(no subject)

[sebastienne]

Party good, hangover bad...

Watching Doctor Who with ou3fs is always a joy; I'm sure that I simply get more out of watching it in their company, because they are so effervescent with joy at things I haven't even noticed, that it enriches my understanding and thus my enjoyment. Can we book that room every week? Also, Donna is so beating Martha on awesomeness points. Flying the TARDIS? Supertemp? Loved it all. Do not love Guantanamo-Bay-UNIT. Not sure whether all the poison gas at the end of the episode is in fact *the Doctor's fault* for fiddling around with that Atmos unit; would he not then be responsible for *lots and lots* of death?

I can't claim this as an original thought, stealing it as I did from some someone on parrot_knight's journal, but didn't this one really come across as if Helen Raynor had written a Cybermen story, then been told that they wanted Sontarans, and not bothered to change, well, anything beyond the name of the villains? Atmos is just earpods again, and Martha-cloning is the same as Adeola-earpod-control. Then again, I wonder how many Pertwee-era stories I could fit into this mould if I felt like it?

Comments

[frodomorris.livejournal.com]

Most (though not all) Pertwee stories are: Master offers $badguy help conquering the Earth, in return for ruling over the Earth; UNIT shoots at $badguy, but $badguy is impervious to primitive hyoo-mon weaponry; Doctor fails at defeating $badguy/Master/(both if he knows they're both involved); $badguy reneges on the deal with the Master; Doctor saves Master; Doctor defeats $badguy.

Guantanamo-Bay-UNIT is clearly just an attempt to have another Torchwood-before-they-changed-Torchwood organisation. I now have a clearer idea of my own wild speculation for the season finale.

[countess-rezia.livejournal.com]

I assumed the *lots and lots of death* was happening anyway?

I'm liking Donna a lot too, in spite of myself. Tis a strange sensation, this liking Tate :)

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

THOU SHALT TELL ME, THEN, WHY SHE BEATS DONNA.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I concede to the might of your logic. I do not need to Martha-bash to recognise the coolness of Donna. Thank you for reminding me of all the reasons I was defending Martha before!

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

Do not love Guantanamo-Bay-UNIT.

I'd interpreted that line as just Donna shouting "Guantanamo Bay!" at the sight of the military arresting people. I didn't actually see anything in UNIT's behaviour and treatment of the prisoners that implied they'd actually gotten any more or less ruthless since we last saw them.

Not sure whether all the poison gas at the end of the episode is in fact *the Doctor's fault* for fiddling around with that Atmos unit; would he not then be responsible for *lots and lots* of death?

The poison gas was probably going to happen sooner or later anyway. He might have made the Sontarans panic and start things early, but I suspect "release poison gas into the atmosphere" was the next stage of the Strategem anyways.

What I find more interesting is that if the Doctor and Donna hadn't interfered with the Matron's plan in Partners in Crime, she could conceivably have existed in a nice little symbiosis with mankind. Nobody had died of being-torn-to-pieces-by-their-own-fat until the emergency switch got pulled in that one.

didn't this one really come across as if Helen Raynor had written a Cybermen story, then been told that they wanted Sontarans, and not bothered to change, well, anything beyond the name of the villains?

The characterisation of the Sontarans was quite different from much anything that we'd seen recently -- they actually had emotions and faces and names and things.

But story-wise I agree, it was pretty much a stock "Aliens have infiltrated our society and are using a vaguely topical household item to their own end, until they go critical and decide to invade" plot. It's not really just Cybermen and mobile phones that this applies to -- there's also the Autons (shop dummies), the Daleks (reality TV), the fat-monsters (diet pills), the cat-people (hospitals), the Wire (television) and to a lesser extent the Master (mobile phones again).

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

It seems to be the same UNIT that we saw in Tosh's backstory, which is not a UNIT that I like.

I concede that the Doctor's interference probably just sparked an acceleration of plans, rather than a change of them.

And yes, you're right, I'm just being very slow to pick up that this is how Doctor Who works when it's an Earth-based story...

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

It seems to be the same UNIT that we saw in Tosh's backstory, which is not a UNIT that I like.

I think I've not seen that Torchwood episode, so I'm willing to stand corrected once I do. That might not be for a while though, so for the while I'll settle for "insufficient data". :)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

"I'll have a salute" means they will have to do a LOT to make me not like Donna in future. <333 Martha also great, though pretty underused there. BUT. "I'll have a salute".

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Also the whole "You're....just popping home for a visit, aren't you?" scene. *LOVE* (even if mutter mutter everyone but Martha gets given big emotional speeches from Ten about how amazing they are mutter)