Doctor Who: World War Three

[selenay]

First thing to note: "Weapons of mass destruction that can be fired in 45 seconds".

OMG, Doctor Who got topical. And it worked :-) This whole plot appears to be have been "Russel T. Davies makes cutting commentary on the Iraq war". With The End of the World making comments on the nature of humanity (and cosmetic surgery run amok), I'm getting the feeling that we're going to be seeing a few Doctor Whos with subtle (and not so subtle) themes. Not that I mind, because it gives some extra levels for the show to work on. Most of the young kinds will have been watching the Earth nearly get destroyed by aliens. Yay Doctor for saving the planet. Most of the adults will have been enjoying that and getting some fun out of the modern parallels. In other words, it's finding ways to work on multiple levels, which is very cool.

My adoration for Harriet Jones just increased in this ep. Absolutely my favourite bit character so far. I did start to suspect her future when the Doctor vaguely recognised her (after all, the set-up wasn't too subtle), but those are the kind of hints that the Doctor has given about other characters in the past. It was good to see a bit character developing and growing over the course of an adventure - the Harriet Jones we met in her first scene couldn't have been PM, but you suspected that the Harriet Jones making a statement to the press at the end would be a very good Prime Minister.

Of course, it also made me start considering the nature of time, self-fulfilling prophecies etc. After all, would she have been a great Prime Minister without the experiences she gained fighting the Slitheen? Could anyone have defeated the Slitheen without the Doctor's knowledge? If the Doctor hadn't interfered, how would it have turned out?

See, this is why time travel gives me headaches :-)

I did have a few questions after this episode. Mostly, why didn't the Slitheen just nuke the Earth themselves rather than having this complicated set-up?

OTOH, there does seem to be an established set of galactic laws, so I'm willing to let it slid in favour of the possibility that the Slitheen were taking advantage of a loop-hole and couldn't be seen to destroy the planet themselves.

Whatever.

The parallels with current events were just too darned good :-) Part of me is wondering how Russel T. Davies got this one out - it is making a not too subtle point about our government's involvement with the Iraqi war - but most of me is just admiring him for having the balls to do it :-)

The other big thing that I liked? Destroying number ten. Not because I want to, but because it was such a huge, audacious plan that I didn't think they'd do it. In fact, blowing up number ten never even occurred to me. It shows how fixed my mind is on the conventions, something that's a little unsettling.

The chemistry between the Doctor and Rose is still there and I love it. This is how UST should be written :-) I did like the understanding that the Doctor showed Mickey - both in asking him to come along and proving a convenient excuse so that Mickey didn't have to admit that he isn't as brave as Rose. After all the Doctor's protestations of being alien, it was good to see a touch of almost-humanity there. There was never any doubt in my mind that Rose would continue her travels. One of the things that this episode showed was how much Rose has grown since the first episode. She doesn't fit with her old life anymore. She loves her mom and Mickie, but she needs more out of her life than what either of them can offer.

In fact, her parting line to Jackie was one of my favourites. "If you could see what's out there, you wouldn't want to stay home either."

In many ways, Rose is us. Or at least, who we would like to be. She's the 'us' who would have the guts to pack up her life and travel the universe just to see what's there. We see the episodes through her eyes because it helps us to understand, but we also quietly wish that we could do it all.

My main comment about the trailer for next week's episode: squeeeee!

Ahem. Uncontrollable excitement reigns each time I see the trailer. My father ain't too far behind. His comment? "At last."


Thus endeth this week's lesson :-)

Comments

[elfinessy.livejournal.com]

I'm very impressed how Chris Ecclestone conveys a complete and absolute love without actually sounding soppy.

If I was a het writer and Rose wasn't being played by Billie (I like her, I really do, it's just that she looks 12 and just thinking about it feels illegal!) I'd be having a field day!

[selenay]

I'm very impressed how Chris Ecclestone conveys a complete and absolute love without actually sounding soppy.

*nods* Unlike other shows (not glaring at Stargate, of course) they've managed to pull this off without killing my adoration for the character or inserting dreadful, soppy, out of place moments. It's a combination of CE's acting and the scripts, but mostly it's the acting. Someone else might not be able to pull off the looks, pauses and unspoken stuff, but CE does.

If I was a het writer and Rose wasn't being played by Billie (I like her, I really do, it's just that she looks 12 and just thinking about it feels illegal!) I'd be having a field day!

*g* That's been my thought, too :-)

[paranoidangel]

I really liked it as well. Specially the Doctors joke about Rose's mother cooking. Dad missed it and we were trying to tell him what he said but couldn't for to much laughing! We also liked the phone the Doctor had in the tardis.

[selenay]

Those touches were just brilliant :-)) They're going a great job of balancing the humour in these episodes - it's fallen flat once or twice, but overall they've been very funny without ever feeling like a parody and the Doctor has had a lot of the best lines :-)

[paranoidangel]

Doctor has had a lot of the best lines

Definitely. Dad liked the happy medium joke in the Dickens episode. Which he would really, it was a bit of a dad joke. But since he mentioned it I can't stop laughing when I think of it.

[selenay]

Bad joke. But unfortunately funny :-)