Doctor Who, last three episodes of series 3, Captain Jack Harkness
Well,
I'm putting this behind a cut, since (a) I'm so late with my comments, and (b) I know controls_lady is still working on watching the Christopher Eccleston episodes, so if she gets spoiled, it's her own fault for clicking, since I am posting spoilers in this. ;)
Two weeks later, and I'm still really disappointed in the finale, so I thought I'd post my own rant about the travesty that was "The Last Of The Time Lords".
Firstly, I really, really enjoyed "Utopia" and enjoyed seeing Jack again immensely. Loved Jack flirting with Martha, the nameless guy and Chantho, the blue alien woman bug. I also enjoyed the scenes with Jack and Ten, and I was intrigued. I wanted more details about how/why Jack was "WRONG", was it the Doctor's attitude more than the TARDIS that caused them to end up at the end of the universe (and where was Milliways, anyway?!?), and I wanted to see a possibility of Jack travelling with the Doctor again. I ended up watching the episode four times and enjoyed all the stuff with Jack, and enjoyed Derek Jacobi's performance.
"The Sound of Drums", I watched two times and again, enjoyed Jack's performance, thought John Simm was good as the Master. I wanted more of Jack and the Doctor, and Jack with Martha, but I'd hoped to get more of that in the third episode. Too bad I've already seen Torchwood so when Jack said he'd rebuilt it in the Doctor's honour, I couldn't help adding 'With more shagging! Ten times the incompetence of Yvonne's Torchwood! And almost destroying Earth in the process!" but I could believe John Barrowman's delivery of the line, and that Jack really had meant it as an honour, that he hadn't joined it to get back at the Doctor and twist the knife in.
Then came "The Last Of The Time Lords", which I only watched the once. Maybe I did get too excited, too built up for the last episode, but it really badly let me down. TLOTTL, how do I loathe thee, let me count the ways:
1.) Jack's back for three episodes, and that's it?!? Jack's immortal/forever, the Doctor can't fix him, Glowy!Rose did it to him? Thanks, RTD, I kinda figured out the immortal/forever from the first ep of Torchwood, that Jack had died on the Game Station and came back so when Glowy!Rose said "I bring life" and Jack was shown, alive again, that she had done it (I suppose since no-one else was shown coming back to life, it was only Jack she had brought to life again... which is just as well. I'd hate to think of Lynda-with-a-Y coming back to life, dying, life, dying, life, dying etc. outside the Game Station until she ended up on some planet, after falling all that distance and presumably burning up in any atmosphere she'd eventually reach).
I kinda hoped/thought that Jack would at least have had an important scene or two in the finale, but nope, nada. The Doctor warns him not to touch the paradox machine in TSOD, so Jack just rushes in and shoots, five rounds rapid* and blows it up in the finale. Great. **rolls eyes**
And what a freaking waste of having the Master, the most evil and mad/crazy/insane of Time Lords, and Jack in the same episode, without having even one scene of the Master doing his damnedest break/freak out/drive Jack insane. Again, why bother bringing Jack back? The Master should have been tempted to want to take over Jack's Fixed Point In The Universe body, because he'd never have to regenerate again or try body snatching over and over, to keep on surviving.
2.) This is left over from the episode before, but why the hell didn't Jack teleport down with Martha? I still don't understand that. Yes, he was still recovering from the Master's sonic laser (yeah, whatever), but Jack's forever, she could have helped him to somewhere he could have recovered, then both of them could have travelled the planet and met back in England at a certain time/date. It's not like they used chained up Jack for anything, other than to show us Jack's probably died countless times on the Valiant. I really thought that when he told Martha teleport, he'd meant himself and Martha, they couldn't do anything on the ship. (Did I mention JB looked heartbreakingly gorgeous, after he'd been shot by the Master, when he was on the floor, for the rest of the time he was shown in the second episode? Man, he does suffering very well.)
3.) It was the Master's episode, until the last five or ten minutes. David Tennant didn't get to do anything until Tinkerbell!Doctor and Glowy!SuddenlyYoung!Doctor took over. I thought it was poor writing, and when I should have been cheering, and really emotionally involved in the episode, I wasn't.
