Dr. Who - a show for the truly decrepit

[jellysundae]

Well i saw a small amount of the new show during the breaks in Harry Potter, seemed pretty good.
Billy looks to have lost some weight which they seemed to want to emphasise by having her run down stairs alot so her boobs jiggled, maybe she needs a longer zip on her top..the humour still seems intact for the previous series too, which i find most appealing, i look forward to tuning in again next week 3nodding  

[Alleira]

I watched the repeat of the first episode on Sunday night - very impressed. I loved Christopher Eccleston, but I think David Tennant will be fine. He obviously loves playing the role, so that helps enormously. Interesting storyline, amazing new aliens - and the return of an old villain - and I like Billie Piper as Rose. I didn't expect to like her in the first series, for the same reasons as Nuala stated before, but I thought she was very good (I saw her in The Canterbury Tales, in which she also showed previously well-concealed talent xp ). Looking forward to next week's episode!  

[Velouria Dragoon]

I like David Tennant in the role too. And he had some big shoes to fill after Christopher Eccleston. 3nodding
As someone already pointed out, it is great to see the show kept its sense of humor. I especially liked the feel of the ending. Not the feel I would have originally expected to this episode, but that's part of why it worked so well. And Now I wanna know what the face had to say!! mrgreen  

[Nuala]

Second episode spoilers:

Begin:

So... After being back with the former residents of Platform One, we get taken again to Victorian England immediately afterwards, and we're going back to the present again straight after that, too.

Pardon me for potentially over-analysing (after all, what else do you do with a BA in English? wink ), but last series was an unknown quantity. Having something to compare and contrast it with is just too tempting - especially when there's either some potentially very clever or some very formulaic writing going on.

They're definitely playing up the moral ambiguity and things-with-which-man-was-not-meant-to-meddle angles, aren't they?

I just loved that moment when we got to see the Doctor with the almost childlike wonder of the typical, pioneering Victorian explorer: so busy gawping in fascination at whatever new discovery he's just made that he seems to be forgeting to run away - before having to kill it.

And I did like that werewolf. It was a novel explanation for lycanthropy, but since we've already had ghosts explained away as aliens, I suppose that anything goes.

Once you've taken one aspect of the legend and changed it, I suppose that it's easier to fiddle with everything else, including the way that the wolf was despatched in the end - which was novel if nothing else.

The wolf itself was fairly impressive - it seems that Pixar-esque fur effects're now available a bit cheaper.

Less Rose. smile

Granted, it's piling on the paradox by making the Doctor having inadvertantly made life difficult for himself by making the Establishment hate him - although it does put a new twist on The Christmas Invasion (for all we'd seen in the last five minutes of World War Three that Harriet Jones' willingness to sacrifice just about anything or anyone for her idea of the greater good were already there).

The cinematography worked well for me: lots of "less is more", lots of cuts in the right places, with plenty of Hitchcockian switches of POV, quick shots of gnashing teeth and suitably impressive screaming.

But this struck me as an episode that in some ways was more of a vehicle for moving the plot than a standalone adventure, and it showed.

My major concern after seeing that is that if RTD isn't careful, he's going to to overcook the Torchwood concept before the series has even gotten off the ground.

It was subtle in the last series - a couple of throwaway one word references that, once the spin-off was announced, people were having to go back to look for.

We knew in advance that there were going to be references to Torchwood throughout the series; but now we've had an entire cliffhanger based on it, barely before the series itself has got started.

And all of this build-up when the spin-off series itself isn't supposed to be hitting the airwaves until at least late summer - after Who itself's finished.

I'm getting seriously intrigued as to where all of this is going. It seems from the references in the 2005 series that RTD had the idea of a Torchwood spin-off in mind from the get-go; but between The Christmas Invasion and now this, Torchwood seems to be rapidly turning into the new Bad Wolf in the enigma stakes, and the Doctor's been treated like the biggest villain we've met so far.

Unless we're going to have a The Doctor vs. The People finale (and the red herrings seem to be flying thick and fast after even two episodes, but the online commentary says that things from that episode're going to be revisted for the finale), so much build-up just isn't making much sense. Again, the thought of what's being stored up with this level of foreboding fascinates me - I just hope that it won't be a let-down when RTD's willing to do something like that this early.End  

[Warnersister]

I absolutely adored this episode, *so* much better than last week's. Maybe having werewolves (I don't consider this a spoiler, cos it was pretty clear in the trailers last week) makes me more likely to suspend my disbelief, I don't know.

Re the spoilers (hopefully in white below):
The meddling bit is not that new. I think RTD may have picked up aspects of the Cartmel master plan, which, in turn, the New Adventures books expanded on. The seventh Doctor was getting pretty manipulative of all around him - he seemed to reckon he had a duty & a responsibility to uphold and consequences to his companions and the rest of the universe would have to be a necessary side-effect. In fact, Ace left him over it. That's not to say he didn't agonise over it, but he had to meddle...

Regarding the actual episode, I loved Tennant's natural accent. I thought Rose's prompting that he was being rude was a nice touch, although I could have done without the "we are not amused" running gag. I was astonished when she knighted them in one breath and then exiled them in the next. I did *not* see that coming!

