Comments | parma_violets: School Reunion

parma_violets

School Reunion

Apr 30, 2006 10:16

A review of 'School Reunion', guest starring some speculation about Series Three's newly-announced writing staff. Not your deal? Don't click on the cut.

( The one where the Doctor gets a job as a brickie in Germany. That's livin' alright! )

billie piper, tony head, robert shearsmith, stephen fry, david walliams, school reunion, doctor who, sarah jane smith, k9, russell t davies, tom macrae, bbc, paul cornell, indira varma, jackie, mickey, toby whithouse, mark gatiss, stephen moffat

Comments 21

londonkds April 30 2006, 10:26:04 UTC

there was an odd narrative ellipsis as the Doctor worked out that the Krillianites were allergic to their own oil

Wasn't the Doctor present when the dinner lady got gunged?

neth_dugan April 30 2006, 10:41:51 UTC

No, but Rose was. I figured the fact that Dinner lady got gunged by said oil, got very hurt from it, screamed and then died would have been some kind of clue to him...

parma_violets April 30 2006, 10:50:59 UTC

Yes, as I said, you could work it out later, but to have it come out of thin air at the start of a scene was a bit jarring.

neth_dugan April 30 2006, 10:53:52 UTC

It was jaring? Huh... just seemed kinda natural to me. Logical. Stuff gets on alien, alien dies, Rose sees this, they anylise it and... just seemed logical when he said it.

Could just be me though.

Thread 6

demona_hw April 30 2006, 10:41:56 UTC

I think the character work in this episode was very good, but I couldn't give a monkeys about the main plot (although the Doctor did have a reason for woking out how to kill the Krillianites - Rose's report of spilling the goo in the kitchen). In one sense the characterisation may have needed a simpler plot that took up less time, but I thought it made the episode weaker, and thus falling short of classic status, despite the significance of the return of SJS ( ... )

parma_violets April 30 2006, 10:57:58 UTC

Yeah, in the opening scene Tennant seemed like he was actively trying to muff up the timing on all the jokes. I didn't think hammy supervillainy was much of a waste of ASH - it's true that he can do so much more, but I've never seen him do this before, so it was fun and perhaps even revelatory. The scene by the swimming pool was excellent.

The Doctor deducing how to kill the Krillianites is something I've addressed above.

(The comment has been removed)

parma_violets April 30 2006, 10:55:01 UTC

Oh yes! I actually love the New Yorker - I've been mulling over an entry on it for some time, and I might actually write it now. I'm getting besides the point. I'd love that article, and I'll e-mail you my address later on today.

gileswl April 30 2006, 10:48:17 UTC

As with Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor - though the problem is alleviated there by Ecclestone's performance - I think that it is possible to suspect that RTD is aiming for something not entirely stupid or repugnant as the Doctor's character in his episodes, but that it is only possible to be sure when it is competently realised by the other writers.

parma_violets April 30 2006, 10:53:33 UTC

He's an ideas man, basically. When I watch his episodes, I'm initially blindsided by the sheer quantity of brilliant ideas that are there, but they're never developed, or if they are it's in a way which drains out what was initially good about them. Well, initially. I still like the Slitheen two-parter, 'Bad Wolf' and 'The Christmas Invasion'.

Any road. The next Russell T Davies episode is seven weeks away, so let's make the most of it.

baron_scarpia April 30 2006, 10:53:35 UTC

Stephen Flippin' Fry!

I can't wait.

parma_violets April 30 2006, 10:54:10 UTC

Hee hee, yes! Steven Moffat was right when he said that he was the "token heterosexual" on the writing staff.