Getting back to watching Dr. Who

[Timewalker]

After that was Blink, which had some good ideas but was ultimately a fairly tedious episode, not helped by not starring the title character. It wasn't outright bad like the last episode to not star the Doctor (Love & Monsters) but its cool bits didn't help it be anything but cool ideas wrapped in a boring package. It would have been awesome to see the Doctor or at least martha fighting the "weeping angels". As it is, its not a bad episode, but the good ideas can't overcome the lack of Doctor and the uninteresting characters it does focus on. Honestly, the lack of the Doctor wouldn't have been so bad if Sally and friends hadn't been so uninteresting and bland. It was just a missed opportunity, although (looking online) I seem to be one of the few people whop think its a mediocre episode.

"Blink" is one of those stories that make you look at the real world in a whole new way. I'm glad I live in a city that's fairly new (only 100 years old), so we don't have a lot of gargoyles around on our civic buildings and cemeteries!

I found a fanfic that reimagines this story in a much better way. It uses Rose instead of Martha and follows the story of how the Doctor and Rose cope with having to live in 1969 London with no money, they have to get jobs (well, Rose does), and what a challenge it is to blend in with "normal" people. It's quite a good story, and brings back some old favorite Who characters from the 1960s as well.

The master's return was cool, and the set up was great. I actually ended up liking his Saxon story thing, because The master has some personality. I've only seen him before in the Doctor who movie, and he was a bit goofy and melodramatic in that. In this, he's more interesting and not too over the top (atleast so far, I haven't seen him spitting acid or getting snake eyes yet).

I absolutely cannot stand the modern portrayals of the Master. When you get to The Keeper of Traken-Logopolis-Castrovalva trilogy in your Tom Baker-watching (and Peter Davison), you'll see why Anthony Ainley was so good in the role - he's equally adept at playing good guys and evil nasty ones. He's the last decent Master there ever was - suave, charming, and thoroughly, delightfully evil. As far as I'm concerned, the movie version of the Master utterly ruined the character.

 

[kirk55555]

The only Masters I've seen was the movie version and the one is Series 3. It will be interesting when I get to him in Classic Doctor Who.

With modern who, I finished The Last of the Timelords. It had a few problems (the weird CGI old Doctor was ridiculous) but I liked the confrontation between The Doctor and The Master. I didn't know that timelords could choose to not regenerate. I mean, i doubt The Master is permanently dead, but it was still an interesting scene. One of the things I forgot to mention about these last three episodes is that it was cool to see some flashbacks to Gallifrey when the Doctor was talking about The Master's back story. I'm hoping we get a good replacement for Martha. She was an ok companion. Not as good as Rose, but decent. Overall it was a good three part series finale. Next up is Voyage of the Damned, then Series 4.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Eh, he wasn't able to appreciate the episodes that set up the Overall Arc/journey of Crichton in Farscape. He'll appreciate what he appreciates.

This. People are a little unfair to kirk55555. He likes the action-adventure/escapist side of science-fiction, and tends to reject anything that deviates too much from that mold, and he's always been very clear about that. Yes, it means that he actively hates what fans consider to be the most innovative and groundbreaking episodes of the medium, but there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[intrinsical]

Eh, he wasn't able to appreciate the episodes that set up the Overall Arc/journey of Crichton in Farscape. He'll appreciate what he appreciates.

This. People are a little unfair to kirk55555. He likes the action-adventure/escapist side of science-fiction, and tends to reject anything that deviates too much from that mold, and he's always been very clear about that. Yes, it means that he actively hates what fans consider to be the most innovative and groundbreaking episodes of the medium, but there's nothing wrong with that.

That's only fair, different people have different tastes. I didn't like Human Nature either, and coincidentally I stopped watching Farscape in the episode where Chrichton was cloned too. As for Blink, up till 3 days ago I thought it was the best episode of Doctor Who. Now? Some new epsiode hsa pushed it down to second best.

 

[Australis]

I concur, though if you didn't see what the Doctor did to the Family, that was a pretty amazing bit, and the final scene at the memorial.

But, as a wise man once said, whatever floats your goat.

 

[Sindatur]

But, as a wise man once said, whatever floats your goat.

