“Wild Blue Yonder”
Posted by Sage
It’s been a deluge of information and content since the lead-up to these 60th anniversary episodes began (a jarring but not unwelcome adjustment to make after these remarkably quiet past few years), so it was very sus how little we knew about it before “Wild Blue Yonder” aired. Well, let me just confirm that this exactly how and when I like to be kept in the dark. While it certainly brings to mind past episodes (“Listen” and “Midnight” among them), the second Tennant/Tate special is a deliciously creepy and intense hour that also packs in tons of humor and even more proof that Fourteen is not Ten, no matter what their shared face suggests. While it would have been a ride either way, having us go in cold was absolutely the move.
Seeing as no guest stars had been announced for this one and the Temple-Noble family were left back in Camden, it seemed a sure bet that this would be a two-hander showcasing David and Catherine – just the kind of thing you’d imagine RTD would be excited to sandwich in between a more populated “premiere” and “finale” if he only had the pair of them for three episodes. Little did we know that there would actually be eight hands involved, and that four of them would be giant.
Doctor Who has a bit of an uneven history with body horror. Sometimes it leans silly and a little vulgar (“Love and Monsters”), and sometimes it careens into the way-too-dark (Bill’s fate in “World Enough and Time”). “Wild Blue Yonder” hits the sweet spot with the Not-Things’ attempts at perfectly copying Donna and the Doctor. They’re ridiculous to look at. They’re an utter nightmare. They tap into our uncanny valley anxieties in a way that only Doctor Who can. And they make for some really delightful behind-the-scenes featurettes – so many of the effects were practical, and who doesn’t want to watch David try to seduce a mask of his own face?
As fun to watch (and re-watch) as the episode is, there’s some real writerly cruelty at the center of it. The Doctor and Donna have just gotten each other back. They’ve shared a self and lived to tell the tale. After 15 years, they’re closer than they’ve ever been, so here comes a indefinable entity to make them question whether the person standing right next to them is who they say they are. And what a nasty little game to play especially when one of those people is lying by omission to their companion and barely able to admit the truth to themselves. I know RTD has said that he has no plans to change the canon established by Chris Chibnall, but I wasn’t expecting a mention of the Flux so soon.
To be honest, the Timeless Child was far from my mind watching this special, so it took a few seconds for all the Gallifrey talk to really hit. Of all my issues with the era we just left behind, changing the Doctor’s origin story wasn’t one of them, and it’s exciting to see a past (in a sense) Doctor grapple with the mindfuck of it all. I’ll be very surprised if there’s time to address their foundling status in “The Giggle,” but after this, we can’t rule out that an old enemy like the Toymaker won’t have a detail or two to drop. Either way, it’ll be a thrill to watch him tackle it if this to be a major emotional arc for Ncuti’s Doctor.
As for the Flux itself, it seems for now as though RTD is planning to treat it like the Time War, in that it’s yet another source of guilt and shame for the Doctor. As little as I understand exactly what happened at the end of that season, it’s nice to have confirmation (after two full calendar years!) that we did, in fact, destroy half of the universe. Taking the Doctor to the edge “of a creation which I devastated,” as he puts it, forces him to look at what he was unable to prevent, and frankly, with all of the hugging and kissing and verbal affection we’re getting from this guy, it was kind of comforting to see him rage at the thought that Donna might have seen, without filter, all of the pain he carries. David’s performance in that scene in the bowels of the ship is visceral. The Doctor is furious at himself at himself not just for being vulnerable with Not-Donna but also because of how good it clearly felt to open up and to share some of that burden, even for a moment. He immediately regrets it, and the wall is erected again.
But if the Not-Things represent anything, it’s that intention does matter and that the good often fades away too quickly. They reveal to the Doctor and Donna that they’ve heard only the loudest parts of their “noisy, boiling universe,” and that’s what they’re determined to emulate. What’s terrifying is that they can mimic empathy, even as they have no desire to understand it. And the more themselves the Doctor and Donna are, the quicker they can be duplicated – a tough break for two of the biggest personalities in all of time and space.
