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Yes, I have full-time internet access again, and yes, I owe you Gentle Readers a personal update, but that will have to wait just a little longer. Meanwhile, the second of this year's Doctor Who specials has aired and, yes, I feel compelled to comment upon it. There may be spoilers ahead.)
Thank you for the memories, Russel T. Davies
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But I get ahead of myself.
"Planet of the Dead" is unlikely to make anybody weep, or even sniffle. During his four-episode swan-song, Davies seems to be quite properly giving us "only" stand-alone episodes (though with hints of the Doctor's "death" to come), old-fashioned Doctor Who adventures and on that level "Planet of the Dead" was a very good episode indeed. After all, with a cat-suited jewel-thief, UNIT, an alien world, rather original, Earth-threatening monsters and a scientist in love, what's not to like?
Riding the #200 London double-decker bus while investigating some sort of wormhole, The Doctor finds himself suddenly transported — along with the bus and all half-dozen of its passengers — to a desert planet with three suns (not one of which see, presumably for budgetary reasons), a dangerous mystery (the fate of the Earth hangs, yet again, in the balance!) and a remarkably well-prepared aristocrat, the Lady Christina de Souza, who plays this episodes companion.
I won't bore (or spoil) you with details. The episode is fast-paced, funny and exciting enough — were I still ten, I would probably have found it thrilling.
Which brings me back to the beginning, and just what a happy gift that second series was. Basically, the emotional depths of the Rose cycle spoiled me, left me expecting the exceptional, rather than appreciating it for the near-miracle combination of children's adventure and heart-breaking romance it was.
All that said, I'm glad Davies is taking his leave; an eternal series like Doctor Who, like the title character himself, needs periodic injections of new blood.
On an entirely different note, one of you (yes, I mean you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
beable!) said you enjoyed the episode, "except for what seemed to be a spectacular RaceFail..." I'm still waiting for the follow-up since (and at risk of once again making a fool of myself, I don't see it.
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(The psychic woman might have been the RaceFail? She was a bit stereotypical. But there was decent enough explanation and she didn't die so that's good.)
Never argue with a flying bus!
As for the possible race-fail, the psychic woman is my guess, too. But as you said, there was a decent explanation (if "she's always been psychic" counts as such; and on Doctor Who, I guess it does) and I can't see her character as a Fail unless blacks can't be portrayed as psychics.
Re: Never argue with a flying bus!
[spoiler] It's almost certainly the Master, from what I heard. The knock four times is the sound of the drums. [/spoiler]
This makes me unreasonably happy, though I don't think it'll necessarily be in the next two episodes.
Re: Never argue with a flying bus!
However, in this instance, I hope to hell your sources are mistaken; Davros' Pure EvilTM works for me, but the Master for some reason comes across as somebody's irritating cousin and not as an interesting villain.
I see dead people.
That she was aware that she was psychic (and used her gift to predict things like lottery tickets in small amounts) made it slightly more palateable to me, but my initial reaction to Carmen and the "oh noes, dead things are calling us, danger sirrah, omg ghosties" as they go through the wormhole made me roll my eyes at the sheer predictable sloppiness of it. And neither she nor her husband really did much as characters, except tell us that OMG I SEE DEAD PEOPLE ONOES and provide spiritual foreshadowing for OMG HEAP BIG DOCTOR SURPRISE TEH DRAMA! TEH TENSION! TEH DOOM! TEH PONIES AND ICE CREAM AND CAKE JUST KIDDING! at the end.
On the other hand, I loved Christina as a character for many of the same reasons I used to love Ace. I bet Christina and Ace would get along just fine if they were to cross paths.
And I liked that they allowed the two kids to both panic and be useful enough for the Doctor to recommend to Unit.
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I think I'd have gotten annoyed with Christina as a companion, but as a one-off she was great. I remember Ace as a little more earthy, somehow, but I haven't seen those episodes since I was a kid.
...they should bring Ace back for an episode or two. That would be kickass.
Better yet ... spinoff!
