Doctor Who: the Stolen Earth
Jul. 4th, 2008 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackGeneral comments
I thought it was really, really good. It did a good job of tying together everything, but mostly not being stupid about it: every time some old friend popped up, it didn't feel obligatory, but rather awesome. I'm going to mention several times how much I like Harriet Jones still :)
I now really wish I'd seen it without any spoilers. Everyone I know is ever so good about avoiding them, but I chose to not watch it on Saturday and not worry about it too much, not knowing it was going to be good, so a few things slipped by:
* Someone mentioned the title being more literal than you might think
* NTL preview says "Save the earth from the daleks". Thanks guys. That's what I suspected from the teaser last week, but spelling it out really ruins the suspense
* Someone mentioned in passing that they'd heard RTD want to kill the doctor permanently, this implied he was going to maybe die
* That Tennant is expected to act again, and River Soong probably recognises him, implying he won't regenerate. Although I didn't actually think of that at the time. (And in theory, he could. The christmas special could be set in the past in his personal timeline, and maybe River does know him in a future incarnation, but knew not to say anything "you look so young".)
Best funny moments
It's good there were so many of these!:[2]
* When the doctor opens the door of the Tardis onto empty space
* "We're receiving a message." "What does it say?" "EXTERMINATE!"
* "A soldier in a bar?" "Don't worry, it was strictly professional!" That doesn't make it sound better, Jack :)
* When the Judoon appeared!
* "I voted for her." "No you didn't!"
* Harriet Jones, former prime minister: "Harriet Jones. Former prime minister." Dalek: "WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE."
Really, really cool moments
* When Donna mentioned the bees.
* When Harriet appeared. I hadn't realised how much I loved her until then. It says something good about the show how much I can cheer for her.
* Davros!
Really cool moments
* When the Judoon appeared!
* The shadow proclamation, the bees disappearing, several planets disappearing, the medusa cascade all turning out to have been relevant, but having not been forced down our throats, meaning this episode was "Wow! Now I see!", not "Sigh. At last." Compare to "bad wolf".
* Dalek Khan.
* Torchwood, Martha, Rose, SJ all appearing.
* Good music
Nitpicks
* The planet has a magic net to keep thegravity air in. Right. I agree they need something to explain why the earth is ok there, but the air? Doesn't that stay on cos of gravity? Which it should still have?
* Now we've seen a reset button used when the Master took over the earth, we know the possibility, so when bad things happen in an episode like this, you're distracted from the drama by counting the main characters in danger/killed, and mentally calculating if it's going to matter or not before you start caring.
* Dalek: "The males, the females..." why would it distinguish? Surely it's impassity could have been pointed out better if it had, eg. ordered a child to do something and not understood why it didn't.
* "Every telephone exchange" "Through torchwood itself". It was dramatic, which is good. But sounds stupid -- isn't Torchwood an organisation, not a building?
* Martha knows those guns won't hurt Daleks. But this is torchwood. It's literally full of powerful, dangerous, unpredictable technology. Why not use some of that? If it blows up, or warps the building into another dimension, so much the better. Where's the pterodactyl gone, for that matter? Where are the scavenged dalek guns from the last time we fought the daleks, or the time before?
* Unnecessarily blatant drama. Jack: "OMG! We are so doomed." OK, daleks. Bad. The last time you fought daleks, you became immortal. That's not you, that's the scriptwriters breaking characterisation in order to counterproductively try to make it scary.
* Unnecessarily slow cliff-hanger. The show makes this mistake again and again, I sympathise. It's hard. But it really kills the drama when it goes: "SJ skids to a halt. Dalek threatens her. Dalek threatens her again. Dalek says it's going to shoot. Long pause." Why not start the sequence earlier, and finish it with a quick "Dalek appears, brief beg, dalek gun glows white, bullet time, cut to black."
* Many more awkward moments, due to squeezing so many people into one episode. I won't bother to make the list exhaustive, you can see past them.
[1] Typo: soilers.
