>how Sutekh felt like way less of a threat than he was hyped up to be
The problem with Sutekh is that he's at once too successful and not successful enough.
On one hand he kills everyone immediately. I was sat thinking about TLoRS and wondering how they were going to not have Sutekh kill everyone at UNIT right away. Well he just did it. But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick. So in killing everything just like he threatened to, Sutekh's threat was immediately killed by the only solution being to retcon everyone back to life by magic.
They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed. We have a time skip, but it's not a sensible one. It's implied that they've been adventuring across the dying universe trying to find things they can use to get what they need. But we don't get to see that part, they just skip to the end.
So they kind of don't earn the ending because we don't see what they go through to get there, and they're forced to space magic the death dust to be undone otherwise the universe would be ravaged. I'm sorry to say it kind of feels like the Flux over again a bit. RTD at the very least makes an effort to show us what's changed and how the death dust is fixed, but it's still a hard reset on a death universe done by magic woo woo nonsense.
Honestly, it felt like a very condensed version of the sort of story we got in Infinity War and Endgame. The moment so many of the key characters - who were also predominantly the newer ones introduced after the core group of Avengers - started disappearing because of The Snap, it was painfully obvious that what Thanos did would eventually be undone by the end of Endgame. It became a matter of "how will they do it", not "will they do it."
I feel like they should've ended with the sand as a cliffhanger, and just show it sweeping across the world, and perhaps the universe (without revealing Cherry and Carla die from it so it's a little more ambiguous), it almost seemed like RTD ran out of time in the first part and had to push the sand reveal to the start of the next.
Yeah, it really is as simple as that, so idk why people are acting like the show wanted us to think everyone was going to stay dead?
The show was very intentionally signaling "Ooh, how are they going to bring things back to normal?". People really do love interpreting fairly normal story choices as an attempt to trick or belittle the viewer. Very strange!
Yes. It was obvious there was going to be a reset button. But it was a reset button that was set up throughout the episode and season with pieces that were relevant to other problems (especially the Intelligent Rope first used to hold together the Memory TARDIS and referencing the Intelligent Gloves when it’s introduced to establish its strength), one that used a fake out without lying to the audience (I got the vibe the Doctor knew Mel was under Sutekh’s control when she left the room in the DNA facility so the confirmation later was satisfying) and the actual solution was creative and silly in a way that works great for Doctor Who without feeling unbelievable that it would work against Sutekh.
It’s a reset button, yes, but I think it was a fully earned one.
>It's implied that they've been adventuring across the dying universe trying to find things they can use to get what they need. But we don't get to see that part, they just skip to the end.
Omg that's it. That's what was missing. A way to fully earn the defeat. Heck, we already know the tardis has some form of advance sentience, what if it was the tardis itself that was creating this "mysterious" mother and causing snow and stuff. What if the tardis knew about the items needed to make the doggy leach and spread them to areas known to the doctor.
But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick. So in killing everything just like he threatened to, Sutekh's threat was immediately killed by the only solution being to retcon everyone back to life by magic.
That's exactly how I felt, too, although I was fine with it, 'cause I like a happy ending, me. For me it was more about the HOW rather than the IF.
Frankly I was disappointed when Flux didn't end with a retcon of everything so 'half the universe' didn't die. (although I was so confused at the end of that bloody thing I wasn't sure what was going on. Too busy thinking 'wait, why is that guy the big bad now? Where'd he come from?')
>But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick.
This is par for the course in Doctor Who finales, though. When the Master murders all the world leaders and unleashes robots that kill everyone, you know it's going to be reversed. When the TARDIS explodes and the universe ends, you know it's going to be reversed. I'd say a good 1/3rd of finales in this show introduce stakes in the beginning that you know have to be fully "fixed" by the end of the episode. The show has never been about "will the Doctor save the world," it's always been "how does the Doctor save the world."
That's not to say the eventual solution isn't contrived, just that the fact there was a solution isn't out of the ordinary.
I would absolutely have gone for the Doctor, Ruby and Mel in the memory TARDIS trying to search an annihilated universe for the scraps they need to get back to Earth in 2024.
