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

fine. i guess i'll have to register over at g@llifrey...

Explain which bit?

also I don't want to mention anything about next week's in case people are avoiding the trailers but OH MY GOD.

I just watched it. YES echoing all OMG-ness!!

I'm never paying proper attention during the trailers so I don't get that omg-ed up. Except at what sounded a lot like laughter which was pretty wtf and exciting. Tonight's ep felt a bit superfluous tbh, as well as feeling like a rehash of stuff from last year's finale. But as a long drawn-out intro to the next couple of weeks it had its moments I guess.

I suppose the return of Bad Wolf at the end. Is there meant to be more significance than "Rose is back"?

And why did Billie Piper have that horrible lisp? Sounded like she'd just had braces put on her teeth.

Yeah, weird eh? She sounded more chav than ever.

Tonight's ep felt a bit superfluous tbh

Exploring Donna's character. Utterly necessary imo.

In fact Martha should have had such an episode.

Nah, this was just filler. As a set up for the next couple of eps, sure, maybe it was necessary. But then it felt like it had resolved all its own problems by the end, so I don't really expect any of tonight's events to affect the finale(s) particuarly directly.

Also...

SPOILER! (maybe?)

...I was a bit troubled by the huge torchwood presence in the trailer for next week. Haven't watched more than 2 eps of TW ever, and don't really want to have to catch up with it all just so I can understand the end of this series...

no return of sally sparrow, no respect

maybe she was ringing the cloister bell

great episode, but they're perverting the true function of the cloister bell, which is to warn viewers of the impending appearance of tegan.

Great stuff. I was hooked. Totally think Tate is great, despite my original fears. REALLY looking forward to what's to come. And I was only half right re 'Planet of the Spiders' idea.

great episode, but they're perverting the true function of the cloister bell, which is to warn viewers of the impending appearance of tegan.

-- f. hazel, Sunday, 22 June 2008 13:35 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

oh man I would so excelsior that if it weren't a spoiler for some people.

Most genre shows do a show like this somewhere along the line "what would the world be like without our lead character". It seemed to pick and choose a bit regarding its crises the Doctor saves the earth from (though of course the Master wouldn't have attacked if the Doctor hadn't rescued him so fair play leaving that one out). It was well done but felt superfluous, its main purpose seemed to be to remind us how much better post Doctor - Donna is.

The best bits of this episode was the bits around the main story. At the start the glee of the Doctor and Donna about travelling (which we don't see that often, and not in a smug Doctor / Rose way). ANd the bit at the end where the Doctor starts to wonder exactly why Donna is special.

She is SO not dying now.

I've been guessing for a couple of weeks that she's gonna "die" like Rose did.

So apparently it's just me who's fed up with RTD turning it up to 11 - and beyond - yet again. From the end of the world to the end of the universe to the end of every universe ever. Doubtless it will be resolved by yet another messianification.

^^ yeah.

I'm not really fed up, in fact, I'm thrilled with what the trailer implied but still gonna try not to get too hyped-up. My problem with RTD is that he always sets everything up so beautifully and enjoyably before completely crashing in the last ten minutes.

I enjoyed that, in spite of the messianic doctor overtones. Why has it taken 4 series for RTD to realise that time machine = mucking about in time?

Pls to burn for illin' me, opting out of another day of fun due to unhappy foodpoisoned stomach...

Nah a lot of the subtext of this series has been anti-Messianic Doctor. Also this episode was all about setting up the idea that Donna is important in ways other than just happening to save the Doctor's life at a crucial point, more important than other companions.

I think she's going to die saving the universe, and it'll be her doing it, not the Doctor.

She's the new Adric!

Also can someone please summarise the key plot points of Torchwood for those of us who didn't watch it. I suspect we won't need them other than 'these are some Torchwood dudes' but it'd be nice to know.

I enjoyed this one a lot, did the bombed-out post-apocalyptic thing in a much creepier way than the end of S3. Rusty's been taking his cue from Moffatt on how to structure episodes around the actual idea of fannying around in time rather than just using it to jump from one situation to the next. The reports of all the Doctor's allies being killed off one by one were pretty ominous too.

The next couple are going to be ridiculous and bombastic and silly but this episode did a better job of getting me excited by the series finale than anything since Ecclestone's "I'm coming to get you!" in S1.

The other reason I like the 'Donna dies saving the universe' idea is that it will be a proper ending, other than 'lets just rewind everything a couple of years so that none of this ever happened' like the nonsense at the end of S3.

The trail for next week has made me catch up with the last few torchwoods from last series. I am a little worried that fish face is going to be the next companion.

Oh yes I got the idea of Donna being important - perhaps even of messiah-level importance, eh.

I find his apparent obsession with messiahs and deus ex machinas somewhat ironic, given that in his one actual religious tv drama (the rather enjoyable The Second Coming) he chose at the end to kill off God.