Ace and Christina would both be about the same age now (given that Ace was a teenager when she was with the Doctor).
Just think, Ace and Christina conquer the world with a flying bus and a injudicious quantity of nitro-9!
Re: Better yet ... spinoff!
Re: Better yet ... spinoff!
No way, man! Christina's maybe 25? Ace last showed up in 20 years ago. She's got to be at least 45 now.
[Edit:] But along with
Re: Better yet ... spinoff!
Ace was there around 1988-1989. She was 16 when she met the Doctor. (The actress was 25, but the character was established as 16).
So she'd be about 35-40. I'd peg Christina as being about 30, though anywhere from 25-35 would be plausible.
Re: Better yet ... spinoff!
I'll be damned. I thought the actress really was 16ish. As for Michelle Ryan, wiki says she was born in April 1984, so I win on that one!
But I'd still love to find out what happened to Ace, and wouldn't mind at all if Christina was the vector through which the information came to us.
Re: I see dead people.
Granted, I guess. (I say "I guess" because it doesn't tap into one of my stereotypes; when I hear psychic, I tend to think of the Amazing Kreskin or a middle-American white woman with a beehive hairdo.)
On the upside of the race thing, I very much did like seeing the return of Captain Magambo (even if she was — ahem, stereotypically quick with the Whoniverse's military willingness to point guns at people), as well as the previously under-performing black kid (as well as the white one). Having the Doctor recommend them to UNIT was Pure Sweetness, and well in keeping with Russell's vision of the Doctor as making those around him better.
On the other hand, I loved Christina as a character for many of the same reasons I used to love Ace. I bet Christina and Ace would get along just fine if they were to cross paths.
I thought of Ace as soon as she started pulling everything but the kitchen sink out of her bag.
Beable journal-updates fail
So far on my list are:
1) shag/marry/kill meme
2) Planet of the Dead
3) (so it ain't never gonna happen) FKO report
4) Canine follies
Re: Beable journal-updates fail
Also on my list:
5) Why we can't look behind the curtain: Otherwise known as critical plot elements in Buffy, Doctor Who, Heroes, etc that would cause the shows to unravel at the seams if common sense on what would actually happen was ever applied to the assorted situations and plot devices in question.
Re: Beable journal-updates fail
Re: Beable journal-updates fail
My Doctor Who issues aren't even that elaborate (that one falls into my "Doctor Who/Star Trek Science" suspension of disbelieve.
Most of my items for #5 have to do with inconsistencies in established character behaviour and/or plot devices applied inconsistently because they can't be bothered explaining things.
One of my Doctor Who examples is the first episode when Rose goes and meets the fanboy collecting Doctor references on the internet. Now Rose has seen the Doctor but this guy never has, and given the large number of Doctor's is doesn't make sense that all of his sightings would have been only of the 9th Doctor. Especially given that UNIT isn't exactly a secret organization and Torchwood is the most unsecret secret society I have ever seen (well that's not true, but it's very open-secretish - at least in cities where it operates).
There was also the "when the Doctor tells Mickey to log into the Unit public website using only the word buffalo over and over again". That would have worked in the 1970's maybe, but nowadays anybody and their script kiddy would have hacked unit if they actually had such a silly thing as a passwordless dictionary word login accessible from their public website.
Hell, Livejournal won't let you set your account to buffalo unless you throw some numbers or punctuation into it!
Re: Beable journal-updates fail
Not for me; after all, it wouldn't have been hard to throw in a line of dialogue noting that the anti-grav devices also conveniently provide an air-tight force-field or something (which still leaves the problem of providing her with extra oxygen or something. Maybe your way is best after all).
...given the large number of Doctor's is doesn't make sense that all of his sightings would have been only of the 9th Doctor...
As a desperate last-ditch defence, I'll note that the fanboy did say something about believing "the title" was passed on from father to son, which I inferred meant he had pictures of other Doctors in his possession.
But yeah, "buffalo" all the way down makes for improbably shitty security protocols on UNIT's part, no question.