Doctor Who Doomsday

[jack]

Well, yeah. Not *amazing*, but quite a satisfying end to the series.

It was great fun to see the Daleks and Cybermen together. An innovation in Doctor Who which was bold, but worked and I approve of. It makes it clear that the Cybermen are just a bit futuristic, enough to kick our butts when there's lots of them, and by comparison the Daleks are *nightmares*.

OTOH, while I did enjoy some of the dialog, eg. the Daleks recoiling when Rose mentions the Doctor is there, it all seemed too emotional for beings supposed to be inhuman. "Better at dying" -- what does a Dalek have to gain from empty swagger?

It was good to see Pete again, and I'm pleased a few people did tell Tennant to shut up, even if it didn't come to much in the end.

The glasses: again, it didn't come to much, but I love the feeling of it all coming together when the doctor says "Go on, ask me" :)

Torchwood was a bit of an anticlimax. I'm quite glad that there wasn't another universe-arching conspiracy, because that would be stupid, but that's the impression all the other episodes gave.

On the other hand, it felt as if there'd been lots of buildup about the Genesis Device, which there hadn't. That would have had some mystery.

The ending was a little deus ex machina, turn on a lever and all the enemies go away, why was the doctor so worried in the first place then? But fairly sensible as these things go, ignoring the magnets[1].

I'm glad Rose survived. I wasn't very excited by it either way, but I was glad. The misleading voiceover was a bit gratuitous, but if it doesn't get to be a habit I'll enjoy it. On the other hand lots of people said Rose was going to die. Now I can't remember if they had some other erroneous reason for thinking so, or just listened to that bit of last week's ep?

[1] Aaaaah! I assumed the heavy weights were a *metaphor*! Couldn't they have found something more solid to hang from? And what's with "hell"? While the parallel universe thing is quite cool, I hope we won't have the next season doctor riding a trans-universe sphere, and at the end his companion is sent into a parallel-multiverse, ad infinitum.

Comments

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Does Hell=Satan Pit?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought. It would suggest a pleasingly suprising amount of metaphysical continuity. But I don't think so: of the interdimensional void he said some people called it hell, and as far as I could tell that was made up then.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

But where did Satan go when kicked out of the pit - i.e. where does matter go from a black hole...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The reference to the devil in one ep and hell in another seems a bit of a coincidence, doesn't it? (Assuming real physics Satan's borrowed body would be destroyed on the way into the black hole, but we know real physics doesn't apply, given that it was supposedly "impossible" to orbit this black hole.)

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Hell seems to have been a secondary motif in this series - in School Reunion SJS mentions it being hell after the dr went.

where does matter go from a black hole...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I read up about the real answer to this when I was interested in wormholes (for fiction); the answer seems to be "we don't know". I mean, in real science, if it goes anywhere, it'd go to some normal 4d spcaetime *somewhere*, but the void is at least a good an answer as anything else.

Re: where does matter go from a black hole...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

And there's still more to find out about the time war. Because I don't believe that the Genesis Ark was the only prison ship.

I'm half-hoping Rose is pregnant with the Dr's baby....

I'm half-hoping Rose is pregnant with the Dr's baby....

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I don't know. In one way it would be cool. But (a) I thought they'd *barely* admitted their liking for each other. It'd probably turn out to be some magic 'impregnated by the tardis' which is lame. And (b) it'd be another whole secretly-the-son-of-the-king-and-must-save-the-world thing which is also done to death.

Re: I'm half-hoping Rose is pregnant with the Dr's baby....

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

It would solve the 13th doctor problem though...

Re: I'm half-hoping Rose is pregnant with the Dr's baby....

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That's not such a bad thought. Or they could do a Red Dwarf and make it the Doctor himself! :)

Though they don't necessarily *need* a timelord. If it's not going to be the doctor, perhaps a human (or, say, Captain Jack, squee) could learn to operate the Tardis semireliably :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The "I died" in the past tense was OBVIOUSLY A METAPHOR, right from the teaser two eps ago.

The Daleks have always engaged in a bit of banter before going on the rampage, surely.

The Cybermen (we discover) are vulnerable to portable artillery; imagine the carnage when they get on the wrong side of a tank battalion (and under the circumstances you can well imagine the regular humans going nuclear against them). It seems at least plausible that they would lose (...and there were only five million of them; tinpot communist dictatorships manage million-strong armies, imagine what the developed world as a whole could field when it was really up against the wall). But yes, the Daleks were on an entirely higher level of capacity and menace.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

I'm now pondering American Beauty, and the guy saying 'I died'.

The parallels between the two families are interesting.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Interesting thought. (Fantastic film, that.)

[(Anonymous)]

That was my first thought.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

The "I died" in the past tense was OBVIOUSLY A METAPHOR, right from the teaser two eps ago.

Apologies. I'm really bad at telling what is and isn't really going to come to pass.

It seems at least plausible that they would lose

Indeed. I could see it going either way. They *are* destructible, unlike Daleks, which seem immune to everything except extremely fancy energy weapons. But quite badass. I don't know where they were concentrated. Perhaps in major population centres, in which case blowing them up is difficult, and they may be able to convert people fast. But perhaps not more imposing than, say, a tank; and if we know what can defeat them and get all the rocket launchers handed out to everyone in the vicinity we can whittle them down. OTOH, they might have better tactics -- better weapons, controlling other machinary -- they could use given a chance.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Apologies also, I am tipsy.

The Cybermen had to upgrade people one by one even in Torchwood where they'd broken thru early. Either it's really difficult to set up the upgrade kit or they just lack the imagination to do an exponential growth thing.

Humans have shown no visible reluctance over the last century to trash major population centres in pursuit of military aims. The Cybermen have less than a day in which to acquire artillery, the humans have it already. You know, I think I'd know which side I'd bet on. (Obviously I'd only get to collect if the humans won, but even so.)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, did you find something non-football to do then?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Yes, I pottered around Oblivion's garden photographing thing and ate there, then went on to a party elsewhere.

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

The Cybermen had to upgrade people one by one even in Torchwood where they'd broken thru early. Either it's really difficult to set up the upgrade kit or they just lack the imagination to do an exponential growth thing.

I want to know what happened to those upgraded on our Earth. Presumably they hadn't been through the void and thus weren't sucked through. What did people think of the Torchwood Director's stand against the Daleks?

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that the cult of skaro are a cult above the normal Dalek.

Rose dying was mentioned in the buildup to the finale by the beeb, apart from the eps.