*Dusts off journal*
It's been an odd few weeks with Doctor Who, and as it nears the end of its second run you do have to wonder at what direction it was aiming for in the first place. Then again, Voyager suffered from the same problems, and that series had more episodes in a season to get a good story arc going. And had the two-parter down pat.
There's a definate tendancy for any story to drag it's heels in the middle (the FMA manga is suffering from this at the moment) or, with tv shows constrained to three-quarters of an hour, get 45 minute syndrome, where they realise that they've paced it wrong and have to resolve the whole thing in 10 minutes. Star Trek is riddled with it. Doctor Who isn't any different, although you got to admit it tries its best to at least keep the pace in check.
The Cybermen two-parter was, for all intents and purposes, a rip-roaring ride by the seat of your pants, with a second part beginning comparable with the start of The Doctor Dances. The climax at the end of part two was worthy behind-the-sofa material (which means a lot now that I actually have a sofa I can hide behind) - the Cybermen can give as good as the Daleks in the fear factor stakes.
Then we have The Idiot's Lantern. I really liked it, an all consuming television is pretty scary (I bet quite a few kids stopped sitting close to the screen afterwards) and faceless people have always freaked me out. It had great pacing at the end, with the Doctor climbing up the transmitter whilst being electrocuted several times (deja vu for those who've seen the last part of Logopolis) - I loved that bit, 'bout time the Doc got knocked about a bit.
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. I absolutely loved TIP - I was actually hiding behind my hands for a fair bit of it, esecially the "I'm behind you Toby" part. I got so engrossed in it that when I looked the clock I kept wondering "when does it end?" such was the episode's momentum. Then we got the The Stan Pit, and the biggest bloody anti-climax of the decade. When they looked down the pit at the end of TIP I was expecting Satan reaching up with fire and brimstone flying out at them. What did I get? A bloody bottomless pit. Come on you guys, you can do way better than that. The writer, as brilliant as he was, missed out on a golden opportunity to turn everyone's fears on them (I bet the Doc's got a few horror stories he doesn't want to remember anytime soon). Or their guilt. I watched a Xena episode the other day dealing with Xena's guilt over letting Callisto die. Wonderfully done, epecially getting Callisto to face what she had done at the end. It would have been great (and potentially distressing) to see the Doctor being confronted with his friends and fanily who had been killed during the Time War (or one of his dead companions). And it could potentially still happen in the two-part finale (oh pretty please!). But seeing the fully cgi Satan at the end more than made up for it, as well as explaining the reason for the anticlimax - I bet I can guess where the budget went!
Love and Monsters seems to be competing with the Voyager season 2 episode Threshold for the title of "Stinker" (they have in common the fact that the excecutive producer wrote the story). I love the premise of both, but they suffer from sloppy writing in places. L&M had wonderful bits, but there were others where I was mentally screaming (for the love of all that is good, how the hell did this get past quality control!?). Please, fanfic writers use betas, so should script writers.
Fear Her, I personally loved it, it wasn't stellar, but with the finale starting the week after it wasn't expected to be. The concept of a child capturing children (and everything else) in drawings is chilling, even more so for those who are avid artists. It brought back memories of Simon's World of Magical Chalk Drawings, particularly with the scribble monster (I'll admit it took me a moment to realise what it was). And some unwanted memories of a show called Round The Twist, where a scarecrow started moving position while a girl wasn't looking before it attacked her. Scared the shit outta me that did, and it made Fear Her all the more scary. The comedy was just wonderful, such as the Doctor's somewhat childlike behaviour at the start (from going on about edible ball bearings to the "it's tickles" comment) to showing signs of Ecclestone's Doctor (the finger on lips part being very reminisant of "go to your room" - to be fair I would have done something similar, I'm always getting people talking over me). I must commend the writer for the Tardis' entrance this episode - having it just appear gets a little dull after a while. So when it appeared between two containers, I had a feeling something was up. Turns out even a Timelord has trouble parking. But it did feel rather rushed at the end. Oh well.
