The Stolen Earth

So much for the hiatus. I just CAN'T stay away. Well a little break from the old routine is always welcome (and I'm rather busy this particular weekend) besides which, I just felt compelled to write about last night's DW episode! Yep we've finally reached the season finale. Came round quickly hasn't it? It had a lot riding on it (which I've kind of mentioned before) but here are my thoughts...

THE GOOD BITS

It had a very "epic" feel to it as the previous season finales have done.

Rose, you have been refused access to Doctor Who facebook on the grounds of your weird and lispy accent...

The bringing together of all the past companions/characters on the whole worked very well, contrary to fears that it wouldn't, and everyone got a decent amount of screentime.

Nooooo!! Please, please, PLEASE don't show anyone that embarrassing title sequence from "K9 and Company" with me in legwarmers...I'm BEGGING you...

And I liked their various reactions to the invasion of the Daleks e.g. Sarah Jane's terror-struck expression and tears. Well, her and those pesky pepperpots go back a long way, so it was understandable...

And then there were three...until Torchwood Season Three that is...

Having the Torchwood gang in there was a definite coup and I hope they get to properly hook up with the other DW characters later on. The dynamics could be very interesting. Gwen and Donna having a fishwife scrap, anyone?

Well at least I've been in a good few DW episodes...well, it's been fun, boys...Back to the RSC for me, then...Any openings for a corpse with a posh accent?

Great to see Penelope Wilton back as Harriet Jones in a touching cameo and appropriate that she was trying to "make" amends by getting all the major characters to team up and contact the Dr. The "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister" bit though slightly overplayed was funny stuff. But is this the true end for Harriet? And was she really a "goodie" or is something more sinister going on?

He's BACK and he's menacing! And doesn't have much body left under his tunic! Yuk!!

The resurrection of Davros!! Great performance from Julian Bleach which (so far) is more reminiscent of Michael Wisher than Terry Malloy (I won't even mention David Gooderson). A nice build up of menace with Davros "shrouded in shadows" and he looked good (or should that be bad?) when unveiled. Hope he'll live up to his promise in Part Two.

No, I HAVEN'T fallen out of a bargain bucket of KFC! Exterminate!!

Dalek Caan - now looking rather worse for wear, the poor love, and coming out with all manner of weird comments. But very creepy in his weirdness all the same, a kind of warped Dalek Messiah (well the same could be said for Davros really, couldn't it?)

Black Dalek? Pah. Dalek Caan?? Double pah! Davros?? WHATEVER. I'm better than all of you, nah nah nah!

The Red Dalek was cool. I heard rumours that he was really a human in disguise, but we'll see. Hope he gets a good face-off with his opponents in Part Two.

Okay! Okay! I WILL run down the road in a pair of lurid pink legwarmers!! Just don't kill me...I have a contract for Sarah Jane Adventures series two, after all...

Liz Sladen as Sarah - as good as ever!! Plays the part with such conviction and believability. How will she escape getting exterminated in her car? (I have a strong suspicion that K9 will pop up in the back and zap 'em? Or, maybe Sarah will strip off and shake her bejuvlies at the metal monsters, thus causing them to go into paroxysms of ecstasy? "My vision is impaired, I cannot see...". Erm, yes. That was a TAD rude). Anyway I hope she gets a reunion with Davros - would be highly fitting after, erm, some 33 years?? Perhaps they can catch up with a cup of nescafe and some custard creams!

Sorry, Noble family members, just playing a quick game of Space Invaders...it's good practise you know...

Billie Piper as Rose. Loved her "back off or I'll shoot you with my enormous Terminator-style weapon" bit to the robbers in the shop scene. Very Sigourney Weaver/Linda Hamilton. For a former shop girl she's come a LONG way. And her reactions when she couldn't contact the Doc on the PC were touching. As for the reunion bit with the Doc - very nicely done, but nipped in the bud of course! (Though how the hell could Donna tell it was Rose from so far-off?)

Not again...

And finally...the shock regeneration of the Doctor!! Is he really going to regenerate?? Is this the end for David Tennant??? It can't be! There have already done reports on the filming of the forthcoming Xmas episode and from what I can remember, David T was involved... anyone know any more about this than me??

You mean...??! I've had physical relations with an actual rhino??

Nice to see the Judoon back, if only for a brief cameo.

THE NOT-SO GOOD BITS

What's Lady Bracknell doing in outer space?

