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

wtf, here at karaoke bar. why the fuck are there _8_ billie piper tracks in the songbook?! she didn't have any singles that charted in america, did she?!

We both enjoyed this year's Torchwood far more than Doctor Who. (For perspective, we did not like Torchwood at all the first time round.)

Here too.

Yeah.

Mothers' day tomorrow, so I won't see this one until the day after, and I could not care less.

Mothers' day tomorrow

This scared me more than anything in Dr Who. Bloody Americans.

Would be quite good if in a future episode the Dr was put on trial for killing off the world's entire bird population. Aside from emus, peacocks and penguins.

Also hopefully we get to see young Bernard Cribbins in the 1960s/1950s at some point.

and I could not care less.

And the fact that this is your 49857689th post on a Dr Who tread makes that clear.

It's a contrast to the past few years of counting down the minutes each week.

(Mothers' day tomorrow)

This scared me more than anything in Dr Who. Bloody Americans.

Um, huh?

You made me think it was Mother's Day tomorrow. It isn't, at least not in the UK.

Britisher Mother's Day is in March, hence teh fearrrrr.

Oh, well I'm not American, so there's my fear.

(also teh fear that I have to see my mother tomorrow)

OH FFS

I spy a spin off show

I feel dirty.

That felt like eps 3 and 4 of an over-padded McCoy era story.

Looks like Rusty has found a new way to get Rose Tyler: Earth Defence made.

I broke up with my girlfriend this afternoon, so I decided to just switch off my critical faculties and enjoy it, and you know what, it was just the ticket. Not ashamed to say I choked up a bit at the end considering the circumstances.

Slightly reminiscent of a Hartnell story, what with the traps and the mazes and the problem solving.

Slightly reminiscent of The Search For Spock at the end, I thought.

Horrendous dialogue aside, I actually enjoyed this. I don't know if my expectations were just low because of the reviews upthread.

Can someone explain how she was created though?

McCoy story, Hartnell story - funny it reminded me of a Davison era story. Sort of a (initially) inconsequential, cheapo runaround in someone else's boring war, which the Doc ends up ending.
I started off not liking it, but I thawed a little by the end. The emo was ladelled on a bit thick, and I don't know why Martha was even in this really. But... yeah. Okay, in the end. Catherine Tate had all the best lines, and stole the show.

So. Is Jenny going to be (yet another) ally who is going to pop up every so often? In her rocket ship, at the end she reminded me of Chris Barrie's "smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast" chracter in Red Dwarf.

baker (t) stories also recalled - underworld, face of evil

The Hath were pretty old school looking.

Very old school Who in both good and bad ways (the good being the proper sci-fi short storyness of the 7 day war - the bad being the "oh noes it is a pointless war). Jenny was nowhere near as annoying as she could have / should have been* and open ended enough for hand in box fun in a later series. Some terrible dialogue, Tate wins the day again and the real feel of a Baker four perter condensed into 45 mins (yay!). Hath were very plasticky but a really nice concept (except for their boiler suits).

I kinda liked it.

*When she regenerated at the end, for a second I thought she had turned into Billie which would have been an awesome WTF, even if it made no sense. She should have changed her face at least though.

Her keeping the same face when she regenerated kinda didn't make sense.

Fucking nice face, mind you.

Someone on another board suggested that she didn't regenerate, but it was the terraforming gases that brought her back to life. Maybe the Hath that Martha dimwittedly got killed in the bog will emerge from the ground, good as new!

Before this season started, I read some old old interview with RTD where he talked about how much he hated guns and violence, which seemed like an OK-enough sentiment. But this new level of the Doctor going around yelling about how much he hates guns and violence just feels lazy.

Definitely the worst nu-Doctor Who episode so far.

*When she regenerated at the end, for a second I thought she had turned into Billie which would have been an awesome WTF, even if it made no sense.

Yeah, that occurred to me as well.

What was with all the "I don't kill people, I don't do genocide" bollocks, btw? This is/was the "no second chances" doctor, right?

I started off not liking it, but I thawed a little by the end. The emo was ladelled on a bit thick, and I don't know why Martha was even in this really. But... yeah. Okay, in the end. Catherine Tate had all the best lines, and stole the show.

-- DavidM, Sunday, 11 May 2008 05:43 (15 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I'm with you on this.

