It's safe to say that right now Doctor Who needs as many wins as it can get as not only will there not be a new episode or even series until next year but Disney did alot of harm to the show during the first series of it's big relaunch. Well the show that could give it it's big win has finally debuted in the UK as Disney has even done damage to this show as well but either way you all just knew that I had to check out this show the very first chance I got and well the first two episodes have dropped and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED first impressions on the show that might actually save Doctor Who with the show in question being called simply just "The War Between The Land And The Sea" enjoy.
The plot of these first two episodes is when a member of of a species called The Sea Devils is killed and a war looms between both them and the human race it's up U.N.I.T. and a random civilian to help bring piece. Now then interms of what I -personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these first two episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these first episodes was in all honesty not that bad with both episodes doing a very good job of setting up the main plot of the show with the plot for these two episodes oddly feeling alot more adult then anything that would be found in the more recent episodes of the main show so much so that at times this show does feel alot more like a political thriller then a science fiction show and while these two episodes don't lean into that from a plot point of view it is something that does work to the shows advantage with the plot for these episodes being as a strong as it was ever going to be given the fact that it's basically just set up for the rest of the show but even so when the set up is this good it does make you want to watch the nest episode just to see how the plot develops as the plot that we got in these first two episodes alone was just so good and was easily better then whatever Space Babies was trying to be and yet at the same time tho given that these are just the first two episodes of the show the shows plot isn't one that gets alot of focus which is something that does make sense as this is only the start of the show but given that this show will only be five episodes it would have bee nice for the plot of these episodes to give alot more focus to the plot of the main show itself with the plot of these episodes being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these first two episodes is Russell Tovey as Barclay Pierre-Dupont and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Salt. Also starring in these episodes is Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart , Colin McFarlane as General Austin Pierce , Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim , Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham , Adrian Lukis as Sir Jonathan Hynes , Vincent Franklin as Harry Shaw , Francesca Corney as Sergeant Hana Chakri , Mei Mac as Min Tso , Waleed Hammad as Tariq Hashim , Hannah Donaldson as Louise Mackie , Ann Akinjirin as Barbara Pierre-Dupont , Cat Gannon as Kirby Pierre-Dupont , Stewart Alexander as Oscar Gunsberg , Leo Anthony as Roger Trevithick , Tim Wallers as Felix Gladstock and Lachele Carl as Trinity Wells.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty shockingly good. With all of these episodes actors turning in some really good performances and while that does make alot of sense for alot of them as alot of these episodes actors are reprising their roles from the main show and therefor know how best to perform there character the same thing is also true for alot of the shows more newer actors as well like for example Gugu Mbatha-Raw is jaw droppingly good in this episode with her brining a certain amount of charm and likability to a character that could have been as being unlikable with the same thing being true for alot of this shows more newer actors as well with the exception being Russell Tovey who is just a really good actor in his own right and heck he's even the best actor in these episodes as he bring a normal factor to the show with his character being the shows "every man" in that he's not a science wiz or anything like that he's the guy next door or he's your best friend and because of that Russell does bring a certain charm , humor and more importantly humanity to the role that would have been lost if the character was played by quite literally anybody else as he's just that good in the role with him and Gugu even having some really good chemistry together in there scenes as well with the acting that's these very episodes really being helped by the fact that the scripts for these first two episodes are just so good that all these episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out pf them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in these very episodes.
Doing the GI for these episodes is the legends and the greats that really are currently over at Millennium FX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good with the episodes making some really good use of that Disney money to give us some really good looking CGI effects something that has been true for all of the Ncuti Gatwa era of Doctor Who and while the main show does need to be a very effects heavy show just due to the nature of that show here tho it really doesn't need to be as effects heavy as it is as you don't need to show us the Sea Devils swimming in what is possibly a London court room you could not feature those characters and have Salt appear on her own and the scene would out just the same with the only reason to show effects is to show of part of the Sea Devil watery home and that's pretty much and yet both of the episodes do lean a little bit to heavy on the effects when they really didn't need to but in saying this tho it does seem like the episodes were only using effects in places where they they couldn't do them practically and to the episodes credit the effects in the show do look really good with there being lots of really good looking effects all of which do show of that Disney money but while the episodes do have some really good effects it's in there practical effects where the episodes really do shine best as the Sea Devils themselves look so good in these episodes and that's not taking away from the episodes CGI it's just that practical effects when done right will always look alot more better then CGI will.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be real you can tell right away that the show is going for a The Shape Of Water type of vibe as it is pretty obvious that there going to have Barclay and Salt fall in love with each other. As Salt does opening call him her favorite human something which he does smile at and he does call her beautiful in episode two as well with there romance really being helped by the fact that both Russell and Gugu do have some really good chemistry with each other with the only down side being that while both of the episodes do go a long way in showing us just who Barclay is as a character outside of this situation the same thing absolutely cannot be said Salt who we only see in these meetings and yet we're meant to fell bad for her character this is despite the fact that the episode doesn't really give us a reason to care for her character in the first place and while the character on paper could work as she is the ambassador for her race of people there still needs to be the leg work put into her character to make her work as a character but in saying this tho given that episodes 3 and 4 do look like that there going to be taking place underwater there is a good chance that we might get to find out more about her as a character otherwise we could be looking at another Rose Noble situation where we get a character who could be good if more time is put into her but for whatever reason the makers of the show just don't do it and so the character ends up as flat as a board which I hope is not the case as Salt does have a really cool look to her and the fact that she seems to be the only one that can speak English does make her a slightly interesting character it's just that we need to find out more about her character in order for us the audience to decide on if we really like her character or not.
