Doctor Who

If I can be off-topic for a second, this community does seem like it needs a bit of help. The only mod has been inactive on Lemmy for 8 months. Somebody probably needs to request ownership or whatever before the lack of moderation actually has results. (Not it.) There is [email protected] which is active and moderated, but I know there are those who don't like that instance.

Back on topic, I really liked this one. I've been pretty cool on season 1/14, but 2/15 has been more up my alley so far and this one was the strongest yet. I watched the behind-the-scenes Unleashed episode and it was nice to see how much impact Rose Ayling-Ellis was able to have on the episode. The original concept didn't involve being deaf at all, but once Ayling-Ellis came on in the quasi-monster of the week role, it really changed the direction. Somebody hiding behind you has got an additional layer of sinister for a deaf character and they were able to play with what it means for her when others turn their backs.

I don't think being a sequel to "Midnight" really helped or hindered it much; it functions just fine as a standalone episode. Some apparently felt like the "Midnight" stuff was shoehorned in (which in a sense is accurate, the Unleashed episode talks about how this was not originally a sequel), but it seems harmless. Either you don't care and it doesn't affect your enjoyment of the episode, or you get the reference and can DiCaprio point at it.

Overall solid story, guest cast were great, Chuti Gatwa got some good stuff. Another neat thing from Unleashed was that he actually learned a bunch of BSL from the instructor they had on-set rather than just being guided for the specific dialogue he needed to convey. There's behind the scenes footage of him talking to Rose Ayling-Ellis where he is continuing to sign to her, which was nice to see.

The one weakness for me was that Varada Sethu didn't really get a whole lot to do. I really like her as Belinda but the voice of reason isn't the most dynamic role you can have in a Who story. It was just a shame she didn't get to be more involved.