School Reunion

[coalescent]

Since palatinate asked:

• Alien space bats. Heh.


• They've started inventing magic locks that the magic screwdriver can't open. Hello, slippery slope. I'm also not a fan of the code that allows you to rewrite the universe being thrown out there in such a cursory fashion.


• Tennant is brilliant in many ways, but he can't do the "last Time Lord" gravitas as well as Eccleston. "You get one warning" didn't feel convincing.


• I think Elizabeth Sladen did her best with what she got, but didn't get much. RTD (and/or the rest of the production team) really needs to stop channelling Joss Whedon, because Doctor Who is not and can never be Buffy. The two shows are designed to do different things. With the format that Who has, there is only so far you can go down the route of continuity and character development without it either draining the life out of the show (by refusing the great scope of space and time that the characters talk about) or, as here, by being forced to treat in shorthand subjects that deserve exploration over multiple episodes. As a result, every single moment Sarah Jane is on-screen is used to Make A Point (and a point that Whedon's shows made with substantially more power and grace in too-recent memory for it to work for me here); the character is given no time of her own to breathe.


• Overall, I preferred last week's episode, and if I hadn't seen a different name credited, I would have thought this was another RTD outing. It had the emphasis on dialogue over logic, the uneven pacing, and there were parts of it that felt very Dark Season-ish.


• Mickey on the TARDIS. Oh dear.

EDIT: 'School Reunion in screencaps'

Comments

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Though bear in mind, not all of us viewing are as into/want to be into Buffy enough to notice that the derivative bits were derivative.

It should have been two episodes at least, though.
ASH for Master...?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Though bear in mind, not all of us viewing are as into/want to be into Buffy enough to notice that the derivative bits were derivative.

Sure. But in a way it's the inverse of the Sarah-Jane thing. The average British viewer is probably familiar with Sarah-Jane and unfamiliar with Buffy/Angel, so they get a double benefit in terms of the impact of the story. I get a double negative. :)

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

yeahbut... The "loneliness of the immortal" thing was done before JW, too! I reckon he cribbed it from Highlander, or at the very least the Queen song ;-)

[grahamsleight.livejournal.com]

Re your 3rd bullet, yeah. This is the structural problem with the season so far for me. You feel that they've only just started to hit the bedrock of Tennant's Doctor, the bits below the sparkle. Unlike with Eccleston, I don't yet have the feeling that there's anything *constant* below the sparkle.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

This was Tennant's best episode so far, I think. He was more consistent and sombre in tone without losing the slightly manic edge, and he handled the serious bits without doing the wide-eyed stare of doom.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

Alien space bats.

I'm glad that wasn't just me.

I thought it was smashing, actually, and it has made me look forward to next week's episode instead of just thinking I'll watch Doctor Who because everyone else is. I was not looking forward to SJS or K-9, because they hold zero nostalgia factor for me, but I liked what they did with them, and I like that now they've fucked off and won't be around all season. ASH didn't get enough screen time, which would annoy me more if I didn't suspect they had something more with him up their sleeve. I'll even let them get away with it all being a bit Demon Headmaster.

Point two, though: yes.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that wasn't just me.

Dan thought it too.

I thought it was smashing, actually,

Oh, dear. You and Dan are agreeing again, and I appear to be the last redoubt of sanity when it comes to this show.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

I agree with Liz and Dan (and really I always hated Sarah-Jane when I was a kid, still hate K-9 and was completely loathing the idea of this episode.)

Really liked it bunches.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

You and Dan are agreeing again,

and you know how that makes me crazy.

and I appear to be the last redoubt of sanity when it comes to this show.

I think you might need to Let Go, and stop comparing it to the output of Whedon quite so much. It's only going to lead to disappointment.

