Doctor Who
Jun. 29th, 2008 06:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve11Okay, I watched that last night and then our internets went down afterward and I still had LJ up and could SEE everyone's cut-tags with all their juicy discussion and COULD NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THEM! So apparently my brain was racing a bit and though I slept fine, when I woke up randomly this morning it was still like, "Go check the connection! You know you want to talk about Who!" Which is why it is 20 after 6 on a sunday and I'm up and blogging. I apparently have quite a bit to say about this and a strong need to write it all down ;)
Shout out to the Old Skool! This was so much fun. And I managed to stay unspoiled! I mean, I knew there were going to be Daleks because of the previews, but DAVROS! Holy Crap! And Regeneration! Holy Crap! And spin-off shows I've not been following but loved the cameos anyway, Holy Crap! And Martha Jones, back to being a complete fount of win, Holy-- you get it, right?
Right. Um, let me try to organize these thoughts a little more. Apparently in reverse time order.
For the record, I think they're going to do something handwavy about the whole regeneration thingy and he's not going to actually regenerate. Um. Maybe? Because if he is then AAAAAAAA how did they keep that a secret!!!? And omg Doctor, welcome to the "stupidest way to go" since hitting your head on the TARDIS console. Point: you are on a Dalek-Infested planet. Point: Rose is three hundred yards away and she's the one with the gun. Point: we know that Rusty will have you run toward each other in the cheesiest way imaginable and then have a Dalek come in and muck things up. I know, I know, there are no new stories, but oh my, some plot devices are older than others ;) I forgive, I do, for the great scenes afterward, the Doctor's "Long time no see", and the scenes leading up to the end. Plus I have NO IDEA what's going to happen next. Whee!
That said, here we are with a story of missing planets, and possibly a mid-arc regeneration; how about props to the motherfucking Old School, yeah? The last time they did a mid-arc regeneration was The Tenth Planet (ETA: oh, nope, I thought it was mid-arc but I guess I am wrong).NINE DOCTORS AND SEVENTEEN PLANETS AGO! Word. But it may be moot because I'm still not sure he's going to regenerate, or if he does, it might not stick? And um, am I pulling it out of fanon and not canon that Dalek blasts actually stop Time Lords from regenerating? Maybe since it was a glancing blow and he didn't die immediately that gave the process time to start.
Okay, on to Davros and the Daleks. You know it's weird, but I think a Dalek hiatus what just what I needed for me to start loving them again. Because they were awesome in this. I missed their cheesy eyestalks and their three-variegated voices, and the utter egomania of them, subjugating the Earth. And Dalek Kaan was creepy. Mad Daleks, oh my. And yeah, back to the Old School with Davros back in the shadows, only his arm visible but dudes, with a silhouette like that um, who wouldn't know who it was!? And why not use Terry Molloy for Davros? Or at least for his voice anyway? Ah well. I hadn't seen much of Davros in the show proper (Youtube is missing an ep in the middle of Genesis, so I haven't finished watching it yet), but I did enjoy the character in the audios (Davros and The Juggernauts both with Six, but Terror Firma not so much...), and he was a cool villain to bring back. I don't know that one could call stealing ENTIRE PLANETS as a way of laying low, but we'll see. And how did he take them out of TIME???
Questions, questions. Rose was a non-entity in much of this episode, but it was nice to see her again. She got a little catty on the whole "Who the heck are they?" bits, but eh, whatever. I liked her scene in the shop chasing off the hooligans and she seemed much more in character at least dialogue-wise in this episode. I still want to know what is UP with her, though. And is the "Darkness" something that is beyond even the Davros big bad? And while we're talking about Rose let me segue into something only tangentially related. What I didn't like was how the whole "Bad Wolf" thing and the red lights and the Cloister Bell at the end of "Turn Left" were just totally swept away at the start of this one. wtf? There are still a lot of questions to try and answer in only another 45 minutes!
