Well, I can't believe no one has posted a review yet. A VERY VERY good episode - I have loved every episode so far - and "Rose" - the First episode has probably been the weakest.
I'm not one for doing 'reviews' of episodes - but I'll give some undigested thoughts.
Finally I feel less... unsettled about Rose's quick exit from her loved ones in the first episode.
This Doctor is great.
I really like Rose.
This show is REALLY good.
Err - I'm sure others can add more.
I'm sorry but I think this episode was better than "Through the Mirror Darkly" and "Bound" - the two Enterprise episodes I watched this week.
Can't wait till next week's DW - "Exterminate!!"
Looks like the UK is going through a Dr Who love in, the download I watched mentioned the replay of that episode, a Dr Who tie in "Dr Who Confidential" and an advert for a John Pertwee radio drama on "BBC7". WOO!
Andrew
Posted by tricky (Member # 1402) on :
Excellent, most excellent. DR who confidential is shown on BBC 3 straight after each week and goes behind the scenes on this and the earlier series on a particular subject (this week, UNIT and the Brigadier, next week I imagine the Daleks)
Is it me or did the password for the UNIT override web site seem a little too simple? buffalo, come on, maybe Bu55a1O, but buffalo? He had access to all the missiles on a British sub, plus overrides for the air defence systems!
Although, I remember a few years ago those US computer engineers to prove a point found they could hack into US naval weapons systems on a ship in a war game, and could switch the munitions from being "virtual" to "live".
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
"Massive weapons of destruction". Heh.
Also, the name of the "American" AMNN reporter is Mal Loup. I'm guessing that the "Big Bad Wolf" symbolism is stretching to multiple levels, which will only be revealed at the end of the season before Tennant takes over...
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Is it me or did the password for the UNIT override web site seem a little too simple? buffalo, come on, maybe Bu55a1O, but buffalo? He had access to all the missiles on a British sub, plus overrides for the air defence systems!"
If the Doctor himself had sat down at a computer, hit some keys, and managed to fire a missile, it would have been a bit more believeable. We can assume he did something mysterious that we'll never know. But, when we hear him talk Mickey through it ("go to this Web site, type in the password, and, boom, you've got missiles"), it just sounds nonsensical.
Also, repeating the "lots of planets have a North" joke made it a lot less funny.
But, otherwise, good episode.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Nice continuity about the North joke, though!
What's that about the Wolf symbolism, Mark?
The monsters were true to Dr. Who form - craptacular! When they were CGI they were a lot more menacing! I guess they are giving the Who Fans what they want - low grade monsters.
I reckon it's a slow transition phase and that sooner or later Aliens will begin to look a little less... low budget.
Andrew
Posted by DoughBoy05 (Member # 1417) on :
I thought all the Aliens from "The end of the World" looked OK, and next weeks Baddie is even better than the Borg!
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I thought they were okay too, and then again they were SUPPOSED to look goofy. Can you take their babyfaces seriously, even if you saw the claws?
And next week... Ooooh, yes.
Mark
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
If it has been the 7th Doctor (sneaky devious git that he was) we could say that he went back in time afterwards, hacked the UNIT web site and inserted buffalo as a backdoor that would only be active for a very short time window.
But this Doctor doesn't seem like the sort to do that type of thing.
However, it could well be a secret backdoor that the Doctor inserted at some point and maybe the password changed on a rapid basis - so that only a timelord could remember what the password was at a given time.
Or maybe it's simply evidence #267,761 that TV writers don't understand computers.
Posted by tricky (Member # 1402) on :
I suppose from a written and verbal script point of view, Buffalo is easier to remember, but this is Flare, and we don't accept such comprimise!
As to the aliens, why can't they look goofy? they're alien, therfore different, therfore look weird. If goofy looking aliens came down and offered us the answer (or question) to life the universe and everything, would we laugh them out of town, saying Lucas was more convincing?
Remeber they are also doing 13 episodes with the same money Enterprise did 3, and that wallpaper at No. 10 isn't cheap!
Now, I never saw any 7th Doctor eps - but that's the second intruiging thing I've heard about his regeneration.
The first I heard was a few years ago, that McCoy played him - and I guess was written that there was some secrets/more than meets the eye with that Doctor, that he could possibly be Rassilon (is that who - that important Gallifreyan figure)?
Were the eps with the 7th Doctor actually quite good?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
They started off a bit shakey and then got much, much better. And then the series was cancelled.
"Rememberence of the Daleks" is usually voted as one of the all-time greatest episodes ever.
A lot of the 7th Doctor's characteristics come from the novels produced after the series was cancelled. There they take a couple of hints fromt the show and expand on them massively. This Doctor is sneaky and manipulative - he sets things up years (and even centuries) in advance. This is partly the idea behind "Rememberence" which implies that the Doctor actually had a reason to be in 1960s London all those years ago, and he's only just now getting around to doing it.
(There are a number of people who don't like the books, since they are a bit of a victum of 90s comic book writing - characters are either full of angst, or getting over angst, or having angst thrown upon them. Phil Cornell is good though.)
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
From what I recall there was some kind of "master plan" for the 7th Doctor that did seem to be hinting at him being something beyond the ordinary Time Lord...all in all the 7th Doctor was shown to be more of a manipulator of events than his previous incarnations, and in one episode (if I'm remembering it right) left notes for his previous incarnation regarding the disposal of a powerful stellar manipulator.
