Doctor Who: Bad Wolf

[selenay]

The plus points: fantastic episode.
The downside: only one more left :-(

But still, fantastic episode *g*


I have to confess that when I saw in the Radio Times that we were having a "reality TV goes nuts" episode, my heart sank. Why waste a perfectly good episode slot in our rather short season for that? Except, it worked. RTD pulled it off and there was an actual reason for it besides the desire to make comments on how crap reality TV is.

The sound editing could have used a tweak during the first couple of minutes - the Big Brother theme drowned out some of the dialogue - but that was my only issue with it. And that's hardly a deal-breaker :-)

The core idea, that humans have become so jaded with entertainment TV that they need rather lethal consequences just to spice things up a bit, really starts to work when the Doctor realises where they are and what's been happening. Until that I point, I was so busy trying to work out what had happened, how they'd been removed from the TARDIS and why, that I didn't really need to question the reality TV stuff. And then it becomes obvious.

Except, during the final five minutes it's all changed again with the appearance of the Daleks. Why has humanity ended up sitting on the sofa consuming mindless entertainment? It could be because of the economic collapse, pollution etc. Perfectly plausible. But how much easier is it for the Daleks to stage an invasion of Earth (with all of its tempting resources) when they've dismantled human society? Hey, even easier than if they controlled the news and could manipulate it so that no one knew they were there! It seems fairly obvious that the Daleks have been planning this for a long time, softening up the humans to make invasion easy. The mineral resources on Earth seem a good enough reason for me at the moment, although I'm sure we'll discover an even sneakier reason next week. RTD has obviously been planning this all season, dropping little hints that are just starting to make sense. Can't wait to see how it all pans out next week.

There were, of course, a few shallow moments. Captain Jack and the defrabricator. A thousand fangirls probably fainted dead away there. Another thousand probably hoped that he wouldn't find any clothes to do his rescuing in. And any of them who watched Doctor Who Confidential afterwards are probably hunting down the BBC censors for denying them the gratuitous butt shot.

And speculation on where he found that gun will definitely launch a thousand fics ;-)

He's a very resourceful guy. RTD said in Doctor Who Confidential that he wrote Captain Jack because he needed a character who could pick up (and use) guns and the Doctor and Rose definitely couldn't. Captain Jack definitely works in that capacity, but he's not a one idea character.

::glares at RTD:: Do not write Captain Jack out.

I'm also loving the way that he can flirt with anything that moves without making it sleazy. John Barrowman does a great job - he makes Captain Jack into a guy who just loves living and wants to experience everything that life has to offer. Yay!

"Hello."
"This isn't the time.
"I only said hello."
"For you, that's flirting."

One of the things that I really liked in this episode was the way that the Doctor and Captain Jack reacted to Rose's 'death'. It was in character for both of them and you could almost feel their distress through the screen. The Doctor was devastated, that's the only way to describe it. This is where it really makes a difference to have two talented actors playing the leads. No offence to RDA fans, but he isn't good on the solid emotion moments - and he gets given too many of them *sigh*

Put that with the absolute joy at discovering that Rose is alive and you've got a beautiful moment played just right.

The final ten minutes of the episode were the best. The Controller, using what she could to find a way to defeat her 'Masters'. The revelation of who was behind Satellite 5 and how long they'd been there. The Doctor promising to rescue Rose and wipe "every stinking Dalek" from the universe. And then the final shot of thousands of Daleks readying themselves for the invasion. Enthralling. Terrifying.

Part of me can't wait until next week. Part of me doesn't want to next week to come because there won't be any new Who for another year :-(

I do have a few questions. Why did Jack recognise the Dalek ships? What does he know about Daleks? Exactly how long have the Daleks been planning this? And why Earth? How did they survive? If some of them survived, are there some surviving Time Lords out there? Will RTD undo the destruction of Gallifrey?

I deliberately flicked over before the trailer for next week began and I am determined to stay spoiler free until then. The BBC has helpfully put a page up to tell us when trailers will be running (must avoid BBC between 7.55pm and 8.05pm every night) and so far nobody has posted unmarked spoilers about the trailers. I'm not even reading speculation about next week. I wanna get there without the faintest idea of what's happening so that I can get the full effect.

Me? Obssessed? Whatever gave you that idea?

*g*


Spent the day in London yesterday, hanging out in a Canadian pub with paranoidangel42, terrylbirch and Kate-who-has-no-LJ. Much fun. Um, Stargate may have been mentioned once. Possibly twice. But there was much sqeeing over Doctor Who and the agreement that we all adore Captain Jack, which was a complete blast :-)))

And now I'm back to the job hunt. Woo-hoo.

Comments

[paranoidangel]

there won't be any new Who for another year

6 months - don't forget the Christmas special

[selenay]

Ooh, yeah, I'd forgotten.

Still way too long to wait :-)