"Blink" & "Midnight"...

[TedShatner10]

What do you think of these two "bottle" episodes that have proven to be more critically popular than RTD's increasingly self-indulgent finales? The deep mystery, creative scripting, and subtle terror in these episodes were more compelling than the growing swarms of computer generated Cybermen/Daleks/Toclafane marching on London, and are easily up there among the best hours of sci-TV ever, alongside TNG's "All Good Things", DS9's "The Die is Cast", VOY's "Living Witness", SG-1's "Window of Opportunity", Red Dwarf's "Back to Reality", B5's "War Without End", Lost's "The Man Behind the Curtain" and Farscape's "Die Me, Dichotomy".

 

[StCoop]

More critically popular with whom? A handful of ming-mongs on the Internet?

Last time I checked the most critically popular episodes of the series out in the real world have been the so-called "self-indulgent" finales. No doubt you believe that the opinions of a couple of hundred people who aren't even the target audience for the series any more are more valid than the ten million other people out there watching the series.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

He said "critically popular". "Blink", in particular, has garnered many awards.

 

[Deckerd]

I thought Blink beat Battlestar to an award. Midnight scared the bejasus out of me. That works for me.

up yours

ming-mong

 

[MyCylon]

I really liked "Blink" a lot. I thought the angels and the whole idea they were based on was very effective. It was also one of those episodes with a real emotional punch (or several, if you will), combined with a clever twist here. Instead of just killing people, they were removed in time. But for a human, that is an unbridgeable gap.

Sally (is that the right name?) receiving the letter from her friend as well as her meeting with the aged police man she'd just met were pretty powerful, I felt.

As an aside, I also liked the way the Doctor tricked the angels in the end.


I don't remember as much about "Midnight". I think I found it to be ok but not much more.

 

[Neroon]

More critically popular with whom? A handful of ming-mongs on the Internet?

Last time I checked the most critically popular episodes of the series out in the real world have been the so-called "self-indulgent" finales. No doubt you believe that the opinions of a couple of hundred people who aren't even the target audience for the series any more are more valid than the ten million other people out there watching the series.

I thought Blink beat Battlestar to an award. Midnight scared the bejasus out of me. That works for me.

up yours

ming-mong

And that will be enough of that. You don't have to agree with each other at all, but there's no cause for the acerbic namecalling.

 

[Deckerd]

sorry sir

 

[TedShatner10]

Last time I checked the most critically popular episodes of the series out in the real world have been the so-called "self-indulgent" finales. No doubt you believe that the opinions of a couple of hundred people who aren't even the target audience for the series any more are more valid than the ten million other people out there watching the series.

You again?

Again, the Master dancing like the loon he is after killing billions of people for a year and the Tenth Doctor's human clone blowing up the Dalek's Death Star were both entertaining moments, but still eminent examples of NuWho getting drunk on its own success and excess under somebody who rarely sees the need to dial things down. But when he does, immortal episodes like "Blink" and "Midnight" are produced. Do you think I'm really savaging Davies when he penned "Midnight"?

I don't remember as much about "Midnight". I think I found it to be ok but not much more.

The Doctor was very nearly killed by normal, frightened civilians manipulated by an unspeakably ancient evil who was literally beyond description. The Midnight planet and its mysterious occupant were more skin crawling than an army of advanced cyborgs.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

What's wrong with having both psychological thrillers and over-the-top finales? That's what's great about the series-- We get it all!

 

[auntiehill]

The Doctor was very nearly killed by normal, frightened civilians manipulated by an unspeakably ancient evil who was literally beyond description. The Midnight planet and its mysterious occupant were more skin crawling than an army of advanced cyborgs.

QFT. After watching the last special, and being fairly underwhelmed, I thought back to Midnight and Blink, and even Turn Left. Those are the episodes that really stick with me, because they really impressed the hell out of me--and I'm not easy to impress. So, I put up with flying double-decker buses and the like, because I know that there's sooo much more than that to WHO.

Oh, sure the "everything including the kitchen sink" fanwanks are fun every now and then, but there has to be more than that to a series to make me stick with it.

I like that WHO has both elements, but I would love to see more like Blink or Turn Left or Midnight coming down the pike.

 

[Stevil2001]

What's wrong with having both psychological thrillers and over-the-top finales? That's what's great about the series-- We get it all!

Exactly. I love "Blink" and "Last of the Time Lords". So there.

 

[Messianni]

What's wrong with having both psychological thrillers and over-the-top finales? That's what's great about the series-- We get it all!

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm happy to have variety!

 

[Starkers]

More critically popular with whom? A handful of ming-mongs on the Internet?

Last time I checked the most critically popular episodes of the series out in the real world have been the so-called "self-indulgent" finales. No doubt you believe that the opinions of a couple of hundred people who aren't even the target audience for the series any more are more valid than the ten million other people out there watching the series.

Yawn; shouldn't you be off insulting Carey Mulligan somewhere?



Blink and Midnight are both great episodes. Would I want to see a whole season of them, no not really, as stated by others the greatest strength Who has is its diversity, besides writing the caibre of episodes that those two represent woul prove tricky I imagine.

Of the two I think Blink is better, but frankly that's only because it's rewatchable. Midnight was actually quite tough to sit through (in a good way)

Eps like Midnight and others are what still makes me think that RTD should write an ep or two a season for Moffat like Moffat did for him.

 

[MyCylon]

I don't remember as much about "Midnight". I think I found it to be ok but not much more.

The Doctor was very nearly killed by normal, frightened civilians manipulated by an unspeakably ancient evil who was literally beyond description. The Midnight planet and its mysterious occupant were more skin crawling than an army of advanced cyborgs.

[/quote]

Ah, yes, I remember a bit more now. I wasn't too fond of "Midnight", to be honest. I see what they were getting at with the episode. But it really didn't do very much for me somehow.


As for episodes like "Blink" vs. the spectacles: Like others have said, I love that there is both. The variety in stories is one of the things I appreciate about Doctor Who.

 

[Neroon]

In the discussion on "Blink", folks might be interested to see this:

 

[Deckerd]

Where was that taken?

 

[Neroon]

Where was that taken?

That was taken just this past weekend at Marcon. The lady in that costume is a good friend of mine and quite the costumer, with a host of excellent Doctor Who related costumes. And from other shows/films/etc as well.

There is another one of the Angel "playing peekaboo" with another friend's infant that is hilarious - the baby is laughing at her - but I don't have a copy of it.

 

[Deckerd]

Were people keeping their eyes very wide going past her?

 

[Neroon]

Were people keeping their eyes very wide going past her?

Those who knew what was going on, yes.
There is some video footage of her playing with the crowd at times, but I will have to wait until later to post that. (darned firewall)

 

[Gertch]

Great costume, great episode. My 8 yo daughter and I so enjoy it we play it off the DVR from time to time.