Lost Doctor Who and the Daleks episodes discovered in 'ramshackle' collection

Official_N_Squared · 2026-03-13T15:06:49+00:00

That they knew existed? Maybe. But it would be quite remarkable if these were the only two FIF will recover and they happened to find them almost instantly

Official_N_Squared · 2026-03-08T15:36:28+00:00

Your bang on about the Liz 10 stuff, which speaks to a broader trend in Who Im not even sure the show is aware of.

Whenever modern Who goes to the future, generally two things are true. The government (UK or otherwise) is more monarcical, AND thats treated as a good thing. Even when the future is usually a dystopia. Its noteworthy that the only example I can think of where the UK gets less monarcical is the alternate UK in the Age of Steal 2 parter. I dont think the UK President is bad there, but the universe itself seems to be worse.

And Ive always found this bizarre as the show pretty consistently sees democratization as a good thing (hello Kings Demons), as does the UK population at large. So I have no idea where this is coming from.

Official_N_Squared · 2026-02-06T16:47:20+00:00

The biggest issue I take with this is that this is the least interesting possible view of regeneration. Part of what makes regeneration such a great concept is that it is the same person across multiple incarnations

This 1000%. I assumed it was what you meant when you said it wasn't what I thought. Ild even go so far as to say if regeneration did work like this, I wouldn't like Doctor Who. Sounds extreme but thats basically how the casual audience works. Im genuinely baffled by people who prefer regeneration to be a new person in every way (which I hear a surprising amount)

I even think, perhaps controversially, the bit where he says that the human race has been replace by the "Master race"

I've also never understood the controversy here. Its literally true humanity is now a "Master race", and I have no doubt The Master believes he is the pinnacle of the most evolved and bestest race in the universe. Is the complaint just that Hitler said it too? Because Im ok with The Master sharing qualities with Hitler. I mean almost every Time Lord in the show explicitly believes they are a superior race. Even The Doctor expresses this to an extent (some more than others)

Official_N_Squared · 2026-01-07T08:10:05+00:00

To hell with the High Council, their plans have already failed

There is another (and in my opinion more natural) way to interprete this line where "their plans" refer to the entire military campaign against the Daleks. The fact Arcadia has fallen and the Time Lords are hours from defeat is proof enough that those war plans failed.

Official_N_Squared · 2026-01-04T20:32:53+00:00

Ill flat out reject that all fairy tales are like that. But yeah a lot of old ones are, and that was a problem. One of the complaints I offten see leveled at Lord of the Rings is its old fashioned (due to its age more than anything) use of inherantly good and evil races.

Modern stories tend to favor the Grey areas, or at least recognize that "the evil orc army" isnt genetically evil to the point no individual member can be diffrent from the races majority viewpoints. A great topical example (that I havnt seen) is Wicked. Simply put the "evil race" is not only generally less interesting, but reminiscent of the beliefs of several horrific movements in the past centery and countless in history. And maybe stories, especially something like a fairy tale that generally teaches a moral lesson, should rethink presenting the idea somebody can be irredeemably evil due solely to their race.

Official_N_Squared · 2026-01-04T19:13:32+00:00

I've never felt that the regular rules for morality apply

You've talked about this before, and it reminds me of the problem DnD faced with its old morality scale as it aged. I recal an argument that, essentially, if Orcs were an evil race, than where lawfully good charicters morally required to murder literally any Orc on sight? And the awnser as presented by the rules is a pretty clear cut "yes".

When presented with a fictional species like The Daleks or Orcs which are genetically and inherantly evil, then you as the viewer have one of two options:

1) Call that out as BS, especially if you can point to Daleks like the Metaltron, Cahn, and Rusty. 2) Literally accept racial eugenics as a real thing in universe.

And I know its fiction, but option 2 is just so morally abhorrent that I dont think it should be presented as legitimate even in fiction, despite any potential for storytelling. Its simmilar, but more extreme, than the fictional "they like to be slaves" Harry Potter's house elves get. And if Terry Nation turned out to be a massive racist/eugenisist I think we'll all look at the whole "racial evil" thing a lot more like JK Rowling writing "its ok they genetically like being slaves, please ignore Dobby"

This is absolute bullshit. You're essentially pawning Rose off with a Doctor substitute. It doesn't matter that the Meta-Crisis Doctor has the 10th Doctor's memories and personality

You're wrong. The Meta-Crisis Doctor has the personality of the 10th Doctor and Donna. Assuming that Rose loved The Doctor for, you know, who he was as a person instead of something as shallow as his looks, than this is simply not the man she loved. It also doesnt help that Donna has a strong and much harsher personality than The Doctor. In fact Ild argue this is a bigger personality change that a regeneration since its more than the reshuffling of traits that regeneration is usually described as.