Now for the finale - may it hurry up and get to Saturday already before my imagination gets anymore out of control. Who needs a sugar rush when you've got this?
There's a definate tendancy for any story to drag it's heels in the middle (the FMA manga is suffering from this at the moment) or, with tv shows constrained to three-quarters of an hour, get 45 minute syndrome, where they realise that they've paced it wrong and have to resolve the whole thing in 10 minutes. Star Trek is riddled with it. Doctor Who isn't any different, although you got to admit it tries its best to at least keep the pace in check.
The Cybermen two-parter was, for all intents and purposes, a rip-roaring ride by the seat of your pants, with a second part beginning comparable with the start of The Doctor Dances. The climax at the end of part two was worthy behind-the-sofa material (which means a lot now that I actually have a sofa I can hide behind) - the Cybermen can give as good as the Daleks in the fear factor stakes.
Then we have The Idiot's Lantern. I really liked it, an all consuming television is pretty scary (I bet quite a few kids stopped sitting close to the screen afterwards) and faceless people have always freaked me out. It had great pacing at the end, with the Doctor climbing up the transmitter whilst being electrocuted several times (deja vu for those who've seen the last part of Logopolis) - I loved that bit, 'bout time the Doc got knocked about a bit.
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. I absolutely loved TIP - I was actually hiding behind my hands for a fair bit of it, esecially the "I'm behind you Toby" part. I got so engrossed in it that when I looked the clock I kept wondering "when does it end?" such was the episode's momentum. Then we got the The Stan Pit, and the biggest bloody anti-climax of the decade. When they looked down the pit at the end of TIP I was expecting Satan reaching up with fire and brimstone flying out at them. What did I get? A bloody bottomless pit. Come on you guys, you can do way better than that. The writer, as brilliant as he was, missed out on a golden opportunity to turn everyone's fears on them (I bet the Doc's got a few horror stories he doesn't want to remember anytime soon). Or their guilt. I watched a Xena episode the other day dealing with Xena's guilt over letting Callisto die. Wonderfully done, epecially getting Callisto to face what she had done at the end. It would have been great (and potentially distressing) to see the Doctor being confronted with his friends and fanily who had been killed during the Time War (or one of his dead companions). And it could potentially still happen in the two-part finale (oh pretty please!). But seeing the fully cgi Satan at the end more than made up for it, as well as explaining the reason for the anticlimax - I bet I can guess where the budget went!
Love and Monsters seems to be competing with the Voyager season 2 episode Threshold for the title of "Stinker" (they have in common the fact that the excecutive producer wrote the story). I love the premise of both, but they suffer from sloppy writing in places. L&M had wonderful bits, but there were others where I was mentally screaming (for the love of all that is good, how the hell did this get past quality control!?). Please, fanfic writers use betas, so should script writers.
Fear Her, I personally loved it, it wasn't stellar, but with the finale starting the week after it wasn't expected to be. The concept of a child capturing children (and everything else) in drawings is chilling, even more so for those who are avid artists. It brought back memories of Simon's World of Magical Chalk Drawings, particularly with the scribble monster (I'll admit it took me a moment to realise what it was). And some unwanted memories of a show called Round The Twist, where a scarecrow started moving position while a girl wasn't looking before it attacked her. Scared the shit outta me that did, and it made Fear Her all the more scary. The comedy was just wonderful, such as the Doctor's somewhat childlike behaviour at the start (from going on about edible ball bearings to the "it's tickles" comment) to showing signs of Ecclestone's Doctor (the finger on lips part being very reminisant of "go to your room" - to be fair I would have done something similar, I'm always getting people talking over me). I must commend the writer for the Tardis' entrance this episode - having it just appear gets a little dull after a while. So when it appeared between two containers, I had a feeling something was up. Turns out even a Timelord has trouble parking. But it did feel rather rushed at the end. Oh well.
Now for the finale - may it hurry up and get to Saturday already before my imagination gets anymore out of control. Who needs a sugar rush when you've got this?