Doctor Who: 3.7 "42"
Watched this one twice and I still don't have much of an opinion on it.
I wasn't really expecting to like it, which I suppose is why I'm a bit conflicted yet. The last few episodes where the fact that they were In Space was a plot point -- "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" -- totally blew chunks. Plus, Chris Chibnall is absolutely my least favorite of the Torchwood writers, having penned "Day One", "Cyberwoman" and "Countrycide", all of which were crap and the last of which nearly made me stop watching the show.
"42" wasn't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but it also wasn't nearly as bad as most of the other episodes Chibnall has written. The plot was a bit on the thin side (a living sun that possesses people?) but there was enough tapdancing that you didn't really notice that. The whole real-time thing . . . well, I suppose it was real-time in that the episode didn't take place over the span of three weeks, nor did it take thirty minutes to get through a five minute countdown, but there was a little fiddling with time going on nonetheless. With the exception of Erena, who was a cliche and a badly written one at that, the secondary characters weren't too cannon-foddery, if a bit interchangeable. Martha was, as always, lovely, what with the getting her own companion gear (superphone, TARDIS key and total emotional attachment by the Doctor) and the awesome bedside manner and the bossing everyone around and the hugporn! and the macking on the guest star. Locking herself in an escape pod, which, by definition, is meant to escape was maybe a little less awesome. "I'll save you" -- the Doctor and Martha are so totally shagging. Kudos to Murray Gold for finally realizing that he doesn't have to score all 44 minutes of an episode. More kudos for winding Martha's theme through the episode in some interesting ways.
That particular sequence did make me think of how Rose dealt with being separated from the Doctor and facing certain death in TSP. Rose freaked, pulled a gun and started threatening people. Martha freaked, called her mother and waited for the Doctor to rescue her. Hmm.
I think, really, though, if anything killed this episode for me, it was David Tennant as Action Hero. Dude. Look. Tennant is a tall, skinny, slightly freckly geek. When he is wearing those nerd glasses and saying nerdy things it makes me want to bring him home and marry him, twelve-year age gap and Sophia Myles be damned. But he is the least convincing action hero in the history of the universe. It really undercuts the whole dramatic tension of the sequence where he's bashing himself about on the side of this spaceship set if I'm giggling the entire time about how dumb he looks in his enormous orange jumpsuit.
This brings us to Point Number Two about Tennant's acting in this episode. Lord love him, but there are two things he should not be allowed to do: shout, and groan loudly while flinging himself about and pretending to be in pain. He's just not very good at either of them. Again, hard to take the episode seriously when I'm snickering as Tennant goes "NGGGGH AGGGGGH UGGGGGH *flops about like dying fish*" That was rather an important bit, too, what with the Doctor being all vulnerable and attempting to tell Martha about regeneration and everything.
The Earthbound side of the episode was interesting, the whole Francine Jones cooperating with the G-mans thing. It seems to be pissing a lot of people off. One poster on lifeonmartha called Francine a cow for having "sold her daughter out". There's a lot of "Bring back Jackie!" and "Jackie wouldn't do that!" Well, I admit that Francine's not as much fun as Jackie Tyler, but as doyle_sb4 and others have pointed out, Jackie did sell out the Doctor. She might not have realized it, but she did, and the other thing to consider is that we got to know Jackie over two years. Francine has had three episodes. It took time for Jackie to grow into the role of hero, so who knows what might happen with Francine. All Francine knows right now is that Martha is acting awfully strangely all of a sudden, and God knows what Saxon's goon has told her. Probably that the Doctor is a psychopath who has a long history of abducting, torturing and killing young women. Martha disappears one night, starts acting funny when she comes back the next day, won't take Francine's calls and then when she does call it's all "*background screaming* Gotta go!" and "I just wanted to tell you I love you" which is TV Code for "I am totally about to die and just wanted to let you know." What the hell is Francine supposed to think after all that? It's really not unreasonable to think that Martha is in serious danger and were I in that situation, I know my mother would be doing everything she could to save me, up to and including building her own spaceship so she could go after me. Cooperating with the g-mans is nothing. My mother would move heaven and earth.
Specs count: *drool* . . .
Saxon count: 1
Next week: They've been doing really well this season. I will have faith. Comrade Rusty is always right.
