Inferno, Earthshock and Fenric
Apr. 9th, 2007 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowSo my Doctor Who themed Easter was a success, cue long post with much discussion...
Inferno
Thank you Doctor who for having reminded me of the one universal truth: eye patches = evil. Damn the Brigadier was made of win in Inferno. I can understand why he's so loved.
Why, why do people on Doctor Who feel the need to touch mysterious substances with their bare hands? Why? Put on a freaking pair of gloves! Have these people never heard of occupational health and safety. Speaking of the green men, they converted alt!Benton. Those bastards. I heart Benton. I never quite understood why people were turning into green monsters though (other than Doctor Who's obvious requirement for there to be monsters). I thought at first that green glop was some sort of intelligence, but that never amounted to anything.
Liz Shaw is made of awesome. And those legs! This is the first Liz serial I've seen. I don't know why there is such a prevalent myth that all female companions were all basically cut from the same mold until the new series decided to change all that. Seventies Who has a string of female companions and they are all different, likeable and, for the most part, very capable.
And zomg, there was Jago (okay, Christopher Benjamin) But yay for Jago!
It's a very good storyline. I'm a big sucker for the alternative universe/future gets destroyed the save the past storyline, and Inferno did it really, really well. Heck, I even loved the parallel love story's happening between the woman in command and the engineer. And the storyline managed to sustain itself through all seven episodes without me being bored. Truly a brilliant serial.
Earthshock
The only Fifth Doctor serial I'd seen before was The Visitation, in which Adric bugged the hell out of me and Tegan bugged the hell out of me and I was actually looking forward to seeing one of them get killed off, though strangely enough Adric wasn't half as annoying in Earthshock. I even felt sorry for the poor bugger. Tegan also wasn't so bad.
Davidson's Doctor's is a bit bland; Five just doesn't quite have the gravitas of all the other Doctors I've seen. While I've criticised Tennant's Doctor a lot, I can believe that he is a powerful being capable of saving the earth. With Davison's Doctor, I can't - and I think his serials suffer for it.
Nyssa really is the saving grace of the Davison era for me. Well if the companions getting attention are Adric and Tegan, it's pretty much a given I'm going to like the quite, calm girl standing at the back. I think that while I am a fan of having a three person Tardis, four it just way too much.
And my god the incidental music is bad.
I did love the appearance of One, Two and Four in the recap the Cybermen's experience with the Doctor. I'm not wanting the new series to get too bogged down in canon, but a brief "appearance" by one of the past Doctors would be wonderful.
Until Earthsock I though the Cybermen to be the scariest of the Doctor Who reoccurring villains. I mean, a Dalek will kill you, but a Cyberman will remove your humaity and make you one of them which is a fate worse than death. But Earthsock knocked them back a bit. Cybermen are scary when they don't talk that much and are converting people left right and centre, like in The Invasion and Rise/Age. Once you take the conversion threat away and have them talking, they really lose their effect. And what is it with having Cybermen in a vacuum sealed plastic bag? Happened in The Invasion too. Birth symbolism squicks me though. Ewwww.
Anyway, verdict is that it's the best Davidson I've seen. Still not convinced by the era.
The Curse of Fenric
I watched it in old episode format and not the new movie version format, not sure if that makes any difference to the viewing experience. Certainly was a good episode to watch, what with blood suckers appearing recently in Smith and Jones – and there's even a cast connection since one of the victims of the Haemovore's showing up as a Plasmavore
I was very WTF through this. Hadn't really much clue of what was going most of the time with the plot, but who cares, it was certainly exhilarating. And so many characters were introduced with motivations and subplots of their own – it was brilliant, much more involved than any other Doctor Who serial I've come across. I think it's reminiscent of the gothic horrors of the early Tom Baker years like Pyramids, Talons and Fang Rock. I can't believe the show was cancelled after that, it was obviously on an upswing.
I've heard Seven is the most manipulative Doctor and the chess analogy really worked with him. Whereas other Doctor's seem to be going along with events, he seems to be much more in control, or at least have much more of an idea of what's going on. Certainly different from the others I've seen.
Ace is great, very intelligent and proactive and not just running around spurting of slang and blowing things up. Though that scene with the flirting was very weird. I quite like the idea of a companion being part of a grand scheme through time, creating their own existence and the like.
It is interesting as well for the not-so-hidden political message underneath it, what with the pawns joining forces, Ace being gifted with the soviet badge and that solder having faith in the revolution. Ian Briggs was very obviously venting about Thatcher. To think, over 15 years later Doctor Who writers would still be venting about Thatcher. She certainly had an effect.
Anyway, wonderful stuff. I'm going to have to watch it again and see if I can understand what's going on with the plot just a bit better. Certainly one of the best serials ever.
So slightly random Who thought - if Harriet Jones in The Christmas Invasion is Margaret Thatcher, then is Saxon going to be Tony Blair?