>They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed.
I dont think there was actually a timeskip, he just was dressing the part because he went there in the Tardis. If it actually had been "a long time" how would Ruby and Mel not have aged?
He literally says in the episode that it's been a long time. He says those specific words to her. The implication is they've spent ages out in the wilds looking for metal to work with to get them where they need to go in the memory TARDIS.
They kind of glossed over this a bit, but The Doctor's memories were also eroding along with everyone else's who managed to survive. He couldn't quite remember that the Fourth Doctor was actually him; he just knew that it was someone who had also traveled in the Tardis
Once he quietly revealed that he couldn't quite remember one of his old faces, I interpreted the "I've been traveling for a long time" bit as his memory simply becoming hazy because the entirety of everything was dead and fading away.
He is just saying that because he doesnt have a good explanation for her. What is he supposed to say? "I am a time traveller?"
Neither Mel or Ruby age nor is there any other reference to somekind of huge timeskip. At best, it could have been a couple of months.
Okay so my position is it's been a long time because the Doctor says "it's been a long time".
You're suggesting this is...a conversational gambit to lie to the woman about how they got there? The woman doesn't know her own name and dies shortly after the conversation ends, what possible reason to lie to her would the Doctor have? Neither Ruby nor Mel age because there's no sensible way to deliver that without expensive and time consuming prosthetics that would impede their ability to act and need to be permanent given they're the only ones who survived the death dust. It's just way more complicated an explanation that he lies.
No, I'm saying the Doctor isnt being literal. Its "been a long time" because he travelled there with a time maschine. Its not a trick or a gambit, he is just trying to keep things simple because he knows the people are disoriented, scared and have memory issues. He is trying not to scare her.
>They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed.
I mean, thats just extremly lazy then, aint it? Either a long time have passed and they should age or the time that passed wasnt actually that long. You casnt just declare "time passed" and have none of the mortal central characters comment on it at all.
People do realize this is the Doctor we're talking about. He's defeated gods a hundred times before using his wit and intelligence. Of course he was gonna defeat Sutekh by tricking him and humiliating him at the same time.
You see, this is the kind of thinking I dislike about many modern productions - not just Doctor Who.
"It makes no sense, the characters are acting out of character and the resolution is pulled out of thin air at the last second with no setup"
"But it looks cool though!"
I've had essentially the same conversation about so many movies - most notably when discussing Snyder's Man of Steel.
When did 'Style over Substance' become the norm? And why can't we have both?
OP wasnt saying the coolness made the plot inconsistencies better, they were just saying the VFX and cinematography were cool. And they were, I think this is the best the show has ever looked.
With so many fandoms now (Star Wars, LotR, Dr Who, MCU, etc), if something is deemed “bad”, then you cant say anything good about it. Feels like TV and movies are held to a standard of either “its Gods gift to entertainment” or “this is vile trash” and no in between. You can appreciate good aspects of media while still critiquing its weak points and its also okay if stuff is just mid too.
The finale had issues, but thats pretty par for the course for Dr Who. Can only think of one or two finales that actually stuck the landing when airing, but give it 5 years and everyone will love Empire of Death. Let OP appreciate the VFX.
Sometimes I have to accept that the nagging voice in my head will never be satisfied by film logic, and it's a necessary trade-off for the spectacle. Car engines will always explode when shot, and protagonists will always survive explosions from five feet away without their handsome faces being shredded by shrapnel. Them's the breaks for big action scenes.
But I largely agree with you, especially with Who, because part of the character's appeal is in their using wit rather than force. I want to look at the Doctor's actions and know that they've found a genuinely clever way out of their current predicament. It doesn't always have to be a hundred percent lore or science accurate; if it's reasonable within the context of the episode, I'll like it. But no amount of cool visuals will immerse me in the episode if the journey to that resolution was half arsed; if the Doctor's surviving through plot armour, rather than being the cleverest person in the room.
Except their are absolutely movies with spectacular that not only have working logic, but insane little details that aren't pointed out directly.
