Frezno's Games Of The 2023 Thing!

Oh my god. We did it again. We somehow made it through another one of those pesky years. And it was the 10th anniversary of this blog, too! What a time we had, you and I. Now we're going to cap off 2023 by talking about some good computer video games I played. It's kind of funny how this started as a video game blog, but I only ever talk about them on here a handful of times now. I guess I save all the talking for this big thing I do at the end of the year. 2024's going to start with some game talking, and you'll even see a bit of that subject matter here. Why don't we just get into it, then? Let the end of year festivities begin, with this here game I played almost a year ago...

Doctor Who First Impressions: 2023 Christmas Special (The Church On Ruby Road)

Well, here we are. I have been patiently (and not so patiently) awaiting this moment for over two years now. After going through 2022 and the final drips of the Chibnall era, and then surviving the roller coaster of emotions and horrors that was David Tennant coming back (the specials were good, as you've hopefully seen me discuss), here we are. Something different. Something new. The 15th Doctor Who era has begun, and what a Christmas party it was. There hasn't been a Doctor Who at Christmas since Twice Upon A Time (which I watch every year, and which never fails to make me weep when Doctor Who remembers Clara), but here we are. Ncuti Gatwa, the new Doctor Who, that charming fellow who ran around in his pants for the last like 15 minutes of televised time travel phone box show. I'm not sure quite how this writeup is going to go, but I'm going to just flow along with it and let it take me to the opinionated truth laying at the end of the river of my subconscious. Christ, that was poetic. Talk about the blue box show, Frezno.

Doctor Who First Impressions: 60th Anniversary Specials Episode 3: The Giggle

Russell just had to throw a curveball on that last one and make my hobby a little harder, huh? Alright, fine, that mild grumble has gotten my foot in the door and now I'm here in my notepad typing about The Giggle, so mission accomplished there. Trying to quantify how I feel about the episode has been difficult. It's gotten near universal praise from all the critics I respect, and yet I didn't come out from the end of the show hooting and hollering about having seen the greatest new piece of Doctor Who ever. I've had to grapple with it and really let my thoughts marinate, and honestly they could marinate for another week before I could have a solid take on the episode. Still, timeliness is timeliness and this is supposed to be a First Impression, so let's get to it. I did like the episode, but not as much as Wild Blue Yonder. It does some neat things, but many of the bold things it does left me conflicted and wanting, really having to mull over if I thought they were good ideas or not. Let me see if I can dig into that confliction and find the nuance of truth within them.

We may as well start with him. the guy, the thing which I kept dreading for all this time until it finally got confirmed. "Beloved" 60's Doctor Who villain, the Toymaker, is back. I don't like that on paper. I do admit, a lot of that stems from El Sandifer being a formative critical voice and her old post on the original Toymaker story pretty solidly cementing my opinion that the repeated re-use of this nostalgic old villain is not a very good idea. Since that post, there's been endless debate and blog post and massive Twitter threads that dig into production notes and scripts and all of that, and even Sandifer herself is just like "I wrote this 12 years ago, leave me alone". I don't want to get into that. I'm not here to do that. Before the bile really builds in me, let's just leave it at "my opinion is that the Toymaker is a bad idea". That being said, at least I understand RTD's thought process here. He came up with the creepy puppet television origin thing, realized he needed a puppet master, and saw a piece of Doctor Who lore that fit what he was doing and pulled it out of the toy box and polished it up for the modern day. That's a better thought process than starting with "I WANT TO USE THE WEIRD GOD MAN FROM 1966", in my opinion.

