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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Doctor Who Season 3 UK (No Spoilers)

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18:37 / 22.05.07

Would someone mind sending me a PM with a link to a working torrent of '42?' I've downloaded it twice and both the MKV and AVI files I've tried just haven't worked.

08:00 / 23.05.07

Points to Chibnell for coming up with a situation where the Doctor has to physically and mentally work instead of just waving the sonic screwdriver.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:53 / 23.05.07

I enjoyed it, but it was basically The Satan Pit but without Satan. Which seems a bit like having Quincy without Quincy (oh no, hang on, that's called CSI, right?)

Our Lady Has Left the Building

04:56 / 24.05.07

It was like The Satan Pit only without Satan, any sense of drama and also characters that I could actually care about if they lived or died.

I wonder why we got this episode when the end of the previous one suggested that it was going to be what looks like next week's episode instead.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:47 / 24.05.07

The end of the previous one showed a trailer for the entire rest of the season.

Whisky Priestess

13:45 / 24.05.07

Tap-tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:49 / 26.05.07

Bloody hell, this is the good shit.

18:06 / 26.05.07

Oh yes indeed.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

18:11 / 26.05.07

YES

Oh, that was just absolutely fantastic. I really love it when they do something a bit different to normal - and something that really plays to the strengths of what the BBC can pull off well as well. Stately period drama - I really enjoyed the slower pace - but framed with just enough elements of sci-fi weird. It was good to spend time with it, and great to have a story being framed in a different and new way. Something I think I've wanted for a long while.

Felt like lots of books I loved when I was little (for some reason I'm thinking of the "Dark Is Rising", but I can't actually remember much about that). Little things on the fringes, threatening to creep in. Especially because it was all centered on the school and children there. And also harking back to the sorts of television dramas I'd watch when I was younger, with similar setting and such, in a really good way.

And Martha is absolutely great. I already like her more than Rose, she had some great moments and she just seems altogether sharper. She really is coming in to her own, and the feeling that the Doctor really has faith in her for a reason.

It was lovely to see Jessica Hynes also, because I'm very fond of her, and glad she's in something good. And to see the Doctor able to feel human feelings - and letting us see more in to him, eventually it will all be about the Doctor and coming to understand him through the eyes of a child - and the inevitable tragedy of their love. Simultaneously pleasing and a bit heartbreaking.

The little snippet of the kid talking at the end of the preview gave me chills.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:32 / 26.05.07

Yes, so best - one of my favourite episodes of the last three seasons or any Doctor Who, really. It perfectly captured the weird everything-is-wrong displacedness of the New Adventures novels (which did the whole "Doctor is absent or amnesiac" thing far too often, but the first few times it really worked well), the scary lurching baddies of old Who (scccccaaaarecrow! scarecrow! whuhhh!), and the things which are great about the new version so far. I love how well the themes have been set up, and the fact this is a classic story told about so many slightly tortured heroes or adventurers (it's not Superman II though, it's 'For The Man Who Has Everything') but has never been done on screen with The Doctor makes it really engaging.

Also, English public schools lend themselves so well to creepy horribleness, because, well, they're creepy and horrible. I enjoyed the little touched thrown in to surprise us with how total the transformation info Mr Jones is - giving his approval for Latimer to be beaten for a prefect, for example, or his hilariously bigoted "this is what in our country we call a story!" scene with Martha. Who, by the way, if she met me, I think would like me.

Loved loved loved the sketches of previous Doctor incarnations in his notebook.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:40 / 26.05.07

But would anyone else like to join me in tracking down the music producer of Doctor Who Confidential, and doing some things to his or her physical form that are, frankly, outsie the Geneva Convention.

RTD: "Everyone's backs are against the wall..."

Soundtrack: 'Standing In The Way Of Control', the bit where Beth Ditto sings "Your back's against the wall, there's no-one else to call, you're forgetting who you are.."

Music producer: "Damn, I'm good... *sniff*..."

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:41 / 26.05.07

Bad example really, 'cos that's a good if overplayed song: earlier we say Jessica 'n' David waltzing to a soundtrack of 'My Humps'.

MY LUVVERLY LADY LUMPS MY HUMPS MY HUMPS.

18:43 / 26.05.07

fantastic episode. those scarecrows are i think the first genuinely classic moment that nu-who has yet supplied. them coming over the crest of that ploughed field is a shot that expect to be seeing in clip shows for decades, comparable to the autons in st pauls. next week's looks ace too.

18:47 / 26.05.07

Those gasmask baddies were pretty iconic and damn nasty too boot

18:52 / 26.05.07

It did everything that a Who multi-parter should do and it did it far better than any of the others have. Proper build up, focusing on the characters and leaving shedloads of mystery. Proper sense of danger at the cliffhanger. Proper script.

