Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Oooh, which one should I watch tonight? Star Wars is NEVER bad. Maybe I'll watch that one. Star Wars has NEVER let me down before....

No crock pot, no problem.

My laptop in the living room, VNCing into the main computer in thr office, running a virtual machine to run Windows 11.

Russian Nesting Doll Computing.

Music Before Bed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbT_ZWcgLb4

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/11/infocoms-ingenious-code-porting-tools-for-zork-and-other-games-have-been-found/

So, I want to split this into two pieces. The episode, and the production.

Episode wise, I liked this episode. They went with an interpretation of the Toymaker I took away when I finally saw the original Celestial Toymaker. Less "Another Time Lord" which was implied back in the 60s, and more of a Demigod. And they took that and ran with it. And I LOVED it. That said, he was a pretty weak part of the story, and there wasn't much more to him than a game player to the Nth degree.

Donna and Tennant's Doctor remain a fantastic team, right up there with Ace and McCoy for me. Maybe even better. Donna has a confidence and self-assuredness you don't see from other companions and her fight with the Stooky Family really shows that off. Same with "ALREADY RUNNING!"

Melanie was a bit of a wasted opportunity. It was nice to see her again, and figure out how she got back to Earth after her travels with Sabalom Glitz, but otherwise that could have been anyone. It was nice to see her computer skills in action, which was in her her character bible, but absolutely never used in the old series. AND SHE DIDN'T SCREAM!

Ncuti Gatwa is going to be a great Doctor, and he's won me over already.

Production Wise....

I was never happy with them bringing back David Tennant after Jodie Whitaker. Dont' get me wrong, David and Donna are FANTASTIC, and they lived up to the hype of bringing them back. But at the same time, it definately felt that this was a "wash the aftertaste of the Jodie era from the angry fanboys, and give them what they want before the black man takes over."

The Bi-Generation? Where we now have a concurrent David Tennant, complete with TARDIS and ALSO Ncuti Gatwa running around the universe definitely feels like "We have David on reserve, if they start complaining about Ncuti." It definately undercuts the idea of Ncuti's Doctor when there's another one waiting in the wings....just in case.