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Apr. 5th, 2008 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charloweenDoctor Who 4x01, "Partners in Crime"
Chronological list of Things:
Okay - first thing... new theme music. It's all big and orchestral. Now, I know that after writing that paper last term about the music of the original DW series I'm a little bit biased towards the way things used to be. It's just that the bigger and more orchestral the music on this series gets, the closer the show inches to an American science fiction thing. And sure, this DW has a bigger budget than the old stuff. The writing is head and shoulders above something like SG1, as well... it's just slipping further and further into a mainstream Hollywood thing rather than a quirky alternative regional thing.
Hee! Health and Safety! Health and Safety times two, it seems. Clever device, this double-investigating. Given what Donna says about having looked for the Doctor for so long, it's totally possible that she was at some or most of last season's London-bound events and managed to never quite catch up with the Doctor. There's shades of the episode with Sarah Jane Smith, though - which I suppose is why it takes so long for Donna and the Doctor to find each other. Meeting too soon would make it even more identical.
And now there's a Doctor in a projection booth! The film geek in me did a little happy dance with his "Health and safety. ...Film department." The Doctor can run my AV equipment any time. Though I wonder about what's actually being projected. I'd have to watch it again, but it sounds like they've put the noise of an actual film projector in there, but why would they have shot that stuff on film? It's kind of reacting like a digital presentation, which would make more sense.
Oooh, and the Doctor's got a new shirt and tie this season. I approve.
For a weight-loss company, I like that you can see a slightly chunky guy working the phones in one of the shots. Practice what you preach, people! Or maybe Space!Nanny doesn't want to use her own employees.
The Doctor's "No, I've met cat people..." made me go tee hee.
That's a cute little fat blob. Cute and friendly, too.
I also like that the boss-lady has a pair of identical mute bodyguard guys.
In the TARDIS when the Doctor's giving his explanation and he realizes he needs an audience... Oh, that tugs the heart-strings a bit.
Awesome fake-out with Penny-the-reporter in the stalls. Too bad Penny's a one-note bitch who doesn't get to do much in the episode but demand to a) know what the hell's going on or b) get untied. A cynic would suggest that the show used up its intelligent black character quota last season, but that would be mean, no? Instead, I'll say it used up its intelligent secondary character quota.
Dude, the Doctor has another new shirt and tie for the next day? Either in the Confidential episodes or the video diaries, David Tennant talked about his fights with the costume people over the lack of variety in his costumes. Looks like someone won a little battle.
MY GAWD. What a great way of staging that reunion moment. Love it to bits. I love Donna so very much. She's so excited. :D
Love this, too:
"How do you lose a planet?"
"Oh, politics are none of my concern..."
A return of the no second chances thing. Closely followed by a return of that same corridor...
K, I like how those little critters wave before they leave. Friendly little things!
OH MY GOD ROSE. (But does she know who Donna is? How much did she see? How long has she been watching? More importantly, DOESN'T SHE KNOW THAT MESSING WITH PARALLEL UNIVERSES CAUSES TEARS IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME?!)
I'm no Rose-hater, but... the Doctor's grown a bit since she left. He's had the time to mourn and maybe even start to heal. Rose is obviously still stuck on him, and maybe a little put out now that Jackie and Pete have a new baby to raise together? Yeah, I'd be poking at the FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME, too, if I wasn't mature enough to suck it up and accept I was pulled through to an alternate universe with people who loved me. And also zeppelins. Someone needs to grow up and not be quite so selfish. (If her poking at the fabric of space and time isn't motivated by some Dire Apocalypse, that is. Any other excuse and I'll be quite disapproving, Miss Tyler.)
More seriously, though- it's a real smart choice to have her show up at this point, because there'd be maybe three people left who'd not been spoiled for that particular casting rumour. Rather than waiting all season long for her to show up we get it over with. When the actual key episodes with its inevitable heart-rending reunion scene does air, the anticipation will be layered in canon, not in speculation. By which I mean... we'll be watching for her because the show told us to look for her, not because of something we read online.
And finally, we have a companion who thinks the Doctor's great and all, but like hell if she's not running the show. Donna's the crazy older sister, where Martha was the colleague and Rose was the One True Wuv or whatever you want to call it. Speaking as an older sister myself, I'm loving that the Doctor isn't traveling with someone who's too in awe of him.
She's totally the type of person to stare at a corner of the TARDIS with a shocked expression on her face, pointing and gaping until he runs every diagnostic he can think of to find out WHAT THE HELL IS SHE LOOKING AT and the discover her doubled over with silent, gasping laughter. She's going to drive him nuts. Heeheheheh.
Next week in Pompeii, eh? Now, if I recall correctly, back when the Doctor first met Captain Jack, the good Captain boasted about being at Pompeii just before "volcano day".
