What Kids and the Not-We Thought of "Boom"
Gallifrey Base has threads for each episode where fans can share reactions from children and casual viewers.
They're often surprising and interesting, so with not long until the new series, I thought I'd repost some general reactions to Season One here, and get a sense of what this new era means to the general audience.
Watched it with 3 friends. One is very much a 'we' - we watch a lot of classic together. The other 2 after last week were on the verge of giving up on this Doctor already. Last week there was a lot of talking over it and one even started doing something else mid Devil's Chord.
This week silence as everyone was engrossed in watching it. Excitement for next week too.
My Priest is writing a very strongly worded letter to the Director General!
My friends preferred Devil’s Chord but did find this one to be tense.
My Dad, who was utterly unimpressed by Space Babies and outright perplexed by Devil’s Chord (and on the verge of giving up on it) messaged me to say simply “Dr Who has improved!”
He’s 71, if he’s using an exclamation mark he really means it.
My 6 year old was giving it some attitude last night. "I'm not watching it. I'm just gonna play on my phone".
Within 2 minutes the phone was down, she was leaning forward, and did not take her eyes off the screen to the end.
Which is surprising as I was expecting this to be a bit of a bore for her as it didn't have a typical monster and pretty much confined to one location.
I've never seen her face like that whilst watching something. You could see the concern and worry on her face.
Ncuti and Millie were absolutely on fire yesterday.
Mrs liked it!
This never happens. She usually merely tolerates it for my sake!
Well mine is an adult now, but it's the first one they've messaged me about saying they enjoyed from the new run so far.
Mum thought it was great. Liked that it touched on topics like faith etc. Brother watched it with me twice.
sister "Now that's a doctor Who story " she didn't like the last 2 episodes
Just been messaged by my sister: "Well Dr Who episode 3 was as sh%t as the first. Don't think they can afford to pay actors anymore. Cast of 5?"
Mum, who did enjoy last week's double bill, said it was a "bloody load of crap." She found it very boring.
Boring - far too talky (0 out of 3 enjoyed so far)
Watched with my friend (who only watched last week to laugh at me about how bad they were), and he was impressed by the majority of the episode, and thought it was much more interesting this time.
I think that my wife is becoming a member of the Not We. For the second week running, she got up after a few minutes of the episode and said she would leave me to it and went upstairs.
When she came back, she said that she just doesn't feel any genuine tension in the episodes and that she can't take to Ncuti as The Doctor. She just finds him far too lightweight as an actor. He doesn't convince her that he's The Doctor. She can't take to Millie Gibson either.
Son gave it the thumbs up after quietly whispering, “Oh, no…” throughout. Scared him a bit, but a scare is good sometimes and he’s already waiting for next week.
Just noting this in here. 3 episodes in to this series and none of my usual Not We 'commentators' have contacted me to say anything about any of the episodes so far. This includes my brother and 2 friends, all of whom tend to watch it with a degree of interest and who almost always have something they want to tell me (or ask me to clarify!) afterwards.
Feels a bit odd, and makes me think they have got out of the habit of watching. I'm not sure if many casual viewers have it on their radar anymore. You would think a new - and quite different - Doctor would inspire renewed interest. Even the friend who I saw a few days before the start of the series who said he was looking forward to it hasn't commented on it.
My boyfriend said it's OK
My wife said it was a vast improvement on the first 2 episodes but was not overly impressed. She finds Ruby too much of an annoying know all in the same way Clara became in Capaldi's era.
I watch with my younger brother who is a casual Who fan, he honestly didn’t like the previous episodes other than Church on Ruby Road and even then said it was a B-. This was easily his favorite episode because at least to him it had a coherent plot. Although he doesn’t really enjoy Millie Gibson as much as previous companions
I've not actually seen the episode myself yet, but mentioning DW to my 86-year-old dad (who I've been staying with over the weekend) elicited "I've basically given up on it" as a response. I don't see much hope of getting him to watch it now. He found the Chibnall era a struggle to follow (although he liked Jodie's Doctor), so I'm not surprised that the more frenetic pace and general bonkerness, etc of the new RTD era has been even more incomprehensible for him to try and follow.
My 14 year old watched Boom last night, laughed out loud at a couple of moments. Ruby rolling down the crater after being shot (!?) and Mundy's love interest being blown up!
He also found the kid really irritating and 'stupid'.
But more importantly he's really digging Ncuti as the Doctor and thinks he's probably one of his favourites of the Nu Who Doctors, better than Tennant.
Watching the Next Time trailer he liked the look of 73 Yards (He's predicted the 'old lady' on the Ambulance is the figure in the trailer). As much as he enjoyed Space Babies and Devil's Chord, he said he does always prefer Doctor Who to be scary, which I whole heartedly agree with.
My wife and I both think this season is pretty dreadful so far, even though we like the two lead actors. I count my wife as a "not-we", for although she has seen every episode of the show since 2005, she doesn't rewatch them or talk about them online, and couldn't name episode titles and such. (I think she could probably come up with The Satan Pit, Blink, and Genesis of the Daleks for titles she remembers, if pressed!) After the one-two punch of Space Babies and The Devil's Chord, she said she'd be happy never watching the show again. If I'd been new to Doctor Who, I would have been ready to give it up too! We both felt Boom was somewhat better, but was just a mash-up of Moffat's Greatest Hits. This season has become the first time that I am sort of dreading new episodes each week, rather than being excited about them...
6-year old son slightly less impressed this week. It was a bit too talky for him.
VERDICT: “Good mainly, but a bit boring because he spent all the time on the landline [sic]”
(That would have been quite a different story…)
Not we friend just caught up, he said he's struggling with Ruby. Too young and their relationship seems rushed. He also said he wished they'd killed her off here and gotten a new companion. He isn't warming to the leads... I've told him next episode will hopefully sell him on Ruby so we'll see
This one clearly went down better than the two-episode premiere, but reception overall seems mixed-positive. The people who were checked out are still checked out here, even if they think this one was an improvement.
The unusually grim tension of this story went down surprisingly well with kids, even if some felt it was too talky. The structure of this story definitely fits snugly into Moffat’s farce playwriting era.
I liked this one and Joy to the World fine, but I’m perfectly fine if I never watch another episode from the Moff. I’m a little fatigued from the same tropes and devices I’ve already seen more than enough times from him, and I was kind of craving getting back to RTD's sloppy new stuff after this episode. I love Moffat, but I'm pleased he did Christmas instead of Season 2 and left a slot open for another new writer.
This episode drew 4.3 million viewers, a drop of 0.9m from The Devil’s Chord, and scored one more AI point of 78, same as Praxeus and Can You Hear Me? The last episode that scored that prior to Chibnall was Sleep No More. So he’s kind of took the Gatiss slot this season in more ways than one.
Find links to all the 2023 specials' Not-We reposts here. Find links to all the Chibnall era Not-We reposts here.