Fortunately, they’re hardly muted here. And RTD has still got it when it comes to writing a high-concept script that’s also light on its feet. There are a least half a dozen all-time Doctor/Donna exchanges in this episode, from their pun-heavy encounter with Isaac Newton (which, as far as I can tell, is included for reasons of pure fun) to the Doctor faking her out after licking the filament goo to Donna confirming that she always suspected he had mlm leanings. (I’m taking anyone acting surprised about this on YouTube, clamping them into a chair Clockwork Orange-style, and playing them the Simm!Master arc on a loop.) No groundwork needs to be laid for their intimacy; we get to drop right back into their screwball dynamic with no preamble. And it feels like not a day has past since the last time they shared the TARDIS.
Bottle episodes are rarely perfect, however, and I do have some extremely minor quibbles. The sets that the actors were actually able to interact with looked great, which only made the CGI corridor look more like a video game backdrop. Jimbo the robot, a gorgeous stop-motion puppet, should have played a larger role, and the action moves fairly quickly on from the captain’s scheme and sacrifice. I have sci-fi rules questions about the Not-Things altering their form once they’d almost “locked” into place as the Doctor and Donna (Like, must we conclude that the captain had vampire teeth? How much control do they have over the shape that they take?), but I’m sure there’s a long, semi-boring explanation for all of it that just wasn’t worth the screentime.
None of these complaints will prevent “Wild Blue Yonder” from becoming a classic, however. So few shows have literally anything in the realm of possibility before them and finally, we’re using the full length of that runway again. This hour mashes up at least four different genres, gives David and Catherine their villain moments to chilling effect, drops some teases about the end of this Doctor and the beginning of the next, and pushes our characters significantly forward. It also culminates in a genuinely traumatizing near-miss, designed to torment those of us who are very wary about whether Donna Noble will make it out of all of this alive. It’s worth it, perhaps, to remind us again that Catherine is a tremendous dramatic actor and Donna is around for more than just delivering sarcastic asides.
Even if it hadn’t turned out as well as it did, it would still have a place in the history books as the final television role of our beloved Bernard Cribbins. We’re so fortunate that he was able to be on set and make the long-awaited reunion of Wilf and the Doctor a reality. I’ve always had an affinity for his character and what he brings out in the Doctor, so there was not a dry eye in the house when the Fourteen poked his springtime face out of the police box door and Wilf’s lit up. Donna would not be the person that she is if Wilf wasn’t such a dreamer, and how lovely that it remained his defining quality well into his 90s. The Doctor not only saw himself in Wilf, he also saw something he aspired to emulate. And while his final return to the show was all too brief, Bernard was as magical as ever. He will be forever missed.
Timey Wimey Observations
- John Mayer’s “Gravity” came up on Spotify the other day, and I almost laid down in the street, in case you’re wondering what kind of legs that joke has.
- Love that the TARDIS is now autoplaying songs, like your MySpace profile the last time Catherine Tate was a full-time cast member.
- The growth of the Doctor being able to apologize to Donna when he starts to panic and inadvertantly takes it out on her.
- I am not a Doctor/Donna shipper, but I can admit that the hand kiss had me questioning my resolve.
- “Was it Mr. Fenslaw saying his name?” “It wasn’t, no.”
- At least I know from all the Not-Doctor fancams I’ve been served on TikTok that it wasn’t just me.
- Real nerd behavior of RTD to cut the dialogue acknowledging that the Doctor has been to the edge of the universe before because he realized it wasn’t necessary, only to later post it on Instagram to prove that he does know it, thank you very much.
- In any other episode, the Doctor’s monologue about the HADS-activated TARDIS being worshipped by a civilization would have been the standout, but there was just so much going on!
- “So I arrived in Southampton, which allowed my mother to say I was a problem from the day I was born.”
- Mrs. Bean is funny because it sounds like she was married to Mr. Bean, and I can’t believe neither of the Donnas said this.
- “Earth girl” MELTED me. MELTED ME, I say.
- Anyone else think the real Donna saw more of the Doctor’s memories than she was letting on?
- Someday I’ll write a separate essay about how Donna’s concurrent beliefs that she is both stupid and brilliant are the epitome of modern womanhood/third-wave feminism.
- I would like to give whichever makeup person decided to use smudgy eyeliner on this Doctor’s lower lashes a little kiss on the forehead.
What did you think of “Wild Blue Yonder” and how scared are you for the final anniversary special? Let us know in the comments!
Featured Image Source: BBC
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