Hello, I hail from the future having just finished the show he's talking about. The show he's talking about is (ROT13) Uob'f Gur Yrsgbiref.

I have a lot of conflicting opinions on the reveal itself, but a lot of it is mostly just a "I'll wait and see what happens" kind of thing; though I was not a huge fan of it just being very static, people standing around in a room exposition. I think the mystery of "the Doctor isn't from Gallifrey" is a juicy one that could be milked for many many decades, but part of me thinks of it kind of as a weird "chosen one" narrative that Doctor Who has generally avoided. When I first watched this episode, I was just incredibly tense wondering if they would kill off any of the companions, which I'm glad didn't happen, but the constant teasing and some advertising for the episode just made me mostly uncomfortable and not really have much fun.

I wanted to share a perspective on the episode by a friend, Joy, who talks about how the Timeless Children concept and episode really reflects her lived experiences with adoption trauma, which contrasts a lot with her experience with other adoption stories. She talks about it in various places.

- Her initial twitter thread that brought me onto the idea: https://twitter.com/InquiringJoy/status/123429201...

- Her episode of the Galactic Yo-yo podcast where she discusses it in detail with Molly Marsh: https://soundcloud.com/user-86410751/episode-104-...

- This episode of the Reality Bomb podcast which she produces which includes a segment by her about the very concept: https://www.realitybombpodcast.com/2020/09/28/rea... The episode is also just a very interesting and broad meditation on the story and how it has impacted fandom without dwelling on the negative backlash that was a bit pervasive when the episode aired.

I love this episode. One of my absolute favorites of the Chibnall era. The script is just so sharp and the dialogue is really funny and clever while also being just generally a tense story with many cool twists and turns. I'm generally not a fan of the "historical figure gets their cool idea from the Doctor's influence" trope, and that's no exception here, but I can ignore it for the amazing episode.

I saw this episode for the first time in a massive crowded ballroom during the Gallifrey One convention in 2020 and it was one of the most fun fan experiences I've ever had. I barely understood what was going on, but I had a lot of fun and when I came back from the convention and watched it proper, the episode blew my mind. It's hard not to have fond memories of this one, that was pretty much the last big social event I went to before the pandemic started.

I enjoyed this one on the rewatch moreso than before. The script is pretty dramatic and engaging and the jokes are pretty much all on point. I think the episode's treatment of its characters of color leave a lot to be desired though, with Aramu and Suki getting a big brunt of the episode's difficulty at confronting its own biases in casting/writing/etc. Aramu was a local South African actor they cast for the scenes they shot in South Africa; I don't really understand the process, but this meant they could only have him for beach scenes, and that leads to 1) him dying when no one else is around and 2) literally no one mentioning him ever again the moment he dies, no one even acknowledges he died? And then Suki is an Asian character who intentionally spreads a virus for the plot of the story and that's not... great optics all things considered (obviously covid wasn't a factor when they were producing these episodes, but it sure was when these episodes aired), and then she dies because she makes a bad decision even though we were shown and told she was a smart scientist who probably should've known it was a bad idea.

Part of what bugs me about the Chibnall era is its use of "colorblind casting" to promote its own diversity, but it never really thinks about the effects casting people of color in supporting/extra roles is in the greater context of their own scripts. I don't think the ""problematic"" nature of these characters were intentional at all, I think they're a symptom of them casting to show diverse faces but not analyzing whether these scripts actually serve their characters of color well/lack of forethought about whether or not there would be bad implications about that casting in the story.

On this rewatch, I did really get into it though and cried at the end, so it does have that going for it ahaha.

This is the most exciting episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen. I was busy the day it aired, and was told not to go on social media and to watch it as soon as possible, so I literally downloaded it onto my phone and watched it on a tiny phone screen and was completely blown out of my mind. What a great episode! I got to ask Vinay Patel about the process of writing it with Chibnall during Gallifrey One 2020 and it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life, what a good guy.

I love this episode a lot! It feels like an upper-tier RTD story. The script has a lot of energy and well-developed theme of invention and coming up with your own innovations and ideas. I thought the characterization of Edison was really well done, and the episode had a lot of just high-tension, high-energy scenes that just really drew you into it.

Hey! This episode is really ambitious in a way that I really admire. It's one of those episodes that feels like it was marred by some production issues and difficult direction, but the various setpieces and time travel and different time periods are all very appealing to me. Spyfall Part 1 is a fun albeit safe beginning while Part 2 is a more grand, messy, but ambitious episode that I can't help but be excited about.

There's two moments in the script that are just eugh to me; one is the Doctor weaponizing the Master's appearence as a man of color against him by selling him out to the Nazis (there are so many angles to this and all of them squick me out), and the other is the mind wiping of the two women companions the Doctor took with her (this has never been necessary for historical figures before this?? one of these women is about to die in a concentration camp?? how come the male historical figures we run into throughout the course of the series don't get this treatment?? haven't we had some very notable plotlines recently in Doctor Who about how mindwipes are bad and invasive, especially against the will of their victims???)

This episode is one of those episodes that feels like it was roughed up by production issues, same as Spyfall Part 2 (which I think I like a lot more than other people do). My guess is that whoever played Benni wasn't able to show up for some critical days of filming which lead to a different outcome for his character and forcing them to ADR him into pivotal scenes with him.

Having said that, it's not the worst episode of Doctor Who ever, as some people seem to proport, and there are individual parts of the episode I really liked. There's some great Ryan characterization here and I want to highlight the scene where him and Bella decide to run towards whatever danger is happening within the facility; it felt really Doctor Who in the best way.

Oh man I'm really excited for these!

Take as much time as you need, your health is the most important.