The Reel Rejects - DOCTOR WHO “THE WELL” | 15x3 (2x3) Breakdown & Review

Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode is brought to you by Adidas. When the frustration grows and the doubts start to creep in, we all need someone who has our back. To tell us, we'll be okay, to remind us of our ability, to believe, because their belief in us transfers to self-belief and reminds us of all that we're capable of. We all need someone to make us believe.

Starting point is 00:00:19 Hashtag, you got this. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now and get a free chili dog. Chili dog not included.

Starting point is 00:00:34 The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. At Grey Goose, we believe that pleasure is a necessity. That's why we craft the world's number one premium vodka in France, using only three of the finest natural ingredients. French winter wheat, water from Jean-Sac and yeast. With Grey Goose, we invite you to live in the moment and make time wait. Sip responsibly.

Starting point is 00:01:00 John, you're ready to do this? I'm ready. Let's go all on Z, babes. Well, that was a fun one. That was a fun one. Ladies and gentlemen, if you were listening to us on Apple and or Spotify, please give us a rating. It would help out. And once again, rejagnation.com. I'll go to you first, John. What did you think?

Starting point is 00:01:28 I really enjoyed this. I, you know, I'm going to wait for time to pass before I start to hold it up to midnight. But this really got me, you know, hooked. And even though, you know, we're in the era where there are a lot of alien rifts and a lot of stuff that's like, ooh, doing desolate paranoia on a distant planet, you know, I like having that flavor as a part of Doctor Who. And this episode certainly drew me in with its tone and with its creeping dread. And, yeah, like just the atmosphere. fear you know they start out so fun and bubbly and we're doing this like oh we're changing

Starting point is 00:02:04 outfits again we're skydiving in and you know edge of tomorrow vibes this is going to be exciting and then you get to the surface and then yeah it switches to feeling like some kind of alien sequel for a little while in a fun way like you know again because doctor who has these origins in you know we're doing stuff in black box theaters with paper mache and you know we've gone in the history of the show from no means to all of the means and i feel like they make pretty good use of the means and yeah when this finally that's just one of those doctor who moments is going to stick with me as sort of that that realization and you were there you know certainly well before i was that idea of like this feels a lot a lot like midnight oh goodness this is a follow up to midnight and that's both

Starting point is 00:02:50 exciting and a little bit treacherous because that is an episode that was so stand out and I feel like Doctor Who certainly has peril, but they don't always go for horror, and this is certainly more of a horror-centric kind of episode, kind of couple of episodes, and they, you know, leave you off. There are a lot of stingers in Doctor Who for like, oh, but there's still something perhaps sinister afoot, but in a different way, whereas this had that horror movie ending of like, the creature will return. You know, you have not defeated it. You have simply staved it off for a moment and maybe saved a couple people. you were hoping to save but not everyone and uh yeah i think they're doing i like this interesting kind of like segue from one episode to the other just as a seasonal motif i feel like the recent seasons have gone out of their way to try and serialize more than the show is known for not that

Starting point is 00:03:43 it's never had serial elements in any iteration of the show but i feel like it's especially kind of trying to work that sort of like if you put an album on and every song just blends into the next one kind of feel which is neat uh and yeah uh i had some other thing that was going to come behind the behind but uh but yeah what did you think i think this is i like this is my favorite one of the three so far i feel like lux will probably still be the preferred one for people generally out of the three though personally uh this is my favorite one this hit all quadrants i feel like yeah it's a four quadrant episode and then in terms of

Starting point is 00:04:27 this whole thing of like waiting to compare it to midnight or something to that effect I don't feel like this episode is anywhere near as strong as midnight definitely not like there's aspects to it that I think maybe bit off a tiny bit more

