purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
NLSS Child was hugely excited by the end of the pre-credits sequence to this, even though she had had to have the identities of Gwen and Ianto explained to her. I've observed before that things clearly designed to excite the fans, excite her even when she lacks the fannish context. So she was really excited by the convergence of all things Davies Doctor Who, and particularly impressed by the number of names appearing before the logo in the pre-credits sequence. She was also excited by the appearance of Davros and Sarah Jane in the same story (having watched the first episode of Genesis of the Daleks with us for the Randomiser but subsequently opted out of the rest of the story). In fact she was so excited I was a little concerned she would fall off the sofa, though in the event the worst that happened was she bounced on top of the keyboard for the computer that runs the telly and exited us out of the DVD*.

More Under the Cut )

To be honest, I enjoyed this two parter a lot more than I expected to. A lot of it was the sheer enjoyment of revisiting a group of characters who vanished when Moffat took over, but then that was always a part of the point and to do the story credit it gives everyone an reasonable amount to do. All things considered it makes a good end to Davies time on the show, pulling a lot of plot threads (e.g. the Dalek storyline) and themes (the way the Doctor changes companions and they change him) together and rounding them off in a story with Davies' typical over-the-top ambition and eye for spectacle.

*In her defence she claims she merely moved a blanket that it happened to be resting on.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Another pessimistic view of human nature follows hot on the last.

More under the Cut )

This has ended up a fairly negative review which isn't really justified because I like this story. It's even a bit of a relief after Midnight! It's just that taking a step away from it, it feels like it is simply doing the obvious things and is too constrained either by its length, or maybe the replay format, to really tell its own story.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
This is the first story this season that doesn't feel like it is a part of the larger story and, instead, is just marking time and being an adventure. Fortunately it is enjoying itself a lot which makes, I think, its lack of direction less of a problem that it was for, say, The Idiot's Lantern.

First time around I recall being very concerned about the kiss in an "oh no, not again" kind of a way. It raised the fairly real spectre that the season was aiming for a plot line in which the Doctor and Donna would discover they were in denial about their feelings for each other and we'd be back to a dynamic that seemed rather mined out. NuWho has, oddly, never really been comfortable with the idea of the Doctor and companion as platonic friends even though it has now had more such such relationships than it has romantic ones - but even so it still seems to feel the need to alternately suggest that the companion, at least, has romantic feelings for the Doctor, and then heavily underscore the point that there is no hanky-panky here. While I like this season a lot, certainly the most of Tennant's seasons, it never feels easy in its own skin with the relationship between the Doctor and Donna which is a shame.

Fortunately the kiss really was just another (I would say misguided) attempt to emphasise that the Doctor and Donna are not attracted to each other. Otherwise The Unicorn and the Wasp is revelling in its silliness, wheeling out the conventions of televised Agatha Christie stories with enthusiasm. The backstory is implausible but that's less of a problem here than elsewhere since we're not being expected to take it all that seriously.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
This is an odd episode in that it feels more significant than it actually is, not only with the introduction of Jenny, but as its place in the season ARC with both Donna and Martha on board the TARDIS.

More Under the Cut )

It's a good story, though I think its best part is the Doctor, Donna, Jenny dynamic but then that dynamic is really what the story is about. Everything else is set dressing.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
I feel that The Daleks In Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks failed in part because it didn't have the courage of its convictions and the sets and costumes weren't quite up to the job. On the other hand I think The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky succeeds quite well at what it is trying to do, I'm just not that interested in it.

More under the Cut )

It's just, at the end of the day, this is one of the show's big spectacular two-parters with an emphasis on action and humour. It knows what its doing and, like Planet of the Ood feels less like a place-holder than many episodes in seasons 2 and 3, but I think I prefer Doctor Who stories when they are being a bit cleverer than this and possibly that when they are silly, that they are a bit cleverer (and possibly more serious) about the silliness.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Speaking of giant pink brains, which I have been doing intermittently since the Randomizer served up Time and the Rani...

