Yesterday's Doctor Who: Interesting variation of

Planet of the Apes

. Liked the episode overall. Took me towards the end to recognize Laura Fraser since her character was so different from Lydia from Breaking Bad. I did think the episode got a bit preachy towards the end. I mean, I agree with what the Doctor was saying, but sometimes points are more effective when presented subtly than when the viewer is bludgeoned with them.

Regarding earlier episodes this season: O mentioned a brief encounter with the Doctor as a guy. Anyone want to speculate which version of the Doctor? I'm going with the 12th, given that

the Doctor might have suspected the truth about O had s/he encountered him too much earlier looking the same age.

.

BTW, a reminder that some people binge watch episodes, sometimes when the DVD/Blu-ray comes out, so do put spoiler tags in when discussing key plot points.

The latest episode itself: appears to mainly have been to educate viewers on the history of Tesla vs. Edison and works well enough on that level. Perhaps more bizarrely, I spent yesterday uploading photos (and a few video) of my September 2019 trip to Niagara Falls and making notes of additional photos/videos of same for future uploads, so it was a bit surreal having the episode open on Niagara Falls on the same day. For those of you who have never been there, the waterfall in the opening shot (and a few minutes later in an evening shot) is the Horseshoe (a.k.a. Canadian) Falls. On the left side of the falls is Niagara Falls State Park, Niagara Falls, New York. On the right side of the falls is Niagara Falls, Ontario. The river is Niagara River. Here is a video I shot in 2019 of this one from the Ontario side: https://www.flickr.com/photos/24917258@N05/49411504026/

In the next shot you see a large waterfall, with a much thinner one to the right. The larger of the two is the American Falls while the thinner one is the Bridal Veil Falls. Both falls are on the New York side, but Tesla and his audience are on the Ontario side. Here is a shot of both from June 2016 https://www.flickr.com/photos/24917258@N05/29875894283/ and and of the two in relation to the Horseshoe Falls from 2019 https://www.flickr.com/photos/24917258@N05/49410679043/

Last edited by Andy E. Nystrom (1/20/2020 6:35 am)

My thoughts:

While in some ways it might have been more effective if the Master had been the child (on a subconscious level it would have explained his anger), one thing I like is the Doctor can no longer count on having ten more lives. She could have 100 more, she could have zero. But during the Matt Smith era he did see his deceased form, so the Doctor knows she's not immortal. That could change her tactics at least for a while, not knowing how many lives she has left. And the William Hartnell era could still be the first time he was actually The Doctor, just as Bruce Banner had a major career as a physicist before he was the Hulk.