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Best Producer/Showrunner? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Verity Lambert |
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49 | 7.04% |
| John Wiles |
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1 | 0.14% |
| Innes Lloyd |
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1 | 0.14% |
| Peter Bryant |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Derrick Sherwin |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Barry Letts |
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12 | 1.72% |
| Phillip Hinchcliffe |
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62 | 8.91% |
| Graham Williams |
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3 | 0.43% |
| John Nathan-Turner |
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15 | 2.16% |
| Philip Segal |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Russel T Davies |
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106 | 15.23% |
| Steven Moffat |
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114 | 16.38% |
| Son Goku |
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324 | 46.55% |
| Total: | 696 votes | ||
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The Silver Turk is no Spare Parts but man is it a corker of a story anyway. Great atmosphere in the lead up to the reveal of the Cyberman, and the Cyberpuppets are pretty unsettling (though I guess if you wanted to  you could be all "even with Cyber knowledge how are they constructing such things with 1870s tech?). Featuring only a couple of wrecked units is good setup for a Cyberman story given their main motivation of survival. This was my first McGann audio and man is he charming. This is already more good Cyberman stories than the show has done since the 60s.Finally getting back into my missing Hartnells as well. Mission to the Unknown was kinda interesting I guess. The Varga plants are pretty creepy and something that I think could be cool to revisit in the new series. Man, though, twelve episodes of Daleks coming up feels like a lot of Daleks. At least I've got "Vicki decides to stay in a time period that would surely be entirely inappropriate for her" first. Box of Bunnies fucked around with this message at 00:27 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 00:25
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Well, Scherzo is just about the most Shearman story that ever was. I really have to disagree with the people who absolutely hated it or felt that it was filled with dead air or a lack of activity. The conversation moves the story, and each retread, they do discover something new. It was, of course, unsettling, uncomfortable, abstract and filled with a terrifying nebulous concept screaming "Daddy!" I understand why it was a part of the story, but I wish the Eighth Doctor had been a little less sharp with Charlie, or that his angry period had been just a bit shorter. It's going to be hard for the rest of the Divergent arc to live up to that, though. Top notch Big Finish.
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May 26, 2014 03:18
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I was dreading Scherzo after all the bad talk I'd seen regarding it over the years, but I ended up really enjoying it too. It very much embraces the weirdness promised by the Divergent Universe, and didn't gently caress things up with weird voice modulation on the "child" like the otherwise enjoyable The Holy Terror did.
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May 26, 2014 03:41
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Scherzo is the absolute high loving water mark for weirdness in Doctor Who. The crazy thing is that isn't what makes it good. If Joseph Lidster had written a story where Charley and The Doctor spend the entire serial eating their own dead children where The Doctor slits his throat to save the day, and where Charley and The Doctor fuse into a single being complete with the  est sound effects possible for a scene like that, well, you'd be calling for his head. But Shearman builds the entire thing around a relatively simple story (albeit largely obfuscated) that, more than anything, is a personal one. It's a character driven piece about the complex nature of love, just told in the strangest way possible.
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May 26, 2014 04:05
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Scherzo is...it's like you're listening to this amazing story, and it's awesome, and you want to explain it to someone, but when you try to explain it to then, you realize just how off the wall and twisted it is and the person just looks at you and goes "whatever happened to that nice David Tennant fellow?"
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May 26, 2014 04:22
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CobiWann posted:"whatever happened to that nice David Tennant fellow?" That's when you show them Secret Smile!
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May 26, 2014 04:25
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Jerusalem posted:That's when you show them Secret Smile! And then I'll show them what happened to Rose when the Doctor stranded her in 19th century Victorian London...
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May 26, 2014 04:41
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CobiWann posted:And then I'll show them what happened to Rose when the Doctor stranded her in 19th century Victorian London... Poor girl was so traumatized her mind rebelled and gave her the worst Irish accent in the history of the entire universe.
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May 26, 2014 04:44
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Jerusalem posted:Poor girl was so traumatized her mind rebelled and gave her the worst Irish accent in the history of the entire universe. As someone who sat through Burn Notice, Fiona's was MUCH worse. But hey, it's always nice to see Who actors branch out and keep getting work... *remembers Selfie.* drat it.
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May 26, 2014 04:47
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Jerusalem posted:I was dreading Scherzo after all the bad talk I'd seen regarding it over the years, but I ended up really enjoying it too. It very much embraces the weirdness promised by the Divergent Universe, and didn't gently caress things up with weird voice modulation on the "child" like the otherwise enjoyable The Holy Terror did. Although, speaking of voice modulation, it seems like the Creed of the Kromon decided to go back about 40 stories and just put that "recorded underwater in a paper bag" filter on just about every character.
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May 26, 2014 05:05
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Bicyclops posted:Although, speaking of voice modulation, it seems like the Creed of the Kromon decided to go back about 40 stories and just put that "recorded underwater in a paper bag" filter on just about every character. Not to mention the "utterly uninteresting" and "disgustingly unpleasant to listen to or think about" filters.