Chronological list of Things:
Okay - first thing... new theme music. It's all big and orchestral. Now, I know that after writing that paper last term about the music of the original DW series I'm a little bit biased towards the way things used to be. It's just that the bigger and more orchestral the music on this series gets, the closer the show inches to an American science fiction thing. And sure, this DW has a bigger budget than the old stuff. The writing is head and shoulders above something like SG1, as well... it's just slipping further and further into a mainstream Hollywood thing rather than a quirky alternative regional thing.
Hee! Health and Safety! Health and Safety times two, it seems. Clever device, this double-investigating. Given what Donna says about having looked for the Doctor for so long, it's totally possible that she was at some or most of last season's London-bound events and managed to never quite catch up with the Doctor. There's shades of the episode with Sarah Jane Smith, though - which I suppose is why it takes so long for Donna and the Doctor to find each other. Meeting too soon would make it even more identical.
And now there's a Doctor in a projection booth! The film geek in me did a little happy dance with his "Health and safety. ...Film department." The Doctor can run my AV equipment any time. Though I wonder about what's actually being projected. I'd have to watch it again, but it sounds like they've put the noise of an actual film projector in there, but why would they have shot that stuff on film? It's kind of reacting like a digital presentation, which would make more sense.
Oooh, and the Doctor's got a new shirt and tie this season. I approve.
For a weight-loss company, I like that you can see a slightly chunky guy working the phones in one of the shots. Practice what you preach, people! Or maybe Space!Nanny doesn't want to use her own employees.
The Doctor's "No, I've met cat people..." made me go tee hee.
That's a cute little fat blob. Cute and friendly, too.
I also like that the boss-lady has a pair of identical mute bodyguard guys.
In the TARDIS when the Doctor's giving his explanation and he realizes he needs an audience... Oh, that tugs the heart-strings a bit.
Awesome fake-out with Penny-the-reporter in the stalls. Too bad Penny's a one-note bitch who doesn't get to do much in the episode but demand to a) know what the hell's going on or b) get untied. A cynic would suggest that the show used up its intelligent black character quota last season, but that would be mean, no? Instead, I'll say it used up its intelligent secondary character quota.
Dude, the Doctor has another new shirt and tie for the next day? Either in the Confidential episodes or the video diaries, David Tennant talked about his fights with the costume people over the lack of variety in his costumes. Looks like someone won a little battle.
MY GAWD. What a great way of staging that reunion moment. Love it to bits. I love Donna so very much. She's so excited. :D
Love this, too:
"How do you lose a planet?"
"Oh, politics are none of my concern..."
A return of the no second chances thing. Closely followed by a return of that same corridor...
K, I like how those little critters wave before they leave. Friendly little things!
OH MY GOD ROSE. (But does she know who Donna is? How much did she see? How long has she been watching? More importantly, DOESN'T SHE KNOW THAT MESSING WITH PARALLEL UNIVERSES CAUSES TEARS IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME?!)
I'm no Rose-hater, but... the Doctor's grown a bit since she left. He's had the time to mourn and maybe even start to heal. Rose is obviously still stuck on him, and maybe a little put out now that Jackie and Pete have a new baby to raise together? Yeah, I'd be poking at the FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME, too, if I wasn't mature enough to suck it up and accept I was pulled through to an alternate universe with people who loved me. And also zeppelins. Someone needs to grow up and not be quite so selfish. (If her poking at the fabric of space and time isn't motivated by some Dire Apocalypse, that is. Any other excuse and I'll be quite disapproving, Miss Tyler.)
More seriously, though- it's a real smart choice to have her show up at this point, because there'd be maybe three people left who'd not been spoiled for that particular casting rumour. Rather than waiting all season long for her to show up we get it over with. When the actual key episodes with its inevitable heart-rending reunion scene does air, the anticipation will be layered in canon, not in speculation. By which I mean... we'll be watching for her because the show told us to look for her, not because of something we read online.
And finally, we have a companion who thinks the Doctor's great and all, but like hell if she's not running the show. Donna's the crazy older sister, where Martha was the colleague and Rose was the One True Wuv or whatever you want to call it. Speaking as an older sister myself, I'm loving that the Doctor isn't traveling with someone who's too in awe of him.
She's totally the type of person to stare at a corner of the TARDIS with a shocked expression on her face, pointing and gaping until he runs every diagnostic he can think of to find out WHAT THE HELL IS SHE LOOKING AT and the discover her doubled over with silent, gasping laughter. She's going to drive him nuts. Heeheheheh.
Next week in Pompeii, eh? Now, if I recall correctly, back when the Doctor first met Captain Jack, the good Captain boasted about being at Pompeii just before "volcano day".