Proper!

Small bit of clumsy exposition, having Martha consult and talk to the pre-recorded Doctor like it's the first time she's watched it, but can't be because she knows exactly where to fast-forwards to for the "I trust you" money shot. Then a second time.

Otherwise, I agree with the above posts. Possessed toffboy was aces and had the hammy villainous eyebrown down perfect. Great voice, too.

Basicallly, though, the pacing of the episode was a step beyond any of the previous Tenant episodes and it looks like being the first time that one of his Doctor's two-parters has been worthy of an hour and a half of screen time.

18:58 / 26.05.07

Also: it just looked a whole lot nicer than any of the previous episodes. Now okay, you can say that's because the Beeb does period drama well, but that's not the only reason.

The main thing about the setting of an episode like this is that it more or less asks nothing of the set designers in terms of coming up with something that looks futuristic. Because the set designers' idea of futuristic is quite often nothing more than sticking lots of differently coloured light sources in random places - a bright green one in this corner, a blue one over there, a red one in the middle - and has led to episodes that look like they've been filmed in a gameshow studio.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

19:06 / 26.05.07

That was freakin amazing. Probably my favourite episode of New Who so far, and quite possibly on a par with the best of the old stuff. I loved the way that in one single episode we managed to get something that so deftly played with themes of the new series so far, whilst giving us some good scary bad guys, some totally excellent and completely non-annoying romance, some good companion action and as an added bonus to give us what I think was the first visual acknowledgment of the Doctors pre-RTD incarnations we’ve seen in the show so far. Top marks and then some. Also some of the people I was watching with insist that the hymn being sung at the beginning includes the lyrics ‘I will follow the Master’. Which if true is interesting.

On the other hand I’m with Flyboy on wiping out Doctor Who Confidential’s music producers – in fact most of Doctor Who Confidential’s producers full stop. It must be time for the posse with their pitchforks and burning torches by now. I probably shouldn’t watch Doctor Who Confidential – every week it manages to hit my rage button one way or another.

19:13 / 26.05.07

the gas mask was cool sure, the only thing to come close. too cg reliant in the transformation sequence though, and less iconic- too easy to rationalise, not immediately screaming 'wrong' to the mind.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:22 / 26.05.07

The Doctor's 'father' Sidney and 'mother' Verity, I'm not the only one that got that was I?

19:24 / 26.05.07

You're joking, Gumbitch, the empty children were well nasty. Them and the faceless tv watchers in The Wire.

Proper bodyhorror that, both times.

In fact I'll throw in 'the slabs' from the first ep of this series. Just the idea of a full-sized golem made entirely of leather and some semblance of volition puts the shits up me.

Do you hassle crops on a regular basis, dude? Scarecrows aren't scary at all.

19:24 / 26.05.07

I think you might be, Lady. Care to explain?

19:28 / 26.05.07

Although, I will concede the transformation sequences for the empty children were a bit pants, I'm able to look past that and at the core scaryness, which is that every one of them knew they were changing into something completely other, completely mindless and it wasn't quick. It was a slow, horrific change. The guard talking to his commander and saying "No, we'll be fine, mummy... I mean sir", knowing something nasty was up but being unable to grasp what it was, was horrid.

The scarecrows are, at best, ugly robots? Not that bad.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

19:28 / 26.05.07

I had to check about Sidney, but I got Verity Lambert easily. Althought I probably loved the fact 'John Smith's father was a watchmaker more than I loved the Sidney and Verity easter eggs.

19:28 / 26.05.07

Sydney & Verity.

Mysterious Transfer Student

20:16 / 26.05.07

The total embedding of the Doctor in his cover identity was just as well done as Flyboy described; particularly in the scene with the boys taking turns at machine gun practice. Smith's blithe approval of the British Empire 'Boys have to learn to fight' sentiments containing no trace of the Doctor's pacifist/anarchic persona. Great way to illustrate that he really isn't in there and that if he doesn't come back, we're in a heap of shit.

In my house we were almost yelping at the start of the episode, 'Oh please let there be a reference to If...!' and I guess, in a tangential fashion, that's what we got given.

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:14 / 26.05.07

The scarecrows are zombies, and zombies are for some reason more disquieting than anything else.

Top episode - my favourite Tennant, definitely, and up there with The Empty Child. More body-possession, but compare this with the Slitheen. So much better.

The child playing Latimer is great, and scary. The presentiment of his own death - "It's one minute past the hour. This is the time" - was possibly throwaway moment of the episode, although cricket ball saviour was a real "fuck! YES!" moment. Barely an off moment, though.

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:50 / 26.05.07

Splendid - terrifying. Particularly the lolling heads.

