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Doctor Who: Season 2 UK

 
  

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Evil Scientist
20:01 / 24.05.06
I was thinking that the shooting star was that realities Doctor showing up just too late to save the earth.

Richard E. Grant leaps out of a church organ, looks around, "Oh shi..."

Cut to credits.
 
 
Elijah, Freelance Rabbi
21:34 / 24.05.06
Random speculation:

Could the last living TimeLord from Cyber Earth make an appearence later in the series as The Master? I like the idea that instead of The Doctor surviving the Time War and being wracked with guilt about it the last survivor was driven mad by the war and turned evil.

Yay alternate universes!
 
 
Evil Scientist
21:55 / 24.05.06
Nice idea. I'm still pissed that Anthony Head wasn't the (head)MASTER. I had visions of a Reservoir Dogs-style face-off with them pointing their tool of choice (wahey) at each other's necks.

Master: You threaten me with a screwdriver?

Doctor: Oh it's been upgraded.

Master: Really? Well mine still shrinks people into horrible voodoo doll versions of themselves.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
17:14 / 27.05.06
Rose: "My Mum went out with a sailor."
Doctor: "I bet she did."

Mr Connolly: "I am talking!"
Doctor: "And I'm NOT LISTENING!"
 
 
■
17:44 / 27.05.06
Oh, dear. That was the worst so far. Not unenjoyable in its own way, but it just didn't really make sense and has some glaring cock-ups. Tennant too shouty, dad of the family chews the scenery, incidental music just too much of a homage to the old Who, Magpie's motivation confusing/a bit shit, Auntie Maureen just too dramatic. I could go on.

OK, the cock-ups and plot holes first:
1) If the Doctor reckons he's in 1950s America why does he wheel out a scooter? Sloppy.
2) Why does wiping brainwaves require face-stealing, anyway (apart from giving all involved a chance to pretend they're working on Sapphire and Steel)?
3) How do they get the faces back? Give us a little bit of implausible arm-waving, at least.
4) The faceless people are somehow being kept alive despite having no faces. Why exactly would the Wire bother doing that?
5) Rubber soles? You're holding on to the sodding pylon.
6) "Goodnight Children, Everywhere." Just checked, Children's Favourites didn't start till 1954. [Edit: OK, Children's Hour was earlier]
7) "Where in London are we?" You just spent hours looking at a map of the area, Dave.
8) Lots of insulators attached to the pylon with no wires leading anywhere.
9) SCART lead? On Betamax?
10)

Good points:
Betamax. Nice.
Rose recognising the value of rescuing the father/son relationship when the Doctor (rather uncharacteristically) doesn't.
Good quiff.
"'It's never too late,' as a wise person once said. Kylie, I think."

I expect better from you, Mr Gatiss.
Still, better than almost anything JNT ever produced.

Ooh, preview looks good. Proper aliens and a black hole - rebirth of Gallifrey, anyone?
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
17:50 / 27.05.06
I thought that was great, even though, yes, it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I think my thing is that for me, it's always been All About The Doctor (and his companions). As long as I can believe in the Doctor as a character, I can lap up anything he can convince me he believes in as well. Fortunately I think Tenant's great- the minute they get someone crap in, I don't think the best plot in the world will work for me.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
17:53 / 27.05.06
(rather uncharacteristically)

I reckon he just despised Connolly so much he didn't care. I like this Doctor's headstrong rages. The whole "no force on Earth can stop me" bit was, while damn cheesy, a good illustration of this. Angry Doctor=good.
 
 
Lama glama
18:03 / 27.05.06
That was the worst so far

I'm inclined to say the opposite. This was the first episode this season that had me finally enjoying (sorry Boboss!) Rose and The Doctor's relationship again. They seemed to be playing well off of each other again, in a way that we haven't seen since Tooth and Claw. Fortunately, they didn't stroll too far into giggling bags of mutual lovin'.

Tennant had me with him in every scene. This is the best tenth Doctor performance we've seen so far (albeit with the dodgy gravity-defying '50s hair). Rose didn't annoy me for a change this season and had almost as many funny moments as the Doctor. That little smile she gave before running outside after the Doctor had me chuckling for ages after.

The episode looked great, with whatever lenses were used, put to great effect. Lyn proves himself as my favourite director again and that shot from the inner workings of the television looking out at people was visually fantastic.