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May 26, 2014 05:49
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The poo poo they pull on Charley in that story is utterly vile and I hope they never approach anything even close to it in Big Finish ever again.
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May 26, 2014 06:00
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That's... that's no moon. 
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May 26, 2014 06:06
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Creed of the Kromon is just utter loving poo poo. It's boring, it's irritating, and just vile once it gets started. It's a horrible thing to come after how good Scherzo is. Thank god there are audios like Faith Stealer.
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May 26, 2014 06:09
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Scherzo is most dead air with two characters walking in a loop where they just get annoyed with each other and one tells the other to shut up. So we get more walking in silence. And while the weird sex stuff at the end is no where near the travesty as in Creed of the Kromon, it's still uncomfortable given how much Charlie is written to rely on the Doctor for everything and how he's never quite himself, being under the influence of some weird mind stuff or another.
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May 26, 2014 06:36
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RunAndGun posted:Moffat would like to have a word with you. I bet he would! I bet he would! Nudge nudge! Know what I mean?
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May 26, 2014 11:23
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 The first time the fearsome Kraals attempted to take over the Earth, with the help of their android agents, things didn't go quite according to plan – thanks to the time-travelling alien Doctor and his allies at UNIT. This time, Marshal Grinmal and his belligerent cohorts are ready for them. This time, they'll make no mistakes. This time, Chief Scientist Tyngworg has not just one plan, but a back-up plan, and a back-up back-up plan worked out... With the Doctor a prisoner on the Kraals' radiation-blasted home planet of Oseidon, only his companion Leela can save the day – alongside a most unlikely ally. Tom Baker is the Doctor in The Oseidon Adventure. Cast Tom Baker (The Doctor) Louise Jameson (Leela) Geoffrey Beevers (The Master) Michael Cochrane (Colonel Spindleton) Dan Starkey (Marshal Grimnal/Captain Clarke) John Banks (Tyngworg/Warner/UNIT R/T Operator) Written By: Alan Barnes Directed By: Ken Bentley Trailer - http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/popout/the-oseidon-adventure-659 X X X X X Daleks. Cybermen. Weeping Angels. Sontarans. Silurians. Ice Warriors. Autons. Sensorites. The Sisterhood of Karn. Nimons. Vespiform. The first group are among the most famous alien races across all of pop culture. The second group are very well known to watchers of Doctor Who and recognized across the science fiction fandom. The third group are villains that even long time fans of the show might scratch their heads as they try to remember. With 240 televised stories, Doctor Who has accumulated an impressive Rogues Gallery of villains, aliens, robots, blobs, plants, ghosts, vampire, and other nasties that make viewers dive behind the couch. There have been plenty of repeat offenders; just look at how often the Daleks popped up early in the show's run, and it didn't take long for the new show to become oversaturated with the Weeping Angels. But on the other hand, there have been plenty of “one and done” bad guys as well. Some have been memorable, such as the Beast from The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit and the charming and shrewd Scaroth from City of Death. And some have fallen in the “meh” category – memorable for the serial, but forgotten soon after the credits have rolled. Examples include Richard Lazurus from The Lazurus Experiment and Professor Zaroff from The Underwater Menace. And some...we just don't like to talk about.  Every fan of Doctor Who has their favorite villains. Some people love the Daleks, while some people follow the Cybermen. Personally, I'm STILL waiting for a good Silurian story, either on TV or on CD. But everyone also has their favorite/most memorable one-shot villains. Maybe something about the bad guy appealed to them, or their appearance and actions just happened to hit upon their childhood fears. For me, I enjoyed the Sun-Creature from 42, and the fact that we never saw the monster in Midnight freaked me right the HELL out. Considering Big Finish is populated with dedicated fans of Doctor Who on both the production and writing side, it would be incredibly easy for a writer or producer to reach back into the annals of Who history and create a story dealing with and starring that villain or monster. Maybe not quite to the levels of “Mary Sueing” the creature, but enough for the writer/producer to highlight the qualities of the villain they enjoy, allowing them to lean back and quietly say “this is my design.” But to their credit, Big Finish has avoided this type of reliance on obscure history. There have been the standards, of course; the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans have shown up time and time again, and even the Master has shed whatever disguise he was wearing to cackle madly in the Doctor's face a time or two. The stories Big Finish have released, for the most part, do not rely on the listener being steeped in the history of the runaway Time Lord in order to follow what's going on. Many of the liner notes for the CD releases discuss how the writer created an initial story that touched upon previous stories or characters from the classic run, only for the producers to go “nah, change that” for the sake of simplicity. The few times a foe or ally from the past has popped up in a story, the exposition has done nothing more than explain just enough for the listener to understand what's going on before moving on with the story. Which means, when an obscure monster from the past pops back up, it means something. The Oseidon Adventure is the season finale for the first series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures. Following directly from the conclusion of Trail of the White Worm, the Doctor and Leela are helpless as the Master's plan is revealed. With the help of his alien allies, the Master seeks to take over the Earth. But, as always with the Master, there is much more to his diabolical plan, and only the Doctor can stop him from achieving his goal of ultimate power! It's a rip-roaring, action packed tale that double backs upon itself once too often, but the final performances from Baker, Jameson, and Beevers more than sell the