Reactions: The Satan Pit
PART DEUX - in which things spoilery through official news about Series 4 are discussed.
Pictures. obsessive_caps. You know you want to!
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A neat dodge here for the type of bullets without having to pull Skience! out of thin air. And it's a closeup of Mr. Jefferson. Go Mr. J!
What would the rest of the bolts in this gun have previously been used for?
She's really relishing this opportunity to yell at him here. Anyone placing bets as to the squelched language? I'd say 'bastard,' but if that were all, couldn't they have just aired it? Are we talking more like 'Stupid dumbarse m******f*****!'?
*Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Yeurch, kissing Jackie. Never mind that thought.*
I'm guessing this was the pit the trussed-up Beast was originally shoved down or something?
I love how Ida would rather take the Doctor's recommendation than Zack's. I can't say it's because she trusts him more, but I guess maybe because he's a fellow scientist with obviously greater experience?
I've contemplated whether Matt Jones was playing with the TV movie's statement that the Doctor is half-human with the entire series of exchanges throughout the two-parter about humanity. I mean, the Doctor obviously doesn't completely include himself in it, but he does go on about human impulses for quite a bit and certainly describes himself as having them (and implying he's had them previously).
I don't know that his decision not to go down is so much a sign of him getting old as it is him listening to the kind of sense his younger (older) selves might've had.
And if he'd killed Toby right here, what then? Who would the Beast have tried to take over next? Or was the connection to Toby unique? I mean, if it could just flit from person to person in order to make sure none of them trusted the other for squat, why not do so?
Captain Rose, stepping up to the plate. Although, like I said, might they have been better off if her protective instincts hadn't kicked in?
Zack manages to keep his sh*t together rather admirably throughout this entire crisis.
I'm sure the Doctor finds your squint terribly menacing.
The Doctor calls b***s***t.
Boogety boogety boogety. I think as long as he believes he has a firm grasp on what the Beast is (i.e. random megalomaniacal asshat), he's golden.
That whole routine about 'before time'... it could mean anything, really. The Beast could just be referring to The Dark Times, which seems to be considered by its other denizens to be 'before this Universe was created' (e.g., the Carrionites) - and the Beast does refer to the Disciples of the Light. Especially given that we then see the creature called Abbadon in Torchwood, this Beast could hardly be considered to be singular. I wonder if they're somewhat akin to The Horrors in Earthdawn/Shadowrun.
Forgiven him for what? Having an affair or several affairs? Talking their kid into joining the military and the kid being subsequently killed? Him being away and not being able to return when she fell ill? (I assume his wife is deceased given the consistent use of past tense.)
It doesn't seem like, for all the trappings, that humanity's changed that radically. Abuse of all kinds is probably still depressingly common.
Are we talking like Atonement-level here, or what?
Is that something Toby's lied about? Why should him being a virgin matter?
With the exception of the very last bit, all of this seems like information that could potentially have been found out through the occupation of Toby and the Ood's minds. I mean, the people here don't even think of the Ood as alive. I'm sure they'd probably talk about anything in front of them. And Rose being very far from home? Easily picked up over monitors.
I think it's probably the prediction that irritates the Doctor the most, and prods him into thinking the Beast is definitely full of it - that's such a classic overreach. Why is it all of a sudden able to predict the future?
Perhaps it's not a prediction, and the Beast is taking another stab at unnerving the Doctor by bringing up something he's already been worried about - sensing on the horizon, somewhere in the back of his mind.
And now, the freakout.
The Doctor makes a series of excellent (if slightly rah-rah) points about YAY! HUMANITY!... in a not-particularly-cap-friendly manner. The perfect contrast to next season's knockoff 42, where he's so angry at humanity (although I suppose it could be argued that he's expressing the sun's sentiments)
Unless the gravity on this planet is crushing (and I certainly didn't see any exoskeletal structure in those spacesuits), there is no way the cable would have fallen that fast. Not that I have sufficient math-fu to calculate the terminal velocity of 10 miles of cable of an unknown weight not falling as a single mass, but still. 10 miles? In like 20 seconds? Nuh-uh.
I like to think that the Doctor is just this minute calculating how long that thing's going to take to arrive.
Captain Rose to the rescue!
Rose would alley-oop down that shaft tied to the end of a string if she thought it would serve a purpose.
What I am willing to handwave is the tiny amount we see on the capsule when it lands - it's plausible that other pieces snapped off and got caught in the rigging in the hole on the way down. Besides, if they had had all 10 miles of cable, how long would that have taken them to wind up?
She is totally channeling the Doctor here; the question is whether she's actually absorbed his mannerisms, or is just mimicking what she's seen him use as effective motivation on other occasions.
If this were just a chasm with no big ugly monster at the bottom, he'd have been off that lip like a rocket. *WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!*
*Well, that wasn't very exciting.*
I'm sure there's many a time the Doctor has quite thoroughly enjoyed this view (*Oh, no, Rose, after you. Ladies first!*). Toby clearly does not know a fine bum, even when it's staring him right in the face.
:(
Rose, popping up like a little meerkat. And savin' her and Danny's bacon.
I have to wonder how this entire incident will have been perceived on the Ood's home planet, if that story takes place after this. The Doctor may have failed to save these Ood, but he's not the one who endangered them in the first place.
I certainly hope that the Doctor's not randomly mentioning worlds humanity hasn't encountered yet. If it's broadcast, it's probably being recorded for the Archive.
'I could survive thirty feet.' Thirty feet, yes. A hundred feet, no. Especially not off a radio transmitter.
He's certainly faced the prospect of dying alone recently enough to completely understand what Ida's feeling.
Somehow I think when he was having the conversation with himself/Ida about rules, he wasn't just thinking about the Beast. He was thinking about Rose too.