[immortalradical.livejournal.com]

the last redoubt of sanity when it comes to this show

Rubbish. Who is still disposable tosh, and most often it's bad disposable tosh, but this episode was pretty good for what it was and you're just being curmudgeonly. Of course Sarah Jane didn't get enough screen time to be more than Making A Point - this is a show about the Doctor and Rose, and SJ was a guest spot. Of course the main plot was a bit by-the-numbers - would you have preferred this episode to be stretched across a two-parter? Doctor Who in McGuffin shocker! Sure, it wasn't as good at the angst as Buffy - well, hell, it's not aimed at teens.

What I liked about this episode, actually, was that it seemed to me to strike the balance this show always has to strike (and most often falls short of) - that between kids' telly and grown-ups' entertainment. Also, Mickey got out-thought by a tin dog.

I'm not sure what you would have preferred to this, other than an episode of a completely different show.

[nuttyxander.livejournal.com]

My immediate thought is that it was incredibly disappointing.
Like worse than the worst of the demon headmasters.

[white_hart]

I agree that the whole lifespan thing was very Buffy/Angel. It also struck me that Mickey's character development is clearly paralelling Xander's (just substitute 'Zeppo' for 'tin dog' in yesterday's episode). But I don't agree that that's a bad thing; I love the way my original favourite show is being refiltered through the influence of the only show that ever came close to it. It's the best of both worlds (talking of which, RTD's Cybermen sound as though they're definitely playing up the Borgesque qualities that always made them so scary).

[kalorlo.livejournal.com]

I thought it was really good - I found last week's a bit disjointed, somehow. Too many sudden mood swings, and in contrast this one seemed to flow a lot better. It was good to see the Doctor being serious again. And I really liked that they mentioned the older companions. I forget if I've seen any episodes with Sarah-Jane in, but it did cross my mind that some of the others who have left/been left behind would find it difficult to get used to being in one place again.

Can't say it made me think of Buffy (apart from ASH being there, of course).

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Can't say it made me think of Buffy

See above reply to Liz re: what I think the show is taking from Whedon or not. Aside from the "I won't grow old" stuff, the Buffy comparison is a stand-in for "modern US TV in general", only because it's the example of modern US TV that RTD has singled out as an influence.

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

They've started inventing magic locks that the magic screwdriver can't open. Hello, slippery slope.

I was thinking the same thing as I watched the episode.

I'm also not a fan of the code that allows you to rewrite the universe being thrown out there in such a cursory fashion.

My problem with this plot device (which, I agree, is not the sort of thing you just mention once and never bring up again) is that I really would have like to see Nine confronted with it. One of the commentaries I read about this episode made the very good point that Tennant doesn't sell the temptation scene - we never consider the possibility that he'll take the evil headmaster on his offer, whereas Eccelston's doctor would have experienced a genuine struggle. Also, as you say, Tennant can't pull off the 'they're all dead' shtick (although this episode went a long way towards convincing me of Ten's Doctor-ness).

I actually thought the Sarah Jane stuff was handled masterfully. There was a hell of a lot of ground to cover - several minor earthquakes taking place in the Doctor/Rose, Doctor/Sarah Jane and Rose/Mickey relationships - and I thought the episode dealt with a great many issues quite elegantly. I'm also not sure I see the Buffy-ness - or rather, I obviously see it this week, but I wasn't convinced by the argument that last week's episode was so obviously an homage to the show.

Mickey on the TARDIS. Oh dear.

I quite like the idea. I've enjoyed watching Mickey grow into the kind of potential companion that Rose always was. In "Rose" he's so scared of what he doesn't understand that he doesn't even get an invite. In "World War Three", he's proved himself enough to get offered a ticket, but isn't willing to take it. Here, he not only instigates the episode's plot, but actively requests a place on the TARDIS - not because of Rose but because he's finally willing to see the universe instead of just reading about it. It's an intriguing character arc, and I'm curious to see where it goes next.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Yes, Mickey is potentially an interesting chaarcter arc, and of course it mixes things up and avoids the Doctor-Rose love-in that the show threatened to become in the first couple of episodes of the season. Personally I doubt he'll be on the Tardis for too long, but we'll see.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

My problem with Mickey is that I'm just not very convinced by Noel Clark. I like the character in theory, but in execution he seems to just come over a sulky a lot of the time.

