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

" I loved that the Dr had to give the sontarans a choice" he does this every time.

i thought this was v poor. i've only really liked the first 2 eps so far this series.

I thought that one was bloody great, but then I like it when they do the enormous stupid blockbuster thing. It's for the kids, really, and today's kids would switch off old-Who in seconds.

It's pretty obvious that Timelords will keep coming back for ages, plus the Doctor's daughter looks hott, so I'm looking forward to next week's as well.

'OMG it was just running around shooting things and blowing everything up this would never have happened under William Hartnell YAWN!'

I must admit I have kind of missed Aldo popping up every week to shout 'WANK!' and 'OH JUST FUCK OFF DAVIES!' every so often. Doctor Who threads haven't quite been the same without it.

Who has always done 'save entire Earth from aliens using sticky-back plastic' type thing. When I was a kid I didn't notice this so much tho, or feel a preference for those stories. So tho as an adult I prefer the more subtle/smaller scale problems+solutions stories I'm sure many kids would too.

Holy! Inter-galatic Child Support Payments!

Doctor'll have to sell the Tardis.

So, uh, is that hot blonde woman Susan's mother?

Just found out the hot blonde woman is actually Peter Davison's daughter!

This was mentioned by aldo in disparaging tones above.

she looks like she could be M Pompadour's sprog (but obv not)

"I thought that one was bloody great, but then I like it when they do the enormous stupid blockbuster thing. It's for the kids, really, and today's kids would switch off old-Who in seconds"

well me too. but i still didn't like it. more out of it being so by-the-numbers predictable in every way. and nothing interesting being done with the stuff set up. also this whole story (like the ood one) was like old who - just with better CGI.

It's nice to be missed, I will try harder in the future.

You know the biggest problem? It's Rusty referencing his own previous series and believing that makes his references to the 'classic' series important. THEY'RE BOTH WANK.

I could rant for hours, really. Hartnell isn't better, it's just different (and my kids get on with it just fine, don't think of pacing being a difficult issue - and fuck me, I watched Invasion of Time yesterday and it's VERY VERY BAD) but I think the main thing is that someone wasn't trying to make it look like Hollyoakes.

GPWM, this was better than Invasion of Time. faintest of praise there.

" I loved that the Dr had to give the sontarans a choice" he does this every time.

I don't see this as a criticism.

I missed the end but surely

"in-jokes and obscure fanwank"

is not the same as

"quasi-Hollywood shallow nonsense"

-- Tracer Hand, Sunday, 4 May 2008 23:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Fortunately this episode had both in spades.

Blowing-up-the-world stories can, and have been, done better. Nothing happened in this one, just loads of running around with guns and the Doctor whinging about guns.

A few explosions is all some people need.

But is she actually going to turn out to be the Doctor's daughter? But is she? BUT IS SHE?

IS SHE???

OR IS SHE???

Who gives a shit, someone was bound to eventually answer a question that was asked 45 years ago. They should go the whole hog and bring back Susan for the season finale, played by, I dunno, Becca from Hollyoaks or something.

(Guess who hasn't watched Hollyoakes in 5 years, kids)

Actually, yeah, more interested in Susan than any other NEW family members.
Regarding the Sontarans, watched 'The Time Warrior' with my wife on the weekend, as she only knows new-Who and wanted to see where Sarah Jane first showed up, and it had the probic-vent-thing-meaning-Sontarans-must-always-face-the-enemy thing in it, so that was there from the start. Also, Sontarans are creepier when they keep sticking their tongue out slightly every few minutes, like a lizard or a B-movie sex criminal.

TBH the most OTM criticism of nu-Who is how cloying the emotional stuff actually is. There's nothing wrong with injecting a bit of emo into the format but I can think of just three instances where it's actually been done well (The Girl In The Fireplace, Father's Day and whatever the pre-WW1 two-parter in S3 was called) and two out of those three were written by Paul Cornell*.

*Who might be a better call for S5 main writer than Moffatt, over the course of a whole series.

Billie did show up on the screen, yes, mouthing what looked like the word "Doctor". Those two were OK, really, but dear God Freema Agyeman is a terrible actress. Still liking the total lack of love interest with Donna, the bit where he was all "ooh, here is a key to the tardis, this is a big moment for us" and she was all "er, yeah, can we do this later when we're not about to be killed please" was nice.

kungfu daughter next week looks beyond shite though.

I don't know about that it looks like a Brits in SPAAAAACE episode, and I think they have been good so far.

During the TARDIS-goes-haywire final scene there were a few shots of the hand-in-jar bubbling away. I WONDER IF THIS REMINDER IS SIGNIFICANT AT ALL?