4.) The Master and the Doctor (and Jack). Yes, I get it that the Doctor is once again the last of his race... yet he can cry and moan, etc., etc., etc. over the evil Master, who had once been a friend... but show absolutely no emotion over a former companion's countless deaths? That pissed me off so much, in "Utopia", when the Doctor didn't try to do anything to make Dead!Jack more comfortable, to make coming back to life not such a hard experience as it obviously was, and how he stopped Martha from giving Jack CPR, maybe trying to give Jack a bit of comfort. I really, really, really, despise this aspect of the Doctor and I had such high hopes (silly of me, I know) that Jack would soften this aspect a bit, both with his presence, just being there, and also by reminding the Doctor of certain things (like when the Doctor was all gleeful he was right about Chantho's people having built a conglomeration, and Jack points out the Doctor is supposed to say he's sorry, about the loss of her people).
5.) Jack's exit. I found this as badly written and awkward as the last scene with Ianto and Jack in TW, in "They Keep Killing Suzie". I hated the Doctor's high-handedness in unfixing Jack's plot device/deus ex machina... oops, I mean, vortex manipulator (and if it worked well enough to get Jack from the Game Station, why was there a zero percent possibility of Jack's survival, in "The Doctor Dances", he should have used it to get off the doomed-and-about-to-blow-up Chula warship, instead of enjoying a last hypervodka martini). Cripes, the Doctor himself (the third) was exiled to Earth for a while, by his own people, and he absolutely hated it. What an asshole, to do it to Jack. I realize that Jack having it work properly would give him too much of an out for TW, but I would have far, far, far preferred to have had Jack offer his wrist to the Doctor and ask him to take away that capability, and admit that he might be tempted to misuse it if it was left working properly. I would have felt proud of Jack for realizing it, and of the Doctor for realizing it and agreeing with Jack's assessment. It's such a little change, yet it has such a huge change on how I'd feel about both characters.
So let me get this straight, the Doctor, who has previously said that the TARDIS was trying to repel Jack, flew to the end of time/the universe to get rid of Jack... offers Jack a chance to travel with him again? How would that work, exactly? Wouldn't the TARDIS reject Jack's presence? If not, then the Doctor lied in "Utopia" and it was probably more the Doctor's doing/attitude that sent them to the end of the universe, not the TARDIS. I wanted an explanation, damn it, of how it would be possible for Jack to travel with the Doctor! I also want to know if Jack still has his TARDIS key after the Year That Never Was, and if not, if the Doctor gave him a new one. I also wanted a better explanation of why Jack is going back to Torchwood Three (other than the show is promoted as John Barrowman starring in it). Just on the screen, it appears to me like Jack prefers the Doctor's company to that of his so-called team.
The Face of Boe revelation. No, no, no, no, no, noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! For one thing, he's supposed to be an entirely different species! For another, Jack is apparently slowly aging (one gray hair in 140 years). For another, I really hate the thought of full of life, vibrant, flirty Jack turning into a face in a jar (and what happened to the rest of his body, if he really is the FoB?) and dying, without the Doctor even realizing he'd been Captain Jack Harkness once upon a time. I cling desperately to my own fanwank that Jack was part of the police department in "New Earth"... then he couldn't be the Face of Boe (John Barrowman's voice is heard in the episode, as a police officer).
6.) Lucy Saxon. After an interesting introduction in TSoD, she turns out to be nothing, really, just the Master's death (and possible new body in a future episode). What a disappointment!
7.) The Jones family. Again, what a waste, nothing was really done with them, other than to write Martha off the series.
8.) Martha's exit. I could have done without the whole 'Martha is the one who allows the Doctor to move on from Rose' angle. I like the thought of Martha taking her exams and becoming a qualified doctor herself, and coming back to the series and seeing the Doctor in a new light. I can do without her having a crush on him.
9.) After the Doctor's treatment of Jack (and I think it's more the writing than David Tennant's acting), I have no desire to watch more Doctor Who. I'll probably weaken, and watch it at some point, but right now, this minute, I can wait, easily, for CBC to run it, whenever they get around to it.
So the finale gets a 0/10 from me. At least with the finale for Torchwood (no, won't mention how I've seen it!), I was very excited for both Jack's appearances on DW and then second series TW. Now I don't really care about either, although I'll tune in to see TW and hope that it's improved a lot, from the first series.
The one thing I actually liked about the episode? The Master's sonic laser had an isomorphic control (whatever the phrase was), which instantly had me thinking about Blake, Avon and Jenna on the Liberator the first time in Blakes 7 and how they discovered it was one weapon per person. I don't know if the line was meant as a nod to B7, but I'm taking it that way.
