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by Wobag
...and I think Doctor Who just got its first real contentious episode.

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Not for me.

From the mysterious opening set to a haunting score, I knew we were in for a treat, and I wasn't disappointed. Hopping in and out an entire lifespan in a matter of minutes is a wonderful concept, and they stripmined it for every last drop of pathos. After the previous three wizz-bang epps, a quiet, reflective show (barring the robots; hey, it's still Doctor Who) was a welcome change of pace.

Clockwork robots under the bed tap a fundamental childhood fear and fit the 18th century very nicely. I didn't mind their rapid defeat; they were never the heart of the show and it's good Stephen Moffat didn't spend time on a convoluted solution. White charger? That'll do nicely. It was all about the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour, & the cogged fiends were just side order to the main dish.

And what a main dish it was. Casting Tennant's real-life girlfriend Sophia Myles was a canny move that made the Doctor-Pompadour chemistry more explosive than last week's schoolyard pyrotechnics. Moffat's rich dialogue and Euros Lyn's creepy directing were fuel to the fire. The more they play up the Doctor as mythic hero, the more I like it.

So strangely I was happy they didn't spend the entire episode in 18th century France. You can have too much of a good thing. Juxtaposing the two worlds gave the episode its power, and as a wise man once said, tragedy without comedy is unbearable. And not half so tragic. Anyway, the ship's "spare parts" was a clever and icky idea.

All this gave the tragic end real punch. I even found the rather corny payoff moving. One complaint; how much more can the poor bugger take?

Scares, wit, drama and pathos: I think, for the first time this series, full marks are in order.



But maybe not for the last, because the age of steel is almost upon us ...

Really interesting episode continueing with some of the emotional themes from last week. I loved it but *really* felt that this could have done better with an hour or even as a two parter.

I didn't spot a Torchwood reference? Was I being slow, was it too bloody subtle (i.e. In french?) or was it just not there?

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by Sydney
Really interesting episode continueing with some of the emotional themes from last week. I loved it but *really* felt that this could have done better with an hour or even as a two parter.

I didn't spot a Torchwood reference? Was I being slow, was it too bloody subtle (i.e. In french?) or was it just not there?

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Well i think you could say that about most episodes!

Very indirect reference, the ship was from the 51st century, which was where Jack came from in his time agent days. Im assuming that was a time agent ship, with all the time window tech and all. And Jack is in Torchwood, so its sort of a reference. Kinda.

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by Sydney
I loved it but *really* felt that this could have done better with an hour or even as a two parter.

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All true, but hey, just look at is as getting more cyberman for your dollar.

We're back in the past with Stephen Moffat at the exact same point as last series, and it all comes back to dancing and bananas. Again, I get a strange sense of deja vu.

Lovely use of the classic childhood fear motifs in the first timeslip: darkness, clowns, not hanging anything over the edge of the bed because you don't know what's under there... I wonder how many of the younger viewers got a good night's sleep on Saturday night.

As with last week, on an emotional level, this packed a wallop - in fact, moreso after last week, because the episode seemed to be a microcosm for everything that last week discussed.

For a while we as an audience were looking at human life as the Doctor sees it: just a brief flicker, after which he just has to pick himself up and amble off again.

Reinette made a good foil for the Doctor, with the amount of sophistication that Rose and Mickey generally lack and that it's easy to imagine a character with his experiences being drawn to.

As a character, she was largely underplayed, but it made a change to see the Doctor dealing with a woman with enough confidence and intellect to pose a challenge.

In that respect, seeing her secretly lusting for decades after an "imaginary friend" who she's seen a number of times she could count on her fingers just didn't make sense, and yet again a two-parter might've made more sense, even if it would've diluted the Brief Encounter vibe.

Perhaps it was because of the genuine chemistry between David Tennant and Sophia Myles, but the emotions came across as something easy to empathise with. I suppose you could look at it as a couple of different types of nobility: the Doctor's being the classical approach with the white charger and Reinette's being the willingness to show him the fireplace again after - having visited his time - she realises that he doesn't belong in hers, and when she knows that she may never see him again. Classic stuff.

