Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Oct 8, 2018 7:34:39 GMT -6
How many watched the premiere of the first female Doctor Who this past Sunday night? I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed. Of course the Doctor is supposed to be a bit quirky and irreverent, often bordering on downright silly. But to me, I hate to say it but she came off looking like a total flake, rushing about and saying funny things at random. I would have been ringing up the nearest nut hatch and asking them if they wouldn't mind stepping around with one of their heavy duty butterfly nets. Plus, I am sorry but I did not find it at all plausible that she could build herself a new and improved "sonic Swiss army knife" with just a blowtorch and a few spare parts.
And that's another thing. Didn't the others just seem to take it all too much in stride? Oh, you're an alien are you? And we're supposed to just follow you around and do whatever you say? Okay, why not? I mean, sure, that's the whole reason behind Dr. Who's phenomenal popularity -- it's about the Companions. It's about ordinary young people getting caught up in alien invasions and against all odds helping to save the world. I get that. That's why young people like it. They like to put themselves in the Companions' place. Maybe it's just that as I get older, that kind of thing is wearing a bit thin for me.
At least the show is getting back to science fiction. One of the reasons I stopped watching the Matt Smith series was that it felt more like a Victorian Horror series -- aliens without faces or who could instantly hypnotize you and make you forget they ever existed, and rot like that. Now that I mention it, the thing with the teeth was a little bit gratuitous, and kind of odd really.
Anyway I'm not going to completely judge it on just one episode. I'll probably be watching the next one next Sunday. Join me here to talk about it.
|
|
Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Oct 15, 2018 7:34:38 GMT -6
Well, "The Ghost Monument" was a bit more like it. The Doctor and her companions have to make their way across the barren landscape of a desolate planet along with two space jockeys who are the sole surviving participants in a marathon race. The Doctor herself comes off as much more competent and sure of herself. The progression of perils they faced is convincing, along with the mystery of just how this planet got to be so desolate in the first place. I was a little bit disappointed to once again see a bunch of "sniper robots" which apparently can't hit the broad side of a barn, but that is SO traditional that you can't really complain. I mean, the bad guys have to shoot lasers at the good guys in order to show how serious the situation is, and at the same time they can't actually HIT any of the good guys because that would mess up the story, thus we have villains with extremely poor aims. I'm also not going to complain about the way she saved them from the rag people by igniting the acetylene in the atmosphere. Even if it is lighter than air, I would have thought that the ignition would suck the oxygen upward into the blaze, replacing it with carbon monoxide and suffocating them even if it didn't boil them alive. But that's only a small point and did not ruin my enjoyment of the episode. I'd give it about a six out of ten, which is not at all bad.
|
|
Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Oct 26, 2018 7:56:21 GMT -6
Okay then, "Rosa". In this episode the Doctor and her companions are in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, where they encounter a time traveler who is attempting to sabotage the Civil Rights movement by arranging it so that Rosa Parks does not get arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus. The catch is that, although the villain has a "time displacement" gun which he shoots freely at the good guys (missing every time, naturally), he is an ex-convict and as such has a neural implant which prevents him from physically injuring anyone. So he has to work indirectly. The second half of the story has a sort of "Back to the Future" feel to it, with the group foiling one obstacle only to have the villain throw another one at them.
Apart from a certain cuteness, however, the story just failed to be convincing. Part of it is the characters wander around as if they're in a 1950's theme park or something. Four people with British accents in Montgomery, Alabama would draw attention, but nobody seems to notice them at all. At one point they're riding in a bus (the black member of the group in the back, of course), and they're chatting away across the length of the bus as though all the other passengers are just wallpaper. Part of it is that the characters obsess so much about every detail of the event having to be exactly the way "history" says it happened, and yet they themselves are altering details, too. At one point they arrange for an alternate bus driver to win a trip to Las Vegas by calling Elvis Presley on the Doctor's cell phone. That certainly didn't happen in the original history!