I'm putting this behind a cut, since (a) I'm so late with my comments, and (b) I know controls_lady is still working on watching the Christopher Eccleston episodes, so if she gets spoiled, it's her own fault for clicking, since I am posting spoilers in this. ;)
Two weeks later, and I'm still really disappointed in the finale, so I thought I'd post my own rant about the travesty that was "The Last Of The Time Lords".
Firstly, I really, really enjoyed "Utopia" and enjoyed seeing Jack again immensely. Loved Jack flirting with Martha, the nameless guy and Chantho, the blue alien woman bug. I also enjoyed the scenes with Jack and Ten, and I was intrigued. I wanted more details about how/why Jack was "WRONG", was it the Doctor's attitude more than the TARDIS that caused them to end up at the end of the universe (and where was Milliways, anyway?!?), and I wanted to see a possibility of Jack travelling with the Doctor again. I ended up watching the episode four times and enjoyed all the stuff with Jack, and enjoyed Derek Jacobi's performance.
"The Sound of Drums", I watched two times and again, enjoyed Jack's performance, thought John Simm was good as the Master. I wanted more of Jack and the Doctor, and Jack with Martha, but I'd hoped to get more of that in the third episode. Too bad I've already seen Torchwood so when Jack said he'd rebuilt it in the Doctor's honour, I couldn't help adding 'With more shagging! Ten times the incompetence of Yvonne's Torchwood! And almost destroying Earth in the process!" but I could believe John Barrowman's delivery of the line, and that Jack really had meant it as an honour, that he hadn't joined it to get back at the Doctor and twist the knife in.
Then came "The Last Of The Time Lords", which I only watched the once. Maybe I did get too excited, too built up for the last episode, but it really badly let me down. TLOTTL, how do I loathe thee, let me count the ways:
1.) Jack's back for three episodes, and that's it?!? Jack's immortal/forever, the Doctor can't fix him, Glowy!Rose did it to him? Thanks, RTD, I kinda figured out the immortal/forever from the first ep of Torchwood, that Jack had died on the Game Station and came back so when Glowy!Rose said "I bring life" and Jack was shown, alive again, that she had done it (I suppose since no-one else was shown coming back to life, it was only Jack she had brought to life again... which is just as well. I'd hate to think of Lynda-with-a-Y coming back to life, dying, life, dying, life, dying etc. outside the Game Station until she ended up on some planet, after falling all that distance and presumably burning up in any atmosphere she'd eventually reach).
I kinda hoped/thought that Jack would at least have had an important scene or two in the finale, but nope, nada. The Doctor warns him not to touch the paradox machine in TSOD, so Jack just rushes in and shoots, five rounds rapid* and blows it up in the finale. Great. **rolls eyes**
And what a freaking waste of having the Master, the most evil and mad/crazy/insane of Time Lords, and Jack in the same episode, without having even one scene of the Master doing his damnedest break/freak out/drive Jack insane. Again, why bother bringing Jack back? The Master should have been tempted to want to take over Jack's Fixed Point In The Universe body, because he'd never have to regenerate again or try body snatching over and over, to keep on surviving.
2.) This is left over from the episode before, but why the hell didn't Jack teleport down with Martha? I still don't understand that. Yes, he was still recovering from the Master's sonic laser (yeah, whatever), but Jack's forever, she could have helped him to somewhere he could have recovered, then both of them could have travelled the planet and met back in England at a certain time/date. It's not like they used chained up Jack for anything, other than to show us Jack's probably died countless times on the Valiant. I really thought that when he told Martha teleport, he'd meant himself and Martha, they couldn't do anything on the ship. (Did I mention JB looked heartbreakingly gorgeous, after he'd been shot by the Master, when he was on the floor, for the rest of the time he was shown in the second episode? Man, he does suffering very well.)
3.) It was the Master's episode, until the last five or ten minutes. David Tennant didn't get to do anything until Tinkerbell!Doctor and Glowy!SuddenlyYoung!Doctor took over. I thought it was poor writing, and when I should have been cheering, and really emotionally involved in the episode, I wasn't.
