Doctor Who 2008: Sontarans cometh, RTD Ood 'ave 'im etc.

Torchwood key plot points - they all lez up

It's quite difficult to endager the universe and then have it saved without there being a Messianic figure or two somewhere along the line. They might end up laying it on too thick again though.

Frankly RTD can be as ludicrous as he wants with the next couple, it's his last full series and the show could be a very difficult beast by the time we see it again.

All you would prob need to know about Torchwood:

1. Only 3 members left - Jack, Ianto aka Fishface and Gwen aka Welsh crumpet. Sexual tension between Jack/Ianto and Jack/Gwen.
2. As on DW, Torchwood has lots of references to an impending "darkness". whether that refers to general evil kind of darkness, or the same specific kind of THE DARKNESS in DW, i dunno. I just wish I'd stop being reminded of Justin Hawkins.

that's pretty much it - Donna and the Doctor have not met the Torchwood team yet so they'll also be in the same position as the viewers.

Wasn't the Donna dying just that Donna stepping in front of the truck to get the other Donna to go and work for HC Clements so she could meet the Doctor so he didn't die in the flood barrier? A lot of the things that were different on Earth because he wasn't there were nothing directly to do with Donna, e.g. Martha's hospital coming back from the moon, the Titanic crashing into Buck House, etc etc, it was just a whole bunch of post-Runaway Bride stuff. This doesn't necessarily mean that she's going to die again in this universe, does it.

All you would prob need to know about Torchwood:

Ace, thankyou! Can anyone give us a similar catch up for the Sarah Jane Adventures? I noticed Maria and Claude got namechecked (and killed) in this ep, and it looks like that alien lad (or whatever he is) will be around next week too...

I liked how when the Doctor ran back into the Tardis it had gone a menacing red colour to signify IMPENDING DANGER.

and the cloister bell etc etc and the fact that he said 'universe' in a Scots accent. Just wow, the whole thing.

Did they do everything including the Tardis sign turning BAD WOLF in a previous series? I can't remember. Anyway, it was very effective.

I don't think we were meant to think too hard about that, it just looked cool.

What is the cloister bell when it's at home?

My main worry about next week is that there'll just be too much to cram into a couple of episodes. Especially if they're working up to the Reveal Everyone Already Knows About at the end of the next episode.

Cloister Bell

It's a relatively new invention I suppose (first cropped up around 1980?) and hadn't been used all that much until Tennant arrived. But it's basically just a "shit is going down" clang.

count me as another one fed up of it being averting-destruction-of the UK The World THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! THE WHOLE MULTIVERSE AND EVERYTHING EVER!!!! every single season - i mean, i'm still excited about the next eps and all (i hyperventilated my way through the trailer), I just... there's only so many times the stakes can be raised, you know? especially after an episode whose entire point seemed to be 'everyday life on Earth is ALWAYS on the brink of displacement depression and martial law caused by some alien crisis that the doctor should be solving just in time and just out of shot'. Like, i dunno, that's some amazing planetary paranoia there.

The main problem I had with this ep was that so much of it felt like a retread -- even the bits which weren't the rehappening of stuff that happened in seasons 3 and 4. Thinking about it, in places it kind of felt too much like earthside stuff in the S3 finale: something about the multiple families in one terraced house, the staircase shots, military-trucks-outside-terrace-of-houses-it's-dangerous-at-night, blitz spirit, etc etc etc. Like RTD basically only has one image for 'repercussions of global crisis' and he applies it every time.

I still really enjoyed it though.

I think what I really want from a Moffatt series is a thread of mystery running through the whole series, so you're compelled to watch the last episode to find out wtf has been going on, rather than out of OMG BIGGER BETTER NOISER FASTER EXPLOSIONS EVERYONE WHO'S EVER BEEN IN IT IS BACK!

Essentially I want him to make it a bit more like Lost with aliens.

(loved it)

tardis control room at the end looked different - not just red. the central bit looked changed somehow. could have been a trick of the light.

OMG DOCTOR WHO YAAAY

Nice time to exponentially raise your game, Russell!

we're getting the time war aren't we?

I THINK SO

Especially if they're working up to the Reveal Everyone Already Knows About at the end of the next episode.

