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by CJL
I missed the last 2 episodes before last nights one, so have no idea who the new American is on board the Tardis.

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For your benfit, Jack was a human time agent from the 51st century, the Time Agency being some kind of CIA of time travellers. Jack quit the Agency when they deleted 2 years of his memory.

Jack was making a living as a time travelling con man when he tried to pull a fast one on the Doctor, believing him to be a time agent.

The Doc later picked up Jack from his space ship just prior to it being destroyed, and he has been on board since.

Oh



My




God!!



What a fantastic, amazing episode!!! This is what Doctor Who was always about, now realised by 21st Century production technology!

Can't wait for next week's ep!

For the majority of the episode i thought it was quite naff, but still enjoyable. Would have been better if i hadn't have been spoiled by last weeks "next week on" cos i knew from the beginning who the nasties were

Looking forward to next week's cos i want to know how he saves the day... again

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by Whistler
What a fantastic, amazing episode!!! This is what Doctor Who was always about, now realised by 21st Century production technology! Can't wait for next week's ep!

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This was sarcasm against reality tv at its best Just have to try not to miss the ep next week whilst at the con!

The jokes about, and to Captain Jack were hilarious and very well written. From the BBC3 bit afterwards it seemed that they had filmed naked Jack's behind as part of the original footage but the BBC ruled it out

The annoying thing is even though I've missed a few episodes, I'm starting to enjoy this version of the doctor (and the longer they keep Jack the better!) I think Mr Eccleston was very foolish not to have waited until the series had been aired.

We needed Dr Who to tell us reality tv was bad?

I found the first half of the episode both embarassing and tedious. Dr Who, whether this incarnation lasts long or not, will continue to be watched in re-run for decades. As one associate of mine put it: in three years they'll be cringing, in 20 they'll be going: eh? I didn't find Captain Jack naked funny, nor did the "joke" of the weapon's location need to be spelled out.

Things picked up later on, although Rose's fake demise was fairly pointless, given Billie Piper's continued presence on the show is pretty well known. All it gave us was the Doctor's reaction, which was predictable, but made okay watching.

The wired-in girl (name escapes me for a moment) was pretty cool, as were the Daleks themselves. But that doesn't make up for poor plotting ("The Tardis worked it out!" an appalling premise and ropey scripting. RTD should not be allowed the write whole scripts.

On a different note of incompetence, just as the Daleks were spoiled in the trailer for this week, it looks like Davros will be next week (Who history-wise, it couldn't be anyone else).

(Edited by Demona 13/06/2005 13:29)

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by Demona
We needed Dr Who to tell us reality tv was bad?

I found the first half of the episode both embarassing and tedious. Dr Who, whether this incarnation lasts long or not, will continue to be watched in re-run for decades. As one associate of mine put it: in three years they'll be cringing, in 20 they'll be going: eh? I didn't find Captain Jack naked funny, nor did the "joke" of the weapon's location need to be spelled out.

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I think that expecting the production crew to eschew topicality and keep a weather eye on how the episodes look to future generations is a little hard. Injokes work because they are pitched at the current audience. We only need to future-proof our programmes if we really think we're going to need to rely on repeats for good television in the future...

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by Demona
it looks like Davros will be next week (Who history-wise, it couldn't be anyone else).

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You may think so. I could not possibly comment...

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by The_Host
(quotes)
I think that expecting the production crew to eschew topicality and keep a weather eye on how the episodes look to future generations is a little hard. Injokes work because they are pitched at the current audience. We only need to future-proof our programmes if we really think we're going to need to rely on repeats for good television in the future...

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Good television can get across the same topical point while also having a universiality which stands the test of time. You can satirise reality tv (if you must) without actually having those shows in the episode. I think the audience is intelligent enough to cope with contemporary parallels. A more competent writer might even have made historical parallels with degrading or violent public entertainment. I do find myself wondering if we'll even get an explanation as to why the programmes were all modelled on very late twentieth century ones.

My main complaint is not that it'll be crap in 10 years time, but that it's crap now. One of the reasons that it's crap is because it's not competent satire, because competent satire lasts.

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by Demona
(quotes)
My main complaint is not that it'll be crap in 10 years time, but that it's crap now. One of the reasons that it's crap is because it's not competent satire, because competent satire lasts.

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Ive got to agree it was a very poor atempt at satire although i enjoyed the episode towards the end.

Captain Jack and the Doctor work well together, if they do keep him on I hope the new doctor will work together as well.

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by The_Host
We only need to future-proof our programmes if we really think we're going to need to rely on repeats for good television in the future...

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I think that's a pretty blinkered view. If no programmes were made to be "future-proof" then who would bother to buy DVDs? There would be no such thing as classic programmes because everything would be instantly forgettable.

And whilst I do agree that this weeks Dr. Who suffered from this, I still thought it was really cool.

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by PictureOfFlowers
(quotes)

I think that's a pretty blinkered view. If no programmes were made to be "future-proof" then who would bother to buy DVDs?

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Who indeed? Apart from a few 'ST;TNG' eps, I have never felt the need to buy recordings of television series'. Even with 'Stargate' off-air, and shows being axed, there's still plenty to watch...

Do you seriously never re-watch anything? Or watch any programmes more than a couple of years after they originally air, including ones from outside your lifetime?

I'm a big fan of The Prisoner, even though it was made 12 years before I was born. I missed Twin Peaks first time round and only saw it relatively recently, about 10 years after it was first aired. Do you really think I shouldn't have bothered with either of these shows and should have just watched whatever was on TV at the time? And I can still now watch an episode of Buffy or Red Dwarf or South Park or Spaced or countless other programmes and they'll be as good as I remember them.

