do we have to have a build up to loosing a companion? this is bordering on morose. one episode bang! gone! next episode new copmpanion. done. what did Tom Baker say? "I hate goodbyes...I just slip away quietly".
do we have to have a build up to loosing a companion? this is bordering on morose. one episode bang! gone! next episode new copmpanion. done. what did Tom Baker say? "I hate goodbyes...I just slip away quietly".
I watched the first five minutes of it. but the rest will have to wait 'til later. I've got a yard waste pickup scheduled and I'm afraid chopping up a termite-infested plum tree takes precedence. Coincidentally, I was playing Discworld Noir the other day, so I was already in noirish mindset. Loved the scene right before the intro. credits kicked in.
@Caliban I too saw that they misunderstood what the defibrillator was used for. For one... It stops/pauses the heart, so that it can restarted with a regular heart beat. It does NOT provide a jolt sufficient to restart a heart by it's self, as stated in Caliban's review. Sorry one third of the population... THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE THEIR HOMEWORK!!!
I should also point out that the Doctor's heart has been stopped before. Off the top of my head... Martha - Smith and Jones (plasmavor) Rose- The Shakespeare Code (witches) Martha- in Human nature/ The family of Blood, one of the Doctor's heart remained dormant for a whole year (as a disguise), as proved by the Matron when she listened to the Doctor's heart.
All of which failed to cause as much of a fuss as last episode. *sigh* I have high hopes for the next episode though X) Finally the weeping angles reappear!!!!! They're terrifying It should be GREAT :)
It all went a little Ghostbusters 2 there for a second, but on the whole, it was a good send-off for the Ponds... tragic but still something of a happy ending. The end result was pretty much what I was expecting, though not in the way I was expecting it, so that was cool.
And I totally didn't recognize Mike McShane as Grayle! Maybe if he'd still had his beard and was making up a musical based on audience suggestions on the spot with Josie Lawrence I'd have figured out it was him. :D
Wish they would make up their minds what a fixed point in time is. The Dr seems to be able to go to them but not make any changes I.E. Pompeii, can go to them and make changes (with consequences) I.E. death of Pete Tyler or rescuing Adelaide Brooke and now we have, what seems to be a whole time period that the Dr can not even visit. Meh.
As companion exits go, it's certainly one of the most emotional and memorable I've ever seen. Certainly a far cry from the old days, when the departures seemed based solely on when an actor's contract was up.
The Doctor: Coming, Leela?
Leela holds the hand of the Time Lord soldier she only met a day ago.
The Doctor: Oh, I see. Goodbye, then.
The episode had some great atmosphere, plenty of scares. It was a fun hour. I'm just not sure I buy the concept they concocted to keep them separated. If I think too much, it withers, but it was still one of the strongest episodes in some time.
I'm very curious to see how things move along from here. For many Americans, Amy Pond was almost the star of the show. Up until this season, her voiceover even introduced each episode. I imagine there are some newer viewers a little confused by what's going on.
The last shot of little Amelia Pond is what really got me from this episode. I found this episode very powerful and emotional and it made me very scared of the Weeping Angels. I found Rory's exit a bit sudden and shocking but Amy's very powerful. I do wonder though if this is really the end of the Williams' or if the Doctor might be able to visit them at some point in their timeline.
You know, thinking about this, Amy and Rory seem to be very unique in the Doctor's world. Unlike other companions, we actually see both Amy and Rory age and evolve in a way we don't ever see any other companion. I was a bit miffed that we didn't get a proper end to Rory. His ending was so sudden and shocking to me that it kind of pissed me off a bit. Amy's was a bit better though. I'm glad that they got their ending and I really do wonder if this is truly the end of Amy and Rory Williams. I loved how the gravestone said Amy Williams. It shows another bit of growth from the character. I liked it.
This was the most beautiful and wonderful bookend to Amy and Rory and this episode did one other thing for me. It now pushes the Weeping Angels as the most deadliest Doctor Who villain ever. Daleks who? Cybermen what? The Weeping Angels are scary. Scary. Scary. The best that the Doctor has ever done when it comes to the Weeping Angels is that he's survived with some other people. He's never beaten them and that's a very interesting thing to me. Can't wait to see what happens in the Christmas Special and more importantly what the deal with the new companion is. I mean, is she the same person as the person from Asylum of the Daleks? So many questions.
As companion exits go, it's certainly one of the most emotional and memorable I've ever seen. Certainly a far cry from the old days, when the departures seemed based solely on when an actor's contract was up.
The Doctor: Coming, Leela?
Leela holds the hand of the Time Lord soldier she only met a day ago.
The Doctor: Oh, I see. Goodbye, then.
The episode had some great atmosphere, plenty of scares. It was a fun hour. I'm just not sure I buy the concept they concocted to keep them separated. If I think too much, it withers, but it was still one of the strongest episodes in some time.
I'm very curious to see how things move along from here. For many Americans, Amy Pond was almost the star of the show. Up until this season, her voiceover even introduced each episode. I imagine there are some newer viewers a little confused by what's going on.
