Yeah, he was damn near genocidal at the end of the series. One of the really neat things that was done in the seventh Doctor novels was the whole concept of how he was Time’s Champion, and he had to seriously get his hands dirty sometimes (and how that affects him eventually). Essentially, the remnants of the previous Doctors still reside in his head to some degree, and it turned out that Doctors 1-4, knowing that dark times were coming, banded together to suppress the fifth Doctor (since he was too nice and innocent and wouldn’t approve of what they planned), and more-or-less arranged the killing of the sixth Doctor, who was too unstable, to make way for the seventh Doctor, who would have the fortitude to Do What Must Be Done. It’s a nice explanation for how easily the sixth Doctor regenerated, and why the seventh became so deadly. It also led to a nice scene in the novels where the seventh Doctor was exploring his mindscape, and came upon the imprisoned fifth.
I was disappointed, as I have been with most of the ‘new’ stuff on TV over Christmas. The only redeeming feature was watching Kylie run around for an hour. It’s a shame she died, I don’t think I’m going to like having Catherine Tate as his new assistant.
I thought it was more of a flashy crowd-pleaser than an actual story. As a flashy crowd-pleaser, it did its job, I thought.
I’ll still be watching, of course, but I’m less sanguine about the show than I used to be. (Catherine Tate is vastly over-rated, IMO. As for La Minogue, the less said the better.)
That was fun. I kept thinking “Astrid’s too obvious, too obvious, too obvious. Who’s the next companion going to be??? Not Alonzo! Please let it be Alonzo! Don’t be silly, we still live on earth!”
I fell asleep after some rather nice sweet Spanish wine on Christmas Day, so I’m only getting around to watching this now.
First thoughts are “The Poseidon Adventure” meets (any) “Titanic” meets “Robots of Death”
Definitely better than “The Runaway Bride”, the best SF holiday tie-in I’ve seen (and that’s counting “Catspaw”, “The Star Wars Holiday Special” and that clip show of Buck Rodgers with Gary Coleman celebrating New Year ) So not as great as some regular episodes from the two most recent Doctor Who reincarnations, but for Christmas time and to tide us over till the new season, not too bad.
Credits roll and the new series seems to have some shooting, Catherine Tate being Catherine Tate, some old bad guys that have already been revealed to be Sontarans and UNIT. Roll on March
I just now got around to watch it and really enjoyed it - I was surprised that so many people on the internet seem to hate it. I thought it was campy adventure-flick fun which pleased me much more than last year’s angsty spider-fest.
OK, I did wince at the lack of subtlety of the Doctor-as-Jesus plotline and the ascending angels. But apparently contrary to many I enjoyed the Doctor-Kylie dynamics, I thought it was cute when she climbed onto that medical kit to kiss him (not that I blame her, time-lordy David Tennant in a tux, I’d whip out the mistletoe in a sec). And even though the slo-mo of Astrid dying was way over the top, I still sniffled a bit when she turned into the blue sparkly bits.
What I did not like too much was the new theme. Was that for the Christmas special only or are they keeping that for Season 4? Anyhow, that trailer looked great, too, I for one am excited.
Sure…the whole ball got rolling in Timewyrm: Revelation and more or less threaded throughout several books. The sixth Doctor book Millennial Rites is a big one. It culminates in Head Games where the sixth Doctor breaks out of “The Room With No Doors” in the Doctor’s mind and has it out with the seventh. That website there is one of the best reference works for Doctor Who, since just about every book there is out of print…
I’m not going to spoil my reply, as there’s a bunch of open spoilers here.
I think that maybe the Doctor was smart enough to see that Mr. Copper (?) actually was thrilled to be staying on Earth with enough money to have a home of his own and just settle down for the rest of his life happily. To me, the Doctor gave him what he really wanted. YMMV
As far as the rest of it goes I liked it. It was harmless fun. And it was really nice that these people weren’t human even if they looked it. And the whole thing with the Queen made me laugh and laugh. I guess I’m just easily amused.
As soon as Astrid asked to go with the Doctor, my roommate said, “Oh, she’s going to die.”