I'd give it four or maybe five out of ten. Basically an average Dr. Who episode, nothing to write home about.
|
|
Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 5, 2018 8:39:49 GMT -6
"Arachnids in the UK" This was another above average episode, quite a few spooky moments as the characters begin to run into oversized spiders everywhere they turn. Personally I was amused that the villain was an American businessman (Chris Noth) who bears a strange resemblance to Donald Trump. Since his final line is to the effect that he was going to be running for President of the United States in 2020, it would not surprise me if we see this character again. One thing that impressed me was the Doctor's compassion, refusing to kill the giant mutant spiders since what happened to them was not their fault. But since her entire plan was to lure them into a sealed room and trap them where they would starve to death (and probably eat one another!), that sort of balances out. I like the way that giant spiders are realistically portrayed in the story, but unfortunately that also means that they turn out to not be that big a threat after all. The characters meet Yaz's family, which leads to the running gag of the Doctor repeatedly saying, "Follow Yaz's mum," and the woman replying rather tartly, "My name is Najia." For all these little touches, I'd give the episode seven out of ten.
|
|
Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 19, 2018 8:40:10 GMT -6
I missed the last two episodes, "The Tsuranga Conundrum" and "Demons of the Punjab", so I'll jump straight to "Kerblam!"
Kerblam is apparently the name of a shipping company which ships items anywhere in the galaxy by means of creepy-looking teleportation robots. Out of the blue, the Doctor receives a package which she has apparently ordered at some unknown time in the past. After the robot delivery man has departed, she takes a look at the invoice sheet and finds the words "Help me" printed on it. That serves as the hook.
The home base of Kerblam is a warehouse which covers an entire moon, and has 10,000 humans in menial assembly line jobs, supervised by ten times that many robots. Apparently unemployment is so bad that those 10,000 consider themselves inordinately lucky to be employed at all. The characters apply for jobs so that they are in a position to investigate, and they quickly make friends with other workers, who naturally begin to disappear one by one. In that respect the story bears a striking resemblance to an early Ecclestone episode about Space Station Five -- not that this is necessarily a drawback. In a series which has run so long, you have to accept that plots are going to repeat every so often. As long as the story is a fresh variation on the theme, all well and good.
Unfortunately this idea just struck out. The climax struck me as a joke, and since it involves an act of terrorism which is not at all funny right now in 2018, I'd have to say it was a joke in very poor taste. Overall I found it very disappointing. I'd give it at best a three out of ten, and that's being generous.
|
|
Atoz 77
Vice Admiral
[M:0]
[ss:Insurrection]
Posts: 4,065
|
Post by Atoz 77 on Jan 2, 2019 9:03:55 GMT -6
"Demons of the Punjab" -- Yaz's grandmother, boasting that she was "the first woman married in Pakistan", gives her a broken wristwatch as a keepsake and tells her it must never be repaired. This of course piques Yaz's curiosity so that she asks the Doctor if she can take them back to Pakistan to when her gran was a young woman. After some initial show of reluctance, the Doctor agrees. The TARDIS' is able to analyze the watch and home in on the precise date that it was broken. This turns out to be August 14, 1947, the date on which India and Pakistan were partitioned. Apparently this was a time of violent upheaval between the Hindus and Muslims. And it so happens that Yaz's gran was Muslim and her husband to be, Prem, was a Hindu. Prem's own brother strongly opposes his marriage to a Muslim, in fact.
Before the wedding can take place, the holy man who was to perform the ceremony is found dead, with two demonic-looking aliens standing over him, who vanish incredibly fast. I mean fast like the dark wizards in the Harry Potter movies -- whoosh! The Doctor says that these are Thijarian assassins, so everyone wonders for what possible reason these aliens would want to come all the way to Earth to murder a holy man. The Doctor tracks down the spaceship and they get away by the skin of their teeth in a really exciting chase scene. Then it turns out that... but I wouldn't want to give away any spoilers. Suffice it to say that appearances can be deceiving. I give the episode a five, mainly because (like "Rosa") it was inspired by a real historical event.
|
|