I think that's far too personal to talk about on the Open internet...floating Goats is frowned upon in Society in General

Kirk55555, I didn't mean to beat with you the Farscape thing, I was actually defending your personal choice for not jumping onboard with the Arc progression. (I think it deprives you of some great SciFi not to climb onboard, but, if it doesn't work for you, pounding you with why it should, isn't going to help you enjoy it)

I hope you enjoy S4 of NuWho, I'll have more to say after 4.01, But, I will say, unlike many, I LOVE Astrid in The Christmas Special and wish we could've spent more time with her (Though, I'm very happy with the actual S4 Companion, despite my initial revulsion when I originally heard about who it was

 

[kirk55555]

I concur, though if you didn't see what the Doctor did to the Family, that was a pretty amazing bit, and the final scene at the memorial.

I did skim through The Family of Blood, and I saw what he did to the evil family. It seemed really extreme for him, about as extreme as he could get without outright killing them, but I'm sure they deserved it.

With my Doctor who watching, I just watched the Time Crash special, and the Voyage of the Damned Christmas special. Time crash was an awesome 8 minute special starring the 10th and 5th Doctors meeting each other. It was entertaing, and pretty funny at times. The fifth Doctor complaning about the 10th changing the TARDIS's "desktop theme" was pretty funny, and I totally didn't expect the joke about The Master's "beard" The end of the special, with the 10th Doctor talking about how much he loved being the 5th, was great.

Voyage of the Damned was a good episode. I liked how it referenced the earlier specials, by having the people of London basically fleeing the city for Christmas, while not doing another special with the robot santas and killer trees. The episode itself was very entertaining. I liked the cast of characters, and the ending was an interesting twist, although I was already pretty sure Astrid wasn't going to be the companion. The ending was sad but well done, and I wonder if having Astrid die will effect The Doctor's treatment of his next companion. I like how they tried to trick the viewers into thinking that they had a cheat to save Astrid, only to have it fall apart before the Doctor's eyes. Next up is the beginning of series 4.

 

[WillsBabe]

Kirk55555, I've really enjoyed reading your reviews. I find myself having enjoyed the episodes you didn't and vice versa, but that doesn't matter. I hope you carry on posting your thoughts.

 

[Timewalker]

I totally didn't expect the joke about The Master's "beard" The end of the special, with the 10th Doctor talking about how much he loved being the 5th, was great.

Sometimes a beard is just a beard. Both Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley's Masters had beards.

 

[MacLeod]

I concur, though if you didn't see what the Doctor did to the Family, that was a pretty amazing bit, and the final scene at the memorial.

I did skim through The Family of Blood, and I saw what he did to the evil family. It seemed really extreme for him, about as extreme as he could get without outright killing them, but I'm sure they deserved it.

With my Doctor who watching, I just watched the Time Crash special, and the Voyage of the Damned Christmas special. Time crash was an awesome 8 minute special starring the 10th and 5th Doctors meeting each other. It was entertaing, and pretty funny at times. The fifth Doctor complaning about the 10th changing the TARDIS's "desktop theme" was pretty funny, and I totally didn't expect the joke about The Master's "beard" The end of the special, with the 10th Doctor talking about how much he loved being the 5th, was great.

Voyage of the Damned was a good episode. I liked how it referenced the earlier specials, by having the people of London basically fleeing the city for Christmas, while not doing another special with the robot santas and killer trees. The episode itself was very entertaining. I liked the cast of characters, and the ending was an interesting twist, although I was already pretty sure Astrid wasn't going to be the companion. The ending was sad but well done, and I wonder if having Astrid die will effect The Doctor's treatment of his next companion. I like how they tried to trick the viewers into thinking that they had a cheat to save Astrid, only to have it fall apart before the Doctor's eyes. Next up is the beginning of series 4.

Yep Breaking News: London hit by wave of genre savviness.

As for "Time Crash" half of that was DT talking. As given DT's age that would place the Doctor he could remember into the late Fourth/fifth Doctor era.

 

[kirk55555]

I totally didn't expect the joke about The Master's "beard" The end of the special, with the 10th Doctor talking about how much he loved being the 5th, was great.

Sometimes a beard is just a beard. Both Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley's Masters had beards.

Well, I figured other versions of the Master had actual beards, but the 10th Doctor's joke about The Master still having a beard (his wife) was funny and caught me off guard.