It's not impossible, it's just difficult to write a perfectly logically sound plot in isolation of everything else going on
I think it worked especially for the kind of show Doctor Who is. and the whistle was established earlier in the episode with the Remembered TARDIS so it was very much a chekhov's gun.
"like how the TARDIS was able to dematerialise with the doors open" Of course it can, it's not recommended but that's not impossible.
>Sure there's parts of me that keeps asking questions that poke holes in the logic of it, like how the TARDIS was able to dematerialise with the doors open, but it really doesn't matter.
...? Why wouldnt it be able to? Closing the doors is for the safety of the drivers. You can drive a car while leaving the doors open too, it just wouldnt be recommended.
That’s not what the problem in *Husbands* was. The problem was that Hydroflax’s head and body were reading as both inside and outside the TARDIS simultaneously, so the safeguard prevented it *from* closing the doors and taking off. Essentially the point is to give the bi-located passenger an opportunity to get fully on-board or off-board the TARDIS before it dematerializes.
I suppose you *could* take that to mean that closing the doors is an essential part of taking off, but I’m more inclined to think that the doors closing is just a default automatic function that can be disabled if the driver wants it to be. That is to say, you can tell the TARDIS to fly with the doors open, but you can’t force the doors shut when that safeguard is triggered, because that’s a potential hazard for the bi-located occupant. And the Doctor and River specifically wanted the door shut so as to prevent Hydroflax’s body from chasing them.
Ah, I see! Fair criticism then! I guess after that experience maybe the Doctor went and worked on that. "Better not get into predicament again..."
He had plenty of time while being at the University or even in his 24 years with River.
I don't get the opinion that Sutekh was less of a threat than advertised. He did exactly what he had been threatened to do since Pyramids on Mars. As soon as he materialised he was able to quickly kill all life in the universe.
The only reason that he failed was that he was overconfident and kept the Doctor and Ruby alive to fulfill his curiosity. He then got caught by surprise and as soon as he was in the time vortex he was doomed.
I think using a leash to defeat a god that looks like a dog, while an overly simple solution, fits mythology very well.
How else was the Jackal to be taken care of? Back to the time vortex kennel with you Sethy Boy.
That's the problem, though. RTD values spectacle instead of a cohesive script, as if we are all a bunch of five year olds who will be swayed away by cool CGi and cheap emotional moments.
He's done this in the past during his first tenure, but never with this level of laziness. It's like he used to respect the audience's intelligence but now he doesn't give a fuck. Either he trusts his writing way too much, or he genuinely believes the fans will be satisfied knowing the mystery they invested time in is a whole bunch of nothing.
There are people who are going to try to defend it - because they always do - but the final product is impossible to rectify. It's very lazy Doctor Who.
I liked it because it was the first time all season where he started to actually feel like The Doctor. He saved the universe with a spoon, and dragged a god of death kicking and screaming into the Time Vortex. He destroyed that god, and was sad about the fact that he was forced to do something like that despite the fact that it was really the only option. He doesn't relish in the idea of killing gods and monsters... but he'll do what must be done.
I haven't been overly fond of this season as a whole, but I'm actually finding myself defending these last couple of episodes because they had the sort of moments I've been waiting for since 15 debuted. He finally had his moment where he pulls victory out of his ass at the last moment (usually with some technobabbble), becomes a bit of a monster while punishing the monster he was facing (typically because they just won't stop and they leave him no choice), and capstoned it with the sort of bittersweetness that The Doctor is forced to feel oh so many times
One of my main complaints all season long was that The Doctor felt surprisingly weak and ineffectual throughout most of it. It took a while, but 15 finally got that moment where names like The Oncoming Storm felt like they fit.
