Big Post of Who
Arc of Infinity
I'd been looking forward to watching this serial for a while, since it's the only time Five and Nyssa are together without Tegan, and thanks to Big Finish, the two of them alone are one of my favourite TARDIS teams. I was not disappointed, since I really enjoyed this serial - I watched it in two days. I didn’t know it was partially filmed in Amsterdam before watching it (but how could I not know now after the gratuitous 'look, we're on location, in AMSTERDAM!' chase scene). Also besides The Five Doctors (which I don't think counts because I was too busy squeeing at all the Doctors and companions), this was my first major exposure to Gallifrey and all is political machinations.
I can't help but wonder if RTD had been watching this serial before writing Journey's End. First of all, there's the whole two Fives (sort of) with the Brown Suited!Five (well, beige) and a Blue Suited!Omega!Five, which made me wonder if anything in the new series is original.
And then there's poor Nyssa. She one of the nicest people on a planet of pacifists where you can really think evil thoughts without being turned into a statue and just over a season winds up shooting people and pointing a gun at the Lord High President of the Time Lords in an attempt to save the Doctor. If any companion exemplifies the Doctor turning them into weapons thing, it's her. Though, that's hardly a fair call since that was pretty much entirely the Master's doing - what with him killing her father, step-mother and then destroying her entire planet. You'd expect her to react the way she does after that; the Doctor's the only person she's got. She's so tragic.
Although, RTD would hardly be playing up the unusualness of the Doctor and Donna's second meeting if he had been watching it. Five running into Tegan for the second time was far more unlikely than Ten and Donna's second meeting when you consider that, unlike Donna, Tegan wasn't looking for trouble.
I remember not thinking very highly of Five after the first couple of serials I watched of him, and I really can't believe that since I adore him to pieces now. Anyway, he's adorable throughout this serial. And there was Six. Sort of. A psychiatrist would have a field day with the Doctor ("So your fifth self regenerated into your executioner?")
My Nyssa love continues, so much so I just had to get a Nyssa icon and currently have plot bunnies in my head in which Nyssa and Donna hang out. Spend this serial shipping her with everyone. Five/Nyssa, Tegan/Nyssa, Damon/Nyssa. And then wondering how massively screwed up and whacky Nyssa/Six or Nyssa/Maxil would be with the whole one-actor-two-roles thing.
Omega's a villain I'd like to see again. I just loved that scene with the puppet show. It wasn't so much that he wanted to kill people or rule the universe or anything, it was just that he was incompatible with the universe. He's so tragic. (Five!Omega/Nyssa, yes?)
Lost Souls
I would have been so much more impressed with this if not for the painful scene of LHC exposition. We're supposed to believe that people who scavenge alien technology and defend the Earth for a living have never heard of the LHC? Either it's unimaginative writing (they could have had Gwen explain it to PC Andy or Rhys) or Torchwood really is incompetent. Being me, I'm inclined towards the latter, so Torchwood for the fail.
Other than that, it was quite alright. Just another episode of Torchwood really - even down to Ianto crying - just without the visuals. It's good in that it's really the first full cast audio play of the new series. I'm really hoping that once day Big Finish will get the licence to play around with the new series characters and get access to the actors, because I would love to hear new adventure of the new series TARDIS crews, and if it ever happen, Lost Souls illustrated the possibilities. It's really quite a shame that since former regulars David Tennant and Lis Sladen are on contract with the BBC they don't seem to be able to do any BF audios anymore.
Speaking of audios, how excited am I that Catherine Tate's doing an audiobook, The Forever Trap. After David Tennant's Donna voice in Pest Control, which was endearingly bad, I can't wait to hear Catherine Tate's Tenth Doctor voice.
And finally . I was ignoring them, because even though I was wrong about the return of Rose, and Sarah and Jack and Jackie, Mickey, Harriet, Ianto, Gwen, Luke etc etc, if these new ones turned out to be untrue I'd be very disappointed and as soon as Paul McGann's name is thrown about, I stop believing things (I think we have about the same chances of having a Paul McGann Time War episode as we do of finding out the Doctor's name). But the fact that the BBC denied the Paul McGann casting rumour without denying the casting of the other three involved makes me wonder if there isn't an ounce of truth to it. Why not deny all four at once if they're all untrue?
