Bernard Cribbins deserves a Knighthood
And incoming, a rather twisty assessment of yesterday's Doctor Who episode...
I enjoyed that episode :D
Sure, it was quite silly, but generally in a fun way rather than a 'oh for goodness' sake' way like the last time we had the Master dancing around our screens (to the sound of the Scissor Sisters no less). I like how the bit we'd seen at Children in Need with the snow and the Ood didn't really tie in to the rest of the episode too. We're still not sure *why* the Ood are more advanced than they should be. And in other mysteries, who is Wilf's fairy godmother the woman who keeps speaking to Wilf? Mysteries mysteries. And how will our beloved David become Matt? We have 75 minutes on New Year's Day to find out, but that may well not be enough.
They're really pushing some subtexts aren't they? The Master pulling the Doctor close ready to close his lips against those of the only person he has ever cared about apart from himself, linking more than just their minds, together, like they were as children in the fields of Gallifrey. And the Master wearing a collar and being restrained proving he is a Switch, because why else would the Master be the Slave?. And so on and so forth. RTD knows what he's doing with all this and making it subtle as a brick.
Big yays at no Daleks and especially no Rose! Not that I expect things to remain that way. I'd welcome a return of, say, Sarah Jane and Captain Jack, but Rose is just well overused by now, and Martha is becoming comically incompetent. All that said, I really loved how much was tied together in this episode...it felt like a retrospective justification of the end of Series 3 to some extent, while the characters of Series 4 were always my favourites (Donna ♥ and Wilf ♥). And lots of other things coming together.
I knew the Time Lords were going to return - that was an open secret, really. The way they revealed it was wonderful though, yay the Time Lords being corrupt and evil! It's also arguably the most High Sci-Fi element of Doctor Who, with all the legends attached to Gallifrey, independent of Earth. Also, good going Timothy Dalton! No wonder he was never that popular as James Bond, his destiny was to play sinister people in power (see Hot Fuzz for more). FOR GALLIFREY! It all looks vaguely Star Wars too. Long live the Panopticon! And by that, I'm also meaning that I liked how they showed Timothy's robes halfway through, as a hint for those paying attention that Gallifrey was on the move.
Crazy crazy Master. A much better sort of crazy than in Last of the Time Lords. Not sure I'm too keen on his sudden ability to fly, shoot lightning, turn Skeletor (yay for that reference btw) and *eat people?* But he was, for me at least, more engaging than post world-domination-Mister-Saxon. He was a lot of fun to watch, and definitely fell into a 'Anti-Hero' role more than once. Megalomania-tastic. Felt almost sorry for him when the fake- helicopter took him away after his intimate moment with the Doctor.
"SHE'S A CACTUS!" - liked this part. There's a bit of a clash with the Doctor not recognising their species and using Bannakaffeletta from Voyage of the Damned to try and work it out. He did this with the Absorbaloff and the Slitheen too. This does not taly with the whole 'Doctor knows all the species' claim from series 1 (when he identifies the Raxacoricofallapatorians in the 'narrows it down' scene). Anyway, green cacti. Liked the whole 'shimmer!' idea and how easily the Doctor dismisses it. We need more neutral aliens.
I found Joshua Naismith and his daughter-complex a little creepy. But they served a purpose, I suppose. Nice mansion room instead of the more generic lab seen with Torchwood (both of them) and the Lazarus lot. Tut tut for thinking they could control the Master though. Ditto the cacti. He's not called the Master because he's easy to keep on a leash (oh wait...).
And oh hai, we're all the Master apparently. Fancy that. I guess that's one way to achieve egalitarianism. It's truly bizarre, more than a little creepy, and quite deus ex machina - if the Vinvocci cacti's Gate machine can do that, wouldn't galactic warfare work a little differently? Medical machines are weapons in New Who ("Are you my mummy?"). So it's all down to Wilf, and a Donna regaining her memories (which is a good thing, even with the whole 'it'll kill her' problem). Go go Wilf! Although where will Rose, Jack and the others come from now? I suppose Luke from Sarah Jane isn't human so he'll be okay...and on that note, given how many characters in Doctor Who are aliens disguised as humans, there should be more than a few non-Masters wandering around the planet now.
And just imagine the chaos caused by that ending too...
In a doctor's surgery, the GP and the patient both stir after the Change:
"Well, look at me! I'm the Doctor AND the Master! Fancy that..."
"So, Doctor who is the Master, what's wrong with me?"
"I'm sure I know the answer to that..."
"...nothing's wrong with me! I'm perfect!"
"Except for those drums...those endless drums..."
and in a corner of London, the aging policeman Gene Hunt looks around in disbelief as the people around him change first
"Tyler? TYLER? What the bloody hell? Why are you everywhere...aren't you...?!"
and then he changes too, leaving the Master standing there, smiling and saying to himself
"Aaaah, I'm still hungry. I feel like 'aving 'oops..."
and in a brothel backroom, the scene is...well, let's just call it Master(bation)...