Kirk55555, I've really enjoyed reading your reviews. I find myself having enjoyed the episodes you didn't and vice versa, but that doesn't matter. I hope you carry on posting your thoughts.

Yeah, I don't intend to stop. I'm to keep going and posting my honest thoughts. If I had a big problem with having thoughts on episodes that differed wildly from some fans, my earlier Farscape/B5 thread would have dissolved at around half its eventual length. I don't want to "shock" people with my opinions, but I'll always give my true feelings about whats happening. If I didn't, this thread would be kind of pointless.

 

[DWF]

I totally didn't expect the joke about The Master's "beard" The end of the special, with the 10th Doctor talking about how much he loved being the 5th, was great.

Sometimes a beard is just a beard. Both Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley's Masters had beards.

Well, I figured other versions of the Master had actual beards, but the 10th Doctor's joke about The Master still having a beard (his wife) was funny and caught me off guard.

It's meant as a gay joke, gay men will often grow a beard of marry a woman to hide their homosexuality. It's just a jab at the Master.

 

[Timewalker]

Obviously not an in-universe one, then. Homosexuality never got mentioned in the Classic era, and the modern-era Doctors seemed perfectly comfortable talking about it. From the get-go Roger Delgado's Master always came across as charming to the ladies, especially Jo Grant (one of the Third Doctor's companions).

 

[Sindatur]

Obviously not an in-universe one, then. Homosexuality never got mentioned in the Classic era, and the modern-era Doctors seemed perfectly comfortable talking about it. From the get-go Roger Delgado's Master always came across as charming to the ladies, especially Jo Grant (one of the Third Doctor's companions).

Anthony Ainley Master with Adric tied up had a certain "It puts the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again" kinda Gay Molester vibe to it.

 

[Timewalker]

Obviously not an in-universe one, then. Homosexuality never got mentioned in the Classic era, and the modern-era Doctors seemed perfectly comfortable talking about it. From the get-go Roger Delgado's Master always came across as charming to the ladies, especially Jo Grant (one of the Third Doctor's companions).

Anthony Ainley Master with Adric tied up had a certain "It puts the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again" kinda Gay Molester vibe to it.

I have to admit that was a little bizarre, but then the Master merely considered Adric one more tool to use in his quest to destroy the Doctor (since Adric was a mathematical genius and Logopolis had been destroyed). Adric was being controlled and was constantly trying to break free, both from the physical restraints and mental control.

 

[Sindatur]

Obviously not an in-universe one, then. Homosexuality never got mentioned in the Classic era, and the modern-era Doctors seemed perfectly comfortable talking about it. From the get-go Roger Delgado's Master always came across as charming to the ladies, especially Jo Grant (one of the Third Doctor's companions).

Anthony Ainley Master with Adric tied up had a certain "It puts the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again" kinda Gay Molester vibe to it.

I have to admit that was a little bizarre, but then the Master merely considered Adric one more tool to use in his quest to destroy the Doctor (since Adric was a mathematical genius and Logopolis had been destroyed). Adric was being controlled and was constantly trying to break free, both from the physical restraints and mental control.

Oh, I absolutely agree, in context, in story, it makes complete sense. I'm just saying if a casual observer were to walk up while you were watching those episodes, it can easily make you feel uncomfortable and like you're doing something wrong (Kinda like Ivanova's Sex dance in Babylon 5, makes perfect sense in story, in context, but, a casual observer walking up while you're watching it, is going to think "WTF are you watching" )

 

[Timewalker]

Anthony Ainley Master with Adric tied up had a certain "It puts the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again" kinda Gay Molester vibe to it.

I have to admit that was a little bizarre, but then the Master merely considered Adric one more tool to use in his quest to destroy the Doctor (since Adric was a mathematical genius and Logopolis had been destroyed). Adric was being controlled and was constantly trying to break free, both from the physical restraints and mental control.

Oh, I absolutely agree, in context, in story, it makes complete sense. I'm just saying if a casual observer were to walk up while you were watching those episodes, it can easily make you feel uncomfortable and like you're doing something wrong (Kinda like Ivanova's Sex dance in Babylon 5, makes perfect sense in story, in context, but, a casual observer walking up while you're watching it, is going to think "WTF are you watching" )

Luckily my grandparents didn't care about Doctor Who and my dad liked it, so I never had that problem.

