posted
Thoughts!?! I can't believe no one has posted anything about it yet.
It was AS GOOD if not BETTER than last week's episode which I think was a new series high!
Gallifrey looked beautiful.
I was WAITING for that Rogue Traders song to start somewhere in the episode!! Funny thing is - it has been lurking in the back of my head everytime I thought about the 'upcoming episode: "the sound of drums".
I LOVE having Jack there makes it more of a TEAM.
What has the TARDIS been turned into? Is this something we've come across before in Dr. Who??
I'm expecting somehow that we have a change in the timelines occuring to bring things back to normal... SURELY? They could go out on EXTREME cred for this season if they didn't, though!
Do we normally give ratings??
5 out of 5!
Andrew
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
I thought it was a fairly typical RTD script... unnecessarily childish humour in places and daft references(that music! argh!). Not nearly as good as Human Nature or Blink, which proved that Doctor Who can be mature and intelligent and still grip the attention of children.
Still, it was nice and actiony and kept you wondering what would happen next, so it wasn't bad.
The shots of Gallifrey were fantastic and unexpected. I always thought their vivid descriptions sufficed, but it was great to see it for real.
Didn't like the Valiant.. was that supposed to be a reference to Captain Jack/Scarlet? It seems like more of a blatant rip-off than a homage.
Nice to see some backstory on the Master of course! And his manic antics seemed quite fitting. The opening and closing of the door with the screaming woman was a bit lame, though.
The last episode is bound to end with some sort of reset. The Doc has to be young again without regenerating and millions of humans have to be brought back to life. Don't they? Oh and presumably we'll hear more about that Utopia ship and the reavers?
quote:Originally posted by Johnny: I thought it was a fairly typical RTD script... unnecessarily childish humour in places and daft references(that music! argh!). ... Oh and presumably we'll hear more about that Utopia ship and the reavers?
Couldn't agree more with you, except that I quite liked the Valiant (I'm a bit young to remember Captain Scarlet), and something tells me that the reavers and Utopia ship will be forgotten. I was expecting at least a half episode of the Doctor and co trapped in the future whilst they figured out how to go back. Instead, that aspect of the story was over in 30 seconds flat. See my comments on the previous episode for how I feel about the pacing of these episodes. The music was a truly terrible choice, but I dislike pop music as a rule. Interestingly, the rythm of the drums reminds me of Lateralus by Tool, which might give you an idea of my usual musical leanings.
Overall, as per usual, not a bad episode per se, but enough annoying bits to drag down my opinion. I thought last week's was much better. 3/5.
Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by AndrewR: What has the TARDIS been turned into?
If find it interesting that the Doctor's reaction is that the Master has built a paradox machine. Just what a paradox machine does is anyone's best guess, but what came to my mind was the story from the first series (revival first series that is) where Rose creates a paradox by saving her father resulting in sterilization of the wound. Note was also made how the Timelords would have stopped the substerilization from happening... ...it did make me wonder if that's what we're seeing here, and the Master is attempting to restore things he shouldn't. Just what I don't know, but a clever writer could use this to restore the timeline to one where the Timelords aren't dead...
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Not Invented Here: I was expecting at least a half episode of the Doctor and co trapped in the future whilst they figured out how to go back. Instead, that aspect of the story was over in 30 seconds flat. See my comments on the previous episode for how I feel about the pacing of these episodes. The music was a truly terrible choice, but I dislike pop music as a rule. Interestingly, the rythm of the drums reminds me of Lateralus by Tool, which might give you an idea of my usual musical leanings.
Mmm, I was expecting the gang to be stuck in the future for longer, but we all knew the time bracelet thing would be their way out, so it's probably for the best that they got through that quickly. I just hope the world isn't saved by a retuning of the sonic screwdriver and a couple of seconds of buzzing.
posted
I agree that the music was annoying, but I would have to go further and say that the most annoying thing about it was the fact that it was diegetic. It wasn't part of the score. The Master was actually playing a recording of the song in the room. That's just dumb.
Also, I realize the Time Lords were always a bit daft, but are we really supposed to believe that they regularly take their children and force them to stare into something that's known to cause criminal insanity? (I do like the fact that they used the established Time Lord outfits, rather than writing them off as too silly for modern television. Which they are, a bit.)
Did anyone else think something was off about the "100 years" that the Doctor aged? In only 100 years, a Time Lord shouldn't age nearly that much. I'm not sure he should have looked much older at all.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I thought the time-lord outfits were PERFECT... and they were the grand leather-type collars - not those wimpy looking ones we saw some of the Timelords wear in the Trial of a Timelord series.
