Ack, I don't think I can. I'd get all nervous about people's responses if I started cross-posting my reviews, and would probably stop writing them before long because of the pressure. I think I write better when I feel I've got the freedom to express my personal angles (e.g. looking out for Classical references, squeeing over Tom Baker, watching all this systematically for the first time) because my primary audience already basically know what I'm like and what I'm into. People are welcome to come and find me, but I don't really want to actively put myself out there.
I liked that epsiode a lot but i agree completely about the departures. There was a real feel of a "time for a change so over the side they go" without particular logic to it. I suspect the author wanted to write a story and was asked to write in that Romana and K9 left but as that wasn't HIS story he shoe-horned them without particular care. That's just speculation though.
Thanks for these write ups -- it's fascinating to get other people's perspective. I'm sure you must be running out soon.
Yes, I think you're right about why the departures are so abrupt. It makes a poor contrast with Sarah Jane's departure in The Hand of Fear, which I thought was beautifully handled - although it is much on a par with Leela's, of course.
I'll be hitting Logopolis very soon, which will be a moment for great sadness. But I'll still have six other Doctors' worth of material to watch! So I don't think I'm going to stop writing these any time soon. :-)
I can still recall the shock of Logopolis the first time around. It was so unsettling because I was very used to the Tom Baker years even though I was only ten (I think) when it changed.
I also thought the crew of the slave ship were well-characterised
Yes -- for all that this is a high-concept story, it's also very much an actor's serial. The script gives the actors space to be their character -- I always particularly liked the guy who's carrying the big detector box around. Everyone's doing what they have to do to keep their job and no more (as noted here). But they're also INTERGALACTIC SLAVE TRADERS.
And the cliffhangers are great too. "Doctor! This *is* a surprise."
Yes, I liked the Detector Box Guy as well! He and one of the other crew members (whose name I never caught, but he had a roundish face and close-cropped greying hair) are good examples of actors who don't have a particularly big role, but manage to convey the sense of a real, rounded person all the same. The captain is more prominent, so it's not surprising he comes across well, while the two chaps in beanies are comic relief, really. But the subtle, yet distinctive, portrayal of the more minor members of the crew is a real index of how good the characterisation is here.
Much more the sort of thing I expected when I first heard about E-space
I think the problem is that you approached the E-Space Trilogy as "The E-Space Trilogy", so to speak -- which is only natural, since that's how it's now always regarded -- rather than as three Doctor Who stories which happen to form a loose trilogy. On original broadcast we had no idea about this trilogy idea (well, I didn't; I've no idea if anyone else did), so I really liked the gradual revelation in Full Circle that we were in another universe. True, they didn't really do much with it -- although it is a plot point in Logopolis -- but since I didn't originally watch it with any foreknowledge, I didn't have my expectations raised like you did.
a gateway between E-space, N-space and the domain of the Tharils - which, as far as I could tell, was something quite different again.Um, I don't think so, but I admit it's not very clear. I was under the impression that the Tharils' empire was in E-Space, or possibly spanned both universes, and the gateway was just a
( ... )
I don't think it was my prior knowledge that there was an 'E-Space Trilogy' that set me up for disappointment - only my prior knowledge that E-Space was some kind of alternate Universe. It just didn't seem terribly alternate when we first met it in Full Circle, or indeed in State of Decay. I was expecting something much more different from the normal Universe - perhaps a slightly less hostile version of the anti-matter Universe in Planet of Evil. For that reason, I'd have been disappointed by what I saw in Full Circle whether or not I knew that further stories set in the same Universe were still to come.
I'm really not sure about the Tharils' domain, but I think something was said at some point about the gateway being a three-way interchange (though I may just be getting mixed up with the reference to Threefold Man from The Stolen Earth!). Certainly, the place behind the mirror with all the black-and-white backgrounds doesn't seem like E-Space or N-Space, while the Doctor said at one point that what was behind the mirror wasn't any
( ... )
Hmm, you may be right about the Tharil domain, but I must admit I never saw it that way before!
But about the E-space thing, my point is that because I had no prior knowledge, the revelation that this was a different universe came *after* I'd already seen quite a bit of the story, so i had no expectations of what E-space would be like. It was like what I was seeing. :)
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Thanks for these write ups -- it's fascinating to get other people's perspective. I'm sure you must be running out soon.
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I'll be hitting Logopolis very soon, which will be a moment for great sadness. But I'll still have six other Doctors' worth of material to watch! So I don't think I'm going to stop writing these any time soon. :-)
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Yes -- for all that this is a high-concept story, it's also very much an actor's serial. The script gives the actors space to be their character -- I always particularly liked the guy who's carrying the big detector box around. Everyone's doing what they have to do to keep their job and no more (as noted here). But they're also INTERGALACTIC SLAVE TRADERS.
And the cliffhangers are great too. "Doctor! This *is* a surprise."
Reply
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I think the problem is that you approached the E-Space Trilogy as "The E-Space Trilogy", so to speak -- which is only natural, since that's how it's now always regarded -- rather than as three Doctor Who stories which happen to form a loose trilogy. On original broadcast we had no idea about this trilogy idea (well, I didn't; I've no idea if anyone else did), so I really liked the gradual revelation in Full Circle that we were in another universe. True, they didn't really do much with it -- although it is a plot point in Logopolis -- but since I didn't originally watch it with any foreknowledge, I didn't have my expectations raised like you did.
a gateway between E-space, N-space and the domain of the Tharils - which, as far as I could tell, was something quite different again.Um, I don't think so, but I admit it's not very clear. I was under the impression that the Tharils' empire was in E-Space, or possibly spanned both universes, and the gateway was just a ( ... )
Reply
I'm really not sure about the Tharils' domain, but I think something was said at some point about the gateway being a three-way interchange (though I may just be getting mixed up with the reference to Threefold Man from The Stolen Earth!). Certainly, the place behind the mirror with all the black-and-white backgrounds doesn't seem like E-Space or N-Space, while the Doctor said at one point that what was behind the mirror wasn't any ( ... )
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But about the E-space thing, my point is that because I had no prior knowledge, the revelation that this was a different universe came *after* I'd already seen quite a bit of the story, so i had no expectations of what E-space would be like. It was like what I was seeing. :)
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