Ah you beat me to it this week! Seems our opinions arent so split for once. Actually I thought this weeks episode was an improvement on last weeks, probably because the quicker pace and higher action quotient helped paper over the cracks, but was still generally lacking.

Like you I think the Tyler saga wasnt half as affecting as they hoped, it really did feel like a pale retread of some of the Fathers day dialogue, Jackie's fate was clumsy, and there was never any payoff to Pete and Rose's teaming. While I was never the greatest fan of Noel Clarke's performance in the series, Mickys exit while rather telegraphed, was better, a workable but rather trad companion exit, could he be being set up for a surprise return?

RLP was much more effective as a Cyberman than a human, how unfortunate that we got so little of him as the former, perhaps he is also due for a season ending comeback. We also never really got the grand visual spectacle we have come to expect from a 2-parter, and the 'conversion' process was a poor piece of design work, looking more like Futurama's suicide machines than anything.

Usually an episode manages to get either the characterwork or the plot spot on, one covering for the other, but the oh so weak resolution to the cliffhanger, far too convinient dont-think-about-it-too-hard ending (which are usually the province of RTD authored eps) just left a taste of 'missed opportunity' in the mouth.

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by Wobag
Mickys ... could he be being set up for a surprise return?

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To quote Winston Churchil when asked if he wanted to be Chancellor: "Does a bloody duck swim!"

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... the 'conversion' process was a poor piece of design work, looking more like Futurama's suicide machines than anything.

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Well we can be fairly sure they won't be adding crack-cocaine vending machines to their rip-off list.

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Usually an episode manages to get either the characterwork or the plot spot on, one covering for the other, but the oh so weak resolution to the cliffhanger, far too convinient dont-think-about-it-too-hard ending (which are usually the province of RTD authored eps) just left a taste of 'missed opportunity' in the mouth.

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Yep, "missed opportunity" sums it up. I always had half a foot in the RTD bashing camp, but after "Tooth and Claw", which is not only the season's best epp to date, but also has the best resolution, think the Cardiff boy's got it together now. In a strange reversal of last series I get worried when a guest writer comes on. They seem to be casting outside the Doctor Who fandom writers now, and the cracks, they is showing.

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by Byron
In a strange reversal of last series I get worried when a guest writer comes on. They seem to be casting outside the Doctor Who fandom writers now, and the cracks, they is showing.

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On the writer front, upcoming we have:

Mark Gatiss, with proven success in series 1 (Unquiet Dead)
Matt Jones, another none who writer entrusted with another 2 parter (gulp)
Matthew Graham, writer of Life on Mars
RTD of course

Into Season 3...

Stephen Moffatt (thank god)
Paul Cornell, season 1 writer (Fathers Day)
Helen Rayner, script editor of season 1 and 2
Stephen Fry, whos ambitious script was bumped from s2 to s3
Gareth Roberts, fan favourite Who novelist, also wrote the interactive mini episode.
RTD again.

A few more to be confirmed

They are overcommissioning scripts with the hope that s4 will be commissioned and they can swap eps between seasons to suit story and production concerns.

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by Wobag
(quotes)

On the writer front, upcoming we have:

Mark Gatiss, with proven success in series 1 (Unquiet Dead)

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Hooray! "The Unquiet Dead" was easily one of the best shows in season one. Is he writing that 1950s TV epp next week?

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Matt Jones, another none who writer entrusted with another 2 parter (gulp)

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Erm, he's only got a handful of credits on imdb, including Corrie (from 1960!) and Children's Ward! Here's hoping ...

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Matthew Graham, writer of Life on Mars

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Get out the bloody Tardis, you SLAG, I'm late fer me dinner and I'm 'avin HOOPES!

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They are overcommissioning scripts with the hope that s4 will be commissioned and they can swap eps between seasons to suit story and production concerns.

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Any news on this? *Tempts fate* Can't see it not being recomissioned, biggest Saturday night sucess they've had in over a decade.

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by Byron
(quotes)
Get out the bloody Tardis, you SLAG, I'm late fer me dinner and I'm 'avin HOOPES!

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Hahahahaha!!

I cried like a big woman (which is okay considering I am a big woman!)

I've soooo gotta see that!

Bearing in mind that if I remember rightly, around the time that Tennant's season started, John Simm was briefly listed as 'Sam Tyler' in a guest appearance later in the series, but this has since been removed... sadly.