tale all the way to its conclusion! The alien allies of the Master are none other than the Kraals. Yes, the Kraals, an alien race whose return no one was actually clamoring for after their appearance in The Android Invasion. Now, the story itself is not a bad story. It's actually very well done and incredibly eerie, as the Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves on an Earth that isn't quite Earth, with people who die and then reappear without a scratch and a pub where the patrons stick rock still for minutes on end. The Kraals themselves looked like wrinkled rhinoceras without the horns, and suffered from a full-blown invasion force being played by three actors doing a lot of exposition and arguing. And when broadcast in the middle of a season which included Pyramids of Mars, Planet of Evil, and Terror of the Zygons, what ended up as a solid “B+” story tended to be forgotten or even dismissed when held up to those classics. Alan Barnes takes the central concept of the Kraal, however, and makes it work within the confines of The Oseidon Adventure. A race of scientist warriors who specialize in making robotic duplicates with memories downloaded directly from the original host, Barnes uses it to full effect. To say any more would spoil the story...much like how calling it The Android Invasion kind of gave away the entire central plot point...but much like how the appearance of none other than the Nimons in Seasons of Fear worked out incredibly well, the return of the Kraal is handled in such a way that a listener who be being introduced to them for the first time understands who they are, why they're a threat, and why it's important that the Doctor stop them. And it's also important that the Doctor stop the Master, of course. After being regulated to a minor role in Trail of the White Worm, Geoffrey Beevers knocks it out of the park in this one. The story switches from an investigative mystery to a military style chase, mixed in with the Doctor's adventure on Oseidon, and Beevers ends up on both side of the wormhole in a way that makes perfect sense for a villian of the Master's caliber! The dialogue would be hammy in the lines of any other actor...”I shall achieve apotheosis!”...but Beevers adds the weight and sincerity to the part. And his ultimate scheme ties in to this incarnation of the Master, scarred, drained, and willing to do anything to survive. His final fate is also pure Master, as being too clever by half comes back to haunt him! What about Tom Baker? By this point in the season (and future seasons), Baker has shed the “Tom Baker” voice and is purely in his “Fourth Doctor” persona. His reaction to seeing the Kraal again is a weary “oh, no,” and you can imagine a “these guys again” tacked onto the end of it! It's the Doctor's turn to have his screen time trimmed, as he spends a good chunk of the early proceedings as Sir Not Appearing In This Story, but when he begins to confront the Master about what's going on with that wicked intellect and the way the Doctor twists the villain's words back on him, it's all forgiven. It's a strong performance by Baker that bolds very well for the next few series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures. There's a part in The Oseidon Adventure where the Doctor and Leela ride a horse through a wormhole, laughing and taking a moment to enjoy themselves. It's amazing just how much fun the duo are having compared to their chemistry during the end of their time together on TV. There's another great scene where the Master tries to hypnotize her, and Leela's response is just to smack him across the face. Leela and UNIT, in the back half of the story, team up to take on the Kraal's and their android invasion force. It's like someone said “we did Leela and Boudica...who else should we put her with?” Jameson's performances over the six-story season have been wonderful, and I look forward to her time with Baker in the third season once I make it that far! Back as Colonel “Simpleton” Spindleton, according to the Master, Michael Cochrane turns it up to 11 as he channels Thatcher-era values. He'll help the Kraal take over the Earth as long as he gets England. Cochrane is great as the “secondary” villain who gets his commupance and a little bit of pity at the end. John Banks and Dan Starkey pull double duty at the UNIT responders AND the Kraal invasion force in what might be an unintentional throwback to the “double casting” low budget days! They do fine, but they don't really stand out when compared to the Baker/Jameson/Beevers trifecta. The problems with The Oseidon Adventure parallel the weaknesses of the entire first season. A stand alone problem is that the script double backs on itself, with “who's really who” and double crosses and “I'll help you” heel/face turns that end up going just a bit too far and leave the listener a bit confused, as the story assumes the listener is all caught up and continues from there. But the main problem is the reliance on nostalgia. All six stories for the Fourth Doctor have all seemed incredibly close in design or story to Tom Baker's time on television. A story like Energy of the Daleks would have fit perfectly in the late 1970's, or Destination Nerva as a recycling of the Nerva set for financial reasons, or this tale seeing the Doctor teaming up with UNIT once again. The story, and the entire season, have played it very safe, with the exception of Wrath of the Iceni, which turned out to be the standout audio of the bunch! It's not a bad thing by any means. Baker's getting up there in years, and listeners who grew up with him might be a little older and not in the mood for something experimental along the lines of Creatures of Beauty or Scherzo. Big Finish really has spent the season going for the “Saturday tea time in 1977 all over again” vibe, and they've channeled that vibe perfectly with Nerva, the Daleks, and now the Kraal. I hope that future seasons, including the upcoming ones with the dearly departed Mary Tamm and the “I'm so pleased she agreed to do them” Lala Ward, as well as another go around with Louise Jameson, push the envelope a little bit and let Baker add just a little more magic to his iconic run. Synopsis – The Oseidon Adventure brings the first season to a solid and well done close as the Doctor and the Master square off once again, with the Kraals making a surprising but well-done return to the series. 4/5 Next up – There's one place in creation where the truth really can be found in the bottom of a glass: Bianca's, a very special and very exclusive little club. The Doctor, careworn and seeking quiet distraction, gains admission. But his rest and relaxation is soon shattered by the wobbly arrival of lush trans-temporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme… Colin Baker is the Doctor in…The Wormery.
