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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Doctor Who, Season Four, Non-spoiler Thread

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All Acting Regiment

13:41 / 07.04.08

So, first epsisode was jolly if kid-friendly - nothing wrong with that, and the idea of body-horror aliens who don't actually intend to do anything nasty and are being misused by the midwife was a nice one.

What did everyone else think?

14:35 / 07.04.08

I loved the super nanny, and though it was a rather light I quite enjoyed the episode. It was perhaps a little disappointing that the strangeness of the aliens, and all the body issues that might have been explored were ultimately just used as an excuse to get some cutesy CGI on the screen but this is the first episode so I'm willing to cut it some slack.

I especially enjoyed the return of Tate, who is a much more satisfying companion to the Doctor than Martha was. I mean, the dysfunctional dynamic between the Doctor and Martha was interesting, but also rather frustrating to watch. In contrast, it is very satisfying to have Donna treat the Doctor as her peer even though he isn't. I quite like cheering Donna along, and being pleased by her pluckiness rather than feeling pity for her. On top of that, Tate seems very comfortable in the role, both nailing the comedy as you would expect, but also doing a lot to make Donna strangely likeable despite the brash exterior.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

18:07 / 07.04.08

I was telling MattS the other day--after giddily getting off work to see if anyone had uploaded the first ep and yay! they had--that I really enjoyed this episode more insofar as an introduction to a new Companion is concerned. While I wasn't so keen on Donna in "The Runaway Bride," I was much more keen on her here. I think because some of the shrillness has been taken away after her first initial encounter with the Doctor. She seemed much more level and yet always hopeful that her life would change. Another thing is that I like that the odds of Donna falling in love with the Doctor seem nil. Don't get me wrong, I really loved Rose and the Doctor, but Martha's moony-eyed moping grated on me for pretty much the entire season last year. Six of one, half of a dozen of the other, you might say, and you're probably right. I look forward to having a Companion who doesn't think about what the Doctor looks like naked.

All Acting Regiment

18:31 / 07.04.08

I'd like - quite seriously - to live in a world where no-one thinks about what the doctor looks like naked.

I watched the old Hartnall episode, The Daleks, directly after this had been on, and was amused at the similarity between the silly-looking metal crocodile and the silly-looking Adipose. Also how Hartnall is a complete horror and pretends the - liquid drive? - is broken just so he can go and boyishly look at the petrified city and they all get radiation poisoning.

The interesting thing is, in all sorts of ways I preferred the Hartnall episode, I wasn't inclined to decide that New Who is terrible and beastly just because different. At one time I would have done. I suppose I'm saying the new one has its sea-legs.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

18:37 / 07.04.08

I think this season will be a lot more fun with Tate. No hidden agendas of unprofessed love, etc.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:18 / 07.04.08

Seeing as I really really didn't want to see Donna again I was delighted at how much I enjoyed that episode, that she is more sorted than she was when she first appeared although the old her still escapes when she gets tired and stressed.

And I was strongly reminded of the Cat-Nurse-plague-New-Earth story when watching this, in that RTD was again taking something that kids would know about from news and turning it into a story, though this worked better than the vivisection story. Once I worked out what the general thrust of the storyline was going to be I had visions of actors in fat-suits pretending to be Debbie Chazen but there was no piss-taking at all, which was nice.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

19:41 / 07.04.08

Yeah, when Tate turns down the shrew voice a notch or two, I like her.

Whisky Priestess

20:44 / 07.04.08

Agreed - less shrill, a lot more fun (the mouthed conversation) and I had to love the one-toothed cute aliens ...

On the other hand, on the pink hippopotamus principle, this:

I look forward to having a Companion who doesn't think about what the Doctor looks like naked

made me think for the very first time (honest) about what David Tennant looks like naked.

Scrawny and pallid, I fear.

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:47 / 07.04.08

Perfection.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

21:13 / 07.04.08

Honestly, for all the teasing I get (much of it, if not all, justly so), I don't think of Tennant in a sexy sort of way. Oh, he's adorable, don't get me wrong, but again, much more of a friend type to my eyes than a "c'mere, you" type.

Oh, that bit where he and Donna are mouthing to each other--it tickled me so.

Janean Patience

21:18 / 07.04.08

I'd like - quite seriously - to live in a world where no-one thinks about what the doctor looks like naked.

