DigificWriter

Hi.

I just finished off my thoughts on Series 2 and figured I'd play "catch-up" with thoughts on the first five episodes of Series 3:
* RTD has a definite pattern to the way in which he chooses to write intro pieces for the Companions he chose to pair the Doctor up with, and it very much shows in "Smith and Jones" in both positive and negative ways

* Catherine Tate was so good in "The Runaway Bride" that following her was going to be a big ' ask', and Freema Agyeman was fortunately up to the challenge, because otherwise Martha would have been DOA as a character

* The Judoon, a Plasmavore, and a hospital being transported to the moon aren't the highest-stake problems the Doctor's ever had to tackle, but they did make for a fun episode

* I really wish "The Shakespeare Code" had been written by Mark Gattis because of how well he handled the Historical format with "The Unquiet Dead" and because the story really could've used his proven knack for creating atmosphere; I also think he would've made more use of Martha, who sadly and unfortunately gets reduced to being the object of the male gaze

* "nuWho" has a habit of making you think the story is going in one direction before u-turning and going in a completely different direction, and "Gridlock" is a perfect example, as what at first seems like a fairly straightforward repeat of thematic narrative elements from "The Long Game", "Bad Wolf", and "The Parting of the Ways" instead becomes a tale of tragic denial-fueled failure tinged with religious allegory

* Martha also thankfully gets a more substantial story despite spending 3/4 of the episode stuck inside a metal rectangle, and we get a chance to delve into her actually processing the fact that she basically ran away with a total stranger and completely upended her own life

* I was initially not a very big fan of the Daleks, but have now almost completely come around on them, with "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" playing a pretty significant role in that shift in opinion

* Contemporary history is not something Doctor Who uses that often as a narrative setting, and America is used as a narrative setting even less often, so it was fun to get a story that combined both... especially coming straight on the heels of Ten and Martha's trip to New Earth and New New York

* Martha's use in the Series has thus far been a bit uneven, which is unfair to Freema since she unfortunately had to live up to the bar set by Catherine Tate in what at the time was supposed to have been nothing more than just a one-off guest appearance; she gets to be more present in the story for "Daleks in Manhattan" and " Evolution of the Daleks ", but she's kind of overshadowed by Tallulah and again reduced to being a bit of a wallflower

* Given how much history there is between the Doctor and the Daleks in general and between Ten and the Cult of Skaro specifically, I wish there'd been more 'struggle' on his part when it came to the decision to help the evolved Dalek Sek create his new race of "Human Daleks", and more opportunity for him to react to the destruction of the "Daleks Humans" by Dalek Caan

I've enjoyed Series 3 thus far despite some niggles with the handling of Martha's character, especially in light of Freema Agyeman having had to 'replace' Catherine Tate, and am looking forward to more to come.

Summer Falls

nice yes it is a good series i feel with season 3 as a whole season it was ok but it had more stand a lone episodes that made it great.

I must say you did love Donna, oh you are going to love season 4

DigificWriter

Here we go with more of Series 3.

* I briefly touched on this elsewhere, but it's relevant to repeat here: The writing of Martha's character has been very uneven thus far, but "The Lazarus Experiment" and "42" are both strong 'vehicles' for her, particularly coming off the disappointing ways that "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" had her be overshadowed by Tallulah

* I get why the writers decided to tie Mrs. Jones into the Saxon arc in both "The Lazarus Experiment" and "42", but doing so kind of unintentionally delves into negative stereotypes and doesn't feel entirely 'earned'

* I loved how evocative "42" was of both "The Girl in the Fireplace", "The Impossible Planet", and "The Satan Pit", and the idea of the antagonist being a sentient sun is so quintessentially Sci-Fi and Doctor Who that I'm surprised it took this long to mine that narrative well

* My one complaint with "42" is that I don't think the Doctor blasting himself out of an airlock to save Martha and the guy she was trapped with had quite as much gravity to it as other previous instances where he's selflessly acted to save a Companion or Companions' lives

* And now we've reached what I would consider to be the nadir of Series 3, so I apologize in advance for the ranting I'm about to unleash

* I don't know if the Paul Cornell responsible for writing "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" is the same Paul Cornell responsible for relaunching DC/Wildstorm's StormWatch property for The New 52, but if he is, the turnaround in his talent level in 4 years is pretty astounding because those two episodes are just bad

* Freema Agyeman had just come off of two episodes where it looked like Martha was finally going to build some momentum as a character, and then she's saddled with a pair of episodes wherein she's reduced to having to put up with blatant institutionalized racism and sexism and that hinge on an unearned romantic infatuation with the Doctor

