Classic!Who s8-The Mind of Evil
Hello! It's me! And well, this is not an update. But this was long overdue, so it's still good?
So. Mind of Evil, and I shall try and remember things to say even though I actually finished watching over three weeks ago, whoa. Livetweeting helps ;)
The plot first: pretty interesting, I like the way the two separate plotlines connected, UNIT handling the peace conference and the missiles while the Doctor is at the prison with the alien mind parasite in the evil machine-and joining the two, the Masterʼs evil plan of doom. =D The Doctorʼs outrage at the Keller machine that was to drain human beings of the evil in them, and the experiments on prisoners, was pretty nice-loved his fire! And the result was Barnham, who was a bit heart-breaking in his utterly innocent naivety and vulnerability. I love the way Jo took to taking care of him, being so sweet and protective. His being able to work as a shield against the mind parasite, once the latter had decided that obeying to the Master was not cool and going on its own rampage was much better, was a great twist as well. And then he died at the end and Joʼs face was heart-breaking :( The poor thing.
Character stuff was all the great stuff. Iʼll start with UNIT, which were really fun. The Brig had a really nasty temper for a good part of the episode, it was pretty fun, except when he was being bitchy at Benton, who was really not to blame for being attacked and unable to resist stuff like the Keller machineʼs long-distance action. Poor Benton. But he made up for it by the end by trusting him with important things, so the Benton appreciation was nice. While Iʼm on the Brig, he also fell asleep at his desk at one point, and had a hilarious fake accent at another, during a mission. He made very good WTF faces, when the Doctor started talking Hokien and charming the hell out of the Chinese representative whoʼd just been incredibly unresponsive to the Brig, and later when Cosworth was unthinkingly kind of taking over mission planning, delivering all the ideas, and the Brig just stood by looking like “Excuse me, I wonʼt throw a fuss to make a point about being the boss, but really I am the boss and clearly you have forgotten that I am the boss. Decent planning though.”
There was also Yates who was quite funny and probably my favourite of the UNIT team as of yet. We shall not say crush but we might have thought it. Heʼs a lot of fun, and his trolling with the Doctor and being yelled at by the Brig for his Cheshire cat grin at times itʼs considered uncalled for was delightful. =D
Jo is a cutie, and had more room to do stuff and be interesting in this episode that was not her introduction; the introduction was good, but she grows and shows all the different sides of her personality, and so it always gets better. Her connection with the Doctor is already very nice, they make an epic team for action-y stuff such as escape plans, sheʼs also very brave and yet also concerned about safety and being WTF at his way of handling things sometimes, but still trusting him. She also acted really sweet and concerned at a time when the Doctor was sick, and cared for him, and it was quite adorable. Her caring side was also highlighted with Barnham, as I mentioned. Bless her, sheʼs just full of sweetness and good things. At some point the Doctor was telling her stories about his past adventures and I squeed a fair bit =)
Then there is the Master and eeeee. ♥ There is a lot to say about this. First about Delgado being so delightfully smooth, there was a scene with him changing back into his suit after being disguised or something, I donʼt remember exactly but just the way he arranged himself and got so tidy and neat… *flails* Well, I will try not to embarrass myself after a few lines already. Most of all and hotness taken aside, this episode featured a lot more Master + Doctor time and their actually working together! Actually a mix of the Master tormenting the Doctor and their working together, so what can a girl ask for, really? =) I love how it was the Master who made the Doctor undergo the Keller machineʼs actions, and yet he seemed to freak when the latter was unconscious and close to death, rushing up to him, restarting one of his hearts with a little slap (♥) and overall being remarkably touchy-feely. Then with the dark relief in his eyes when he awoke, and the tiniest tremor in his voice, plus the “welcome back”-but very soon afterwards he was back into harsh!mode, and, interesting, quite prone to losing his cool, which made him all the more delicious. After that, we got to see the Masterʼs greatest fear, which was the Doctor laughing his head off at him, and later at some point they were both suffering the after-effects of the machine, albeit on a very different scale (after all the Master didnʼt have a certain someone tying him to a chair to be subjected to the machine for a prolonged amount of time, ahem). This gave me feelings.