Starting point is 00:04:43 than it maybe could have just like percentage wise I don't mean that in a way of like this is a bad episode or something but in terms of like being the first episode to be a direct sequel to midnight it I don't feel like it is all is this is like I think about like the weeping angels like blink will be the ultimate episode it's going to be really hard for any angel episode to come close to that of blink you know no I don't think this would eclipse that at all it's more like how close does it get you know I don't feel like anywhere near is close on the the debate around it is but still it's like exciting to me that they would actually bring back the what's up i love a review that has business it's exciting to me that they would actually bring back um this concept too and like their alien the the midnight episode

Starting point is 00:05:40 with ten it is not uh alien rift to me at all and they've done many episodes that are like we go to a planet and there's a colony and something's gone wrong and there's a thing attacking or it's been abandoned or vacants. And that is a motif that Doctor Who has explored plenty of times. And I thought this was one of the stronger ones because sometimes what they'll do is they'll go a little bit bigger with the monster. They'll try to show some monstrous shit. But we don't really actually go that far. It's primarily a tense debate about like what do we do. And really, it's a strange thing if it wasn't a midnight sequel i probably give it even more praise because it's a because it's directly tied to that of midnight i i do start comparing like well here's what midnight was actually

Starting point is 00:06:34 doing of why that dialogue back and forth and the escalation of that back and forth was so impactful than has been hailed by many as one of the best doctor who episodes of all time and so like let's say it wasn't like the midnight sequel episode if they didn't tie it into that uh i i i'm gonna i want to like kind of only view it from that lens which is going to be a bit of a challenge for me but in terms of that i i enjoy enjoyed the main actress um played alice i i forgot her name it was on screen for a reason um rose aling ellis i enjoyed her performance a lot and like immediately endeared but also hitting those right pitches of wait do we suspect her is she someone who's actually an entity or something is she one of them creatures and for this also for doctor who in this iteration to be to to be exploring more of the gods and supernaturalesque qualities of the cosmos midnight was an unresolved thing a jig that we never figured out what the hell that was so to bring back something from the past when so

Starting point is 00:07:52 much of the conversation with this newest iteration with shutee has been oh the more supernatural leaning era of dr who but then to go back to that even and then for the last episode to also acknowledge you know blink significantly which has a supernatural flavor to it it's cool to say like yeah a lot of people might be going hey this is the time when doctor who's game supernatural and they're kind of reminding you like no it's actually it's kind of been there it's it's been it's been percolating there always been fantasy and and yeah this yeah i feel like doctor who since the dawn has spanned the yeah science fiction to fantasy spectrum yeah it has for for a long time but i think meant now more than ever and i i think the thrusting into along with its

Starting point is 00:08:44 incredible production value a cGI and digital effects are a thing where people mainly pointed out when it looks bad and then they want to rip it apart and really comment it in are there times where the background does look like a green screen that shoot you got was in particular is placed against sure but most of this i thought looked amazing and when you're going to go when you have to like drive home what this power is and the in the dark isolation of it you need a beautiful production when you're first entering, but then to go more play like an intimate between soldiers of that. And I do think some of the dialogue, perhaps going to have been a little bit more enhanced, even though I like the dialogue, you know, though it was a good debate, there was a solid portion

Starting point is 00:09:28 where it was like, there's something behind. No, it's not behind. No, there's something behind. I know that it couldn't be. Repetition would be there, of course. Of course it would be repetition and a thing like that. After a while, I was like, okay, now I think we're getting a little too repetitive here about the everyone's just kind of the same, the same thing. It kind of muddled that motif from midnight. I was like, does it make, because that had a whole like mimicking copycat element to it. And it's not in full effect here, but it's kind of hinted out, which on the one hand is like kind of cool because you're like, oh, a hint. But also you're like, has the entity evolved or the rules just different this time, you know?

