On to the plot, and hopefully the semblance of an actual point. In the story, the Time Lords' energy is being drained through a black hole, while alien creatures are beamed from it to seek the Doctor. The desperate Time Lords break the First Law of Time to unite the Doctor with his past incarnations to fight the threat. It turns out to be the work of Omega, a legendary figure from Gallifrey's past. It was he who engineered the energy source for the Time Lords' time travel (working with Rassilon), but he got caught in the gears, so to speak, and trapped in an anti-matter universe. Now he seeks revenge on the Time Lords who he feels abandoned him, and wants the Doctor to take his place – to sustain the anti-matter universe so he can return to ours. Once he discovers that his body has faded away, leaving only his will (and he is thus unable to leave), he instead demands the Doctor(s) remain to keep him company for eternity. The Doctors defeat him when they discover the Second Doctor's recorder had fallen into the TARDIS' inner workings. When they'd all crossed over, Omega was able to basically convert them to anti-matter, preventing an explosion. But the recorder, caught in temporal stasis, was not converted. They trick him into removing it from its stasis field and scarper in the TARDIS as the pocket universe explodes. The grateful Time Lords lift the Doctor's exile, leaving him free once again to roam the universe in his big blue box.

So there are some obvious parallels with It Takes You Away. What interests me are the differences. Omega is partly a tragic figure, but also clearly a megalomaniac, a danger and an enemy. The only appropriate response is to defeat him. Some dialogue, as he wallows in self-pity for his imprisonment:

The Doctor: "All my life I've known of you and honoured you as our greatest hero."
Omega: "A hero? I should have been a god!"

Captain Logic is not driving his tugboat. But 40 years later, that's no longer good enough. The Solitract isn't evil. Defeating it isn't a matter of overpowering it, not even of tricking it; in fact, the idea that the Doctor is tricking it is explicitly rejected. Rather, it's about finding the right emotional response. It's an adversary of sorts, but it's not hostile. The entire tone of that part of the story is worlds away from the Third Doctor's era. It's much lower key, lower stakes, but greater emotional complexity.

One of the reasons I love this show is that the Doctor wins through cleverness before violence. Overall, you'd have to say it's got better at that over time.

The Doctor Who finale: well, that was unquestionably a thing that happened. Chibnall has definitely created no less than fifty minutes of television right there.

Yeah, same.

Chibnall has definitely created no less than fifty minutes of television right there.

I kind of feel that way about this entire season? But the ratings have been great, so I guess this is the kind of thing most people want Doctor Who to be doing?

It's been a good season for former Downton Abbey ladies maids though.

I kind of feel that way about this entire season? But the ratings have been great, so I guess this is the kind of thing most people want Doctor Who to be doing?

This season's decent ratings are both heartening and dispiriting. Overall I liked the eps not written by Chibnall - even when they were messes, they were interesting messes. His stuff was just... dull. Falls somewhere between unambitious and morally incoherent.

Oh, by the way, concerning (apparently? I think that's the intention?) the season's big villain, this is what Tim Shaw means to Australians: [link]

But wait, there's more! [link]

But I know you want more! [link]

Because I am behind on everything I have only seen the 1st episode of Doctor Who this season. I only hope the watching is as interesting as reading billytea's commentary has been!

I am heartened by the ratings because I was really worried (from BTS gossip about what a disaster Chibnall was as showrunner) that the show wouldn't do well this year and the BBC leadership would go "Well I guess we shouldn't have made the Doctor a lady!" So in that sense, YAY.

But in another sense, NOT YAY because BLEARGH, Auntie Beeb, please make the show better next year do not take these numbers as a cue to keep making boring television.

I am heartened by the ratings because I was really worried (from BTS gossip about what a disaster Chibnall was as showrunner) that the show wouldn't do well this year and the BBC leadership would go "Well I guess we shouldn't have made the Doctor a lady!" So in that sense, YAY.

But in another sense, NOT YAY because BLEARGH, Auntie Beeb, please make the show better next year do not take these numbers as a cue to keep making boring television.

I am in total agreement with all of this! There are rumours that Chris Chibnall is only going to stick around for one more season, and I kind of hope that's true. (Though I don't know who might be available to take it on.)

I find I have very little to say about this finale. (I will, however, note that the Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos didn't actually include a battle.) So instead I've gone picking up quotes from other people. A selection:

Concerning the ep's rather stunted understanding of morality (and pacifism):

"Planetary genocide... Tim Shaw, I didn't like you before but now... Make them stop, you're breaking every known law in the universe." I mean, the Doctor's probably talking about, like, physics laws here. But I do want a stronger reaction to 'planetary genocide' than "it's illegal!".

"You're a genocidal monster, but killing's wrong, so..." (ineffectual shrug)

What happens when you stop to think about the Ux for too long:

"Our religion is all about doubt," say the Ux, immediately worshipping a random alien for three millennia.

[Tim Shaw's evil plot involved] "hoodwinking a two-person species apparently originating on three planets."

And then there's this bit of praise:

I have to say that amongst all the poorly-lit mediocrity lurked a moment of true genius.

Two groups of robots, one either side of our heroes
They all go to shoot
Out heroes duck
The robots therefore all shoot each other

That actually happened last night, I just want to celebrate that fact.

The genius is not that it happened, but that Chris Chibnall and Jamie Childs obviously thought people would be impressed. And that's courage I find a little bit humbling

And finally, this totally obscure reference made me laugh. A lot.

The finale was so dull, I was actually coming up with origin stories for The Valeyard.