doctor who: the waters of mars

[carmen_lj]

Doctor Who was on tonight. Here are some things what I thought about it:

• I like the fact that the Evil Monster is water. And that it makes zombies. And Lindsay Duncan is teh awesome. But I'm going into this expecting it to be bloody miserable and for me to wish it was season five already. Mostly, therefore, if it's not a complete and utter depressing angstfest, I will be happy. (Ish.) But if it is, that's what I was expecting so no disappointment. It's a win-win!
  
  
• Sort of.
  
  
• Anyway...
  
  
• Love the quarry Marscape!
  
  
• Why is there a reject from Phantom Menace out looking for trespassers to arrest on a planet no humans have ever been on before? Whyyyyy?
  
  
• "The Doctor. Doctor. Ffffuun." Awesome delivery!
  
  
• "I hate funny robots." ILU DOCTOR. He totally was pissed off at the bloody SW prequels too, ah bet, yay. "Ah, well, dogs, that's different." Aha! Oh, cheap lols ftw. (Yeah, I hate myself.)
  
  
• No Forgettable Guest Star, there is no way you should ever ever call anywhere Eden. It's asking for trouble, the sort of trouble where you end up Very Very Dead.
  
  
• OH NOW YOU'RE DEAD. HA. Told ya so.
  
  
• Gusev Crater! *Mars!geek squee*
  
  
• "Oooh, I really should go..." Totally channelling The Trought, episode one, Tomb of the Cybermen, oh yes.
  
  
• Aw, man, I may love this just for having a few lines about how, yes, space travel is worth it.
  
  
• Okay, I do quite like this group of characters. I love that they actually act like a highly trained military/skientific lot who do not do stupid things, don't get stupidly incredulous and don't panic. I can believe Earth'd send these people on an interplanetary expedition. And Adelaide is tots rocking.
  
  
• Ancient north Martian: Ice Warrior or Ambassador Martians? ENQUIRING MINDS NEED TO KNOW.
  
  
• Woo! Think can assume Ice Warriors! Old skool shout-out! Winning!
  
  
• Oooh, I do like how Adelaide's background ties into Stolen Earth/JE. (This in no way justifies the sheer awfulness of JE, course, but it's a lovely scene.)
  
  
• Heh, the Doctor just said he loved Adelaide! Dudes!
  
  
• Lindsay Duncan's bleedin' amazing.
  
  
• Y'know I bet if Adelaide's granddaughter didn't fly that ship, someone else would. It really is just this appallingly unconvincing contrivance so the Doctor is an unheroic bastard has deep meaningful angsty manpain. Did someone forgot who this show is actually meant for? Cause kids seeing their beloved hero walk away as he listens to a base of people die one by one? Not exactly fun family viewing.
  
  
• OH THANK FUCK THAT TOOK HIM LONG ENOUGH.
  
  
• "The laws of time are mine and they will obey me!" Oh dear, hubris attack.
  
  
• This was going so well until Tennant started the manic weasel routine. It's like he's in some horrid competition with the music as to who can be the more irritatingly OTT.
  
  
• Stop looking so smug Doctor - it'd have been slghtly more impressive if you hadn't been walking away listening to a bunch of people DIE before helping them out.
  
  
• Good gravy, the Doctor's really being an utter bastard of hubristic crazy. Whatevs, dudes, whatevs. It ain't big and it ain't clever. It's the teenage idea of deep and it's just silly.
  
  
• "I've gone too far..." Yeah, I think I might be supposed to feel upset that Ten's going to die shortly and he looks a bit frightened by it. Instead I am Quite Cheered because V TIRED OF THE OTT EMO AND HUBRIS V TIRED.
  
  
• Cloister bell, cool!
  
  
• Heh, I thought we were meant to get the super long titles of the next episode.
  
  
• I see the finale contains crappy CGI. Marvellous.
  
  
• Alright, that was nowhere near as bad as what I expected. Lindsay Duncan was really really awesome and if I cut out the last ten minutes and all Deep Emo shots of Tennant, he was alright too. Hell of an improvement on Planet of the Dead anyway. And even with the bloody emo shots, I was definitely enjoying it until the last five minutes and, um, yes, I may just pretend that didn't happen. It was terribly silly. Everything else, not too shabby. Definitely worth another watch.

Comments

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

"No, Amy, don't get angry, you're Scottish and you'll fuck it up horribly!"

