Doctor Who!

[Arienne]

If anyone's got digital...there's a fantastic preview on the BBC red button...

[Mirela]

Ah that was a great first episode ;D Nice seeing Cassandra get redeemed in the end and the Sisters of Plenitude were great baddies too (great makeup!).

[Storm]

ORGINAL THOUGHTS:
Great plot; the concept of people being bred just to siphon diseases from the rich and well-to-do made me feel slightly squeamish.

As with last year, the atmosphere is still too zany for my taste, and there are some serious logic errors, but it was still a good start.

FULLER REVIEW (26/7):
Well, lets look again at New Earth, as it was the one episode of the season that I made absolutely no effort to try and review properly (see above). And I can now do this with the benefit of extra hindsight. 'Benefit' is probably not the right word though, as this episode does not do well on a third or fourth viewing. In the end I find myself realising that it's extremely average, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Some things in it are just medicore, and others manage to be both really good and really bad at once.

For example, the anti-heroic Cat-people are sympathetic characters, and they look absolutely brilliant, but the idea of them is clearly just lifted straight from the Cat-race in Red Dwarf. The scenes with The Face Of Boe sound like real deep-and-meaningful stuff, but nothing comes of them and so it starts to look like padding (and of course blatant self-congratulation by Russell T. Davis for inventing the character in the first place). The depth of the Doctor's relationship with Rose is there at first, but it suddenly turns into a really tiresome schoolgirl crush.

And then there's Cassandra. She was quite an interesting character originally, a neat parody in some ways of the modern obsession with slimming. But in other ways, bringing her back seems like another way of filling up plot-time, and her return has some enormous self-contradictions that are impossible to reconcile.

For instance, she's from the unimaginably-distant future, yet she uses the term 'chav' to describe Rose. I bet you anything you like that in reality the term will be going almost unused in twenty years' time. (Already, similar terms like 'Scallies' and 'Townies' are going out of fashion.) Why would the term survive five billion years? It's far too modern-day referential, a common mistake in stories like this (and not just in Doctor Who, to be fair), as is Chip's reference to the cockney dialect.

Cassandra has developed an obsession with looking slimmer and slimmer and slimmer, to the extent that she's gotten rid of almost all of her body. She then throws away her super-slim form, possesses Rose, and is really excited about possessing a curvaceous body and 'a nice, rear bumper'.

To be fair, there are some nice ideas e.g. the first disinfectant scene, and the actual plot concept of breeding entire races for the sake of absorbing disease remains a very, scary and intelligent one, but it's handled lazily.

What is established when the Sisters Of Plenitude try to justify the practise is that it's the only way of curing many of the diseases on New Earth. And yet, the Doctor is able to cure all the diseases that the infected carriers have by mixing a load of disinfectant in a modestly-large bucket, washing it over a few of the carriers, and then getting them to touch each other. Oh. So the diseases just happened to be curable after all? (The viruses don't even put up much of a fight, do they, if just one touch of disinfectants wipes them out at a stroke?) It does kind of make the whole breeding-a-race-of-carriers thing seem a bit superfluous really.

David Tennant has a better second outing than his first - mainly because he's given more to do of course - but the moments when Cassandra possesses him are an excruciating exception. He is atrociously camp in them, not that there was a lot he could do to avoid it. But he comes off badly when compared to Billie Piper, who handled the long spells of Rose being possessed far better.

As I say, the moral message of the story is valid, but it's laid on very sanctimoniously. The Doctor's ferocious proclamation that there is no higher authority than himself is disturbingly arrogant, and leaves the audience feeling very abashed about the whole idea of daring to disagree with him. It's just not right. One of the strengths of Dr Who of old was that it would present moral dilemmas and offer ideas on them in a more withdrawn way, allowing the audience to draw its own conclusions, instead of hammering into them what to think.

So, I'm afraid the story doesn't work nearly as well as it seemed to on the first showing. I can only give it 5 out of 10, sadly, although I guess it's a relief in hindsight that there were no noticeable Torchwood plugs at this stage...