The Torchwood thing is getting grating. All he needed to do was have a one-liner on the subject. The mere fact that that was the name of the estate would have been enough - we didn't need a great long speech at the end that came as something of an anti-climax. Besides, whatever is UNIT for if not protecting Britain from extra-terrestrial threats? And the Doctor has managed to flit merrily on and off Earth in the last couple of centuries without any problem from the Establishment - why would it start now? I hate paradoxes...


Can't wait for next week's episode, either. Anthony Stewart Head is looking very "Demon Headmaster" in the trailers...

DW  

[Alleira]

Overall, I loved it, more so than the first episode. Great werewolf, [spoilers start here] spectacular dispatch of werewolf using cutting-edge Victorian technology, good old-fashioned Victorian ladies huddling together and screaming their heads off, brave men dying for the cause and redeeming themselves in the process, etc. I rolled my eyes at the "we are not amused" running gag - I certainly wasn't - and the heavy-duty Torchwood promo was overkill. But I like the sense of fun and vitality, and the building relationship between the (new) Doctor and Rose, and the way he assumed the role of a typical Victorian explorer-type, before remembering what he was there for! The special effects so far are as good as the last series - long may it continue. I'm a bit confused at the Doctor getting such a bad press in both the past - Queen Vic - and the future - Harriet - when he's been coming and going to his favourite planet, Earth, on and off for thousands of years... [/spoilers] Looking forward to next week!  

[jellysundae]

i enjoyed this week's episode too 3nodding
Tennant does indeed play the role with great verve, makes the show very enjoyable 3nodding  

[Harbone]

Oh boy! Oh boy! I've been reading your spoilers and I can't wait to see Tennant over here in the US!  

[Elspeth Telrunya]

I remember the old ones crack me up and I saw one of the new ones a few weeks ago sadly I have no idea what actor it is but must be christopher guy since it doesnt sound like that new person.  

[jellysundae]

i'm looking forward to tonight's episode when he's reintroduced to a rather old friend! 3nodding  

[jellysundae]

well this week's episode has just finished, it made me cry! but it all turned out happily in the end.

Anthony Head playing the total opposite to the character that i'm used to from him too, interesting 3nodding  

[Nuala]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Alleira]

I kind of blew it this week, by getting the start time wrong (duh rolleyes ) and missing the first 20 minutes - but it's repeated again on Friday night, so I'll catch up with what I missed then!

[spoilers] So, this week we had a fantastic arch-villain played by Anthony Head - more than a touch of Hannibal Lecter there, I thought - he was soooo suave, assured, menacing, leering, etc. Everything you could want from an evil being and more! And when those full-size special effects bat-men thingies started racing along the walls of the school corridors, I was totally freaking out - sat bolt upright on me sofa going "what the...!!!"

I missed the re-introduction of Sarah-Jane and K9, but got there in time for a bit of the spat between her and Rose, which ended in giggles and mutual (friendly) assassination of the Doctor's character. I must say that element of the episode was a bit like last week's "we are not amused" thing, for me; I didn't feel that it quite fitted in - like it was lifted from elsewhere and didn't really belong here. The tone seemed false. I agree with Nuala that the actual plot exposition sometimes seems "tacked on" in this series, whereas last season the developing storyline in all its elements drove everything.

There's something missing from this series, and I'm not sure what; it doesn't seem as strong overall - but maybe it would have been impossible to repeat the success of a season like the last one. It has nothing to do with David Tennant as the Doctor - he is different from Christopher Eccleston, but just as strong in his own right. And the special effects, when they come, are every bit as good as before.

Anyway, the storyline about the feelings and ultimate destination of the Doctor's human travelling companions - and his feelings towards them, and about his own destiny - was very affecting and struck quite a serious note in the midst of all the mayhem.

I must be the only person in the UK who missed the announcement about the K9 spin-off series, so I wasn't 100% sure that K9 would survive his act-of-the-hero-dog in some miraculous way, although I was hoping that he would. I'd all but given up towards the end, and when an emotional Sarah-Jane turned to watch the Tardis dematerialise for the very last time, I was thinking "Crikey, he's gone off and left her, without even a metal dog to her name..." - then, at the very last second I thought, no, K9 will be standing behind the Tardis - and he was! biggrin So, a happy, if rather bittersweet, ending - and [/spoilers] looking forward to next week again - after I've caught up on the first 20 minutes of this week's episode! xp  

[Velouria Dragoon]

jellysundae

well this week's episode has just finished, it made me cry! but it all turned out happily in the end.

Anthony Head playing the total opposite to the character that i'm used to from him too, interesting 3nodding

Made me cry too!! And I thought Anthony Head did a great job in his role. Elizabeth Sladen has aged gracefully in my opinion. 3nodding  

[jellysundae]

i didn't recognise her, which Dr was she the assistant to then?
i assume i must have seen her as a child if she was around when K-9 was, but i just wasn't of the age when i took much notice of the assistants rolleyes