Well, it manages to clear the low bar of "best Toymaker story I've ever experienced", but that bar is low to the ground considering his original TV story is wretchedly dull and that I couldn't tell you a goddamn thing that happened in The Nightmare Fair. This certainly is a very competent episode of television about a godlike being obsessed with playing games and doing cultural appropriation. There are standout moments I liked involving him, of course. The spooky moment of the episode with the puppets was quite good. I also was quite amused at the Moffat era puppet show, and have been enjoying the various memes of other companions' untimely fates being shrugged off with an "OH WELL THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN". I am not immune to propaganda, especially if said propaganda is a Clara mention. Then there's the dance, and oh my god. As a child of the 90's who had just a bit of an obsession with the Spice Girls back then, it was absolutely buck wild. Rasputin, hold my fucking beer. There's an anarchic glee and malice to Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, and it just about makes one see why people love pitting the Doctor against this particular godlike gamesmaster sporadically over 60 years. Just, shame about the original, you know?

His original scheme in this episode, though, is something original and which just about manages to say something about the world. Everyone believes that they're right, and the world descends into chaos because of it. There's a prickly sense of nihilism that pokes out at you while watching this shit unfold, and the RTD who wrote Midnight comes out a little bit here. There's the grim joke of the politician openly stating WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT ANY OF YOU?, and the horrific moment of Kate Stewart letting herself be affected by it and spouting fire at Ruth Madeley's Shirley. That in particular stings because it's far too real, the kind of thing assholes on Twitter were yelling about her just two weeks ago. The Doctor ends it all with a big speech about how, actually, yeah, humanity kind of is the worst, huh? There's a meanness which is unleashed here, a meanness stemming from the Toymaker playing about in this universe. It permeates not just the show, but the world in which it airs. It permeates not just from the Toymaker as a character, but the unfortunate nature of him as a concept from back in 1966. It's enough to break the show in half, and then it does.

There are two ways to look at the bi-regeneration which literally pulls Ncuti Gatwa's new Doctor Who right out of David Tennant. The first, which is what I was falling into when I first saw it, is abject cynicism. This is breaking the show and its rules into little tiny pieces. How the hell can there be two Doctor Whos? Then the realization dawns. We're going to be following the new Doctor Who, and the old Doctor Who gets to retire on Earth. Oh my god. Oh no. Russell, this isn't fair. We had a deal here. 2023 gets to be the Tennant nostalgia year, and then he turns into Gatwa and we move on to something new. If you have him split off and then retire on Earth... the man we've been following for 60 years just sort of gives up and stays in 2023 circa 2008, trapped in amber forever. More than that, you have just created a big shiny red David Tennant button. At any point while the man is still alive (and even beyond with AI, let's be real) the button can be smashed and David Tennant can come back to Doctor Who. The looming threat of remembering 2008 when the show was good is not exorcised with a regeneration. It's left behind, but it will always be there from now on. Forever. Oh dear God.

On the other hand, this is where I need my very own bi-regeneration. Here's the dark truth of it all: I'm mirroring the Tennant Doctor here. My trauma isn't the Flux, or the myriad of people I've lost in thousands of years of time travel. My trauma is the exact thing this episode marinates in. In 2022 I tried to exorcise these horrible feelings of fear and anger from macrocosmic lore bullshit, and now here's The Giggle and it has a mad Toymaker who is himself a continuity reference playing fast and loose and letting the toybox of callbacks spill out. We've got Mel! Trinity Jones! Archangel network reference! The Master's a tooth and a nail polished hand grabs them! Dancing to a funny song! Moffat puppet show and the Flux and Gatwa and Tennant referencing everything together! THE GODDAMN CHEEKY "CELESTIAL" LINE FROM TENNANT TO REFERENCE THE ORIGINAL TOYMAKER STORY! People love this stuff, and chuckle at it. I have my own private little meltdown in my head, and I'm letting a bit of it out on the page for dramatic effect. I have been hurt by this, in my own way. I flinch on reflex at this referential stuff now, thanks to how worn down I've been by all those betrayals of past. All those sci-fi tentpoles which burned me, this show included. Even when it's good now, I'm still wary and hesitant and untrusting. When you're hurt like this, it's hard to trust again.

