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

I thought it was funny how the Ood turned out to be a bunch of Sigor Ros fans.

BAFTAs blurb in the Radio Times:

Graham Norton hosts the TV Baftas from the London Palladium as the cream of British TV talent is honoured. And Steven Moffat should win for writing Blink, so there.

Two things I forgot to mention:
1. The Doctor being chased by the claw thing was one of the best action setpieces we've yet seen in nu-Who.
2. Are throwaway refs to Hartnell stories going to be a motif in this series? We had The Sensorites this week, and The Romans last week.

Is this the first time the Doctor has been called upon to save an alien race from evil humans?

The Sensorites, which supposedly took place in the same solar system, had humans poisoning the titular alien race for reasons I can't recall. I can't think of any other examples that come close, but I'm far from the biggest Who expert around here.

"A huge improvement on last week" WTF?

many ppl said of the Ood that they were rip-off/tribute to the sensorites. so ref to sense-sphere was a sort of in-joke.

Ood struck me as more Lisa Gerrard/Liz Fraser than Sigor Ros. Not quite so nordic, but the exposed-brains-in-the-palms thing gives them quite a bit of preciousness

Will people still find the Simpsons funny in 4126?

Yes, just as people will still be called things like Jack and John in the 51st century.

When were the bees mentioned in 4x02? Missed that.

'Your song too will end' means this is Tennant's last season, which I think we all knew anyway.

kingfish: Thanks for the offer but I'm not into the old Target novels.

I thought he was supposed to be in the 3 2009 specials before the show comes back for the next series.

Probably. They're very good at keeping secrets, though.

Anywho, here's the link to the local bookstore if anybody else wants to peruse. Their collection of licensed novels is a bit overwhelming, especially when you're there in person and it's an entire fucking aisle.

So, no one inspired to post by tonight's episode? Can't really blame you. liked the reimagining of the Sonatarans as slightly useless colonial sergeant major types, though.

I thought it was pretty good, I liked the references to 70's U.N.I.T.

Nu sontarans less scary than Old sontarans.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Sontaran.jpg
I used to be scared shitless by those fuckrs.

But, yeah, the whole Colonel Blimp attitude was pretty good.

There was a pricelessly awful bit of acting from Martha in the trailer for next week.

This continued into this week.

Nice to see a big Earth invasion, but plz at some point go to another planet, where the sky is green or something, I mean you can go ANYWHERE/WHEN.

Yeah, I quite enjoyed this one. I hope cribbins doesn't die!

He's a gonner, greater good etc etc.

Alien planets = less emotional attachment = not right for the new show atm

Dull episode btw. Sontarans as crap as ever and predictable plot/plot devices/electrical-appliance-du-jour instrumental in destroying the world. Tennant and Tate got some good lines, though.

True, satnav-is-evil was a bit weak. But the one that exploded, that was a good enough gag to make up for it.

plz at some point go to another planet

They were just on the Planet of the Ood last week, don't tell me they sprayed all that fake snow over a rock quarry and nobody noticed.

I've seen almost no old-school Who, but this morning my sister downloaded The Sontaran Experiment for us to watch before the new ep. Damn, those fuckers were terrifying. Nu-Sontarans lacked that grinning rubber clown-face quality that made them so scary.

They're doing it again, as mentioned upthread(or an earlier thread). Modern tech neuroses used as plot devices(literally in this case). Instead of cell phones or bluetooth headsets, we got satnav rigs.

For a minute, the guy's makeup & accent were thick enough so I had difficulty distinguishing between "Staal" and "Styre".

Are they going to bring back Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart? Nicholas Courtney is still alive, at least.

The most entertaining episode of the series so far. And the rubbishy old Sontarans made a quite an effective villain for the first time since The Time Warrior, mainly thanks to Chris Ryan's characterisation. Not sure about the moulded foam-rubber suits, but at least the heads are better designed now.