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Nah, but I'd trust most of the old skool Doctors not to fuck em up. (It's my main issue with Ten - I want a Doctor that's a hero to kids, and he's mostly not really.)

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Yah, I'd trust other oens with them mostly. Just not Ten. Or Nine. Basically any Doctor not written by Rusty they're probably fine. Seven would send it back with years worth of expensive therapy, yay!

[beccaelizabeth]

Y'know I bet if Adelaide's granddaughter didn't fly that ship, someone else would. It really is just this appallingly unconvincing contrivance so the Doctor is an unheroic bastard has deep meaningful angsty manpain. Did someone forgot who this show is actually meant for? Cause kids seeing their beloved hero walk away as he listens to a base of people die one by one? Not exactly fun family viewing.
Yes. This.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I'm just unbelievably glad that RTD has finally produced a story that unambiguously recognises Ten's megalomania and paternalism as problematic.

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. For the first time I thought the worst moments of hubris and paternalism were deliberate on the part of the writer(s).

[drho.livejournal.com]

I suspect there will be some comeuppance for his antiheroics, perhaps. Also, I would never trust the Doctor with my kid. Sarah Jane wouldn't.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

That is the silver lining. It's just so v not what Doctor Who's about for me that I get terribly irritated by it all (especially when it doesn't go anywhere for four years but just sits there, congealing.)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Sarah would tots let them go on a wee run in Bessie with Three zomg! (And, yes, I'm glad that at least this time it's unambiguous that the crazy hubris is A Bad Thing.)

[nonelvis]

If we were, that certainly wasn't what I got out of it -- it was much more "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" and "This can only end badly, asshole, and you know it."

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

That's the impression I get from people's reaction posts (the "This can only end in tears" thing, I mean). I'm just weary enough of seeing The Gurning Face(tm) that I hope they're actually going somewhere with it this time.

[nonelvis]

I want to believe they're going somewhere with this, especially with the Master being in the finale. But then the rest of my brain pokes me and goes "Hey, remember Rusty is writing the finale?" and I start thinking about the multitude of ways in which he could fuck this up. I could probably sum up my feelings as "cautiously optimistic, yet terrified."

[drho.livejournal.com]

I can see that. Plus, Sarah Jane from the 70s would be there.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's kind of nice for them to produce a story that actually DEALS with Ten's insanity and brings it to the fore but ... not really a story I wanted to watch, you know? I liked the Doctor kind of more the Hero rather than a total hubris-filled asshole. And it was so very grim. I'm not a grim person on the whole. So ... yeah ...

But yes, Linday Duncan was fab.

[azdaja-dafema.livejournal.com]

I was so thinking this should be the Xmas episode.

[cyprinella]

Oh, so it wasn't just my congested ears then? That makes me feel better.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

It's like he's in some horrid competition with the music as to who can be the more irritatingly OTT.

OMG ILU. Hee!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Thank you, yes. My jaw was on the floor by the end, because they *went there*. RTD himself *went there*.

Now all we need is for Moffat to come in and clean up. (:

[neadods.livejournal.com]

If they're going to have the hubris, it needs to be a plot point on its own, not something that shows up for 10 minutes to get shot down right before he dies. I would have loved to have seen that revelation happen when he had companions that would have kicked his ass.

However... that wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Bits of it I even kinda liked. Such as for once a team of people who put the mission over themselves.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at least with Seven they'd still love him deep down afterward and believe that he meant well (because he did). With Ten it's more like... "I trusted this guy? Crap, I was stupid. This guy is NUTS."

If RTD was trying to make me really dislike Ten, he didn't need to put that much effort into it. I was well on the way there already after the last few RTD episodes.

[oltha_heri.livejournal.com]

This was going so well until Tennant started the manic weasel routine. It's like he's in some horrid competition with the music as to who can be the more irritatingly OTT.
OH MY GOD THE MUSIC!!!!!!!! I WANT TO MAKE IT GO AWAY!!!!! I honestly have no idea what half the people said for most of this episode 'CAUSE THE MUSIC WAS PLAYING OVER THEM! Bad, bad editing that.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

This episode completely justifies my fear of Ten.

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

"The laws of time are mine and they will obey me!"

Am I the only one who thought of the Master there?

[yuxonomei.livejournal.com]

Nopes; it was as if Ten had been drinking Mister Master essence and turned into him a la Ood Slaver.

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

it was as if Ten had been drinking Mister Master essence

Yeah, my brain shut down right about there in that sentence...