posted
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
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
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".
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
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...
"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.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
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?
posted
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.
-------------------- "My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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!
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
posted
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?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
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.)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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.
-------------------- Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Registered: Nov 2004
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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?
Andrew
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
(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.)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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