Doctor Who: Aliens of London part 1
Apr. 18th, 2005 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayWeekly Doctor Who squeeage time :-) This was slightly delayed due to a trip to see the London Marathon yesterday, leaving me knackered with a severely burnt nose. Um, burning sunlight? In April? In London? Spent so long staring into sunlight and generally overdoing it that I woke up with a migraine this morning and didn't make it to work. Bleh.
But I'm feeling much better tonight, except for the nose, which is still burnt. Oops. Must remember sunscreen and a hat the next time I do something like that. Anyway...
I enjoyed this episode, although possibly not quite as much as last week's. That's probably because I had one or two minor niggles and...er...I just really like the DW historical adventures :-)
The niggles are really very tiny and didn't spoil my enjoyment - more in the nature of pulling me out briefly and I'm sure they'll work better for me when I re-watch for capping purposes. I'm sure that I've seen the idea of skin-suits with bad gas exchangers causing farting/burping somewhere else. Can't remember where, but it feels like a familiar idea. Not that this is a bad thing - there are probably a limited number of plotty and/or jokey things you can do with the skin-suit disguise idea - but I kept trying to work out what I'd read or seen that used the idea before. And the pig running down the corridor - for a moment I couldn't work out whether I should be laughing or horrified. It just didn't work as well as it should have for me.
On the other hand, aliens faking an invasion to draw attention away from their own invasion did work. And using that fake invasion to gather all the alien experts to kill them? Also a good idea :-) And I didn't put that idea together until the Doctor began spelling it out. Either I'm daft or the script worked. I'm plumping for option two.
One of the things that I did enjoy was the slower build up and cliff-hanger. The wait until next week is always frustrating, but it's also one of the things that I've always liked about Doctor Who. I think some of the old episodes do show signs of being padded out to fill up four episodes, but the ones that really worked didn't feel padded and you couldn't wait to find out what happened next week. This episode had the traditional cliff-hanger of the Doctor and the companion in mortal danger just before the credits rolled and it felt like a good, solid, Doctor Who ending :-)
The slower build up has allowed the script to have a few more threads, a little more depth, but RTD and co. haven't over done it, either. No padding, no filler, just plot, characterisation and action.
UNIT got in there! Yay! No Brigadier, but you can't have an Earth-based invasion story without UNIT :-)
My favourite exchange was between the policeman and the Doctor discussing his relationship with Rose.
"She's my companion."
"I see. So is this a sexual relationship?"
< /paraphrase>
*snort* I went into this series absolutely determined not to see any chemistry between Rose and the Doctor. This is Doctor Who, after all, and that's just not what the Doctor-Companion relationship is. After long experience with show-runners attempting to inject UST between characters that don't have that kind of chemistry just because they're the lead female and male, I was only concerned that they'd attempt to force something that wasn't there. I'm fairly sure that RTD is playing to the implications between Rose and the Doctor, but dammit there's chemistry. Damn those actors and their scripts and their offers of their own TARDIS keys. Of course, it would all be ruined if there was ever an on-screen admission of anything, but there are enough sparks and looks to let our imaginations run wild if we want.
Grrr. *So* not going out looking for the 9/Rose stuff. Nu-uh.
Back to the episode. The female MP (who I've temporarily forgotten the name of because I'm lame) has become one of my favourite minor characters so far. It was the way she flashed her MP ID everytime she met someone - I suspect that she wanted to be a cop or secret service once and gets a kick out of finally having ID to flash :-) She's one minor character that I'm going to be miffed about if she doesn't survive.
The Doctor is still wonderful. I'm getting more attached to Rose by the week. Jackie and Mickey are irritating, but they do give some very good reasons for why Rose didn't take much pursuasion to run off on adventures with the Doctor. In fact, it's great to see a companion go back to their home and realise how much what they've seen has affected them. Usually the companions climb into the TARDIS and that's it, we never see their homes again. It's interesting to see Rose going home after a few adventures because it's already obvious how much her ideas have expanded since she left. She doesn't really fit there anymore, if she ever did, because she knows what's really out there and is learning what she can really do.
Now I just have to wait another five days until the next episode. Loooong wait.
But I'm feeling much better tonight, except for the nose, which is still burnt. Oops. Must remember sunscreen and a hat the next time I do something like that. Anyway...