Forgive me for sounding thick, but what was the POINT of the shadow proclamation scenes?

Rather a lot of Daleks...hope they've paid their congestion charge...

The return of the Daleks yet again, wasn't handled with any kind of fanfare or surprise, highlighting how over-used they have now become (in spite of my comments before about them looking good, with some new "aspects"). They are rapidly turning into formulaic monsters and this isn't a good thing. Time to lay them to rest once and for all after this story, methinks.

The explanation as to why a massive new army of Daleks and a Dalek fleet had sprung into existence, after the previous whittling down of their race to ONE i.e. Dalek Caan, was done in a slightly glib fashion - surely more exposition/a decent flashback, rather than a few hasty comments, would have added more credence to the whole thing?

The revelation (even though we all knew) that Davros was back would have been better saved until the very end of the episode I reckon - along with the regeneration bit it would have made a great "double whammy" cliffhanger!

Has he been eating too many pies? Or swallowed some hamsters?

Ianto's rather tubby face. Had the comedy doorman-cum-stalker-of-Jack been eating too many pies? Perhaps it was the grief of losing Tosh and Owen that caused him to stuff his face...

Any openings for a former drag queen in Doctor Who? Or even Torchwood?

The slightly silly celebrity cameos at the beginning e.g. Paul O'Grady. Now obligatory in every season finale but perhaps we could have done without it?

No, I am NOT married to Harriet Makepeace in real life! Now ZIP it, Dr Jones!!

Michael "Dempsey" Brandon's rather hammy performance as UNIT General whats-his-face. Personally I would have preferred to have seen Colonel Mace back again, he had a certain charm in spite of his blandness...Seems there isn't much continuity with the UNIT characters these days...oh for the return of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart...

The planets sweet

The moving all the planets across the cosmos thing (hence the episode title). What the hell was going on with that? How did the Daleks find the technology? Okay, I'm being churlish as I'm sure we'll get an explanation for all this in the next episode.

And that, groovesters, is about it! On the whole I thought "The Stolen Earth" was fabulous, blockbusting, emotional and exciting fare. I hope you all enjoyed it too. Would love to know your thoughts on episode too, so get posting a comment NOW, or you will be....well, you know what.

Byeeeeeeeeee!!

The gang's all here...

Okay, I lied. I couldn't resist coming out of hibernation (temporarily at least...) to post this rather splendid pic of the ensemble cast from the forthcoming DW season finale, which kicks off this Saturday:

Great stuff eh?! (Click on the pic if you want to see a larger version). One can't help wondering what they're all looking so scared by. Is it RTD with his clothes off? Answers on a comment please.

From left to right, we have:

Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen); Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke); Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri); Rose Tyler (Billie Piper); The Doctor (David Tennant); Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)! Woh! All of whom will be present in the last two episodes...and that's not including a few other returning personages, such as former Prime Minister Harriet Jones (who's rumoured to have something nasty happen to her - is this divine retribution for her blowing up the sycorax spaceship?), K9 (trusty metal mutt with a long back story and a long laser gun), Luke Smith (Sarah's adopted alien "son"), Gwen Cooper (gappy-toothed Torchwood member), Ianto ("comedy" doorman and Torchwood member)...and that doesn't include an old villain with a strong connection to the Daleks...

Which surely leaves us to ask - how the hell are they going to fit so many characters into two episodes? Mind you, it's been confirmed that the second episode is one hour and five minutes long, so gives us a little more time...There's already been a few trailers like this one and this one which all look very epic and dramatic.

I must admit I AM excited. I just hope they can carry it off and it's not a repeat of last year's Master-finale-fiasco. Crossed fingers!!

Saturday nights are cool again...

It's back!! Unbelievably, last night I wasn't able to sit down and watch DW when it was actually on (we had friends round) so me and my hubbie caught up with it on BBC iPlayer instead. What a marvellous invention it is.

Well, I really enjoyed it.

A few Cheeser criticisms out of the way first though. Like Steve, I thought the Adipose plotline was kind of daft and ultimately they weren't really the "sinister" threat that the pre-programme publicity made them out to be - ultimately just a load of baby aliens waiting to be born and then depart Earth to return to their home world. The Adipose themselves were more cuddly and cute than scary, and reminded me of something out of Ghostbusters, with their Pilsbury Dough Boy/Marshmallow man appearance, baby/giggly noises and waddling - hardly a worldwide menace. Definitely one for the kiddie audience. Consequently the tone of the episode did sometimes veer towards the silly rather than serious. On reflection though it was probably a deliberate ploy on the part of the writers to start off with a fairly lightweight story, in order to focus on the reintroduction of Ms Donna Noble and the dynamics of her relationship with the Dr.