Meanwhile for something rather amusing, in the Earthshock entry in Wikipiedia someone's changed "Cybermen" to "Wikipedians".
Inferno
Thank you Doctor who for having reminded me of the one universal truth: eye patches = evil. Damn the Brigadier was made of win in Inferno. I can understand why he's so loved.
Why, why do people on Doctor Who feel the need to touch mysterious substances with their bare hands? Why? Put on a freaking pair of gloves! Have these people never heard of occupational health and safety. Speaking of the green men, they converted alt!Benton. Those bastards. I heart Benton. I never quite understood why people were turning into green monsters though (other than Doctor Who's obvious requirement for there to be monsters). I thought at first that green glop was some sort of intelligence, but that never amounted to anything.
Liz Shaw is made of awesome. And those legs! This is the first Liz serial I've seen. I don't know why there is such a prevalent myth that all female companions were all basically cut from the same mold until the new series decided to change all that. Seventies Who has a string of female companions and they are all different, likeable and, for the most part, very capable.
And zomg, there was Jago (okay, Christopher Benjamin) But yay for Jago!
It's a very good storyline. I'm a big sucker for the alternative universe/future gets destroyed the save the past storyline, and Inferno did it really, really well. Heck, I even loved the parallel love story's happening between the woman in command and the engineer. And the storyline managed to sustain itself through all seven episodes without me being bored. Truly a brilliant serial.
Earthshock
The only Fifth Doctor serial I'd seen before was The Visitation, in which Adric bugged the hell out of me and Tegan bugged the hell out of me and I was actually looking forward to seeing one of them get killed off, though strangely enough Adric wasn't half as annoying in Earthshock. I even felt sorry for the poor bugger. Tegan also wasn't so bad.
Davidson's Doctor's is a bit bland; Five just doesn't quite have the gravitas of all the other Doctors I've seen. While I've criticised Tennant's Doctor a lot, I can believe that he is a powerful being capable of saving the earth. With Davison's Doctor, I can't - and I think his serials suffer for it.
Nyssa really is the saving grace of the Davison era for me. Well if the companions getting attention are Adric and Tegan, it's pretty much a given I'm going to like the quite, calm girl standing at the back. I think that while I am a fan of having a three person Tardis, four it just way too much.
And my god the incidental music is bad.
I did love the appearance of One, Two and Four in the recap the Cybermen's experience with the Doctor. I'm not wanting the new series to get too bogged down in canon, but a brief "appearance" by one of the past Doctors would be wonderful.
Until Earthsock I though the Cybermen to be the scariest of the Doctor Who reoccurring villains. I mean, a Dalek will kill you, but a Cyberman will remove your humaity and make you one of them which is a fate worse than death. But Earthsock knocked them back a bit. Cybermen are scary when they don't talk that much and are converting people left right and centre, like in The Invasion and Rise/Age. Once you take the conversion threat away and have them talking, they really lose their effect. And what is it with having Cybermen in a vacuum sealed plastic bag? Happened in The Invasion too. Birth symbolism squicks me though. Ewwww.
Anyway, verdict is that it's the best Davidson I've seen. Still not convinced by the era.
The Curse of Fenric
I watched it in old episode format and not the new movie version format, not sure if that makes any difference to the viewing experience. Certainly was a good episode to watch, what with blood suckers appearing recently in Smith and Jones – and there's even a cast connection since one of the victims of the Haemovore's showing up as a Plasmavore
I was very WTF through this. Hadn't really much clue of what was going most of the time with the plot, but who cares, it was certainly exhilarating. And so many characters were introduced with motivations and subplots of their own – it was brilliant, much more involved than any other Doctor Who serial I've come across. I think it's reminiscent of the gothic horrors of the early Tom Baker years like Pyramids, Talons and Fang Rock. I can't believe the show was cancelled after that, it was obviously on an upswing.
I've heard Seven is the most manipulative Doctor and the chess analogy really worked with him. Whereas other Doctor's seem to be going along with events, he seems to be much more in control, or at least have much more of an idea of what's going on. Certainly different from the others I've seen.
Ace is great, very intelligent and proactive and not just running around spurting of slang and blowing things up. Though that scene with the flirting was very weird. I quite like the idea of a companion being part of a grand scheme through time, creating their own existence and the like.
It is interesting as well for the not-so-hidden political message underneath it, what with the pawns joining forces, Ace being gifted with the soviet badge and that solder having faith in the revolution. Ian Briggs was very obviously venting about Thatcher. To think, over 15 years later Doctor Who writers would still be venting about Thatcher. She certainly had an effect.
Anyway, wonderful stuff. I'm going to have to watch it again and see if I can understand what's going on with the plot just a bit better. Certainly one of the best serials ever.
So slightly random Who thought - if Harriet Jones in The Christmas Invasion is Margaret Thatcher, then is Saxon going to be Tony Blair?
Meanwhile for something rather amusing, in the Earthshock entry in Wikipiedia someone's changed "Cybermen" to "Wikipedians".
