I thought that Billie Piper did a good job with the role. However I thought that it would have been a good opportunity to bring back Susan. It would have been a link to the very beginning. She would have also represented what the doctor was about to lose and what he could regain. What do you think?
Yes, but the most recognizable to most, these days, would be one of the modern companions. I like the idea, though.
As good as Billie Piper was in the role (and she was quite good), I would have like Susan as well. I suppose it makes since to have Piper because of Bad Wolf but I think Susan or even Adric would have greater emotional resonance. That being said, I inderstand why they chose her.
Rose Tyler has become one of the most iconic companions at the end of the day, so it would almost be stupid not to have her back. I'd say Billie Piper is right up there with Sarah Jane Smith and Frazer Hines, with SJS unfortunately having died and Frazer Hines just wouldn't have worked. But at the end of the day, Billie Piper returning was a good idea.
My problem was that Billie Piper has had facial work done and doesn't look like she did back when she was Rose. That kept throwing me out of the story, and for that reason, if no other, I'd have preferred them to use someone else as the face of the weapon's conscience.
So was the Moment really capable of destroying both the Time Lords and the Dalek fleet or did its power solely lie in it using its superior intelligence to guide the Doctors to an alternative solution?
Well, Carole Ann Ford doesn't look like she did back when she was Susan either. I don't see how it's a problem.
She looked the same to me. Nothing that can't be chalked up to a few years, some makeup and a different hairstyle.
She hasn't looked like Rose since before she did 'Turn Left'. (http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=60959) Add a bit of aging onto that and you have someone who looks and sounds sufficiently different from Rose-as-we-remember-her to be distracting. At least to me.
She isn't Rose though, she is the Bad Wolf hybrid Rose/TARDIS consciousness merged with the AI of the Moment. . . or something.
Could have just as easily been Donna Noble. Catherine Tate would also have been awesome in that part, and it could have been done with very little rewrites necessary. Could just as easily have been Amy as well. After all, I think you'll find Amy is the longest standing companion in the new series.
Indeed, it could have been any of them. I think Donna Noble would have been particularly effective - echoes of Pompeii. Or Ood Sigma would even have worked rather well and a 'communication system' from the Moment.
It was the interface of the Moment, scanned the Doctor's lifetime and picked someone that was or would be important to him... In which case not really looking like her is pointless. Yeah, I know, real world means Billie has had dental surgery, aged, changed her appearance and you can't hold any of that against her. But I thought she didn't really do a good job being Rose or The Moment and her changed appearance probably didn't help in that.
To be honest, I didn't really notice and it wasn't as distracting as that lisp she spoke with in her season 4 episodes. Now that pulled me out of the story.
The production was able to milk the hell out of David Tennant and Billie Piper comin' back for the 50th special. That's why it was Rose as the Moment.
They needed to give the Moment a conscience to create an alternate future that Hurt wouldn't have done what he did. The only thing powerful enough to do that was Bad Wolf.
So Bad Wolf does it again. Why do I have a feeling that that's going to play a big role in the coming season?
I thought Billie was fantastic as Bad Wolf/the Moment myself, and I thought she looked and sounded the same (if a bit older of course). Certainly didn't have that weird lisp from late Series 4. And aside from the obvious meta-reason of bringing back Rose who's (next to/alongside Amy) the most recognizable companion from the relaunch, there's a good in-story reason too. After all, Donna and Amy and Susan never scattered themselves across all of space and time leaving clues and echoes of her identity the way Bad Wolf did. My interpretation is that the Moment was Bad Wolf all along - hence the unexplained conscience in the most powerful weapon of all time.
Clara could have worked that way since she was spread across the Doctor's timeline as well. Whatever, I am happy Billie Piper is a decent actress. She didn't play the show as Rose, that characterization would have been annoying to no end.
I'm not sure Clara could have worked. We know that she spread out along The Doctor's own personal timeline, however she didn't have any knowledge about Hurt's Doctor, which implies that the time locked Time War was somehow impenetrable to what she, and the Great Intelligence, were trying to do.