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

How did I miss the planet abduction bits of "Partners in Crime" and "The Fires of Pompeii"?

It's been the running theme through the entire series.

The Adipose lost their planet, the Pyrovilles lost heirs, the Sontarans wanted to transform Earth, the people who had travelled in the Doctor's Daughter lost theirs, the Vespiform lost the planet it came from, the Library was lost to the shadow things... it's Rusty's Big Thing this year. Also, missing bees have been in all (?) the episodes this series.

And of course the shadow things had their forests destroyed to make the books.

xp OH WOW OF COURSE

ok I was being superliteralist and thinking there was some subplot abt planets getting dragged across the universe in "The Fires of Pompeii" that I'd forgotten

That is a cool explanation – clever!

Can we have a Dalek moratorium for a while though?

Yes Russell/Steven, please just don't use them for about 500 yrs.

I distinctly remember reading it being a condition of use by the Terry Nation Estate/T1m H4nc0ck that the Daleks were in every full series made to get to use the license.

So they won't be in the specials (possibly) but will be in Moffat's first full series. Probably.

Yeah, I'm just being ridiculously hopeful.

Just listened to the Paul McGann "Neverland" audio drama, which has Romana (II) in it. I can't believe the two guys Lalla Ward married were tom baker and RICHARD DAWKINS, of all people.

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2004/images/dawkinsward.jpg

Guardian preview for tonight:

"Outside nothing can survive, so why is there banging on the ship's hull?"

Anyone get the feeling the Daleks are arriving early, in Master Utopia stylee?

No. This is the "budget-lite" episode.

Maybe just an eye-stalk?

No. This is like a one scene play.

featuring Mark Addy´s wife from The Full Monty - just when i couldn´t think of any more people who should be in this. altho i think that guy who played Chris Finch in The Office should get a look in soon.

I thought last week's didn't hang together as well as some people did, and I do worry that Moffat is overmining some seams, BUT I can't get Donna's dream world out of my head. The immediate movement from one scene to another and, especially, Miss Evangelista pointing out that all the children were the same. That such a thing could be suddenly the case was so on point. I can't think of dream logic being so well portrayed on film, not even in David Lynch.

"Outside nothing can survive, so why is there banging on the ship's hull?"

Probably Captain Jack trying to get in. I fully expect him to turn up at some point very soon.

Not for two weeks yet.

I think it will be an elaborate set-up for the "Knock knock. Who's there. Doctor." joke.

It's the B-52s thinking it's the loveshack.

Not for two weeks yet.

-- aldo, Saturday, 14 June 2008 23:30 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

I think it will be an elaborate set-up for the "Knock knock. Who's there. Doctor." joke

Just got back from betting my house on this happening.

Was Blink the budget-lite ep last time?

Think so, yes. 4 costumes and a couple of props, 2/3 sets with minor props?

In that case I say slash the show's budget by 50% - leave enough for a couple of two-part CGI fests, but fill the rest of the series with small-scale spookiness.

SO FUCKING GOOD.

Safely RTD's best ever.

And tell you what, if this leads to a "doc falls out of love with humans" arc, that could be LOADS of fun.

Wow! Agreed that it's RTD's best, and also best of series 4.

Yeah Rusty really raised his game with that one, genuinely fucking creepy in a totally unexpected way. Loved the way the Doctor seemed more freaked out by the growing mob mentality of the other people in the cabin than the creature itself. Ten minutes in I thought it was going to be awful so well played turning that round.

The supporting actors weren't great but otherwise yay.

I'd expected cheap budget Alien meets Snakes on a Plane or something so unexplained creepy psychological horror was very welcome.

It was wonderfully directed as well.

His dialogue is still a bit Disco Dad in places and sub-Lucas in others, but that was just fine. Enjoyed that more than anything since Blink.

ANd see this is the sort of thing I've been complaining abuot. You don't need lots and lots of CGI (three matte shots in this?), you don't need clumpy aliums, you don't need OOH I'M SO CLEVARR I HAS BEEN DROPPING HINTS FOR WEEKS (although HI DERE to Lost Moon of Poosh and Billie in Series Arc territory and you definitely don't need DEUX FUCKING EX MACHINA.

You just need a good script, good acting and good direction. It's not fucking hard.

All those things are actually quite hard, hence the problem.

Well they seem to be when Rusty and his mates do it.

Or rather, they seem to be when Rusty doesn't know what they are (which appears to be almost all the time).

Also, did we notice Gay Agendar this week? "She left me, went to another planet." Didn't spot Atheist Agendar, will wait for the experts to do that.

Ah, come on aldo, it's not like old who had those three things very often either. (Also aldo, I agree that it'd be good if you could ease off with the spoilers here a bit (wrt to your upthread comments re Captain Jack, etc)).

I think this episode might still be a hint of what's to come - there have been a couple of flickers of it earlier in the series but the Doctor going "ooh I'm so clever" and then being led to the brink of death by something he totally failed to get the measure of only to be bailed out by something else might certainly be foreshadowing of whatever happens to him next week.

I love the hint dropping and big clumpy aliens though and am not ashamed. This series has been better at getting the balance right than most though.

They've definitely toned down the All Powerful Jesus Doctor this year THANK FUCK, maybe they realised they went a bit overboard on it last time round and Newly Falliable Doctor is the result.

Is it a spoiler if the BBC have formally announced it?

That's the thing, the old series did have them that often. It had masses of clunkers too, I'm not denying it did.

When the angry mob were saying how up himself the Doctor is, you were kind of thinking OTM, and I think you were supposed to.

Loved this, but it does seems like half this series so far has ended with a minor character’s heroic self sacrifice on behalf of the doctor saving the day.

I love the hint dropping and big clumpy aliens though and am not ashamed. This series has been better at getting the balance right than most though.

One of the things I love most about Doctor Who is the amount of different types of story it can act as a vehicle for, it's almost multi-genre (or multi-subgenre, at least).

Is it a spoiler if the BBC have formally announced it?

Oh. Um, dunno then, technically. But I didn't know about it, so it's a spoiler for me.

Well, doesn't matter, not like it'll hurt me to just avoid this thread for a few weeks, if need be. Or, you know, you could just flag them anyway, to be on the safe side, and then everyone's happy.

Also great about this one: Doc goes off without companion and gets into all sorts of trouble. Nice way to reinforce the idea that he needs his companions, and that they're not just there to ask daft questions for us.

so strange to this american viewer, who's used to commercial breaks! i was waiting for a moment to go to the bathroom.

What about HBO?

This was good. Don't agree that it was all that well directed though. The mob-mentality crescendos felt very stagey. Nice Billie-build-up on the screen, and that guy from A Very Peculiar Practice. Oh! Didn't realise till now he was Patrick Troughton's son. There's something of the Russell T Davies about him, too.

Also, morality in episode seemed to be that murder is bad, unless you kill yourself in the process? SUICIDE BOMBERS' CHARTER.

sean pertwee unavailable for the dalek finale?

what i meant was that there weren't any breaks or shifts, no moment to nip out for a second, it was just full-on the whole time. even without commercial breaks there's usually a place or two where everything settles and you know you can safely skip out, but this episode just kept turning the screws.

agree about stageyness of mob mentality build-up but that may have been down to time limits

still i thought that was really superb! one for the corridor-running haters.