To be brutally honest, I'm not sure big pink brain effects have progressed a great deal since 1987. The Ood central brain is definitely one of the weak points of this story both in terms of scientific plausibility and in terms of special effects.

Beyond that observation I'm not sure I have a great deal to add to my comments when the randomiser served this story up. It has the potential to be both strange and complex but in the end decides to focus its energies more on running around than examining the ideas it raises.

I had forgotten (though I think there was some discussion when the story first aired) that the Doctor and Donna end up as figures of reverence in both this story and Fires of Pompeii. NLSS Child noticed and commented upon the link directly. It's an interesting idea, especially given the way Davies is building the Lonely God characterisation for the 10th Doctor, but I think it must have been a coincidence since we don't see it repeated again.

It's one of the season's weaker stories, but it holds up pretty well, all things considered and doesn't feel like a place filler in the way some of the stories in seasons 2 and 3 appeared.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
The Fires of the Pompeii was the story that definitively sold Donna to me. It came as a bit of a surprise to discover Tame Layman had no recollection of it at all and so was persuaded to watch it with us. I don't think it really converted him to Donna, but at least he didn't complain about her at all while it was on.

More Under the Cut )

I think this is my favourite episode of this season, and my favourite Donna episode over all. I think part of my fondness may derive from extrinsic factors (particularly over-exposure to the NAs dark seventh Doctor), but even putting that aside, I think this is a pretty well put together episode, that has clear central moment that is important to both the main characters as well as a surrounding plot that is rather better constructed than many of the plots in Davies' run... and, as mentioned above, Tame Layman at least forbore from complaining about Donna for the duration.
purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Doctor who)
It is interesting to note that Doctor Who has a bit of a track record of casting actors known for their work in comedy, starting their tenure on the show off in a broadly comic fashion, only for them to end up playing the part largely straight, if not seriously.

More under the Cut )

Davies was good at season openers, generally delivering something light and frothy that provides a good backdrop for the (re)introduction of characters. Rose seems the most significant of the four, but then it has a lot more ground to cover and so less space for the kind of runaround fun than the others do. Partners in Crime is no exception. It does what it does well, its comedy moments actually work but it isn't attempting any particularly deep or serious.

"Wait! Was that Rose?" NLSS Child asked at the end.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Because of their position relative to the seasons of the show, it isn't surprising, really, that so many of the Christmas specials have had to work with one-off companions of one sort or another. It is, perhaps, more surprising how well they often work, even when the story they are in often has more spectacle than substance.

More Under the Cut )

NLSS Child picked up very clearly the message that it isn't always the most sympathetic people who survive, though she was charmed at the end by Mr. Copper dancing away into the night with his new found wealth - a necessary Christmas counterpoint, presumably, to Davies' brief indulgence of misanthropy.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
It's odd that The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords is mostly very good, but its good bits are overshadowed by a couple of missteps.

More under the Cut )

There are a few bits in these stories I really dislike, which is a shame because they have some great moments and plot threads. I suspect it is a case of mileage varying because none of the things I really dislike should really be deal-breakers but somehow they are and ultimately I was mostly glad to see the back of this.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Courtesy of Father Christmas, NLSS Child has a "How to be a Timelord" book. This contains a number of spoilers and there was some anxious discussion about this on Christmas Day. I thought this explained her anxiety about the open Tardis door in the second half of the story. But it did not, the surprise twist was as much a surprise to her as it was to us on first viewing.

More under the Cut )

I like Utopia. It may look like a 1980s pop video, but it does very well by the two characters it is (re-)introducing. It doesn't try to do anything particularly fancy, just focuses on those two particular stories, and is the stronger because of it.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
NLSS Child decided, eventually, that she couldn't wait until I had a weekend free to watch Blink. We sat down right after school today (to allow plenty of recovery time) and armed ourselves with popcorn and haribo ("for stabilisation" she explained). Of course, Blink isn't actually that scary - certainly not as scary as the imagination of a small child catching five minutes on YouTube had managed to make it. At the end NLSS Child agreed that it actually had been OK and that she is no longer afraid of falling statuary in the shower.