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May 26, 2014 13:37
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Potsticker posted:Scherzo is most dead air with two characters walking in a loop where they just get annoyed with each other and one tells the other to shut up. So we get more walking in silence. I find that people either view the stretches of silence as character/atmosphere building or as fluff/filler. I'm in the former camp, I enjoyed the hell out of Scherzo and how it built this atmosphere of "weirdness" that SHOULD have been felt throughout the entire DU arc. I think I'm going to give the main range a break and hit J&L Series 1, since I just re-watched Talons yesterday. It's either that or a Voyage to Venus re-listen, I need my Jago/Litefoot fix. edit: Just read your review, Cobi. Glad to see you enjoyed that one as much as I did. We're really getting spoiled in the FDA range - Baker, Jameson, Beevers, Warner...probably the highest "quality" range over all IMO. To be fair, the main range is just so big there's no way anything can compete. McGann fucked around with this message at 13:52 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 13:40
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Ah I had only finished part one of Creed, good to know it's going to get a lot worse.Potsticker posted:Scherzo is most dead air with two characters walking in a loop where they just get annoyed with each other and one tells the other to shut up. So we get more walking in silence. There's very little actual "walking in silence" and almost all of it is filled with conversation. And they find something new every loop! The entire first part is a discussion about sensory deprivation and they way that we perceive the world and whether any of the sounds, sights and smells are even real, and they more or less stop "walking" entirely after part two. I really don't get this criticism!
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May 26, 2014 17:26
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GonSmithe posted:Creed of the Kromon is just utter loving poo poo. It's boring, it's irritating, and just vile once it gets started. It's a horrible thing to come after how good Scherzo is. Fortunately, The Natural History of Fear more than makes up for Creed of the Kromon's failure to live up to Scherzo. And while Creed's main story is only so-so, and C'rizz doesn't get the best of introductions, it does do a fantastic job setting up the Interzone and the Kro'ka.
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May 26, 2014 19:28
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So I just listened to another of those Big Finish audios, and I'm both kind of getting where they were going with it and a little miffed at where they went with it. It's a little ditty called Patient Zero and it had some interesting ideas that are also spoilery. In a way it's sort of a prequel to the finale of the EDA line with Lucie bleedin' Miller so I'll be courteous and lay on the black bars. Right, so I seem to remember in Lucie Miller/To The Death that the Doctor mentioned facing this Dalek Time Controller fellow before. He might even have obliquely mentioned that it was the Sixth who did so, so as soon as he showed up here I expected things to lead into it. Really, it was all some sort of predestination paradox nonsense for them to scatter the viruses that they use on Earth in the EDA line finale (and, I guess, in The Dalek Invasion Of Earth as well. That's not the part that irks me. The part that irks me is Charlotte Pollard, the lovely Edwardian adventuress who I've experienced so many adventures with over god knows how many car rides... having her body snatched by some Doctor fangirl named Mila, and becoming completely invisible until she was either taken away or destroyed by the Virans. That REALLY unsettles me because now she's gone and this joker that sounds like Charley but isn't Charley at all is running around with the Doctor. Mila, you're not Charley. You're not my Edwardian adventuress. Of course, Patient Zero ends on a cliffhanger, so they could resolve my issues with the above in a later story. Still, though. Initial impressions leave me hesitant.
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May 26, 2014 21:38
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Actually, if I recall right, that villain first faced off against Eleven. No, that's not a typo. And the Charley stuff is to set up her own series that's... just been released, I think? As well as some stuff that ties into Dark Eyes Gaz-L fucked around with this message at 21:58 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 21:55
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Gaz-L posted:Actually, if I recall right, that villain first faced off against Eleven. No, that's not a typo. You're thinking of Prisoner Zero
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May 26, 2014 22:55
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Davros1 posted:You're thinking of Prisoner Zero No he's not. The Dalek Generation is a BBC Books Eleven novel by Nick Briggs and Briggs was able to wrangle Big Finish continuity stuff into it. From the Dalek Time Controller's perspective, Eleven is the first Doctor he encounters.
