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miss wonderstarr Maybe I'm just a bit emotionally shellshocked from that episode, but I'd say it was not only the best Doctor Who I've ever seen, but that moments of it... rank with some of the best novels, comics and films I can remember.
Agreed. Did I ever start the thread for films and TV shows that transcended what one could expect of the show? For, with the exception of the final fates of the Family which I felt was a bit weak and rushed because there was so much good stuff to squeeze into the episode (Baines left as an immortal scarecrow? Really? Surely he'll be found at some point? Surely that's not a good thing, even if human science never advances far enough to work out how to unfreeze him. Maybe he's this season's Adam), this is right up there with the best TV ever.
Tarnished Things, Once Shiny his willingness to create an innocent temporary person, who would ultimately have to cease to exist pretty rapidly. Even if his intention was to show mercy to the family it still kind of struck me as one of the coldest and most ruthless things the Doctor's ever done.
Really? Worse than... Nah, let's not go there. I think the 'mercy' thing was poetical rather than actuality, despite his willingness to help out Daleks if they ask really nicely I think the Doctor would have taken out the Family at the start of last week if he could. But yes, you can see this things origins in the New Adventures as the Doctor comes out of it looking rather unpleasant and willing to do quite a lot to quite a number of people. This episode managed to do what last weeks episode didn't quite, make me feel sorry for John Smith having to sacrifice himself to let the Doctor come back, though I assume that while John got to live to an old age and die, Joan saw something less fun? Part of the reason this show was so great was the varieties of heroism we saw.
E. Randy Dupre Baines was brilliant Agreed. That kind of performance could have easily tipped into pantomime and ruin everything, but Harry Lloyd (did anyone actually watch Robin Hood? Was he any good as Will Scarlett?) really did a brilliant job. One to watch I think.
gourami What exactly was he thinking when he asked [Joan] along? Did he harbor some hope of a poly-in-space relationship? He did it because the tiny part of him that was John Smith was perhaps larger than he was letting on? He did it because the Doctor is damaged, inhuman, alien and doesn't always understand people? It reminded me of last season with Sarah-Jane, she had to tell him to walk away and leave her because he didn't realise what he had done to her. From the Doctor's point of view he was an enhanced John Smith, from Joan's point of view he was someone that murdered John and put on his skin, he was absolutely no different to the Family of Blood.
miss wonderstarr I always thought the Doctor had been an avuncular, eccentric figure, not a tragic wanderer and merciless avenger. What about the hundreds of people that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? The Doctor doesn't save everyone. What about The Curse of Fenric, where the Doctor appears to have systematically ordered the lives of countless English/Norse/Russian families in a certain direction in order to keep his hands clean? What about what he does to Ace in that story?
"He's ancient and Forever, He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. He's fire and ice and rage, he's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun"
This sounds awfully familiar. Is this something like what the Bad Wolf said when she arrived to save the Ninth Doctor, or am I just getting it mixed up with Galadriel in Lord of the Rings? |
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