I'd be happy in a world where the doctor stopped thinking about me naked. Seriously, dude. Cut it out.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:13 / 08.04.08

Whisky Priestess made me think for the very first time (honest) about what David Tennant looks like naked.

Well ladies, he's single (according to the Daily Mail).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

05:29 / 08.04.08

Well, after a long day of hanging out with hard-bodied Kryptonians, Tennant's scrawny nerd-in-a-suit thing is kinda hot. And, promise, I wouldn't be thinking about a Dalek while we did it. Honest.

Whisky Priestess

09:00 / 08.04.08

I think I'd rather share brooding, haunted moments with Eccleston or viciously corrupt Peter Davison's doctor, TBH.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

13:25 / 08.04.08

I'm not sure I could be brooding or haunted with Eccleston's ears in the room.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:15 / 08.04.08

Four words.

BERNARD. FUCKING. CRIBBINS. AGAIN!

Loved it.

uncle retrospective

22:02 / 08.04.08

Really enjoyed the ep and I think Tate may work out really well, I'm just worried as I yelled out CRIBBINS when he appeared. I may keep doing that.

01:07 / 09.04.08

I must say, I thought Bernard Cribbins was dead.

It was only when he showed up in this episode that I realised how much I'd wished that was true.

More seriously, Catherine Tate is a charisma-bypass zone, right? I can see the point of the role (salty, middle-management aunt to the Doctor's eternal boy) but the trouble seems to be that La Tate can't be relied on to act her way out of a wet paper bag.

02:43 / 09.04.08

I disagree.

I thought Tate was one of the most interesting things to have happened to Dr. Who since the whole of last season.

That sentence alone surprises me.

I'm not yet sure what to think of her.

I like that.

CGI was dodgy (like that matters). Cribbins was great (that does).

Enthused.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:20 / 09.04.08

Stoatie, I hope you stood up and saluted when you said that, it's the law you know.

CRIBBINS CAN HAVE YOU KILLED JUST LIKE DIANA AND WILL NOT SHED ONE TEAR.

12:44 / 09.04.08

Ah Cribbens. Terrible that someone had to die for him to get this part but just soooo good. It's possibly spoilertastic and if it is I apologise but as a Companion family member there's more Cribbens to come and I look forward to that.

Whisky Priestess

12:59 / 09.04.08

Looks like he's been on the pies though.

NOT TO DIE OF PIES BEFORE END OF SERIES 4, CRIBBINS!

20:54 / 10.04.08

He's what, 82? I knwot he whole series is in the can but I keep worrying he won't get through a scen. I believe if he does die though the plan is to replace him with Donnas paternal Grandfather played by Peter Sallis or Norman Wisdom, whichever looks feebler at the interview.

01:38 / 11.04.08

I'm just worried as I yelled out CRIBBINS when he appeared. I may keep doing that.

Do it three times in front of a mirror at midnight and you might be surpised by the results.

Personally, I'm going to try chanting 'Van Outen', 'Collins' or even 'Hufty' under similar circumstances, in the hope that someone relatively okay might, by some trick of time or space, replace Tate as Who's new assistant.

01:49 / 11.04.08

You do mean Joan Collins don't you?

Not Phil.

03:28 / 11.04.08

I was thinking more Michelle, really.

But either Phil or Joan (especially Phil - he could talk to the Doctor about lost love, and bring him down a peg or two; they could turn the Tardis into a musical instrument) would be much better casting.

Hufty would be my fave though.

'This is cushty, Doctor! It's fucking magic! I'm going to text my mates'

'I see. Well, that seems like an excellent idea, Hufty. I just have to, er ...'

'Ah, diven't you run away now, Doctor, back to the police box. I have the keys.'

'Oh. Fuck'

'My mates will be joining us! Get in! It's like winning the lottery!'

'Right. But the Tardis, you see ...'

'Bollocks, it's got plenty of room, you streak of piss! In fact, I might ring Mum and Dad ... And Terry Christian ... That wanker said I'd never amount to anything, but I'm going on a voyage through the cosmos!'

The Doctor could lead the team into increasingly life-threatening situations, in the forlorn hope of being on his own again. He'd be setting the controls back to his worst fights with Davros, the Cybermen, etc.