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May 26, 2014 22:58
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DoctorWhat posted:No he's not. Nick Briggs is an International Hero.  I'm just a bit past these...I've finally finished out the 6/Charlie arc. It ended very satisfactorily. Now I'm going to move on to 6/Flip once I finish out the Thomas Brewster ones. Edit: Oh, and I don't know if anyone else here is hip to how cool Dark Shadows is, but Big Finish now has folks like Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, and Arthur loving Darvill doing audio work along with the original cast! 
Astroman fucked around with this message at 00:42 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 00:21
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It's a shame really, but the first episode of season 3 of the revival - Smith and Jones - set the stage for a very promising new dynamic to the show that sadly never really eventuated. Taken in isolation though, it's a pretty solid story in respect of telling a tale of the Doctor meeting his latest companion, as well as furthering RTD's agenda to force consequences onto the show's ongoing continuity and the in-storyline idea that the world now has to accept alien beings as a rock-solid established fact of reality. Where it falls down is in the "monster" of the week, which had great potential that goes unrealized, as well as the fact that the Doctor ends up being completely irrelevant to the conclusion of events and the "rescue" of all the people placed in peril. It's like one story got caught up in another ongoing one, which was introduced, dealt with and resolved in the interim while the Doctor was doing his own thing, with minimal crossover. Sure the Doctor tricks the Plasmavore into exposing herself to the Judoon, but other than that he accomplises basically nothing and has to sit and passively wait for somebody else to save the day. Freema Agyeman had previously appeared in Army of Ghosts, and presumably she struck a chord with RTD since only two "regular" episodes pass before she is back on the show in a co-starring role. Unnecessary lipservice is paid to this fact with a small aside about her "cousin" being killed at the Battle of Canary Wharf, but other than that she is given space to define her own character and in this episode at least she does that. Clearly intelligent (she's a medical student after all) she is also quickly established as a sensible problem-solver, the one who all her various family members look to in order to sort their problems out. Standing out immediately from Rose, Martha has a larger family and divorced parents, and she is the one who needs to figure out how to allow all of them to attend a 21st birthday party without kicking off a huge row. When the hospital is transported to the moon, she immediately impresses the Doctor by asking intelligent questions - how can they be breathing if there is no atmosphere for one? She reveals a sense of exploration and a willingness to put herself into danger by stepping outside with the Doctor, and she also doesn't immediately accept him as an authority figure, refusing to call him "The Doctor" because that is a title that she feels must be earned. These are all interesting traits and stand her out quite firmly from Rose - Rose felt stuck in a dead-end job with no prospects, living an aimless life, while Martha is educated and driven and already making something of herself. When the Doctor dies to fool the Plasmavore, she uses her training to bring him back and even demonstrates her ability to accept the impossible when she recalls that he seemed to have two hearts during their first meeting, and instead of dismissing this as impossible she accepts it and works both hearts, bringing him back into the world of the living (which is a bit of nonsense really, didn't the Plasmavore suck up ALL his blood? What exactly was pumping through those two hearts?). Unfortunately this is where things begin to fall apart for this initially promising character. The Doctor kissed her earlier in the episode in order to buy time by fooling the Judoon, and she takes it all a bit too seriously. With all the dangers behind her she attends the party she helped so carefully to organize only to have it all fall apart when her mother gets into a row with her father's partner over Martha's story about being on the moon. As everybody storms off, she sees the Doctor who offers her a chance to see his TARDIS in action, even proving it is a time machine by popping back to see her earlier in the day on her way to work (he beams that it is forbidden to go back in your own timestream unless there is a dire emergency or you want to pull off a cheap parlor trick!). She enters the TARDIS and does the requisite "It's bigger on the inside" bit, and then she makes the mistake of openly flirting with him. It's quite interesting to see the Doctor's immediately horrified reaction, especially considering that as far as we know he's only just said his final goodbye to Rose and had the one adventure with Donna who turned down his offer to travel. He makes it as clear as possible that this isn't a flirty pick-up thing he's doing, and suddenly his offer to take her along becomes an admonition that they can only have on ride. On my initial watch I never picked up that this condition only follows her flirting, and now I think that after being turned down by Donna (which would have been as platonic as it comes) he took to heart her suggestion not to travel alone and was offering Martha an open-ended ticket.... but the moment she flirted and reminded him of the mess he got into with Rose he quickly changed his mind. He needs a companion, but he knows the dangers of letting one get the wrong idea about what their relationship is (see his "I just want a mate" comment from Partners in Crime, and Donna's hilarious misunderstanding of what he means). Sadly, from this point on Martha would continue to exist in the "not-Rose" category and never really define herself as a companion in her own right. Gone is the sensible, intelligent, driven and observant young woman, replaced by somebody who alternates between pining for the Doctor and getting into peril and needing rescue. She wouldn't really establish herself