mikailborg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mikailborg) wrote2007-08-18 07:50 pm
mikailborg) wrote2007-08-18 07:50 pm
Entry tags:
The Sound of the Universe
I have all of Doctor Who season 3 on my Mac. I have most of it on the DVR. So it was about time for me to get around to finishing season 2.
The last four episodes restored my interest in the Tenth Doctor, and I'm looking forward now to seeing "Runaway Bride". While I had nits to pick, these scripts really engaged me again, and I honestly think that this season's two-part finale is stronger than season 1's.
But I have to say that I'm pretty divided about episode ten. The episode was clearly about science-fiction fandom, and I understood all too clearly the points it was making from that angle. But the last bits with the guest lead and his grilfriend were wrong in so many ways... and I mean that seriously, not in that rueful fun manner.
This season has been full of fascinating medical information. In "New Earth", we established that IV fluids could be just as effective if applied to the skin by fire sprinklers. In "The Girl In the Fireplace" (an otherwise excellent episode) we learn that a human heart, once ripped from a body and deprived of a blood supply, still makes an excellent spare pump for spaceship fuels. In "The Idiot's Lantern", we discovered that humans do not require noses, mouths, or any air passages at all to breathe. But in "Love and Monsters", we're treated to the information that a human can think and speak while missing heart, lungs, spinal column, digestive apparatus, and indeed the back half of their brain. And that, in fact, this could be a fulfilling life!
Perhaps the title of this season could have been "Doctor WTF?"
And I really, really, really did not need the "love life" line. At least I got a laugh out of the female lead having been Moaning Myrtle.
After all that, though, I've enjoyed the majority of the season, and am slowly learning to just hand-wave such things away. Now for season 3.
The last four episodes restored my interest in the Tenth Doctor, and I'm looking forward now to seeing "Runaway Bride". While I had nits to pick, these scripts really engaged me again, and I honestly think that this season's two-part finale is stronger than season 1's.
But I have to say that I'm pretty divided about episode ten. The episode was clearly about science-fiction fandom, and I understood all too clearly the points it was making from that angle. But the last bits with the guest lead and his grilfriend were wrong in so many ways... and I mean that seriously, not in that rueful fun manner.
This season has been full of fascinating medical information. In "New Earth", we established that IV fluids could be just as effective if applied to the skin by fire sprinklers. In "The Girl In the Fireplace" (an otherwise excellent episode) we learn that a human heart, once ripped from a body and deprived of a blood supply, still makes an excellent spare pump for spaceship fuels. In "The Idiot's Lantern", we discovered that humans do not require noses, mouths, or any air passages at all to breathe. But in "Love and Monsters", we're treated to the information that a human can think and speak while missing heart, lungs, spinal column, digestive apparatus, and indeed the back half of their brain. And that, in fact, this could be a fulfilling life!
Perhaps the title of this season could have been "Doctor WTF?"
And I really, really, really did not need the "love life" line. At least I got a laugh out of the female lead having been Moaning Myrtle.
After all that, though, I've enjoyed the majority of the season, and am slowly learning to just hand-wave such things away. Now for season 3.
no subject
If that is your fear, fear no longer. In a SXF magazine article, Doctor Who Exec Producer, Russell T. Davies says:
"It does get very dark, series three, as it progresses, and I think there’s a little element of fun missing. I love those final three episodes, but part of me misses a great big Dalek/Cyberman war – the fun of it! I'm sure that fandom was luxuriating in that run of 'Human Nature', 'The Family of Blood', then 'Blink', which was very dark, and then the darkness of bringing back (***series three finale spoiler***). Fandom might think that's the way forward... but it's not. Next year we'll be pulling back from the darkness. Absolutely. The greatest mistake with TV drama is to presume that darkness=good. And if you're expecting Doctor Who to head further that way just because of the success of 'Human Nature' onwards, that's not going to happen. Sorry.... we're starting at Christmas, with a big, fun spectacular, and then the first few episodes next year are going back to the colour and liveliness of 'Smith and Jones' and 'The Shakespeare Code'. More fun! Those are my instincts."