Wild Blue Yonder

"The notion of shape is strange."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 02 December 2023

Series: 60th Anniversary Special 02

Featuring: Fourteenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis

The TARDIS is out of control, abandons the Doctor and Donna on a faraway, mysterious spaceship, with deadly secrets in every corner.

Verdict

Wild Blue Yonder was another good episode to continue the sixtieth anniversary celebrations! In saying that though, and I don’t mean for this to be a negative blog post as I did enjoy the episode, but I felt slightly let down. We’ve had a lot of hype for these three specials and rightly so given how monumental they are in celebrating a diamond anniversary and ushering in the epic returns of David Tennant, now the Fourteenth Doctor, and Catherine Tate as Donna with her memories reprised. It’s a fitting pairing. However, this episode in particular has been sworn to secrecy and to be honest I don’t really know why. There was nothing that couldn’t have been shown or given anything away because the enemies were portrayed by Tennant and Tate themselves! Now, one of the biggest positives of the episode was their performance. It was exemplary. Honestly sublime from them both to play both roles that well. I do enjoy a doppelgänger kind of story and throwing that in with some twisted horror meant for some strong visuals. I liked the freaky nature of the episode as I do enjoy horror stories and sequences of the kind we saw here. I appreciated the unique nature of it and it certainly wasn’t like anything we’ve seen in the show before which is rather impressive after sixty years! I loved the continuity of the HADS coming into play and Donna’s line of there being something so scary that even the TARDIS ran away really sells the threat. The TARDIS malfunctioning and exerting fire from the interior to the extent that it did seemed a bit much considering Donna had just spilled a bit of coffee on the console. Can it not handle a little bit of liquid? I also feel this was a missed opportunity to have as the reason for the TARDIS interior changing. Although the brand new line was funny. I thought the setting at the edge of the universe was really eery and I liked the atmosphere that came with the quiet and the sporadic bang from the outside. It was tense for sure. The Doctor being without the sonic was tremendous and the moment he realised he’d lost that with the TARDIS was very daunting. I thought the conversation between the Doctor and the fake Donna was so emotionally charged. The references to the Flux and the Doctor not knowing where he’s from were most welcomed indeed. I think there’s a lot of potential to explore there and I wonder if Russell T Davies will divulge that in the future with the next Doctor. It’s crazy to think now that another new Doctor is coming next week! I thought the action in this episode was good and the mentions of Wilf were delightful. The Doctor really is desperate to see him again, and the moment at the end of the episode was very touching. Especially with it being the final acting appearance of Bernard Cribbins. A lovely moment as he warned of the world going to chaos. One element of the episode I thought was just a bit silly and pointless was the whole Isaac Newton and ‘mavity’ bit. I just didn’t find it funny and now it seems that the word has changed in the Doctor Who universe? I’m not sure if it just went over my head but I didn’t like it. I also wasn’t impressed that the Doctor picked the wrong Donna when the TARDIS made its triumphant return after the countdown was sped up and completed. The idea of him realising that Donna’s arms were 0.06mm too short just seems a bit of a stretch (sorry!) and not one I’m buying. He should have known. I honestly thought he knew he’d picked the wrong version and had a plan to expel her from the TARDIS, but it didn’t seem that way at all. He just got it wrong and whilst the suspense that Donna’s looming death has was well done, I never bought it. Regardless, it was still a good episode overall with a fine setting and some stellar acting. I think if I watch it without any hype in the future this may go up a mark, but for now despite the quality I can’t help but feel ever so slightly underwhelmed. 

Rating: 7/10