I mentioned the working together already; also very noteworthy was the look on the Doctorʼs face after that when the Master ordered him taken back to his cell. Like somehow, some part of him expected something else, even without truly believing it. Fastforward to the cell, and Jo and the Doctor delightfully trolled the Master together by playing checkers and ignoring him while he was trying to speak to the Doctor. The Master just sighed at that. Then proceeded to threaten Jo to get the Doctor to help out. That worked.
There was more plot in the middle, which was nice, and the last episode had the Doctor moping a lot about his worry regarding the Masterʼs plans. The Brigadier responded with “I'll leave the machine to you, and you can leave the Master to me,” which was lol-worthy of course, as good as the Brigadier is. There was a Doctor/Master phone call, which made me think about Simm vs. Tennant and smirk-this one was not quite so close to phone sex but it was still wonderful. :D The Doctor and the Masterʼs last face-off included the most hilarious moment about Bessie, see lower.
As a side note, the Doctorʼs fears involved a nice Inferno reference and some Daleks. Yay continuity!
Fun lines:
Yates [about Chin Lee]: "Mmm, pity. She's quite a dolly."
Brigadier [full bitch mode]: "You're too delicate for intelligence work, Benton. You'd better go and lie down."
Three: "I see you're in your usual sweet affable mood, Brigadier."
Brigadier [who totally is] [and shouty, too]: “When you've quite finished grinning like a Cheshire cat, Captain Yates!”
Three [later]: "Yes, it's going to be one of those days. Cheshire cat, Captain Yates, Cheshire cat."
Summers: "[The machine] has extracted all the negative impulses from his brain."
Jo: "So what does that make him now?"
Summers: "It depends how you look at --it. An idiot, or a saint."
Three [having lost at checkers]: "Yes, well, the trouble with this game is that it's too simple. In any case, I'm more used to playing three dimensional chess."
Three [having just been rescued]: "Thank you, Brigadier. But do you think that for once in your life you could manage to arrive before the nick of time?" "I'm glad to see you too, Doctor."
(This reminds of Ambassadors of Death and how the Brig should just let the Doctor get loose on his own since heʼs never happy anyway!)
Brigadier [leaving Benton in charge by the end of the ep]: "Oh, Benton?"
Benton: "Yes, sir?"
Brigadier: "Don't get any delusions of grandeur, will you?"
(Itʼs all in the smiles. Earlier bitchiness = forgiven.)
Master: Very strange form of transport, Doctor. I hope you're not going to try anything silly.
Three: No, of course not. No, it's just that Bessie had broken down.
Master: Bessie?
Three: You know, Bessie? [mimes steering]
Master: Oh, yes!
Three: "He's got his Tardis back. He's free to come and go where he pleases, while I'm stuck here on Earth. with you, Brigadier!"
(And with that final piece of pleasantness, the episode closes!)
This will be all. By the way, Iʼm sorry about the elusiveness, like pretty much always. Iʼve been working obsessively (in past-daily-maximum-is-now-daily-minimum mode, and thus making quite good progress, actually working so fast it almost scares me and makes me angst about quality, lol), and just finished reading Der Prozeß in German so yay progress! On top of that, I havenʼt been too bad at keeping up with everyone, and sometime soon I should have icons to show (First Doctor, a tiny post because some of those have been done ages ago and I need to just finish that batch already, it's been a ridiculously long time) and fic (Amelia entry for who-contest that has been hazily floating at the back of my brain for days, but motivation didn't want to come-Iʼve made myself set aside time to write every day this week, so things have eventually started getting done). Sooo yes. And now I shall crawl off to bed because itʼs already past my bedtime and Iʼve been waking around 6:30 to read or write a bit before I get online and check out stuff and work, so midnight is probably a bad idea. *waves* See you all! Take care!