Starting point is 00:10:02 Well, the other one, midnight was very much a survival type of, I only seen that one time, but it really sticks with you. You know, you get that haunting moment where it looks like they're going to like sacrifice the doctor. to save their own asses where everyone's turning on them you know and it never quite reaches that menace it never reaches that type of haunting but i don't feel like they're aiming for that level of horror either like this goes a lot bigger with the swinging around and and and then even little teases of like maybe if we slow down the frame we can actually see what it maybe kind of looks like that they're teasing which is i'm so of two minds about that if this wasn't a midnight sequel i wouldn't care uh but because it is i'm like i kind of wish we don't see like it at all yeah yeah

Starting point is 00:10:51 yeah um i'm glad they didn't show any more than they did but it is one this is one of those things that i guess creates an anxiety in you as a viewer when it's happening you're like oh god please don't go too far are they going to go too far and i i don't know if it's fair to hold the show accountable to really put a pin on like we did not and we earned this and you know as it stands like you know i thought the flashes were yeah like i'm inclined to be like it's more than i would have liked but i'm glad it wasn't more than it was because as it was if it wasn't midnight i would be like cool i have a thing to wonder about you know whereas with midnight i guess it's it's the yeah the treachery is going to i want it to be a complete wonder well if i'm

Starting point is 00:11:37 mistaken i could be remembering this incorrectly i believe midnight was one of those episodes that was constructed due to budget constraints and they needed to come up with an idea that they could shoot. And so it came out of necessity and then this concept was conceived. And with inherently, that concept works best as a small scale as possible.

Starting point is 00:12:04 And so when they were going bigger here, I wasn't as attracted to it because I preferred the more small scale. and again it is the thing of two minds of wanting like I'm I'm excited that you're doing midnight sequel like honestly like that I there's a big part in my brain that also exists of like I'm just happy they're doing a midnight sequel that's fucking cool really cool and then there's this other part of me I was like what you know what makes midnight special you don't go big you know really contain this is like a bottle-ish episode in just a very big expensive bottle yeah

Starting point is 00:12:39 yeah yeah but I think like all the actors are really good a lot of times in this show it can be hit or miss when you bring and i think like this i feel like this director amanda brochi uh she is probably like a perfect director for doctor who then because the last episode introduces other characters to guest star characters and the way they're presented i'm even thinking about like the dude at the diner when the when or the mom a lot of times in dr who when these other take the first episode a bunch of character of this season a bunch of characters are introduced couldn't give a shit about like 99% of them whereas here i did feel the concern i did i i think she understands how to like capture people via learned about

Starting point is 00:13:26 them through their actions and how they're responding in the immediacy of something not like give us a bunch of backstory you know like tell us who you are and all these things like you learn little bits and again that goes with the writing and in conjunction with the directing so i think the directing of this was really strong because yeah these characters were awesome like I like the Shia character a lot too you know like I was really moving

Starting point is 00:13:51 when it cuts back to her childhood I like that you actually see they reserve the visual of her childhood for the end versus showing it when she's first explaining it like I didn't even know we were looking at it first and then I was like oh do it when she's actually reliving it

Starting point is 00:14:07 like physically mentally in some kind of sense memory way not when she's telling you her backstory. Yeah. When she's making this mad run because she's desperate and it's wartime and it's all that she knows to do,

Starting point is 00:14:20 then it's meaningful. And you can, like, I think, yeah, like this episode does have a lot of like big upswell of emotion. And at least for me as a viewer did a good job of in the moment really making you feel that weight and swell of, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:34 by the end of the episode, it does feel quite climactic. And you are sad to see this sacrifice be made. And that compliment you know the midnight episode as well in its own way but like yeah i thought those choices those little nuances and and when and how to do little bits of i don't know interspeak within situations like when they're first starting to talk with alice and the doctor's kind of trying to communicate with her on his own level and then they're kind of pulled back in and even just