That's why I envy the Doctor here. I wish another me, free of that trauma, a shining example of me from a future I've not reached yet, could come to me and give me a big hug and say "It's all going to be okay.". All that pain and trauma that the Doctor has felt over those thousands of years is something that he gets to stop running from. He gets to settle down and heal with the people that he loves, in the place that he loves, and every so often he may have another adventure here or there. The Doctor is healed by the Doctor, as symbolic and powerful a healing as Moffat did for him 10 years prior. Maybe Russell learned a thing or two from that special, and took the message to heart. Regardless, there he is. Ncuti Gatwa, the new Doctor Who, imperious and confident and kind, in his TARDIS. Free of trauma, of his anxiety, of the nightmare of losing so many people and the swirl of continuity. Maybe this is the way that we're resetting back to a new Season One. No angst over the Flux, no worries about Adric or Logopolis or the Dalek's Master Plan. No bi-regeneration or Toymaker influence being used as an excuse to bring all the Doctors back and to fully Marvel-ize Doctor Who. 

There's just this guy in a magic box that's bigger on the inside, making the universe a better place one person at a time, and he started with himself. That's lovely, and I wish I could do that for myself. Maybe I will, someday. I've not bi-regenerated, but those two halves of me make this particular whole. There are so many other utopic idealists who have inspired me before, and there will be many others afterwards. Maybe, just maybe, I won't be burned again if I trust this one. Someone once said that hate is always foolish, and love is always kind. So, I'll follow his example. I'll take the hand of that kind man who hugged the Doctor, and look into his eyes and trust him.

Ncuti Gatwa. The new Doctor Who. I want to remember 2024, when the show is new and strange and brilliant.

Doctor Who First Impressions: 60th Anniversary Specials Episode 2: Wild Blue Yonder

(A note before we begin: This was written on Dec. 3rd of 2023, to accurately capture a true "first impression" of Wild Blue Yonder before the airing of the final episode of the 60th anniversary specials. It has been deliberately withheld to await the results of the SAG-AFTRA vote on Dec. 5th, as an abundance of caution and paranoid anxiety over a strike resuming and maintaining the principles I held myself to during the duration of the previous 2023 strike. If you are reading this, it is either just after that vote or after subsequent striking has been resolved. Whenever you are reading this, I hope you enjoy.)

It is difficult, if not impossible, to critically watch Wild Blue Yonder and not have your mind make comparisons to other pieces of science fiction, or even prior episodes of Doctor Who. I could begin this by rattling off a list of things that popped into my head as I experienced this hour of television, but that's the easy route. I don't want to do that, because taking that track would imply that Wild Blue Yonder is just another mélange of influences thrown together into a pot. That would diminish its impact, and lessen my critique. The biggest strength of Wild Blue Yonder is just how fresh it feels. Ignoring the fact that it's a returning face and returning companion to Doctor Who, this is wholly original stuff. After a good three years of the Chibnall years and its parade of references and cameos and eventual exorcism of all that, here we are. A piece of new Doctor Who that is fresh, original, and incredible. A new high water mark for the show, even in this strange liminal period before Ncuti Gatwa.

Doctor Who First Impressions: 60th Anniversary Specials Episode 1: The Star Beast

(A note before we begin: This was written on Nov. 27th of 2023, to accurately capture a true "first impression" of The Star Beast before the airing of any subsequent episodes of the 60th anniversary specials. It has been deliberately withheld to await the results of the SAG-AFTRA vote on Dec. 5th, as an abundance of caution and paranoid anxiety over a strike resuming and maintaining the principles I held myself to during the duration of the previous 2023 strike. If you are reading this, it is either just after that vote or after subsequent striking has been resolved. Whenever you are reading this, I hope you enjoy.)

Remember 2008, when this show was good? 

I don't recall exactly when I coined that cynical phrase in talking about this show, but it was a realization which struck me some three and a half years ago during Chris Chibnall's second season. A medley of elements in his Spyfall two parter all combined together to be nostalgic callbacks to David Tennant's era of the show, at the expense of ignoring the Moffat years which I quite liked. This annoyed me, as did many other things with the Chibnall years, and it all culminated with Power Of The Doctor last October. I did not hate that episode, but I do not remember it fondly either. It is pure celebratory fanwank, all the Doctor Who at once, and the fact that it kind of worked not only on the fans still clinging to this show but on me says something about how the Chibnall years wore down standards. They did that, and now they're gone. 