Even sadder, though, is this. *shudder*

(Edited by Alan 21/05/2006 20:49)

Well, we agreed that the Americans could never pick up on subtleties like the Hilsborough reference and whatnot. If it's real, then the writer they chose could at least've been a lot worse than David E. Kelley.

(Hey, I like Chicago Hope! )

One of the things going for the American Life on Mars is how different it will be, the 70's of america calls to mind Kojak, Starsky and Hutch et al, quite a different feel from the Sweeny.

Expect Afros, disco music, and big cars.

The only question mark I have, is will America want to portray its own policeforce as having been racist sexist and heavy handed?

USA Cop shows do do the corrupt cop angle some times, but its always about smoking out the one rotten apple, but I dont think they will have the balls to show the force as being institutionally prejudiced. esp 'the good guys' eg. Gene Hunt.

If true it will make for a much more superficial cultureshock drama.

(Edited by Wobag 22/05/2006 18:19)

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by Wobag
USA Cop shows do do the corrupt cop angle some times, but its always about smoking out the one rotten apple, but I dont think they will have the balls to show the force as being institutionally prejudiced.

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Not a fan of The Shield then Wo?

UK and US cop shows are pretty even in the dodgy peeler sweepstakes. If anything the US are a bit ahead of us: uber-mainstream US shows like Law & Order and Cold Case have the heroes flouting the law from time to time, and give the impression the police do so as a matter of routine. Let's not forget the most popular UK cop show is that Met recruitment video The Bill.

That's not even a Met recruiting video any more - it's a soap opera in uniform.

I agree with your point, though - I'd be intrigued to go back over my US history for the early 70s and see what it might incorporate if it did decide to treat the whole "fish out of water" concept as anything mote than aesthetics.

Oooooooooooooooh!

Are there any who fans geeky enough to understand how cool it is they are casting Gabriel Woolf in the next 2 parter?

... and the OMG worthy possibilities given he is playing a character called Satan?

Later ramble than usual, on the grounds that I've had a few pressing bits and pieces to take care of first. Between LRP this weekend and being in London next Thursday and Friday, I'm crossing my fingers about even getting to see next week's episode:

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why two-parters are a good thing.

That first five minutes was a classic illustration of discovery and reversal storytelling, and exactly how powerful mise en scene can get. Was there anyone who seriously wasn't taken in by Ricky simply acting the part?

That simply wouldn't have worked to the same extent if we'd been hit with the revelation after forty minutes or so.

Although it might be regarded as a disappointment to find that the only thing that separated Ricky from Mickey was pure bravado, he revelation that the Preachers were a glorified Scooby Gang really seemed to drive home the point that Mickey realised when he and Ricky managed to have their chat: that whilst he might not've done anything amazing to prove himself, Ricky runs on pure charisma and self-belief in his own potential. And he likes himself for it.

Watching Mickey and Ricky together was basically a case of watching one internal monologue stretched between two people (this episode was yet another great opportunity for Noel Clarke, who carried off Ricky's off-screen death - where we see Ricky having a very Mickey-like moment of hesitation - purely through one reaction shot), both of whom seem convinced that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

But it's Mickey who takes the shot in the arm from it that he's been looking for ever since he realised that he was "the tin dog". It was a nice twist on the usual narrative formula of self-validation and self-realisation to have two sides of a personality physically interacting.

Did anyone else think he'd pose as Ricky after that long pause when Jake asked him who he was, after he came back alone? It would've made for an interesting plot twist, but I don't suppose that you come by self-validation by pretending to be someone else - even if he is just an alternate version of you in the first place.

I have to say that I liked the fact that the proposed homosexual relationship between Jake and Ricky was toned down to the point of nuances and interpretation; not, of course, because I have any problem with that sort of thing, but because it made a change - especially from someone usually as blunt as RTD - to see it acknowledged that not every gay relationship needs to be graphically rammed home, and that not every non-heterosexual character needs to behave like Captain Jack to make their sexuality clear, just as not every heterosexual couple's publicly flaunting it.

Unlike some correspondents I've seen, I'm not totally against RTD's own agenda playing some part in the narrative (after all, heterosexuality's been the default hidden norm for years, and nobody bats an eyelid about that) but as much as I found Captain Jack a fun and interesting character, I do think that RTD's in-your-face attitude may be a little self-defeating at times. I might not agree with the idea of there not being parity between the two types of relationship, but attempting to hammer things home hard is hardly going to warm doubters up to the idea.

