Oh dear.
While not being nearly as dire as [insert your least favourite Doctor Who episode here], Victory of the Daleks wasted an exciting premise (Churchill recruits Daleks to win him the war) on a boring resolution (Churchill is deceived, not the pragmatic bastard history teaches us he was [cf sinking of Lusitania], WW2 setting swiftly abandoned for grandstanding on board Dalek ship) and bar a bit of fun with a jammy dodger was largely devoid of humour or danger or, well, anything. The Daleks get a redesign for the Apple generation, the Doctor gets hasty and flustered and nearly cops out yet again, Amy saves the day yet again, and how come I am using the words 'yet again' to describe episode 3? How can it already be feeling tired?
Next week should be a blinder, the first of a Moffat-penned two-parter featuring both River Song and the Blink angels. If they can't pull that one off I will be weeping into my life-sized David Tennant cutout* (*may not actually own one). Sex sells, but it also helps keep a girl awake. Could this be the beginning of the end of my love affair with Who?
Roommate takes woman’s spare car keys without permission, moves her car so
friend can use her parking spot, gets it towed and leaves her with the $909
bill: ‘They didn’t even offer to help’
-
Borrowing someone's parking spot is one thing, but moving their car without
permission and getting it towed is another.
Coming home from vacation to a $909...
1 day ago
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12 comments:
I think neither David Tennant nor Christopher Eccleston could have saved this one, Marie. I'm rationalizing that one needs the stinkers to fully appreciate it when Doctor Who works. Neither am I blaming Matt Smith nor Karen Gillan (who came off a bit like Jane Fonda in Klute in this one, creepily suggestive).
There simply wasn't much of a story here, and what was there was damned clunky. The multi-coloured Daleks remind me of the "Marketing Girl" in Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy who answers Ford Prefect's scoff about the wheel's being the simplest machine in the Universe with: "All right, Mr Wise Guy, you tell us what colour it should be..." And how the hell did those pilots get into outer space in under ten minutes?
If the story worked, I wouldn't be worrying about these silly details. Or checking my watch. Bring on next week.
The Peter Kay episode. Daleks in New York.
There have been far worse.
Let's get one thing straight. It wasn't a jammy dodger. Dodgers are made by Burton's, have no cream and have a heart shaped gap. The offending item was a jam sandwich cream and could have been made by any old biscuit manufacturer. Incidentally, my seven year old grand daughter sat transfixed for the whole of the 40 minutes (remember the target audience) and the 40 minutes is inhibiting the plot development. More two and three parters I say.
I wasn't hugely impressed, although I did think it was fun. But to be honest, I haven't really liked a Dalek episode since the lone Dalek, as you said. If every Dalek were as menacing as that one (and they're supposed to be, aren't they? That was just a typical Dalek trooper, nothing special about it) then they would truly be terrifying.
But they aren't, and they never have been. They're just a bunch of camp ranters who can't pick things up. And these multicoloured ones seem the least of all, I'm afraid. They need to do something extraordinary. Also, they look CHEAP. I'm sure they weren't, but they look like plastic rather than metal, and plastic always looks cheap.
I wasn't as disappointed with Smith's performance as you were; I think it was the first one he filmed, so wobbly moments can probably be written off as 'just this time'. It's not so much 'yet again' as 'two in a row', and I didn't think the Doctor copped out - he just got humans wrong, as he often does (his own terror and misunderstanding of death tripping him up, if we're applying nerd polyfilla). I do agree that we could have done with a more devious Winston, though.
First one he filmed, eh? OK. Benefit of the doubt being given.
We should start a letter-writing campaign to the BBC about the jammy dodgers. It's blatant product placement, they should have said "generic jam sandwich cream" or at least pointed out that other biscuits are available.
I've been... Well, struggling may be too strong a word, but trying to post my reivews of the new Doctor and the new series. I have a post half way through that I keep trying to add to or finish off, but I look at it for a while and then go away, I just can't be bothered.
I then read your review and find myself vertually agreeing with every word you have written. Saturday passed the time I do have to admit, but by the time the new Daleks came out, I'd kind of lost a bit of the will to go on. I knew I'd had enough when they started with the 'you can be a real boy!' with chappie scientist (sorry. I can't be bothered to remember his name). I really was not sure what all that was about. I'm obviously not young enough for fairy tales any more.
