A note on tonight's Doctor Who

[coalescent]

I cannot believe they fucked that up.

Stewart, you can't defend this one. Just don't even try. :-p

Comments

[dsky.livejournal.com]

"I cannot believe they fucked that up."

Right there with ya buddy.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

It pains me to say this, but I agree with you.

Saying that doesn't pain me as much as watching the episode did, though. *sob*

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

So what didn't you like? Okay too many farting gags, and the monsters were naff, but apart from that it seemed okay.

whuh?

[jinty]

I enjoyed it! Liked the handling of Rose coming back after longer than she'd expected, and how the family reacted; enjoyed the zips in the aliens' heads; agreed with Tony that the farting bits went on too long perhaps, but otherwise, much fun.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

The comedy and characterisation were way too broad. The Avengers-style plump giggling villains were twee and annoying. And the fart gags made it feel like a kids TV show in all the wrong ways. In fact, almost every worst fear I had (from glimpsing those grinning aliens unzipping their heads in last week's promo) was realised. The whole thing felt cartoonish, but without being balanced out by the more realistic elements, as they have been in past episodes.

Having whinged about all that, I didn't hate it. Okay, I did hate bits of it. But not all of it. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for part 2.

And the aliens at the end were good. Not wholly convincing, but quite unusual in design.

Re: whuh?

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Zips. *sob* They had actual zips.

That, right there, is where the episode gets it wrong. Something subliminally like unzipping your head = iconic and good. An actual zip in your head = winking at the audience and bad.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

boo! spoilery niall!

Re: whuh?

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Also, I need a reason to believe that all humans faced with the sight of an alien unzipping itself out of a human suit over a period of several minutes politely wait while it finishes. All humans, including the crack alien-expert military wonks. Did no-one in that room think to stand up and say "Sergeant, ten rounds rapid!"

Re: whuh?

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Being well-trained in alien invasions, they were waiting for the cliffhanger before leaping into action.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe they fucked that up.

But you enjoyed the spaceship crashing into London, right? :-)

agreed

[jinty]

I was saying to Rose, don't just stand there, hit it!

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, I did. Although, was it a slightly different shot to the trailer? It seemed a bit more zoomed in.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Because you couldn't have guessed that Doctor Who would be rubbish on your own? :-P

Re: whuh?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

We missed the first five minutes or so, so I could be lacking crucial context, but the Rose stuff mostly seemed quite pedestrian. There was a nice conversation between her and the bf in the tardis, but that was about it.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

i have no defense against such logic.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

You're forgetting the horror of the pig. Plus, everything Iain said. You could argue, though I personally would not really be convinced, that the previous episodes were good family tv. This was just bad kid's tv.

Re: whuh?

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

We missed the first five minutes or so

The start was them arriving back in London, mainly. The Doctor promised that they'd only been gone 12 hours, but it turned out they'd been gone 12 months: hence Rose's Mum having started a search and the police questioning her boyfriend.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Er, pass.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

wow. that was the suck wasn't it?

[white_hart]

It was certainly the weakest of the series so far. Some good moments, but while I understood the point of the pig-decoy it just looked too much like Pigs In Space (although that may have been a deliberate gesture to the stupidity of humans). It would have been better if they'd managed to find a solution that seemed menacing until we knew the truth as they couldn't give the viewer the knowledge of the plot in advance.

Also, fart-gags are not something I've found funny in the last twenty-five years, and although I could have coped with the farting on its own (clearly a side-effect of the aliens occupying human skins, and could be a vital identifier) the giggling was just stupid - why would aliens, with a totally different physiology, find farting amusing?

OTOH, I liked the treatment of Rose's absence - it was nice to see the human side of companions making the choice to go travelling with the Doctor, I almost cheered at the mention of UNIT, and having a proper cliffhanger was definitely a bonus...

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

And you turned down dinner with me for that ... I am saying nothing. Actually, I've not seen it yet. We set the video and will watch it tonight over dinner. No, I never care about spoilers. Indeed, I'm all agog after reading all these comments.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that I actually had expectations of this one. I mean, the spaceship was good, the crash was good ... and then it all went completely off course.

That said, I also almost cheered at the mention of UNIT, and I don't even care about them. And the computer screens flashing 'RED ALERT! DOCTOR! TARDIS! were amusing. :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I think in this case, spoilers could be seen as necessary memetic immunisation.

Sorry about dinner--next time for sure.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

You're forgetting the horror of the pig.

Now, had the alien actually been supposed to look like a pig I'd have hated that. But the idea of the decoy alien being a kind of Victorian chimera appealed to me.

(Wasn't there something about the homunculous having a pig brain in Talons of Wen Chiang, or are my childhood memories betraying me?)

[sparkymark.livejournal.com]

Yes the Peking Homunculus had the cereberal cortex of a pig, and it was the pig part that was alleged to provoke it into going apeshit with a laser. I always thought it was a scary idea that the only reason all pigs are not like that is their lack of opposable thumbs (and lasers).

Aliens of Londons lacks anything that great, but aside from the gormlessly prolonged trio of cliffhangers, nothing as bad as the escape-capture loops that padded Talons. I bet farting fat kids will be picked on in school next term.

[grahamsleight.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was a bit of a pig's ear. (Sorry.) The problem with the pig scene was that it reminded me irresistibly of an almost identical one in League of Gentlemen series 1, with Dr Chinnery gazing in horror on a mysterious hybrid beneath a morgue sheet. The Rose stuff at the start was merely OK, though it seemed to dispense with the trauma of her having been away for a year pretty quickly. I think that the real problem with it was that by centring so much on Downing Street, it missed out on the opportunity for some real aliens-are-among-us paranoia. You know, it could be anyone - your weird physics teacher, creepy uncle, or anyone who wears a hat. Instead, we know that most of the aliens are politicians, and who meets them regularly?

On the other hand, we did get the Doctor saying "Take me to your leader"...

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Yes the Peking Homunculus had the cereberal cortex of a pig

Cool. That homunculus is one of the things that's burned into my brain from watching Doctor Who as a kid.

I bet farting fat kids will be picked on in school next term.

So no change there, then.

[jellynewt.livejournal.com]

Dying to know what you think when you've seen it then...

[jellynewt.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that while we may all *understand* what the episode was doing, that doesn't make it right. In fact even my 12 year old brother didn't think it was right...

(and whats with all the inane grinning - there's just no need...)