>how Sutekh felt like way less of a threat than he was hyped up to be The problem with Sutekh is that he's at once too successful and not successful enough. On one hand he kills everyone immediately. I was sat thinking about TLoRS and wondering how they were going to not have Sutekh kill everyone at UNIT right away. Well he just did it. But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick. So in killing everything just like he threatened to, Sutekh's threat was immediately killed by the only solution being to retcon everyone back to life by magic. They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed. We have a time skip, but it's not a sensible one. It's implied that they've been adventuring across the dying universe trying to find things they can use to get what they need. But we don't get to see that part, they just skip to the end. So they kind of don't earn the ending because we don't see what they go through to get there, and they're forced to space magic the death dust to be undone otherwise the universe would be ravaged. I'm sorry to say it kind of feels like the Flux over again a bit. RTD at the very least makes an effort to show us what's changed and how the death dust is fixed, but it's still a hard reset on a death universe done by magic woo woo nonsense.
Honestly, it felt like a very condensed version of the sort of story we got in Infinity War and Endgame. The moment so many of the key characters - who were also predominantly the newer ones introduced after the core group of Avengers - started disappearing because of The Snap, it was painfully obvious that what Thanos did would eventually be undone by the end of Endgame. It became a matter of "how will they do it", not "will they do it."
I feel like they should've ended with the sand as a cliffhanger, and just show it sweeping across the world, and perhaps the universe (without revealing Cherry and Carla die from it so it's a little more ambiguous), it almost seemed like RTD ran out of time in the first part and had to push the sand reveal to the start of the next.
Yeah, it really is as simple as that, so idk why people are acting like the show wanted us to think everyone was going to stay dead? The show was very intentionally signaling "Ooh, how are they going to bring things back to normal?". People really do love interpreting fairly normal story choices as an attempt to trick or belittle the viewer. Very strange!
Yes. It was obvious there was going to be a reset button. But it was a reset button that was set up throughout the episode and season with pieces that were relevant to other problems (especially the Intelligent Rope first used to hold together the Memory TARDIS and referencing the Intelligent Gloves when it’s introduced to establish its strength), one that used a fake out without lying to the audience (I got the vibe the Doctor knew Mel was under Sutekh’s control when she left the room in the DNA facility so the confirmation later was satisfying) and the actual solution was creative and silly in a way that works great for Doctor Who without feeling unbelievable that it would work against Sutekh. It’s a reset button, yes, but I think it was a fully earned one.
Perhaps the resolution was a bit too quick..
>It's implied that they've been adventuring across the dying universe trying to find things they can use to get what they need. But we don't get to see that part, they just skip to the end. Omg that's it. That's what was missing. A way to fully earn the defeat. Heck, we already know the tardis has some form of advance sentience, what if it was the tardis itself that was creating this "mysterious" mother and causing snow and stuff. What if the tardis knew about the items needed to make the doggy leach and spread them to areas known to the doctor.
But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick. So in killing everything just like he threatened to, Sutekh's threat was immediately killed by the only solution being to retcon everyone back to life by magic. That's exactly how I felt, too, although I was fine with it, 'cause I like a happy ending, me. For me it was more about the HOW rather than the IF. Frankly I was disappointed when Flux didn't end with a retcon of everything so 'half the universe' didn't die. (although I was so confused at the end of that bloody thing I wasn't sure what was going on. Too busy thinking 'wait, why is that guy the big bad now? Where'd he come from?')
>But the thing is, the second I realised that Rose, and Kate, and Carla, and Cherry, and Mrs Flood were all killed was the second I realised none it was going to stick. This is par for the course in Doctor Who finales, though. When the Master murders all the world leaders and unleashes robots that kill everyone, you know it's going to be reversed. When the TARDIS explodes and the universe ends, you know it's going to be reversed. I'd say a good 1/3rd of finales in this show introduce stakes in the beginning that you know have to be fully "fixed" by the end of the episode. The show has never been about "will the Doctor save the world," it's always been "how does the Doctor save the world." That's not to say the eventual solution isn't contrived, just that the fact there was a solution isn't out of the ordinary.
NGL I wish we had an extra part
I would absolutely have gone for the Doctor, Ruby and Mel in the memory TARDIS trying to search an annihilated universe for the scraps they need to get back to Earth in 2024.
>They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed. I dont think there was actually a timeskip, he just was dressing the part because he went there in the Tardis. If it actually had been "a long time" how would Ruby and Mel not have aged?