-- Matt DC, Sunday, 22 June 2008 23:02 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Pretty bleedin' obvious when you see the end of this week's Confidential, too. Not that I'm complaining.

we're getting the time war aren't we?

Y'know, if they were to wheel out Ecclestone or even McGann at this point, I wouldn't exactly complain.

They've only done one multi-Doctor story this decade and it was fantastic. I would spooge like a pathetic little fanboy if another Doctor appeared.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: Not much, really, except that Sarah Jane Smith is working as a sort of freelance Doctor substitute (sing her journo credentials to investigate suspicious front organisations for alien nastiness and putting a stop to them), and she has two teenaged(?)/child sidekicks (Maria and Claude), and an adopted son, Luke, who is actually a fast-grown clone created by an alien race called the Bane. And she has a groovy vintage car and funky boots, and doesn't have K-9 with her any more (usually).

I love her.

Well, sure, that too.

WHO HAS SEEN THE BBC1 TRAILER?? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I INCREDIBLY DESPERATELY NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT THIS

The one where you hear a certain someone speak? Pretty exciting.

Just seen it now. Woo.

"Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane" was the "What if Sarah Jane wasn't there" in SJA. Jane Asher and Sarah Jane swap lives. They were best mates as kids, and Jane Asher died in a horrible accident on a school trip to the seaside. it was great.

Get rid of Tennant will BBC pick new Doctor from following:
Token Tory
Footballer
Current ILM indie strawman
Non-specific Z list British celebrity
13th century monk
Lembet Opik
Somebody else with mild-to-moderate hilarity input
Someone who's in an ad
C4 list show regular strawman
President of USA

Caught up on the final few torchwood's and they were a little anti-climactic compared to last season's finale or the middle of this season. Didn't even have any footage of Captain Jack runnning off to the sound of the Tardis. Not seeing them should have no bearing on enjoyment of Who.

they killed off 2 main characters! (one we like, and one we don't for balance)

I rather like both of them, or rather I liked both of them post one of them becoming a moody zombie. Will have no bearing on who though. Was anti-climactic in comparison to Jack sucking the life out of the giant devil via it's shadow.

^fuck them for killing off Tosh instead of Ianto.

Just watched this week's DW Confidential - when did Billie Piper start talking like a sloane? I've seen her being interviewed before, and I'm pretty sure she didn't used to talk like Keira Knightly. Who has she been hanging out with?

dude from Lewis

She wasn't lithping during Confidential either. Weird.

She has said in interviews she has forgotten how to be Rose. Glad to see she's deserving of whatever they paid her to get her back.

haha srsly! i watched a couple of rose eps yesterday and really found new appreciation for the character of rose (and her chemistry with the doctor) - but also felt weird b/c in this wk's ep she really isn't that character, in looks and demeanor and speech! i mean, time & dimension-switching changes a person, but...

Her mouth was too big.

Not big enough for her teeth.

it's what being a call girl does to you

Just saw that trailer. Hot patooties, as the cool kids say.

Waiting until Sunday morning, Aus time, is killing me. And the next week will obviously be worse.

("children of men" wwii remix + "run lola run") * mental time war set in a capriciously evil fortune-teller's hutch = awesome!!!

"THIS" says the u.ni.t. commander, holding up a glass of water, "...is for dehydration"

loved the what-ifs - i have always wanted to see an short doc about the consequences of a greengrocer's stand that's smashed in a high-speed urban car chase

haha so rose's earlier "slinkiness" was her forgetting how to act

i thought piper (probably subconsciously) was imitating tate, except when she was consciously trying to pull off a breathy, cool "l.a." steez

by the way, if you're interested in stories about the stars winking out in the face of an inexorable, mysterious darkness dust, you might enjoy the red brain by donald wandrei

HAHAHA guess who's rumoured to be guest starring in the Christmas special?

(Give you a clue - it will be really shit)

Doctor Who fans are gripped by a new mystery - what has happened to Billie Piper's voice?

But a show insider suggested Piper had "taken a while to get back into character" and may have forgotten what Rose sounded like.

She used to sound like Billie Piper before she started talking all la-di-da.