Well Sontarans are a clone race so it should be tough to distinguish between them. Good opportunities for short-arse actor anyway, I can't remember the last time Mike from the Young Ones had an acting gig.

Some very good Doctor Donna stuff, though as mentioned evil sat-nav feels pretty old hat for nu-Who (and the evil sat-nav creating a deadly gas as well as crashing peoples cars is a bit silly). Yet again stakes raised so high as a cliff hanger that the only solution next week is deus ex machina / sci-fi gobbledegook.

Beyond that it was a nicely exciting episode with some nice UNIT call backs, but equally some Captain Scarlet call backs too for no good reasons.

Someone place odds that the bees will be mentioned next ep...

can't remember the last time Mike from the Young Ones had an acting gig.

heh. Didn't catch this when I was watching.

i last saw him in saxondale.

if last week's reminded me of colin baker era, this one just made me forget all nu-who. "Modern tech neuroses used as plot devices" (just to borrow the quote) is not nu-who of course. it was used all the time in 'classic' who too.

this was immensely old skool. sontaran voice while watching on a scanner is straight out of sontaran experiment. automaton/brainwashed workforce, doppelganger assistants recalled android invasion. jokes about UNIT being the 70s "or was it the 80s' (LOLZ). teleporting.

all = ONE FOR THE TRAD FANS

f'ing probic rubbish vents even.

"Dear the sontarans, i notice you have a vulnerable spot on the back of your neck, i have an invention here that would cover that up"

gas = terraforming, right? i wonder if the sontarans are after a new home planet too.

Were the Sontarans always so, erm, lacking in self-awareness? It was sort of refreshing to see an evil alien race exposed as complete buffoons but once you've done that you're reliant on other things (evil SatNav, gassing people in cars, Evil Clone Martha) to make it even remotely scary.

I'm quite liking the 'Doctor wards off alien with everyday object' thread in this series - first a waterpistol, now a racquet and ball. This series is pretty strong so far, especially given how poor the first half of S3 was.

Old Who Sontarans were genuinely quite sinister in the the two serials I've seen them in (The Time Warrior and The Sontaran Experiment).

xpost

Best bit of this episode - the look on Evil Child Genius's face when the Doctor corrected his grammar.

Second best bit of this episode - "it's driving me round the bend".

I did like that they kept the voice.

they practically had mike the cool person saying 'your puny weapons are no match for our superior intellect'

i would like Sontaran/Judoon army/police face-off - surely the latter are harder

Just breaking my self-imposed Doctor Who thread avoidance to point out that Sontarans are fucking awesome and if you don't agree fuck you.

loltarans

sonnedtarans in internet beef

IM IN YR PLANET

http://www.sf-radio.net/doctorwho/charaktere/bilder/sontaran.jpg

BREAKIN ALL YR SATNAVS

attack of the killer potatoes more like

Potato-faced Prussians with a short man complex and a release valve in the back of their necks are about a kajillion times more fun than twatting Daleks.

close run thing though

I was trying to explain to Mrs V why I love them so much and I can't, really. Something about them just triggers some primeval pleasure node in my brain.

never seen you and a sontaran in the same room, to be honest

Yes obviously I'm aware of the significance of my empathising with the short, dumpy, potato-faced, scrap-happy dudes.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5916/4647212mg0.jpg

Me, earlier today.

- the hand reaching up from the glowing bubbling gloop was PURE PULP awesomeness (both (all three?) times)

- was the fact that Martha was exactly the same after her reprogramming an intentional joke or not?

- the donna/doctor moment when she realizes she needs to go check in with the family was such a sublime moment of acting by both of them - tate really is tennant's equal, at least within the confines of this show

- what's with the "donna/doctor" thing anyway? it's like a joke they've carried through.. are they one person somehow?? why did she get a salute?

I've been really pleasantly surprised by Tate so far. I'm not a fan of her comedy, but she can certainly inhabit a character. She sure shows up Freema's rather underdeveloped acting skills.