New Who -- Adipose
Apr. 13th, 2008 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackOK, it was a stupid premise. On the other hand, it did have good responses to a wide variety of objections I had.
* They're babies. It's not their fault. Wow, the doctor got this one right
* You know, maybe it wasn't even such a bad idea. "You know, as a diet plan, it sort of works."
* If they can only form out of fat, why could that woman be totally converted? And if not, why are they called adipose? (Apparently they _can_ but it's bad for them)
And there were several things that bothered me and I resolved in my own mind, even though they are never brought up:
* Wouldn't it _actually_ make a good diet plan? I concluded there were presumably deleterious effects if you let it go on long term.
* What is this galactic law the doctor keeps quoting? Where does it come from? My conclusion is that the earth is like a little village in the wild west. It's fine as long as it's never noticed, and if it's invaded by a big enough foreign army, a local army will be along to turn everything into mud. But what happens most of the time is a bad gunslinger comes through and oppresses you, and you're fortunate that a good gunslinger happens by to stop him.
general comments
I really liked a few bits, when they were mouthing to each other, that was really well done. And her having a sonic pen was great. The montage of Donna's mother was amusing.
I quite liked Donna. Her voice is really annoying. But it's nice to see someone who will stand up to the doctor on a day-to-day basis, not just as a last resort, and it's obviously good for him too. About half the time it descends into futile whining, but that's a fairly good ratio.
Finding the doctor by tracking down weird shit and seeing if he was there was inspired. No-one else managed that, not even Jack. She didn't just whine, she actually got off her tush and did something about it, I'm impressed. On the other hand, it's a shame her resolve didn't extend to getting anywhere with her world tour: she was really with it at times, couldn't she have made a world tour meaningful if she tried?
I don't think it'll turn out well, I think it'll be another round of "in love with the doctor" which I thought was a great plan for one series, and maybe two, but has been pushed too far now.
Nitpicks
On the other hand, there were some inconsistencies:
1. The effects for the adipose birth were weird. Too creepy to be funny, but not gruesome enough to take seriously. And at the end, I felt sure the doctor would defuse the device. But you _could_ have a million people die. If a couple had been shown to die, it would have been much more tense.
2. I may be over-analysing translation issues. (I do that.) But was Ms Foster speaking English to the doctor? If so, why invent a translation for "Adipose"? She was doing this in secret, she didn't expect to have to talk to anyone about them, so why didn't she end up using whatever native name for them she would have otherwise have used?
If it was being translated by the Tardis reading her mind, then why would she know enough etymology that the Tardis could give a word with an appropriate English etymology? If in her native language it meant the same, then wouldn't that offend the adipose when it was translated to _their_ language?
* I don't like their numbers. They said several million people were taking adipose. If there were 1M people each giving birth to several adipose, why did she say "one million birthdays", not "several million"? And when they all birthed only one or two, how did that add up to only several thousand?
4. I'm sure in the street scene, a couple of the adipose were run over by the police car, with a sad squeaking sound. Which was played for laughs iirc. But if they were human babies being run over, I think that humour would be a little black for a throwaway line in prime time TV!
What's the difference? Is it only because they look different? I don't like that line of reasoning one bit. I like to think sapience is sapience. Is it because they were born in an evil way, or from an evil species? No, I think it would have been played the same however they came to be. Is it because they were less developed than a human baby? No, not really -- they could walk, they could wave.
* They're babies. It's not their fault. Wow, the doctor got this one right
* You know, maybe it wasn't even such a bad idea. "You know, as a diet plan, it sort of works."
* If they can only form out of fat, why could that woman be totally converted? And if not, why are they called adipose? (Apparently they _can_ but it's bad for them)
And there were several things that bothered me and I resolved in my own mind, even though they are never brought up:
* Wouldn't it _actually_ make a good diet plan? I concluded there were presumably deleterious effects if you let it go on long term.
* What is this galactic law the doctor keeps quoting? Where does it come from? My conclusion is that the earth is like a little village in the wild west. It's fine as long as it's never noticed, and if it's invaded by a big enough foreign army, a local army will be along to turn everything into mud. But what happens most of the time is a bad gunslinger comes through and oppresses you, and you're fortunate that a good gunslinger happens by to stop him.
general comments
I really liked a few bits, when they were mouthing to each other, that was really well done. And her having a sonic pen was great. The montage of Donna's mother was amusing.
I quite liked Donna. Her voice is really annoying. But it's nice to see someone who will stand up to the doctor on a day-to-day basis, not just as a last resort, and it's obviously good for him too. About half the time it descends into futile whining, but that's a fairly good ratio.
Finding the doctor by tracking down weird shit and seeing if he was there was inspired. No-one else managed that, not even Jack. She didn't just whine, she actually got off her tush and did something about it, I'm impressed. On the other hand, it's a shame her resolve didn't extend to getting anywhere with her world tour: she was really with it at times, couldn't she have made a world tour meaningful if she tried?
I don't think it'll turn out well, I think it'll be another round of "in love with the doctor" which I thought was a great plan for one series, and maybe two, but has been pushed too far now.
Nitpicks
On the other hand, there were some inconsistencies:
1. The effects for the adipose birth were weird. Too creepy to be funny, but not gruesome enough to take seriously. And at the end, I felt sure the doctor would defuse the device. But you _could_ have a million people die. If a couple had been shown to die, it would have been much more tense.
2. I may be over-analysing translation issues. (I do that.) But was Ms Foster speaking English to the doctor? If so, why invent a translation for "Adipose"? She was doing this in secret, she didn't expect to have to talk to anyone about them, so why didn't she end up using whatever native name for them she would have otherwise have used?
If it was being translated by the Tardis reading her mind, then why would she know enough etymology that the Tardis could give a word with an appropriate English etymology? If in her native language it meant the same, then wouldn't that offend the adipose when it was translated to _their_ language?
* I don't like their numbers. They said several million people were taking adipose. If there were 1M people each giving birth to several adipose, why did she say "one million birthdays", not "several million"? And when they all birthed only one or two, how did that add up to only several thousand?
4. I'm sure in the street scene, a couple of the adipose were run over by the police car, with a sad squeaking sound. Which was played for laughs iirc. But if they were human babies being run over, I think that humour would be a little black for a throwaway line in prime time TV!
What's the difference? Is it only because they look different? I don't like that line of reasoning one bit. I like to think sapience is sapience. Is it because they were born in an evil way, or from an evil species? No, I think it would have been played the same however they came to be. Is it because they were less developed than a human baby? No, not really -- they could walk, they could wave.