See above for more on the Buffy-ness; I do think the show is an influence at the conceptual level and in terms of some specific plot elements, but my major problem is that I think the style of storytelling that Buffy represents doesn't work well with the Who format. (And I actually didn't get many Buffy vibes from the school aspects of this episode, except perhaps for the bit where they're sneaking in at night and the Doctor is debating whether to call them a gang or a team. As I said, it reminded me more of early RTD show Dark Season.)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

My personal theory is that at end series Mickey wil get killed because of the Doctor making the wrong choice which in true Whedonesque style will (a) leave Rose conveniently single but (b) simultaneously make Rose hate the Doctor. Not based on any spoilers, all my own work..

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

By the way, where does this thing of referring to the Doctors by number (Nine, Ten) come from? I've seen it on the screencap review too. I fell from Whovian grace some decades ago so probably everyone's doing it these days, but I've never seen it before and I find it really odd.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

After the first season - and the first two episodes of this one - in which the sonic screwdriver was frequently used as a magic unlocking tool, it was inevitable that they'd have to deal with this somehow. Am baffled as to how you see the neutering of an overly-powerful tool as the start of a slippery slope. Surely that was when it was being used for the nth time to get them out of an inescapable situation?

That said, my preferred alternative would've been for the damn thing to have been lost, broken or stolen somehow. Though I imagine the writers don't want to write it out that permanently in case they find themselves in a situation where they want to fall back on it as a magic escaping tool again.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Am baffled as to how you see the neutering of an overly-powerful tool as the start of a slippery slope. Surely that was when it was being used for the nth time to get them out of an inescapable situation?

No. If the device is established as having certain parameters--in this case, that it will open anything--then that's fine. It may make certain plots unworkable, but that's probably no bad thing. What we got here, though, was a one-episode workaround that essentially trumped one impossible thing with another impossible thing. They have now introduced the possibility of, for instance, having the Doctor trapped in a deadlocked room in a later episode, and thus generating suspense, but having him get out by upgrading his sonic screwdriver in some fashion. It's the sort of solve-everything-with-a-spell plotting that the Buffyverse often teetered on the brink of, and it's one think I'd rather RTD didn't borrow from Whedon. If they'd lost or broken it, that would have been better.

[hawleygriffen.livejournal.com]

Bat School Plot = silly.
Mickey as a Tin Dog = genius.
K-9 = couldn't take seriously as was... well, a tin dog.
Tennant = mmm.
Overall = mixed.

[wishus.livejournal.com]

Yep. Very silly.

But isn't that part of Dr. Who's charm?

I think the temptation bit is very significant - this doctor has often demonstrated the 'I am the doctor and I know best' kind of moral superiority that I've thought was leading somewhere like the doctor getting a bit egotistial and then suffering a fall from grace... but this would need to be built up over the series, and episode 3 is a bit early.

K9 has been brought back and it's all done with now... don't worry, kids, the doctor made another one (ah!) and he gets to live happily ever after as a kind of toy/pet/thing - just like a Sony Aibo!

Cor blimey, the glasses, the glasses!

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

RTD (and/or the rest of the production team) really needs to stop channelling Joss Whedon, because Doctor Who is not and can never be Buffy.

For ages I have been summing up new Who by saying: "Russell T Davies says for years that he really wants to write Doctor Who and then when he finally gets the chance it turns out that he really wants to write Buffy instead." So one one point, I agree with you. But on another, that RTD's Doctor Who can't accomomdate that, I'm not sure I do agree. It's become clear to me that post 2005 Doctor Who is a fundamentally different programme from 1963-1989 Doctor Who, even though they share some of the same concepts. I view the relationship between the two as similar to that between Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

Having said all that, this season does seem to be much less "All About Rose" than the last one.