The Poison Sky
Bypassing "The Poison Sky" for the moment, a question about the promo pics for next week:
So it's not just me, right? They are deliberately trying to recall Martha's first trip on the TARDIS with her clothes: pineapple hair, leather jacket, red top underneath, same necklace. She's only missing the hoop earrings. (Okay, it's probably just me.) Which is actually kind of cute, and I like the idea that Martha picked those items out of her closet, consciously or not, for going back to the TARDIS (shut up, I don't write fanfic so I have to put these things in posts). But it does seem rather at odds with the whole "totally moving on, look at my ring, whole big life on earth" thing they keep telling us, with Donna mentioning twice that Martha is over the Doctor for good measure. (Don't get me wrong--I want Martha to be totally happy on earth and over the Doctor. But, you know, show, don't tell?)
Okay. "Poison Sky."
Episode itself: yawn. Pollution is evil but can be magically destroyed by fire, Earth is a hatchery twice this season already, Luke Rattigan is a psycho, but he's a self-sacrificing psycho, which makes it okay that he sold out his planet and killed people and called them cattle and stuff. I guess. Also, the Doctor makes an "are you my mummy?" joke.
(Maybe that's why the completely random aside about Jack's kinky interest in Martha-clones? I suspect it's some kind of poorly written-in reference we'll need at season's end, but between this and "volcano day," that's two shout-outs to "The Empty Child" two-parter.)
Donna: really good, though not as good as last week. I don't like that she sat around and waited for the Doctor to call, just from a plot standpoint (though if she had called the number in the phone, she would have called the clone, and that would be bad...), but they had to get in her Emotional Mobile Call Home (TM), so that's sorted, at least. If I were feeling more prolix, I'd compare Martha's call home in "42" with Donna's here; there's a similarity, I think, in the way their mothers fall back into their old, negative ways of talking to their daughters even at very fraught moments. Though Francine seems more hyper-controlling and protective of Martha than belittling like Donna's mother.
I actually liked that Donna was scared of taking on an alien ship by herself, and liked even more that she got past that fear to do what needed to be done.
Also, Donna slapped Ten's arm, which is close enough for me. :) I like their vibe, the way Donna launches herself at him in a hug while yelling "Have I told you how much I hate you?"
Martha: oh, Martha my Martha. Why won't they just let you and the Doctor actually have the conversation you two need to have? Why is the Doctor only able to say that he sees you to other people, including your clone? Because it's not true that he didn't see Martha--the off details he notices about the clone, her irises and follicles, are proof of that. But he can't say that while Martha's conscious, because that would be too easy or something. And sorry, but "Martha, you too. Oh--so many times" isn't really fixing that problem. It's a nice moment, I liked it, but "thank you" was never the problem. And after their weird spat last episode, I no longer have any reading on where they are.
That said, my favorite moment is the bit when the Doctor is trying to cradle Martha in his arms, and she's busy trying to warn him about the Sontarans. Love her, love them together when it works. (And, oh, "I've got you" is what Martha always used to say to *him*. If the writers would just do one overt moment of recognition with them, I could be so happy with all the background stuff.)
Donna and Martha bonding: More of that, please.
Martha and Martha bonding: Weird and creepy and a little bit awesome. Though why they keep giving Martha the bizarre storylines and then not acknowledging how bizarre they are (like watching your boyfriend get gunned down in front of you in the year that never was) is beyond me, because they'd be *better* if they played around with the bizarreness. ("It's you but it's not you" is Martha's theme, y/n? Doctor/John Smith; Tom Milligan; and now her own clone. And in each case, it would be so *interesting* to play around with the cognitive dissonance that has to result.)** Also, I liked that Martha got the Doctor some crucial information that way, because clone!Martha still thought of the Doctor as the enemy. Also also, I feel much more sympathy for Martha's clone than I do for Luke Rattigan. So angry at Martha, so puzzled by her love for her family (the lack of which, from the clone, first alerted the Doctor) and her plans. Oh, clone!Martha. Just left on the floor... I know it's not Martha, but it had all her memories, and it weirded me out that they just left her there--though I suppose it would have been really easy to tip right over into maudlin if they'd done anything else.
**ETA: Actually, now that I think about it, this is kind of a theme in season two as well, with the parallel universe, though I think Martha has a higher *concentration* of such moments. Still, I think the comparison to S2 is useful, because at least there the writers pay a little lip service, if nothing else, to the strangeness of these situations: Mickey telling Jake that he knows he's not Rickey, "Pete's World" Pete telling Jackie she's not his wife. With Martha, the writers don't even give us that. Instead it's all "oh, sure, you had to play maid for several months to a guy who looks exactly like the Doctor, but *that's* not weird," and "oh, sure, get engaged to the formerly dead guy you only knew under resistance conditions, why not?" and "oh, sure, just leave someone who looks just like you and has all your memories lying dead on the basement floor, nothing strange about this moment."
