Review: DW S4. 'The Poison Sky'
Well... talk about your big reset button ending - that didn't make sense. I KNEW the skience would bug me this week. Blowing up a portion of the atmosphere would lead to dead planet, not just clearing the gas. Also the chain reaction for igniting the whole atmosphere happened rather fast yes? It could've fizzled out y'know - would have been interesting to see what he'd have done if it did. Probably just set the machine off again elsewhere...
I did however, like the resolution's effect on people - they'd stopped being so reliant on cars. It does seem that RTD and co are taking it as their personal task to hit us over the head with morality stick each week. Weight, guns, global warming etc. I'd rather good, solid storytelling came first then moral lessons came second. I watch DW to be entertained, not to be told what a bad person I am/might be.
The death of Ross - he was an okay character, one of the nicest of the new UNIT crew. I predicted the mourning on here, as last week there was a lot of Ross-love going on on el-jay. On the subject of UNIT-ness. They mentioned the Brig!! Oh that made me so happy. Shame he was 'stuck in Peru'. Hopefully they can 'un-stick' him for a future episode!
Rose second... hm. Yes, we get she's coming back. The more you show her, the less excited I'm going to be. Sorry. And I wasn't all that excited to start with - more scared. Did notice that she was mouthing 'Doctor' though.
Martha's clone... all she did was press a button. And that's exactly what the Doctor WANTED her doing. So the point of all that was? Except we did get that nice scene of Martha with clone and Martha's clone accessing memories of her family etc.
Donna hit the Doctor... as she should. Loved the contrast between her response to his survival to Martha's. All occurring after the totally-expected redemption scene for the annoying kid. I don't think anyone would be seriously blinded enough by their 'genius' to have no love for their family. He annoyed me just as much this week, so when he died, it was just kind of 'whatever'.
The new-look Sontarans bugged me even more this week. Especially the voices. I couldn't love Wilf any more. Oh my, he's adorable. And Sylvia with the axe, that was good. And Donna with the hammer on the probic vent (I think something runs in that family with heavy objects).
Basically, there were things I liked. But as a story as a whole, I think this 2-parter was probably the weakest out of the stories broadcast so far this season. But I think Helen Raynor's done better this year than last though.
I've also learned never watch the 2nd part of a 2-parter with people who don't watch Doctor Who and/or didn't catch the first part. You have to explain everything.
Oh and brief rambleness about next week: If Jenny doesn't have a mother's name confirmed, she's automatically Romana in my mind. In fact she's automatically Romana until proven otherwise. Oh yes.
Watched the Androids of Tara and the Horror of Fang Rock afterwards, though. I didn't think Androids was confusing - in fact it's probably my favourite KTT story - but I had to explain so much. And my Who-hating friend liked Horror - mainly because of Leela and the fact the entire supporting cast died.