So. Mind of Evil, and I shall try and remember things to say even though I actually finished watching over three weeks ago, whoa. Livetweeting helps ;)
The plot first: pretty interesting, I like the way the two separate plotlines connected, UNIT handling the peace conference and the missiles while the Doctor is at the prison with the alien mind parasite in the evil machine-and joining the two, the Masterʼs evil plan of doom. =D The Doctorʼs outrage at the Keller machine that was to drain human beings of the evil in them, and the experiments on prisoners, was pretty nice-loved his fire! And the result was Barnham, who was a bit heart-breaking in his utterly innocent naivety and vulnerability. I love the way Jo took to taking care of him, being so sweet and protective. His being able to work as a shield against the mind parasite, once the latter had decided that obeying to the Master was not cool and going on its own rampage was much better, was a great twist as well. And then he died at the end and Joʼs face was heart-breaking :( The poor thing.
Character stuff was all the great stuff. Iʼll start with UNIT, which were really fun. The Brig had a really nasty temper for a good part of the episode, it was pretty fun, except when he was being bitchy at Benton, who was really not to blame for being attacked and unable to resist stuff like the Keller machineʼs long-distance action. Poor Benton. But he made up for it by the end by trusting him with important things, so the Benton appreciation was nice. While Iʼm on the Brig, he also fell asleep at his desk at one point, and had a hilarious fake accent at another, during a mission. He made very good WTF faces, when the Doctor started talking Hokien and charming the hell out of the Chinese representative whoʼd just been incredibly unresponsive to the Brig, and later when Cosworth was unthinkingly kind of taking over mission planning, delivering all the ideas, and the Brig just stood by looking like “Excuse me, I wonʼt throw a fuss to make a point about being the boss, but really I am the boss and clearly you have forgotten that I am the boss. Decent planning though.”
There was also Yates who was quite funny and probably my favourite of the UNIT team as of yet. We shall not say crush but we might have thought it. Heʼs a lot of fun, and his trolling with the Doctor and being yelled at by the Brig for his Cheshire cat grin at times itʼs considered uncalled for was delightful. =D
Jo is a cutie, and had more room to do stuff and be interesting in this episode that was not her introduction; the introduction was good, but she grows and shows all the different sides of her personality, and so it always gets better. Her connection with the Doctor is already very nice, they make an epic team for action-y stuff such as escape plans, sheʼs also very brave and yet also concerned about safety and being WTF at his way of handling things sometimes, but still trusting him. She also acted really sweet and concerned at a time when the Doctor was sick, and cared for him, and it was quite adorable. Her caring side was also highlighted with Barnham, as I mentioned. Bless her, sheʼs just full of sweetness and good things. At some point the Doctor was telling her stories about his past adventures and I squeed a fair bit =)
Then there is the Master and eeeee. ♥ There is a lot to say about this. First about Delgado being so delightfully smooth, there was a scene with him changing back into his suit after being disguised or something, I donʼt remember exactly but just the way he arranged himself and got so tidy and neat… *flails* Well, I will try not to embarrass myself after a few lines already. Most of all and hotness taken aside, this episode featured a lot more Master + Doctor time and their actually working together! Actually a mix of the Master tormenting the Doctor and their working together, so what can a girl ask for, really? =) I love how it was the Master who made the Doctor undergo the Keller machineʼs actions, and yet he seemed to freak when the latter was unconscious and close to death, rushing up to him, restarting one of his hearts with a little slap (♥) and overall being remarkably touchy-feely. Then with the dark relief in his eyes when he awoke, and the tiniest tremor in his voice, plus the “welcome back”-but very soon afterwards he was back into harsh!mode, and, interesting, quite prone to losing his cool, which made him all the more delicious. After that, we got to see the Masterʼs greatest fear, which was the Doctor laughing his head off at him, and later at some point they were both suffering the after-effects of the machine, albeit on a very different scale (after all the Master didnʼt have a certain someone tying him to a chair to be subjected to the machine for a prolonged amount of time, ahem). This gave me feelings.