as a character in her own right until The Last of the Time Lords when she was required to carry the bulk of the first 3/4s of the story, and even that would become nothing more than the memory of a redundant timeline. There was definitely some interesting stuff to explore in a storyline about the Doctor pining for a lost companion and leaving his new one feeling unappreciated and feeling the presence of that companion's "ghost", but it came at the cost of Martha's own characterization. Based on the small element we saw of it in this story, that's a real shame. The "monster" is a Plasmavore, disguised as a little old lady (or is that her actual form?) and protected by two slabs of walking leather. Hiding out from intergalatic policemen the Judoon (who I initially thought were Sontarans and got all excited about!), she uses human blood to fool sensors and retain her freedom. There was a real opportunity here for horror that sadly goes squandered, much in the same way that the potential of the Racnoss Queen was squandered in the previous story. You've got a little old lady cheerfully suffering from an iron deficiency who suddenly turns out to be a monstrous thing only concerned with its own survival, drinking human blood to survive - a kind of quasi-Vampire. But the air of menace never really comes through, and the decision to make her suck the blood through a straw just cheapens the whole thing. Handled right, it could have added to the incongruity, but the whole thing comes off as just a little camp, a little too on-the-nose and self-aware of how silly it is. It's like there was a fear that the murdering bloodsucker with no regard for human life might somehow be too scary if they didn't make it just a little ridiculous, and what could have been part of a long Who tradition of terrifying children with the everyday and mundane falls flat. The Plasmavore is also simultaneously a genius and stupid, it is smart enough to rework basic human technology into a super-weapon capable of destroying half the planet (wait, what?) and too dim to pick up on the fact the Doctor is both non-human (didn't his blood taste different? Shouldn't she be a connoisseur?) and clearly pretending to be dumber than he is. The ease with which she is tricked then killed leaves her feeling like an anti-climax, and so much of the story is left to tell that she ends up feeling incidental to the actual plot. Taste of blood aside, the Doctor tricks her admirably by using her own defense mechanism against her (as well as her hubris) and causing her to be captured by the Judoon. But once she's dead and the Judoon are finished, the Doctor accomplishes nothing more. Martha resurrects him, providing herself with relevance to the story, but then everything just kind of happens as the Doctor is reduced to a passive, hopeful observer. He carries Martha with him (to what end? Other than as a visual this accomplishes nothing) to watch as the Judoon depart, all the oxygen inside the transported hospital used up and everybody about to suffocate to death. All he does is stand there and hope that the Judoon will do the right thing and put everything back the way it was. They do, probably due to the malfunctioning MRI being shut down, but why? The story took great pains to establish them as unimaginative thugs who follow a strict code of law - they have no objection to killing if justified by their own laws (note that they enter the plea on behalf of the "accused" after one patient panics and tries to KO a Judoon) and once the Plasmavore dies what jurisdiction they claimed they acknowledge as ended. Sure leaving the hospital where it was could be considered negligent homicide (and property destruction/theft!) but they seem the ruthlessly pragmatic sort who would believe that the ends justified the means and that the dead humans were passively left to die as opposed to actively killed and thus there is no law broken. I wouldn't have liked to have seen the Doctor call them out and stare them down, but I would have liked something, some suggestion that the Doctor played some part in pushing the Judoon to set things right again. As it is, just watching him stagger through the hospital and look hopefully out at the Judoon ships and be relieved when they fix things felt oddly anti-climactic - if the Doctor hadn't been involved in this story the only real difference would have been that the Plasmavore would have probably escaped. While she's clearly "evil" (or at least guilty of murder, anyway), she does actually note that the blood she was drinking while in care was from the blood bank. She only went after a living human that I can recall when her life was threatened and she needed a disguise, and her frequent visits to the hospital were in fact cover for this feeding. Perhaps it would have been better if she'd been written as more aggressively dangerous, sucking blood from people/killing them as just part of her every day life as opposed to when she was cornered or otherwise in danger. Still, it could be worse, in Partners in Crime the "monster" turns out to have not only posed no threat to anybody but to have actually provided a benefit to the world at large, and people only die because the Doctor gets involved in investigating the mystery. With the hospital returned and the Doctor making his offer to a slightly misunderstanding Martha, life appears to have returned to normal - the Doctor is adventuring again with a companion, the hospital is where it is supposed to be etc. But to RTD's credit, during this period there was a real push for these adventures to be in the public eye and for acknowledgement to be made of the impact this would have on the world. Some people question that aliens exist but most now take it for granted that they live in a bigger universe that just their own planet. One man in particular is pushing this line, as we hear one of the victims state that "Mr. Saxon" is right - We Are Not Alone (Professor WANA!). RTD was already setting the scene for the arrival of Mr. Saxon, the man who ordered the Racnoss Web-Ship shot down on Christmas Eve and is apparently running for Parliament now. VOTE SAXON signs are everywhere as apparently Martha's party is happening in the electorate where Mr. Saxon is contesting for a single seat