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From Quickflix
This one is a modern classic. The reflective personal, funereal mood at
the beginning of this story is very believable. The premise is a little
bit Star Trek but that's not completely unwelcome.
The 'earthquake' in DW lore at the end (see the last 10 minutes or so, I
won't ruin it for anyone here) is quite phenomenal. The classic DW fan
in me was rebelling against the Time Lord victorious idea but the true
DW fan in me was stamping my feet and cheering. This episode was just
amazing.
The only thing I regret is (like Turn Left the series before) it doesn't
really get followed up in the next episode. It could have set the scene
for a truly remarkable climax for David Tennant's Doctorship. But it's
like the scriptwriters just forgot what happened.... oh well, can't have
everything.
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Watched 16-Oct on Bluray
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Watched 6-Oct on Bluray
The show grabs back Martha fo rthe third ep in a row and ADDS another feisty girl character. Lucky they're all so watchable.
The Hoth and General Cobb are a bit melodramatic but the whole story is a neat contained odd little SF tale that is quietly satisfying really.
Watched 2-Oct on Bluray big screen
This one is a bit boring to me.
It's a alien invasion conspiracy which draws elements from various previous DW stories.
All this makes it kinda boring.
The best bits are when Donna is sneaking around the Sontaran spaceship and bopping Sontarans on the probic vent (just).
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Watched 5-Sep on Bluray
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Watched 28-Aug on Bluray
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From Quickflix
Well this is another Xmas episode, so try to remember that as the
plotholes and the cliches sail majestically before your eyes. David T is
effortlessly good as the Doctor now roaring confidently into his third
year in the role. Kylie is actually a bit wooden but anyone who actually
seen her in a movie before will probably be expecting this. Some of the
characters are fun, some a excruitiating. The moment when some
unidentified occupant of Buckingham Palace sticks her head out of the
window and waves at the retreating Starship Titanic with a pythonesque
silly laugh is likely to interfere with your dramatic tension buildup
(or something).
All in all a jolly harmless little romp through what Russell T thinks
Xmas is all about, but not to be taken too seriously even by the fans.
On the other hand by the time Season 4 climaxes, you'd better have been
paying attention or else you might miss something....... ;-)
Watched 21-Aug on Bluray on the big screen
Another example of an RTD 'special': telling the story by clips of fictional TV news and making up plenty of ahistorical politics and politicians. This is obviously a personal trait of RTD as a writer: I'll cite Years and Years (2017) as another example of it which is quite apart from any DW example.
There are some cameo clips of real politicians which makes it dated and confusing. (That awful Tory who turned Brexit.. frumpy humourless old bat.. I've forgotten her name, thankfully...)
Apart from that there's an effective atmosphere of modern snoopy security state generated and some weirdness.
The fictional US President is looking a little dated in 2020 mainly because the current one makes him look too ordinary too normal. Weird that he drives around in a Land Rover too...
John Simm as the Master is intense and mad. At the time it was new and sparkled. Previous Masters were vaudeviliean and moustache twirling (kinda conventional). The new Master is an out of control madman.
MASTER: (muffled) It's a gas mask.
DUMFRIES: I beg your pardon?
MASTER: It's a gas mask.
DUMFRIES: Yes, but, er, why are you wearing it?
MASTER: (muffled) Well, because of the gas.
DUMFRIES: I'm sorry?
MASTER: Because of the gas.
DUMFRIES: What gas?
MASTER: (muffled) This gas.
(The conference telephone sets pop up and squirt gas at the Cabinet and
officials.)
DUMFRIES: You're insane!
(The Master gives the thumbs up sign as Dumfries and the rest of his
colleagues die, then starts tapping out that famous rhythm on the
table.)
In the second ep the story goes to the incredible end of the spectrum. (It is DW not a documentary...)
There are a few controversial moments. Lucy Saxon is shown as suffering some form of relationship abuse (strong stuff for a kid's show) but it a signal that the Master is a "baddie" character. I think a question remains about whether it's exploitive. The details are suppressed: we never see what happened or how or why. We're presented with hints. The denouement where she fires the gunshot that finishes him off is cathartic but there's lots of parts missing from the story
The Doctor as humanist christ figure powered by the power of positive thinking is a conceptual mistake in my view. The Ky of Solos like powers that the super aged 'Dobbie Doctor' suddenly acquires and uses to vanquish the Toclafane and the Master is fantasy unfettered by actual Sci Fi sense. On paper it must have looked nuts. On screen it looks contrived.
I long for a dream sequence explanation. But there isn't one. Ep loses half a point from me for this.
Great stuff to watch but ultimately there are some 'headscratcher' elements.
Watched 17-Aug on Bluray
Utopia is exciting and tense and builds up to amazing climax.
I Claudius star Derek J is amazing as the bumbly old idiot Professor Yana and the turn at the end where he murders his assistant Chan to and becomes the Master is legendary.
This is the archetypal 'rewards the long term viewer' sequence since the 'Yana' name and the purpose of the fobwatch are plot elements that probably would just sail right over the heads of a casual viewer. (I've never met any... )
This ep demands and supplies.
Classic.
Watched (sorta) 16-Aug off some xvid file
This is pretty boring, unengaging and had to follow.
This is a curiosity and we debated the idea that it isn't canon. Unfortunately it probably is.
