Blink: Is it all that?

[Turbo]

Does anyone at all dislike The Girl Who Waited?

I thought it was quite good, but it didn't quite live up to the hype I'd been hearing, unlike "The Doctor's Wife". I also feel like it would have worked better if they'd swapped it with "The God Complex" and have the Doctor take them home at the end of TGWW instead of TGC.

 

[Sci]

Does anyone at all dislike The Girl Who Waited?

I thought it was quite good, but it didn't quite live up to the hype I'd been hearing, unlike "The Doctor's Wife". I also feel like it would have worked better if they'd swapped it with "The God Complex" and have the Doctor take them home at the end of TGWW instead of TGC.

I disagree. "The Girl Who Waited" is the story of how Rory came to feel alienated from the Doctor, but it wasn't until "The God Complex" that we get the story of Amy coming to feel alienated from the Doctor. And the Doctor has always been much closer to Amy than Rory -- so I don't think it would have worked to have Rory's alienation be the thing that leads them away from the TARDIS.

 

[Starkers]

I though the first ten minutes or so of the Girl Who Waited were terrible...from the moment older Amy showed up though I thought it was brilliant, and only let down by the fact you could see how it was going to end a mile away!

 

[Ghost Bones]

Midnight's ok. Except, they're all humans and dressed like your average folk down B&Q of a weekend. But at least the lack of answers about the monster means a lack of RTD bollocks. It gets away with it.

 

[CaptainMatt]

Does anybody here think Utopia would work better without it leading into The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords? The Master for all his shortness of appearance in this episode was played so brilliantly.
I just believe RTD might have written John Simm's
Master in the subsequent two-parter without all the hypermania. No matter how Tennant played it as the Doctor, the Master might have been more terrifying had he been written less manic.

 

[Skellington]

^ It didn't help that he had dialogue like "But I was so scared!" when talking about his sudden departure from the Time War, either. Man up, Master!

 

[CaptainMatt]

Some might say the Time War was so bad and so awful and he had seen so much that it did scare him. But I don't know...I still have problems with that version of the Master.

 

[Sci]

Does anybody here think Utopia would work better without it leading into The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords?

Nope. It's perfect as it is -- and you can't not immediately lead into the Master's big season-ending plot after a reveal like that.

The Master for all his shortness of appearance in this episode was played so brilliantly.
I just believe RTD might have written John Simm's
Master in the subsequent two-parter without all the hypermania. No matter how Tennant played it as the Doctor, the Master might have been more terrifying had he been written less manic.

*shrugs* It's a deliberate parallel to Tennant's Doctor, actually; since Tennant's Doctor can be so manic, and can use humor as one of his weapons, they wanted an evil counterpart to that.

^ It didn't help that he had dialogue like "But I was so scared!" when talking about his sudden departure from the Time War, either. Man up, Master!

1. Psychopaths like the Master are rarely all that brave.

2. 'Cos war isn't the least bit terrifying, and you're not a Real Man if it affects you?

 

[Starkers]

Maybe it's just me, but I've never seen why the Master has to be such a direct reflection of the Doctor?

 

[Sci]

Maybe it's just me, but I've never seen why the Master has to be such a direct reflection of the Doctor?

He doesn't have to be. But that's what they chose to do.

 

[CaptainMatt]

And in the case of Simm-Tennant, it hurt the programme more than helped it IMHO.