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

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.

I liked this, and yeah, they were able to do quite a lot with only direction, editing, and lighting.

Anybody else catch your standard RTD-style harridan mum?

Not bad! RTD's best since that traffic jam one (which I thought was better, but never mind me).

I never thought Rusty was bad, he's just been noticeably not as good as he was in the first season.

Also: isn't Donna so much better the straighter Tate plays the role? She's certainly the first nu-Who companion who seems to improve, rather than get more annoying, as the season goes on...

woooo creepy as fuck. so good.

and I realized this episode how much I love Donna and miss her when she's not on-screen. really hope catherine tate sticks around for a bit.

Really really liked that one, and was surprised. Almost no CGI, no visible alien, just acting. Ace.

OK, don't know if this is a spoiler or not, but in that next episode preview, all that stuff about WHAT'S THAT ON DONNA'S BACK looks more like this to me than anything else...
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40230000/jpg/_40230819_spiderdrwho270.jpg

Especially given the whole spideriness of the first aliens Donna Noble met.

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

If it's not yet gone to air? Of course it's still a spoiler.

I hope nobody mentions Rusty leaving then.

I guess I'll stay away from here till the series ends.

Without question the best episode of the season. Genuinely unsettling. Finally!

(Not being all prissy here btw, I just genuinely don't understand the difference between something which is in a trailer and hasn't been on screen yet and something which was in a press release and hasn't been on screen yet so it's best if I keep out of it.)

Almost no CGI, no visible alien, just acting. Ace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/images/2008/02/04/doctorwho_sophiealdred_ace_203_203x152.jpg

aldo, I do see your point, but the difference between a showrunner changing and the reappearance of a major character in episode 12 is pretty stark.

Actually, by the trailer I meant where somebody yesterday talks about "the daleks arriving early" without any comment.

So, see you next month.

:(

Okay well if you're still seeing this, the Dalek was on BBC1 and Captain Jack's reappearance wasn't. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Captain Jack reappearing is not even remotely a spoiler seeing as he's been in all but one series and is played by an actor who is ALWAYS ON THE TELLY I'd say it was a foregone conclusion. No one got like this when we talked about Mike reappearing in Lost.

MIKE REAPPEARS IN LOST?!??

I see your point about foregone conclusion btw, but yeah.

That's cos the Lost thread said SPOILERS in the title though Matt.

and not really a fair comparison anyway since michael is named in the credits in every episode before his appearance plus he appeared at comic con more than five or six months before season 4 to say he was going to be back.

it is pretty obvious jack was going to be back on, as you said, but i think the bothersome bit was knowing exactly in which episode he was going to turn up on.

^

Aye, would agree with that.

Really enjoyed this one a lot, though it did suffer for lack of Donna. Billie's cameo on the screen was exactly the same as when she turned up during that other one on the wall of the tardis. The mob mentality and paranoia worked really well as a greater source of fear than Lesley Sharp sitting talking to herself (I really like Lesley Sharp and hoped she might have been a companion way back in the day, when i assumed every part was going to go to Rusty-faves)

Were there missing bees in this one? I keep forgetting to try and look for references to this.

I quite liked lack of Donna - without his ally the doctor seemed more in danger?

Oh, I thought it was important that Donna wasn't there in terms of the storyline - one of her strengths seems to be the ability to connect with people and calm them down and she'd had been able to convince the rest of the travellers to trust the doctor, no doubt about - but I just like having her around and missed her when she wasn't there.

Yeah that and they're giving the actor a bit of a break. Looks like the next one will be all Donna and very little Doctor.

I think that unlike her first appearance in the Christmas special, Donna's actually been kind of underwritten as a character. It's helped a lot because it's allowed Tate to shape the character for herself, and bounce off Tennant in her own way and the chemistry between the two actors is very very good.

If you watch any of the 'Big Question' clips on the BBC Who site, you can tell Tennant and Tate get on amazingly well IRL, which must help loads.

Tennant seems to develop a rapport with everyone. Either he's just like that or it's put on.

He's just like that.

^_^

He's just like that.

Certainly seems so from the (admittedly Tennant-filmed) video diaries on the box sets--seems a very likeable chap, to be honest.

He is.

You know him, ailsa?

husband used to go to school with him and their families are very good friends.

...you'll understand, I hope, that I'm not saying much more on here being how we're all google-friendly and that.

Yeah, no worries. Nice to hear it's all very genuine in an industry in which so many people are not.

Say, does anybody have a copy of "Destiny of the Doctors" or know where I could acquire one?

http://homepages.bw.edu/~jcurtis/Destiny_of_the_Doctors.jpg

I was looking for one of those a few weeks ago! No joy though.

Actually, I didn't try underdogs or similar, might be worth a look.

ok, just found it on mininova.

What is it?

Doctor Who - The PC Game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destiny_of_the_Doctors

Really?

Holy shit, I just found it. I must have been searching for the wrong title.

Enjoyed this episode lots - don't think there's been an episode yet this series I disliked significantly, oh except The Doctor's Daughter which just seems more and more of a stinker compared to everything else. Les Sharp was ace, as was Tennant. Bit bored of the lack of imagination shown with supporting characters tho - how about a few non-English accents sometime at least?

Was this the first episode EVER to not feature a single shot of the TARDIS?

how about a few non-English accents sometime at least?

But presumably they're all speaking a space langauge anyway with the TARDIS translating, so they may as well all be brits. What I'd like is some shiny futuristic jumpsuits instead of everyone just wearing C21st clothes.

TARDIS translation system = well racist

i was thinking about the clothes too, mainly because the son was so emogothy. pretty sure that kind of thing would've been wiped out in the Time War.

But the emogoths would've been safe coz they were all crying together in a big basement.

I used to be really annoyed about the clothes thing (like in the first Ecclestone series when they're on the TV-broadcasting space station and everyone's dressed like 2005 UK. They just keep doing it, though, and I've made my peace with it, because the alternative probably would be horrible, even-more-dated-looking shiny jumpsuits.

Was this the first episode EVER to not feature a single shot of the TARDIS?

No, but it's the first since Genesis of the Daleks.

I guess loads of Pertwee era stuff was probably tardis-free, given that he was permanently earthbound. I've not seen much of it though, so I don't know for sure.

I think the TARDIS was usually there in the background, with Pertwee messing around and trying to make it work, and he'd often leap into it to get some bit of tech or other, if I remember right.

ahaha I downloaded a few of the new episodes from bittorrent since it's hard to catch it on US TV, and people actually make English language subtitles for it! Good times.

It's not just the closed captioning on BBC1, is it?