DW: The Arc of Infinity
I watched The Arc of Infinity tonight, and it was cracking,
Right, so given that I have no mental chronology of DW, I think I was completely within my rights to think that the bad guy was either the Master or Rassilon. It would have been weird to be the latter, of course, given The Five Doctors, and I thought that this took place before that (as the President's name seemed familiar, and the Castellan was alive), but it would have been weird to have been the Master, unless something very strange happened to him! Vaguely relieved it turned out to be bad guy #25 (who is probably a regular villain or major mythological figure, I expect...).
I'd never seen Nyssa before but I really liked her, she seemed smart and capable and I loved her look at the Doctor after he sent her to the TARDIS like she was a small child. She wasn't impressed with that!
I was a bit confused by the Council's behaviour, which was logical in and of itself but was, as Nyssa pointed out, absolutely stupid. If the Council members were the only ones who could have set this motion, then logically one of them was manipulating events from behind the scenes - so why did no one listen? For that matter, why did, um, thingie (I forget his name) bother to frame the President? Only the President has access to the matrix, but evidently that wasn't the case because a bunch of people accessed it, with and without his permission. So framing him seems needlessly complex and risky.
That said, I loved seeing the Castellan again, especially as he reminded me of a bunch of bureaucrats I've worked with in the past! Is he always so anal and blinkered or is just because of the Doctor? - and why does he not listen to the Doctor at all? I'm guessing the Doctor's relatively senior in Gallifreyian society, as there seem to be plenty of other Time Lords that don't have a TARDIS, travel in time or do any of the stuff that he does. Instead we see Time Lord guards, Time Lord computer technicians... I bet you there are Time Lord typists and Time Lord office cleaners keeping that Time Lord palace working behind the scenes. Which makes the Doctor some sort of Lord Eccentric, wearing a vegetable and wandering off to collect stray pets. Perhaps he should have stuck to corgis?
Also, I got totally confused what those two backpackers were doing in Amsterdam, and ended up convinced of their Big Gay Love (especially when they decided to bed down in the crypt for the night - didn't they have a hostel booked???). Was slightly concerned as to WTH was going on until Tegan appeared, and then - aaaaah, it all made sense! Loved the receiptionist in the hostel, both for her complete lack of Dutch accent *snerk* but also for her willingness to hand over sensitive information about other travellers to random people wandering in off the street. What would have happened if she hadn't told the backpacker his friend's phone message, or given the Doctor the letter?
I forget what the Arc of Infinity actually was, something to do with antimatter evidently, which is apparently manifesting as green slime. Green slimy Peter Davison FTW! I loved that the ending was basically them chasing a melting green Doctor doppelganger across Amsterdam. I kinda felt sorry for Omega by the end.
So, that was pretty cool. Also loved seeing the Doctor traipsing through Amsterdam. Did they really shoot there or just find the nerarest likely British city and fit it up? I wish the new Doctor would go to some other places other than England. That would be fun, if maybe prohibitively expensive. *sigh*
Um, yeah. That was good. :)
Right, so given that I have no mental chronology of DW, I think I was completely within my rights to think that the bad guy was either the Master or Rassilon. It would have been weird to be the latter, of course, given The Five Doctors, and I thought that this took place before that (as the President's name seemed familiar, and the Castellan was alive), but it would have been weird to have been the Master, unless something very strange happened to him! Vaguely relieved it turned out to be bad guy #25 (who is probably a regular villain or major mythological figure, I expect...).
I'd never seen Nyssa before but I really liked her, she seemed smart and capable and I loved her look at the Doctor after he sent her to the TARDIS like she was a small child. She wasn't impressed with that!
I was a bit confused by the Council's behaviour, which was logical in and of itself but was, as Nyssa pointed out, absolutely stupid. If the Council members were the only ones who could have set this motion, then logically one of them was manipulating events from behind the scenes - so why did no one listen? For that matter, why did, um, thingie (I forget his name) bother to frame the President? Only the President has access to the matrix, but evidently that wasn't the case because a bunch of people accessed it, with and without his permission. So framing him seems needlessly complex and risky.
That said, I loved seeing the Castellan again, especially as he reminded me of a bunch of bureaucrats I've worked with in the past! Is he always so anal and blinkered or is just because of the Doctor? - and why does he not listen to the Doctor at all? I'm guessing the Doctor's relatively senior in Gallifreyian society, as there seem to be plenty of other Time Lords that don't have a TARDIS, travel in time or do any of the stuff that he does. Instead we see Time Lord guards, Time Lord computer technicians... I bet you there are Time Lord typists and Time Lord office cleaners keeping that Time Lord palace working behind the scenes. Which makes the Doctor some sort of Lord Eccentric, wearing a vegetable and wandering off to collect stray pets. Perhaps he should have stuck to corgis?
Also, I got totally confused what those two backpackers were doing in Amsterdam, and ended up convinced of their Big Gay Love (especially when they decided to bed down in the crypt for the night - didn't they have a hostel booked???). Was slightly concerned as to WTH was going on until Tegan appeared, and then - aaaaah, it all made sense! Loved the receiptionist in the hostel, both for her complete lack of Dutch accent *snerk* but also for her willingness to hand over sensitive information about other travellers to random people wandering in off the street. What would have happened if she hadn't told the backpacker his friend's phone message, or given the Doctor the letter?
I forget what the Arc of Infinity actually was, something to do with antimatter evidently, which is apparently manifesting as green slime. Green slimy Peter Davison FTW! I loved that the ending was basically them chasing a melting green Doctor doppelganger across Amsterdam. I kinda felt sorry for Omega by the end.
So, that was pretty cool. Also loved seeing the Doctor traipsing through Amsterdam. Did they really shoot there or just find the nerarest likely British city and fit it up? I wish the new Doctor would go to some other places other than England. That would be fun, if maybe prohibitively expensive. *sigh*
Um, yeah. That was good. :)