Slightly longer thoughts

[binidj]

There may be more later but, in a nutshell ...

The reality bomb was a toss weapon.
Daleks like to make more Daleks and more spaceships and more weapons. In order to do this they need materials from conquered planets using slave labour to extract and process said materials. If they destroy all matter in the multiverse then there will be no more Daleks, no progress, nothing to aspire to ... the Daleks aren't that stupid.

Testing a weapon designed to destroy all matter in the multiverse inside your own mothership is dumbness on an epic scale ... testing it on a frightened bunch of Humans is largely pointless.

Supposedly the Daleks are a match for the timelords¹ so why would they include/tolerate a remote control device in Davros' chamber? The whole point of Daleks is that they aren't machines! They are malicious and alive and choose to be the way they are. The idea of a comedy remote control device is just ludicrous.

Catherine Tate doing a very very poor David Tennant impression ... no.

The whole Human/Timelord hybrid stuff ... no.

Ruining a superb ending by giving Rose a sex toy clone ... no.²

For all the hoo ha, the companions seemed, in the end, largely irrelevant ... the only one that mattered to the story was the gurning horror.³

The Osterhagen key was superb, it would have been much better had there been a plea for time from the Doctor rather than a cheesy teleport trick.

Sarah Jane's amulet proved to be utterly worthless (and now destroyed) so clearly RTD thinks that his Deus ex Machina is more important than The Sarah Jane Adventures' plot.

Having Donna choose to die as who she had become rather than return to what she was would have been a more powerful ending (in my opinion) than the Doctor ignoring her choice and wiping her mind.

The whole Earth-towing incident wasn't a bad thing necessarily⁴ but it was largely unnecessary. I don't think it worked in a dramatic sense, in a narrative sense or in a special effects sense.

Long story short ... Deus ex Machina is a rubbish habit to get into, and the double episode was chock-full of it.


¹ Otherwise why is it that the much-lauded Time War wasn't over in five minutes, ending with the timelords giggling off into the distance?
² s0b I have to acknowledge that sometimes a happy ending isn't appropriate ... or actually happy.
³ Catherine Tate ... for those who weren't paying attention.
⁴ Though the way it was done sucked ... should have vanished and reappeared in a cosmic FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I think they missed a massive trick by not letting Donna die; imagine what the conversation with her grandfather would have been like? Especially if he was grateful to the Doctor for giving her the chance to be more than 'a temp from Chiswick'.

I think that would have ripped the Doctor in two.

All goes to show that RTD couldn't do subtle if he was slapped around the face with a subtlefish.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Oh - and I still think that it would have been better if 'Rose' was actually the manifestation of the TARDIS rather than having a breakdown between the worlds again.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

That manifestation of the TARDIS idea would have made the 'Bad Wolf' introduction at the end of 'Turn Left' actually have some relevance.

Since she was just Rose, where the hell did all the Bad Wolf stuff come from, or did she do that at the end of season 1 and forget when Eccles snogged the vortex out of her?

It makee no sense!

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Agreed 100% (to both posts)

[evil-chalkie.livejournal.com]

With you all the way chaps.
Maybe a handicam shot fan based episode where the studio gets invaded and shooted RTD.....

Opinion from the outside

[tony (from livejournal.com)]

So I don't really watch Dr. Who, but we caught this episode as we were mooching in the lounge. Catherine Tate - how annoying is she! Every time she uttered a line it dragged me away from the scene and made me want to go and wash my ears. If we don't want to be reminded of her well known characters then she needs to try and play something totally different. Obviously, not watching the series I can't really comment on whether everything else hung together. However, I do feel qualified to comment on whether it was entertaining, interesting and worth watching.

And the answer is not really. Turning the daleks into a subject of ridicule seems to defeat the purpose, having Tate do it while spouting techno-babble turned it into a sketch from Not the Nine O'Clocks News. The two 'we'll destroy everything' plot devices coming to nothing, the Tardis taking ages to die without any defences, the dialog, the terrible static acting, all piled up to make me wonder what anyone sees in the series.

Really not very good TV imho.

Re: Opinion from the outside

[jfs.livejournal.com]

But when it's good (Blink, Girl in the Fireplace, actually pretty much any Moffat episode) it's very, very good.

And I think you're being a little unfair expecting an episode to stand on its own; especially the end of series finale.

Re: Opinion from the outside

[tony (from livejournal.com)]

I understand why you may feel I'm being unfair, but I'm pretty used to watching individual episodes of episodic TV programmes. I'm used to wondering what roles everyone has and who they are, and why they came together.

But it should still be possible for it to be entertaining. When I saw the hand in a jar and the creation of the half-human-half-timelord thing I just accepted it, because I assume there's some pre-amble I missed. However, the acting, the dialog and the atmosphere of the episode should be able to stand alone.

I cringed when Tate started wizzing the Dalek's around, I cringed when they wheeled one out of the room with glee. I wondered when the Tardis would finally blow up after being immersed in that huge ball of weird energyness, despite the fact that it was evident to me it couldn't blow up without some major issues later, it was still badly handled in the episode.

I'm not condemning the entire series based on one episode, but I do believe an episode can be entertaining even if you've never watched the series.

Re: Opinion from the outside

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Simple answer is to watch any of the episodes written by Stephen Moffat. He really gets good storytelling and, thankfully will be the new Head of Series come the 2010 season.

Re: Opinion from the outside

[tony (from livejournal.com)]

Well, I liked Press Gang :) I wonder how the Tintin stuff will turn out.

[hortorum.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Pretty much with you the whole way.