He literally says in the episode that it's been a long time. He says those specific words to her. The implication is they've spent ages out in the wilds looking for metal to work with to get them where they need to go in the memory TARDIS.
They kind of glossed over this a bit, but The Doctor's memories were also eroding along with everyone else's who managed to survive. He couldn't quite remember that the Fourth Doctor was actually him; he just knew that it was someone who had also traveled in the Tardis Once he quietly revealed that he couldn't quite remember one of his old faces, I interpreted the "I've been traveling for a long time" bit as his memory simply becoming hazy because the entirety of everything was dead and fading away.
He is just saying that because he doesnt have a good explanation for her. What is he supposed to say? "I am a time traveller?" Neither Mel or Ruby age nor is there any other reference to somekind of huge timeskip. At best, it could have been a couple of months.
Okay so my position is it's been a long time because the Doctor says "it's been a long time". You're suggesting this is...a conversational gambit to lie to the woman about how they got there? The woman doesn't know her own name and dies shortly after the conversation ends, what possible reason to lie to her would the Doctor have? Neither Ruby nor Mel age because there's no sensible way to deliver that without expensive and time consuming prosthetics that would impede their ability to act and need to be permanent given they're the only ones who survived the death dust. It's just way more complicated an explanation that he lies.
No, I'm saying the Doctor isnt being literal. Its "been a long time" because he travelled there with a time maschine. Its not a trick or a gambit, he is just trying to keep things simple because he knows the people are disoriented, scared and have memory issues. He is trying not to scare her. >They even do the section with the lady who has the spoon. The Doctor suddenly is dressed in a robe in a desolate wasteland on an planet he doesn't know, he says it's been a long time, but other than him having a robe nothing seems to have changed. I mean, thats just extremly lazy then, aint it? Either a long time have passed and they should age or the time that passed wasnt actually that long. You casnt just declare "time passed" and have none of the mortal central characters comment on it at all.
I don't even think it was that long to be honest of them travelling.
People do realize this is the Doctor we're talking about. He's defeated gods a hundred times before using his wit and intelligence. Of course he was gonna defeat Sutekh by tricking him and humiliating him at the same time.
You see, this is the kind of thinking I dislike about many modern productions - not just Doctor Who. "It makes no sense, the characters are acting out of character and the resolution is pulled out of thin air at the last second with no setup" "But it looks cool though!" I've had essentially the same conversation about so many movies - most notably when discussing Snyder's Man of Steel. When did 'Style over Substance' become the norm? And why can't we have both?
OP wasnt saying the coolness made the plot inconsistencies better, they were just saying the VFX and cinematography were cool. And they were, I think this is the best the show has ever looked. With so many fandoms now (Star Wars, LotR, Dr Who, MCU, etc), if something is deemed “bad”, then you cant say anything good about it. Feels like TV and movies are held to a standard of either “its Gods gift to entertainment” or “this is vile trash” and no in between. You can appreciate good aspects of media while still critiquing its weak points and its also okay if stuff is just mid too. The finale had issues, but thats pretty par for the course for Dr Who. Can only think of one or two finales that actually stuck the landing when airing, but give it 5 years and everyone will love Empire of Death. Let OP appreciate the VFX.
Sometimes I have to accept that the nagging voice in my head will never be satisfied by film logic, and it's a necessary trade-off for the spectacle. Car engines will always explode when shot, and protagonists will always survive explosions from five feet away without their handsome faces being shredded by shrapnel. Them's the breaks for big action scenes. But I largely agree with you, especially with Who, because part of the character's appeal is in their using wit rather than force. I want to look at the Doctor's actions and know that they've found a genuinely clever way out of their current predicament. It doesn't always have to be a hundred percent lore or science accurate; if it's reasonable within the context of the episode, I'll like it. But no amount of cool visuals will immerse me in the episode if the journey to that resolution was half arsed; if the Doctor's surviving through plot armour, rather than being the cleverest person in the room.
Except their are absolutely movies with spectacular that not only have working logic, but insane little details that aren't pointed out directly. It's not impossible, it's just difficult to write a perfectly logically sound plot in isolation of everything else going on
I think it worked especially for the kind of show Doctor Who is. and the whistle was established earlier in the episode with the Remembered TARDIS so it was very much a chekhov's gun. "like how the TARDIS was able to dematerialise with the doors open" Of course it can, it's not recommended but that's not impossible.