* It also doesn't help matters that said Doctor is himself reduced to being a simpering idiot who aimlessly wanders about for 3/4 of both episodes and is forced into a pointless and meaningless love story with a woman who is the complete opposite of the type of people that the Doctor usually connects with

* The only good thing about these two episodes is the ending of "The Family of Blood" when Ten's ruthlessness comes out and we find out what he did to the Family, but it's not enough to compensate for the other 80+ minutes of combined runtime that precedes it

* And then we get to "Blink", which is thankfully a better episode than both "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood", but which has its own set of issues

* The first 'Doctor-lite' episode of the franchise, Series 2's "Love and Monsters", was conceptually sound, but was sunk by a lame villain, poor casting, and a lack of reasons gor us to care about its central characters, and "Blink" suffers from some of the same intrinsic problems

* The Weeping Angels are far better adversaries than the Absorbaloff, thankfully, but they ought to have been introduced with a more in-depth setup that is actually connected to characters that we as an audience care about rather than random nobodies who never come back in the future

* I've heard numerous accounts of people using "Blink" to introduce people to Doctor Who, and I really don't understand why, because while it's a good episode in and of itself and plays with a lot of interesting concepts, it isn't at all positively representative of what Doctor Who is as an ongoing program

* Even though we as an audience aren't really given sufficient reason to care about Sally and the other characters she interacts with, Steven Moffatt does still instill "Blink" with the same sense of atmosphere and creep-factor that made his previous 3 writing ventures for "nuWho" so good, and he also makes nice use of the time travel elements that lie at the heart of the Doctor Who property

* On the whole, "Blink" is a good episode that has some really fun and interesting ideas at its core, but isn't the masterpiece that the Doctor Who fandom touts it as being and that needed a few changes in its structure - changes that its nature as a 'Doctor-lite' episode wouldnt have allowed gor- in order to truly live up to its potential

Okay, ranting over.

It's been an interesting journey through Series 3 thus far, my issues with some of the writing decisions notwithstanding, and I'm really looking forward to wrapping things up with the first 3-parter of "nuWho" and the payoff of the Saxon arc and the return of The Master.

Summer Falls

thanks it is interesting the episodes you didn't like I reallyed loved about season 3

DigificWriter

Going a little bit deeper into why I don't think "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" work, I don't buy the idea that genetically altering himself would turn the Doctor into the person they're trying to portray him as. It also takes far longer for him to actually become who he really is again than it should have.

Martha is also, as I briefly noted, done a major disservice because she not only gets reduced to being a maidservant, she becomes even further subservient to the Doctor and comes rushing to him to save the day the instant that things go to pot when we've already seen that she's clever enough to deal with the situation on her own.

There is also the forced declaration of "love" she gets saddled with.Rose being romantically interested in the Doctor worked because it was built up over time and felt like an organic escalation of their time traveling the universe together, whereas with Martha, it just feels cheapening..

And then there's the Doctor falling in love with Joan Redfern on top of everything else. I don't personally believe that the Tenth Doctor was romantically interested in Madame de Pompadour, but if you want to read things that way, it's very easy to see what it is about her that would be appealing to him, as she has an independent spirit and joie de vivre that echoes the things that drew him - and his preceding incarnation - to Rose. Joan Redfern, on the other hand, is both unassuming and unremarkable in a way that he would normally have little time for, and so seeing him awkwardly fawn over her just doesn't ring true, especially when it doesn't go anywhere.

I was so offput by these two episodes that I'm struggling to face the prospect of watching or listening to people lavish them with praise, and that's never before happened with Doctor Who.

Summer Falls

Interesting.. I don't mind that point of view

DigificWriter

^ I know I shouldn't be bothered by the fact that other people don't share my disdain for "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood", but I am, and that makes me even more frustrated with myself.

Summer Falls

Yeah cause the ones that you disliked are my fav episodes of this season

DigificWriter

It took me a day longer than I was planning, but I've made it through Series 3:
* Some of my favorite episodes of "nuWho" thus far -either on initial viewing of Series 1 or the watch-through I've completed up to this point - have been those dealing with far-flung time travel into the future, so "Utopia" had me interested just based on that conceit alone. When you throw in the return of - and elevation to Starring status for - John Barrowman and do direct callbacks to "The Parting of the Ways", you can't really go wrong

* Because I'm still fairly new to the Doctor Who fandom, my overall experience with the character of The Master is pretty limited, and so Professor Yana being revealed to be that character didn't quite have the impact it otherwise might have; it's still fairly effective just as a standalone bit of story crafting, though, because it plays on general story concepts that I already tend to gravitate towards

* What is less effective for me, though, is Derek Jacobi's regeneration into John Simm, as I have a hard time reconciling his youthful appearance and manic energy with the idea I conjured in my mind of who Harold Saxon was based on the clues that Series 3 had planted previously

