OMG SQUEEEE
Hello, I'm back!
I should really post about chamber music camp and about the letter and about all sorts of other things, but I've just watched The Stolen Earth and I have far, far better things to talk about. :D THERE ARE SPOILERS GALORE, SO BE CAREFUL.
Wow, what a magnificent episode! Really epic, really impressive, and FULL OF PEOPLE. Seriously.
My thoughts on this are very mixed-up, so I'm going to put them under headings to try and organise them. This may or may not work.
People
Rose: She was pretty damn cool in this episode, wasn't she? My favourite scene of hers, oddly, is a tiny little unimportant one where she's walking along a road with her HUGE BADASS DALEK-BUSTING GUN and something explodes behind her, spectacularly, and she keeps walking, without even looking around. For some reason this really made an impression on me. She's seen enough, and dealt with enough, that little things like explosions aren't even worthy of her interest any more. And I suppose, like Martha, she's become a bit of a soldier with her BADASS DALEK-BUSTING GUN.
And the almost!Reunion scene! Very nicely done. Poor Rose. I've always liked her. She never did anything to deserve the end of that episode.
I have a feeling, though, that she's going to die. I'm a huge advocate of killing off favourite characters when the right time comes (see also a certain Commodore Norrington), and that's why I was furious when it was announced that she was coming back next season. I adore Rose, I really do, and that's why I wanted her to stay safe in the other Universe, her story neatly finished. Now that she's been brought back, there's no way the writers would leave her hanging as a loose end - or worse, a convenient plot-saving device if they run out of ideas. No chance of escape? Bring Rose in from another Universe! Ugh. I'd much rather she had a nice death scene than she turned into a deus ex machina plot element.
Sarah Jane Smith: Didn't really get enough to do at all, did she? Besides using her computer to amplify the phone signal and looking terrified when she heard the daleks (and driving a nifty little car), she was sort of boring, which annoyed me. Particularly since she's number three on my List of People Likely to Die. More from Sarah tomorrow plz?
Jack: KICKED ASS. I'm really glad that he got a great part in this episode, with the Torchwood team, and wasn't sidelined like I felt he was in Last of the Time Lords. He felt like a major character again, and that made me happy! And he didn't want Martha to use Project Indigo. Cue Jack/Martha shipping. And Jack/Donna and Jack/Sarah shipping, for that matter. Jack really lurves everyone. But the Torchwood team! OH NOES! Who will save them now?!
Martha: I really like Martha these days. A big change from finding her pretty mediocre for most of season three. I wonder have I just got used to her over time, or if her character actually has changed considerably? I do think allying her with UNIT was a fantastically clever thing for the writers to do. Plus I happen to love UNIT, so any chance for them to regularly appear is fine with me. Project Indigo should really come back next episode, otherwise it's a bit of a non-starter.
Donna: Finally, after almost a whole season, I have grown to like Donna. It's taken a long time, but I think I've got there. This decision, however, depends very much on what happens to her tomorrow. The perfect outcome, from a me liking her perspective, would be some revelation about how she's the Key to Time more than just an ordinary person, then for her to do something amazing and die/stay at home/get trapped in another universe/make a selfless sacrifice of some kind. This would make me love her an awful lot. But we'll just have to wait and see. I forgot she didn't know about the Doctor regenerating, as well. And she is SO a shipper! You only have to look at her face when Rose turns up. And is there still something on her back?
Harriet Jones: She got to come back! Admittedly she died pretty quickly, but not before she was Instrumental To The Plot. And she still stands by her decision at the time! Good woman, I've always liked you. You have principles.
Wilf: PLEASE DON'T DIE!!!
The Doctor: DITTO!! Introducing Eleven at this point will make everything strange. We need Ten to do a proper finale story! He can't die yet!
Also, describing himself as 'a child' at 90 is in line with my theory that Time Lords reach maturity at about 100 years old, and it's around that time they leave the Academy. Thus Romana, at a hundred and a bit (125, was it?), is fresh out of college, and the Doctor is a humongous liar when it comes to his age. 900? You must be joking, son.
Aw, he looked so happy when Donna asked him if Rose coming back was a good thing. *huggles Doctor* I don't usually squee at the Doctor. But I almost did then.
*sudden realisation* Was it just me, or was there NO SONIC SCREWDRIVER in that episode?! *gasp* Have the writers finally realised that overusing it is a BAD THING? Or is my eyesight just deteriorating?
Loved the way his words to Davros were almost the same as to the Master. But not quite, because he has much more lurve for respects the Master a lot more than he does Davros. So "I forgive you" becomes "BYE!" Excellent.
David Tennant speaking Judoon language is going on my favourite moments on TV ever.
Daleks
I'm not a fan of the daleks. I used to be, back in series one, when there was just one dalek, and then there was just one fleet of daleks, and Nine was there with all his angst, and they were great. And then they came back in series two, and I was too 0_0 to really think about them.