The only thing I got minorly spoiled for, by reading the non-cut bits of my flist yesterday, was that Harriet Jones would show up in this one. And she did, and she was completely awesome. Sentient subnet something (Copperfield? Setup for next series? ETA: Mr. Copper -- the old dude from VOTD! Ha!)-- *handwave* -- what it was was a good way to get everyone from the disparate places in contact, and also a cool backup plan. Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, doing her part to protect the Earth when the Doctor doesn't come. And yes, the best line in the show was the Daleks' "YES WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE", ha! I'm hoping she ported out at the last minute. (Actually, maybe she was the one who picked up the Master's ring at the end of series 3, knowing who he was and somehow deciding that she could get him on her side or something.)
I want to say something about Sarah Jane, which is that I kind of like the fact that she's an awesome heroine, but that she also manages to be an extremely feminine one. And that's true to her Old School character too; 30-odd years later and she's recognizably got the same kinds of traits. She gets emotional, she shouts and she cries and she often looks two blinks from panicking but yet she is also very brave and also manages to get shit done. I think she might be unique in the world of heroes to that effect, though Donna has some of those qualities too. And yeah you could argue that the Doctor rescued Sarah Jane more than she rescued him but you'd be wrong-- I can't find the link at the moment, but I saw a tally somewhere on the interwebs that showed that Sarah Jane was one up on the Doctor in the column of "number of times X has saved Y's life." ;) Props to Sarah Jane and alternate forms of heroism!
Hm, what else? Oh, right. Jack Harkness, you're a total bastard! Leaving your remaining crew to the Dalek horde to run after the Doctor??? *sighs* It's a wonder why they seem to like him so much. In better news, John Barrowman's performance didn't make me cringe, so maybe it's just the Torchwood scripts that I can't stand. I like how he takes on the "Here we go again!" role in the (faux?) regeneration scene, kinda reminiscent of the Brig. Though of course he has NOT yet actually seen a regeneration. Unless there's some timey-wimey stuff involving him, Eleven or Twelve... which I wouldn't put past them, so.
Donna didn't have a lot to do this episode, but she was again an emotional anchor and she did it well. I don't know what's up with her-- I hope she doesn't die, that would totally suck! When Wilf and Sylvia were facing down that Dalek and the paint gun (omg, paint gun!) didn't work, I thought that maybe they were going to get killed and that was what the creepy lady at the Shadow Proclamation was talking about. But no. And hey, speaking of the Shadow Proclamation, we go from flying saucers and shooting and explosions over NYC to... um, a museum? Though there were Judoon (Judoon!) there which was fun, but in comparison with the manic pace of the other things going on, the Shadow Proclamation was quite dull. Still, planets missing, bees disappearing, I'd been noting that for a while and it was nice to see all of that come together at the end. Hee, bees are aliens!
What else? OH. Martha Jones for the freaking win. She had stuff to do in this episode, yay! She didn't just automatically get taken over and cloned, she was brave and in charge and still tending to wounded peeps and working with the American forces in UNIT, hooray! I like Britain I suppose, but it's nice to see New York show up too. What does her key thing do, I wonder? I really do wonder.
In conclusion, I am, amazingly, completely unspoiled for next week. How the heck are they going to wrap this up in 45 minutes???? (ETA: OMG, they're not! Dude, the finale's going to be 20 minutes longer than that!) Then again, *looks back up at post* RTD apparently managed to throw everything but the kitchen sink into this episode, so maybe there's a chance for him to pull it off next week too. But that's the thing wth mass, momentum, twists and turns-- the bigger it is and the faster it's going, the more spectacularly it can all go off the rails. Still, it should be a hell of a ride!
Shout out to the Old Skool! This was so much fun. And I managed to stay unspoiled! I mean, I knew there were going to be Daleks because of the previews, but DAVROS! Holy Crap! And Regeneration! Holy Crap! And spin-off shows I've not been following but loved the cameos anyway, Holy Crap! And Martha Jones, back to being a complete fount of win, Holy-- you get it, right?
Right. Um, let me try to organize these thoughts a little more. Apparently in reverse time order.