7th Doctor eps were good - especially when they hinted at the slightly darker side of his nature. McCoy played him more as an alien, and actually managed to get across the sense that he had a perspective formed from centuries of experience, which left him quite frighteningly different from those around him.
As for who the Doctor was supposed to be, I think he was meant to be "The Other" - the third member of a triumvirate of powerful beings that founded Time Lord society, the other two being Rassilon and Omega. The Other (whose name is lost to time) kept the alliance together. I think they explored this in the books/audio adventures but never on screen. Maybe the Russel T Davies series will pick up on some of it.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
The Doctor mentions that he is over 900 years old - is this mentioned in any other episodes? Adding up all the time of the series - this doesn't really give us 900 years - does this mean that the 1st Doctor was quite a long lived Doctor? May the first Doctor not actually be the FIRST (re)generation?
(To summerise, the second Doctor was 450 and the 4th 750. The gaps can be argued by adventures lasting hundreds of years during those periods where the Doctor has no human companions or is travelling alone.)
"The Brain of Morbius" implies that the Doctor had regenerations before Hartnell. However, all other sources go completely against that, such as that bit in "The Five Doctors":
PersonWhoIsn'tHartnell: Regeneration? Davison: Fourth. PWIH: Goodness me, there are five of me now!
Plus:
PWIH: I am the Doctor. The original.
So yeah, he's definitely the 1st. And since we saw all the other regenerations, then McGann is definitely the 8th. You could argue that Ecleston might be a later number than 9, but we can only go up to 14 so there's not much of a ceiling there.
(Also also but, the 7th Doctor was 953 at the start of his "life", so the 9th is rounding. Incorrectly. Plus, this means we have to through away pretty much all the novels for both McCoy AND McGann.)
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: (Also also but, the 7th Doctor was 953 at the start of his "life", so the 9th is rounding. Incorrectly. Plus, this means we have to through away pretty much all the novels for both McCoy AND McGann.)
Didn't the 9th Doctor say something to Rose like "900 years of time and space and I've never been slapped" or something like that? Might imply that he has been out travelling for that long, which gives enough leeway for his age to be considerably higher...of course if I've misremembered the line that all goes out the window, but it's a possibility.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The sixth Doctor once emphatically states to Peri that he's a nine hundred year-old time lord. In "Time and the Rani", the seventh Doctor states his age as 953. Between the zillions of audio and book adventures the seventh and eighth Doctors had, most fans like to place the *actual* age of our hero at somewhere between 1100 and 1200 years old. RTD has already said "whoops" about the Doctor's age, though. It could be 900 Eraktadonion years, which are 1.25 Earth years, for all we know.
Mark
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
I recall reading somewhere that McGann's Doctor was placed at around 1100 years old, so that would tie in. As I say though it is possible the line in "World War III" just refers to the amount of time he has spent travelling and not his actual age, which allows for the line to stand and not clash with estimates of his age.
Besides, Eraktadonion years are 1.27 Earth years, come on, let's at least try to keep it accurate! ;-)
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
The lines in AoL are roughly: Doc9: 900 years of travelling and I've been slapped by someone's mother Rose: Did you say 900 years? Doc9: That's my age
So whilst the firt line is ambiguous the latter line is rather clearer.
Doc2 was 450 Doc3 spoke about having thousands of years of experience Doc4 was about 750 Doc6 was 900 Doc7 was 953
There are gaps where a lot of years could clock up:
Between Doc2 and Doc3. Yes really. There's a fan theory that Doc2 worked for the Timelords (probably the CIA) for sometime after The War Games and only later got regenerated. This would explain how Doc2 knew about events at the end of The War Games in the The Five Doctors, and why he looked so much older and was running errands for the Timelords in The Two Doctors.
Doc3: after he got the TARDIS working again he could easily have spent time adventuring on his own, always returning to UNIT HQ to check up on Jo and the Brig.
Doc4: was on his own or travelling with non-human companions several times so lots of room for extra years here.
Doc5: Unless Nyssa or Turlough had a longer than human lifespan there's no gaps here.
Doc6: A nice big gap after Trial of a Timelord. In the books he returns Mel to the proper place in her timeline. Travels on his own and with non-canon companions and then meets Mel for the 'first' time and later regenerates.
Doc7 and Doc8 of course have huge gaps (filled by many novels and auidos, which themselves have gaps).
But how does all this get back to 900 in AoL? Well... We know from Battlefield that the Doctor is Merlin. And Merlin ages backwards...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
The exact lines from "Aliens of London":
D: "Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother." ... R: "When you say 'nine hundred years'...?" D: "That's my age." R: "You're nine hundred years old?" D: "Yeah."
I suppose it could be argued that 900 years is the approximate amount of time he's been travelling, and it was just easier for him to say "age". Of course, we also know that the fourth Doctor and Romana both lied about their ages from time to time. Maybe he just doesn't want people to know he's past the big one-zero-zero-zero.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I'd go with that. I'm hesitant to use the "he could be talkign about Galifreyan years or whatnot" excuse because that's a far too easy way to explain everything. Besides, in Doctor Who terms are generally human terms unless otherwise explained.
If RTD has already said "oops", I can see them putting in a line where he admits his real age in a leter episode. Kinda like what hapened with the 4th Doctor, really.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)