I wanted to believe in the romantic elements - but the fact is that watching the Doctor apparently lose his head on an infatuation level over a woman we see him find and lose in forty-five minutes just seemed odd.

Given his reaction to the revelation of who the strange woman who'd just kissed him was, I couldn't help getting a sense that if the Doctor has a bedroom squirreled away somewhere on the TARDIS, it's had at least one portrait of Reinette in it somewhere for years.

He came across as such a drooling fanboy initially that it's possible to wonder if she's a woman he's admired for years, and if he was able to slide into a relationship with this idealised figure from the history books that he's had time to create in his head as much as the pretty trinket actually in front of him - the ultimate bit of memoribilia collection, if you will.

As much as I can't fault "Arthur" on his permformance and I do appreciate what the writers said later about a horse wandering around a space station being a random element to keep people's attention, the part of me that likes a tight story can't help resenting shoving the completely random element of a horse onto a space station apparently just to let the Doctor do his knight errant routine in the grand confrontation, and give Moffat that big scene he threw such a hissy fit about.

And that's the one part of the story that I really do want to see consequences for, because I can't square it very easily: the Doctor was willing to leave Rose, Mickey, the TARDIS and his entire life, and trap himself on that "slow path" that he just said last week scares him so much that he tends to throw humans away before they get a chance to lose their lustre.

And all for just one of the "stupid apes".

(I want to imagine the few missing seconds between the Doctor debating how to save the day and finally crashing through the mirror involving the Doctor reminding Rose how to take the TARDIS home and giving her a few assorted instructions; but that's just me.)

The personality may be different; but this is still the character who's spared entire species on occasion for nothing other than the benefit of future generations, and he seemed purely focused on either his usual fascination with "beautiful" new things, or just plain lust.

It is more plausible to see him flitting between humans because he seems to treat them like curiosities or pets - but to give everything up like that just doesn't seem to work with what we know, even with all of the soul-searching that's been going on since this series started.

What I can't decide is whether or not this is adding a layer of complication to the character and something that's going to come back later, or just plain sloppy writing.

(And the closest we get to a Torchwood reference is a mention of the 51st century. I can live with that. )

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As with last week, on an emotional level, this packed a wallop - in fact, moreso after last week, because the episode seemed to be a microcosm for everything that last week discussed.

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It's getting more and more like Highlander's "damn it, all the women I like keep dying" leitmotif. And the year started with a stonking great broadsword fight! Hummm …

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For a while we as an audience were looking at human life as the Doctor sees it: just a brief flicker, after which he just has to pick himself up and amble off again.

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Indeed. It's excellent they're going beyond using the Doctor as a wacky enigma. Although I hope there's some mystery left.

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I wanted to believe in the romantic elements - but the fact is that watching the Doctor apparently lose his head on an infatuation level over a woman we see him find and lose in forty-five minutes just seemed odd.

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Yeah, well, that's time lords for you. Live forever fall head over heels in five minutes flat. Tsk.

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I want to imagine the few missing seconds between the Doctor debating how to save the day and finally crashing through the mirror involving the Doctor reminding Rose how to take the TARDIS home and giving her a few assorted instructions; but that's just me.)

The personality may be different; but this is still the character who's spared entire species on occasion for nothing other than the benefit of future generations, and he seemed purely focused on either his usual fascination with "beautiful" new things, or just plain lust.

It is more plausible to see him flitting between humans because he seems to treat them like curiosities or pets - but to give everything up like that just doesn't seem to work with what we know, even with all of the soul-searching that's been going on since this series started.

What I can't decide is whether or not this is adding a layer of complication to the character and something that's going to come back later, or just plain sloppy writing.

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Hey, Russel T Davis didn't pen it, you can't say that!

DO NOT BLASPHEME!

I think the good Doc was so lovestruck he didn't give proper regard to the consequences of his actions. If that's the case it's another dark side I like the look of. (Waits to be told the Doc is asexual by legions of livid fanboys in the very same condition. )