The responses so far have been less than positive - I'm disappointed people - this was a REALLY good episode. ESPECIALLY for a second episode and even more-so that it is the middle of a three-parter... they usually fall flat in most shows. Look at "The Circle" in DS9's Homecoming/The Circle/The Seige.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
I found that things were a bit too rushed in this episode. Especially everything aboard the Valiant at the end... Way too quick. I think that maybe Doctor Who could benefit from a change in organization and have at least 20 episodes per season so that arcs like this could be spread out over more episodes.
That being said, I really like everything else in this episode. Martha's mom being such a bitch the entire season and then realizing that the man she hated so much and tried to get rid of may be the only one who can save them all... Nice touch. It'll be interesting seeing how Martha will pull off saving Jack and the Doctor on her own.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
i really liked it. Unlike some other three-parters that come to mind (like PotC2), this wasn't just filler, and we got some great insights into the background of the Master, Jack and especially Martha and her family. I was truly moved when Martha's dad defiantly revealed the Master's plan and tried to escape, and her mum's subsequent realization that in trying to help her daughter she was in fact helping the bad guys all along. Martha's "I'll do what I like!" line was also well delivered and I think the first time a companion has really lipped off to the Doctor quite like that.
Loved the Gallifrey stuff - there's a million touches in those few moments that will take the fandom ages to work out. Note for example that the classic high-collared Galligreyan robes are back, but so too are their predecessors - the kid Master in the flashback is wearing a version of the robes worn by the Time Lords in "The War Games".
And thank goodness for this episode effectively de-canonizing the looming thing... We basically establish that Gallifreyans are in fact born into families and at some point are genuinely young. This is probably before whatever process is done to them that makes them Time Lords, if that is in fact how it's done - some say that All Time Lords are Gallifreyans, but not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords, implying that upon becoming a Time Lord you are granted your twelve regenerations (or more in the Master's case). In any case, the Master confirms taht he was "resurrected" from whatever his last fate was (be it getting sucked into the Eye of Harmony, or after whatever evil schemes he had going in the novels) to fight in the Time War. Oddly, the Time Lords didn't tell the Doctor this, and they fought on the same side through most of the War until the Dalek Emperor took control of the cruciform (whatever that was, but it sounds WAY COOL). So this is at least the second incarnation of the "new" Master's body.
Hey, did anyone notice that immediately after they arrived back on Earth, the Doctor and Jack were moving identially? They both cricked their necks, they both walked down the street the same way, and right after that they both were sitting in pretty much the same way too.
Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
So I caught up on all of season three this weekend... and yeah, I have to agree with what was said above. It's typical RTD, and thusly really needs to work on the pacing. I expect part three to be hackneyed and a giant deus ex, as usual... and still be very entertaining and still worth watching.
posted
Come to think of it, I fear the finale to be a retread of sorts of the Torchwood finale, where everything is bleak, people are dying by the bucketfull, and the the heroes pull a quick solution out of their butts to save the day - the process resetting the world so that the Toclafane aren't killing over 600 million people.
And just who ARE the Toclafane? Well, the TARDIS might be translating for us, and they might just be little mnufactured bodies the Master conjured up, but the Toclafane POV showed standard numbers on their red reticle screens. One popular theory is that the Toclaface are the humans who went to Utopia, and the Master's pardox machine will allow them to kill their own ancestors and get away with it. Who knows?
posted
I also wondered if they might be the Utopia rocketship passengers. There certainly were enough of them and when the Doc asked what they really were, the Master replied that if he knew, it'd break his hearts. After all, if it weren't for the Doc, the rocket never would have launched and the inevitable bloodbath that follows him around wouldn't have happened.
posted
When the Doctor's around, all hell ALWAYS breaks loose... To the point where, in "The Doctor Dances", the man was ecstatic that for once absolutely no one died as a result of his being there.
You know, the more I think about the Toclafane, the more I'm convinced that this had to do with the whole Utopia setup. A mysterious signal from beyond remaining space, summoning the downtrodden, hope-free human masses to potential salvation... There to be converted into li'l floaty balls of death. If someone wanted an army, that's one way to do it. It's been done before, but by Davies already, so repeating it would be par for the course for him...
posted
It would work well with where one of the Toclafane speaks of "the darkness coming" or something along those lines to the Master if they were the Utopia humans. No doubt people threatened by the very end of time itself would go to desperate measures to survive, especially if manipulated by the Master...who while being a war-obsessed lunatic, has always been shown as incredibly persuasive.
Registered: Jul 2006
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Funny thing is - it has been lurking in the back of my head everytime I thought about the 'upcoming episode: "the sound of drums".![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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