Normally I agree with your assessments, but I'm afraid that in contrast to last week's episode I thought this one was pretty dreadful, with stereotyped two-dimensional characters, misfiring attempts at humour early on, a plot that was full of holes, and lousy science. (Did you see the fires happily burning in an atmosphere that was supposed to have only 1% oxygen? And what were the Dregs, described by the Doctor as being "apex predators" living on, when they were supposed to be the only indigenous life-form still surviving on the planet? Not to mention that animals couldn't possibly survive by converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. I'm willing to overlook the odd bit of bad science, but here there were just too many instances for me to suspend my disbelief
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Based on the comments I've seen so far, I seem to have enjoyed this one a lot more than other people, which I find amusing, given how often it was the other way around last season
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That's good. I think the only joke that really worked for me was Bella revealing that her given name was Trixibelle. (Though even that, combined with her mother's neglect of her, could hardly justify her sabotage, when she knew that it was likely to lead not just to the death of her mother but of a lot of totally innocent people as well. So the implied reconciliation scene with her mother at the end seemed rather off.) I found the catwoman particularly irritating. Oh, and one other thing that really annoyed me was the idea that a virus could infect both humans and people.
I think part of the trouble for me may have been that Who has done so many similar episodes before of a human enclave on an alien planet being threatened by something from outside, and has usually done it better. So it may be a case of over-familiarity breeding contempt. And maybe my expectations were unrealistically high, having so enjoyed the previous story.
Whereas I think maybe I find the familiarity of it pleasant or comforting or something. I wouldn't want it every episode, but dipping back into the show's traditional formats and including echoes of the classic series is good, nostalgic fun for me once in a while. When I'm in the right mood, anyway, which apparently I was this time.
And there were enough things that really failed to work for me last season that my expectations of Who these days are very carefully managed, to the point where it doesn't take very much to exceed them, and just enjoying an ep without getting hugely irritated by something or other in it feels lovely by contrast. :)
I also enjoyed the mention that the Doctor is still out of sorts due to the Master having shown up.
I was only reminded of the existance of the Respiratory Bypass System in the past two weeks, and was wondering the same thing! As well as your comment above about fires in 1 - 2% oxygen.
I'll be interested to see more telepathic stuff. I wonder if it's working towards something. Would be interesting if the Fam were the first people to know the Doctor's entire back history with all the gory details.
I'll be surprised if it's leading to anything. My guess is that how much the telepathic stuff comes up is mostly a factor of how interesting the writer and/or the showrunner thinks it is. But it would certainly be interesting if I'm wrong about that!
I liked this episode too--obviously not one of the best ever, but it was entertaining and kept me interested--and a number of my friends felt the same, but others absolutely loathed it, and I was kind of startled by such opposing opinions! I did also wonder about the respiratory bypass system...
The episode had so many holes it could have been a doily. From the start of the episode - how did the teleport manage to work through the Tardis' shields all the way through to the mother- daughter reunion to help the Doctor and Co escape.
However that said it was not a great episode for me, too much viewing the Dregs as two dimensional monsters. No real communication with them except for the Doctor's mind meld (She must have learnt it on Vulcan because the hand placement was almost identical!). Even then no attempt to negotiate with what humanity had turned into. Were they really so devolved they couldn't be reasoned with?
It's really interesting to me what I manage to suspend my disbelief for and what just bugs me so much I can't get past it. I sometimes wonder if it has more to do with my mood than with the story itself, but if that's the case, I'm happy enough to have been in a good mood while watching it. Even so, it was definitely a "turn your brain off and enjoy it" kind of episode, for sure.
But even if I did successfully enjoy it, I'm sure a more thoughtful version of it would have been interesting.
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That's good. I think the only joke that really worked for me was Bella revealing that her given name was Trixibelle. (Though even that, combined with her mother's neglect of her, could hardly justify her sabotage, when she knew that it was likely to lead not just to the death of her mother but of a lot of totally innocent people as well. So the implied reconciliation scene with her mother at the end seemed rather off.) I found the catwoman particularly irritating. Oh, and one other thing that really annoyed me was the idea that a virus could infect both humans and people.
I think part of the trouble for me may have been that Who has done so many similar episodes before of a human enclave on an alien planet being threatened by something from outside, and has usually done it better. So it may be a case of over-familiarity breeding contempt. And maybe my expectations were unrealistically high, having so enjoyed the previous story.
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And there were enough things that really failed to work for me last season that my expectations of Who these days are very carefully managed, to the point where it doesn't take very much to exceed them, and just enjoying an ep without getting hugely irritated by something or other in it feels lovely by contrast. :)
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I was only reminded of the existance of the Respiratory Bypass System in the past two weeks, and was wondering the same thing! As well as your comment above about fires in 1 - 2% oxygen.
I'll be interested to see more telepathic stuff. I wonder if it's working towards something. Would be interesting if the Fam were the first people to know the Doctor's entire back history with all the gory details.
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From the start of the episode - how did the teleport manage to work through the Tardis' shields all the way through to the mother- daughter reunion to help the Doctor and Co escape.
However that said it was not a great episode for me, too much viewing the Dregs as two dimensional monsters. No real communication with them except for the Doctor's mind meld (She must have learnt it on Vulcan because the hand placement was almost identical!). Even then no attempt to negotiate with what humanity had turned into. Were they really so devolved they couldn't be reasoned with?
I
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But even if I did successfully enjoy it, I'm sure a more thoughtful version of it would have been interesting.
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