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I have to say I’m distinctly underwhelmed by this episode.
The whole thing felt very reminiscent of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. OK, so the ‘real-time’ thing was a first, for Doctor Who, but I spent most of the episode wanting to slap everyone around and tell them to stop wasting time. For me, the amount of time they spent standing staring at each other or, for example, Martha telling the Doctor she’d save him instead of just getting on and doing it, really sapped away the tension that should have been there from the time-limit.
There were only two moments when I sat up and took notice. One: when Martha was phoning her mum from the escape pod and the shot of her mum widened to show the lady listening in and trying to track the call. (And I don’t think they really needed to mention Mr Saxon at the end. I mean, who else could be behind it? He’s been the only name mentioned all season so far.) And two: when Martha was snogging whathisname at the end and the shot showed his colleague behind them rolling his eyes – made me laugh out loud.
I really did expect the last question to open the locked doors to be “What’s the answer to life, the universe and everything?” I think they missed a trick there. I mean, surely that’s what almost everyone thought of when they saw the episode title?
And why did they keep going on about ‘colliding with the sun’? Surely the sun – any sun – is just gas, at least on the outside, and anyway surely they’d burn up long before they collided with anything in the least bit substantial.
Oh, and I can’t stand Martha’s mum. And that was before we discovered she’s evil/in league with someone/whatever.
On the other hand, the CGI effects were excellent. At no point did I remember I was looking at something that wasn’t physically real, and that doesn’t often happen for me. Mind you, I’m getting very bored with the inevitable pull-out shots starting on someone looking out of a window and then pulling back to see this enormous spaceship or whatever. That’s not just Doctor Who. But it’s rather over-used these days.
5/10
The whole thing felt very reminiscent of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. OK, so the ‘real-time’ thing was a first, for Doctor Who, but I spent most of the episode wanting to slap everyone around and tell them to stop wasting time. For me, the amount of time they spent standing staring at each other or, for example, Martha telling the Doctor she’d save him instead of just getting on and doing it, really sapped away the tension that should have been there from the time-limit.
There were only two moments when I sat up and took notice. One: when Martha was phoning her mum from the escape pod and the shot of her mum widened to show the lady listening in and trying to track the call. (And I don’t think they really needed to mention Mr Saxon at the end. I mean, who else could be behind it? He’s been the only name mentioned all season so far.) And two: when Martha was snogging whathisname at the end and the shot showed his colleague behind them rolling his eyes – made me laugh out loud.
I really did expect the last question to open the locked doors to be “What’s the answer to life, the universe and everything?” I think they missed a trick there. I mean, surely that’s what almost everyone thought of when they saw the episode title?
And why did they keep going on about ‘colliding with the sun’? Surely the sun – any sun – is just gas, at least on the outside, and anyway surely they’d burn up long before they collided with anything in the least bit substantial.
Oh, and I can’t stand Martha’s mum. And that was before we discovered she’s evil/in league with someone/whatever.
On the other hand, the CGI effects were excellent. At no point did I remember I was looking at something that wasn’t physically real, and that doesn’t often happen for me. Mind you, I’m getting very bored with the inevitable pull-out shots starting on someone looking out of a window and then pulling back to see this enormous spaceship or whatever. That’s not just Doctor Who. But it’s rather over-used these days.
5/10
no subject
I liked the 'sun is alive and it's screaming'. That just appealed to me on some totally illogical level. I liked the CGI. I loved that Martha kissed the guy. I like that The Doctor was the one in trouble. I really loved Tennant screaming. I liked The Doctor rigging her phone, I liked the Doctor doing recreational math (*G*). I even liked Martha finally getting a key.
But the plot? What plot,again?
no subject
And everyone's going on about the "I'll save you" bit but I just thought it was corny.