I would love for them to bring Susan back, but I don’t think she is Mister Saxon, somehow.
I don’t think it matters where she was. I got the sense that Gallifrey was wiped out of history, so none of the other Time Lords ever came to be. Otherwise, the Doctor could just go back to before they were destroyed, right?
Reviving, as this episode just aired on Sci-Fi in the US.
As per the last thread, please put anything that has not aired in the US in spoiler boxes. Anything that has aired in the US or from the earlier Series is fair game.
That the Face of Boe had been in two or three previous episodes needs no spoiler.
That it’s revealed in Episode 25 that the Face of Boe is really The Doctor’s and Martha’s love child should be boxed.
I enjoyed this episode, but one thing that bogged me was that in twenty five years, no one from the undercity had gone up to the upper city. You’d think that someone would have checked.
I am in the minority in that I still really enjoy this episode while a lot of other folks absolutely despise it. I think maybe I’m not so smart, as all the plot holes just merrily whizzed right by me while I was like “Ooh! Everything’s so pretty!” Then again, from what I gather maybe that’s best.
I postulate the following:
The Macra will eventually die off with no more smog to feed them.
Hame and the Face of Boe were not able to simply open the roof without the Doctor’s magical jiggery-pokery that he did at the end there.
The kittens will become more humanoid as they get older.
No one questioned the eternal motorway/the lack of anyone who’d actually been to the upper city/the lack of police response/etc. because: blind faith, which was the theme of this episode.
No one simply got out and walked because they would die from the pollution.
There, that oughta about cover it.
I don’t know who this “Saxon” is (and only read enough on Wikipedia to determine that I didn’t know who he was). I have thought all along that they wouldn’t stick with the “last of his kind” bit forever. Gallifrey and the other Time Lords are too rich a vein to leave unmined forever. Assuming that Gallifrey hasn’t been retroactively taken out of existence except for The Doctor, aren’t there some other TLs running around who probably wouldn’t or couldn’t have responded to any call to arms sounded by the home planet? I’m not as enamored of the show’s long history as some others and I’m fine really with jettisoning much of the backstory. But the Sarah Jane episode from S2 was well done and showed how well an exploration of The Doctor’s past baggage can be handled and there are undoubtedly other characters whose return could be equally effective.
Well, it was pretty clear to me what the Face of Boe meant when he said, “You are not alone.” Anyone with a knowledge of the history of the Doctor should guess who that means. (AFAIK, he was kicked out of the Time Lords, too.)
I recognized Ardal O’Hanlon’s voice, but couldn’t place it until I read the credits. I know him from My Hero, and it’s been awhile since they showed that here.
It was an interesting episode, especially since the people were put underground in order to save them, and not for any nefarious purpose (though actually telling them the situation might have been a good idea).
Oh my GOD I am feeling stupid right now. I thought “the rest of the family” was metaphorical (lots of petlovers talk that way), and I was wondering why there was a basket of kittens but no mother cat in evidence (and why the kittens looked a bit large and leggy for the stated age of 2 months). But of COURSE all those cat-faced humans must start out from something!
Now I’m trying not to imagine breast-feeding on New Earth…
I hate to nitpick the ending, but someone forgot that however sad it may have been for the main cast, it was pretty damn happy for the freed drivers. I choked up first not when the Doctor started reminiscing but when the kittens got their first taste of sunlight. “Abide With Me” fit the Doctor’s mood to be sure (and it’s a great hymn), but I wondered why the city people would burst into that instead of, say, “Now Thank We All Our God”.
Recall that however happy the drivers may have been to be free of the roadway, they are still dealing with the mass death of their entire planet. “Abide With Me” fits their sadness over their loss as well as The Doctor’s over his.
I have a question.
I can deal with the plot holes and all that.
The one thing that has me in a wonder is the motivations of The Face of Boe. Why would it give up it’s life energy to save a bunch humans? Who have not evolved one stitch in 5 billion years. The Earth went from moltern rock to us the most bitchenest living entity we know of. Yet in 5 billion more years we are just as, “Duh, you got da happy happy? gimme gimme.” And the great Face of Boe sacrifices his last energies to save us? I dunno it just doesn’t gel well with me.
Unless it is as The Face of Boe says, “Everything has it’s time.” and that is a dumb dumb dumby thing.
It’s nonsensical that people would be driving around in their hovercars for ten years! And still be in happy, chipper moods? Ridiculous!
I’m a little sick of the homosapien-centric universe of Doctor Who. Humans have been around for what? A hundred thousand years and yet a billion years from now there will still be humans that look like humans? And we’re still going to keep the same calendar?
I was just watching this episode, and was struck by the fact that the Doctor said Martha had been carjacked.
However, the couple didn’t take Martha’s car, they kidnapped her using their own car. Does the term “carjack” have a different meaning in British English?