And then they came back AGAIN in series three, and I realised that the writers were making their favourite mistake again. OVERUSE. Overuse of the daleks, overuse of the sonic screwdriver, overuse of the 'we're not married' joke. And the daleks became boring.
And they're still boring. I was extremely annoyed (and not just because I got SPOILERED BY MY FAVOURITE MAGAZINE) when I saw the cover of DWM the other day, and it had a HUGE BLOODY DALEK on the front cover. Particularly since only the day before that, I had been enthusing about how they had been able to get through a whole season with no daleks. WHY, RUSSELL. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING NEW. So far we haven't had a season finale which hasn't been about a classic enemy. Do they not trust the new ones enough to carry a plot, or something?
That said, Crazy!Dalek Caan is really, really funny. I think he was meant to be creepy, or something. But all he succeeded in being was funny. I think it's the way he waves his tentacles around while he rambles insanely.
Davros I like. He's a much better enemy than the daleks; it's just a shame that he sort of necessitates them being around. And ew, he made the daleks out of bits of himself. Not worth it.
Dalek Supreme looks kind of cool, but I think I need a better reason than that for his existence.
Plot ideas and other things
Hmm. I'm unsure about the way some of these were tied up. Medusa Cascade? Very nice. Big rift thing in space, just what it should be. The Shadow Proclamation? Not so good. An organisation of space police. That isn't very interesting, is it? And they're clearly pretty ineffectual, as they didn't realise about the other planets and totally failed to stop the Doctor flying away in the TARDIS.
Donna STILL has something on her back, weird. And the lost planets thing panned out just as I (and most of the rest of fandom, but never mind that) expected! *pride*
I realised about the bees before Donna did, haha. That made me happy. Donna was very clever about these things, by the way. Do you think she reads discussion boards in her spare time? She seemed to have all the theories to hand... When she's not reading fanfiction, that is.
"My vision is not impaired." Dang, that was a good bit. And then Rose blasted the dalek with her awesomeness.
The Doctor's phone number! I shall record it here for posterity, lest I forget it in a time of crisis: 07700900461. But is that his Martha phone, or the TARDIS phone?
I liked it when the Cardiff sculpture thing turned into a transmitter, it was pretty.
In conclusion (I'm trying to pretend this post had some kind of a structure), I really enjoyed this episode, despite the daleks, and like everyone else, can't wait until tomorrow... This looks like it's going to be one hell of a finale!
I should really post about chamber music camp and about the letter and about all sorts of other things, but I've just watched The Stolen Earth and I have far, far better things to talk about. :D THERE ARE SPOILERS GALORE, SO BE CAREFUL.
Wow, what a magnificent episode! Really epic, really impressive, and FULL OF PEOPLE. Seriously.
My thoughts on this are very mixed-up, so I'm going to put them under headings to try and organise them. This may or may not work.
People
Rose: She was pretty damn cool in this episode, wasn't she? My favourite scene of hers, oddly, is a tiny little unimportant one where she's walking along a road with her HUGE BADASS DALEK-BUSTING GUN and something explodes behind her, spectacularly, and she keeps walking, without even looking around. For some reason this really made an impression on me. She's seen enough, and dealt with enough, that little things like explosions aren't even worthy of her interest any more. And I suppose, like Martha, she's become a bit of a soldier with her BADASS DALEK-BUSTING GUN.
And the almost!Reunion scene! Very nicely done. Poor Rose. I've always liked her. She never did anything to deserve the end of that episode.
I have a feeling, though, that she's going to die. I'm a huge advocate of killing off favourite characters when the right time comes (see also a certain Commodore Norrington), and that's why I was furious when it was announced that she was coming back next season. I adore Rose, I really do, and that's why I wanted her to stay safe in the other Universe, her story neatly finished. Now that she's been brought back, there's no way the writers would leave her hanging as a loose end - or worse, a convenient plot-saving device if they run out of ideas. No chance of escape? Bring Rose in from another Universe! Ugh. I'd much rather she had a nice death scene than she turned into a deus ex machina plot element.
Sarah Jane Smith: Didn't really get enough to do at all, did she? Besides using her computer to amplify the phone signal and looking terrified when she heard the daleks (and driving a nifty little car), she was sort of boring, which annoyed me. Particularly since she's number three on my List of People Likely to Die. More from Sarah tomorrow plz?
Jack: KICKED ASS. I'm really glad that he got a great part in this episode, with the Torchwood team, and wasn't sidelined like I felt he was in Last of the Time Lords. He felt like a major character again, and that made me happy! And he didn't want Martha to use Project Indigo. Cue Jack/Martha shipping. And Jack/Donna and Jack/Sarah shipping, for that matter. Jack really lurves everyone. But the Torchwood team! OH NOES! Who will save them now?!