And, whilst on the subject of Ms Catherine Tate/Donna...

I thought... ... she was actually pretty good!

OMG!! Yes, after numerous posts slagging off RTD et al for deciding to resurrect the character of Donna, I may well have to go and munch on some humble pie. For this was a far more "reigned in" Donna that we got to see, some time after the events of Runaway Bride - and generally a much more restrained and reflective lady after the fishwife performance of her debut story. A lot of the screeching and moaning of yore had vanished. Okay, there were still some "comedy" CT moments but on the whole these slotted in quite well with everything else. For instance, the scene with the Dr and Donna silently mouthing at each other through glass. Dr: "Donna?" Donna: "Oh-my-GOD!"Dr: "How?"Donna: "It's me!" Etc... Odd, cos when viewed in the original Season Four trailer, Donna's "Doctaaaaaaaaaaaar!" bit seemed awful (prompting me to do a "What's Donna saying?" post) but here it was very funny (the p*ss-take "tense" orchestral score in the background was a nice counterpoint too).

It was also good to see Donna getting more backstory - having to put up with her nagging, continually whinging mum (now we know where the fishwife characteristics originated) her scene with her Grandpa (a lovely cameo from Bernard Cribbins) where she talks about the Dr (nicely acted/done) and the bit at the end with Donna and the Doc waving to Gramps from the airborn TARDIS was actually rather touching and sweet!

Another positive aspect of Donna is the fact that, unlike Rose and Martha, she's a stronger and older character who is NOT romantically fixated on the Dr. Actually that's rather inaccurate as Ms Tyler and Ms Jones DID have their "strengths" as well, but the fancying the Doc thing at times seriously undermined their respective personas. It was established pretty much early on in "Partners" that Donna didn't like the Dr "in that way", Donna's amusing lines "Mad Martha that one...blind Martha...charity Martha..." firmly establishing her p.o.v. on that subject. And I liked the clever bit of dialogue with the Dr stating: "I just want a mate" which Donna mistook to mean "I just wanna mate" (!) leading to her response: "You're not mating with me, sunshine!" Again, in the original Season Four trailer, the latter Donna declaration had sounded pretty cringeworthy, but here worked much better when viewed in the context of the whole scene. And now that one's under their belts the Dr and Donna can embark on a more mature relationship. Here's hoping...

I was pleasantly surprised by Catherine Tate overall. One thing I will say is that unlike Freema Agymen, she is an accomplished character actress (having played a variety of roles in her own comedy show to perfection) and she's also got depth, range and excellent comic timing. There were several times during "Partners in Crime" when her facial expressions and line delivery were spot-on and this bodes well for the future.

What else? Having the Dr and Noble both investigating Adipose industries at the same time was a definite coincidence but a way of bringing them back together. The way in which they kept missing each other by a hair's breadth until their eventual "reunion" - e.g. the popping up and down between the cubicles - was a bit farcial and far-fetched though...

The "Close Encounters" style spaceship looked impressive (and funny when Gramps, watching out for alien lifeforms, totally misses it).

Sarah Lancashire as the villainous Miss Foster was excellent, a far cry from the days of Raquel Woltenshulme - icy, efficient, businesslike and humorous albeit in a controlled fashion. Even if the Adipose plot wasn't up to much, she helped to carry the whole thing. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her when she twigged that the Adipose had just used her and she plunged to her death. But what was she doing with a sonic device? Early rumour had it that she was Time Lord, even the Rani, but this was not the case...

David Tennant, now entering into his third season as the Doc, has really hit his stride in the role. His sometimes annoying tics and mannerisms were far less evident on this occasion. A good thing too. We got some of his "wide eyed acting" but on the whole he was good and his scenes with CT worked well.

And finally! Totally out of the blue we got a ... cameo from Rose Tyler!! Looking very moody and serious. How did she get back from the other side of the void? Why was she there? It was a great and genuinely surprising addition to the episode (even if she was only onscreen 10-15 seconds) and added nicely to the sense of anticipation re: the "proper" return of Rose later this season.

So, an entertaining start to the new series. Roll on the rest of Season Four!

PS I am intending to finish off my Torchwood reviews of Season Two... but as you know DW always take precedence for moi. Nah nah nah!