[2] In formal writing I would avoid a "!:" juxtaposition. In informal writing, I actively seek it out :)[3]
[3] Similarly with other overly generalised grammatical rules, I like experimenting, but not condoning, to me they're funny because they're over the top :) Eg. distribution over and: "The building and the front side of it are the one with "broadcom" written on it in two foot high letters". :)
I thought it was really, really good. It did a good job of tying together everything, but mostly not being stupid about it: every time some old friend popped up, it didn't feel obligatory, but rather awesome. I'm going to mention several times how much I like Harriet Jones still :)
I now really wish I'd seen it without any spoilers. Everyone I know is ever so good about avoiding them, but I chose to not watch it on Saturday and not worry about it too much, not knowing it was going to be good, so a few things slipped by:
* Someone mentioned the title being more literal than you might think
* NTL preview says "Save the earth from the daleks". Thanks guys. That's what I suspected from the teaser last week, but spelling it out really ruins the suspense
* Someone mentioned in passing that they'd heard RTD want to kill the doctor permanently, this implied he was going to maybe die
* That Tennant is expected to act again, and River Soong probably recognises him, implying he won't regenerate. Although I didn't actually think of that at the time. (And in theory, he could. The christmas special could be set in the past in his personal timeline, and maybe River does know him in a future incarnation, but knew not to say anything "you look so young".)
Best funny moments
It's good there were so many of these!:[2]
* When the doctor opens the door of the Tardis onto empty space
* "We're receiving a message." "What does it say?" "EXTERMINATE!"
* "A soldier in a bar?" "Don't worry, it was strictly professional!" That doesn't make it sound better, Jack :)
* When the Judoon appeared!
* "I voted for her." "No you didn't!"
* Harriet Jones, former prime minister: "Harriet Jones. Former prime minister." Dalek: "WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE."
Really, really cool moments
* When Donna mentioned the bees.
* When Harriet appeared. I hadn't realised how much I loved her until then. It says something good about the show how much I can cheer for her.
* Davros!
Really cool moments
* When the Judoon appeared!
* The shadow proclamation, the bees disappearing, several planets disappearing, the medusa cascade all turning out to have been relevant, but having not been forced down our throats, meaning this episode was "Wow! Now I see!", not "Sigh. At last." Compare to "bad wolf".
* Dalek Khan.
* Torchwood, Martha, Rose, SJ all appearing.
* Good music
Nitpicks
* The planet has a magic net to keep the
* Now we've seen a reset button used when the Master took over the earth, we know the possibility, so when bad things happen in an episode like this, you're distracted from the drama by counting the main characters in danger/killed, and mentally calculating if it's going to matter or not before you start caring.
* Dalek: "The males, the females..." why would it distinguish? Surely it's impassity could have been pointed out better if it had, eg. ordered a child to do something and not understood why it didn't.
* "Every telephone exchange" "Through torchwood itself". It was dramatic, which is good. But sounds stupid -- isn't Torchwood an organisation, not a building?
* Martha knows those guns won't hurt Daleks. But this is torchwood. It's literally full of powerful, dangerous, unpredictable technology. Why not use some of that? If it blows up, or warps the building into another dimension, so much the better. Where's the pterodactyl gone, for that matter? Where are the scavenged dalek guns from the last time we fought the daleks, or the time before?
* Unnecessarily blatant drama. Jack: "OMG! We are so doomed." OK, daleks. Bad. The last time you fought daleks, you became immortal. That's not you, that's the scriptwriters breaking characterisation in order to counterproductively try to make it scary.
* Unnecessarily slow cliff-hanger. The show makes this mistake again and again, I sympathise. It's hard. But it really kills the drama when it goes: "SJ skids to a halt. Dalek threatens her. Dalek threatens her again. Dalek says it's going to shoot. Long pause." Why not start the sequence earlier, and finish it with a quick "Dalek appears, brief beg, dalek gun glows white, bullet time, cut to black."
* Many more awkward moments, due to squeezing so many people into one episode. I won't bother to make the list exhaustive, you can see past them.
[1] Typo: soilers.
[2] In formal writing I would avoid a "!:" juxtaposition. In informal writing, I actively seek it out :)[3]
[3] Similarly with other overly generalised grammatical rules, I like experimenting, but not condoning, to me they're funny because they're over the top :) Eg. distribution over and: "The building and the front side of it are the one with "broadcom" written on it in two foot high letters". :)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-05 12:01 am (UTC)