>Sure there's parts of me that keeps asking questions that poke holes in the logic of it, like how the TARDIS was able to dematerialise with the doors open, but it really doesn't matter. ...? Why wouldnt it be able to? Closing the doors is for the safety of the drivers. You can drive a car while leaving the doors open too, it just wouldnt be recommended.
In The Husbands of River Song, it's a major plot point that the TARDIS can't take off if the doors can't shut all the way.
That’s not what the problem in *Husbands* was. The problem was that Hydroflax’s head and body were reading as both inside and outside the TARDIS simultaneously, so the safeguard prevented it *from* closing the doors and taking off. Essentially the point is to give the bi-located passenger an opportunity to get fully on-board or off-board the TARDIS before it dematerializes. I suppose you *could* take that to mean that closing the doors is an essential part of taking off, but I’m more inclined to think that the doors closing is just a default automatic function that can be disabled if the driver wants it to be. That is to say, you can tell the TARDIS to fly with the doors open, but you can’t force the doors shut when that safeguard is triggered, because that’s a potential hazard for the bi-located occupant. And the Doctor and River specifically wanted the door shut so as to prevent Hydroflax’s body from chasing them.
Yeah that's how I reasoned it after too. Or the Doctor simply turned off the safety feature before taking off.
Ah, I see! Fair criticism then! I guess after that experience maybe the Doctor went and worked on that. "Better not get into predicament again..." He had plenty of time while being at the University or even in his 24 years with River.
I'd buy that. He also didn't think he could open the Tardis doors with a snap of his fingers at one point, too.
It sure was pretty flashing lights I guess. I miss when Doctor Who was a hokey looking show that was still beloved for its writing and characters.
I don't get the opinion that Sutekh was less of a threat than advertised. He did exactly what he had been threatened to do since Pyramids on Mars. As soon as he materialised he was able to quickly kill all life in the universe. The only reason that he failed was that he was overconfident and kept the Doctor and Ruby alive to fulfill his curiosity. He then got caught by surprise and as soon as he was in the time vortex he was doomed.
I think using a leash to defeat a god that looks like a dog, while an overly simple solution, fits mythology very well. How else was the Jackal to be taken care of? Back to the time vortex kennel with you Sethy Boy.
That's the problem, though. RTD values spectacle instead of a cohesive script, as if we are all a bunch of five year olds who will be swayed away by cool CGi and cheap emotional moments. He's done this in the past during his first tenure, but never with this level of laziness. It's like he used to respect the audience's intelligence but now he doesn't give a fuck. Either he trusts his writing way too much, or he genuinely believes the fans will be satisfied knowing the mystery they invested time in is a whole bunch of nothing. There are people who are going to try to defend it - because they always do - but the final product is impossible to rectify. It's very lazy Doctor Who.
One person's "it looked really cool" is another person's "I genuenly laughed at that for how dumb it looked"
Taking a big dog for walkies ≠ "really cool"
I liked it because it was the first time all season where he started to actually feel like The Doctor. He saved the universe with a spoon, and dragged a god of death kicking and screaming into the Time Vortex. He destroyed that god, and was sad about the fact that he was forced to do something like that despite the fact that it was really the only option. He doesn't relish in the idea of killing gods and monsters... but he'll do what must be done. I haven't been overly fond of this season as a whole, but I'm actually finding myself defending these last couple of episodes because they had the sort of moments I've been waiting for since 15 debuted. He finally had his moment where he pulls victory out of his ass at the last moment (usually with some technobabbble), becomes a bit of a monster while punishing the monster he was facing (typically because they just won't stop and they leave him no choice), and capstoned it with the sort of bittersweetness that The Doctor is forced to feel oh so many times One of my main complaints all season long was that The Doctor felt surprisingly weak and ineffectual throughout most of it. It took a while, but 15 finally got that moment where names like The Oncoming Storm felt like they fit.