out of the 650 in the House of Commons. By the end of RTD's run, this insistence on showing the public impact of the Doctor's adventures in modern-day London would have gone a bit too far, distancing the world far too much from our own society. It's hard to retain the same sense of "this is basically our reality" when the world of the show has had to deal with multiple alien invasions and the entire planet jumping into another dimension. Moffat would make allowances for this and jump things back a bit so the show's "modern day" matched it more closely with our own, but at the time it was a bold experiment by RTD and it worked well through to almost the end of season 3 - the impact of the Doctor's adventures (and his moral high-horse) would create the conditions that Mr. Saxon could exploit for his own gain. In the end, you could argue what happens was the Doctor's fault, and it's unfortunate that RTD chose to pull back from that interpretation late in the game for fear of being "too cruel" to the character he had written to take these actions in the first place. So Smith and Jones is uneven, feeling like two separate stories mixed together and interfering with the quality of each. Martha's introduction is strong though, and she demonstrates a strength of character that would sadly be lacking through most of the rest of her run. The Doctor's need for a companion and his fear of repeating the mistakes he made with Rose are put up for all to see, and the way he turns the situation around (without his sonic screwdriver!) by manipulating events and turning the Plasmavore's own gift against her is good stuff. The "and eventually they were saved.... ohhhhh, let's say by the Judoon" ending is a disappointment, and Martha's jump to flirtation is as well after being such an interesting companion through most of the rest of the story. The ongoing subplot of Mr. Saxon is continued well if not exactly subtly, and it is only with the benefit of hindsight that I can say season 3 wouldn't really live up to its potential. I can say that when it first aired, based on this first episode I was excited for season 3, and it does include some remarkable stuff in it (Blink and the Human Nature/Family of Blood 2-parter in particular). But there is some terrible stuff to come as well, and after two strong seasons we are starting to see RTD's indulgences become more prevalent.
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May 27, 2014 06:17
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I always felt like the Judoon were underutilized. They're essentially the unfeeling, aggressively neutral, self-appointed policemen of the universe, and that could've been played with really well. They're a strong potential ally and enemy for the Doctor (who would clearly be breaking their rules to fight their criminals), which is a position not really filled by anyone else, so I was always a bit disappointed that they never really bothered to use them like that.
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May 27, 2014 07:36
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Yeah, I was pleased to see them back in season 4 and then they.... just didn't do anything.
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May 27, 2014 08:00
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Jerusalem posted:There was definitely some interesting stuff to explore in a storyline about the Doctor pining for a lost companion and leaving his new one feeling unappreciated and feeling the presence of that companion's "ghost", but it came at the cost of Martha's own characterization. Based on the small element we saw of it in this story, that's a real shame. It seems like a pretty groundbreaking idea on paper, because I don't think it had ever really been done in a television story up to that point. Too bad how it turned out, though. quote:RTD was already setting the scene for the arrival of Mr. Saxon, the man who ordered the Racnoss Web-Ship shot down on Christmas Eve and is apparently running for Parliament now. VOTE SAXON signs are everywhere as apparently Martha's party is happening in the electorate where Mr. Saxon is contesting for a single seat out of the 650 in the House of Commons. I believe there's an implication (in "The Sound of Drums") that Saxon was at the MoD in the current government. As best I can tell, the implication is that he's now "running for prime minister", which isn't really how British politics work, although I suppose it's fine since he's using mind-control. I imagine one could make a case that it was a comment on the presidentialism of the Blair years (I think there's a lot of Tony Blair in Simm's portrayal of the "Saxon" persona), or that it was influenced by the then-contemporary narrative fostered by the pro-Tory element of the press about "the unelected Prime Minister Gordon Brown" but I think it's more likely that the presentation of the PM as a "presidential" figure is just a lot more dramatic. Anyway, another enjoyable write-up, and thanks for doing it. I don't always comment, but I always like reading them. Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 13:07 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 13:04
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Yeah, it's the same reason courtroom scenes in British drama tend towards the more American style of proceedings. Our elections and trials are kind of boring from a dramatic perspective.
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May 27, 2014 13:23
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Another good write up, Jerusalem. Is it me, or does a chunk of “new Who” feel like missed opportunities and glossed over moments? This episode, it’s not so much about the Judoon or the blood-sucking old lady, it’s more about the relationship between the Doctor and his companion, story be damned. Heck, it’s sometimes about the relationship between the Doctor and his OLD companion…even all the way at the end of the season in Utopia, we get the “oh, she was BLONDE” moment when Martha meets Jack Harkness. The episodes that are meant to advance the seasonal storyline tend (keyword, tend) to gloss over the actual plot of the episode, like “oh, yes, this plot is only meant to tie the long term narrative together.”
