Well, it's been 11 months since the Wedding of River Song, and Doctor Who is back with a bang!
Having watched it last night I’m just going to ramble in a sort of spoiler-y way (but I’ll try not to give anything away that you can’t guess from the trailers or the TV Times).
There’s a new re-tweaked opening sequence – it’s got more green in it and they have gone through the powerpoint fonts and picked a rubbish one.
The episode starts on Skaro – a planet the Doctor destroyed in 1987. Ok. So that sets up the Doctor ending up in front of the Parliament of the Daleks, which are now scary once again (“Eggs…”). But, hang on, how’s this Parliament thingy work? Where’s the Emperor (which Emperor for that matter), or even Davros (who usually ends up not quite as dead as the huge explosion would suggest).
Anyway, skirting round this for a moment, I’m wondering: has the Doctors voice changed a bit – he sounded a bit posher I thought.
The Ponds relationship is in trouble, with a slightly obvious but nicely dealt with story. The episode also thrust Rory into the peril this time instead of having Amy hog the limelight which is nice too. Also, Rory seems to have been attacked by some brilcream.
On the topic of companions, Jenna-Louise Coleman was very entertaining (and defiantly follows the tradition of “Something for Dad” in Doctor Who). She was good as the soufflé girl, if a tiny bit too smug and clever. There was a really nice twist at the end, which I’m sure a lot of people will claim they guessed, having spotted the problems with the supply of eggs, milk and planks of wood. Fortunately she had a whisk.
This all very entertaining but frankly confused me and made me ask only more questions, especially given that she will be playing the next companion. Oh, and “Entertainment Officer”, eh? Nudge nudge! Wink Wink!
Ahem.
Overall, it felt rushed. Moffat promised a 90 minute film condensed into 50 minutes. And he delivered just that – it all happened a bit too fast. There was an element of Pertwee to the episode – lots of scary, rushing around and most of the episode taking place in a corridor. But, the comparison with Pertwee also makes me think that there is something to be said for the original series episode format. Serials are good, or at least two parters (but not like Trial of a Timelord. And no Bonnie Langford).
I liked the dialogue – “The Nose and The Chin! You two should fence!” Funny because it’s true. “Explodey-wodey!” I probably should hate that but I didn’t.
Now, the main gripe. I was really quite disappointed that the massively bigged up and anticipated “Every Dalek ever seen” thing was brief. It was a bit like Wolf 359 all over again. Except it was in HD and now I’ve got Tivo so it took 10 minutes not 6 years to spot them all. There was also a nice scene where they name check the planets from about half a dozen Dalek serials (then we see those Daleks). And, yes, the Special Weapons Dalek is there!
This will sound like I’m contradicting myself, but the brief apperearences of the ‘scary Daleks’ later in the episode was very good, adding to the tone and keeping them scary. Russel T Davies take note: if you need to have gazzillions of Daleks, brevity helps. One Dalek is scary, five are terrifying, a million are dull (yes I’m still bitter).
The terrified Doctor was fantastic – I liked that a lot. And, remember “Silence will fall when the Question is asked”? Well it just was. And I predict it will be in every episode this year until the epic but tasteful series half finale. Any one care to wager a few quatloo?
So, in convoluted conclusion, no River Song = win! Smith + Gillian + Darvil are really good together, but JLC rather fantastic (despite the huge curveball). I’d really like to see how they resolve that ending for bringing her into the show.
Overall, 4 ½ out of 5 (and not simply because of the Special Weapons Dalek cameo).
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. The whole Amy/Rory relationship problem/solution seemed really, really contrived and improbable. Early on, right after the divorce-papers-signing, when that lightbulb was flickering, I thought it was going to turn out that there was some force influencing their behavior. Turns out it was just the Dalek make-up lady (who must have had some improperly-shielded electronics in her, or something?). Then, when we got the real explanation for their problems, it turned out to be... dumb.
And I thought the show was going to be getting away from the whole "Doctor does massive, universe-changing things all the time" thing. I'd say erasing the memory of him from every Dalek everywhere still counts as pretty large-scale.
Don't worry about not hating the "explodey-wodey" line. I'll hate it for the both of us.
Also disappointing is the fact that the promise of "every Dalek we've ever seen" turned out to simply mean "the VFX guys put in some overtime on this one shot". Then again, I'm not sure what I was expecting. It never seemed like a very interesting thing to promise in the first place.
To be fair, I did like a few things. I was surprised by the ending with Oswin. As soon as the Doctor went into Tennant Mode ("I'm so sorry"), I figured she was going to turn out to be a corpse hooked up to a computer or something, but I wasn't expecting her to be a fully fledged Dalek. Also, Rory's "eggs" scene was quite good. And the small exchange between the Doctor and the Dalek-woman on the parliament ship ("You had a daughter." "I know. I read my file."). I'm also looking forward to seeing how Coleman turns out as a companion. She put in a pretty good performance here.
