Doctor Who: Um...
I sometimes get slightly grumpy when I see posts bemoaning Doctor Who, because they occasionally seem to be complaining that DW isn't the brilliantly-scripted work of transgressive cutting-edge science fiction that it could be if the BBC wasn't pandering to the smelly masses. It's prime time entertainment with a mandate of being kiddy-accessible, so it's never going to be that. But even with those constraints, DW can and has been very good, as seen in 'Dalek', 'Human Nature', 'Blink' or even last year's 'Flatline', so it's a bit disappointing when we get something like 'The Magician's Apprentice' (which, thanks to being on holiday, we've only just seen.)
If anyone asks what 'fanwank' means, I'll point to the scene with the Sisterhood of Karn. The SoK featured heavily in the Tom Baker era homage to Hammer Horror movies, The Brain of Morbius, and were reintroduced in the mini-episode 'The Night of the Doctor'. There, they served a plot purpose - it was consistent with their first appearance that they had the power to influence a Time Lord's regeneration. But here, they had no plot function. It really did seem to be a continuity reference made for its own sake.
The whole scene with the Doctor-as-rock-star again just felt as if it was there because it looked cool rather than making any sense or particularly being relevant to his character. For an episode that felt as if it was glossing over a lot of plot, it was frustrating to have what seemed to be large chunks of padding.
Julian Bleach was, as ever, good as Davros, and the scenes where Davros put his past confrontations with the Doctor to him was an example of a good use of continuity reference. I just hope whatever story emerges about young Davros is worth it, considering as even what little we saw rendered definitely non-canonical Big Finish's I, Davros series of four audio dramas that chronicled Davros' life from childhood through to events just prior to Genesis of the Daleks.
Finally: you can get away with seemingly killing a companion only for it to turn out that they aren't dead after all - once. This is how many times since 'Bad Wolf' that we've seen this?
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/40603.html, where there are
comments.
If anyone asks what 'fanwank' means, I'll point to the scene with the Sisterhood of Karn. The SoK featured heavily in the Tom Baker era homage to Hammer Horror movies, The Brain of Morbius, and were reintroduced in the mini-episode 'The Night of the Doctor'. There, they served a plot purpose - it was consistent with their first appearance that they had the power to influence a Time Lord's regeneration. But here, they had no plot function. It really did seem to be a continuity reference made for its own sake.
The whole scene with the Doctor-as-rock-star again just felt as if it was there because it looked cool rather than making any sense or particularly being relevant to his character. For an episode that felt as if it was glossing over a lot of plot, it was frustrating to have what seemed to be large chunks of padding.
Julian Bleach was, as ever, good as Davros, and the scenes where Davros put his past confrontations with the Doctor to him was an example of a good use of continuity reference. I just hope whatever story emerges about young Davros is worth it, considering as even what little we saw rendered definitely non-canonical Big Finish's I, Davros series of four audio dramas that chronicled Davros' life from childhood through to events just prior to Genesis of the Daleks.
Finally: you can get away with seemingly killing a companion only for it to turn out that they aren't dead after all - once. This is how many times since 'Bad Wolf' that we've seen this?
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/40603.html, where there are
comments.