New Who Review for 2009/2010
Jan. 3rd, 2010 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerWhich most of it is going to be behind a cut since some people I know aren’t quite caught up yet. There will be spoilers in the comments so there’s the warning for ya.
I am grateful that Tennant did one more year of the Doctor
The Next Doctor
Yes, technically this is going back to 2008 but I really see this as a piece. Steampunk Doctor Who has been used to describe this episode and it is not far wrong. I though that the actors did a fine job. The script moved rather well. I was concerned that we were having yet another dose of Cybermen on top of the Daleks we had in Journey’s End. But this is one of the better Cybermen episodes and the setting does add to it. It was right fun and a good episode to take a break with.
Planet of the Dead
Was not my favorite of the season. It felt very much like a place hold, marking time until the end. The idea was an interesting one but the execution wasn’t not great. Also this cold Doctor who needs no companions didn’t sit well with me considering what Wilf and Martha had told him at different times about himself and needing someone to share with. It all seemed to be set up for one line You be careful, because your song is ending, sir. It is returning, it is returning through the dark. And then Doctor... oh, but then...he will knock four times. I think if this episode had been part of a run rather than a special, I would have not expected as much as I did. But I felt that if I was going to have limited Who, then it better be really good limited who.
Waters of Mars
This was a good episode in its own right. The tension was played well. The decisions that the Doctor makes and the decisions that the characters make played well. It is the beginning of the end and it feels like it but that’s OK. The “fixed in time must not be play with” chant was a little over done and when the Doctor decides that he was done with all that it kind of goes by the way side except Adelaide Brooke makes the choice to fix that point in time by killing herself which will still change events as they stand. It is a set up for what happens next but I liked it as just a Doctor Who episode.
End of Time (Parts 1 and 2)
Since these are of a piece, I will put them together.
To get this out of the way, yes my mind did go to that special slashy place concerning the Master, the Doctor, and the restraint chair. However that chair did produce probably the best line of the whole episode “Worst Rescue Ever!” Somewhere Matt Groening is laughing hysterically.
This was a bit of a mish-mosh for me. Parts of it I loved and felt like Doctor Who and other parts had me saying “get on with it” to the screen. Part 1 went a very long way to get to “The Master Race.” Simm chewed the scenery with his usual fine abilities. I don’t know if I am comfortable with the Master’s whole amoral behavior was because of the Time Lords setting him up as their patsy. I did like Timothy Dalton as the President who was addressed as Rassilon by the Doctor (which I think was an earlier version of the script that never got repaired). And then there is the woman in white which Peter equated to the Cheese Guy in Buffy who was walking through their dreams in “Restless”. She is what you want her to be. I’ll say Susan and be done with it. I did enjoy his “reward” for his sacrifice. Moffat wrote all the 11th Doctor lines so we have an idea of the tone of what is to come.
I’m there for the next season and am willing to give the new team a chance to add to the canon.
I am grateful that Tennant did one more year of the Doctor
The Next Doctor
Yes, technically this is going back to 2008 but I really see this as a piece. Steampunk Doctor Who has been used to describe this episode and it is not far wrong. I though that the actors did a fine job. The script moved rather well. I was concerned that we were having yet another dose of Cybermen on top of the Daleks we had in Journey’s End. But this is one of the better Cybermen episodes and the setting does add to it. It was right fun and a good episode to take a break with.
Planet of the Dead
Was not my favorite of the season. It felt very much like a place hold, marking time until the end. The idea was an interesting one but the execution wasn’t not great. Also this cold Doctor who needs no companions didn’t sit well with me considering what Wilf and Martha had told him at different times about himself and needing someone to share with. It all seemed to be set up for one line You be careful, because your song is ending, sir. It is returning, it is returning through the dark. And then Doctor... oh, but then...he will knock four times. I think if this episode had been part of a run rather than a special, I would have not expected as much as I did. But I felt that if I was going to have limited Who, then it better be really good limited who.
Waters of Mars
This was a good episode in its own right. The tension was played well. The decisions that the Doctor makes and the decisions that the characters make played well. It is the beginning of the end and it feels like it but that’s OK. The “fixed in time must not be play with” chant was a little over done and when the Doctor decides that he was done with all that it kind of goes by the way side except Adelaide Brooke makes the choice to fix that point in time by killing herself which will still change events as they stand. It is a set up for what happens next but I liked it as just a Doctor Who episode.
End of Time (Parts 1 and 2)
Since these are of a piece, I will put them together.
To get this out of the way, yes my mind did go to that special slashy place concerning the Master, the Doctor, and the restraint chair. However that chair did produce probably the best line of the whole episode “Worst Rescue Ever!” Somewhere Matt Groening is laughing hysterically.
This was a bit of a mish-mosh for me. Parts of it I loved and felt like Doctor Who and other parts had me saying “get on with it” to the screen. Part 1 went a very long way to get to “The Master Race.” Simm chewed the scenery with his usual fine abilities. I don’t know if I am comfortable with the Master’s whole amoral behavior was because of the Time Lords setting him up as their patsy. I did like Timothy Dalton as the President who was addressed as Rassilon by the Doctor (which I think was an earlier version of the script that never got repaired). And then there is the woman in white which Peter equated to the Cheese Guy in Buffy who was walking through their dreams in “Restless”. She is what you want her to be. I’ll say Susan and be done with it. I did enjoy his “reward” for his sacrifice. Moffat wrote all the 11th Doctor lines so we have an idea of the tone of what is to come.
I’m there for the next season and am willing to give the new team a chance to add to the canon.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 04:44 pm (UTC)I could not help but boo when 11 showed up. He looks like a caricature. But it's not like I'm going to stop watching the show. I'm just...really going to miss Tennant.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 08:21 pm (UTC)Yes, she is whoever we want her to be, but Russell T Davies hasn't ever just "thrown" someone away before, so I will say that she is "someone" known to the Doctor (and us). Besides, that was Claire Bloom, some high-powered British thespian power.
The ep was a little "meh" and the best scenes were between the Doctor and Wilfred, especially explaining to him how regeneration isn't exactly what we've always thought it to be. A new person takes the place of the old, kind of like Trill hosts. Jadzia Dax isn't the same person as Ezri Dax.
And the goodbyes were very well done, I especially like the one where he directs Jack to Alfonso.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 02:28 pm (UTC)I will, of course, be watching next season. After "End of Time" I feel it can only get better.