As you pointed out, Rusty certainly was not without his eye-rolling moments, but you could nearly always rely on a good performance for something to enjoy or at least pick at. I agree that MS has something 'lacking' He's not horrible at all, but I don't buy him as the Doctor (and funnily enough I never did Ecclescake either, but he did have some great scripts and am with you totally on the Dalek ep.)
I know it's not a popular view with some, and it does get you branded as a 'Tennant fangurl', but however you look at it, he did have that charisma, and I as a over 30 year old woman would have never been surprised if he was suddenly revealed as a real Timelord with access to a TARDIS and a sonic screwdriver. He was the Doctor and I for one never doubted that.
However, I'm also with you about 'yet' comment re MS. I too have high hopes for the Weeping Angels and River Song and I'm really crossing everything in the hope I will love it all and not think 'Meh' as I have done for a couple of weeks now.
I got what I wished for with Moff in charge. It just seems it's turned into that old warning 'Be careful what you wish for.'
You reflected it perfectly - a real sense of disappointment for me in this episode. I'm still hoping it will turn round, but after a promising start, I'm missing DT more with each episode.
I enjoyed it, actually. You're probably right on all fronts, but I did think it was fun, and the kids LOVED the new daleks. (eldest particularly keen on the orange one as she is obsessed with orange). I felt sorry for the poor old cyber person as well. Next week does look great.
Having been a long time Dr Who detractor, I have been impressed with the first two episodes... and I much prefer Smith over Tennant. I also like Karen Gillan. This episode however, was a stinker of Russel T proportions...! A couple more of those and I will be back to avoiding Dr Who altogether...
I agree with you, clunky story and huge plot holes (gravity bubbles?). Oh well. The first two were great and the next one has lots of promise. I'm not ready to give up on this new doctor just yet.
About the only thing to go in the pro column for this disappointing episode was hearing the Daleks deliver lines like "would you like some tea" with their horrid, aggressive voices. At least that was funny.
I agree totally. Awful story, even worse than the week before and that's saying something. I had high hopes for the River Song/Angels one but after the last three weeks they have been downgraded to just 'hopes'. I think Matt Smith's doing his best, bless him, but he's got an uphill struggle to make anything remotely interesting out of those awful scripts. It hasn't been this bad since Sylvester McCoy's first season.
Just saw this (I'm behind in the States - which, btw, is RUBBISH. With all the digital advances, can't they get the newest eps over here the day after they're aired in the UK? I pay for BBC America, in a similar way to a telly licence. Why do I have to wait over here or watch illegally if I want to keep up?) and it did come across jumpy and the new candy-Daleks look not only wrong, but isn't one of the Daleks chief characteristics is that they're so uniform? What about their hatred of individuality? Even with that Skaro cult, the colours were muted. They just don't look scary, all rainbow-coloured like that.(I am such a geek!)
I love Moffat as a writer and I was also a Davis fan - I see RTD as this 'PT Barnum' showman-type and The Moff as more of an 'Up Close Magician'. When Davis won or failed, he usually did on a grand scale but it was still quite fun and normally, pretty original. Moffat seems to like to mine fairy-tales and, quite a lot, his own stories (Little girl meets Doctor, time goes whimey, he becomes imaginary friend, lalala - and there's more examples)
Still, DW at it's worst is usually better than most TV and I really like Matt Smith. Although, I have to admit I'm not warming to Amy at all, which kind of upsets me cos I'm a big Companion fan (Plus, there's the whole 'Ginger Solidarity' for me.) I find her too smug or something and I'm not loving the way Gillian delivers her lines, but that probably isn't her fault. She's come across as a very 'obvious' actress so far, to me at least. Maybe it's part of a big picture design, as we're being lead to believe there's something amiss with her.
Still don't like the new intro and theme though. It weren't broke, why fix it?
Anyway, Marie - as always I enjoy your recaps and I just read that you were feeling a bit poorly a while ago - hopefully you're feeling better now.
Erin.
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