I really don't know why people are griping about the episode making no sense. Surely the episode isn't as devoid as logic as Davies' use of intravenous solutions as some kind of skin-wash?
 
 
Triplets
18:06 / 27.05.06
Angry Tennant gives me the nippleharden.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
18:09 / 27.05.06
I really don't know why people are griping about the episode making no sense.

I wasn't griping- I was just admitting it didn't, and saying I really didn't care. I loved it.
 
 
Triplets
18:09 / 27.05.06
Also, what's not to get about the end? Doctor Ten(nant) reversed the polarity. That's more of a staple than fucking all-bran!
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
18:09 / 27.05.06
See, this is why we rock. America has to create warriors to fight it's bogeymen, we have a Doctor.

Anyway,

cube 1) If the Doctor reckons he's in 1950s America why does he wheel out a scooter?

Because he thought they were in New York, a few years later? I'm not quite getting what exactly your issue with this is?

2) Why does wiping brainwaves require face-stealing, anyway?

I'll tell you if you can explain why seeing a Silurian face-to-face causes humans to mentally revert to a 'caveman' state.

3) How do they get the faces back?

I'll tell you if you explain why the Time Lords only sent three Doctors to confront Omega rather than the full thirteen.

4) The faceless people are somehow being kept alive despite having no faces. Why exactly would the Wire bother doing that?

I'll tell you... Actually, I rather assumed the nefarious plan involved some sort of drone army. You're right, technically it doesn't make a huge amount of sense, but why was the reset button in 1.2 so difficult to get to?

6) "Goodnight Children, Everywhere." Just checked, Children's Favourites didn't start till 1954.

That's nothing, in 'Remembrance of the Daleks' episode 2 they make reference to Doctor Who being on telly, yet it's still light outside, DW being on after dusk. I thought "Goodnight Children, everywhere" was "Goodbye" and a radio, not a telly catchphrase.

7) "Where in London are we?" You just spent hours looking at a map of the area, Dave.

When?

9) SCART lead? On Betamax?

On a machine the Doctor makes out of bits and bobs from the shop and FROM THE TARDIS.

I enjoyed that episode. Presumably Mark Gatiss, like Stephen Moffat, wasn't told about the Mickey story arc right before this, hence the sudden change of pace (let's just pretend a few weeks have gone by between episodes). And the Doctor almost manages to get another bodycount- free episode.

What was a bit odd was that Gran gets her face sucked off and they immediately stick her up in the spare bedroom. Would they not turn to someone in authority to sort her out rather than keep it secret?
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
18:14 / 27.05.06
Would they not turn to someone in authority to sort her out rather than keep it secret?

I'm guessing that's what Conolly wanted to do- Rita wouldn't let him do that to her mum, and as a compromise they locked her away- his reputation would have no doubt suffered if they'd let anyone in the street know. Of course, C shopped her in anyway, but that's cos he was a git.
 
 
■
18:24 / 27.05.06
Yeah, I know I'm being niggly and I've let it go before, but it's Mark Gatiss, I expect better. The scooter would have looked out of place in the States as they were very much a European thing, created through necessity by the Italians because they had to cobble together cheap transport from scratch. If he thought he was in the States a bike would have made more sense (sorry, my dad's a bit of a scooter fan).
There was a map in the makeshift police office where The Doctor spent from late evening to dawn.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
18:53 / 27.05.06
The scooter would have looked out of place in the States as they were very much a European thing

Whereas Bessie and the Whomobile just blended seamlessly in?
 
 
Seth
10:04 / 29.05.06
"You're clever enough to save the world... don't stop there."
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
08:05 / 30.05.06
I liked it. I thought Maureen Lipman was fucking chilling the way she veered from Auntie Beeb to feral bloated electric monster. "Hungry! Hungryyyyyy!"
 
 
Evil Scientist
08:24 / 30.05.06
I thought she was quite hot in a "dominant headmistress giving orders from the telly" kind of way.

I...I'll go now.

Have to say that I didn't think much of the episode. The faceless people were unnerving. The Father kind of ruined the episode for me by being so obviously "the bad guy".

Still, next week's ep looks to be a goodie. The Tardisode seems like the opening of your bog-standard "horror in space" situation. Talk of the "beast" awakening.

Speculating wildly and (most probably) inaccurately.

So...umm...the beast huh? The oldest enemy? The Adversary?

The...umm....Master?

