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DW 4.10: Midnight
Are the 10th episodes cursed this year? First 'From Out of the Rain' on TW, and now this. I'll explain where I see links between the eps in a bit, but will look at the positive first:
- The beginning was great (and not just because I recently read a fic where the Doctor took Donna to a fabulous spa, although that did please me immensely), and I loved the Doctor interacting with all the other people on the ride. (Also like how they never try to make the clothes all 'futuristic'. Nothing ages something more.) Also, it was scary. Like - I'm NOT letting the children watch it (at least not the 6 y.o.), because then bedtime will be three hours long. Great cabin fever, great concept of alien entity learning by observing, and lovely ending - removing the Companion shows just how much he needs her. But...
- Like FOOTR, it struck me that the neat parts of the concept of this probably overshadowed the problems when they were filming. I remember watching the TW Confidential that week, and everyone talking about how they'd created this carnival and how brilliant it was. But although it looked great, the story really didn't work very well. Similiarily here - the copying, and then speaking-at-the-same-time, was beautifully executed. But I actually found myself getting bored with all the talking. For the first time ever, I think a DW episode would have benefitted from being *shorter*.
- Finally, it suffered from the one thing that I can't really forgive (and it doesn't really reflect badly on the episode to be honest - it's more about what I want from my show). When I saw it was a RTD episode, I got ready to suspend disbelief and throw logic out of the window for the sake of 'These things happen whenyou're on a Hellmouth you're dealing with wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff'. I can easily cope with that. But this episode, like FOOTR, had a different problem: Basically, it didn't have to be a DW episode - it could have worked beautifully as a completely original piece of work with any smart hero-type (with a deep interest in new aliens) in the Doctor's place. The story was more important than the Doctor - there was no 'what's the Buffy of it?' (presuming you get that reference). ETA: Watching the Doctor completely taken over was harrowing, yes, but knowing that of all of them, he was the one who *had* to survive, I was wondering how he'd get out of it, and who'd save the day. *sigh* I hate being negative.
There was also the fact that the Doctor kept *saying* how clever he was, yet never really *showed* it, except talking more than anyone else. It was perfectly obvious that the alien was copying to learn, and would soon be able to get ahead. Why oh why did no one think to get out a pen and paper? (Ianto would have. I miss him A LOT!) And there was never a 'I'm the Doctor and I am AWESOME/scary' moment, like in VoTD - or 'Forest of the Dead'. It was late, by the time we watched it, and I wanted some Timelord awesomeness, which I didn't get. I didn't mind the crowd turning on him (I thought that good), but they just turned because he was a bit obstinate and stuff, not because he was *brilliant*. *thinks* AYNOHYEB was far, far better!
But that's just my impression. Am disabling comments because I *really* don't have time to discuss it. (Which is sad. Will look around for more positive reviews to rec!)
- The beginning was great (and not just because I recently read a fic where the Doctor took Donna to a fabulous spa, although that did please me immensely), and I loved the Doctor interacting with all the other people on the ride. (Also like how they never try to make the clothes all 'futuristic'. Nothing ages something more.) Also, it was scary. Like - I'm NOT letting the children watch it (at least not the 6 y.o.), because then bedtime will be three hours long. Great cabin fever, great concept of alien entity learning by observing, and lovely ending - removing the Companion shows just how much he needs her. But...
- Like FOOTR, it struck me that the neat parts of the concept of this probably overshadowed the problems when they were filming. I remember watching the TW Confidential that week, and everyone talking about how they'd created this carnival and how brilliant it was. But although it looked great, the story really didn't work very well. Similiarily here - the copying, and then speaking-at-the-same-time, was beautifully executed. But I actually found myself getting bored with all the talking. For the first time ever, I think a DW episode would have benefitted from being *shorter*.
- Finally, it suffered from the one thing that I can't really forgive (and it doesn't really reflect badly on the episode to be honest - it's more about what I want from my show). When I saw it was a RTD episode, I got ready to suspend disbelief and throw logic out of the window for the sake of 'These things happen when
There was also the fact that the Doctor kept *saying* how clever he was, yet never really *showed* it, except talking more than anyone else. It was perfectly obvious that the alien was copying to learn, and would soon be able to get ahead. Why oh why did no one think to get out a pen and paper? (Ianto would have. I miss him A LOT!) And there was never a 'I'm the Doctor and I am AWESOME/scary' moment, like in VoTD - or 'Forest of the Dead'. It was late, by the time we watched it, and I wanted some Timelord awesomeness, which I didn't get. I didn't mind the crowd turning on him (I thought that good), but they just turned because he was a bit obstinate and stuff, not because he was *brilliant*. *thinks* AYNOHYEB was far, far better!
But that's just my impression. Am disabling comments because I *really* don't have time to discuss it. (Which is sad. Will look around for more positive reviews to rec!)