I enjoyed this episode, although possibly not quite as much as last week's. That's probably because I had one or two minor niggles and...er...I just really like the DW historical adventures :-)
The niggles are really very tiny and didn't spoil my enjoyment - more in the nature of pulling me out briefly and I'm sure they'll work better for me when I re-watch for capping purposes. I'm sure that I've seen the idea of skin-suits with bad gas exchangers causing farting/burping somewhere else. Can't remember where, but it feels like a familiar idea. Not that this is a bad thing - there are probably a limited number of plotty and/or jokey things you can do with the skin-suit disguise idea - but I kept trying to work out what I'd read or seen that used the idea before. And the pig running down the corridor - for a moment I couldn't work out whether I should be laughing or horrified. It just didn't work as well as it should have for me.
On the other hand, aliens faking an invasion to draw attention away from their own invasion did work. And using that fake invasion to gather all the alien experts to kill them? Also a good idea :-) And I didn't put that idea together until the Doctor began spelling it out. Either I'm daft or the script worked. I'm plumping for option two.
One of the things that I did enjoy was the slower build up and cliff-hanger. The wait until next week is always frustrating, but it's also one of the things that I've always liked about Doctor Who. I think some of the old episodes do show signs of being padded out to fill up four episodes, but the ones that really worked didn't feel padded and you couldn't wait to find out what happened next week. This episode had the traditional cliff-hanger of the Doctor and the companion in mortal danger just before the credits rolled and it felt like a good, solid, Doctor Who ending :-)
The slower build up has allowed the script to have a few more threads, a little more depth, but RTD and co. haven't over done it, either. No padding, no filler, just plot, characterisation and action.
UNIT got in there! Yay! No Brigadier, but you can't have an Earth-based invasion story without UNIT :-)
My favourite exchange was between the policeman and the Doctor discussing his relationship with Rose.
"She's my companion."
"I see. So is this a sexual relationship?"
< /paraphrase>
*snort* I went into this series absolutely determined not to see any chemistry between Rose and the Doctor. This is Doctor Who, after all, and that's just not what the Doctor-Companion relationship is. After long experience with show-runners attempting to inject UST between characters that don't have that kind of chemistry just because they're the lead female and male, I was only concerned that they'd attempt to force something that wasn't there. I'm fairly sure that RTD is playing to the implications between Rose and the Doctor, but dammit there's chemistry. Damn those actors and their scripts and their offers of their own TARDIS keys. Of course, it would all be ruined if there was ever an on-screen admission of anything, but there are enough sparks and looks to let our imaginations run wild if we want.
Grrr. *So* not going out looking for the 9/Rose stuff. Nu-uh.
Back to the episode. The female MP (who I've temporarily forgotten the name of because I'm lame) has become one of my favourite minor characters so far. It was the way she flashed her MP ID everytime she met someone - I suspect that she wanted to be a cop or secret service once and gets a kick out of finally having ID to flash :-) She's one minor character that I'm going to be miffed about if she doesn't survive.
The Doctor is still wonderful. I'm getting more attached to Rose by the week. Jackie and Mickey are irritating, but they do give some very good reasons for why Rose didn't take much pursuasion to run off on adventures with the Doctor. In fact, it's great to see a companion go back to their home and realise how much what they've seen has affected them. Usually the companions climb into the TARDIS and that's it, we never see their homes again. It's interesting to see Rose going home after a few adventures because it's already obvious how much her ideas have expanded since she left. She doesn't really fit there anymore, if she ever did, because she knows what's really out there and is learning what she can really do.
Now I just have to wait another five days until the next episode. Loooong wait.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 09:24 pm (UTC)I'm going to be so hard to live with when we're between seasons *g*
Nice review/comment!
Date: 2005-04-19 01:03 am (UTC)Re: Nice review/comment!
Date: 2005-04-19 09:29 pm (UTC)That actress has been in lots of things and I've always liked her. There's just something about her, so I'm enjoying watching her in a role that I like so much.
I've been watching the Doctor Who Confidential stuff with great glee *g* So far they've been good about not spoiling upcoming episodes (phew!) and I love seeing footage from the classic episodes. Although it's a little worrying how many of the episode titles I can name just from short clips...
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 08:47 am (UTC)I didn't notice that she even had a name, and I'm guessing Jackie is Rose's mum. I'm really not good with names :)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 09:31 pm (UTC)*Or whatever the constituency is - I'll remember better after the screencapping exercise :-)