Wow, that's was a short episode!
That's was a great 32 minute episode. Yeah, it got more personal towards the end, with the humanity ending of the bomb (no clue how thinking "I'm a human" stopped a mechanical device from going off...). But, on the other hand, think how bad it would have been if there had been another ten minutes! What kind of completely extraneous pointless nothing padding would we have otherwise been subjected to!
Certainly the first part was quite good, with the Mad Doctor, then the twist of the Doctor's Testimony, then the Teletubbie Daleks... the M&M Daleks? The Rainbow Daleks? You just know fandom is going to come up with some stupid term for them, so get on board quickly! Some nice design features to them, but from the side they just look hunched. (And their operators might end up that way!) Good to redesign them, but they do look... bulkier... not sure about them. But of course they get away to live again another day...
So we are left with Churchill and the 'bot. I kept thinking of Ian McNeice as Geoffrey Hughes, thinking he was going to burst out with "The Junior Mister Popplewick isn't allow to expect anyone!" (Although on watching the confidential, I'm thinking that Jim Broadbent might be a better fit look-wise!) As for Bracewell, as I said above, I'm not sure how Dorabella will bring someone back from exploding, but Bill Paterson certainly got to milk a scene at the end, just as well he was slow on the uptake or they really may have been forced to end early!
Aside from the first bit (loved the framing of the Doctor in foreground as the Dalek sweeps past in the background), didn't really get a sense from Matt Smith that the Doctor was that afraid of the Daleks. Certainly happy to hold them off with a jammy dodger (good line), but got more of a sense that they were an obstacle than a threat. While I don't want photo images back, we could do more with the idea of the Doctor as an alien, Matt at the moment coming across more as weird than as the Doctor (again the drawn out ending doesn't do anyone any favours with trying to extend characterisation beyond its due).
Makes me wonder how much of Mark Gatiss' previous episodes were really RTD!
Next time: Continuity fest!
[END]
Monday, 19 April 2010
DW 503: Victory of the Daleks
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2 comments:
I thought of them as the Dalek Wiggles, sadly.
Another cracker episode, however I thought that Matt was a little Tennant at times. I think Mark Gatiss wrote this as a 10th Doctor story originally.
I did think that this would be slightly better than it was, but it was still better than the last story he wrote.
The android scene where the Doctor tries to talk Bracewell out of exploding, made me think of DT and how he would have handled it. I thought it was a nod in a way to what he would have done and would have been successful with,but in this instance it didn't work (new Doctor, new rules). Then we had Amy pond pick up the ball and run with it.
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