It'd be a great excuse for a retread of classic Who moments, And there'd be a certain amount of dramatic tension per episode, involving the Doctor on the one hand trying to save whatever civilisation it was, and on the other wondering if he couldn't just fluff his responsibilities, and leave team Hufty stranded on a doomed planet.

uncle retrospective

12:26 / 11.04.08

I feel sick. How dare someone remind me HU***Y exists.
Fuck you lot, I'm off to throw up.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:18 / 11.04.08

AG, that would be made of win and awesome.

11:10 / 12.04.08

Blimey Uncle, what have you got agasint squirrels?

19:25 / 12.04.08

That was pretty intense in places, wasn't it? Catherine Tate finally got to do "serious" acting (whatever that is) and was phenomenal. There were several prospective arc hints seeded throughout the episode, too:

Another mention of the Shadow Proclamation. A mention of the rift at the Medusa Cascade (which the Master hinted at last year). In the psychic smackdown scene between the auger and the soothsayer daughter, we had mention of "She's coming back to you," or something like that. They meant Rose presumably.

The two most interesting tidbits were the fact that another planet has been lost and that there's "something" on Donna's back. They're really loading the episodes with things for fans to obsess over this year.

The rock monsters were cool too. They were kind of reminiscent of the special effects in a movie like Jason and the Argonauts. They were almost like stop-motion creations, which admittedly makes them sound crap, but they somehow worked fantastically.

20:12 / 12.04.08

Mm. I liked the lava-monsters-in-rock-shells, too, especially the quai-roman crest on the 'helmets'.

One thing that bothered me a little was the transitioning; there's the very fast shift between:

I) No, we can't save anyone, this is a fixed point!
II) Oh, wait, aliens are involved.
III) And the aliens are planning to take over The World!
IV) Except they can't if we stop them!
V) Wait! We're going to have to cause a natural disaster that kills 20,000 people to stop them!
VI) Double Wait! We'll have to sacrifice ourselves, too!
VII) Oh! It was an escape pod after all.
VIII) Sod it. Let's save a family anyway.

It's not a complaint, it just seemed to go through all these steps really really fast - but such is The Doctor's world of moral relativism, I guess.

I'm warming, as I suspect - or, at least hope - others are, to Catherine Tate, which in some ways I didn't expect to do.

21:45 / 12.04.08

the 'just save someone' bit
greatest children's tv programme of all time

sure i have niggles and there were clunky bits but overall...cribbins on a bike

fevervew-your list contains multiple viewpoints, donna arguing against the doctor, so i saw it as internal conflict rather than veering but i do agree with you in some ways

i liked that we got a definite articulation on the solidity/mutability of certain events-made me think of the capstones in 'from hell' and i thought the episode did a good job of combining doctor as god and doctor as vulnerable whereas they were quite polar in eps like 'human nature'

and donna putting her hands on the doctor's to destroy pompei with him was a fantastic moment, absorbing the responsibility too

and yay to series threads, lost planets, shadow proclomation
this may count as spoilerage but apparently there was something significant in the taxi scene in ep 1, i haven't managed to rewatch yet so no idea what (please delete if i have just written evil)

i'd also reccomend watching the confidential because i thought it looked gorgeous production wise and they really had to work to get that

and in case anyone's missed it we have nigel kennedy playing the theme tune on an...electric violin(?)
worth a couple of minutes of your life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NCfM8UGkq0

and planet of the ood next! huzzah

21:54 / 12.04.08

fevervew-your list contains multiple viewpoints

True, true, sorry. I was sacrificing for glibness' sake, which I apologise for.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

00:30 / 13.04.08

I just finished watching it and again, found myself really warming up to Donna. Very intense indeed, and quite good. I may be in the minority but this season is shaping up to be more engaging for me than last year's--so far.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:42 / 13.04.08

Other than the 'If we do this we're going to die- yay we survived!' bit I enjoyed the episode. I could point out that in a situation where there is molten hot < air quotes> mag-ma < /air quotes> any water is likely to boil away before it can reach the alien who's weakness is water but that's beneath me.

I think it's awkward to try and justify why the Doctor sometimes will jump in and stop things and other times won't, I wonder whether kids will think last night was boring because of it, it might have been better just for the Doctor to let Donna try fruitlessly to warn people of the danger before getting embroiled in the general plot. That said it was bloody good acting on Catherine Tate's part, Tennant/Tate reminds me of Baker/Sladen somehow.

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