I liked the episode, even though the aliens were still too cheesy looking. Some kind of mutant babies.
And finally, we get to see 10 Downing St blown up, the same way we’ve seen the White House blown up in many movies. It was a bit implausible, but then again, so is all of Dr Who. I liked the motivation of the Aliens, even though it wasn’t very logical from a scientific standpoint. Very Douglas Adams that they’re only here for profit.
Next week looks interesting: “EXTERMINATE”
Heh.
I thought it was the biggest load of nonsense I’ve subjected myself to for a very long time.
I don’t see why people rave about Russell T. Davis as a writer if that’s the best he can come up with. The plot was so filled with holes you could drive a bus through it and he obviously did exactly zero “research” into the military before shoe-horning it into his ridiculous plot.
I thought the aliens were going to kick-start a Third World War as a sort of intergalactic Reality TV show and the ads were being broadcast to get an audience, that makes more sense than what the writer came up with.
Several points in no particular order:
Why did the device affect all the aliens when one each was needed for the UNIT personell?
The CGI was again crap.
So Harpoons are cruise missiles now? They aren’t even carried by submarines as far as I know.
I didn’t realise England has a seat at the United Nations.
The UK gave control of its nuclear assets to the UN?!? Wise policy that.
Nuclear weapons wouldn’t turn the entire surface of the earth to molten glass and btw the population is 6 billion+ not 5 billion. Also they couldn’t be used to attack a spaceship in orbit in the first place.
The aliens planned to hide in their spaceship at what would most likely be ground-zero of an atomic barrage?!?
Super-secure internet site has “buffalo” for all its passwords? And its capable of remote-controlling British submarines?!? I feel safer already.
The actress playing Rose’s mother can’t act for toffee and the whole family stuff was contrived and out of place.
The whole Gulf War, weapons of mass destruction, 45 seconds stuff was pathetically done.
There were more problems but I can’t think of them right now in summary I like my TV shows, even sci-fi shows, to have some sort of grasp of reality.
MidwinterF1, the BBC and other producers are constantly searching for good writers, and the gigs pay well. I’m quite sure that if you can do a better job than Mr. Davies, there are many good contracts just waiting for you, with good money attached. Let us know when you have had your first work commissioned and broadcast, so that we can all admire the way you do the job much better than Mr. Davies would have done.
Just a few points:
it’s possible for a plot to have lots of gaping holes in it, and still be a good plot that people enjoy. There are massive plot holes to be found in Shakespeare, Dickens, Eliot and the work of just about anyone else you care to mention. And sometimes, plots with few holes if any might not be worth watching.
corollary to the above: being able to spot plot holes and to rant and rail about them does not make you either a good writer or, necessarily, a good critic.
Dr. Who is a popular fantasy drama, blending elements of sci-fi, farce, comedy, excitement and simple goodies.v.baddies battles leading to a happy resolution. It is intended to fill 45 minutes of a Saturday evening TV schedule. The fact that some of its constituent elements don’t match known facts is about as relevant as pointing out that nobody has yet proved that time travel is possible. The allegation that it lacks internal consistency is more worthy of consideration, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of critical appreciation. ‘Hamlet’ lacks internal consistency too, but it’s still one hell of a play and that’s why people still enjoy it roughly 400 years after it was written.
Personally, I thought this two-part episiode wasn’t as good as it could have been, but I thought it had its merits and there were some enjoyable aspects to it. Next week… a Dalek in chains! Yippee!
And people wonder why much of TV is crap, you may be happy with mediocre, sloppily researched and just plain ludicrous programs but I am not.
Russell T. Davis gets paid a significent amount of money, perhaps he just didn’t feel like researching the slightest thing and that as long as it can be forced into the storyline with a sledge-hammer “its all good.” Its not surprising that writers and producers etc can get away with such sloppy and unimaginative work if people like you are willing to lap it up.
I don’t know about you, but when something is plainly and simply wrong it jars me out of the program/movie and ruins the whole experience, suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
I’m voting with my finger and turning Dr Who off, it may be a family oriented program but that doesn’t mean viewers should be treated like particularly moronic five-year olds.
Actually no, a friend who’s a massive Dr Who fan assures me that the other episodes were much better and the next one is supposed to be fantastic so despite my better judgement I’ll watch it and see if Mr Davies can redeem himself.
The thing is… Dr Who is supposed to be cheesy. You may look at old episodes and groan aboout had badly it was done, and try to shift the blame on to the era, lack of cgi ASF. But there were really good sfxdone at the sametime.And yet, for some reason, people keep buying the DVD boxes and loving the show, with episodes that looked old and cheesy 30 years ago.
I know that arumentum ad populum generally is not a good debate method around here, but when it comes to arts, I tend to give it some weight. If enough people think something is good, even though you think it’s crap, then clearly it has some merit for those liking it. And thus, the writers and producers are doing something right. A lot of people on this board loathe Thomas Kincaide (sp?) but many, many people buy the prints and think it beautifies there homes.
De gustibus non disputandum est.
Thats fighting talk where I come from!
Actually, you may have a point, the last two episodes were the first I’ve seen and I might have been expecting something other than what Dr Who actually is, I was so sorely disappointed because it could have been something special (in my opinion) if they’d toned down the grosser humour, tightened up the script and tried to at least have the slightest resemblance to reality. The last isn’t something thats really that difficult and benefits a program hugely. For people who have a bit of knowledge of part of the subject in a plotline, to have such elements so badly abused totally ruins the immersion in the program…fantasy or sci-fi or not. If you want to do something outrageous then make stuff up, if you want to use something that really exists then try to use it accurately. I blame the TV and movies for a lot of the really weird ideas people get about different things (eg: science).
And lack of budget isn’t an excuse for bad special-effects in a British sci-fi show, especially a BBC one, the Red Dwarf series 3 - 6 had some excellent effects on a shoe-string budget.
Just a generally comment not really directed at Dr Who alone, I really dislike the “knowing” style of program-making thats so prevelant now, the “nudge-nudge, wink-wink, this isn’t real and we’re just having fun making this piece of fiction and don’t need to take it seriously” style. I can’t think of a better way to describe it but it annoys me like anything, I want to be completley immersed in a program not constantly brought back to reality by the program being “clever” and sharing an in-joke with the audience.
Got to say I agree with most of what MidwinterF1 said about the last two episodes.
These were not the best of the series so far, I would suggest sticking with the series for a few more episodes especially as the Daleks make their first appearance in the new series next week and from the adverts I’ve seen it loks quite good.
Another criticism is that so far the series has not left the earth, they have only trvelled in time. Next week looks to be no exeption as it seems to be set in San Francisco.
I will be sticking with the series, but I hope that the quality of the writing picks up and that it does not become another bloody soap, with lots of visits to Rose’s mum et al.
My 2 cents-
I’ve enjoyed these 5 episodes (so far) more than anything from the 6th & 7th Doctor seasons.
YMMV.