Doctor Who (BBC/Disney+) (2023)

I did NOT love the ending. It was too corny and it felt unearned. And yet, even if I didn't love it, I prefer it to most Doctor Who endings. I don't feel the happiness and joy felt genuine. But this is a franchise that LOVES punishing the viewer, and that's never earned either. I would rather the show failed at making me happy than failed at making me feel genuine sadness. The intentions there are better.

I love the Doctor's friendship with Anita. I think she would have made a Good Companion in another life. But her actual value for Fifteen is her shocking normalcy and allowing him to live a regular life.

For the record, this wasn't the first time The Doctor has done that. Eleven did it twice. First in "The Lodger" when he became friends with Craig and Sophie, and again for centuries on Trenzalore in "The Time Of The Doctor". Of course the difference in both with this is Eleven was on a mission the entire time while Fifteen's whole deal was simply to wait and be human. Little different and I get why he loved Anita for it.

I also love that the Doctor really loves and appreciates Silurians. The Doctor used to only speak so favorably about humans, and I love that Silurians have gone up there for him too. That's great.

Fifteen flying off the handle at himself was a good moment.

I'll tell you my least favorite part of the episode. It was the Doctor's rant about the hotel room you pick saying more about you than your home. That is a stupid fucking thing to state and one of the worst things about the Doctor Who relaunch, be it Russell T Davies or Stephen Moffat's tenure, is they will often state a "bold truth" about human nature that is actually totally fucking stupid, and counter to every bit of reality. People almost NEVER pick their hotel rooms and just take what they get. The thing I hate about both Davies and Moffat is they think they are speaking for the human condition and revealing dark and deep truths, when they don't actually understand people at ALL. I resented Gene Roddenberry's tenure on Star Trek because of the positive "truths" he spoke about humanity that had no basis in reality. On the flipside Davies and Moffat talk about the dark side of humanity by making up stupid shit wholesale. I mean, Roddenberry's problem was he did that too, but as dumb as his ideas were, he at least had them for a positive reason. Davies and Moffat (and ESPECIALLY Davies) always feel this weird need to feed into nihilism of the sort that doesn't actually exist for real people. It's actually quite annoying. It's also why I'm unhappy both Davies and Moffat are back.

I love Ncuti Gatwa as Fifteen. He's a great Doctor. Like both David Tennant and Matt Smith I think he deserves better showrunners. The episode is sweet and treacly in its warm moments, but it doesn't feel especially truthful about them (or the bad moments) either. 3 stars.