4.) The Master and the Doctor (and Jack). Yes, I get it that the Doctor is once again the last of his race... yet he can cry and moan, etc., etc., etc. over the evil Master, who had once been a friend... but show absolutely no emotion over a former companion's countless deaths? That pissed me off so much, in "Utopia", when the Doctor didn't try to do anything to make Dead!Jack more comfortable, to make coming back to life not such a hard experience as it obviously was, and how he stopped Martha from giving Jack CPR, maybe trying to give Jack a bit of comfort. I really, really, really, despise this aspect of the Doctor and I had such high hopes (silly of me, I know) that Jack would soften this aspect a bit, both with his presence, just being there, and also by reminding the Doctor of certain things (like when the Doctor was all gleeful he was right about Chantho's people having built a conglomeration, and Jack points out the Doctor is supposed to say he's sorry, about the loss of her people).
5.) Jack's exit. I found this as badly written and awkward as the last scene with Ianto and Jack in TW, in "They Keep Killing Suzie". I hated the Doctor's high-handedness in unfixing Jack's plot device/deus ex machina... oops, I mean, vortex manipulator (and if it worked well enough to get Jack from the Game Station, why was there a zero percent possibility of Jack's survival, in "The Doctor Dances", he should have used it to get off the doomed-and-about-to-blow-up Chula warship, instead of enjoying a last hypervodka martini). Cripes, the Doctor himself (the third) was exiled to Earth for a while, by his own people, and he absolutely hated it. What an asshole, to do it to Jack. I realize that Jack having it work properly would give him too much of an out for TW, but I would have far, far, far preferred to have had Jack offer his wrist to the Doctor and ask him to take away that capability, and admit that he might be tempted to misuse it if it was left working properly. I would have felt proud of Jack for realizing it, and of the Doctor for realizing it and agreeing with Jack's assessment. It's such a little change, yet it has such a huge change on how I'd feel about both characters.
So let me get this straight, the Doctor, who has previously said that the TARDIS was trying to repel Jack, flew to the end of time/the universe to get rid of Jack... offers Jack a chance to travel with him again? How would that work, exactly? Wouldn't the TARDIS reject Jack's presence? If not, then the Doctor lied in "Utopia" and it was probably more the Doctor's doing/attitude that sent them to the end of the universe, not the TARDIS. I wanted an explanation, damn it, of how it would be possible for Jack to travel with the Doctor! I also want to know if Jack still has his TARDIS key after the Year That Never Was, and if not, if the Doctor gave him a new one. I also wanted a better explanation of why Jack is going back to Torchwood Three (other than the show is promoted as John Barrowman starring in it). Just on the screen, it appears to me like Jack prefers the Doctor's company to that of his so-called team.
The Face of Boe revelation. No, no, no, no, no, noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! For one thing, he's supposed to be an entirely different species! For another, Jack is apparently slowly aging (one gray hair in 140 years). For another, I really hate the thought of full of life, vibrant, flirty Jack turning into a face in a jar (and what happened to the rest of his body, if he really is the FoB?) and dying, without the Doctor even realizing he'd been Captain Jack Harkness once upon a time. I cling desperately to my own fanwank that Jack was part of the police department in "New Earth"... then he couldn't be the Face of Boe (John Barrowman's voice is heard in the episode, as a police officer).
6.) Lucy Saxon. After an interesting introduction in TSoD, she turns out to be nothing, really, just the Master's death (and possible new body in a future episode). What a disappointment!
7.) The Jones family. Again, what a waste, nothing was really done with them, other than to write Martha off the series.
8.) Martha's exit. I could have done without the whole 'Martha is the one who allows the Doctor to move on from Rose' angle. I like the thought of Martha taking her exams and becoming a qualified doctor herself, and coming back to the series and seeing the Doctor in a new light. I can do without her having a crush on him.
9.) After the Doctor's treatment of Jack (and I think it's more the writing than David Tennant's acting), I have no desire to watch more Doctor Who. I'll probably weaken, and watch it at some point, but right now, this minute, I can wait, easily, for CBC to run it, whenever they get around to it.
So the finale gets a 0/10 from me. At least with the finale for Torchwood (no, won't mention how I've seen it!), I was very excited for both Jack's appearances on DW and then second series TW. Now I don't really care about either, although I'll tune in to see TW and hope that it's improved a lot, from the first series.
The one thing I actually liked about the episode? The Master's sonic laser had an isomorphic control (whatever the phrase was), which instantly had me thinking about Blake, Avon and Jenna on the Liberator the first time in Blakes 7 and how they discovered it was one weapon per person. I don't know if the line was meant as a nod to B7, but I'm taking it that way.