TV Blogging: More Doctor Who Season Two
Doctor Who Season Two, Eps 5 & 6: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel
I was looking forward to seeing these two episodes because whereas I'd heard of the Daleks before I ever saw an episode of Doctor Who, I was completely unfamiliar with the Cybermen, what they were or what they wanted. Based on conversations with friends and on some reading I've done recently, I get the impression that these episodes have reinvented the Cybermen, and reintroduced them. Setting them on an alternate Earth means that something really dramatic would have to happen for them to show up in Rose's reality, and based on the rumors I've heard, something that dramatic might yet happen this season, which makes me wonder ifsince in "School Reunion" we had villains who wanted to reshape realitywe might be facing a season whose overall story arc tackles the preservation of the reality that Rose knows.
I loved the dirigibles and I dug the extrapolation on bluetooth technology. Generally speaking, I thought the scenery and SPFX in this episode were top-notch, the cinematography moody and almost . . . Soviet in its look and feel. Created a really nice, creepy atmosphere.
I liked the Cybermen: their genesis, while absurd in almost a classic Who fashion, made sense in an alternate world. I was sorry that the character of John Lumic wasn't more than one dimensional; markbourne observed that the actor who played him made fairly obvious choices in his performance and I tend to agree. I wish we'd seen a little more evidence of introspection in him. The Cybermen, however, were genuinely chilling in their fascist uniformity and in the clomp/clang of their marching across the landscape. (One of the things I love about current Who is that I actually find the monsters scary; one of the reasons I was turned off by Classic Who was that I just thought they were silly back then.)
As Mickey's last hurrah, I thought this episode gave him his due, showing all that was good about his character: his willingness to step up when he's got no choice, his technical prowess, his obvious love for Rose. As I wrote to dianora2 in her journal, for me he played the Everyman-Can-Be-Courageous role that sometimes gets lost in the mix (though "Tooth and Claw" certainly gave us that in Lord and Lady MacLeish). I suspect I'll miss him. At the same time, his choice made sense . . . up to a point. I didn't, after all, hear the Doctor telling him that the woman he called his Gram wasn't in fact his Gram at all, but the Doctor couldn't stop telling Rose that about her father. Perhaps he was doing it more on Our!Jackie's behalf. Hm.
There's been much speculation over in doctorwho that Whatshisname and Ricky were having an affair based on how Whatshisname responded to Ricky's death. Me, I just didn't see it. Maybe I was too busy grooving on how cool the character of Mrs. Moore was and how much I wanted to see more of her than we did.
I loved that Alt!Jackie had a dog named Rose. (I thought Camille Codouri looked spectacular in this episode.) I thought that Alt!Pete's reaction to Rose's calling him "Dad" was perfect. And I loved it, too, that the Doctor took Rose back to Our!Jackie when it was all over. Rose clearly needed her mum. Most interesting of all, I thought, was the look on the Doctor's face as Rose and Our!Jackie hugged at the end of the episode. He's one seriously lonely dude, he knows it, and he knows there's no way out.
If I have one complaint about these two episodes, it's the one I had about "The Girl in the Fireplace," which is that the relationship between Rose and the Doctor appears to have shifted somehow since "School Reunion" in a disappointing way, at least in my opinion. I mean, at least in "The Age of Steel," he takes her straight home at the end to ensure she's grounded and gets what she needs emotionally; he's taking care of her, which is good. (In some ways, it's more of a fatherly thing to do than a friendly or loverly thing. God knows there's enough of an age difference there for such an element to creep in at some moments.) But some of that kinship they seemed to share so clearly in "New Earth" and "School Reunion" seems to be gone or at least it seems to be being sublimated. Now, in light of everything that happened in "School Reunion" and "The Girl in the Fireplace," that might make sense, but I still want to see that conversation between the two of them, to see Rose's processing of it and her telling the Doctor off a little bit. She'd surely echo Sarah Jane in some ways, but I think there's a point to be made there.
At a party yesterday, in response to my comment about the changed relationship, an acquaintance of mine said the change was inevitable since, at some point, the character of Rose will leave the Doctor (because, of course, Piper's career is taking off and she's already got another show lined up). That's absolutely true. Me, I just want the evolution of the relationship to be dealt with on screen somehow.
I'm so looking forward to "The Idiot's Lantern," mainly because I'm curious as hell. It just looks . . . bizarre.