More under the Cut )

This is still a really good story, for all we've become much more familiar with Moffat's style of story construction and the types of characters he tends to write. It is clever enough and different enough to stand on its own as a genuinely excellent piece of Doctor Who.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
Having gone through a bit of a rut of episodes which, if they weren't actually bad, weren't particularly exceptional, season 3 suddenly produces something really excellent out of its hat.

More under the Cut )

Apart from the fact that Human Nature/Family of Blood rather magnifies all the problems season 3 has had with Martha's character, it is actually an excellent story. I'm not sure the show has tried anything quite like it since, a story which is steeped in some serious themes that the production team and actors all understand how to explore and convey. It may be very much business as usual for a BBC production, but that means that everything is working together to realise the ideas on the screen.

42

Feb. 1st, 2015 03:21 pm
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
42 isn't that bad actually. It's existing purely on adrenaline and not much else, but once you accept that then it trundles along nicely at its breath-taking speed.

More under the Cut )

Beyond the central conceit 42 isn't trying to do anything particularly different. It has, essentially, a mind control monster, a base under siege, and a lot of running down corridors. The advantage of that is that it is, basically, inoffensive as Doctor Who stories go. I'd have liked them to work harder at making the real time, actually, real time, but suspect that would never have worked for modern mainstream action telly.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
I really didn't remember much about The Lazarus Experiment going in, which is pretty odd given that it is clearly meant to be the lynchpin around which this season turns: the moment Martha is properly accepted as a companion, where her family become a part of the Doctor's life, and where the Saxon plot thread kicks into gear.

More under the cut )

For all that, the story still feels oddly throwaway. In season 2, I attributed the weakness of some of the episodes to the fact they had no real role to play in the larger story unfolding for the audience. Despite the fact that The Lazarus Experiment is anything but inconsequential to the larger narrative it still feels a little slight and I can't quite put my finger on why.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
I actually rather like Gridlock. Obviously the world-building and back story are leakier than a sieve but it isn't often you see an atheist tackle faith as a theme, and treat it in a sympathetic fashion as is done here. I also rather like the little snapshots of people's lives we get in each of the different vehicles. While the world-building in the large is a failure, at this level of detail someone has put in a lot of thought and care.

I was a little distracted by the certainty that I had seen Milo and Cheen elsewhere. Cheen, it transpires, is played by the same actress who later played Annie in Being Human. I only watched a couple of episodes of Being Human but still that explains the recognition. Travis Oliver doesn't appear to have been in anything I've watched (although he's apparently going to return to Doctor Who as Chris Cwej in a Big Finish adaptation of Damaged Goods). Still he looks awfully familiar.

This is (some idiocy aside) a heart-warming little tale, filled with rather charming characters and anxious to give them a happy ending. A lot of Davies' work as a vague undercurrent of wariness about human nature (for all the Doctor proclaims it to be fantastic at regular intervals) but this story is oddly free from that. There are no villains here, just people surviving, and mostly surviving with hope and compassion (albeit perhaps without much intelligence) in difficult circumstances.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
The Runaway Bride is better if you watch it after you've decided Donna is great. Back in 2006 I was simply "Catherine Who?" and I found Donna rather over-the-top and irritating (NB. Tame Layman still considers Donna over-the-top and irritating. There was no way we were getting him to rewatch this with us). Since she dominates the story, if you haven't warmed to her you are never going to get much out of it.

Rewatching, I can see that it is actually quite carefully constructed. Once Donna accepts that something has happened then she moves on remarkably quickly with very little rancour. We get lots of opportunities to see beneath her surface bluster, if you are looking for them. You can see why the Doctor comes to like her (OK, given Tame Layman, I can see why the Doctor comes to like her).

