It was a mess, no question about it, and I’m tired of being able to paint themselves out of a corner with this episode being the worst of the bunch. I liked that they remember about the ufos and the cybermen-ghosts, but I guess if that was the permanent future, it would be tough to make ‘current day’ episodes difficult to identify with.
That said, there was a lot I loved about the series. I’m not gay, but more Captain Jack is always a good thing, and the Face of Boe tie-in was wonderful. Seeing the Master ‘beat’ the Doctor by dying was fantastic. The tie-in between two plots of Utopia and Saxon, although a bit ham-handed, I did enjoy. Seeing the Jones’ family back together, although a bit campy, did get me a bit weepy, and hell, I LOVE the teaser for the Christmas episode like I loved the mystery bride showing up last season (and not knowing the actress, I wasn’t biased into being annoyed by her for years).
I will be the first to admit that RTD’s writing is generally the weakest of the bunch, but didn’t he help get the series back on the air in the first place? If that’s so, his sometimes off writing is a small price to pay to have the Doctor back at all (although he still deserves 20 lashes for Love & Monsters).
So yeah, add me to the list of those who enjoyed the episode and don’t understand the hate for it. I didn’t even mind the “Everyone think Doctor at the same time” bit, because at least there was a bit of psuedo-science behind it, what with the Archangel satellites and all - wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it sound. Jack being the Face of Boe is a bit odd, but hell, it’s Doctor Who, I can pretty much buy anything they throw at me.
Best parts were definitely the Master’s death and Martha’s exit, although I could have gone without her going back in just to reiterate that she looooves the Doctor and the main reason she’s leaving is that he just refuses to loooove her back, dammit. I did like his whole “Is this going somewhere?” snark to her story about her friend, though, because I was pretty much thinking the same thing.
The Master’s death…just, ouch. Such a bummer to see such a great character go so soon, I really wish they’d introduced him much earlier this season. And poor Doctor…here he thought he was going to have an Evil Time Lord Buddy/Pet with him till the end of time, and Lucy has to go and cock things up.
Things I want to see next season:
The Two Doctors on the Titanic!!! Nine mentioned that he was on the Titanic, and I’m hoping against hope that they won’t just ignore that and that maybe Chris was talked into coming back for just one episode, because dear lord how much would that rock!!! Tennant and Eccleston, in the same room…I think my screen would melt.
Non-crushy companion. All it does is drive home how different and special the relationship with Rose was, and both me and the Doctor need to get over that girl, so I’m hoping maybe an older woman or a guy will be the next companion.
Some planets other than Earth. Please. I don’t care if they are just rock quarrys, I’m so sick of Earth and New Earth, I could cry.
Wouldn’t that create a pair o’docs?
But seriously, I predict that it won’t be the real Titanic. It’s some sort of illusion. I predict the return of The Mind Robber, or The Celestial Toymaker.
I don’t recall him actually saying that he was on the Titanic. I remember that the guy Rose found on the internet in the first episode said that The Doctor had prevented a family from getting on the ship, which would imply that he was around at the time, but not on the ship itself.
ETA: Oh, and count me as someone who didn’t really mind this episode. It certainly wasn’t the best, but it had its moments, and the rest was packed with the kind of campiness that I expect from Doctor Who.
I agree that the episode had its moment. But come on, for gods’ sake, the Doctor-as-Tinkerbell, Believe-In-Him-To-Have-Him-Save-Us, getting extraordinary powers through people’s belief, that was dumb. I appreciate using the Archangel network for some twist to the story, really; it’s the fairy story stunt that I don’t like.
And there’s another thing. The Toclafane. That is, the forlorn and twisted remains of humanity that were stuck at the end of the world forever, with no salvation and no redemption. And nobody gave more than a few minutes of their time on the show, just “Oooo, that’s horrible” and then move on.
The Face of Boe revelation doesn’t make much sense, because I’m sure they’ve discussed the FoB in Jack’s presence before. How come he never said “Face of Boe? That’s me, I’m the Face of Boe!?”