I'd been looking forward to watching this serial for a while, since it's the only time Five and Nyssa are together without Tegan, and thanks to Big Finish, the two of them alone are one of my favourite TARDIS teams. I was not disappointed, since I really enjoyed this serial - I watched it in two days. I didn’t know it was partially filmed in Amsterdam before watching it (but how could I not know now after the gratuitous 'look, we're on location, in AMSTERDAM!' chase scene). Also besides The Five Doctors (which I don't think counts because I was too busy squeeing at all the Doctors and companions), this was my first major exposure to Gallifrey and all is political machinations.
I can't help but wonder if RTD had been watching this serial before writing Journey's End. First of all, there's the whole two Fives (sort of) with the Brown Suited!Five (well, beige) and a Blue Suited!Omega!Five, which made me wonder if anything in the new series is original.
And then there's poor Nyssa. She one of the nicest people on a planet of pacifists where you can really think evil thoughts without being turned into a statue and just over a season winds up shooting people and pointing a gun at the Lord High President of the Time Lords in an attempt to save the Doctor. If any companion exemplifies the Doctor turning them into weapons thing, it's her. Though, that's hardly a fair call since that was pretty much entirely the Master's doing - what with him killing her father, step-mother and then destroying her entire planet. You'd expect her to react the way she does after that; the Doctor's the only person she's got. She's so tragic.
Although, RTD would hardly be playing up the unusualness of the Doctor and Donna's second meeting if he had been watching it. Five running into Tegan for the second time was far more unlikely than Ten and Donna's second meeting when you consider that, unlike Donna, Tegan wasn't looking for trouble.
I remember not thinking very highly of Five after the first couple of serials I watched of him, and I really can't believe that since I adore him to pieces now. Anyway, he's adorable throughout this serial. And there was Six. Sort of. A psychiatrist would have a field day with the Doctor ("So your fifth self regenerated into your executioner?")
My Nyssa love continues, so much so I just had to get a Nyssa icon and currently have plot bunnies in my head in which Nyssa and Donna hang out. Spend this serial shipping her with everyone. Five/Nyssa, Tegan/Nyssa, Damon/Nyssa. And then wondering how massively screwed up and whacky Nyssa/Six or Nyssa/Maxil would be with the whole one-actor-two-roles thing.
Omega's a villain I'd like to see again. I just loved that scene with the puppet show. It wasn't so much that he wanted to kill people or rule the universe or anything, it was just that he was incompatible with the universe. He's so tragic. (Five!Omega/Nyssa, yes?)
Lost Souls
I would have been so much more impressed with this if not for the painful scene of LHC exposition. We're supposed to believe that people who scavenge alien technology and defend the Earth for a living have never heard of the LHC? Either it's unimaginative writing (they could have had Gwen explain it to PC Andy or Rhys) or Torchwood really is incompetent. Being me, I'm inclined towards the latter, so Torchwood for the fail.
Other than that, it was quite alright. Just another episode of Torchwood really - even down to Ianto crying - just without the visuals. It's good in that it's really the first full cast audio play of the new series. I'm really hoping that once day Big Finish will get the licence to play around with the new series characters and get access to the actors, because I would love to hear new adventure of the new series TARDIS crews, and if it ever happen, Lost Souls illustrated the possibilities. It's really quite a shame that since former regulars David Tennant and Lis Sladen are on contract with the BBC they don't seem to be able to do any BF audios anymore.
Speaking of audios, how excited am I that Catherine Tate's doing an audiobook, The Forever Trap. After David Tennant's Donna voice in Pest Control, which was endearingly bad, I can't wait to hear Catherine Tate's Tenth Doctor voice.
And finally . I was ignoring them, because even though I was wrong about the return of Rose, and Sarah and Jack and Jackie, Mickey, Harriet, Ianto, Gwen, Luke etc etc, if these new ones turned out to be untrue I'd be very disappointed and as soon as Paul McGann's name is thrown about, I stop believing things (I think we have about the same chances of having a Paul McGann Time War episode as we do of finding out the Doctor's name). But the fact that the BBC denied the Paul McGann casting rumour without denying the casting of the other three involved makes me wonder if there isn't an ounce of truth to it. Why not deny all four at once if they're all untrue?