If Rose had been able to get through sooner, do you think he'd actually have said? I've always felt part of the reason he didn't tell Ida to tell Rose he loved her is because he wanted it to be from his lips to her ears.
And if he had said, do you think Ida would've actually told her?
Rose doesn't have a TARDIS to ride to the rescue this time. But she's still not ditching him, even if it costs her her own life.
And what would the Doctor have done if she'd successfully fought to stay behind and he picked up Ida, only to find out he'd left both the Ood and her? Do you think he'd have been able to time the TARDIS closely enough to come back and get her? I mean, I assume he didn't think so or he could've pulled off the rescue and then gone back to get the Ood. Unless we're now meant to take that whole 'we're part of events' hooey from TGitF with any seriousness.
Or if he could've gone back to get the Ood, maybe that'll be a source of problems next time around.
Okay, Rose is not big, but Zack is pretty impressive here. That's not even a fireman's carry.
Just admiring some more pretty, unconscious Doctor. If he ever has slept in Rose's presence, she probably made herself stay up just to stare at him.
The cut lines about the interior of the planet having its own weather system might also have served to provide an immediate (if not complete) explanation for why he's able to breathe down here.
On a technical note, I found it interesting that RTD stated on the commentary how much he hates shooting day for night, yet going by the light levels in the cave in the Confidential, the Mill probably could have quite effectively nighted up the exterior shots if necessary.
He hit that cavern floor going how fast, exactly? That would've had to been one hell of an air cushion - or else he really didn't fall all that far and Ida could've just jumped down after him.
These can't have been the only seats aboard the rocket, this doesn't account for even just the people we've seen. Were they worried about her flipping out and damaging some other part of the ship if they left her where they couldn't keep an eye on her?
Rose is not happy. Don't take it personally though, boys, she hates it just as much when the Doctor pulls this crap on her.
For the sake of his own sanity he's choosing to assume at this point that Rose is aboard that rocket. If he didn't think she were... man.
Of course, this also lends itself to the question of what type and depth of mental link the Doctor and Rose had at this point. Did he literally know she was aboard the rocket? Did he actually know that she knows he loves her?
They'd better be glad this is Rose and not Leela. Leela would've wasted someone's ass. Of course, she'd also have probably killed Toby herself earlier on, so I guess that's not really a fair comparison.
I don't think Rose right now is caring about what the Doctor would have wanted. She knows Zack's right, but still...
EEE! Ooga booga! It's chibi!Beast. (Yes, you're welcome to take that as a request, jesidres)
Very Raiders of the Lost Ark. In space. Yes, I know the obvious Who pun. No, I'm not going to make it.
He's encountered some pretty big monsters in his day, but save maybe that Great Vampire from State of Decay, nothing both humanoid and of this scale.
Freaky thought: do you think the chains holding the Beast and the chains he wrapped Father of Mine up in were made the same way? Is this where he got that idea?
I love watching him work through this. The only thing that annoys me is are the reverse shots... DT is a very lovely man, but his face isn't that symmetrical.
And her thoughts are all for him.
Note that he doesn't consider his own death a sacrifice - I guess because it's a choice he's making for himself, versus him choosing to (potentially) cause the destruction of the rocket without the knowledge or consent of any of its current inhabitants.
*Laugh it up, fuzzball*
Yes, Rose, that was too easy. I'm sure she's been in enough similar situations to know that mere incompetence or arrogance isn't behind the escape this time.
Do you think she suspects at this point that maybe Jefferson had a point after all?
She's his star to fly by.
It's like watching the MGM-TV kitten roar. Hee!
Does Rose now think he's alive down there?
Yes or no, there are more pressing matters at hand.
And now maybe Zack understands why everyone else was flipping out earlier.
But if she's seen it before, that means it's old hat to Rose. She is unimpressed.
Not counting the Daleks when she was Bad Wolf, is this the first time Rose has killed anyone? I do believe the answer is yes.
Is it inappropriate of me to say this reminds me of something being flushed down a drain?
A boy and his timeship. Ain't love grand?
I think only at this moment is she certain he's gone, because she's ready to be taken at this point, to join him on the other side, wherever or whatever that may be.
Zack's not certain if they're going mad, methinks.
To borrow a phrase from rosa_acicularis, this is Rose's dawning awareness of bright things to come.
This is the part where I wonder what would've happened if they'd said 'no' when he asked if they had a Rose Tyler on board. Was it a rhetorical question? Could he or the TARDIS sense her? Or would he maybe have taken Ida with him as his companion if Rose had been lost here?
Out-of-focus Rose squee!
The second piece of good news they've heard all day...
I would love to see this crew again in Series 4. I'd be particularly interested how they'd react to the news that he's lost Rose.
Not exactly a The Doctor Dances moment.
But given the myriad of alternative worse outcomes, this merits a smile.
She won't believe it's actually him until she sees him with her own eyes.
Rose Tyler: The Oncoming Glomp.
This even beats watching her get knighted.
Make sure to get a running start - that's a tall tree to climb!
He will undoubtedly investigate later where Rose got the knickers to match her jumper and jacket.
I shall let the squee speak for itself.
They may not be peers, but they do go toe-to-toe.
He wants to believe it lied, and that's good enough for her. At least for now.
It's too bad they couldn't all go have a beer together or something. But maybe having heard Torchwood Archive earlier on was enough to set off bells already.
*Why yes, we are made of 31 flavors of awesome. Why do you ask?*
Zack's always shown a certain level of consideration towards the Ood, even back at the start of this mess. If he's using this disaster as an opportunity to try to advance the cause of their freedom, or at least their personhood, good for him.
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In case you hadn't gotten this idea drummed into you enough by now, I'm really hoping Planet of the Ood is going to bring back at least some of this crew. Fingers crossed!