Nah, s'not happening is it? I really just need to get over the fact that T Mizzle isn't coming back.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
09:00 / 30.05.06
Of course the Master is coming back. You need to hold back a big name villain for season three though don't you. There's also no reason why Anthony Head won't end up as the Master. Wasn't the Master's beardy Shakespearian villain incarnation originally some other guy whose body he ended up inhabiting. The only problem is that awful Paul McGann storyline, but is that considered cannon to the series?
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:27 / 30.05.06
Of course the Master is coming back. You need to hold back a big name villain for season three though don't you.

It'll be sodding Sontarans, you'll see. RTD hates me and wants me to suffer.

The only problem is that awful Paul McGann storyline, but is that considered cannon to the series?

I think so, kind of. It's generally accepted that he is/was the Eighth Doctor in official history. I think they just sort of avoid talking about the whole "friendly" Daleks, half-human Doctor stuff.

Wasn't the Master's beardy Shakespearian villain incarnation originally some other guy whose body he ended up inhabiting.

Yeah, Nyssa's Dad I believe.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
11:55 / 30.05.06
All they have to do is emphasise that he was a Time Lord who now hops from body to body and they'll be fine. They don't need to worry too closely about past continuity, especially when it's something so universally unloved as the TV movie. Just because nothing escapes from the Eye of Rassillon, how does the Doctor know that for sure? You'll see, piece of piss.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
12:12 / 30.05.06
Does the Age Of Steel universe have timelords, or were they all wiped out as well? Perhaps their Master survived, as the Doctor did in ours.

Though I think Lady's closer to the mark.
 
 
Evil Scientist
12:22 / 30.05.06
Does the Age Of Steel universe have timelords, or were they all wiped out as well? Perhaps their Master survived, as the Doctor did in ours.

Well, from what little The Doctor said in Rise of the Cybermen I got the impression that the Time Lords were a multiversal force. He says something to the effect that they were responsible for keeping the barriers between realities maintained and that the ways between dimensions were locked at the end of the Time War. Which gives me the impression that there was only ever one version of the Time Lords throughout the multiverse.

Although I suppose it could be sort of like The Authority, with parallel versions working together when they had to (but wouldn't that mean there would be at least a few dimensions out there where the Time Lords won the war and could keep the doorways open?).
 
 
Evil Scientist
12:24 / 30.05.06
(Unless it's just The Doctor's universe that's "locked").
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
12:30 / 30.05.06
Just realised elijah already made a similar suggestion. Sorry, elijah.
 
 
Elijah, Freelance Rabbi
14:04 / 30.05.06
Heh, its not a contest right?

Anyway, I am still hoping for an evil Time Lord in the finale, and I want to see Mickey again, so that idea works out well for me :-P
 
 
Spatula Clarke
16:10 / 30.05.06
There's not really any reason why ASH's character couldn't be the Master, is there? He'd already started doing what the aliens in School Reunion were doing himself in the last McCoy storyline - wasn't the cat people mutation something that he entered into willingly?
 
 
Triplets
12:09 / 31.05.06
So...umm...the beast huh? The oldest enemy? The Adversary?

The Beast? The oldest enemy? Sublime? Is Guided Missle writing this???
 
 
Evil Scientist
12:38 / 31.05.06
Is Guided Missle writing this???

Ve's MY Master.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
13:35 / 31.05.06
Dupre: No, from memory he had come to the planet accidentally, was trapped there and had no choice about turning into a fuzzy cat-person. The problem was that to become enough of a cat-person to be able to teleport from one planet to another was to become almost too much of a cat-person to keep your old identity intact.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
16:18 / 31.05.06
Ah, right. Mind you, they had the shape-shifting thing in the TV movie, so there's a possible basis for it.

Not a very solid one, I'll admit.
 
 
■
22:05 / 02.06.06
Right, I will personally hunt down and glare at anyone who forgets that at 7pm tomorrow you can see some top SF which will give you the willies. That is all.
 
 
The Falcon
22:37 / 02.06.06
There's not really any reason why ASH's character couldn't be the Master, is there?

This's definitely what I've been coming round to, without the grounding in the lore that some of you clearly have. I really, really hope so.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
17:39 / 03.06.06
Doctor Who meets Doom!
 
 
A fall of geckos
17:50 / 03.06.06
That was just superb. It felt like a totally traditional Doctor Who episode in a lot of ways, only crossed with Event Horizon.

Looking forward to the Doctor kicking satan's arse next week.
 
  

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