It is, however, the best of the Christmas episodes thus far. The villain is funny, and not in a stupid way, the temporary characters are good, the pacing is good, and the requesite Christmas Doctor speech about how he’s a badass is well-placed. All in all, a fun episode, if nothing to write home about.
They showed an extensive preview of next season, with lots of screen time for Catherine Tate.
I thought it was a mediocre story in a beautiful set. Very Bioshock-y atmosphere. And Kylie Minogue in a servant’s uniform is always a good thing to watch.
But it didn’t have any emotional impact, as opposed to the way he ended Harriet Jones’ political career two years ago.
I will say though, after having watchd the “Titanic” crash through the wall so many times, it really doesn’t serve any purpose at all.
Also, if it’s a spaceship, the where does the life preserver come from?
And speaking of nits, If “A million pounds is worth 50 Million Credits” then “5,000 Credits” is only worth 100 Pounds. Doesn’t seem like it’s worth Foon getting upset about that amount of money, now does it?
Kitch? Decoration? Flair?
Wow, thought I’d be late to the party on this one, but it looks like the party never started.
In all, a 6 out of 10 on the RTD scale. I know that last year’s special had a lot of detractors, but I think this one was…well, not necessarily worse, but not as exciting. I respectfully disagree with the Right Honorable Cosmic Hippo on the pacing. They could have cut this back to its regular 40-ish minute length and made for a tighter episode. Just cutting one or two folks from falling to their deaths could have shaved off five minutes, easy.
Other thoughts:[ul]
[li]Kylie Minogue was likable, though I’m glad we’re saved another year of a companion being in love with the Doctor. The real tragedy of her death was that the slow-mo montage of forklift vs. robohead was unintentionally hilarious.[/ul][ul][/li][li]This year’s “Don’t fuck with me; I’m the Doctor” monologue was less offensive, though equally as gratuitous.[/ul][ul][/li][li]Romana rumors aside (please don’t start fighting again), the Doctor has seen more action in the last two years than he’s gotten in the previous 901. Well, except for siring one of Susan’s parents, of course.[/ul][ul][/li][*]I’m sick of the Doctor declaring “I travel alone” and then picking up a new sidekick the next day. Has he not had enough heartbreak recently? There better be a damn good reason why he allows Catherine Tate to tag along. And I mean more than her entertainment value.[/ul]As for the Children in Need special: “brilliant.” A great tweaking of the changes brought to the character during the Davison era while remaining a heartfelt love letter to the Fifth Doctor. When Tennant says, “You’re my Doctor,” I wonder whether it’s him or Moffat speaking. Perhaps it’s both.
It’s Catherine Tate, but Martha Jones will also be showing up for a slate of episodes, and I believe Rose will be appearing in 4.
While I loved the opportunity to bring back an old Doctor, the angry-shouty Doctor bits came across as having been more in line for the 6th rather than the 5th.
Granted, it’s been some time since I’ve gone through Davison’s years, but I seem to remember his loud bits having far more of a pleading tone with them and not the “you’re an idiot” tone seems more common with Baker’s 6th.
As for the latest Christmas special, well, that was entirely too dark for the holiday in my opinion. As previously mentioned, they could have cut the number of deaths in half and used the time for better things. There were also wasted minutes wrapped up in RTD’s political messages wrapped up in the cyberphobia bits as well.
I don’t have as much of a problem with the Doctor going on about how he “travels alone” while doing everything he can to get a new companion, because it feels like the kind of self-denial about being lonely thing the Doctor would do since Susan was left behind by the 1st Doctor.
As for Tate, while I don’t particularly like the actress or just how obnoxious her character seems to be, it’ll be nice to hopefully get away from the love-struck Martha for a bit and get some of the angry Tegan Jovanka yelling at the Doctor scenes back in the Tardis.
Yeah, I get that, and I know it’s a hallmark for the series, especially now that he’s a cosmic orphan. But there was the heartbreak with Rose, Captain Jack’s transformation into a cursed immortal, and now his new pal dies before he can even say the word “companion.” If he isn’t thinking that it’s too dangerous for people to travel with him these days, he should be.
Basically what I’m saying is that I’d like to see him struggle with it a bit more than he has in the past. It makes him look monstrously selfish otherwise.
Four episodes of Rose?
Ugh.
There go my hopes that she was just going to show up to get run over by a car.
Just started watching again. The notebook sketches in the eighth episode of Season 3 are fascinating.
Edit: http://i26.tinypic.com/110kaqb.png, http://i27.tinypic.com/2ptnwi1.png, http://i26.tinypic.com/hu3vyq.png
Anyone else spot the lantern placements in episode 3.12 and 3.13? They weren’t brass, but still seemed suggestive of creeping geekiness unless I just happen to be primed for it.
No, do tell
Well it probably doesn’t add up to much, but I enjoyed the references anyway.
Ep. 12, 23:38
In some warehouse at night, sitting on a table next to The Doctor, as he works on stuff and later tells his friends a story about the timelords (numerous shots of it in this scene).
Ep. 13, 1:18-1:29
On a shore somewhere at night, held by Thomas Milligan as he signals and guides a ship carrying Martha Jones to a rendezvous point on the beach.
Ep. 13, 25:54
In a house at night, some misc. person holds it as Martha talks about The Doctor.
I’ve been watching the 2005+ run of Doctor Who off Amazon Prime lately, just finished up the 2007 season. I never really sat down and watched the older shows, just caught an episode here and there. But damn, I love what they did in the late 2000s. It’s the perfect mix between campy, comedic, and serious. Even when there’s callbacks to the older series that I have to look up, it’s good fun. Makes a darn good superhero show (yes, that’s what the Doctor is, alien-origin version) and I’m very happy that Prime has everything up to 2015 so I have plenty more to watch.