As was stated at the very start of this post Disney have done alot of harm to this show and it's not even aired on Disney+ yet. This is because of the fact that Disney and the BBC spent so long going back and forth on not only when but also how this show was going to release with Disney pushing it further and further back into the year with it getting to the point where both them and the BBC broke up there deal with Doctor Who and because of the fact that the BBC said that this show would release this year they only had about a month or two to really start promoting the show and yet it was only last week when they released the first official trailer for the show with this being because of the fact that Disney didn't know when they wanted to release it so the tried to pressure the BBC into releasing the show at a much more later date when it would have worked just as well for them to release the show this year and yet because they chose not to do that as there instead releasing it at somepoint in 2026 it now means that Doctor Who fans outside of the UK and Ireland are now going to have to wait an unspecified amount of time for the show whilst also trying to avoid spoilers for the show on a weekly basis and given just how good the reviews have been for the show and how solid the ratings have been for the show thus far it would have been in there favor to release the show if now at the same time as the BBC but near enough the same time as then they could have gotten more numbers to Disney+ which in turn could have helped them decide on if they want to pay more for Doctor Who but because they didn't do that it now means that those potential viewers might not be there as odds are there going to pirate the show and due to them pulling out of the deal it now also means that the BBC can now go back to releasing the episodes first on TV and then putting them IPlayer instead of doing it the other way around like they did for Doctor Who the past two years.
Much like how this show does feel more like a political thriller with these first two episodes there also moments in these first two episodes alone which are gut bustingly funny. Like the fact that when she finds out what Barclay's job actually is the first thing that Barbera does is go to use her hotel rooms mini bar with Barclay even saying that he doesn't know that if it's free or not and even the fact that Barclay himself acts surprised when Salt outright demands that he be the spokesperson for humanity with his reaction being as over the top as you'd expect it to be but the best and most funniest moment in both of these episodes comes near the end of episode 2 where after all of the plastic has been emptied from the oceans and dumped all over the planet thanks to the Sea Devils a news reported in America does a report on how so many years after it left for New York the Titanic has finally arrived there which was just such a funny joke that you can imagine Russell T. Davies or even the show co-writer Pete McTighe laughing at it whilst they were reading the script for the episode with alot of the episode being filled to brim with little moments like that that do make these episodes all the more fun to watch then what they already are as while the episodes jokes don't undercut any of the tension at all as there only used to lighten the mood and that's really it they are jokes that do work and will have people laughing regardless of if you've watched Doctor Who or not of course if you have watched Doctor Who then you'll love Kate's little jab at how difficult that The Doctor can be to work with from time to time which isn't gut bustingly funny but will put a smile on your face.
Now then episode one of this show has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty three minuets and thirty seconds. With episode two having a grand total running time of exactly forty seven minuets and twenty two seconds both of which are perfectly solid running times for those respective episodes to have as both episodes have the right amount of plot there to really cover both of there respective running times and yet both episodes really don't use there respective running times all that wisely either as none of them develop the plot all that well which granted is something that will always be the case given the fact that these are only the first two episodes of the show but given that the show is only five episodes long then all of the episodes need to be about advancing the plot of the show and while it is understandable that episode one isn't advancing the shows plot as that's just starting the plot off there really needed to be some plot development in episode two and yet we got nothing as the makers of the show seemed to be more focused on having the camera moving all the time then it was in developing it's plot with this even effecting the shows characters as none of the shows characters get any kind of character development which again is understandable as the show is only just starting out but again given how short that this series is going to be then the makers of this show really should have started to give the characters some form of character development but in all fairness tho there is a strong chance that by the end of episode five we could have some fully formed characters as right now the only two characters we get to find anything about is Kate and Barclay and that's it but I really will admit that these really do have some really good pacing to them tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad. As even tho there's really only the one action scene in both of the episodes what makes it work is the fact that it is something that was built really well over both of the episodes with that being something that does make the show feel alot more like a political thriller as you do get to see just what it is that each of the humans want from this deal and to see it all go down the tubes when the Sea Devils do the one thing that all sides did say was the thing that they wanted the most and that everything out of the ocean only instead of putting it somewhere else every last bit of rubbish that was in the ocean now gets dumped onto the planet with that being the episodes best action scene as we do get see that something like that could potentially be deadly as Barclay's family almost get killed during the attack with that action scene being something that could be seen as being something of a power move as it shows the humans that the Sea Devils aren't to be messed with and while future episodes might go into more detail into how powerful that they are for an opening attack tho filling the world with all of it' plastic and rubbish but there is one thing that this show will have to address at some point and that's why the fourteenth Doctor isn't getting involved as we know him to be on earth and yet during the action in episode two he's no where to be see with that action scene also being really creative as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this is the kind of show that Doctor Who Season 1 should have been as these two episodes are just so good that it's a shame that it's only going to be five episodes as they do remind us of just how good of a writer that Russell T. Davies really can be when he really wants to be in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in these very episodes in this very post and since this is only my first impressions I won't be giving this show a rating but as this is only five episodes long and given that next week there dropping episodes 3 and 4 I WILL keep on watching this show and therefor when episode 5 drops in a few weeks there will be a review of the show as a whole.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post from Tenor , Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very post being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these very episodes with alot of them being better quality then what'd think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.