Overall, though, a pretty disappointing episode. But next week : dinosaurs!
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
Really, that bad? I simply enjoyed it on face value, but I agree that dinosaurs can never be a bad thing, so here's hoping for next week.
I just got a copy of The Time Medder and The Hand of Fear, so I may well revise my score in the fullness of time, but as I say, for silly but entertaining romps this was most enjoyable.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
Overall, I liked this episode. Not the greatest Doctor Who episode ever, but it's certainly a lot better than some of the more recent Dalek episodes. (I'm looking at you, "Victory of the Daleks.")
What I Liked
Seeing Skaro again, if only briefly. Although the Dalek-shaped building was rather cheesy.
The new opening credits, mainly because it no longer looks like they cheaply crammed Arthur Darvill's name in-between Karen Gillian's name and the Doctor Who logo.
Oswin. Acted and written wonderfully.
The asylum itself and its inhabitants. Very creepy atmosphere, and I actually found the Daleks threatening again in this episode. (As opposed to pointing and laughing at "Victory of the Daleks" Mighty Morphin' Dalek Rangers.)
Amy's delusion of seeing the Daleks as dancers. Also very creepy.
What I Didn't Like
The Dalek "puppets". Seriously, what? Why do they keep insisting on giving the Dalek's goofy-looking flunkies? Well, at least they weren't pig-men. I mean, I guess they were meant to foreshadow Oswin's fate, but I would have bought it more if they didn't have goofy eyestalks coming out of their foreheads.
Also, the Doctor's immune to nanogenes now? My only response to that is "Are you my mummy?" Or are the Doctor and Amy now part Dalek?
Not sure what to think about the Daleks having their knowledge of the Doctor erased. I mean, since when do the Daleks have a hivemind? And is it just the Daleks at the Parliament who were affected? Feels like they just did that to get the Daleks to all ask The First Question, which can't possibly be a good thing...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I mean, since when do the Daleks have a hivemind?"
Yeah, I didn't get that, either. The whole thing about being able to hack into their memories sounded like something written by someone who doesn't realize that the Daleks are not robots.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Erasing a hivemind memory seems more like a Cyberman thing rather than a Dalek thing.
But, overall, I did rather enjoy this episode.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
It was okay, and the rest of the season thus far hasn't seemed as energetic as previous ones. Seems to harken back to the slower days of Tom Baker and others.
I haven't seen this weeks episode yet, but the previous weeks black box episode was, well, boring really.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I don't think it was a hivemind so much as cloud storage, which I think makes sense. I mean the should have a way to share information other than shouting at each other, no?
Still, I'm not exactly clear on how Daleks are supposed to work. Is it just a mutant squid-looking thing sat inside an elaborate prosthesis or is there anything in the way of a cybernetic interface? I mean having them operate everything manually seems a little crude.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Still, I'm not exactly clear on how Daleks are supposed to work. Is it just a mutant squid-looking thing sat inside an elaborate prosthesis or is there anything in the way of a cybernetic interface? I mean having them operate everything manually seems a little crude.
But that would go a long ways toward explaining their bad aim. You would think at least one of the millions would get a lucky shot and actually HIT ol' Doc.
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II:
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Still, I'm not exactly clear on how Daleks are supposed to work. Is it just a mutant squid-looking thing sat inside an elaborate prosthesis or is there anything in the way of a cybernetic interface? I mean having them operate everything manually seems a little crude.
But that would go a long ways toward explaining their bad aim. You would think at least one of the millions would get a lucky shot and actually HIT ol' Doc.
Ah, but they did get him once. Unfortunately all that happned was he regenerated into bloody David Tennant again - we was robbed!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: I don't think it was a hivemind so much as cloud storage, which I think makes sense. I mean the should have a way to share information other than shouting at each other, no?
It's possible they once did but had the connection severed after one of their countless enemies used it to upload a virus....possibly after watchinf Jeff Goldblum do it in a movie.
Goldblum is big with the Cybermen too...no clue why.
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
I liked the episode overall, but it did seem rushed. The Daleks are not my favorite opponents, honestly, but they were ok here. Though I didn't like the whole forehead stalk think either.
The Amy/Rory thing should have been extended for the rest of their mini-season, or not done at all. A one-show breakup was just silly.
I suspect the new companion will be a totally different character than the one she played here. Or the Doctor saves her while trying to rewrite time to save Amy, or who knows.
I really liked him being deleted from the database. It *was* contrived but they really needed to do it. He had gotten too famous, it was going to really limit future story options.
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