Heroes finale on Monday. Bother.
I wasn't really expecting to like it, which I suppose is why I'm a bit conflicted yet. The last few episodes where the fact that they were In Space was a plot point -- "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" -- totally blew chunks. Plus, Chris Chibnall is absolutely my least favorite of the Torchwood writers, having penned "Day One", "Cyberwoman" and "Countrycide", all of which were crap and the last of which nearly made me stop watching the show.
"42" wasn't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but it also wasn't nearly as bad as most of the other episodes Chibnall has written. The plot was a bit on the thin side (a living sun that possesses people?) but there was enough tapdancing that you didn't really notice that. The whole real-time thing . . . well, I suppose it was real-time in that the episode didn't take place over the span of three weeks, nor did it take thirty minutes to get through a five minute countdown, but there was a little fiddling with time going on nonetheless. With the exception of Erena, who was a cliche and a badly written one at that, the secondary characters weren't too cannon-foddery, if a bit interchangeable. Martha was, as always, lovely, what with the getting her own companion gear (superphone, TARDIS key and total emotional attachment by the Doctor) and the awesome bedside manner and the bossing everyone around and the hugporn! and the macking on the guest star. Locking herself in an escape pod, which, by definition, is meant to escape was maybe a little less awesome. "I'll save you" -- the Doctor and Martha are so totally shagging. Kudos to Murray Gold for finally realizing that he doesn't have to score all 44 minutes of an episode. More kudos for winding Martha's theme through the episode in some interesting ways.
That particular sequence did make me think of how Rose dealt with being separated from the Doctor and facing certain death in TSP. Rose freaked, pulled a gun and started threatening people. Martha freaked, called her mother and waited for the Doctor to rescue her. Hmm.
I think, really, though, if anything killed this episode for me, it was David Tennant as Action Hero. Dude. Look. Tennant is a tall, skinny, slightly freckly geek. When he is wearing those nerd glasses and saying nerdy things it makes me want to bring him home and marry him, twelve-year age gap and Sophia Myles be damned. But he is the least convincing action hero in the history of the universe. It really undercuts the whole dramatic tension of the sequence where he's bashing himself about on the side of this spaceship set if I'm giggling the entire time about how dumb he looks in his enormous orange jumpsuit.
This brings us to Point Number Two about Tennant's acting in this episode. Lord love him, but there are two things he should not be allowed to do: shout, and groan loudly while flinging himself about and pretending to be in pain. He's just not very good at either of them. Again, hard to take the episode seriously when I'm snickering as Tennant goes "NGGGGH AGGGGGH UGGGGGH *flops about like dying fish*" That was rather an important bit, too, what with the Doctor being all vulnerable and attempting to tell Martha about regeneration and everything.
The Earthbound side of the episode was interesting, the whole Francine Jones cooperating with the G-mans thing. It seems to be pissing a lot of people off. One poster on lifeonmartha called Francine a cow for having "sold her daughter out". There's a lot of "Bring back Jackie!" and "Jackie wouldn't do that!" Well, I admit that Francine's not as much fun as Jackie Tyler, but as doyle_sb4 and others have pointed out, Jackie did sell out the Doctor. She might not have realized it, but she did, and the other thing to consider is that we got to know Jackie over two years. Francine has had three episodes. It took time for Jackie to grow into the role of hero, so who knows what might happen with Francine. All Francine knows right now is that Martha is acting awfully strangely all of a sudden, and God knows what Saxon's goon has told her. Probably that the Doctor is a psychopath who has a long history of abducting, torturing and killing young women. Martha disappears one night, starts acting funny when she comes back the next day, won't take Francine's calls and then when she does call it's all "*background screaming* Gotta go!" and "I just wanted to tell you I love you" which is TV Code for "I am totally about to die and just wanted to let you know." What the hell is Francine supposed to think after all that? It's really not unreasonable to think that Martha is in serious danger and were I in that situation, I know my mother would be doing everything she could to save me, up to and including building her own spaceship so she could go after me. Cooperating with the g-mans is nothing. My mother would move heaven and earth.
Specs count: *drool* . . .
Saxon count: 1
Next week: They've been doing really well this season. I will have faith. Comrade Rusty is always right.
Heroes finale on Monday. Bother.