The Fires of Pompeii
Apr. 13th, 2008 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowMore thoughts may come later, but these are the ones I have after the first watch.
Great episode! I really hope season four can keep up this level of quality, because it does have the makings so far of the greatest season of New Who (something you cannot often say about a show’s fourth series).
I’ve been wondering for ages what would happen if you spoke the native language while the TARDIS was translating. Like if the if you spoke French in France. Hurrah for an answer! (Though I still haven’t gotten an answer for whether the TARDIS continues to translate once the Companion has left – because this is a bit of a deal for all the Companions that left the Doctor a place different from where they joined him).
Okay, so it didn’t turn out to be much of a re-run of The Aztecs like I had hoped, since they didn't got quite as in dept into discussing the issue of changing history and the plot had an escape clause for that aspect. Though there were still quiet a few similarities: the Companion (Barbara and Donna) tries rather desperately trying to save a group of people, the Doctor telling them history cannot be changed. They both fail mightily, but still managing to save one person/one family. And Donna even gets to be a god at the very end.
And although I do not like the lonely god thing, I can forgive it this once since both the TARDIS and Companion are gods in equal standing with the Doctor – because where would the Doctor be without them? It’s about time they got some credit as well. Though it may be the production team once again emphasising Donna as the Doctor’s equal – I’m really interested to see where this leads.
I absolutely adore the concept and prophecies at the heart of the plot – that the Doctor and Donna knew the true future, but did not know that they had to bring it about. I think the show is getting much more ambitious in its use of Time Travel – it’s becoming much more central to the plot instead of just a means to put the Doctor and companion in the action.
The people watching the episode with me seemed to be pretty divided on the humour arising from the family being so similar to modern times. Certainly it wasn’t the highlight of the episode, but I don’t think it defected from it. In fact, I quite liked all the humour in the episode, from modern art (City of Death shout out!) to the Doctor and Donna being Gallic, to Spartacus and Spartacus.
Anybody else notice that Donna has now had five costumes in two episodes? Season one Rose and Martha has only two costumes for the first two episodes. Somebody’s managed to get the wardrobe budget increased (maybe it’s because there’s no new Doctor suit this season).
Ritual companion sacrifice! The scene was only a moment, but I loved how it managed to both bring back a trope of Old School and lovingly mocking it with Donna’s “You have got to be kidding me!”
I absolutely loved Donna taking the controls with the Doctor and taking some of the responsibility on herself – I can’t think of another time when that has happened. Usually, when it comes to the big moral decisions, the Companion is lucky to get an opinion out there and when push comes to crunch, it’s just the Doctor alone. And Donna instead takes part of it upon herself. As much as I love Rose-Nine, and adore Martha, Donna and Ten really are my favourite Doctor-Companion team of the new series (okay, thinking about recent posts I’ve made that was probably stating the obvious).
Donna at the end trying to stop people from going to the beach and then trying to save the family broke my heart. So far it’s been pretty consistent through her three episodes that she gets very deeply upset - I really hope they keep this aspect of her character up, and don’t just drop it (because that’s always been a rather inconsistent quality from week to week in Companions).
Do I once again have to restate how brilliant Catherine Tate is? And David Tennant it brilliant as well. Ten is a lot more subdued this season than previous seasons as a result of everything he’s been through (again, hurrah for character development!), and Tennant’s just amazing.
What is on Donna’s back? I know we’re probably not going to find out till the end of the season. But it’s just so random. There’s not enough clues to speculate on it beyond a giant psychic spider (and though the Sarah Jane similarities are strong in Donna, I really don’t think they’re going to do a rehash of Planet of the Spiders).
Next week: Donna’s coat! And I’m rooting for the Ood.
Anybody else been watching those “big question” videos on the official site? It’s basically just David Tennant and Catherine Tate answering silly questions and discussing pop culture - so it's brilliant. This week Catherine Tate would apparently risk dooming all of history just to get the part of Donna Moss on The West Wing, which makes me feel so much better about having an nearly encyclopaedic knowledge of the first four seasons of the show (I love how DT, CT and RTD are all wingnuts).
Great episode! I really hope season four can keep up this level of quality, because it does have the makings so far of the greatest season of New Who (something you cannot often say about a show’s fourth series).
I’ve been wondering for ages what would happen if you spoke the native language while the TARDIS was translating. Like if the if you spoke French in France. Hurrah for an answer! (Though I still haven’t gotten an answer for whether the TARDIS continues to translate once the Companion has left – because this is a bit of a deal for all the Companions that left the Doctor a place different from where they joined him).
Okay, so it didn’t turn out to be much of a re-run of The Aztecs like I had hoped, since they didn't got quite as in dept into discussing the issue of changing history and the plot had an escape clause for that aspect. Though there were still quiet a few similarities: the Companion (Barbara and Donna) tries rather desperately trying to save a group of people, the Doctor telling them history cannot be changed. They both fail mightily, but still managing to save one person/one family. And Donna even gets to be a god at the very end.
And although I do not like the lonely god thing, I can forgive it this once since both the TARDIS and Companion are gods in equal standing with the Doctor – because where would the Doctor be without them? It’s about time they got some credit as well. Though it may be the production team once again emphasising Donna as the Doctor’s equal – I’m really interested to see where this leads.