In some ways, though, the logical endpoint of the Chibnall years happened before they even ended. First it was the announcement of Russell T. Davies returning as showrunner once Chibnall was done. Then it was David Tennant and Catherine Tate coming back to reprise the Doctor/companion dynamic duo from that era. The final terror of the Chibnall era, revealed: Why just cover 2008 with winks and nods when we can actually bring it back? It horrified me. It terrified me. The final breakdown of this thing I loved into warm oozing ichor and ectoplasm, retro-regenerating the entire goddamn show as... what? The final form of Chibnall's nostalgia baiting? An apology for those years, a desperate plea to please come back, look, we undid all of it, it's the Good Doctor Who that YOU like? Gag me with a spoon. Let me grow up, leave this cloying desperation behind, and move on to horizons which challenge me instead of flailing about in a sad bid to appease me. Wake me when Ncuti Gatwa is on and you're doing something actually new.

That is the apprehension I grappled with for almost two years, and most of it melted away upon watching The Star Beast. I'm not a total convert who's pleased to be back here or anything, but it is only for three episodes. I endured much much worse going through Chibnall. Fine. It may be 2023, but tonally we are back in the world of 2008. It has a whiff of that legacy sequel vibe, the whole "Look! It's your faves, and they're back!" and I still must grapple with that. Begrudgingly, however, I have to admit it. This is a good episode of Doctor Who, one that I enjoyed watching and have nice things to talk about regarding it. After the Chibnall years, this is such a breath of fresh air that it results in me grading the thing on a curve. Let me finally sink into this thing and say some nice things about it.

For starters, the acting is pretty stellar all around and I enjoyed everyone in it. They all play off of each other well, and all the returning folks play their parts how you'd expect for the most part. There's a certain gravity and poignancy to the way they play some parts, though. Catherine Tate is boisterous and fiery as ever, but she has tinges of sadness and regret as well as channeling that bold energy into being a fiercely protective mother. I really loved Tennant's slow and mellow scene with Ruth Madeley (and I really love Ruth Madeley in this, period, what a badass) where he sits and ponders why in the hell he, the 14th numbered Doctor Who, has turned back into this particular face. The actual space alien plot itself, an adaptation of a famous Doctor Who comic from the late 70's, works well here. It hits all the good spacey beats you want it to, as well as following the framework you'd expect if you read the comic. It's all good stuff. I don't want to laser focus on it.

No, what I want to talk about is the bit which really spoke to me. I briefly relitigated all of that stuff about my horror over the return of Davies and Tennant. All of that came to a head a year and a half ago, in June 2022, when I wrote it all out as part of my introduction post to talking about Quantum Leap. Quantum Leap then proceeded to give me everything that Chibnall's version of Doctor Who left me wanting for. It gave me a show about travelling in time, dealing with microcosmic issues that resonate with the real world, and a good man just passing through and doing his best to make a material difference in the world. I have yet to write about it for the blog, but I want to briefly mention an episode of the 2022 Quantum Leap called "Let Them Play". It is a story about helping to create a better future for a trans girl, one where she gets to play the sport that she loves. It is one of my favorites in the new show's run thus far, a beautiful piece about fighting for real material social progress that also lets one of its supporting cast members, a nonbinary character and actor, share their story of the hardships and challenges of being who they are. It is a wonderful 45 minutes of television that has something to say about the state of the real world we live in, and makes one pay attention to these issues.

Yes, The Star Beast is basically a story about a David Tennant Doctor Who and Donna Noble and rekindling the memories of 2008. By comparison to last year's Power Of The Doctor, which was a macrocosmic mess of cameos and references, this is a downright microcosmic story about Doctor Who helping one family out during a wild alien crisis. The most interesting of these, Donna's trans daughter Rose Noble, causes the show to do something that even the best of Chibnall era Doctor Who did in spite of itself. With the deft and talented hand of Davies, Doctor Who manages to have its cake and eat it too. It is a fun space adventure with Beep the Meep vs. the Wrarth Warriors, with UNIT soldiers, with lasers and explosions and rockets and alien mind control. It is also imperious in its swagger as it is about a real something that matters in the world today, planting its flag and forcing the viewer to think about it. That something? Trans rights, baby.