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May 27, 2014 13:27
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If anyone is on the fence about jumping into the Jago & Litefoot series, do yourself a favor and do it now. I listened to the first story in the set, immediately had to listen to the second, and am listening to the third while I get ready for work. Rumor is the series only gets better, so I'm excited. It's a refreshing break from the main range, and the fact that they're all ~60 minutes in length make for the perfect run-time for a Sherlock Holmes style adventure. FreezingInferno posted:Of course, Patient Zero ends on a cliffhanger, so they could resolve my issues with the above in a later story. Still, though. Initial impressions leave me hesitant. This story pissed me off because it was one where the story itself wasn't THAT GOOD but the cliffhanger made me listen to the next one anyway. I'm a sucker for cliffhangers.
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May 27, 2014 13:47
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edit: Nothing to see here, definitely didn't mean to edit and instead made a new post..
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May 27, 2014 13:48
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There's definitely a lot more they could have used the Judoon for. Their blind machine justice thing works really well as a spoiler effect that can add a sense of danger or even comedy to a situation. That One Silurian Story they always tell, except the reason the humans and Silurians have to learn to get along is because the Judoon are about to blow up the planet to catch a criminal. The Doctor is embroiled in yet another murder mystery where the murderer is an alien, only he has to solve it in time or the Judoon will blow up the Cornish moors. The Judoon are sent to hunt River Song because of her crimes and they blow up her space prison, eliminating any possibility that Moffat will ever go back to the River Song well again, for the rest of the show. I like the way they're not really evil bad guys set to conquer in the same way that most Who villains are, just buffoonishly dense and single-minded. I frankly think they'd be easier to mine for more material than the Daleks, the Cybermen or the Weeping Angels for the next few years.
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May 27, 2014 15:58
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Whoops! Stephen Moffat opened his mouth again! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/10857320/A-female-Doctor-Who-Not-if-politics-has-anything-to-do-with-it.html I do agree that the principal consideration in casting should be "Who would be best for the role?" and that the decision should be an artistic one of course, but I wonder why a certain profile of person keeps "popping into the heads" of the people making casting decisions? Hmm. Hm. As to why he "gets the grief" for it, it could be, and I'm just going out on a limb here, because we don't trust that a person who thinks that "women are needy" is making unbiased decisions as to who could be the best in the role. To be clear, I do think Capaldi will be great, but his pat  dismissal of something that many fans have been clamoring for and consider important is a bit irritating.edit: sorry for the double post
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May 27, 2014 16:51
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Bicyclops posted:There's definitely a lot more they could have used the Judoon for. Their blind machine justice thing works really well as a spoiler effect that can add a sense of danger or even comedy to a situation. That One Silurian Story they always tell, except the reason the humans and Silurians have to learn to get along is because the Judoon are about to blow up the planet to catch a criminal. The Doctor is embroiled in yet another murder mystery where the murderer is an alien, only he has to solve it in time or the Judoon will blow up the Cornish moors. The Judoon are sent to hunt River Song because of her crimes and they blow up her space prison, eliminating any possibility that Moffat will ever go back to the River Song well again, for the rest of the show. I dunno, I'd love to see a Judoon that had the stones to handcuff a Dalek .
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May 27, 2014 17:10
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I do agree that in a lot of cases the individual stories are dismissed or otherwise irrelevant to the ongoing theme of the Doctor's relationship with his companions. I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing, just that more work needed to be done on making the individual stories able to stand on its own two feet if you ignored or didn't notice the ongoing series narrative. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, but I do think RTD's biggest concern was in exploring the nature of the Doctor's relationship with his companions and how each defines the other - something that really hadn't been done in the show before outside of maybe the relationship between the 7th Doctor and Ace. Moffat continued this theme somewhat, but his interest seems to be primarily in the Doctor while I'd argue for RTD it was more about the companion. I'd be interested in how others feel about this. Neddy Seagoon posted:I dunno, I'd love to see a Judoon that had the stones to handcuff a Dalek The Judoon going after Davros or the Master would be amazing. The former because he'd somehow find a way to convince them that he is the legal authority they should be following, and the latter because he'd get so upset at how stupid and single-minded they are, making them basically "immune" from temptation.
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May 27, 2014 23:13
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Jerusalem posted:The Judoon going after Davros or the Master would be amazing. The former because he'd somehow find a way to convince them that he is the legal authority they should be following, and the latter because he'd get so upset at how stupid and single-minded they are, making them basically "immune" from temptation. At the NYCC 2013 Big Finish panel, Nick Briggs said that, if he were allowed to use any New Series monsters on Audio, he'd jump straight to the Judoon. I live in hope.
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May 27, 2014 23:32
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DoctorWhat posted:At the NYCC 2013 Big Finish panel, Nick Briggs said that, if he were allowed to use any New Series monsters on Audio, he'd jump straight to the Judoon. I like to imagine that he just really wants to have another go at the "blo mo co jo" stuff.
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May 27, 2014 23:48
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 22:34 |
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Plinge! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6zVTqoNE_A
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May 27, 2014 23:53
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