twistedmentat fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Oct 30, 2015

• The threat. While we're long used to hearing about universe ending threats, the Mutants at least are a believable one. Combining elements of the Dalek creatures with earth-origin wasps it is easy to believe these creatures could become a relentless if mindless (and therefore scarier?) swarm of destruction - effectively a more successful/horrifying version of the metal eating sting-rays from the awful Planet of the Dead. It makes sense that differences would be put aside to deal with this greater threat, and that these unholy alliances in turn make the threat feel scarier. The Thals and the Daleks working together? The Doctor and the Dalek Emperor agreeing to work together on a mission? Only a great threat could bring these disparate elements together, and the Mutants are believable as that threat.
  
  
• The continuity. At first it seems that the Doctor's brief trip to 22nd Century Earth is for nothing more than a casual nod towards the classic Hartnell story from the second season of the classic series. But it comes together in the final episode as the 5th Doctor and Dalek forces from the future run head-on into these 22nd Century Daleks. Getting to hear these old-school Daleks at first angrily dismiss and later struggle to understand the convoluted future history of their dealings with the Doctor is a lot of fun, especially when commonly accepted technological feats we're all too familiar with as viewers are dropped on these Daleks. The best is when the 22nd Century Daleks insist that Time Travel is impossible, and become furious when informed that early research into crude time travel is currently taking place on Skaro (referencing The Chase). The Dalek screaming,"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF SKARO!" to a much better informed Dalek agent that has just arrived FROM Skaro is kinda hilarious. The Doctor's wry comment about the Daleks being aggravating to deal with to this agent is also great, considering their identity.
  
  
• The resolution. One of the worst kind of stories are when a resolution comes out of nowhere, introducing new information at the last second to explain everything away. This story makes a point of introducing right from the start the sense that something is wrong with time, and throughout every episode the Doctor is constantly troubled by the sense that he's missing something, pointing out little things that are concerning him. By the end of the story when he has everything figured out, his shouted explanation as he seeks to prevent total destruction all play-off these earlier elements to bring everything together. It's also a bit of fun to hear the Doctor discussing time paradoxes so soon after viewing Before the Flood from Season 9 of the revival, and comparing the 12th Doctor's explanation to Clara with the 5th Doctor's explanation to Nyssa. This is helped immensely by Peter Davison being such a likable person, as he could have easily come across as condescending or smug. Instead, his explanation feels almost bemused, as he reacts to Nyssa's exasperated (but friendly) accusation that he thinks he sounds clever, and he replies happily that he thinks he just might!
  

• The supporting characters. While the cast is relatively small, almost all of the supporting characters are almost entirely inconsequential to the actual story, and serve more as time-fillers than having any actual significant bearing on the plot. One character seemingly only exists to provide background information to the Doctor, and while that is fine, that is ALL they do, and are almost immediately killed afterwards as they no longer serve any narrative purpose. Worse are the male and female human who briefly separate the Doctor and Nyssa, they feel like holdovers from an early draft, they provide nothing to the story at all and are quickly removed from it. They're eccentric and somewhat tragic figures who remind me of Uncle and Aunty from The Doctor's Wife, but those two at least had a purpose in providing both exposition and a practical example of the kind of callous treatment Amy and Rory could expect at House's "hands". These two could maybe be argued as showing the human cost of the plague of the Mutants rolling across the universe, but the exposition character served that role already, as did the Thals, and it's not helped that neither the male or the female are particularly pleasant people.
  
  
• The settings. The story is in four parts, but the actual story is pretty thin. So it's not helped that it jumps from setting to setting far too quickly, never really giving the characters a chance to settle down. In four episodes the Doctor and Nyssa go from the TARDIS to 22nd Century Earth to 43rd Century Skaro back to the TARDIS back to 22nd Century Earth back to the TARDIS. This could work if the pacing was handled well, but unfortunately in this case it isn't. Things either feel rushed or drag on too long, and where it is rushed is where the bulk of the supporting characters are to be found. Sticking to one or two central settings and allowing them time to be developed could have helped, but really this was a pacing issue that should have been handled early in the scripting process, rather than being left to be dealt with during editing.
  
  
• "There's a thing but I can't tell you about that thing right now!" Syndrome. Throughout the story, the Doctor frequently references being troubled by various things, and muses on the possibility of what this means temporally. While an explanation is eventually given, there is an unfortunate habit throughout the story of the Doctor loudly exclaiming about some particular thing and then refusing to tell Nyssa any more about it. It's helped by a later scene where the Doctor rather sadly explains why there are certain things he has to keep from her, revealing an inner loneliness that is perhaps self-imposed, as for the reasons he gives (amongst others) the Doctor can never truly be as close/open with a "human" companion as he might like. But it makes for a frustrating experience to hear the Doctor declare,"Oh <x> is interesting it might mean..... well I can't say right now, I'll let you all know at the end of the story!"
  

Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Oct 31, 2015

Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Oct 31, 2015

SiKboy fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Oct 31, 2015