For the record, I think they're going to do something handwavy about the whole regeneration thingy and he's not going to actually regenerate. Um. Maybe? Because if he is then AAAAAAAA how did they keep that a secret!!!? And omg Doctor, welcome to the "stupidest way to go" since hitting your head on the TARDIS console. Point: you are on a Dalek-Infested planet. Point: Rose is three hundred yards away and she's the one with the gun. Point: we know that Rusty will have you run toward each other in the cheesiest way imaginable and then have a Dalek come in and muck things up. I know, I know, there are no new stories, but oh my, some plot devices are older than others ;) I forgive, I do, for the great scenes afterward, the Doctor's "Long time no see", and the scenes leading up to the end. Plus I have NO IDEA what's going to happen next. Whee!
That said, here we are with a story of missing planets, and possibly a mid-arc regeneration; how about props to the motherfucking Old School, yeah? The last time they did a mid-arc regeneration was The Tenth Planet (ETA: oh, nope, I thought it was mid-arc but I guess I am wrong).
Okay, on to Davros and the Daleks. You know it's weird, but I think a Dalek hiatus what just what I needed for me to start loving them again. Because they were awesome in this. I missed their cheesy eyestalks and their three-variegated voices, and the utter egomania of them, subjugating the Earth. And Dalek Kaan was creepy. Mad Daleks, oh my. And yeah, back to the Old School with Davros back in the shadows, only his arm visible but dudes, with a silhouette like that um, who wouldn't know who it was!? And why not use Terry Molloy for Davros? Or at least for his voice anyway? Ah well. I hadn't seen much of Davros in the show proper (Youtube is missing an ep in the middle of Genesis, so I haven't finished watching it yet), but I did enjoy the character in the audios (Davros and The Juggernauts both with Six, but Terror Firma not so much...), and he was a cool villain to bring back. I don't know that one could call stealing ENTIRE PLANETS as a way of laying low, but we'll see. And how did he take them out of TIME???
Questions, questions. Rose was a non-entity in much of this episode, but it was nice to see her again. She got a little catty on the whole "Who the heck are they?" bits, but eh, whatever. I liked her scene in the shop chasing off the hooligans and she seemed much more in character at least dialogue-wise in this episode. I still want to know what is UP with her, though. And is the "Darkness" something that is beyond even the Davros big bad? And while we're talking about Rose let me segue into something only tangentially related. What I didn't like was how the whole "Bad Wolf" thing and the red lights and the Cloister Bell at the end of "Turn Left" were just totally swept away at the start of this one. wtf? There are still a lot of questions to try and answer in only another 45 minutes!
The only thing I got minorly spoiled for, by reading the non-cut bits of my flist yesterday, was that Harriet Jones would show up in this one. And she did, and she was completely awesome. Sentient subnet something (Copperfield? Setup for next series? ETA: Mr. Copper -- the old dude from VOTD! Ha!)-- *handwave* -- what it was was a good way to get everyone from the disparate places in contact, and also a cool backup plan. Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, doing her part to protect the Earth when the Doctor doesn't come. And yes, the best line in the show was the Daleks' "YES WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE", ha! I'm hoping she ported out at the last minute. (Actually, maybe she was the one who picked up the Master's ring at the end of series 3, knowing who he was and somehow deciding that she could get him on her side or something.)
I want to say something about Sarah Jane, which is that I kind of like the fact that she's an awesome heroine, but that she also manages to be an extremely feminine one. And that's true to her Old School character too; 30-odd years later and she's recognizably got the same kinds of traits. She gets emotional, she shouts and she cries and she often looks two blinks from panicking but yet she is also very brave and also manages to get shit done. I think she might be unique in the world of heroes to that effect, though Donna has some of those qualities too. And yeah you could argue that the Doctor rescued Sarah Jane more than she rescued him but you'd be wrong-- I can't find the link at the moment, but I saw a tally somewhere on the interwebs that showed that Sarah Jane was one up on the Doctor in the column of "number of times X has saved Y's life." ;) Props to Sarah Jane and alternate forms of heroism!
