Update, complete with squeeing
As of now, my PostModern Fiction Assignment of Doom is done, my reflection for Methods on the SMP presentations is done, my Methods exam is done, and my Charter School project is almost done (except for, you know, the actual presentation of it, which happens tomorrow). I still have the Language Acquisition open-note exam tonight, the abovementioned presentation tomorrow, the Fiction Writing portfolio to finish, and the Methods paper left to do. So not as much as before, obviously, but still quite a bit. I'll have my work cut out for me today and tomorrow- plus my mom will be down starting at 11:30 tomorrow morning, so I'll have to deal with packing up and everything as well. That means most of my packing should get done today. (Amount of packing currently done: none.)
But at least I have "Doctor Who" to console me! In my quest to watch as much as possible before I go home, I've picked up where I left off via Youtube episodes. So far I've seen "The Lazarus Experiment" and "42." I have some thoughts on the latter, which are under the cut below.
I was curious about this episode when I first saw the previews, because it looked remarkably similar to my two-parter favorite "Doctor Who" episode of all time: "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit". Same general premise- crew of a space expedition in the future runs into trouble when they end up orbiting dangerously close to some phenomena or planetary body, situation is worsened when something begins possessing the crew members, only the Doctor and his companion are able to save the day (and in both cases the Doctor pines about possibly losing the companion, who becomes separated from him somehow). The characters, while not carbon copies, are pretty similar. It's not a secret that much of "Doctor Who" follows the same general formula throughout, but this episode was particularly reminiscent of the former two. So I was interested to see what I would think of it.
And I liked it. Not as much as I do the others, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. I do have to say, though, that anytime the Doctor does something with or for Martha that he used to do with Rose, it makes me mildly unhappy. For instance, when he fixed the cell phone to work anywhere at the beginning, and then when he gave Martha the key to the Tardis at the end, both times I was going, "No, that's a Rose thing! Don't do it with Martha as well!" :( Nobody will quite live up to Rose in my opinion.
Martha does really prove herself in this episode, though. In both this one and "Lazarus," she has a much more active role in saving the Doctor, who is trying to save everybody else. She still frequently gets captured (or trapped in escape shuttles, as in this episode) and needs to be rescued, but she also comes back for him when he's trying to kill Lazarus, and is responsible for helping him in this episode as well. It's nice to see her take that kind of initiative, and helps me warm to her as a character. It gives me a chance to understand why the Doctor has so much confidence in her as a Companion. :) I hope she keeps going on this path.
It seems like the Doctor is being put through a lot more pain, both physical and emotional, in this season than the others. Normally he's the one figuring out what to do, trying (not always successfully) to prevent others from being hurt, and maybe he gets roughed up a little, but he's distanced the majority of the time. But that's not really true of this season. He spents a lot of time angsting over Rose (which I appreciate, since I want him to miss her), and in "42" he spends the last quarter in a great deal of physical pain, when the living part of the Sun possesses him. From brief footage I've seen of future episodes, it seems like these sorts of things continue to happen to him throughout the season. It's an interesting development, that he's not so untouchable in this season. Poor angsty Doctor.
I still like "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" better than "42". I feel like with the first 2, the characters are really accessible, and you get to know them and feel connected to them almost as if they were regulars. "Impossible Planet" and "Satan Pit" feel more like a Doctor Who movie than a two-part episode to me, and I feel like even the characters created for just that episode are given more attention than if it were just a normal stand-alone episode. While "42" definitely had action and tension, I also felt the impact of the suspense and emotional stuff in the first two. The Doctor trying to ask Ida to tell Rose he loves her, but just saying "Oh, she knows" rang deeper to me than him calling "I'll save you" to Martha as she goes off in the shuttle; the Doctor defeating the Satan monster and seeming to have no way out, but then finding the Tardis, was happier for me than the crew of the "42" episode getting the engines or whatever to work and saving the day at the last minute; I felt Rose's anxiety about possibly never getting home more than I felt Martha's after her goodbye call to her mother, which is odd considering Rose's reaction to the situation is much more understated than Martha's. But it was definitely in the same vein as my favorite episodes, and it was well done, so I think it's a win.
On to more episodes later tonight, hopefully!
Sarah
But at least I have "Doctor Who" to console me! In my quest to watch as much as possible before I go home, I've picked up where I left off via Youtube episodes. So far I've seen "The Lazarus Experiment" and "42." I have some thoughts on the latter, which are under the cut below.
I was curious about this episode when I first saw the previews, because it looked remarkably similar to my two-parter favorite "Doctor Who" episode of all time: "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit". Same general premise- crew of a space expedition in the future runs into trouble when they end up orbiting dangerously close to some phenomena or planetary body, situation is worsened when something begins possessing the crew members, only the Doctor and his companion are able to save the day (and in both cases the Doctor pines about possibly losing the companion, who becomes separated from him somehow). The characters, while not carbon copies, are pretty similar. It's not a secret that much of "Doctor Who" follows the same general formula throughout, but this episode was particularly reminiscent of the former two. So I was interested to see what I would think of it.
And I liked it. Not as much as I do the others, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. I do have to say, though, that anytime the Doctor does something with or for Martha that he used to do with Rose, it makes me mildly unhappy. For instance, when he fixed the cell phone to work anywhere at the beginning, and then when he gave Martha the key to the Tardis at the end, both times I was going, "No, that's a Rose thing! Don't do it with Martha as well!" :( Nobody will quite live up to Rose in my opinion.
Martha does really prove herself in this episode, though. In both this one and "Lazarus," she has a much more active role in saving the Doctor, who is trying to save everybody else. She still frequently gets captured (or trapped in escape shuttles, as in this episode) and needs to be rescued, but she also comes back for him when he's trying to kill Lazarus, and is responsible for helping him in this episode as well. It's nice to see her take that kind of initiative, and helps me warm to her as a character. It gives me a chance to understand why the Doctor has so much confidence in her as a Companion. :) I hope she keeps going on this path.
It seems like the Doctor is being put through a lot more pain, both physical and emotional, in this season than the others. Normally he's the one figuring out what to do, trying (not always successfully) to prevent others from being hurt, and maybe he gets roughed up a little, but he's distanced the majority of the time. But that's not really true of this season. He spents a lot of time angsting over Rose (which I appreciate, since I want him to miss her), and in "42" he spends the last quarter in a great deal of physical pain, when the living part of the Sun possesses him. From brief footage I've seen of future episodes, it seems like these sorts of things continue to happen to him throughout the season. It's an interesting development, that he's not so untouchable in this season. Poor angsty Doctor.
I still like "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" better than "42". I feel like with the first 2, the characters are really accessible, and you get to know them and feel connected to them almost as if they were regulars. "Impossible Planet" and "Satan Pit" feel more like a Doctor Who movie than a two-part episode to me, and I feel like even the characters created for just that episode are given more attention than if it were just a normal stand-alone episode. While "42" definitely had action and tension, I also felt the impact of the suspense and emotional stuff in the first two. The Doctor trying to ask Ida to tell Rose he loves her, but just saying "Oh, she knows" rang deeper to me than him calling "I'll save you" to Martha as she goes off in the shuttle; the Doctor defeating the Satan monster and seeming to have no way out, but then finding the Tardis, was happier for me than the crew of the "42" episode getting the engines or whatever to work and saving the day at the last minute; I felt Rose's anxiety about possibly never getting home more than I felt Martha's after her goodbye call to her mother, which is odd considering Rose's reaction to the situation is much more understated than Martha's. But it was definitely in the same vein as my favorite episodes, and it was well done, so I think it's a win.
On to more episodes later tonight, hopefully!
Sarah