* I also wish we had seen the resolution of the "Utopia" cliffhanger in real time at the beginning of "The Sound of Drums" rather than as a flashback

* That nitpick and the incongruence I experienced surrounding John Simm's appearance and mannerisms aside, I really enjoyed "The Sound of Drums", which had a very "Independence Day"/"Falling Skies"/dystopian vibe to it; I also liked the quieter moments with the Doctor, Martha, and Jack being on the run

* The conclusion of the episode is deflated somewhat by the direction that the story ultimately goes in "The Last of the Time Lords", largely because said story has all this buildup that it doesn't really do anything with (more on that in a bit)

* There's also the practical issue of "The Last of the Time Lords" hinging on Martha when the writing of the preceding episodes hadn't completely earned that particular decision

* I mentioned this elsewhere, but I feel that Martha is Doctor Who's second 'failed' Companion following Adam Mitchell, which is not a slight on Freema Agyeman but is instead an indictment of the unevenness of the way the character was written and the timing of her introduction (sandwiched between the departure of Rose and the introduction and first departure of Donna). Russell does try his best to send the character out on a high note while leaving her return on the table, but it honestly feels like a case of "too little, too late"

* I mentioned earlier that "The Last of the Time Lords" resolves in a way that doesn't justify the buildup laid down by "Utopia" and "The Sound of Drums", and the reason for that is that the resolution of the Doctor being saved through the power of prayer feels super anticlimactic, as does the 'reset button' of the entire "Year of hell" that the Master subjected Earth and the Doctor to being reversed in an instant

* From "The Last of the Time Lords", we move into the Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned", which kind of struggles from being kind of frivolous and inconsequential

* I did like Kylie Minogue's performance as Astrid, even though Russell did unnecessarily 'fridge' her, and her rapport with Tennant was fantastic

* Given that he comes back and is connected to Donna, I wish Wilfred Mott's introduction hadn't been handled so casually, but it is what it is

* I watched a video review of this episode that drew attention to the Doctor's conversation with Mr. Copper about the Doctor wishing that Astrid could have survived instead of Mr. Slade and how it foreshadows the future direction of Ten's characterization, but all that watching said video did was make me wish Russell had let that bit 'sit' for longer

* Before I close this review, I want to comment on is the whole conversation where Jack kind of offhandedly gets revealed to ultimately be the Face of Boe. I really like the idea, but I don't understand why Russell kept refusing to admit that said conversation was as concrete as it was presented as being, and his wishy-washiness about the subject kind of diminishes him as a storyteller

When looked at overall, I think Series 3 is good, even though it suffers from the uneven handling of Martha and the anticlimactic resolution of "The Last of the Time Lords", and I don't regret watching it.

I am, however, really glad I can move on to Series 4 and the return of Donna Noble (AKA Peri Brown 2.0).

Summer Falls

Nicely done

I do agree some hit and misses episodes for sure I do have to agree , the whole ending of them beating the master through prayer was a bit off and to much. It was very odd .

Face of Boe was a good twist i wish they worked more on that storyline in Torchwood.

See the think with wilfred being in this season , it wasn't really him at that point in time we didn't know him or Donna would be back so it was a happy surprise .

Now you are up to one of my fav seasons enjoy it

DigificWriter

^ Russell had Bernard Cribbins' credit changed from 'Stan' to 'Wilfred' prior to the original airing of "Voyage of the Damned", so that argument doesn't track.

Summer Falls

have they changed it now ?.

DigificWriter

Bernard filmed "Voyage of the Damned" with his character being named 'Stan', but in the period of time between when the episode was filmed and when it aired, Russell requested that Bernard's official onscreen credit name him as playing 'Wilfred' and not 'Stan', which means that Russell already knew by the time that "Voyage of the Damned" aired that he was going to be using Bernard as a recurring guest star for Series 4 even though, at the time Bernard himself filmed his part for "Voyage of the Damned", the character had been simply a one-off guest star named 'Stan'.

My complaint is that something wasn't done to make more of Bernard's initial appearance in "Voyage of the Damned" through reshoots prior to the episode airing since, by that point, Russell already knew that he was going to connect Bernard's VotD character to Donna and the Tenth Doctor in Series 4.

Summer Falls

oh that is odd for me i always thought of them as two separate characters .

Like with karen being in season 4 and calpaladi to

DigificWriter

^ The only "nuWho" Main Cast members to play more than one character are Freema Agyeman, Karen Gillan, Bernard Cribbens, and Peter Capaldi, and Cribbens is the only one of those four to have appeared in both "nuWho" and "Classic" Who prior to being cast in "nuWho".