Starting point is 00:15:06 the presence of something like sign language in a universe like this is just another one of those like nice, again, human nuances and expanders and what a great performance, but also like, you know, an interesting kind of imagining of how we would handle, you know, hard of hearing in the future, you know, and things like that. And how everybody even chooses to interact with that. Like, they have a multitude of like little beats and moments. Belinda's like, I'm sorry, I don't know how. And then the other, the other soldiers are like, I can just beam it to you. And the doctor's like, I fully speak this. You know. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of stuff that goes into like the quality of the episode that yeah like even if it isn't quite as momentous

Starting point is 00:15:46 of like a damn like what an inspiration i think that's maybe part of it too is not to say that like midnight is good because they had these restraints but sometimes big restraints on what you can do on screen does lead to like the need for insanely clever writing and this was yeah really tonal but it's not necessarily doing anything that blows your mind in addition to the fact that it is related to midnight is really cleverly constructed and the tension is certainly there in both the performances

Starting point is 00:16:18 and in how it's conceived and I think this episode compared to the previous two had the least where and it felt the least like it could have probably benefited from a slight bit more time but this one felt the most proportionally paced and scripted out of the three from this season

Starting point is 00:16:37 thus far to me I would say so I would say so and luxx i know was uh pretty pretty beloved and yeah part of there's aspects of lux that i prefer over this episode for sure um because i think lux does more memorable new things yes you know yeah and um i what i what i think this this one really did though for belinda for me is this really drove home the doctor and nurse companionship between them that makes the specialty of who they are in terms of like them in the field as doctor and companion oh yeah i thought was the strongest here and i know there was a we mentioned our feelings about where we're at with belinda so far in the last one

Starting point is 00:17:29 there's a lot of people who were like no i disagree totally cool appreciate uh welcome disagreements And, you know, you're just blocked now. Now, I don't know. Welcome to disagreements. And this one, though, I thought, like, when it was Belinda engaging, I was very much thoroughly engaged with what she was doing. And the thoughts of, like, those other thoughts I was having in the previous two episodes didn't even cross my mind. Sure. I think this is a great episode of learning, getting to know characters via through how they're responding in a situation, which is very much.

Starting point is 00:18:05 much like the thing, which both midnight and this feel like a play on. And this feels more like a play on the thing than midnight does. And I also thought Shuti Gatwa, as the person who did not play the doctor way back when in the episode of Midnight, I believed those were his memories, though. Yeah. And I think that's part of the strength of what he brings to the role as a as the doctor too and like the can really the big the real star of the episode to me is rose ailing ellis yeah you want to talk on her oh no yeah i mean like that's such a centerpiece of a role of a character and i mean obviously given just the way society is it's going to strike you to have you know hearing impaired actor you know spot lit in an episode but like again

Starting point is 00:18:55 what a performer and in a certain point like it is the true to me it feels like the truth of life which is like, at first you're like, oh, God, am I going to be able to understand? And I like that they had some dialogue with her that did not have subtitles because that calls you, I think, in a different way than when it's spoken language to like tap into the body language

Starting point is 00:19:16 because it is sign language is supposed to be to a degree intuitive. And yeah, like at a certain point, I kind of forgot all about it. And they make it a part of the episode in an interesting way with the whispering that I like and there are things about that in a mystery. sense. I think this as a mystery episode gives you a lot of threads to pull as a viewer who

Starting point is 00:19:37 wants to figure it out. And it never loses its sight of that. And I think a big reason why is just because she's so convincing and her plea is so relatable. I just want to go home. I just want to see family member of some kind, you know, and she's great at really, I feel like there's got, like, I'm sure you as the performer have to just play it absolutely straight. So it's the combination of the performer in the direction that like the performance left space for me to extrapolate and to wonder and guess and you know at the end of it all you feel like it's probably not going to be that she's some kind of monster but at the same time there's enough here that I'm keep wondering and I'm not sure and you know it's all tied around with this sincerity

Starting point is 00:20:25 and I think the positioning of an actor again who is you you know, in the deaf community is sort of a way to, you know, there is an othering of those people in society. And so I think as a dramatic just piece of the puzzle also creates that opportunity for the audience to kind of question themselves a little bit and why they're responding to the character this way or not. So yeah, I don't know. I thought it was just a, yeah, like a terrific performance and a cool way to, again,