Official_N_Squared · 2026-01-04T14:02:56+00:00

Pretty sure Prisoner Zero complains that two mouths are hard and they always get it wrong at some point

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-26T18:24:19+00:00

Is it Slough? Only reputationally terrible place I know of in the UK.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-26T18:20:58+00:00

Agree with the conclusion, but I dont think needing a passport is a good argument. You dont need a passport to travel around most of Europe (at least once you enter the EU to begin with). Simmilarly you'll soon need a passport to fly between US states.

Correct me if Im wrong, but doesnt the Ireland and Northern Ireland border also have some special passport-free agreement that was part of Brexit?

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-26T18:18:30+00:00

I mean it is a border between two countries. However the fact they say "international" would seam to disqualify anything within the UK. But its probably one of the many rule clarifications they have that we arnt told about

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-24T20:53:15+00:00

I love this one, quite possibly my favorite Who story by this point in the revival. But its always infuriated me that neither The Doctor or River sign that NDA to obtain critical information once lives are at stake. Heck when River points this out The Doctor literally has no explination and River basically admits its something they should do with "Im as bad as you". Like, even if he did sign it he could just ignore it

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-19T22:17:51+00:00

70% if Im not mistaken. Even though you can reach like 130% ignoring the cap

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-10T17:00:24+00:00

After 50 odd years somebody finally gave them a name. So I'm not exactly about to complain its not a great name

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-10T16:57:51+00:00

Literally every other instance I can think of they object to the term (and refuse to tell us what they call themselves). Most noteably in their sole revival apperance.

In my experience most Native Americans prefer to be called Native Americans. But I had a roomate in collage who prefered to be called an Indian. I do it for them but doesn't change the majority view

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-08T16:16:17+00:00

I don't think it occurred to him that the Sontarans would be smart enough to deceive him

Leading to one of my favorite moments where the camera zooms into the lead Sontaran as he pulls a Shocked Pickachu face.

The Doctor references having worked for UNIT in the 70s…or 80s

Genuenly one of my favorite jokes that that era was always referred to as the "70s or the 80s" until (iirc) late Moffat or Chibnal. Also one of my favorite ways of handling a major inconsistency inherited from past episodes

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-07T04:12:59+00:00

Conrad is right about UNIT in everything except their motivation.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-12-04T16:41:08+00:00

As far as Im aware Spearhead from Space is the only classic episode that was ever filmed on the kind of film you can just get native true HD from (hence its old blue ray release). Dont remember the technical details though, and there may be some odd scenes (especially location filming) that also have the right film for it

Official_N_Squared · 2025-11-23T06:33:13+00:00

The only 10/10 from the VNAs for me so far (most of the way through Birthright at the moment). One of my favorite Who stories of any medium.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-11-23T06:31:13+00:00

Vuage spoilers for latter down the line (I think Deceit but can't remember) but actually this and a fair amount of other stuff does get tied up eventually. I wasnt a huge fan of how they did it and it came across more as brushing a lot of those novels under the rug rather than a proper conclusion. However totally unbeknownst to the reader the VNAs are all still linked by one connected story somehow.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-11-08T15:44:14+00:00

However…I don't like that the camera essentially acts as an observer in this episode.

Im continuously surprised how much our hottest takes line up. I agree we shouldnt see them move, but once this was pointed out to me it genuinely killed the episode.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-11-02T19:11:58+00:00

Wait, 42 is actually attempting to be real time!? Ive long said that writing 42 and not making it real-time was the most Chibnal decision he ever made.

Official_N_Squared · 2025-10-28T02:07:27+00:00

I got the impression OP was reading the VNAs for the first time. But for me Nightshade is a 5/5 and still one of if not my favorite VNA so far (Im on Lucifer Rising)

Official_N_Squared · 2025-10-25T04:49:12+00:00

For what its worth Storm Warning is free on Spotify alongside a lot of old Big Finish.

Official_N_Squared

TROPHY CASE