Here's an independent review: https://them0vieblog.com/2013/02/15/doctor-who-the-infinite-quest-review/ At least they seem to have watched it carefully....
Watched 15-Aug off a networked xvid file of the original BBC broadcast.
This is it. This is the pinnacle of DW.
This first new number 1 ranked story in 32 years.
Weirdly it is meant to be a bottle episode i.e. one where the regular cast are minimised to free them up for leave or work on other eps.
It becomes a showcase for the very cute and highly talented Carey Mulligan (21 yo at the time of production) who has since become a famous international film star. Sally Sparrow is smart and sassy. She's not ambitious or mean or slow and dopey. She's great. One odd question I have is I wonder who she is and what her job/purpose actually is? It's revealing of how good the character is that the answer to that question just invites delicious speculation.
If anyone ever tells me that a female Doctor can't work then Blink is a fairly devastating argument against that nonsense.
Odd thing I noticed on this rewatch about Blink is how different to normal the incidental music is. Typically DW incidental music of this period time was loud, stirring chords and fast, triumphant crescendoes. In this the music's lonely oboe, slow and mournful punctuated by throbbing power chords. It's not a bad move.
The direction is bloody good too. In most revews of Blink it doesn't get enough praise. Hettie MacDonald provides plenty of thoughtful and poignant storytelling sequences. I'll cite the death scene of Billy. He asks about the rain, Sally says it's the same rain, there's a cross fade to a hospital room with an empty bed and Sally strides on to the next scene in a purposeful way. That's a death scene without a hammy death and the sound of your mind being stimulated.... Hettie will be back for The Magician's Apprentice (2015)
In typical Steven Moffat style the story centres on clues hiding in plain sight (what links the 17 DVD's?) , inventive delivery of narrative dialogue (the Doctor's speech on the DVD extras is presented as a mysterious monologue ("it's as if he's having half a conversation") and later it just clicks together with Sally Sparrow in Wester Drumlins seemingly for no reason and Robert Holmes style world building with throwaway lines (try this.)
SALLY: My God, it's you. It really is you. Oh, you don't remember me,
do you?
(Martha is carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor has a long bow.)
MARTHA: Doctor, we haven't have time for this. The migration's started.
DOCTOR: Look, sorry, I've got a bit of a complex life. Things don't
always happen to me in quite the right order.
Unlke the heavy Human Nature layered symbolism this is merely intricate and has terrifying new, high concept monsters (Angels)
Winner of the third in a row annual Hugo Short Form Dramatic presentation for Doctor Who. Stemo scored BAFTAS, Carey won a Constellation award (Canadian) for Best Performance.
The very best episodes of DW are often not series finales or regenerations or Daleks,Daleks,Daleks. They're often seemingly run of the mill mid series "bottles".
This one is near to perfect. What ever could possibly beat this?
Watched 14-Aug on Bluray on the big screen.
This is extraordinary.
And it is brutal.
This line of dialogue near the end of p2 sums it up.
JOAN: Answer me this. Just one question, that's all. If the Doctor had
never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim, would
anybody here have died? (no answer) You can go.
(The Doctor leaves. Joan clutches the journal to her bosom and cries.)
Apart from the story and the performances and the direction this story amounts to a surgical deconstruction of the concepts of Doctor Who stories. That is literary levels of layered meaning.
Whether we choose to agree or not this sets the character of the Doctor as amoral and reckless. We get to see the show in a new way (well new to DW on TV.) I guess that some modern novels address this concept at least to some degree.
The bit is where the Doctor as the Doctor pretends to be John Smith to the alien Family and slyly sets off their feedback compensators.
[Spaceship]
BAINES: We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the
dust into glass, then shatter them all over again.
(The spaceship door opens to admit -)
DOCTOR: Just
(A boom rocks the ship, and he lurches against a column of
switches.)
DOCTOR: Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do
anything you want, just, just stop.
BAINES: Say please.
DOCTOR: Please.
(Jenny activates a control.)
JENNY: Wait a minute. (sniff) Still human.
DOCTOR: Now I can't, I can't pretend to understand, not for a second,
but I want you to know I'm innocent in all this. He made me John Smith.
It's not like I had any control over it.
(He runs his hands over more switches.)
JENNY: He didn't just make himself human. He made himself an idiot.
BAINES: Same thing, isn't it?
DOCTOR: I don't care about this Doctor and your family. I just want you
to go. So I've made my choice. You can have him. Just take it, please!
Take him away.
(The Doctor holds out the watch.)
BAINES: At last.
(Baines takes the watch with one hand, and the Doctor's lapels by the
other.)
BAINES: Don't think that saved your life.
(He pushes the Doctor away. More switches get activated as the Doctor
falls against the wall.)
BAINES: Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord.
(Baines opens the watch and they all sniff deeply.)
BAINES: It's empty!
DOCTOR: Where's it gone?
BAINES: You tell me.
(Baines throws the watch to the Doctor, who catches it without
looking.)
DOCTOR: Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a
simple olfactory misdirection. Little bit like ventriloquism of the
nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it
has got to be said, I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer. It
seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through
the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters. Oh.
Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't
have let me press all those buttons. But, in fairness, I will give you
one word of advice. Run.
(The Doctor runs out of the ship as alarms start to sound.)
BAINES: Get out! Get out!