The scene on the segways is, I think, the key turning point. Donna is laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing while Lance is bemused, irritated and anxious. It's like a litmus test for who would make a good companion. As an aside, given an equally ridiculous segway scene in Waters of Mars, I'm given to wondering exactly what Davies thought was so great about segways.

NLSS Child, who has google and Youtube (mostly Youtube, tbh) at her fingertips, informs me that Donna Noble translates as "Time Lady". That's not quite correct - it's more Noble Lady or Gentlewoman, perhaps - but it is still an interesting coincidence given I'm sure Donna's arc wasn't even a glimmer in Davies' eye at this point.

It's a better Christmas special than The Christmas Invasion. The Doctor is awake, for a start, and Donna is such a breath of fresh air as a companion and, even if you don't like her, a useful contrast to Rose. Catherine Tate, apparently effortlessly, conveys both her brashness and her decency and vulnerability. The story is also more self-contained than The Christmas Invasion which was trying to introduce Torchwood as well as tie into Rose's backstory and family while The Runaway Bride is expecting to be standalone.

I really enjoyed rewatching this, though, of course, I had been converted to a Donna fan since seeing it first time around.

*I think, anyway, Tame Layman notwithstanding.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
This is where it becomes clear that NuWho had painted itself into a bit of a corner with Rose's character. Oddly, it seems to be a corner that NuWho has continued to paint itself into with depressing regularity despite the fact that it was never really a problem with classic Who.

The corner in question is the one where, having established that your companion thinks travelling with the Doctor is better than the bestest thing ever, you then have to explain why they might stop. The show has only really avoided this problem once, with Martha, and the way Martha was treated in the show is a whole other discussion.

More under the Cut )

So, that was the end of Season 2. Watched back-to-back with Season 1 in a somewhat more receptive frame of mind than I had first time around, I do think it is a weaker season. I'm not sure that is really it's fault, or at least not entirely. Season 1 was focused on introducing the concept of the Doctor and his universe to the viewers and that gave a purpose to even otherwise pretty self-contained episodes. Season 2 lacks that. It can assume the viewer knows all about Time Lords and Gallifrey and the Time War and how time travel works etc., etc., and it doesn't have anything to replace that story-telling drive with. It might have been possible to more tightly structure the season around the introduction of Torchwood but I think that would have been too narrow and structurally it would have been awkward to leave it looking like an extended trailer for a different show.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
About halfway through Fear Her I was wondering why it was generally rated so poorly and then everything started to go down hill.

More under the cut )

A potentially nice story spoiled by not knowing where to stop. The first real disappointment of the rewatch.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)
What particularly struck me on rewatching this was its compassion towards the over-bearing and obnoxious Eddie Connelly. Doctor Who is not, in general, particular compassionate towards the small-minded and belligerent (and it has a fair collection of these) so it was interesting to see the Doctor and Rose encouraging Tommy to maintain ties with his father. NLSS Child could not see why they would do this - some discussion ensued.

I'm surprised this episode has its comparatively poor reputation. It's not a Doctor Who classic, but the period is invoked well with its technology nicely integral to the plot and the resolution. The drama within the Connelly family is well presented and, for Doctor Who, treated with a certain amount of nuance and subtlety. That said, it is annoying that Rose must act as a damsel in distress, and Detective Inspector Bishop's actions, at least until the Doctor intervenes, do not make a great deal of sense. However I would say the episode's crimes are to be somewhat insubstantial and that may be at the heart of its problem. Up until this point I think every episode of NuWho had served some purpose in the telling of the larger story, be it introducing the audience to the concepts and consequence of time travel, time lords and the Doctor, tieing into the arc plotting of the Bad Wolf or Torchwood institute, or moving forward the inter-relationships between the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and Rose's family. This is, I think, the first episode of NuWho that really is just a standalone episode and I think it suffers for it.

Profile

purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
purplecat

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
8 9 1011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags