this week's Five Things About Doctor Who
Except it's really six. Again.
Also I wish it on record that "Martha = awesome" is now, along with "David Tennant = hot," retired as a thing to include in the Five Things on the grounds that it is true basically all the time. (I need a Martha icon!)
1. This one was very plot-driven for the most part. Which is nice once in a while. It came off as sort of a cross between submarine movie, zombie movie, and environmental parable, in the sense of "if you don't take proper regard for natural phenomenon they will turn people into zombies with bright glowing eyes who will KILL YOU."
2. I liked the dynamic between Martha and Riley, especially in their scenes in the escape pod. Of course Riley found someone he can believe in, because -- well, see the point about about Martha being awesome. Also, her phonecall to her mother in the escape pod was fairly upsetting (in the way it was supposed to be, I mean) and also, ow, triggery. Failures to connect with parents = all too familiar. Well, not the wiretapping by Sinister Forces part, obviously. You know what I mean.
2a. Also liked Martha casually asking Riley if he had a boyfriend when inquiring about his family.
3. The Doctor's behavior when he was infected was really unsettling (again in the intended way) -- especially when he said he was scared. Meep, and also wibble. Also interesting was what he said about humans when he made it back onto the ship -- we'd heard Korwin tell the captain that what had happened was her fault, but hearing something similar from the Doctor was more disturbingly ambiguous since he's not human, so was that the voice of the living sun thing we were hearing, or are there some other issues going on?
3a. Also interesting is that next week he's going to become a human, so maybe there is something afoot.
3b. I noticed too that he started explaining Time Lord regeneration to Martha when he thought he was dying.
4. I was a little disappointed that the captain of the ship got killed, even if she sacrificed herself. I sort of liked her. It did make me a bit qualmish that the women in the crew mostly got killed first, though, while the men got zombified.
5. Loved the Doctor going out to save Martha -- and even more when she told him to believe in her. The Doctor's reaction at the end was also interesting and, apparently, pretty characteristic (man, there was a lot of not-quite-connecting with people close to you in this ep, wasn't there? Throughout the season, really, but it was pretty much everywhere here -- I guess you could even see the crew's not really looking at what was going on with the sun as Symbolic in that regard...)
6. This episode's use of real time made it really evident just how many commercials the Sci-Fi Channel airs during episodes. I ran upstairs during a commercial break at one point and noticed that, while there were about 15 minutes left on the episode's clock, it was only 7:20.
Also I wish it on record that "Martha = awesome" is now, along with "David Tennant = hot," retired as a thing to include in the Five Things on the grounds that it is true basically all the time. (I need a Martha icon!)
1. This one was very plot-driven for the most part. Which is nice once in a while. It came off as sort of a cross between submarine movie, zombie movie, and environmental parable, in the sense of "if you don't take proper regard for natural phenomenon they will turn people into zombies with bright glowing eyes who will KILL YOU."
2. I liked the dynamic between Martha and Riley, especially in their scenes in the escape pod. Of course Riley found someone he can believe in, because -- well, see the point about about Martha being awesome. Also, her phonecall to her mother in the escape pod was fairly upsetting (in the way it was supposed to be, I mean) and also, ow, triggery. Failures to connect with parents = all too familiar. Well, not the wiretapping by Sinister Forces part, obviously. You know what I mean.
2a. Also liked Martha casually asking Riley if he had a boyfriend when inquiring about his family.
3. The Doctor's behavior when he was infected was really unsettling (again in the intended way) -- especially when he said he was scared. Meep, and also wibble. Also interesting was what he said about humans when he made it back onto the ship -- we'd heard Korwin tell the captain that what had happened was her fault, but hearing something similar from the Doctor was more disturbingly ambiguous since he's not human, so was that the voice of the living sun thing we were hearing, or are there some other issues going on?
3a. Also interesting is that next week he's going to become a human, so maybe there is something afoot.
3b. I noticed too that he started explaining Time Lord regeneration to Martha when he thought he was dying.
4. I was a little disappointed that the captain of the ship got killed, even if she sacrificed herself. I sort of liked her. It did make me a bit qualmish that the women in the crew mostly got killed first, though, while the men got zombified.
5. Loved the Doctor going out to save Martha -- and even more when she told him to believe in her. The Doctor's reaction at the end was also interesting and, apparently, pretty characteristic (man, there was a lot of not-quite-connecting with people close to you in this ep, wasn't there? Throughout the season, really, but it was pretty much everywhere here -- I guess you could even see the crew's not really looking at what was going on with the sun as Symbolic in that regard...)
6. This episode's use of real time made it really evident just how many commercials the Sci-Fi Channel airs during episodes. I ran upstairs during a commercial break at one point and noticed that, while there were about 15 minutes left on the episode's clock, it was only 7:20.