The fact that the Doctor had figured out how to subvert the Archangel Network and use it before Martha escaped, that Martha understood what he had told her from a whispered message, and that she succeeded. She didn’t need to be taken back to the Valiant at all, and she was very lucky that she wasn’t killed, but the Doctor would have won anyhow (and if she had died, she may have been “rolled back” to life as the Paradox unravelled (she would not have been in the eye of the storm, as the Doctor put it). And it all tied together over three episodes - the fused Tardis co-ordinates, the Paradox machine, the Archangel network. Maybe it was telegraphed, but it was consistent. And there was misdirection - the “lost” Time Lord children, the 3pm diversion.
The Master was fantastic - brilliant as Yana, but hamstrung as a Time Lord (he can’t fix the Tardis, for example - he can only subvert it). The Master wants to be the Doctor - the (prettier but stupid) human companion, the (superfunctional but deadly) laser screwdriver, rescuing (falling) humanity, wanting to rebuild Gallifry, even the bag of jellybabies. But he is mad - a hyped up parody of the Doctor who never knows when to stop and who falls at the last hurdle, every time.
I do think that Lucy shooting The Master and (maybe) getting the ring was part the Masters plan. He’ll be back (hopefully with John Simms - he was awesome). Lucy’s descent into a kind of madness was brilliant, too, with virtually no foreground screen time or lines. Just brilliant background acting.
I didn’t like the “Star Wars”-ish funeral pyre (unless Time Lords are generally cremated). A bit too Jedi for my liking.
Anyway, it’s now official what’s happening next season- the official BBC press release:
I’m glad about this - I like Martha. I wonder what this means for Torchwood? Hopefully the addition of another popular Who character, the move from the edgy youth-oriented BBC3 to the more mainstream BBC2, and the producers stated desire to rethink the format a bit means that they spend less time on shoehorning in “controversial” material and just get on with telling dark and scary stories. A Welsh X-files if you will.
I agree with all of this (and I have watched Dr Who right from the start).
‘Blink’ was excellent and needed very little in terms of special effects. It had a satisfying story and I enjoyed the small points like the Doctor being handed his future script by Sally Sparrow whilst carrying a bow and arrow.
I watched Dr Who Confidential which was on BBC3 immediately afterwards. The entire show was about how they did the special effects. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
“So Russell said, can you do a 900 year old Doctor? And we said YES WE CAN!”
“And it was great to see how we morphed the two faces together.”
“The wire work for when the Doctor rises in the air took 9 takes.”
“The actor had to look at a tennis ball, because we put the CGI in afterwards.”
Nothing was said about the script. All special effects. :smack:
So what about her little trick with the pretend gun? What was the purpose of that? And while we’re at it, why did the Master have to go to all the trouble of getting elected Prime Minister? He’s an alien superbeing - couldn’t he have achieved his nefarious goals by some more straightforward method?
::sigh:: Doctor Who just makes me feel stoopid. I never know what’s going on.
Martha had to spend a year getting the surviving humans ready for the big ‘support your local Timelord’ think-in.
Now the Master knew that the Doctor had fed Martha a plan. So the idea of the ‘gun’ was to reassure the Master that he had discoved the ‘plot’ and that there was nothing to worry about.
I don’t know why Martha had to be brought to the ship.
I think the Master was elected Prime Minister because the series is often set in England and shown first on the BBC. So the British audience think “ooh! There’s an alien in charge!”
Distraction - if the Master had figured out about Archangel, he would have turned the satellites off and killed the Doctor.
For all sorts of reasons. The Time Lords are not immortal - they can die. He was restricted in the technology available to him - a broken TARDIS which he can’t fix, a bit of stuff from the 21st century (alien artifacts recovered by Torchwood and Unit) and stuff from the end of the Universe when everything was failing. He likes total control, thus the mind-control network. He had no troops or power until he could trigger the Paradox. And the Master is consumed by his own cleverness - so the scheme appealed to him. It was more fun that way.
In End of the World, while discussing Platform One with the tree Jabe, Nine observes that the ship is sort of “unsinkable”, and comments that he was on another supposedly “unsinkable” ship once, and ended up clinging to an iceburg.
Still holding out hope for a “Two Doctors” Christmas ep!
