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A lot of the potential scariness absolutely ruined by that one blunder, which happened at exactly the wrong time. Ms Piper stumbling around in the basement, the viewer supposed to be having the willies inserted upwards.
Piper: Who's there?
Off-screen: lots of laughter and applause.
Viewer: Oh, it's a surprise party.
Norton: Can you hear me?
Viewer: Oh, it's not a surprise party.
I feel really sorry for all involved, to be honest. There was so much resting on that opening - the introduction of both main characters *and* the villains of the piece, the only real moment of suspense being pushed right to the front of the show so that they could focus on the humour for the remaining half and hour - and it ended up failing, not because there was anything wrong with the show itself.
I really wish I'd downloaded and watched it beforehand.
Got a proper, out-loud laugh with Eccleston's cheerful "it's a disguise!" explanation for the Tardis' appearance.
Nice chemistry between him and Piper. Looks dead promising, that - real sense of friendship and love there.
Hope they cut back on the music in the other episodes. There wasn't a scene in it that wasn't scored in some way. Overdone, like they didn't have enough confidence in the script or acting to carry the drama. The music itself was also pretty identikit, which made it worse.
Seen it get praise for its pace, but I thought it was maybe a little too fast. I understand why they did it like that - it's only the intro, after all, and they obviously didn't want to risk losing anyone to a lull in the action along the way - but, again, it betrayed a slight lack of trust in the characters, actors, etc. Pacey in order to try and give off an air of confidence, but it came across more nervous than anything else.
The Autons didn't feel right. Go back to the big Pertwee Autons story - they've got a horrible slimy, sweaty look to them in that one. That's the terror, the frightening shit, the feeling that something's not quite right. The Lovecraftian creeping horror.
On that note, Mark Benton's character was dealt with perfectly. Absolutely spot on. Give us someone we like, then kill them in their moment of triumph. Nasty. In contrast, I couldn't give a stuff about whether or not Rose's mum came out of her shopping experience in one piece. Just a really bland character - if somebody's going to be put in a position of mortal danger in Who, it has to be someone the audience likes or someone they hate. Not a non-person.
Are we not getting any cliffhangers with this series? If so, that's a real shame, as the cliffhanger was one of the fundamental things that gave old Who its suspense and draw. Even if you knew that nobody important was actually going to die (although, that said, there was always the slight chance that a companion would cop it).
Disagree with you about Eccleston's enthusiasm, Paleface, but do feel that the permanent grin felt noticably forced in a few places.
A decent enough way to waste forty-odd minutes, but it didn't feel special to me. The program earlier on in the evening had me all pumped, as did the Ross interview last night (that montage of clips was brilliant), and Eccleston's comments about what the series is about got me choked up. The first ep itself didn't live up to that vibe of excitement.
Next week's, though - that looks very good indeed, and much more the sort of thing that I want from this series. Just don't overdo the music, pleeeease. |
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