Oh god.
Well, one interesting thing did happen during the course of this week's Doctor Who. About halfway through the episode - as I yet again checked the time in a manner that reminded me uncannily of Lower Sixth Triple French in which I used to force myself not to look at my watch, but eventually couldn't resist it, as surely the lesson MUST be coming to an end by now, only to discover that a mere two minutes had passed since I last checked my watch - I realised that I had begun to find David Tennant irritating. Yes, the eye-goggling, face-pulling, hyperactive, line-gabbling, head-tilting, looking around corners for no reason (why does he do that?) schtick finally got right on my tits, though not in the manner that I had previously hoped. All I can say about this (and even the closest of lovers have their tiffs - see 'Romeo and Juliet', the deleted scenes) is that the man was working very very hard with very very little.
It was just SO boring. I was going to say 'nothing happened', but things did happen, they just happened SLOWLY. The reason why became abundantly clear at the end of the episode where it turned out that this was a two-parter (slow motion NOOOOOOOOOOO!), when at a guess there is only enough material to cover one and a half episodes, if that. Hence for example the interminable scene where the two guards (Dumb and Dumber) went into the Sontaran lair and stood around discussing the fluorescent green clone pool for an inordinately long time. (Although I did love the line "My legs! I can't move my legs!", last heard in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, another creature-in-vat-of-slime movie, and therefore surely a deliberate kitsch homage.) Also, a lot of the stuff that did happen was fatally bland. I mean scary satnav, really? And all that poison gas being spewed out of car exhaust pipes without actually poisoning anybody. Not for one second did I believe that the planet or any of our favourite characters were at risk. Even poor Grandad in the car - um, break a window?
Still, there were redeeming features. Donna is one hell of a smart cookie and I like her growing habit of taking the initiative and figuring stuff out by herself. She had the bulk of the decent lines, she didn't get captured, and she got to drive the Tardis! Get in! And the Sontarans are blissfully idiotic villains who look stupid, act stupid, and can be defeated with a shuttlecock. I liked them a lot, though I do hope they weren't supposed to be frightening. Also, Martha getting cloned gave some purpose to her innately wooden acting (though again I feel guilty about this, because I had a dream last night about Freema Agyeman in which she was the nicest girl on earth, which I think she probably is, and my best friend, which I think she probably isn't, and it isn't her fault that every screenwriter who has ever been near her has given her lines that make her look impossibly thick. That interview with the hypnotised factory worker - come on Martha, work it out! - but then again, probably also dragged out for reasons discussed above.)
Hard to say without seeing next week's, but my guess is that this could have been a somewhat rushed but entertaining one-parter or a wrist-slitting crawler of a two-parter. I know which one I would have preferred, and it's the one I didn't get.
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"I was going to say 'nothing happened', but things did happen, they just happened SLOWLY."
Written by Helen 'Daleks! Manhattan! What could go wrong!" Raynor.
"I realised that I had begun to find David Tennant irritating."
Me too. In fact, it's not so much that I realised it, as I *acknowledged* it, finally. And I agree with everything that you said to the point that I don't really need to write my own post... I was going to mention that scene with the two guards but you've already done it... hmm, I'll see what new stuff I can squeeze out anyway. I didn't like missing out on the fun last week :D
This episode i have to agree was on the dull side of dull and we have a whole other episode to get through yet. Joy of Joys.
The only really good feature that i liked about it, was the place they used at "Rattigan Academy" is less than 10 minutes away from where i live.
I feel the completely opposite from you. Last week the Doctor didn't have much to do and I felt that David Tennant's acting was a bit tired. Not bad, but nothing new or exciting. This week, I think he was on fire, everything he did worked: from meeting Martha again, to the scene he thinks Donna is leaving him for you (heartfelt to funny within half a sentence), to interacting with the general and Ross, to meeting the child genius, everything had his special silly, heartfelt, energetic kind of magic. I could easily show this episode to someone in order to show them why I like this Doctor. The plot has holes and some of the other characters act kind of stupid, but I enjoy it because of the character moments between the main players.
Oh damn. I tune in (and probably break several copyright laws) to see Doctor Who, not Star Trek. I spent the first ten minutes pointing at various characters and saying, "Doomed..Doomed..Doomed..." in a listless voice. What are your bets that BBC is going to get inundated with angry emails from geeky American teens and their parents?
Donna and her family were one of the few redeeming aspects of this episode, but you know you're in trouble when you start noticing the music and wishing they would just turn it off. I usually like Martha as a character, but gawd, ask any actress to rise above the drek she was required to perform this week. She's travelled with the Doctor for a season, worked for Torchwood and still misses all the cues that something's wrong. (That irritating music was a dead giveaway, for one thing.) The old Martha had way more on the ball.
Still, pretty cool that Marie foresaw all this in her post about global positioning devices, right?
Ah. I think I'm in a minority of one here. Cos I liked it more the the Ood. Mind you I had consumed a bottle of red before watching it, so maybe that was why. Though I do agree about all the things that were wrong. The Unit guys and Martha walked straight into the trap.
I rather like the mad geeky kid and I think the Sontarans had all the best lines.
I quite liked the way Donna and Martha bonded too.
Marie, I have come to the conclusion you and I are almost diametrically opposed in our feelings about what makes a good Dr Who episode!
For the record, Freema Agyeman is absolutely lovely in real life; I've seen her on stage, and she's bubbly and really quite adorable. Anyway, that's besides the point.
I think my analysing skills are down, because I enjoyed this one; although I was pretty disappointed by the Sontarans - I'm never scared of Who monsters, but when you think that even little children wouldn't be particularly scared, there's a slight problem.
I liked it, overall, Martha, Donna and all. Although, I definitely agree on the Helen Raynor front; after last series' debacle with the bloody Daleks, did they really think she was a good bet?
Roll on next week. By the way, odd question, but d'you think you'll wing your way over to the Times Literature Festival?
As they say in the Dr Pepper ads, "What's the worst that could happen?"
I remember being scared by the Sontarans first time round, back in the day, so found it aggravating that they looked so ridiculous - big heads, small bodies, crap armour, really unconvincing.
My review is elsewhere. But I sort of liked it. It was just way too slow. Sort of like two episodes of an old four-part story that got stuck together without a cliffhanger.
I think the reason they keep getting Helen Raynor to write stories is that she's a good writer, bar the occasional misfire when she tries to lower herself to having fun or writing for kids, which is beneath her of course.
It's her ability to pace that's all wrong. I imagine that when they get her scripts through, they read through them, think, "Yes. I like that. Yes, I like that," etc, and in their heads it all seems really good. It's only when it leaves their collective imaginations and it gets turned into a TV show that they realise just how badly paced it is – then blame the director, etc for it.
I think it's almost universally agreed now that Freema Agyeman (aka Sweet FA. Will that never catch on? I'm going to keep trying...) is probably one of the nicest human beings alive and that's probably what's insulated her from criticism of her acting skills: she's not great, but no one can bear to say anything bad about her.
The Sontarans were never that scary, just a bit sexist.
Persephone, I agree. Red caps/red sweatshirts?
That's right, tcmj; can you say "bull's eye"?
At least in Star Trek, they didn't give them lines: (swagger, swagger) "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Oh gawd, and then they let them keep talking for another interminable five minutes...
ha ha! It's funny how much more on-the-ball Martha is when she's with Capt. Jack than the Doctor. I'm getting irritated with DT too, and I'm glad someone finally came out and said it. I was watching New Earth the other day and that was a defining moment for me. The Doctor was so different when he was with Rose. I don't like how he's progressed over season 3. He still looks cute in those nerdboy glasses tho' ;-)
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