ElleryAnne

Everyone's already said it, but I'll agree. These tasks were not good choices for the finale. Finale tasks should involve memory/knowledge of places visited, and should require, well... something more than luck. Needle in a haystack tasks, if they must be on TAR at all, belong in a detour in a middle leg, when the other half involves animals or making deliveries to hard-to-find places. Not in a finale. Also, I don't like eat-stupid-amounts-of-this-food tasks. I'm not entertained by watching people retch. I'm not even entertained by watching them eat. (And what would have happened if the members of a team were diabetic or something? Too bad, so sad, two-hour penalty?) James and Will may not be the worst people in the world, and not the worst Racers in the world, but they're definitely in my list of unappealing winners for this show. If they end up on Survivor 50, the Tag-Team Season, may I can root for them there. I'd probably love them on that, actually. But on TAR, no. I don't want teams to form the kind of long-term alliances that target the removal of other teams - I want teams to read the clues, play clean, represent the US with class, and appreciate the gift of being on TAR. And I don't want to feel like they're trying to make me aware of that last one with all the little disingenuous things they do or say. Count me with those glad to see DeAngelo looking happy again. Victoria may be her mother's favorite, but I think the editors liked Michelle better. I'd say yes, complete with an, "I'm really still a winner, 'cause I have you," speech designed to take half the spotlight off whoever would have won instead of them. Others have said it better, but I'll just say that for me, they tried too hard at playing a different game than the one I was watching for.

Well, that was an unpleasant last couple of minutes to an otherwise good episode. I was just starting to think I didn't dislike James/Will anymore, and then they reminded me how smug they can be. Beard-bros have gone down in my estimation, also. I'm going to give DeAngelo some slack for the bitterness, but that wasn't a pretty way to go out. If that side of his personality was present throughout the race, I'd understand why NFL became the team the others decided to drop. But Gary kept it classy, and I feel bad for him.

RIP, David. Thanks for this little Christmas traditional song at my house:

Thank goodness he decided against it. TV is my escape from the hellscape that is 2020. I don't need Doctor Who to be contaminated with it. In about 30 years, some future 28th Doctor can deal with it in a historical episode. Other than that, I prefer if their universe doesn't actually reflect mine. I think it would be awful. Like bad fanfic, jump-the-shark, it-was-all-a-dream, snowglobe awful. But I feel that way about roughly three-quarters of Thirteen's storylines, anyway. I hope neither die. Though I can't really imagine their goodbyes being sad as long as they don't die, because in spite of the "fam" references, this team never felt like family (other than Graham and Ryan bonding a bit, and presumably they'll still see each other if they stay behind). That was the problem with "the fam" - it was all tell, no show. And now we're back to the Doctor traveling around with a cute spunky young woman from present-day Earth and while that formula generally works, I feel like it's already been done better in previous seasons.

Ok, thanks, I guess that makes sense. I thought he was referring to a specific monster/villain who's appeared more than once over the past 15 years.

I can deal with it being under the caveat of Covid. It's been tougher the past couple of seasons watching it under the caveat of Chibnall. "Ah, well, it's a Chibnall episode." If the lack of foreign location shots is the only so-called weakness next season, I'll take it as a win. Has there been any speculation on which 'monster' this is?

Wasn't he the one from that stupid spider episode? Edited to add: I just looked it up, and yeah, he was. But IMDB lists his character as Robertson, not Robinson. In any case, the only Jack I'm looking forward to seeing in the special is Harkness.

I wish Phil could have had the title - "More Chickens!"

I am heartbroken. Have you ever read about someone's life and gotten the feeling that the world lost someone really good? That's the way I feel right now.

That's the way Hung did it. And I thought the same thing - it seems very much like the way to do it. When Michelle and Victoria were in South America, they said 'merci' when they thanked people. In France, did I hear them say 'thank you', or did I imagine that?

My first thought had been that the editing was deliberate, foreshadowing future drama. Between showing Leo/Alana talking about how nice the blondes were and how they wanted to keep them in the game, and then Phil asking the blondes about how helpful Leo/Alana were, I figured there was a good chance we'd be seeing the sisters use a Yield on Leo/Alana in an upcoming episode. But maybe I'm just cynical. Will frustrates me, because anyone who loves the show enough to apply nine times shouldn't A) immediately pass off both of the first two roadblocks to your partner (even if being a dancer seemed an obvious advantage to both tasks), and B) stop your partner from re-reading a clue when you're both struggling to figure out why you're not getting the task done right. Add me to the love for Hung/Chee and DeAngelo&Gary. Also Jerry and Frank, and Riley and Maddison. But I don't really dislike any of the teams right now. I'm just so glad to have the show back.

Aw, RBG. RIP to a gracious lady, a role model, a pioneer and an inspiration to millions in the generations after her.

I'm just gonna co-sign this. I don't even know what else to say. I'm just really sad over his death.

Damn. I loved Danny. What a beautiful dancer he was.

I am embarrassed to say I hadn't heard of him, because my exposure to jazz has never gotten further than the Vince Guaraldi trio playing 'Linus and Lucy'. But this guy is fantastic. Maybe I'm the only one here who didn't already know that, but seriously, play the links in those articles. It's worth it.

I don't generally cry at obits/comments, but damn. That's a beautiful tribute to an extraordinary lady.

I feel so bad for the remaining sister. Losing two siblings in three years is already sad enough, and then losing them both at Christmas.

Well, cheers that it's on, but ugh to the way they're running the episodes. They've got sections of seasons in order, they skip some, and they stick a string of specials in between. So, for example, on Thursday night they're running Blink, then a couple of the specials, then coming back to the third season with The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords - without Utopia. So I guess it's okay for fans, since we'll just drop in and catch a random episode here or there. But it's a really stupid way to present the show for anyone who might've wanted to binge-watch a season that they hadn't gotten around to seeing before.

I DO like those tuxes.

14 years old... ? His poor family. I can't even imagine losing someone so young.

Between that song and the scene of Big Bird saying good-bye to Snuffy in that movie, my heart hurts.

Those recent articles/interviews with Chibnall and Whitaker continue to give me hope that the new season will be a good one.

I'm one of those who didn't like S11 overall, but I've got to admit some of these episode descriptions sound really interesting. Between the trailer and those descriptions, I'm feeling optimistic about S12.

Crying? Me? No, my make-up is just smudged from the rain or something.

Favorite Classic Who: The Horror of Fang Rock. Favorite NuWho: (I could list probably 80% of the first 10 seasons here, but I'll stick with a handful of favs from throughout them.) The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Smith and Jones (Martha is and always will be my favorite companion.) Gridlock Blink Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords Midnight Stolen Earth/Journey's End Amy's Choice The Angels Take Manhattan The Bells of Saint John The Pilot Knock Knock Twice Upon A Time Least favorites? I guess it would be something from the middle of S11. Arachnids in the UK or The Tsuranga Conundrum or something. I didn't really like anything from that season very much.