Dr Who

[andrewducker]

I actually liked it quite a lot - except for one bit.

I've basically plonked the Moffat Dr Who as "Well written kid's TV" - more obviously so than RTDs - and thus I don't require things to make _actual_ sense, just to be vaguely internally consistent to the same level as, say, fairy-tales.

This being the case I could have done with a bloody explanation of why having the android recall his human side would any effect on his blowing up! Spitfires in Space, though, I was fine with. Possibly this was because I'd seen them in the trailer though.

Julie, on the other hand, just wanted Ms Pond to stab the Dr with a flagpole and then steal the box to have adventures by herself. Heck, she could even pick up a companion of her own if she fancied it.

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I think Amy certainly wins the SJS Award for Companion Most In Need of Her Own Series. Let's hope she doesn't have to wait as long.

[blearyboy.livejournal.com]

Well, now that JD has left Scrubs, it's kind of her own series. BECAUSE SHE IS THE GINGER SARAH CHALKE!!!

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

If any companion was likely to do that, she'd be the one.

[simont]

Oh, I don't know. Turlough actually considered it...

[zz]

I wouldn't've minded spitfires in space if they'd given them scifi handwave engines and not had the propellers turning. bomb blokey was nonsense, yes.

[skington.livejournal.com]

It was a last-minute jury-rigged solution, so the glowing thing at the back of the cockpit was clearly wired up to the same part of the engine that made the propellors go round. There, problem solved.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

The handwavey bit was actually done much earlier, in the list of the things the professor had supposedly invented -- there was something about hypersonic flight and some kind of field that kept an air bubble in space.

And regarding the non-explosion, I was prepared to buy that the robot's state of mind is capable of influencing his functioning -- he basically didn't explode through self-hypnosis. Kind of wacky, but arguably he's a sufficiently complex machine to pass as human, so he can have psychosomatic non-exploding.

[andrewducker]

I'd have been prepared to buy that - if they'd actually mentioned it in the episode.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

She can pick me! I'll be her companion! Me! I'll even help her steal the Tardis.

[matgb]

No, me. Please.

[http://users.livejournal.com/weevil_/]

Bah, I was looking forward to the episode ending. This series is feeling far too blatently kiddy, like it's not even trying to have a darker, more adult side. People on other forums saying "omg did us see the crack?!?!" of course I bloody did, I was smacked in the face with it.

Anyhoo, as for the guy not blowing up, I thought it was to do with that "thing" that needed proof that the daleks were daleks. It being told he was a human meant he wasn't a bomb and couldn't blow up. I don't know though, that's just how my mind explained it to me.

I'm the luckiest person in the world. There are 2 David Tennant episodes I have never seen. The specials from last year as I was still sentimentally avoiding it then. Plus I didn't pay a lot of attention to the 2008 xmas one either cos it was xmas so even that's almost new.

I'm probably going to carry on watching this series though, just because I enjoy moaning.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how it's more kiddy than, say, New Earth, where the Doctor magically cures everybody by mixing lots of different colours together.

At least Moffat managed to write a farewell scene that didn't take a third of the damn episode; though the real test of that will be next fortnight's two parter.

[http://users.livejournal.com/weevil_/]

Maybe it's my bias towards Matt Smith but I've never sat there thinking "this is ONLY a kids show and nothing more" before.

[broin.livejournal.com]

I've had exactly the opposite reaction. =)

Like exactly the opposite. This is the first of the new series that felt like it was at least furtively struggling towards entertaining and intriguing the adults.

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to carry on watching this series though, just because I enjoy moaning.

That's what I think! It seems to be unpopular in Who fandom, but I do like a good moan.

Also I find a lot of episodes are much better when I watch them *after* knowing the Big Thing of the season finale, because I can forgive certain types of gubbins if it's going somewhere.

btw, as for the recent Specials, the Mars one is good but the desert one is awful.

[asim.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm really enjoying this series, in part because Moffet's dispensing with all that REALLY IRRITATING HANDWAVING Davis insisted on plugging into scripts. If the cost, for me, of the most consistent and compelling characterization and overall plots of the current series is that and a loss of some of the familiarity that Tennant brought into the role, early on (really, and in part because of Rose's continuity, he was far more relatable and comprehensible, in both good and bad ways, at this point than Smith's Doctor has been), then I'm overall more than OK with it.

[skington.livejournal.com]

It would have made more sense if the Daleks took a real human brain and put it in a robot / android body. Then the battle for control would have made more sense.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Then that would have been a cyberman... ;)

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

It was a Mark Gatiss episode. I really wasn't expecting much, especially when you're trying to do a Dalek story in 42 minutes as a single-parter (have the Daleks had a one-episode story before now?)

Gatiss seems much better at writing dark comedy (i.e. League of Gentlemen) rather than Dr Who (this is only his third episode after The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot Lantern). I don't mind the tendency the new series seems to have towards asking the audience to suspend their disbelief just that little bit more than before, but Gatiss went just a bit too far with the inconsistencies this time.

Still, if that's the filler in the series, then overall it'll be a good year. Angels next week :)

[andrewducker]

Yeah, a 2-parter would have been better.

And I totally agree. If that's the worst it's going to get, then I'm going to be very happy!

[broin.livejournal.com]

Yep. There were two spots where all they needed was two lines and I'd have been happy.

'We need to disconnect him from the Dalek network. He needs to believe he's human!' (because then the two approaches the Dctor and Amy took make sense, and you've a nice observation that the Doctor doesn't know what it means to be human, really. His method doesn't work. His emotional range is limited to nostalgia and loss).

'Well, I did have three prototypes built... but is three enough?' Or as has been suggested elsewhere, have Churchill send the android back in time to give him the time to make the Spitfires.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - it frustrates me more when there's a clear quick fix that could have gone in - because it means that nobody saw something that seems obviously wrong, or nobody spoke up to get it sorted.

[broin.livejournal.com]

I was just writing about iterative design... shame you don't get that for tv.

[andrewducker]

Maybe they'll fix it for the Director's Cut on DVD :->

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

It was more like a product launch press conference for the new line of Daleks than an actual episode, but kind of harmless.

I did laugh at the subtle symbolism of MoffatDaleks blasting RustyDaleks to pieces to signal the New Era. 11 hasn't really come into focus yet, but he's made the top five of non-annoying Doctors so far, which is a start.

I could have done with a bloody explanation of why having the android recall his human side would any effect on his blowing up

It's the Power of Heart, unfortunately.