Well, I enjoyed this ep anyways. Shame it gets spoiled every time by that goddamned "Next week..." thingy. Gah!

Ok, I was really quite hungover when I watched this weeks episode, and although I enjoyed it, my head hurt even more when I tried to work it out.

OK, so the Borg controller chick knows everything, and is fed up getting ordered around by the Daleks, so she decides to do summat about this. Somehow she finds out the ONLY person that can defeat the Daleks is the Doctor, so she finds him and his companions and beams them into the satelite game show studios.

Am I right so far?

If so, then why put them all in life or death situations? Wasn't Cpt Jack about to get his head cut off?
And Rose being zapped onto the Dalek ship doesn't sound too safe to me.
Was the Borg chick hoping the Doctor would also get zapped onto the ship so he could sort of the Daleks?

Oh, my poor hungover head just couldn't work it out.

Anyone care to explain?

Well my completely random guess is that the only way to beam them on board is to beam them into one of the existing game shows. And it sounded as if all the game shows involved people being disintegrated. The Doctor himself was in no danger of being killed whilst in the Big Brother show, as proved when he got 'evicted', because she was keeping him alive to face the Daleks. As for Rose and Jack, I'm guessing she didn't really care whether they lived or died, it was only the Doctor she was interested in.

That's my (probably rubbish) theory anyway.

My theory?

The Daleks were almost obliterated in the Time War, but how to rebuild their race? (The Daleks used to be human like before being mutated so I bet they want people (or bits of them) to be the new Daleks) They couldnt waltz up to earth and just take over, in the year 200,000 i bet earth could put up a fight.

However they set up the gameshows, now people are happy to ignore the loss of a contestant here, a housemate there, and off they go for conversion, the daleks have been playing the long game, waiting till they had amassed enough human 'cattle' to make enough daleks to mount a proper invasion and take the rest they want.

Oh and I predict the single remaining Dalek that regrew the race was the 'rose-humanised Dalek' from the earlier Dalek episode

YAYYYYY fantastic totally unexpected news.

In a BAFTA speech, the producer confirmed that a 3rd series of 13 episodes is guaranteed as is a 2nd christmas special for 2006! AND contrary to rumours Billie Piper will return for the full 2nd series!

(Edited by Wobag 16/06/2005 00:34)

That's good news

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by Demona
We needed Dr Who to tell us reality tv was bad?

I found the first half of the episode both embarassing and tedious. Dr Who, whether this incarnation lasts long or not, will continue to be watched in re-run for decades. As one associate of mine put it: in three years they'll be cringing, in 20 they'll be going: eh? I didn't find Captain Jack naked funny, nor did the "joke" of the weapon's location need to be spelled out.

Things picked up later on, although Rose's fake demise was fairly pointless, given Billie Piper's continued presence on the show is pretty well known. All it gave us was the Doctor's reaction, which was predictable, but made okay watching.

The wired-in girl (name escapes me for a moment) was pretty cool, as were the Daleks themselves. But that doesn't make up for poor plotting ("The Tardis worked it out!" an appalling premise and ropey scripting. RTD should not be allowed the write whole scripts.

On a different note of incompetence, just as the Daleks were spoiled in the trailer for this week, it looks like Davros will be next week (Who history-wise, it couldn't be anyone else).

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At serious risk of breaking one of my cardinal critic rules, it's a kid's show.

That shouldn't be used to excuse lazy writing or casting farting playdough, but when Russel T Davis exploits something kids will recognise to make a satricial point accessible, I've no objections. If Big Brother had been the focus of the series finale like the pre-publicity suggested, I'd be cringing alongside you, but played as an amusing side-swipe on the way to the main event, I liked it. It lulled you into a false sense of security for the real Big Bad.

I'm all for universiality, but shows shouldn't be slave to it. If Doctor Who was dredging televisial sewage for plots on a weekly basis it would be appaling, but the occasional swipe doesn't seriously detract. The fan in front of his Sony HoloView might (hopefully) be baffelled by the BB references, but he'll have no problem working out the gist of the show. Some things never change.

And speaking of the finale, it kicked arse.

Daleks as religious lunatics played surprisingly well; writing theoglocial gubbins is one of Davis's strengths (see 2002's The Second Coming) and most importantly, it effectively tapped into the series-long relationship between Rose and the Doctor without tipping over into mawkish melodrama.

Davis even managed to write an effective God in the Machine ending. Not only did it fit nicely with all the religious overtones in the script, it didn't feel like a cheat. Deus ex machina resolutions have landed such a bad rep by their use as a lazy device to rescue characters from impossible situations unscathed, but Davis justified his with human (well gallifrian) sacrifice, not some technobabble flick of a switch. That feels tacky, this felt quite epic. Importantly, it wasn't used to spare the Doctor his decision (admittedly it did spare him the consequences). "Coward or killer?" "Coward, any day," was a great moment, demonstrating the Doctor isn't a cold, calculating utilitarian willing to employ any means to achieve his desired end. If he'd destroyed the earth to destroy his enemy, he'd become them. Heady stuff for a seven o'clock family show.

Importantly, the production values, directing and performances were all of the quality to sell it, as did the dedicated brutality of the Daleks. Breaking off resources from a vital assault to go massacre some untermensch, now that's the stuff proper villains are made of.

The regeneration was a pleasant surprise (thought they'd wait til the Christmas special). David Tennant looks a very promising lead. For a series that started out like Holby City with monsters, "The Parting of the Ways" is a remarkable transformation. (Didn't say "regeneration", see, I can show restraint!)