It's actually a New Adventures novel by Paul Cornell from 1995. I'm pleased - it's a great novel - but I'm interested as to whether they'll adapt more of the many original novels published pre-Eccleston. It raises questions - would that tend to produce better telly, or unwieldy telly, given the adaptation? Would the fans feel a bit miffed at not getting more new material? Is it a waste not to do something with such a big back catalogue of stories, or should the writers try to produce something original with the new cast? Because Human Nature's originally a McCoy story, with a companion who only appears in the New Adventures - she maps well onto Martha's charateristics, it's not too clumsy, but it wasn't originally developed with her in mind.

Bloody hell, though - those scarecrows.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

21:55 / 26.05.07

Up to a point I suspect adapting McCoy novels might be somewhat easier and more succesful than those novels featuring other Doctors, mainly because Tennant's Doctor seems to have more in common with McCoy than the older Doctors.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:17 / 27.05.07

Hmmm, not with the Doctor of the New Adventures who was a manipulative bastard with few redeeming features.

This is one of the key things about the whole Who/Torchwood-verse, that the Doctor happens to have a machine lying around which can turn him into a human and lock his Timelord essence into something that looks like a pocketwatch requires probably one of the biggest dollops of viewer willingness to accept an idea so far, yet I'll go along with it much more than welsh cannibals or Weevil fight club.

And it's a nice reversal of the usual expectations of sci-fi such as from Star Trek, it's the Doctor's alienness that makes him human, take that away and he can be a bit of a git, though that shouldn't be overstated at the moment.

They're still treading softly-softly on the race issue though. Everyone is beastly to Martha because she's from the serving class, heaven forbid anyone should look down on her as being black as well.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

07:50 / 27.05.07

Hmmm, not with the Doctor of the New Adventures who was a manipulative bastard with few redeeming features.

I was mainly thinking of the on screen doctor I admit - McCoy's frequent switches between clownish capering and savage ruthlessness, with occasional detours into crazy mugging seem to be pretty similair to Tennant's portrayal. I really should have read more of the New Adventures - I loved the manipulative side of McCoy - but the one or two I read back in the day were really very bad so I never bothered to get further into them.

miss wonderstarr

09:25 / 27.05.07

I believe the hymn was

"He who would valiant be 'gainst all disaster, let him in constancy follow the Master."

Clever because of course at that point we see John Smith, as a schoolmaster; it subconsciously nudges anyone who knows about the Whoniverse's Master, and originally I assume the Master was God.

miss wonderstarr

09:32 / 27.05.07

Also, Martha's ethnicity brought in again; it would be dishonest to avoid any mention of it in that cultural environment, but it does seem striking the way ethnicity, otherness and racial prejudice is apparently emerging as a key underlying theme (again, without knowing any spoiler info, I feel this will lead into the Mr Saxon storyline.) I don't remember Rose's working-classness being much of an issue when they travelled back into British history; not as much as Martha's blackness. And as someone said above, it would be interesting to have a situation where the Doctor's the ethnic other, and Martha looks like everyone else.

09:43 / 27.05.07

(Just as an aside, I don't tend to find straightforward trad zombies very frightening)

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:23 / 27.05.07

Hilarious that we have one person sort of complaining that the colour of Martha's skin wasn't mentioned, and one person remarking that it's been mentioned an awful lot. It was mentioned, of course, several times ("with hands that colour", etc; plus the aforementioned John Smith patronising), but I think no more than was necessary. The fairly obvious reason why Marth's ethnicity has been noted during travels to the past more than Rose's class is that the signifiers of the latter are a lot easier to conceal - I don't think it's been excessive, but the one point with which I think you've really hit on something, miss w, is that it would be nice to see the Doctor and Martha travel somewhere in the past (or any time) that wasn't so very white...

miss wonderstarr

10:45 / 27.05.07

No, I don't think it was at all unnecessary ~ and I think racial slurs stand out more (to me anyway) than class slurs, so I might not remember the times when Rose was perhaps insulted by Queen Victoria or relegated to maid duties.

"Realistically", I don't doubt Martha would have experienced far more racial prejudice within that historical and cultural context than we were shown, but I think that kind of realism has to be balanced out with the scriptwriters' sense of what's appropriate in 2007. A single racist remark is all we really need to make it clear that Martha is now living in a particularly bigoted white environment.

My sense is that Martha's cultural identity as the first black assistant is deliberately not being ignored by the creators (that is, this role could not be played by a white actress) and that the scenes where her ethnicity is highlighted seem to be contributing to a general season-theme of cultural others, ethnic profiling and self-versus-alien prejudice.

But yes, after seeing the public schoolboys blather on about Africa as savage dark continent, it would be interesting for the Doctor to go to, say, Ghana.

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