Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder Review - 9 Ups And 2 Downs
Now THAT was an episode worthy of being a 60th anniversary special.
It’s fair to say that Wild Blue Yonder was the most anticipated of Doctor Who's three 60th anniversary specials.
With a continual cascade of marketing this year focused around The Star Beast and The Giggle, the middle special has been intentionally shrouded in mystery – almost zero trailer footage, nothing given away in the synopsis, and an intentionally redacted cast list. The latter has certainly set the rumour mill spinning, for better or worse, with many expecting cameos galore and maybe even a multi-Doctor story.
But what we got was even better. Like Midnight and Heaven Sent had a beautiful, bonkers and slightly creepy baby. Besides, it was a multi-Doctor story in a sense, it’s just that both of those Doctors were Tennant.
We can already tell that this is going to be one of those episodes that's discussed for years to come – but it didn't get off to a strong start...
11. DOWN - The Cold Open (Again)
Yet again, we’re forced to kick off the review with a down, thanks to the second completely bizarre cold open in a row.
Wild Blue Yonder kicks off with a brief saunter into the garden of Isaac Newton, for reasons that, at first, we assumed would be related to the episode but in reality were utterly pointless.
Laced with slightly obnoxious humour and going for the obvious low-hanging fruit that is a gravity joke, this feels like the rejected second idea for last month’s Children In Need sketch. There’s nothing wrong with silly, but it just feels completely at odds with the rest of the episode, both tonally and in terms of subject matter.
We’ll see next week if they manage to make it three for three on these. Thank goodness things improved from here.