I absolutely adore the concept and prophecies at the heart of the plot – that the Doctor and Donna knew the true future, but did not know that they had to bring it about. I think the show is getting much more ambitious in its use of Time Travel – it’s becoming much more central to the plot instead of just a means to put the Doctor and companion in the action.
The people watching the episode with me seemed to be pretty divided on the humour arising from the family being so similar to modern times. Certainly it wasn’t the highlight of the episode, but I don’t think it defected from it. In fact, I quite liked all the humour in the episode, from modern art (City of Death shout out!) to the Doctor and Donna being Gallic, to Spartacus and Spartacus.
Anybody else notice that Donna has now had five costumes in two episodes? Season one Rose and Martha has only two costumes for the first two episodes. Somebody’s managed to get the wardrobe budget increased (maybe it’s because there’s no new Doctor suit this season).
Ritual companion sacrifice! The scene was only a moment, but I loved how it managed to both bring back a trope of Old School and lovingly mocking it with Donna’s “You have got to be kidding me!”
I absolutely loved Donna taking the controls with the Doctor and taking some of the responsibility on herself – I can’t think of another time when that has happened. Usually, when it comes to the big moral decisions, the Companion is lucky to get an opinion out there and when push comes to crunch, it’s just the Doctor alone. And Donna instead takes part of it upon herself. As much as I love Rose-Nine, and adore Martha, Donna and Ten really are my favourite Doctor-Companion team of the new series (okay, thinking about recent posts I’ve made that was probably stating the obvious).
Donna at the end trying to stop people from going to the beach and then trying to save the family broke my heart. So far it’s been pretty consistent through her three episodes that she gets very deeply upset - I really hope they keep this aspect of her character up, and don’t just drop it (because that’s always been a rather inconsistent quality from week to week in Companions).
Do I once again have to restate how brilliant Catherine Tate is? And David Tennant it brilliant as well. Ten is a lot more subdued this season than previous seasons as a result of everything he’s been through (again, hurrah for character development!), and Tennant’s just amazing.
What is on Donna’s back? I know we’re probably not going to find out till the end of the season. But it’s just so random. There’s not enough clues to speculate on it beyond a giant psychic spider (and though the Sarah Jane similarities are strong in Donna, I really don’t think they’re going to do a rehash of Planet of the Spiders).
Next week: Donna’s coat! And I’m rooting for the Ood.
Anybody else been watching those “big question” videos on the official site? It’s basically just David Tennant and Catherine Tate answering silly questions and discussing pop culture - so it's brilliant. This week Catherine Tate would apparently risk dooming all of history just to get the part of Donna Moss on The West Wing, which makes me feel so much better about having an nearly encyclopaedic knowledge of the first four seasons of the show (I love how DT, CT and RTD are all wingnuts).
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 01:08 am (UTC)City of Death is my favorite Classic Who serial so far, so I appreciated that reference too! And in general I like how so far they seem to be mixing some drama and some humor in each episode. I agree that if the season keeps going like this it's going to be fabulous. The more I see of Donna and of the Doctor and Donna as I team, the more I love them.
Thanks for pointing the way to the big question videos; I hadn't seen those before. (I haven't done that much poking around on the official site because in the past a lot of it was always blocked because of my IP address. Annoying.) That cracks me up that of all the things she could change, Catherine Tate chose being on the The West Wing. I remember they talked about the show in the Chain Reaction interview too. They're just crazy fans like the rest of us! :D
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 02:16 am (UTC)I love who they're a pair of crazy fans. I also was listening to one of the promotional interviews the two of them gave, Catherine Tate was compared to a politician and the first one she named was Jed Bartlet.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 04:44 am (UTC)That was awesome. =D
Also, yeah, I really love it when the plots actively play with time. The concept is just so fascinating to me. I love time travel stories ridiculously.
OMG. I felt a twinge, but idiot me didn't fully catch the City of Death reference. And it was SO OBVIOUS. I got The Romans reference, I got The Aztecs reference, I got some references that I may have made up out of my own batshit, but the direct quote? FAIL, AIRIE.
Nine/Rose were a bit father/daughter, Ten/Rose were...lets not talk about me and them. But anyway, Doctor/Rose felt very "Doctor and his surrogate Susan" to me, unhealthy dynamic and all. Ten/Martha have a beautiful underlying bond, but Ten/Donna are just...I did a rambly thing about balance, to which I should add on presence, and that is Ten/Donna. And it kind of owns me.
Ten keeps getting better and better. I loved him last year (s2 was still working his way into it, s3 gave it more depth), and this year they've taken what was good about last year and infused it with Ten's new maturity, and I'm thrilled. =D
Yay, The West Wing! You know, I can see Catherine playing Donna Moss. Interesting.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 06:48 am (UTC)I though Catherine was going to say CJ Cregg for a moment. And, as much as I love Catherine, suggesting somebody other than Allison Janney plays CJ is blasphemy in my belief system. She would make an good Donna Moss though. (Also, David would make a rather good Josh Lyman, I feel).
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 07:06 am (UTC)