This episode has some good ideas, and creates some great characters (including our first meeting with Captain Jack Harkness, some would have us believe *grin*), but it left me a bit cold.
I liked the way the relationship between the Doctor and Rose was still a bit uneasy, but it didn’t make for very comfortable viewing. On the other hand, I liked the Doctor more this time. I don’t know if that’s just me getting used to him, or if CE was getting used to him, but it was better. And I liked Rose (who still sounded posher than I remembered) getting more than she bargained for going off with the Doctor, and the way she freaked at first and then began to take it into her stride (loved her bonding with Raffalo the blue plumber, whose accent was very similar to her own). And then got freaked again by nearly dying and very sensibly said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay with the Doctor and went off to eat some chips.
I really liked the vibe between the Doctor and Jabe, the tree woman; the way she tried to scan him to find out what he was, and upon finding out told him how sorry she was. And the parallels between Cassandra, the last (‘pure’) human, and the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords (hmm, that sounds like a good title for an episode… *grin*).
(Actually, call me slow, but it wasn’t until he was finally telling Rose he was the last of his race at the end that I realised why he had such a problem with Cassandra and refused to help save her. Duh!)
What else did I like? The little bit of exposition about the planet being owned by the National Trust and them putting the continents back after they’d moved to create a ‘classic earth’. And the force-field going down when the money ran out.
The blue Munchkin men. I kept expecting them to start singing.
Cassandra and her Ipod/jukebox, and the way the tunes they played (‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Toxic’) fitted the action they were played over.
The Steward putting out the call for the owner of the TARDIS to move it. I liked the Steward. He sounded like Kryten in Red Dwarf.
The Doctor rigging Rose’s phone so she could call her mum when she was on the verge of freaking out. (I still want to know how that works, though. She doesn’t choose when she wants her Mum to receive the call, iyswim. Yet it’s not random. I don’t get it.)
The writing on the various computery bits of the ship, which looked a bit like our writing but a bit different, as if it had evolved. Neat.
The ‘Adherents of the Repeated Meme’. I’d never really heard the term ‘meme’ till I came to LJ (though it sounded familiar once I’d look up what it meant) so this name made me giggle. It probably shouldn’t have. And I loved the idea that there wasn’t actually anyone there, just an idea.
And finally, this is one of the episodes I recorded of UKTV Gold, and as we were nearing the end up popped the ‘What’s on next’ pop-up – and what’s next was ‘My Family’, with Zoe Wanamaker! Another giggle :-)
Notes
The other guests aren’t time travellers. They’re rich people who happen to be around at that time. I never got that before.
Jabe was played by Yasmin Bannerman, who played Swanson in Torchwood. I thought the name and the voice sounded familiar.
The Doctor says, “I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg.” So he was on the Titanic!
I thought the Doctor and Rose actually met the Face of Boe here – talked to him, I mean – but they didn’t.
And an interesting fact gleaned from good ol’ Wikipedia: “The Face of Boe is revealed to be from the Silver Devastation, which is where Professor Yana reveals he is "from" in the episode "Utopia".”
7/10
In other news, my 'DVD commentary' of
becky_h's Change is now up here.
I liked the way the relationship between the Doctor and Rose was still a bit uneasy, but it didn’t make for very comfortable viewing. On the other hand, I liked the Doctor more this time. I don’t know if that’s just me getting used to him, or if CE was getting used to him, but it was better. And I liked Rose (who still sounded posher than I remembered) getting more than she bargained for going off with the Doctor, and the way she freaked at first and then began to take it into her stride (loved her bonding with Raffalo the blue plumber, whose accent was very similar to her own). And then got freaked again by nearly dying and very sensibly said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay with the Doctor and went off to eat some chips.
I really liked the vibe between the Doctor and Jabe, the tree woman; the way she tried to scan him to find out what he was, and upon finding out told him how sorry she was. And the parallels between Cassandra, the last (‘pure’) human, and the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords (hmm, that sounds like a good title for an episode… *grin*).
(Actually, call me slow, but it wasn’t until he was finally telling Rose he was the last of his race at the end that I realised why he had such a problem with Cassandra and refused to help save her. Duh!)
What else did I like? The little bit of exposition about the planet being owned by the National Trust and them putting the continents back after they’d moved to create a ‘classic earth’. And the force-field going down when the money ran out.
The blue Munchkin men. I kept expecting them to start singing.
Cassandra and her Ipod/jukebox, and the way the tunes they played (‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Toxic’) fitted the action they were played over.
The Steward putting out the call for the owner of the TARDIS to move it. I liked the Steward. He sounded like Kryten in Red Dwarf.
The Doctor rigging Rose’s phone so she could call her mum when she was on the verge of freaking out. (I still want to know how that works, though. She doesn’t choose when she wants her Mum to receive the call, iyswim. Yet it’s not random. I don’t get it.)
The writing on the various computery bits of the ship, which looked a bit like our writing but a bit different, as if it had evolved. Neat.
The ‘Adherents of the Repeated Meme’. I’d never really heard the term ‘meme’ till I came to LJ (though it sounded familiar once I’d look up what it meant) so this name made me giggle. It probably shouldn’t have. And I loved the idea that there wasn’t actually anyone there, just an idea.
And finally, this is one of the episodes I recorded of UKTV Gold, and as we were nearing the end up popped the ‘What’s on next’ pop-up – and what’s next was ‘My Family’, with Zoe Wanamaker! Another giggle :-)
Notes
The other guests aren’t time travellers. They’re rich people who happen to be around at that time. I never got that before.
Jabe was played by Yasmin Bannerman, who played Swanson in Torchwood. I thought the name and the voice sounded familiar.
The Doctor says, “I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg.” So he was on the Titanic!
I thought the Doctor and Rose actually met the Face of Boe here – talked to him, I mean – but they didn’t.
And an interesting fact gleaned from good ol’ Wikipedia: “The Face of Boe is revealed to be from the Silver Devastation, which is where Professor Yana reveals he is "from" in the episode "Utopia".”
7/10
In other news, my 'DVD commentary' of
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Oh, neat. I didn't realize that, although I adored her in both roles. ::goes to read your commentary::
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