I mentioned the working together already; also very noteworthy was the look on the Doctorʼs face after that when the Master ordered him taken back to his cell. Like somehow, some part of him expected something else, even without truly believing it. Fastforward to the cell, and Jo and the Doctor delightfully trolled the Master together by playing checkers and ignoring him while he was trying to speak to the Doctor. The Master just sighed at that. Then proceeded to threaten Jo to get the Doctor to help out. That worked.
There was more plot in the middle, which was nice, and the last episode had the Doctor moping a lot about his worry regarding the Masterʼs plans. The Brigadier responded with “I'll leave the machine to you, and you can leave the Master to me,” which was lol-worthy of course, as good as the Brigadier is. There was a Doctor/Master phone call, which made me think about Simm vs. Tennant and smirk-this one was not quite so close to phone sex but it was still wonderful. :D The Doctor and the Masterʼs last face-off included the most hilarious moment about Bessie, see lower.
As a side note, the Doctorʼs fears involved a nice Inferno reference and some Daleks. Yay continuity!
Fun lines:
Yates [about Chin Lee]: "Mmm, pity. She's quite a dolly."
Brigadier [full bitch mode]: "You're too delicate for intelligence work, Benton. You'd better go and lie down."
Three: "I see you're in your usual sweet affable mood, Brigadier."
Brigadier [who totally is] [and shouty, too]: “When you've quite finished grinning like a Cheshire cat, Captain Yates!”
Three [later]: "Yes, it's going to be one of those days. Cheshire cat, Captain Yates, Cheshire cat."
Summers: "[The machine] has extracted all the negative impulses from his brain."
Jo: "So what does that make him now?"
Summers: "It depends how you look at --it. An idiot, or a saint."
Three [having lost at checkers]: "Yes, well, the trouble with this game is that it's too simple. In any case, I'm more used to playing three dimensional chess."
Three [having just been rescued]: "Thank you, Brigadier. But do you think that for once in your life you could manage to arrive before the nick of time?" "I'm glad to see you too, Doctor."
(This reminds of Ambassadors of Death and how the Brig should just let the Doctor get loose on his own since heʼs never happy anyway!)
Brigadier [leaving Benton in charge by the end of the ep]: "Oh, Benton?"
Benton: "Yes, sir?"
Brigadier: "Don't get any delusions of grandeur, will you?"
(Itʼs all in the smiles. Earlier bitchiness = forgiven.)
Master: Very strange form of transport, Doctor. I hope you're not going to try anything silly.
Three: No, of course not. No, it's just that Bessie had broken down.
Master: Bessie?
Three: You know, Bessie? [mimes steering]
Master: Oh, yes!
Three: "He's got his Tardis back. He's free to come and go where he pleases, while I'm stuck here on Earth. with you, Brigadier!"
(And with that final piece of pleasantness, the episode closes!)
This will be all. By the way, Iʼm sorry about the elusiveness, like pretty much always. Iʼve been working obsessively (in past-daily-maximum-is-now-daily-minimum mode, and thus making quite good progress, actually working so fast it almost scares me and makes me angst about quality, lol), and just finished reading Der Prozeß in German so yay progress! On top of that, I havenʼt been too bad at keeping up with everyone, and sometime soon I should have icons to show (First Doctor, a tiny post because some of those have been done ages ago and I need to just finish that batch already, it's been a ridiculously long time) and fic (Amelia entry for who-contest that has been hazily floating at the back of my brain for days, but motivation didn't want to come-Iʼve made myself set aside time to write every day this week, so things have eventually started getting done). Sooo yes. And now I shall crawl off to bed because itʼs already past my bedtime and Iʼve been waking around 6:30 to read or write a bit before I get online and check out stuff and work, so midnight is probably a bad idea. *waves* See you all! Take care!