There's such a thing as subtlety, and RTD seems to've figured that out. Phew!

Hopefully, Mickey's going to get around to fixing his gran's carpet before he and Jake disappear to Paris.

There was something eminently poetic in watching Lumic's fear and hypocrisy in being destroyed by his creations' sense of literalism, instilled by the loss of the very emotions and humanity he removed.

It was a shame that the Cyber-Controller was handled in the way that he was afterwards as a result. that death scene came across as rather cliché, when it could've been far more effective to see him taken down in the same way as the footsoldiers. I could appreciate the use of a different method, though - that flash of fear'd been the only feelings other than greed or hatred that Lumic'd shown throughout the entire arc.

Seeing him react in the same way as any other human had might be a case of poetic justice considering how he'd tried to cheat nature, but lumping him in with the drones that we were supposed to feel sympathetic towards just wouldn't have seemed good enough for him somehow.

Nice handling of the themes of uniformity and identity that the idea of the ear-pods'd been playing with the previous week. For me, the culmination of that in the moment when Pete and Rose lose the CyberJackie as quickly as it surprised them was a good pay-off.

(And yes, the thought of Jackie's head exploding has its merits. )

The scene between the Doctor and Mrs. Moore seemed rather contrived in its hurriedness, but had a rather nice pay-off. There was just something about watching the Doctor talking about the necessity for killing an entire army of innocents one minute, and then saying "You didn't have to kill her!" about one human the next.

Mind you, he seemed to be getting taught lessons on all sides (although I agree that lecturing a Cyber-Controller who was mechanically incapable of appreciating is rant on emotions seemed a little contrived), if the way that he handbagged Rose and Pete for not being as competent as Mickey and Jake was anything to go by. At least, unlike Rose, he seemed to have some comprehension of Mickey's actions.

Rose finally got what she's been asking for for a considerable while: the comeuppance of her mindless pursuit of her own enjoyment through a means - the Doctor - which she has now had rammed down her throat will only be temporary (although this only seems to've made her determined to hang on tighter to it - witness "Laura" in the last episode).

Even if it was from and only for a few minutes, she lost everything from her old life. Jackie was one of the nameless rusting masses; Pete finally proved that he wasn't her Pete by - far from being intrigued or pleased by her revelations - running away.

And then she lost Mickey - the one thing that had been exclusively hers to start with and from her own world - left her, answering her inevitably selfish "What about me?" with the firm realisation that the temporary lifestyle'd taken over her life to the point where there wasn't any room left for him any more.

Mickey became the sort of dynamic, exciting man that she wanted - but in growing into it, he grew up enough to gain the Doctor's streak of independence and see her for what she really was. She couldn't have it both ways.

For the first time, she's had an apparently irreversible taste of consequences. Hopefully, this is going to mean something later on down the line.

Hopefully, we're not going to see Pete Tyler again - at least, not in the concept of something that Rose keeps chasing. Not only does it stretch credibility that she'd be that monomaniacal twice (let alone three times), but seeing the Doctor go back on the talking-to that he gave Rose in Father's Day even once made little enough sense - and if Tennant was still piloting the TARDIS, it'd be stretching credibility even further.

Don't get me wrong - I like the idea of the character of Pete Tyler, and I like the way that the actor who plays him portrays him. But the character's only got a limited mileage as far as I'm concerned. As much as I'd like to one day see the Doctor and Rose forced into seeking out an alternate Pete for whatever reason, and I'd be curious about a meeting between an alternate Pete and "our" Jackie, I think that the outright pursuit angle's had its day.

We've seen Rose try to change the future of her own world and fail. We've seen Rose go to an alternate universe and find out that she lost Jackie forever and couldn't keep Pete. She apparently can't change the fact that she only has one parent, and we've had it demonstrated in multiple universes. Let it go before it gets stale.

I wish I knew whose idea it was to have Billie Piper change costumes inbetween leaving the parallel world and rushing back into her flat on the Powell Estate, though - it was only a small thing, but it just took something away from the scene to find that they didn't go straight home.

Last year, the halfway point was full of zepellins and gave us a new companion to play with. This year, the halfway point was full of zepellins and we lost one. Hopefully - since RTD reckoned that introducing Jack at that point was designed to shake the series up at a point when it was starting to get settled - it's going to give the plot the sort of shot in the arm.

(Edited by Samanfur 25/05/2006 11:30)