One of the strangest episodes of Doctor Who of all time just dropped, with the debut of the second 60th anniversary special, “Wild Blue Yonder.” The vibes presented in this special were a complete 180 from the first special, but was that a good thing? Here’s my recap and thoughts on the second of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.
The pre-credits scene of “Wild Blue Yonder” takes us to England in 1666 and Sir Isaac Newton. Yep, after 60 years, Doctor Who has tackled the infamous moment where an apple falls on Newton’s head. Turns out it was caused by the TARDIS slamming into a tree. After some fun banter from the Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate), where they inadvertently use the word ‘gravity,’ Newton tries to remember the word and settles upon navity. The Doctor and Donna then refer to gravity as navity throughout the story. What I can’t figure out is if that had some connection to the plot, or was literally just a funny gag.
Cue the title sequence, and the Doctor and Donna land on a spaceship, which they discover to be on the very edge of the universe. Donna starts to worry about their predicament. The Doctor grabs her hand and gives it a reassuring kiss, something you’d never see the less emotionally secure Tenth Doctor do. He reassures Donna that he will get her home no matter what. Upon realizing they’ve landed in the middle of hostile action, Donna notes that is was something so bad that the TARDIS ran away, to which she hilariously says “we’ll just go and kick its a**!”
We meet a very slow robot, who is dubbed Jimbo. From there, the Doctor and Donna head to the front of this very long spaceship. It’s here that trouble really starts to befall them. In a slow, and creepy way, we suddenly release they are both speaking to copies of themselves. Copies that aren’t quite perfect, as they can’t seem to get the proportions of their bodies right. We hilariously and terrifyingly see the copies with large hands, as the Doctor and Donna try to figure out just what they are.
They’re chased down the very long corridor by the copies, who increasingly become larger and more entangled. The real duo are separated, and once again, the copies try to infiltrate. These copies aren’t just physical, as they also contain the memories of the hosts. This leads to some well played and emotional scenes trying to figure out just who is real. I especially loved the Doctor’s emotion regarding just what they had to do during the events of the Flux during the last season of the show. Honestly, we found out more about the Doctor’s inner turmoil from this one small scene than we ever did last season.
The copies are getting close to perfection, and we find out that the ship’s Captain sacrificed herself and set into effect a “slow bomb” to prevent these entities from ever reaching civilization. In the final confrontation, the TARDIS returns, and while the Doctor initially takes the copy Donna, he quickly realizes and returns for the real Donna, just before the ship is blown up.
The TARDIS lands back in London, to be greeted by the wonderful late Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, Donna’s grandfather. Wilf is one of my favorite Doctor Who characters of all time, so it’s truly a delight to see Cribbins reprise his role one final time before his passing last year. But once again, all is not as it seems, as an explosion happens, a plane crashes, and a strange sound begins to affect Wilf and others. We’re introduced to the machinations of the Toymaker, as a tease for next week’s final special, “The Giggle.”
I came away from “Wild Blue Yonder” with mixed thoughts. It definitely felt like something new, unlike anything we’d seen from Doctor Who before. The copies were a brilliant idea, and both Tennant and Tate put in excellent performances as the regular duo and the copies. But I couldn’t help comparing it to the emotional highs and utter fun of “The Star Beast,” and compared to that, this episode fell a little flat to me. I am however extremely intrigued by the tease of what’s to come next week, with the final special. In fact, a small teaser was released following the episode, and can it already be regeneration time? Tune in next week to find out!