I was looking forward to seeing these two episodes because whereas I'd heard of the Daleks before I ever saw an episode of Doctor Who, I was completely unfamiliar with the Cybermen, what they were or what they wanted. Based on conversations with friends and on some reading I've done recently, I get the impression that these episodes have reinvented the Cybermen, and reintroduced them. Setting them on an alternate Earth means that something really dramatic would have to happen for them to show up in Rose's reality, and based on the rumors I've heard, something that dramatic might yet happen this season, which makes me wonder ifsince in "School Reunion" we had villains who wanted to reshape realitywe might be facing a season whose overall story arc tackles the preservation of the reality that Rose knows.
I loved the dirigibles and I dug the extrapolation on bluetooth technology. Generally speaking, I thought the scenery and SPFX in this episode were top-notch, the cinematography moody and almost . . . Soviet in its look and feel. Created a really nice, creepy atmosphere.
I liked the Cybermen: their genesis, while absurd in almost a classic Who fashion, made sense in an alternate world. I was sorry that the character of John Lumic wasn't more than one dimensional; markbourne observed that the actor who played him made fairly obvious choices in his performance and I tend to agree. I wish we'd seen a little more evidence of introspection in him. The Cybermen, however, were genuinely chilling in their fascist uniformity and in the clomp/clang of their marching across the landscape. (One of the things I love about current Who is that I actually find the monsters scary; one of the reasons I was turned off by Classic Who was that I just thought they were silly back then.)
As Mickey's last hurrah, I thought this episode gave him his due, showing all that was good about his character: his willingness to step up when he's got no choice, his technical prowess, his obvious love for Rose. As I wrote to dianora2 in her journal, for me he played the Everyman-Can-Be-Courageous role that sometimes gets lost in the mix (though "Tooth and Claw" certainly gave us that in Lord and Lady MacLeish). I suspect I'll miss him. At the same time, his choice made sense . . . up to a point. I didn't, after all, hear the Doctor telling him that the woman he called his Gram wasn't in fact his Gram at all, but the Doctor couldn't stop telling Rose that about her father. Perhaps he was doing it more on Our!Jackie's behalf. Hm.
There's been much speculation over in doctorwho that Whatshisname and Ricky were having an affair based on how Whatshisname responded to Ricky's death. Me, I just didn't see it. Maybe I was too busy grooving on how cool the character of Mrs. Moore was and how much I wanted to see more of her than we did.
I loved that Alt!Jackie had a dog named Rose. (I thought Camille Codouri looked spectacular in this episode.) I thought that Alt!Pete's reaction to Rose's calling him "Dad" was perfect. And I loved it, too, that the Doctor took Rose back to Our!Jackie when it was all over. Rose clearly needed her mum. Most interesting of all, I thought, was the look on the Doctor's face as Rose and Our!Jackie hugged at the end of the episode. He's one seriously lonely dude, he knows it, and he knows there's no way out.
If I have one complaint about these two episodes, it's the one I had about "The Girl in the Fireplace," which is that the relationship between Rose and the Doctor appears to have shifted somehow since "School Reunion" in a disappointing way, at least in my opinion. I mean, at least in "The Age of Steel," he takes her straight home at the end to ensure she's grounded and gets what she needs emotionally; he's taking care of her, which is good. (In some ways, it's more of a fatherly thing to do than a friendly or loverly thing. God knows there's enough of an age difference there for such an element to creep in at some moments.) But some of that kinship they seemed to share so clearly in "New Earth" and "School Reunion" seems to be gone or at least it seems to be being sublimated. Now, in light of everything that happened in "School Reunion" and "The Girl in the Fireplace," that might make sense, but I still want to see that conversation between the two of them, to see Rose's processing of it and her telling the Doctor off a little bit. She'd surely echo Sarah Jane in some ways, but I think there's a point to be made there.
At a party yesterday, in response to my comment about the changed relationship, an acquaintance of mine said the change was inevitable since, at some point, the character of Rose will leave the Doctor (because, of course, Piper's career is taking off and she's already got another show lined up). That's absolutely true. Me, I just want the evolution of the relationship to be dealt with on screen somehow.
I'm so looking forward to "The Idiot's Lantern," mainly because I'm curious as hell. It just looks . . . bizarre.