I enjoyed that episode :D
Sure, it was quite silly, but generally in a fun way rather than a 'oh for goodness' sake' way like the last time we had the Master dancing around our screens (to the sound of the Scissor Sisters no less). I like how the bit we'd seen at Children in Need with the snow and the Ood didn't really tie in to the rest of the episode too. We're still not sure *why* the Ood are more advanced than they should be. And in other mysteries, who is Wilf's fairy godmother the woman who keeps speaking to Wilf? Mysteries mysteries. And how will our beloved David become Matt? We have 75 minutes on New Year's Day to find out, but that may well not be enough.
They're really pushing some subtexts aren't they? The Master pulling the Doctor close ready to close his lips against those of the only person he has ever cared about apart from himself, linking more than just their minds, together, like they were as children in the fields of Gallifrey. And the Master wearing a collar and being restrained proving he is a Switch, because why else would the Master be the Slave?. And so on and so forth. RTD knows what he's doing with all this and making it subtle as a brick.
Big yays at no Daleks and especially no Rose! Not that I expect things to remain that way. I'd welcome a return of, say, Sarah Jane and Captain Jack, but Rose is just well overused by now, and Martha is becoming comically incompetent. All that said, I really loved how much was tied together in this episode...it felt like a retrospective justification of the end of Series 3 to some extent, while the characters of Series 4 were always my favourites (Donna ♥ and Wilf ♥). And lots of other things coming together.
I knew the Time Lords were going to return - that was an open secret, really. The way they revealed it was wonderful though, yay the Time Lords being corrupt and evil! It's also arguably the most High Sci-Fi element of Doctor Who, with all the legends attached to Gallifrey, independent of Earth. Also, good going Timothy Dalton! No wonder he was never that popular as James Bond, his destiny was to play sinister people in power (see Hot Fuzz for more). FOR GALLIFREY! It all looks vaguely Star Wars too. Long live the Panopticon! And by that, I'm also meaning that I liked how they showed Timothy's robes halfway through, as a hint for those paying attention that Gallifrey was on the move.
Crazy crazy Master. A much better sort of crazy than in Last of the Time Lords. Not sure I'm too keen on his sudden ability to fly, shoot lightning, turn Skeletor (yay for that reference btw) and *eat people?* But he was, for me at least, more engaging than post world-domination-Mister-Saxon. He was a lot of fun to watch, and definitely fell into a 'Anti-Hero' role more than once. Megalomania-tastic. Felt almost sorry for him when the fake- helicopter took him away after his intimate moment with the Doctor.
"SHE'S A CACTUS!" - liked this part. There's a bit of a clash with the Doctor not recognising their species and using Bannakaffeletta from Voyage of the Damned to try and work it out. He did this with the Absorbaloff and the Slitheen too. This does not taly with the whole 'Doctor knows all the species' claim from series 1 (when he identifies the Raxacoricofallapatorians in the 'narrows it down' scene). Anyway, green cacti. Liked the whole 'shimmer!' idea and how easily the Doctor dismisses it. We need more neutral aliens.
I found Joshua Naismith and his daughter-complex a little creepy. But they served a purpose, I suppose. Nice mansion room instead of the more generic lab seen with Torchwood (both of them) and the Lazarus lot. Tut tut for thinking they could control the Master though. Ditto the cacti. He's not called the Master because he's easy to keep on a leash (oh wait...).
And oh hai, we're all the Master apparently. Fancy that. I guess that's one way to achieve egalitarianism. It's truly bizarre, more than a little creepy, and quite deus ex machina - if the Vinvocci cacti's Gate machine can do that, wouldn't galactic warfare work a little differently? Medical machines are weapons in New Who ("Are you my mummy?"). So it's all down to Wilf, and a Donna regaining her memories (which is a good thing, even with the whole 'it'll kill her' problem). Go go Wilf! Although where will Rose, Jack and the others come from now? I suppose Luke from Sarah Jane isn't human so he'll be okay...and on that note, given how many characters in Doctor Who are aliens disguised as humans, there should be more than a few non-Masters wandering around the planet now.
And just imagine the chaos caused by that ending too...
In a doctor's surgery, the GP and the patient both stir after the Change:
"Well, look at me! I'm the Doctor AND the Master! Fancy that..."
"So, Doctor who is the Master, what's wrong with me?"
"I'm sure I know the answer to that..."
"...nothing's wrong with me! I'm perfect!"
"Except for those drums...those endless drums..."
and in a corner of London, the aging policeman Gene Hunt looks around in disbelief as the people around him change first
"Tyler? TYLER? What the bloody hell? Why are you everywhere...aren't you...?!"
and then he changes too, leaving the Master standing there, smiling and saying to himself
"Aaaah, I'm still hungry. I feel like 'aving 'oops..."
and in a brothel backroom, the scene is...well, let's just call it Master(bation)...