Yeah, there is something that already grates about the alien-kicking, boy-snogging, acrobatic, self-satisfied Brit-Buffy posh-girl that is the Doctor's daughter. But... we'll see.

"Go with the Doctor and see the stars, and maybe bring a little piece back for me."

"lol here's your souvenir from early 21st century Cardiff/London Grandad!"

people dissing Agyeman in this episode do realise she was playing an emotionally stunted clone of Martha for most of it tho yeah?

Yes she was good at that, like Keanu Reeves is excellent in clueless asshole roles.

I'm enjoying this series on the whole, except when I read this thread and realise that I agree with most of the criticisms but I soon get over it when another daft/fun episode comes around.

^OTM

Mrs H was in bits at the "Are you my mummy?" line - because she's enjoying the show for what it is, and not getting het up in fanwankery like, erm, some peop... er, me. Oh go on, I laughed too.

I don't think any episode's been up to much this year, but I reckon the other three series have been much the same, i.e. they hit their stride in the second half. For what it's worth, this weekend's episode stirred the blood more than the preceding four.

"alien-kicking, boy-snogging, acrobatic, self-satisfied Brit-Buffy posh-girl"

This is a bad thing?!?!?

S2 actually got worse in the second half but yeah I reckon they're holding over the best stories for later in the series, especially the Moffatt two-parter.

Do we have writer details for the rest of the series? Incidentally, killing off all the Timelords seems like a stupider idea as nu-Who progresses.

Doctor's Daughter: Stephen Greenhorn
Unicorn & The Wasp: Gareth Roberts
Silence In The Library: Steven Moffatt
Forest Of The Dead: Steven Moffatt
Midnight: Rusty
Turn Left: Rusty
The Stolen Earth: Rusty
Journey's End: Rusty

Look! I have not even slagged it off! Despite one of the most ridiculous rumours imaginable being all but confirmed for the finale.

Ugh four Rusty's in a row. I do want to read this ridiculous rumour though - any chance of a link?

Mail me and I'll fill you in (although it will be later as I can't see the address linked to when I'm at work).

I actually think the first of Rusty's 4 sounds like the most Old-Who of maybe his entire era, but it's bound to feature AGELESS CREATURES FROM BEFORE THE DAWN OF TIME and EMO WUB NONCESENSE so it won't end up that way, I'm sure.

Man, I leave this thread for three weeks and everyone is twice as bitchy. Oh, ILE, how it goes...

I just watched the last 3 straight in a row, and I'm surprisingly... entertained? Especially Planet of the Ood, totally expected that to be terrible, but it wasn't. The effects were actually pretty decent for the the last Sontaran episode, as said up there. All of them felt like a good mix of old school/new school Who - real big on chases and action, with incredibly unsubtle themes on war and capitalism, but higher budget production.

I can't help it, I love Martha, but I keep feeling like the actress and (ESPECIALLY) the character are wasted half the time, especially her run in Torchwood. Donna is holding up as a companion much better than I expected, too. Almost fell out of my seat at the "Are you my mommy?" line. Classic. And I really have no problem whatsoever with the emotional family stuff, only the overdone harpy bitch mother trope, making Mrs. Noble #3 in this series. Other than that it's good, I like the actors.

Let's save the future bitching until the episodes air, at least - remember, last season's finales were written by Davies too, and it was damn good stuff.

Well apart from all of the last episode, obviously. And a big chunk of the one before it. And the last 10 minutes of the one before that.

I am 100% amazed that so many people love the 'are you my mummy' line.

Well, me too. But I seem to be the strawman here so I didn't want to mention it for fear of weakening your argument.

We need to form an official clique and give it a memetastic name in order to confuse people.

FURTDAYCM Cru?

Fuck U (to be DOWN WIV DA KIDZ) RTD And Yr Cunty Mates

DWZC

Hahahaha if the last episode is as preposterous as what I've read then it really is preposterous. But still possibly less so than the ending of last year's.

preposterous vs boring

I really, really wish I hadn't emailed aldo for what happens at the end.

Hurts yr brane, doesn't it.

only the overdone harpy bitch mother trope, making Mrs. Noble #3 in this series

I could almost convince myself that RTD dragging this one out again and again for any mother character or anything resembling it (alien foster nurse from Adipose episode, hello) is kind of irresponsible for a family show.

I'm probably just being silly here, but still, there's young kids watching this, probably quite often with their mothers; it just seems a bit rude that RTD wants to cram in "this is what mothers are really like" every week.

(Let them decide that for themselves! They probably will as soon as they hit their teens anyway.)

The mum of the main child character in 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' is another mum from hell, too.