My grandmother flipped out over the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV show, though, and my dad freaked out when he saw me watching one of the nude shower scenes in Oz where Beecher and Keller were in the same scene (just standing there talking, but still...).

As for Ivanova, I'm pretty sure that whatever the alien had in mind was far worse than what she did to get out of the situation, so I'm glad we didn't have to see it!

 

[kirk55555]

I've gotten six episodes into Series 4, and I'm liking most of it so far. The first episode of the series, Partners in Crime, was a good episode. Having The Doctor and Donna keep missing each other was pretty entertaining. The fat created aliens were somewhat goofy, but overall I liked the episode.

Next up was The Fires of Pompeii. I'm not a huge fan of this one. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good. It was a pretty unremarkable story. Planet of the Ood was much better. It was interesting to learn more about these aliens, and I liked the reveal about their secondary brains. I thought the line about how Donna's clothes were made by "slave labor" was pretty lame. It was a blatant bit of social commentary, it could have used a bit more subtly to be effective. Still, it was one line and just a bit annoying. I found the episode overall to be enjoyable, and it was nice to see the Ood given a focus and explained.

The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky was a very good two parter. I thought the Sontarans were interesting when I first saw them (in the 4th Doctor serial The Sontaran experiment) and they were used well in this story. Seeing Martha again was ok. The young smart guy was a bit annoying at times, but he wasn't that bad. Its interesting to see UNIT since the early 4th Doctor that I've been watching has had a fair amount of the group (although that apparently is done with, now that I finished Terror of the Zygons). I have to say that the commander in this episode was pretty stubborn, and not as good a commander as Brigadier Stewart. Sure, he may have had less reason to trust The Doctor than Stewart (who met him as the second Doctor and dealt with him all through the 3rd Doctor's run), but the commander in this episode basically got soldiers killed because he didn't tell them to retreat when The Doctor said so. You'd think there would be a note in The Doctor's UNTIL folder at this point that says: "When the Doctor tells you something, YOU LISTEN". I liked the reference to the brigadier, and the reference to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances with a gas masked Doctor asking "Are you my mommy".

I thought that The Doctor's Daughter was a great episode. Jenny was an interesting character, and the actress did a great job. I liked how she started as just another soldier when she left the pod, but by the end she was definately The Doctor's daughter. I'm also really glad that they mentioned that The Doctor has had kids before. I know that The Doctor originally traveled with Susan, who apparently was supposed to be his legitimate Granddaughter so she must have come from a child of the doctor, but I was wondering if him having a family like that would be ignored by modern Doctor Who. Looking Jenny's actress up on wikipedia, apparently she is the daughter of The Doctor (Peter Davidson being her dad) which is interesting. She's also apparently married to David Tennant. I'm sure everyone was already aware of that, but I found it interesting. The episode itself had several interesting twists, like the war only being 7 days old. Martha was honestly a little pointless in this episode, but she wasn't a problem or anything. It would be interesting to see Jenny again, since the ending really left it open for her to return, although apparently she hasn't been seen again so far.

So, Series 4 is starting out well. Donna's been a pretty good companion, and has improved since her initial appearance. Next up will be The Unicorn and The Wasp.

 

[Sindatur]

Yea, I like Donna quite a bit. After The Runaway Bride, I was afraid she was going to be the Companion, and I dreaded it, because her shrieking was not at all to my taste, and I was glad to see the back of her. When I heard she was going to be the S4 Companion, I groaned and dreaded it, and then when Series 4 actually aired, I found I really liked her a lot

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well, nothing much to add to your latest review, except that your pattern holds.
You like the simple adventure romps much better than the more serious morality plays.

Episodes like Fires of Pompeji have their campy elements, but the major point of it was the Doctor struggeling with the impossibilty of saving the city despite knowing the cause which wasn't natural at all.
And then gaining a small victory after all when he saved the family at the pleading of Donna "Just save someone!"
it carries on a theme of the Doctor needing a companion to remind him sometimes of why he calls himself the Doctor while carrying the burden of protector of space and time which should fall to all Time Lords.
This episode is noteworthy for 2 other reasons, it features 2 actors who will go on playing much more prominent roles in the future of the franchise.