Torchwood key plot points - they all lez up

It's quite difficult to endager the universe and then have it saved without there being a Messianic figure or two somewhere along the line. They might end up laying it on too thick again though.

Frankly RTD can be as ludicrous as he wants with the next couple, it's his last full series and the show could be a very difficult beast by the time we see it again.

All you would prob need to know about Torchwood:

1. Only 3 members left - Jack, Ianto aka Fishface and Gwen aka Welsh crumpet. Sexual tension between Jack/Ianto and Jack/Gwen.
2. As on DW, Torchwood has lots of references to an impending "darkness". whether that refers to general evil kind of darkness, or the same specific kind of THE DARKNESS in DW, i dunno. I just wish I'd stop being reminded of Justin Hawkins.

that's pretty much it - Donna and the Doctor have not met the Torchwood team yet so they'll also be in the same position as the viewers.

Wasn't the Donna dying just that Donna stepping in front of the truck to get the other Donna to go and work for HC Clements so she could meet the Doctor so he didn't die in the flood barrier? A lot of the things that were different on Earth because he wasn't there were nothing directly to do with Donna, e.g. Martha's hospital coming back from the moon, the Titanic crashing into Buck House, etc etc, it was just a whole bunch of post-Runaway Bride stuff. This doesn't necessarily mean that she's going to die again in this universe, does it.

All you would prob need to know about Torchwood:

Ace, thankyou! Can anyone give us a similar catch up for the Sarah Jane Adventures? I noticed Maria and Claude got namechecked (and killed) in this ep, and it looks like that alien lad (or whatever he is) will be around next week too...

I liked how when the Doctor ran back into the Tardis it had gone a menacing red colour to signify IMPENDING DANGER.

and the cloister bell etc etc and the fact that he said 'universe' in a Scots accent. Just wow, the whole thing.

Did they do everything including the Tardis sign turning BAD WOLF in a previous series? I can't remember. Anyway, it was very effective.

I don't think we were meant to think too hard about that, it just looked cool.

What is the cloister bell when it's at home?

My main worry about next week is that there'll just be too much to cram into a couple of episodes. Especially if they're working up to the Reveal Everyone Already Knows About at the end of the next episode.

Cloister Bell

It's a relatively new invention I suppose (first cropped up around 1980?) and hadn't been used all that much until Tennant arrived. But it's basically just a "shit is going down" clang.

count me as another one fed up of it being averting-destruction-of the UK The World THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! THE WHOLE MULTIVERSE AND EVERYTHING EVER!!!! every single season - i mean, i'm still excited about the next eps and all (i hyperventilated my way through the trailer), I just... there's only so many times the stakes can be raised, you know? especially after an episode whose entire point seemed to be 'everyday life on Earth is ALWAYS on the brink of displacement depression and martial law caused by some alien crisis that the doctor should be solving just in time and just out of shot'. Like, i dunno, that's some amazing planetary paranoia there.

The main problem I had with this ep was that so much of it felt like a retread -- even the bits which weren't the rehappening of stuff that happened in seasons 3 and 4. Thinking about it, in places it kind of felt too much like earthside stuff in the S3 finale: something about the multiple families in one terraced house, the staircase shots, military-trucks-outside-terrace-of-houses-it's-dangerous-at-night, blitz spirit, etc etc etc. Like RTD basically only has one image for 'repercussions of global crisis' and he applies it every time.

I still really enjoyed it though.

I think what I really want from a Moffatt series is a thread of mystery running through the whole series, so you're compelled to watch the last episode to find out wtf has been going on, rather than out of OMG BIGGER BETTER NOISER FASTER EXPLOSIONS EVERYONE WHO'S EVER BEEN IN IT IS BACK!

Essentially I want him to make it a bit more like Lost with aliens.

(loved it)

tardis control room at the end looked different - not just red. the central bit looked changed somehow. could have been a trick of the light.

OMG DOCTOR WHO YAAAY

Nice time to exponentially raise your game, Russell!

we're getting the time war aren't we?

I THINK SO

Especially if they're working up to the Reveal Everyone Already Knows About at the end of the next episode.

-- Matt DC, Sunday, 22 June 2008 23:02 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Pretty bleedin' obvious when you see the end of this week's Confidential, too. Not that I'm complaining.

we're getting the time war aren't we?

Y'know, if they were to wheel out Ecclestone or even McGann at this point, I wouldn't exactly complain.

They've only done one multi-Doctor story this decade and it was fantastic. I would spooge like a pathetic little fanboy if another Doctor appeared.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: Not much, really, except that Sarah Jane Smith is working as a sort of freelance Doctor substitute (sing her journo credentials to investigate suspicious front organisations for alien nastiness and putting a stop to them), and she has two teenaged(?)/child sidekicks (Maria and Claude), and an adopted son, Luke, who is actually a fast-grown clone created by an alien race called the Bane. And she has a groovy vintage car and funky boots, and doesn't have K-9 with her any more (usually).

I love her.

Well, sure, that too.