Know what it reminded me of? An outgoing plot-team/GM going full on to tie up all their loose ends because they are THEIR loose ends whether or not leaving some stuff for the next guy would make sense.
The cloned doctor thing, on reflection, I think that a gang of fan/slashficcers broke into RTD's office and slipped some Marysue juice into his latte.

The setup of the penultimate episode COULD have made the finale into something AWESOME (JFS' idea about Badwold/Rose for example).

You're bang on the money about Daleks and their aims - They are Nazi's - Self declared supreme beings who want to exerminate all lesser races and competition not blow stuff up, just because.
Testing the wangmangletron on human prisoners was just pulling the wings off flies and Daleks don't do that because Daleks couldn't even frame the concepts required.

Davros though? Davros salvaged the episode for me. His whole thing about the soaring, olympian heights of the Doctor's hypocrisy was perfect... Never carry a gun? Turn people into weapons though...

Donna? Love or hate KT, that ending for the character blew goats. At least give her the choice the Gods gave Achilles, to die a hero or live a long and unremarked life. Better still to have her regenerate into someone else with most of Donna's memories and have fun with THAT storyline.

Towing the earth? I was expecting something messianic out of a RTD episode, so this wasn't as bad as I expected... I mean the choral music wasn't too full on and there were not hordes of seraphim giving the Doctor a tongue baptism as the TARDIS flew through space.

The 6 pilots thing was a nice touch though, liked that.


I'd be ashamed to end a campaign arc in a game I was GMing on an episode like this and when good fanfic beats what the author produces, it really is time to go.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Davros was, indeed, genius ... the characterisation had echoes of the Emperor in Revenge of the Sith in terms of the way he manipulated emotions ... great performance, lovely stuff.

Absolutely with you on the Donna/Achilles thing, it would have been so much better.

And yes, six pilots was very cool, even telling Jackie not to touch anything was cool.

There was good stuff in the episode, it's just that it was eclipsed by the toss.

[hortorum.livejournal.com]

We just need to get through 2009 and then hopefully spend 2010 hiding behind the sofa as the man who gave us Empty Child and Blink scares the bejazus out of us from the command chair.

I do like the fact that the hero of that episode was, in a way, a Dalek :-)

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

Yes...well it was a bit crap wasn't it.
I can imagine RTD describing the story (often a good way of telling if a story is badly thought out, because it starts to sound even crappier).

"..and then its revealed that Sarah Jane has this magic amulet thingy that can save the day all along-only it doesn't work, but Martha has a key thingy that will work by blowing the earth up-only they don't get to use it-and then K9 appears and he has a doo-dah that can interface with another thingy to save them all, only actually it doesn't really, though it helps a bit. And then... (starting a sentence with "and" because I am starting to suspect RTD might actually do that)...well, the first time the dr. didn't regenerate he got effectively cloned (so its not really an anti-climax after all but really very very clever see), but a bit of the clone thingy goes into Donna as well but it doesn't really happen because it needs to be activated, and it just happens that Davros attacking her does this which is handy and cool, and so she becomes a Dr.Donna mix (only she gets his brains which is cool, cause his willy would look stupid on her) and when both the real dr.s fail she suddenly goes all like the dr. see and knows that there are levers she can flip that solve everything! Imagine that-just flipping all those levers destroys the Daleks and saves everyone! Of course she knows this because she is Dr.Donna now and knows exactly what all the Dalek levers do. Brilliant isn't it?"

short answer...no.

As for towing the earth with the Tardis... I was just amazed that after all that shaking about people's fridge contents were still intact and there was no mess anywhere at all. Good to know that us earthlings approach to the trauma of having our planet abducted and then rushed through space back home is to go tidy up and clean the fridge before sending the kids into the park to play while we go for a stroll. You can't keep us humans down for long!

It was "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing". I hope Moffat will prove to be as good in RTDs shoes as he has been writing. The series needs him.

Having said that-Daleks speaking German made sense, had a certain irony, and worked well. Plus the special effects were pretty and several people did some good acting (most notably Cribbins and Sladen).

Exterminieren! Exterminieren!

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for giving me the first giggle of the day. Your plot pitch deserves an oscar.

Let us not forget Julian Bleach's performance as Davros. He hit just the right notes for me and was beautifully written. Almost as if RTD had used up his allowance of cool on him alone.

Re: Exterminieren! Exterminieren!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I agree- he did indeed do Davros justice.

That sort of thing is what keeps me watching actually- even though I have found many things intensely frustrating of late in the series, there are still either glimmers of brilliance or some classic well written episodes to keep my hopes up!

What has been striking me more than anything is how much the hour long format is a problem for so many writers though. Watch almost any other show and they manage to get all they need into that time without it feeling out of control or rushed. I think the big problem is that RTD always has 'big ideas' that he can't convey simply and elegantly. Such big ideas, while noble and brave, need either great skill (which I have come over several series to believe he has never really possessed) or a degree of modest and humble scaling back to get across in a small space. They also require a lighter but more consistent touch in how other writers are managed, so they can be gently introduced and expressed for maximum effect. I hope that Moffat can prove he is capable of that, or that he wisely pulls back on his ambition if cannot do so. Simple stories well told often have more power than the polemics of a sledgehammer.

Some Bureau42 discussion

[tony (from livejournal.com)]

Plenty of spoilers but no more so than this comment thread I guess,

http://www.bureau42.com/view/4576

seems like some people enjoyed it ...

Re: Some Bureau42 discussion

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I have found rather a lot who liked it- but what has struck me more and more is that while Moffat seems to be able to write 'chocolate cake' episodes (i.e. almost everyone likes them a lot), RTD has consistently produced 'Marmite' ones that have resulted in a very strong and unhelpful polarisation amongst fans of the show.