There are scenes which have given cause for much discussion and debate. Rose being deadnamed in the street by passing bullies. Sylvia Noble slipping up with her pronouns while talking to Donna and correcting herself. The whole "did you assume their gender" bit with Rose calling Doctor Who out on using "he" for Beep The Meep before asking the alien for their pronouns. All that "binary binary non-binary" stuff, and the resolution of the Donna trolley problem being one that a "male-presenting Time Lord" could never figure out and we needed two women to do it. Lots have been said about them, and I've paid particular attention to the voices of trans Doctor Who critics whom I admire and respect. They're on board, for the most part, though there are reservations which vary here and there. That last line about the male-presenting Time Lord is the one which has caused the biggest reservations, but look. It's muddled, yes, but let me remind you that we're grading on a curve here. The implications of the line are there, but it's nowhere near as ethically cratering as, say, "The systems aren't the problem" or "Now they'll see the real you". (And while we're dunking on the Chibnall era, let me just say that the fact that the 13th Doctor could have figured out how to save Donna is laughable. This woman couldn't even be bothered to fix Dan's house for Christ's sakes, or even a half-splintered universe from the Flux.)

[INTRUSION FROM THE FUTURE: There's an irony in me having said that, like half a week before Wild Blue Yonder aired and had the Doctor briefly grapple with Flux angst.) 

Davies does indeed take a cue from Hell Bent, and has brought Donna back to admit that the memory wipe from 2008 was wrong and so it gets undone. The fact that he actually, for a few brief moments, sold to me that he was going to kill Donna off and I bought it says a lot. (It deeply amuses me that the climax of this episode involves a Noble stuck behind plexiglass while David Tennant agonizes over whether or not to save them.) It was dramatic, but this is better. Donna gets to remember Doctor Who again, and remember how she grew and changed from her time with the Doctor. I am surprised to find myself caring much less about that that I expected to. Don't get me wrong, it's good. but it's not exactly revelatory. A fictional character gets a happy ending after having a bummer one for 15 years. That is good, but I'm still worn down enough from Chibnall that this in-universe stuff does little to spark joy within my heart.

What does spark joy is the symbolism and power of the way Donna gets restored. There are a million plausible ways to write yourself out of the Journey's End mindwipe. The one Davies chose just happened to resonate with the imperious confidence of being trans positive in Doctor Who. The technobabble Metacrisis thing passed down to Rose as well, and together with her mom they use girl power to willingly let it go. For Donna, it is a rejection of the macrocosmic, an embrace of the microcosmic family that she loves and is fiercely protective over. For Rose, it's a chance for her to become a more true version of herself, discovering who she is and being proud of the woman she's growing up to become. There's a real beauty to it, a beauty which not only heals a rift in the show but is proud to have it come from trusting in, loving, and accepting your trans daughter. Fuck. That's beautiful.

That's where I want to leave off with The Star Beast. The magic of Doctor Who returned to me, and all it needed was a good fucking writer with a deft hand who had something to say about the world we live in. Who got trans positivity on Disney+, of all things, and who used it to patch up a past regret. Hell, I don't blame him for mindwiping Donna and wanting to walk back his choice. I've done shit like that in my NaNoWriMo projects. In 2010 or so, I decided to kill off a character and I regretted it. I spent 2019 through 2021 building up to a great undoing of that, a redemption that healed a bit of sin from the canon of my own little multiverse. Davies did that while also making it about something, which is more than I can say for my little story, but that's why he's the current writer of Doctor Who. I can live with that, and I can live with this small run of neo-Tennant if it means writing of this caliber.

To end this with a quote from another prominent Doctor Who critic, writing on Davies' very first episode of the show? Doctor Who has returned to television.