Hm, what else? Oh, right. Jack Harkness, you're a total bastard! Leaving your remaining crew to the Dalek horde to run after the Doctor??? *sighs* It's a wonder why they seem to like him so much. In better news, John Barrowman's performance didn't make me cringe, so maybe it's just the Torchwood scripts that I can't stand. I like how he takes on the "Here we go again!" role in the (faux?) regeneration scene, kinda reminiscent of the Brig. Though of course he has NOT yet actually seen a regeneration. Unless there's some timey-wimey stuff involving him, Eleven or Twelve... which I wouldn't put past them, so.
Donna didn't have a lot to do this episode, but she was again an emotional anchor and she did it well. I don't know what's up with her-- I hope she doesn't die, that would totally suck! When Wilf and Sylvia were facing down that Dalek and the paint gun (omg, paint gun!) didn't work, I thought that maybe they were going to get killed and that was what the creepy lady at the Shadow Proclamation was talking about. But no. And hey, speaking of the Shadow Proclamation, we go from flying saucers and shooting and explosions over NYC to... um, a museum? Though there were Judoon (Judoon!) there which was fun, but in comparison with the manic pace of the other things going on, the Shadow Proclamation was quite dull. Still, planets missing, bees disappearing, I'd been noting that for a while and it was nice to see all of that come together at the end. Hee, bees are aliens!
What else? OH. Martha Jones for the freaking win. She had stuff to do in this episode, yay! She didn't just automatically get taken over and cloned, she was brave and in charge and still tending to wounded peeps and working with the American forces in UNIT, hooray! I like Britain I suppose, but it's nice to see New York show up too. What does her key thing do, I wonder? I really do wonder.
In conclusion, I am, amazingly, completely unspoiled for next week. How the heck are they going to wrap this up in 45 minutes???? (ETA: OMG, they're not! Dude, the finale's going to be 20 minutes longer than that!) Then again, *looks back up at post* RTD apparently managed to throw everything but the kitchen sink into this episode, so maybe there's a chance for him to pull it off next week too. But that's the thing wth mass, momentum, twists and turns-- the bigger it is and the faster it's going, the more spectacularly it can all go off the rails. Still, it should be a hell of a ride!
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 08:31 pm (UTC)Oh, and Dalek Kaan's "Death to the most faithful companion" prophecy... eep, someone else on lj mentioned it might be the TARDIS... noooooo!!! That would be just too cruel.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 08:39 pm (UTC)As for the death to the most faithful companion....meep. I can only hope they hold true to scifi tradition where no one really really dies. Ok, so they do, but you know what I mean. :::has Farscape Flashback:::
no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 09:02 pm (UTC)So...before you go have some of that self control, do you know where the link for the trailer might be found? *veg*
no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 03:01 pm (UTC)You know, I think I'd be happy either way. If he doesn't change then yay!More Tennant! But if he does then holy crap what a way to keep a secret!!! And a new Doctor too! More yay!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 08:32 pm (UTC)Or heck, maybe this is Tennant's big hurrah, and the specials and stuff next year will be "fill-in-the-blank" episodes....
*wibbles*
no subject
Date: 2008-06-30 12:01 am (UTC)Yeah, frankly, the Doctor deserved to get shot for running out like an idiot in what was essentially a war zone.
Great to see Davros back; he seems awful Palpatine-ish here for some reason. Something about his face. And he's gonna deliver in a big way, by the looks of things.
And for what it's worth, I thought I'd heard Tennant was committed through next year?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-30 12:12 am (UTC)Yes, exactly! Dude, the Earth is crawling with Daleks! Running out in front of blind corners... not your best plan.
Great to see Davros back; he seems awful Palpatine-ish here for some reason. Something about his face. And he's gonna deliver in a big way, by the looks of things.
Davros did seem very palpatine-esque, but he sounds very, very similar to the way he did on the BF audios too, so it might not be a deliberate affectation. Still, a good creepifying performance. And ooh, i don't want to know the specifics obviously but that sounds promising!
And for what it's worth, I thought I'd heard Tennant was committed through next year?
I heard that too, but who knows? Also, I wouldn't put it past them to do retrospective "fill-in-the-blank" stories that we hadn't seen over the past few years, right? Yipes, is it Saturday yet???