in terms of the effects for this ship
00:09:54
Speaker
and everything and the twist at the end regarding the pilot while she ejected herself. I thought that was really interesting but there were just some moments that because of the effects it just pulled me out of it completely and as I said I feel as if you're reading the novelization version
00:10:11
Speaker
then maybe it would have worked better. Again, I have not read the novelisation of these books yet but I would actually really be interested to see how it compares to this.
Alien Language and Skyrim Connection
00:10:22
Speaker
But one thing I don't notice until I watch the Doctor Who Unleashed special was the fact that they put an insane amount of detail in this.
00:10:30
Speaker
For example, if you look at the language that is used on the ship, it is based very much on the fact that the alien, which we find out at the end was piloting the ship, is more like a horse. So the production team behind it had said that, well, how would a horse write such a language? A lot of the characters and the script
00:10:52
Speaker
script is written in a way that the Questrian type alien would have been able to write with hooves, and if any Skyrim fans are out there then you'll know exactly what I mean by this. The fact that it is very similar to the dragon language in Skyrim where the dragons have a very sharp script because they can only carve symbols. It's really fascinating, I do think that is a good touch.
Bernard Cribbins' Final Appearance
00:11:15
Speaker
This episode also features the last appearance of Bernard Cribbins as Wilf, which is such a bittersweet ending to the character, especially when you take into account the fact that he wasn't well enough to do any more scenes and then shortly after filming this scene in 2022, he sadly passed away aged 93.
00:11:40
Speaker
and it was absolutely wonderful to see him again. Honestly, I just loved the emotions between him and David Tedden and the fact that they got to say her somewhat goodbye. I thought that was beautiful.
Final Thoughts: Near Perfection with Flaws
00:11:52
Speaker
I absolutely loved it. So overall, what do I think of William Blue Yonder?
00:11:57
Speaker
Well, as I said before, this is an episode that is nearly perfect. There are so many aspects of this that I genuinely thought were so well done, but unfortunately just missed the mark in so many places, from the very different tonal shift from the intro to
00:12:16
Speaker
what became essentially, as people have described online, the event horizon for kids. I also thought it was really weird to use the American centric song for the title of the episode, and I get the meaning behind it going into the Wild Blue Yonder and into this unknown territory, which is exactly what Dona and the Doctor do, but something's off about it
00:12:40
Speaker
I don't know, it just felt like a very odd choice of song, but again, that's probably a bit of a minor nitpick. And honestly, while I would love to say that this was one of the creepiest Doctor Who villains, I just feel as if they were let down by some of the effects. I feel as if if they didn't put in some of the effects, then they definitely would have held up better in the long run. Even the hands, as I said, they reminded me of
00:13:07
Speaker
like a Goldeneye cheat code, and at worst they reminded me of the Netflix adaptation of One Piece with Monkey D. Wiffy's massive rubber hand. So I was like, eh. And I don't know, this is just my own speculation here, but when they were saying how they couldn't replicate the arms correctly, I was wondering if that was a jab at the rise of AI art
00:13:32
Speaker
And the reason I say that is because when you see anybody generate AI art, you do see that AI for some weird reason has real trouble generating hands. And again, I don't think that was a retention, but if it was, hats off to them. But if not, that is a very weird coincidence. But I did love the fact that they wear this somewhat unknown entity out there, so
00:13:56
Speaker
You know what? Not that I usually grade these episodes, but upon the rewatch and taking time to think about it, because I'm going to be honest, I didn't like this episode to begin with when I first saw it, but it's slowly growing on me. And I think this is probably a solid B, maybe B minus. I wouldn't go as far to say it's like a C. I really should get a grading system. Please let me know if you want me to get a Chatsunami grading system in, but yeah, what did you think?
00:14:25
Speaker
listeners at home, did you think Wild Blue Yonder was a triumph? Did you think it was a return to forum? Did you think it was okay? Did you think it was too goofy because of the graphics and effects? Yeah, what did you think? Please, please, please let me know because I would love to hear from you. And yeah, I want to give a hearty apology for this episode coming out late. As you can hear, I have
00:14:47
Speaker
a bit of a cold, and that has kind of prevented me from recording. I'm certainly on the path to recovery, but if you hear my voice quite croaky in the next few episodes, that'll be why, so I apologise for that. I swear I'm not a doppelganger.
00:15:03
Speaker
But as always if you'd like to listen to my review of the Starbeast last week or any other episodes, then you can check us out at Chatsunami.com. I'd also like to thank our Pandalorian Patrons, Robotic BattleToasted and Sonya. Thank you so, so much for supporting the show. And as always if you want to get episodes a week early or even just exclusive content, then you can check us out at
00:15:27
Speaker
patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami but until then stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly stay hydrated.