Doctor Who

[major_clanger]

OK, Russell T Davies et al: you are hereby forgiven for Evolution of the Daleks. That was three absolutely cracking episodes in a row.

Mind you, given Billy Shipton's job it must have been awfully tempting to have sent him back to 1973 rather than 1969. You could even have done a spin-off series about it :-)

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Indeed. (Though I'm not sure we should thank RTD as much as the estimable Paul Cornell and Stephen Moffit, who have been in the Whoverse since the Doctor only knows when.)

Excellent episode. On the the other hand, four episodes back I actually gave up watching after ten minutes in....

[nwhyte]

There's an extra 1973 connection as well...

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

It was as you say fantastic. I'm not sure I agree that Evolution was really awful. Yes the science was utter bollocks, but the idea of the Daleks wanting to change and The Doctor wanting to help them was brilliant.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

The underlying idea was good, but the execution was pretty dire. I'm afraid I found Human Dalek Sec to be hammier than a paddock full of Gloucester Old Spots, to the point where I have proposed the crossover musical episode where he elopes with Torchwood's Cyberwoman.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

*snork*

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

I think the hamminess is to be expect. Daleks are fairly hammy to begin with, and humans apparently taste of pork, so mix those two…

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

I'd have forgiven it if at the end of the episode, the human/dalek/timelord crossbreeds had revealed their timelord DNA by regenerating.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Now wouldn't that open a can of worms.

DW doesn't have the end-of-story reset switch of some TV, but they have to be careful about Time Paradoxes. Charles Dickens is going to die before he can get the story onto paper. Shakespeare lives, but there'll never be another performance of "Love's Labour Won". Remember the Docotr chose not to destroy the Daleks at their birth (and maybe if he'd set of the detonator something would have failed), and now he's the last Timelord. But if he'd destroyed them at birth, he would have changed his own history.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Excellent - more time paradoxes than you can shake several dozen sonic screwdrivers at!

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

The older Billy may have forgotten to mention his time as a barman in Manchester...

Yes - definitely a very good episode. Before PC's two parter I was beginning to think they'd lost their way. Not now though!

Two other thoughts...

1) They missed the opportunity of using a mirror to freeze an angel with itself (though this might have been deliberate)

2) Now we know what all those CCTV cameras across the UK are for (or maybe Moffit's been reading The Concrete Jungle...)

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

They're already perceiving themselves--kinesthesia.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Two possible responses...

(1) I'm not sure we should be making such assumptions about how the sensorium of a really alien life form works.

(2) Pedant :-)

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Well, how can they do anything if they aren't aware of themselves? And otherwise, putting their hands in front of their eyes would be suicide. After all, they're supposed to be quantum, and there's this pissed off cat in a locked box somewhere, wondering why some stupid scientists think it can't observe events.

And it was the red wire.