[Mirela]

Well here's my proper review:

I'm afraid I'm not good at critical analysis, so all I'm gonna say is this: David was born to play The Doctor. He is the most Docter-ish Doctor since Tom Baker and is just as good (and that includes in different ways, lol!). And on a more shallow note - he's absolutely gorgeous in that costume and just in general, really - I mean I've fancied him for months now but now it's getting more serious if you know what I mean (I mean I'm smitten)

It was a great episode - I liked seeing Cassandra and The Face Of Boe again. The Sisters of Plenitude were great baddies and their make-up was brilliant! Having Cassandra posess Rose was so funny but even more so when she posessed the Doc, especially the first time *Claps with glee*

[Seren y Gogledd]

I still haven't got an aerial - Gutted.

[Mirela]

The episodes'll get repeated again at some point so you will get a chance to see them - either that or you could buy the episodes as they get released on DVD...first release is 1 May

[Storm]

So what did people think of last night's episode?

I'm afraid I was disappointed. I thought it was just a Hammer Horror with a time machine, and my attention kept drifting as the story ploughed from cliche to cliche. The attempt at the end to 'startle' the audience by making the Queen seem callous and ruthless with her saviours left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed, and while the possible explanation for how the Royals have developed haemophilia is amusing, it wasn't really worth a full forty-five minutes just for that.

On the plus side, it must have been fun for David Tennant to be allowed to show off his real voice, while the acting remains of a high standard - Pauline Collins is excellent as Queen Victoria and DT continues to prove he's a natural for the role - but I just think the cast deserved better than this script.

[arcadia]

Yes, I was a little disappointed this week as well. There was quite a lot of panicked running around and with a large cast it was a bit confusing amd I lost interest a little in the middle of the episode. Once they were trapped in the library the plot pulled itself together a bit and it got better though. I'm not sure that having Queen Victoria involved at all added much - the haemophilia thing was amusing but having her found Torchwood was maybe a bit much.

Still, I mainly enjoyed it and Pauline Collins did a great job, as did the other guest actors. And I liked DT's Scottish accent.

[Storm]

arcadia said:

There was quite a lot of panicked running around and with a large cast it was a bit confusing

Yes, that's a valid point as well.

I'm not sure that having Queen Victoria involved at all added much

I'd also argue the whole plot was simply lifted from the horror movie genre and then pasted into the wrong series. Not to say that Dr Who never deals in horror stories of course, but it just felt too much like a 60's movie and not enough like Dr Who. And yes. bringing Queen Victoria into it just felt kind of incidental to me, like they were making a half-hearted nod towards the time travel aspect.

Still, they can't get it right every time I guess. Roll on next week, when Sarah Jane and K9 return.

[Mirela]

I'm afraid I loved the whole thing Pauline Collins was great as Queen Victoria, although I was a bit shocked she dismissed the Doc and Rose like that at the end! The werewolf wasn't as scary as the one in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but was still effective. The Doc's reaction to seeing it was interesting! I thought it was well-written, to me it reminds me of the old Gothic era of Tom Baker's days. Oh and l loved that teaser! ;D

[jasmine]

I didn’t think this episode was one of the best. Thought Rose was a bit blah this week – but then again I haven’t forgiven her for kissing the Doc yet – and how many of us wished it had been us on the receiving end.

Pauline Collins did a good impression of the Queen, but I think the storyline got a bit carried away at the end. I was not amused….

Agree with Arcadia on the ‘running around’ bit – I lost some interest too. It certainly didn’t have me on the edge of my seat this week.

Despite my grumbles – it was good. How could it be anything else with DT in it! God, I am so shallow.

[Mirela]

More of a mixed reaction this week, over on the SFX forum the majority of reviews are positive. Oh well, I didn't enjoy "The Long Game" as much as other Series 1 episodes so it's kind of the same as that

[Storm]

jasmine said:

I haven’t forgiven her for kissing the Doc yet – and how many of us wished it had been us on the receiving end.

Er not me! Although I wouldn't have minded being on the other end... . Oh and be fair, it was Cassandra doing the snogging, not Rose.

[arcadia]

The vast majority of reactions that I have read on other forums have been positive for Tooth and Claw. I don't think it was a bad ep, probably about the same standard as the first couple of episodes last season. I think it's just that my expectations had been raised by some of the later episodes last year.

Still looking forward to next week and the ones after that.

[Seren y Gogledd]

Wasn't bad, got to hear David's sexy Scottish accent - although I spent most of the episode thinking "Isn't that the bloke off the Book Group?" (it was)

Oh, and one more thing... DAVID IN GLASSES *drool*