Also, Agyeman's acting was fine considering she basically did monologues for half of it.

the writers make it very difficult for martha/freema - she was better last series i'm sure

jenny's resurrection seemed more in line with captain jack than the doctor.

Yeah I didn't really see the point of Martha being in this one, other than Freema Agyeman was contracted to appear in a certain number of episodes. Shame because the pace of this one felt a bit rushed, could have done with more space.

I was disappointed from the start that she wasn't the Doctor's original daughter/Susan's mother and I struggled to get over that diappointment and care much about what was happening for the rest of the episode. The Hath looked pretty cool though and Jenny = rowr. The ending was totally 'Oh HAI I HAS A SPINOFF' though but bringing Jenny to life just to kill her 45mins later seemed pointless as well. She might make a good companion in the future.

Despite the writers over-egging the pudding with the dialogue, that was probably Tennant's best 'gravitas' moment, but god I'm starting to hate that swelling sub-Celtic Moods orchestral theme that appears every time there's a scene of great emotional importance.

The next episode looks awesome though, hope they ratchet up the creepy factor on this one.

I thought that was pretty terrific. I couldn't really follow the plot, which was refreshing.

Cellular-free mobile phones are in danger of becoming the nu sonic screwdriver, though. I think they explained them working in the Tardis before, but now they seem to just work anywhere.

> but god I'm starting to hate that swelling sub-Celtic Moods orchestral
> theme that appears every time there's a scene of great emotional
> importance.

I was going to say. It really hit me during this episode how sad it is that a series with such a strong musical heritage should have descended into using the worst kind of mush. It's not just the emo scenes. Pretty much all the incidental music is ruinously bad.

And the Ood song in episode two could have been something truly eerie or moving but ended up just being comical. That was still my second favourite one so far this series, though, even if, as mentioned above, the canoodisation of the Doctor was somewhat nonsensical. Maybe I just like vaguely amphibous-looking aliens.

Agatha Christie trailer did look good. First historical character one I've looked forward to.

I spy a spin off show

The ending was totally 'Oh HAI I HAS A SPINOFF'

Either that or, inspired by the Doctor being peaceful and teaching her to save the scary aliens, she goes and aligns herself with, say, dalek Caan or someone.

I always imagine Dalek Caan is related to James Caan somehow.

Caan? Caan! CAAAAAAAAaan!!

I was very down on Tate becoming a companion but I was totally wrong: she's great. She gives even the simplest of lines a real kick, but you know that when she said "I'll travel with this man forever" that she's not long for this Whoniverse.

It's had a sniffy review or two already, but I like the look of next week's. Even on a second viewing of the trailer Donna made me lol with the exchange...
"Agatha Christie"
"What about her?"
".. That's me"
"No... !"

Yeah Donna is so getting zapped by a Dalek in the season finale.

I was disappointed from the start that she wasn't the Doctor's original daughter/Susan's mother and I struggled to get over that diappointment and care much about what was happening for the rest of the episode.

The ultimate bait-and-switch.

That worked quite well considering the whole daughter thing was so arbitrary and stupid. Having recently rewatched series 3, I don't quite get all the Martha-hate, I just think she was underused.

Precisely.

I think Donna may get accidentally crushed by the Tardis, like the witch at the start of the Wizard of Oz.

Anyway, I digress, I thought this weeks episode was quite good. Though the Hath they are just another Ood, right?

Yeah, they all look the same to you, don't they? Racist.

Best bit of this episode - "let's just save your feminine wiles til later, just in case of emergency".

Is it wrong that Donna is growing on me?

I'm getting tired of the whole the companion really fancies/loves the doctor thing.

Except she doesn't fancy or love the Doctor.

Exactly thats why I like her as opposed to Martha.

Ah right, I get you. Incidentally, this picture from the Christmas special looks pretty spoileriffic.

But not in the way you'd think.

Donna's grate.

yep, she's totally grown on me as a real character - though i hope we won't get more of the 'ooh this is all so amazing omg + where is your heart???' stuff, b/c ugh i mean i'd be super excited too for sure but still c'mon, be cool
also they should stop making her wear those wear tunic/dresses over pants by which i mean trousers - is there something abt the doctor who lighting that causes thighs to be offensive to viewers? i do not think so

i think she looks the best she's ever looked in the preview for next wk's ep, where she's in the flapper-style dress! perfect

Last night I was listening to Kylie Minogue on my headphones and suddenly realized..

Two hearts... beating together...