Starting point is 00:20:56 incorporate the choice, but also not make it like, you know, I don't know. it seemed to fully fit the piece and that's what you want with any piece of casting you know and I thought yeah it exemplified that and it was you know I know Chutigatwa's take is often sort of I think one of

Starting point is 00:21:15 the things people debate is the degree to which he shows that emotion and in this episode especially it felt very warranted to have the degree of emotion and that level of tension in the room and that

Starting point is 00:21:31 way you can feel an energy between him and her in a different way than everyone else yeah yeah yeah uh overall i thought was a really great episode uh i really enjoyed this one i'm liking the season a lot yeah i think it's a really solid season last thing i'll say you said that thing about the doctor and the nurse and uh and i i think it here their character dynamic is that really spoke the most thus far to it and i love that they have a beat where like a doctor and nurse in real life might the doctor literally says, I'm going to toss the mic to the nurse because she's the one who's literally been in the trenches of this. Like, I am the

Starting point is 00:22:07 expert, perhaps, but she's actually been here, you know, she's seen the thing. You better listen to her as well as me. My authority carries over. Like, we're both experts, in a sense, on this situation. It's kind of neat. Yeah, as long as that's a good point. Thanks for sharing that. Well, guys, what do you think about

Starting point is 00:22:23 this episode, man? Leave your thoughts down below. Reject Nation. Thanks for welcome us into the Doctor Who world. I really love this. I love this show. I love Doctor Who quite a bit, actually. And my love for it has only grown over time. So thank you guys for being here. Thank you guys who bought to choose your doctor t-shirt.

Starting point is 00:22:42 Again, link in the description box. If you are watching on the television, you can scan that QR code. Otherwise, we will see you very, very, very soon. Peace. Pieces. Catea Sims. Nice to have you back. Because we are going to be going.

Starting point is 00:23:01 into battle and we need our Pokemon Kadisha Sims. I choose you. We choose you. We choose you. Don't not forget this is a partnership. If we're going to dominate the world as a Pokemon. We've got to make sure we're aligned here. The Pokemono tag team, we is trainers tag team. Absolutely. See, you use the Pokemon. You get where we're coming

Starting point is 00:23:21 from that's right. So, Kadeja, when we unleash your powers against a Charzard, which is a living, breathing dragon. I guess you forgot. That's true. They just call a dragon. Kadeja's powers You guys aren't ready for What Kadeja has to throw when you unleash Kadeja Kedija

Starting point is 00:23:37 Opens mouth Balls like from a ball pit Fall out Yes Shooting Yes Making children Come to play with balls

Starting point is 00:23:48 Kedija is a microplastics Pokemon Because this works on like a very primal level Yeah Is that when the children show up Charzart murders all the children Oh that's right

Starting point is 00:23:59 Charzard, guilt, shame, wishes to retreat. Oh, no. Flies away across the mental, across the world, lives alone, isolated until it's very, perishes. Yeah, just dies alone. Just withers away, rots on the top of an ancient volcano somewhere.

Starting point is 00:24:21 That's Khadija's main power. Dude, wow. You only need to use that move once. Really? Killed, had many, because it's super, effective it's very effective shame can go a long way and can if anyone knows how to shame it's cadizia but it only works on charza sadly sadly sadly you better hope you get lucky sadly last always welcomes the murder of children blestwise my dude it's okay don't worry

Starting point is 00:24:45 you'll come up with a new once you evolve you'll come up with a new way to make blast toys kill all the kids and then go you know mourn and perish that's our next patron that's right all right Deja I think you're a master I think you're more than satisfied

Starting point is 00:25:01 with how this one

Your Ad Here

The Reel Rejects - DOCTOR WHO “THE WELL” | 15x3 (2x3) Breakdown & Review

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.