Martha: I really like Martha these days. A big change from finding her pretty mediocre for most of season three. I wonder have I just got used to her over time, or if her character actually has changed considerably? I do think allying her with UNIT was a fantastically clever thing for the writers to do. Plus I happen to love UNIT, so any chance for them to regularly appear is fine with me. Project Indigo should really come back next episode, otherwise it's a bit of a non-starter.
Donna: Finally, after almost a whole season, I have grown to like Donna. It's taken a long time, but I think I've got there. This decision, however, depends very much on what happens to her tomorrow. The perfect outcome, from a me liking her perspective, would be some revelation about how she's the Key to Time more than just an ordinary person, then for her to do something amazing and die/stay at home/get trapped in another universe/make a selfless sacrifice of some kind. This would make me love her an awful lot. But we'll just have to wait and see. I forgot she didn't know about the Doctor regenerating, as well. And she is SO a shipper! You only have to look at her face when Rose turns up. And is there still something on her back?
Harriet Jones: She got to come back! Admittedly she died pretty quickly, but not before she was Instrumental To The Plot. And she still stands by her decision at the time! Good woman, I've always liked you. You have principles.
Wilf: PLEASE DON'T DIE!!!
The Doctor: DITTO!! Introducing Eleven at this point will make everything strange. We need Ten to do a proper finale story! He can't die yet!
Also, describing himself as 'a child' at 90 is in line with my theory that Time Lords reach maturity at about 100 years old, and it's around that time they leave the Academy. Thus Romana, at a hundred and a bit (125, was it?), is fresh out of college, and the Doctor is a humongous liar when it comes to his age. 900? You must be joking, son.
Aw, he looked so happy when Donna asked him if Rose coming back was a good thing. *huggles Doctor* I don't usually squee at the Doctor. But I almost did then.
*sudden realisation* Was it just me, or was there NO SONIC SCREWDRIVER in that episode?! *gasp* Have the writers finally realised that overusing it is a BAD THING? Or is my eyesight just deteriorating?
Loved the way his words to Davros were almost the same as to the Master. But not quite, because he has much more lurve for respects the Master a lot more than he does Davros. So "I forgive you" becomes "BYE!" Excellent.
David Tennant speaking Judoon language is going on my favourite moments on TV ever.
Daleks
I'm not a fan of the daleks. I used to be, back in series one, when there was just one dalek, and then there was just one fleet of daleks, and Nine was there with all his angst, and they were great. And then they came back in series two, and I was too 0_0 to really think about them.
And then they came back AGAIN in series three, and I realised that the writers were making their favourite mistake again. OVERUSE. Overuse of the daleks, overuse of the sonic screwdriver, overuse of the 'we're not married' joke. And the daleks became boring.
And they're still boring. I was extremely annoyed (and not just because I got SPOILERED BY MY FAVOURITE MAGAZINE) when I saw the cover of DWM the other day, and it had a HUGE BLOODY DALEK on the front cover. Particularly since only the day before that, I had been enthusing about how they had been able to get through a whole season with no daleks. WHY, RUSSELL. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING NEW. So far we haven't had a season finale which hasn't been about a classic enemy. Do they not trust the new ones enough to carry a plot, or something?
That said, Crazy!Dalek Caan is really, really funny. I think he was meant to be creepy, or something. But all he succeeded in being was funny. I think it's the way he waves his tentacles around while he rambles insanely.
Davros I like. He's a much better enemy than the daleks; it's just a shame that he sort of necessitates them being around. And ew, he made the daleks out of bits of himself. Not worth it.
Dalek Supreme looks kind of cool, but I think I need a better reason than that for his existence.
Plot ideas and other things
Hmm. I'm unsure about the way some of these were tied up. Medusa Cascade? Very nice. Big rift thing in space, just what it should be. The Shadow Proclamation? Not so good. An organisation of space police. That isn't very interesting, is it? And they're clearly pretty ineffectual, as they didn't realise about the other planets and totally failed to stop the Doctor flying away in the TARDIS.
Donna STILL has something on her back, weird. And the lost planets thing panned out just as I (and most of the rest of fandom, but never mind that) expected! *pride*
I realised about the bees before Donna did, haha. That made me happy. Donna was very clever about these things, by the way. Do you think she reads discussion boards in her spare time? She seemed to have all the theories to hand... When she's not reading fanfiction, that is.
"My vision is not impaired." Dang, that was a good bit. And then Rose blasted the dalek with her awesomeness.
The Doctor's phone number! I shall record it here for posterity, lest I forget it in a time of crisis: 07700900461. But is that his Martha phone, or the TARDIS phone?
I liked it when the Cardiff sculpture thing turned into a transmitter, it was pretty.
In conclusion (I'm trying to pretend this post had some kind of a structure), I really enjoyed this episode, despite the daleks, and like everyone else, can't wait until tomorrow... This looks like it's going to be one hell of a finale!