So it's not just me, right? They are deliberately trying to recall Martha's first trip on the TARDIS with her clothes: pineapple hair, leather jacket, red top underneath, same necklace. She's only missing the hoop earrings. (Okay, it's probably just me.) Which is actually kind of cute, and I like the idea that Martha picked those items out of her closet, consciously or not, for going back to the TARDIS (shut up, I don't write fanfic so I have to put these things in posts). But it does seem rather at odds with the whole "totally moving on, look at my ring, whole big life on earth" thing they keep telling us, with Donna mentioning twice that Martha is over the Doctor for good measure. (Don't get me wrong--I want Martha to be totally happy on earth and over the Doctor. But, you know, show, don't tell?)
Okay. "Poison Sky."
Episode itself: yawn. Pollution is evil but can be magically destroyed by fire, Earth is a hatchery twice this season already, Luke Rattigan is a psycho, but he's a self-sacrificing psycho, which makes it okay that he sold out his planet and killed people and called them cattle and stuff. I guess. Also, the Doctor makes an "are you my mummy?" joke.
(Maybe that's why the completely random aside about Jack's kinky interest in Martha-clones? I suspect it's some kind of poorly written-in reference we'll need at season's end, but between this and "volcano day," that's two shout-outs to "The Empty Child" two-parter.)
Donna: really good, though not as good as last week. I don't like that she sat around and waited for the Doctor to call, just from a plot standpoint (though if she had called the number in the phone, she would have called the clone, and that would be bad...), but they had to get in her Emotional Mobile Call Home (TM), so that's sorted, at least. If I were feeling more prolix, I'd compare Martha's call home in "42" with Donna's here; there's a similarity, I think, in the way their mothers fall back into their old, negative ways of talking to their daughters even at very fraught moments. Though Francine seems more hyper-controlling and protective of Martha than belittling like Donna's mother.
I actually liked that Donna was scared of taking on an alien ship by herself, and liked even more that she got past that fear to do what needed to be done.
Also, Donna slapped Ten's arm, which is close enough for me. :) I like their vibe, the way Donna launches herself at him in a hug while yelling "Have I told you how much I hate you?"
Martha: oh, Martha my Martha. Why won't they just let you and the Doctor actually have the conversation you two need to have? Why is the Doctor only able to say that he sees you to other people, including your clone? Because it's not true that he didn't see Martha--the off details he notices about the clone, her irises and follicles, are proof of that. But he can't say that while Martha's conscious, because that would be too easy or something. And sorry, but "Martha, you too. Oh--so many times" isn't really fixing that problem. It's a nice moment, I liked it, but "thank you" was never the problem. And after their weird spat last episode, I no longer have any reading on where they are.
That said, my favorite moment is the bit when the Doctor is trying to cradle Martha in his arms, and she's busy trying to warn him about the Sontarans. Love her, love them together when it works. (And, oh, "I've got you" is what Martha always used to say to *him*. If the writers would just do one overt moment of recognition with them, I could be so happy with all the background stuff.)
Donna and Martha bonding: More of that, please.
Martha and Martha bonding: Weird and creepy and a little bit awesome. Though why they keep giving Martha the bizarre storylines and then not acknowledging how bizarre they are (like watching your boyfriend get gunned down in front of you in the year that never was) is beyond me, because they'd be *better* if they played around with the bizarreness. ("It's you but it's not you" is Martha's theme, y/n? Doctor/John Smith; Tom Milligan; and now her own clone. And in each case, it would be so *interesting* to play around with the cognitive dissonance that has to result.)** Also, I liked that Martha got the Doctor some crucial information that way, because clone!Martha still thought of the Doctor as the enemy. Also also, I feel much more sympathy for Martha's clone than I do for Luke Rattigan. So angry at Martha, so puzzled by her love for her family (the lack of which, from the clone, first alerted the Doctor) and her plans. Oh, clone!Martha. Just left on the floor... I know it's not Martha, but it had all her memories, and it weirded me out that they just left her there--though I suppose it would have been really easy to tip right over into maudlin if they'd done anything else.
**ETA: Actually, now that I think about it, this is kind of a theme in season two as well, with the parallel universe, though I think Martha has a higher *concentration* of such moments. Still, I think the comparison to S2 is useful, because at least there the writers pay a little lip service, if nothing else, to the strangeness of these situations: Mickey telling Jake that he knows he's not Rickey, "Pete's World" Pete telling Jackie she's not his wife. With Martha, the writers don't even give us that. Instead it's all "oh, sure, you had to play maid for several months to a guy who looks exactly like the Doctor, but *that's* not weird," and "oh, sure, get engaged to the formerly dead guy you only knew under resistance conditions, why not?" and "oh, sure, just leave someone who looks just like you and has all your memories lying dead on the basement floor, nothing strange about this moment."