Summer Falls

first thing i can say is yes i love Buffy and yes i love Fringe both amazing shows ,

i didnt mind school reunion but it wasn;t my fav , but have sarah there was the best , have you watched sarah jane series to?

Mickey did get better on as the series progress and well you will find out more about him later on

So you already know about the timeless child to ?? so odd i dont know if it can work with watching series 2 it was such a different show

Class is also a good show to watch i didnt mind the show

DigificWriter

And we continue on with Series 2:
* I haven't seen anything that Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who beyond The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot's Lantern and so I don't know if the basic conceptual similarities between them ('pseudo-Historicals' involving aliens wanting to use humanity for their own gain) is a pattern with his storytelling style, but I find those basic conceptual similarities really fun. I also love it when Tennant gets genuinely pissed-off, which brings The Idiot's Lantern up in my estimation just by itself.Throw in the notion of faceless people and a villain that is evocative of Audrey II from the phenomenal musical Little Shop of Horrors, and you get a story that I will fight people about without hesitation

* Between the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, I've watched 5 two-parters, and, of them, I think The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is the most conceptually risky and ambitious, and while not everything about the story works perfectly (I'm not sure the premise and conceit of Doctor Who mixes well with religious philosophy, and there's a bit too much casual death for my liking), I can appreciate and applaud the fact that RTD and his writing staff were ballsy enough to take on the risk of telling a story like the one told in these two episodes

* I'm of the opinion that romantic attraction between Rose and The Doctor has been a narrative through-line across both Series 1 and Series 2 of "nuWho", but even if others might disagree, there really isn't any way to deny that the show was rushing headlong in that direction after The Idiot's Lantern and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, and I think adding that element makes those 3 episodes that much more enjoyable, and it's a credit to both Tennant and Billie Piper's performances and natural chemistry

I'll be back later with thoughts on the final three episodes of Series 2, along with the Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride", but for now, I'll conclude by saying that there hasn't been a single episode of "nuWho" thus far that I haven't enjoyed in some fashion, which is a fairly hard thing to achieve.

Summer Falls

I am so happy you are liking it, do you like the romantic storyline between rose/doc?

DigificWriter

Yes.

It hasn't developed as overtly as I was expecting given certain things that I'm aware of from beyond Series 2, but that's OK.

I was planning on covering the remainder of Series 2 in a single review, but might as well break things up since I'm here:
* Y'know how I said that there hadn't been an episode of "nuWho" that I didn't like? Well, I jinxed myself with that comment because we have "Love and Monsters"

* I get what RTD was trying to do with the story and what the production was trying to do in terms of practicality. The problem, though, is that I just didn't care about the characters who were at the center of the story

* Episodes like the ones that inspired the concept behind "Love and Monsters" - TNG's "Lower Decks" and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "The Zeppo" - worked because, in the case of the former, the episode made us as an audience care about the characters in a very short amount of time on an individual level, and in the case of the latter, the audience was still following a main character in Xander, albeit through a self-contained arc journey that had nothing to do with saving the world

* LaM, however, fails on that score for several reasons:
* First, the casting of Elton is completely 'off' in relation to the casting of Ursula. Not only is Shirley Henderson not a good actress, she was way too old for the role, which makes the events that lead to the episode's resolution and the aftermath of said resolution farcical
* Second, the Absorbaloff is just stupid. Now I now Doctor Who has always had an element of silliness to it, but there's a difference between silly and stupid, and a stupid villain can drag down what might otherwise be a solid concept upon which to base a story, which it does here
* Third, there's a logistical and executional disconnect behind the incident that draws Elton to the Doctor in the first place because it would not have been the Tenth Doctor showing up in his home and there were practical but still inexpensive ways the show could have shown that and quite frankly should have utilized

Okay, ranting over.

Let's pivot from something that was an abysmal failure on pretty much every level to something that is decidedly not a failure in any way with "Fear Her". Although it was made under pretty much the same production restraints as "Love and Monsters", FH works so much better, and here's why:
* It touches on real-life issues (domestic abuse of a child and depressive loneliness) in a way that I can't recall Doctor Who having done in the past
* It takes our central characters into their future but still, for us as an audience looking back, creates a sort of historical feel that works well regardless of how out-of-sync with reality it ends up being vis a vis the Olympic Games themselves
* It does what "Love and Monsters" didn't by making you actually care about the characters who are driving the story by, as noted, grounding the peril and conflict in real-world issues like childhood domestic abuse and the depression and loneliness that can come about as a result of that kind of trauma
* It lets Rose be heroic in a way that doesn't feel cheapened by 'gimmicky' plotting by temporarily removing the Doctor from the story in a completely organic way
* It creates a creepy sense of atmosphere and tension that doesn't feel forced even though we're dealing, ultimately, with living drawings and there is no 'villain' as such in the episode

It completely baffles me that adults who like Doctor Who rate this so poorly because that's exactly the audience that ought to be championing what the story is trying to do and say on levels that kids might not be able to see, and so I'm going to put myself out there and say that I think I've found my favorite Series 2 episode with this one, at least at the moment. We'll see if that changes later today once I watch the finale and Christmas Special, but one way or another, I really liked "Fear Her" and am willing to fight people to defend it.

DigificWriter

Sorry for the double post again, but I really think I need to offer my thoughts on the remainder of Series 2 before I get any deeper into Series 3:
* I probably won't ever delve into the Torchwood series itself, but as far as organization intros go, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" are pretty hard to beat
* Throw in Daleks, Cybermen, parallel world shenanigans, Rose getting to be awesome and resourceful yet again, and a ton of really well-handled angst, and you get some of RTD's best writing thus far
* Ten was definitely going to tell Rose he loved her before he lost transmission, and there's not even an argument to be made to the contrary
* Is it wrong of me to wish Yvonne Hartman had been offed a lot sooner than she was?
* I don't know if you can beat the coda of "Doomsday" as far as character introductions to
* RTD and his writing team kind of painted themselves into a corner with The Runaway Bride and Donna Noble because they unintentionally made her a really hard act to follow with how they characterized her dynamic with the Doctor
* Giant alien spiders, killer Santas, major angst, and a reprise of the "flirty arguing" relationship that made me fall in love with the Sixth Doctor and Peri had me smiling for pretty much every minute of "The Runaway Bride", and I so wanted Donna to accept the Doctor's invitation

I really enjoyed Series 1, but Series 2 ended up being better in almost every way, the failure of "Love and Monsters" notwithstanding, pretty much cementing Ten as the 'second coming' of the Seventh Doctor and ma!king it crystal clear that Doctor/Companion romance - consummated or otherwise - can very much be utilized as a storytelling device and probably should be used more than it is.

Now onwards to my thoughts on the first half of Series 3 with Martha Jones, Medical Student, and Freema Agyeman's unenviable burden of having to follow Donna Noble.

Summer Falls

It is such a good season im glad you are enjoying it .

so you wont ever give torchwood a chance??

see i feel bad for martha but now i love her more than i did before i feel bad for not likeing her at the start.

what was you fav episode for season 2?

BlondieLeigh

Martha never really stood a chance so soon after Rose. I love her so much now.

Summer Falls

i agree i didnt before now i respect Martha so much more now

BlondieLeigh

She was awesome.

Summer Falls

she was and i didnt notice it before

BlondieLeigh

Same.

Summer Falls

i am glad i realise her worth now

BlondieLeigh

Same.

Summer Falls

she was and is so cool

One Thing Remains

I loved Martha! She was a nice contrast to Donna.