I'm so glad I'm not alone in disliking this episode. I just finished watching and it all felt like a stale, poorly written rehash of the Matrix (not that the Matrix didn't have its faults ...).
Yeah, there are episodes that I hate (RotC/AoS, 42, Evolution of the Daleks, Gridlock come to mind), and there are interesting failures (GitF, L&M), but then there are the ones that just kind of bore me, and there have been too many of them this year. I still like this series second best after S1, because Donna is My Companion and I love her to death, but it's been a bit short on imagination. The only episode I'd put in the "first rate" category would be Fires of Pompeii.
I agree about Donna's "fantasy", although I can see that being one of the "default" settings for the system; I would have loved for Donna to realize that this wasn't her life because of that, but it still feels like Donna was just shoved out of the way for River Song.
However, I was turned off by the treatment of Miss Evangelista, I agree with you there - if you look back on my commentary for last week, I was pretty exercised about her then, even though I thought she was more interesting and effective as a character than River Song.
None of this was very scary at all, not even in a gothic movie kind of way, but looking back, I think that the first part was better.
I've given up on trying to figure out why people like David Tennant. In real life, he seems to be pretty charming, but put him on film, and he's just kind of repellent. There's nothing about him that I find attractive - and I've had the same feeling in Casanova and Blackpool, although I saw those first. I also saw Secret Smile, where he was supposed to be repellent, but mostly, I found him just laughable. I don't get it - he's even the physical type that I could really go for (okay, his eyes are a bit too close together), so it's not even that. It's the acting that turns me off completely.
Yeah, there are episodes that I hate (RotC/AoS, 42, Evolution of the Daleks, Gridlock come to mind), and there are interesting failures (GitF, L&M), but then there are the ones that just kind of bore me, and there have been too many of them this year. I still like this series second best after S1, because Donna is My Companion and I love her to death, but it's been a bit short on imagination. The only episode I'd put in the "first rate" category would be Fires of Pompeii.
I agree about Donna's "fantasy", although I can see that being one of the "default" settings for the system; I would have loved for Donna to realize that this wasn't her life because of that, but it still feels like Donna was just shoved out of the way for River Song.
However, I was turned off by the treatment of Miss Evangelista, I agree with you there - if you look back on my commentary for last week, I was pretty exercised about her then, even though I thought she was more interesting and effective as a character than River Song.
None of this was very scary at all, not even in a gothic movie kind of way, but looking back, I think that the first part was better.
I've given up on trying to figure out why people like David Tennant. In real life, he seems to be pretty charming, but put him on film, and he's just kind of repellent. There's nothing about him that I find attractive - and I've had the same feeling in Casanova and Blackpool, although I saw those first. I also saw Secret Smile, where he was supposed to be repellent, but mostly, I found him just laughable. I don't get it - he's even the physical type that I could really go for (okay, his eyes are a bit too close together), so it's not even that. It's the acting that turns me off completely.
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