Everything points at The Master (particularly with “last words to the traveler” revelation), but it would be kind of cool if that were a red herring. Still, the whole “masquerading as X politic leader” plot is the Master’s schtick, at least among male Timelords.
Though personally I’m hoping the climax will revolve around whatever other Timelord(s) are left trying to revive the entire civilization with some crazy paradoxical plot. In that context it could be anyone from Barus (how dead is he?) to Chronotis (who should still be alive, by the way, since he was all retired and stuff) to fucking Rassilon.
I’m sick of the “curse of living a long time” thing in scifi shows. Yeah, it sucks if you’re the only one. But not if you build a machine that lets everyone do it!
Considering that the main character of the series is someone who is living under that curse, I dunno how it’s an out of place story. Wanting to live forever, whether it is literally or figuratively is something almost every human wants to do.
Hm… I guess if Chronotis were going to be anybody, he’d be “The Professor,” another apparently-important upcoming character. I hope have the rights to use him - I have a certain fondness for the character thanks to Dirk Gently.
(Chronotis also has my favorite take on the immortal character - eternal life, but not so eternal memory, leading to all kinds of confusion about the time period and absentmindedness)
Other than the covenient naming of the antagonist, I thought The Lazarus Experiment was pretty good (and not just because it followed that wretched Dalek two-parter). Ethical and philosphical deliberations. Continuity references. A big hairy monster and his scorpion alter ego. I’d easily give it an 8 on the 7-9 scale.
I’ve said this before, but I really feel this way now: I hope Saxon isn’t the Master. It would be almost anticlimactic at this point, and I want Mr. Shrinkray’s return to big and loud and in your face.
I also don’t think the guy we saw tonight was Saxon. Partly because I think they’re still playing with red herrings, but mostly because I still want Anthony Stewart Head to be cast as the Master. I’ve watched School Reunion several times, and ASH doesn’t burn when splattered with oil like the other Krillitanes. Therefore, he’s the Master in disguise! He’s leading the Krillitanes in the search for ultimate power! And the Doctor doesn’t recognize him because…he’s masked by the Krillitane DNA! Yeah! That’s it!
And because “Harold Saxon” is an anagram of “Darn Hoax SOL,” we’re obviously being misled that this year’s Big Bad is a Time Lord.
I sometimes wish the new show would use time travel as more than a McGuffin once in a while. spoiler
When Martha was on that pod floating towards the sun, I was kind of hoping the Doctor would just forget about her and solve the rest of the crisis, and then just pick the pod up in the TARDIS after the fact.
/spoiler
Other than that it was a decent episode, though, though.
The 1995 book Human Nature, written by Paul Cornell and being adapted into the two episodes by the author, was pretty decent from what I remember of it. It may have played better with the seventh Doctor, who at the time was trying to escape how much of a manipulative bastard he had become.
In some ways, that means the story may have been better suited for the 9th versus 10th Doctor as he was more freshly haunted by his past than the present incarnation.
I’ve also heard that the first episode of the two-parter will even reference the 8th Doctor’s movie, and from the plot of book, I’m guessing it’s going to be in regards to the “I’m half-human, on my mother’s side” line.
The BBC, by the way, normally has Human Nature available in their downloadable ebook series, but the link is currently dead, presumably to not spoil the upcoming episode.
I thought this week’s episode was o.k., but really felt like an inferior rip off of the Impossible Planet two parter from last season, brought down even further by the contributions of Torchwood’s lead writer.
Like the spin-off, it constantly featured characters acting obliviously, rebelliously, incompetently and inanely despite apparently grave danger - e.g. the “tool getter” griping about being told to help as if she’d rather go read a book or complain to her union rep…and some completely nonsensical plot devices:
Why are there 29 locked doors to the auxilary power? Why are they only unlocked by trivia questions? Why did nobody bother to write the answers down if they were so crucial - oh yeah, everyone’s incompetent and unprofessional in Torchwood’s world. If the Doctor can survive outside the space ship so close to the sun just wearing a space suit, why doesn’t he just put on the space suit and enter the room with the TARDIS, which is surely a tad cooler, and just get everyone out of there.
They’ve also really got to stop making David Tennant’s Doctor omniscient - in the past, the Doctor wouldn’t just “automatically immediately know” everything (such as that the sick guy was infected, and that he couldn’t be cured), he was just a really smart guy who would figure things out through investigation and deduction.
Lazy, lazy, lazy writing. This season badly needs at least a single episode that’s knocked out of the park.
I rather enjoyed this week’s episode, especially the reference to John Smith’s parents, Sydney and Verity, as well as the drawings of the previous incarnations.
Still, anyone else find themselves waiting for Baines to try and cut open some heads with his telekinetic finger?
I was personally wondering when Baines was going to pull out a bow. :P (and I think the Nottingham reference was a little shoutout to that show.)
I liked the episode, but stories like that frustrate me because it involves people doing stupid things.
(spoiler)
"Yes, this watch contains everything about me, it’s really important, so leave it out somewhere where anyone can steal it and turn themselves into a Time Lord … "
Something very cool from the Gallifrey forums was a .gif that someone made to show which Doctors were on the page of the journal:
the scarecrows sucked. If I am an evil futuristic space alien, I would bring cougars to life, or elephants. Or if nothing better was around, alsations. I would avoid anything that lumbered along really slowly so people can run away. Even animating hamsters would be better from a pursuit POV.
Notwithstanding some minor quibbles (if the damn watch is so important, why wouldn’t Martha hold it at all times on her person?), I thought it was a solid episode - certainly the best in the season since the opener and the Shakes Code episodes.
Loved the past references - definitely drawing in more lore to the show, which they’ve been pretty slow to do since the relaunch. Was kind of nice to see the 8th Doctor from the American TV pilot actually get “canonized” by being on the show for the first time (although obv already recognized in the audio books, etc.).