And then there's Mel's exit, which is basically "You wanna go? With Glitz? Yeah, okay, awesome, why not? Don't let the door hit you on the way out, and send in the cute interesting one that likes to blow shit up so we can put season 24 behind us and start getting good again in time for the anniversary season, kthanxbai!" :D
As companion exits go, it's certainly one of the most emotional and memorable I've ever seen. Certainly a far cry from the old days, when the departures seemed based solely on when an actor's contract was up.
The Doctor: Coming, Leela?
Leela holds the hand of the Time Lord soldier she only met a day ago.
The Doctor: Oh, I see. Goodbye, then.
The episode had some great atmosphere, plenty of scares. It was a fun hour. I'm just not sure I buy the concept they concocted to keep them separated. If I think too much, it withers, but it was still one of the strongest episodes in some time.
I'm very curious to see how things move along from here. For many Americans, Amy Pond was almost the star of the show. Up until this season, her voiceover even introduced each episode. I imagine there are some newer viewers a little confused by what's going on.
And then there's Mel's exit, which is basically "You wanna go? With Glitz? Yeah, okay, awesome, why not? Don't let the door hit you on the way out, and send in the cute interesting one that likes to blow shit up so we can put season 24 behind us and start getting good again in time for the anniversary season, kthanxbai!" :D
I couldn't even remember how Mel left. I had to look it up not too long ago.
Hartnell's final season has a particularly high companion turnover rate, and none of them get decent exits. Vicki leaves offscreen, Katarina gets sucked out an airlock, The Doctor volunteers Steven to remain and lead a planet of savages at the end of the universe, Dodo gets hypnotized and sent to a country house... when Sara Kingdom getting aged into a withered husk is the best exit, you know you're in trouble.
Great episode but the ending left me feeling underwhelmed. I've blubbered like a baby at every other finale but this just felt a little forced. Also someone was talking about fixed points earlier, the Doctor not being able to return the Tardis to New York again to visit Amy and Rory seemed oddly convenient. Couldn't he just land it somewhere else and take a train there? And surely someone noticed the Statue of Liberty?
Great episode but the ending left me feeling underwhelmed. I've blubbered like a baby at every other finale but this just felt a little forced. Also someone was talking about fixed points earlier, the Doctor not being able to return the Tardis to New York again to visit Amy and Rory seemed oddly convenient. Couldn't he just land it somewhere else and take a train there? And surely someone noticed the Statue of Liberty?
If there's one thing Moffat has been consistent about as showrunner, it's that he's willing to inconsistent with his own rules if the plot requires it. Though, uberfan that he is, I'm sure he'd be the first to point out that the original series did that sort of thing all the damn time, so it's not like there aren't decades' worth of precedents to back him up!
Hartnell's final season has a particularly high companion turnover rate, and none of them get decent exits. Vicki leaves offscreen, Katarina gets sucked out an airlock, The Doctor volunteers Steven to remain and lead a planet of savages at the end of the universe, Dodo gets hypnotized and sent to a country house... when Sara Kingdom getting aged into a withered husk is the best exit, you know you're in trouble.
And isn't Dodo's departure mostly offscreen, too? Haven't seen The War Machines in years, but IIRC, she gets hypnotized and sent off to recover, and then they just never go back and get her! Of course, given that her introduction was basically "Oh, hey, I saw this police box and thought I'd pop in," she left on pretty much the same note she came in on.
If there's one thing Moffat has been consistent about as showrunner, it's that he's willing to inconsistent with his own rules if the plot requires it. Though, uberfan that he is, I'm sure he'd be the first to point out that the original series did that sort of thing all the damn time, so it's not like there aren't decades' worth of precedents to back him up!
Agreed. He seems happy to sacrifice plot consistancy if he can work something cool into the story. It seems to irritate a large portion of fandom. I'm not too bothered though. It seems quite odd that he does that on Who when you consider programmes like Coupling were very tightly plotted.
Hartnell's final season has a particularly high companion turnover rate, and none of them get decent exits. Vicki leaves offscreen, Katarina gets sucked out an airlock, The Doctor volunteers Steven to remain and lead a planet of savages at the end of the universe, Dodo gets hypnotized and sent to a country house... when Sara Kingdom getting aged into a withered husk is the best exit, you know you're in trouble.
And isn't Dodo's departure mostly offscreen, too? Haven't seen The War Machines in years, but IIRC, she gets hypnotized and sent off to recover, and then they just never go back and get her! Of course, given that her introduction was basically "Oh, hey, I saw this police box and thought I'd pop in," she left on pretty much the same note she came in on.
That's correct. Ben and Polly, the new companions, show up to tell the Doctor that Dodo decided to stay, and the Doctor acts like he couldn't give two f's about it. I'm baffled as to why they added Dodo to begin with, since they never seemed to have any plans for her. I don't know why they didn't just keep Sara Kingdom instead of killing her at the end of The Daleks' Masterplan. The episodes where she travels with the Doctor and Steven are the closest the Hartnell era gets to feeling more modern until the War Machines.
My favorite was Perry's exit. Unceremoniously killed. And no one cared. Ha! Second would be the abstractly touching scene when Sarah Jane left. The doctor didn't want to deal with it. Heartbreaking.
My favorite was Perry's exit. Unceremoniously killed. And no one cared. Ha! Second would be the abstractly touching scene when Sarah Jane left. The doctor didn't want to deal with it. Heartbreaking.
Do you mean you actually liked Peri's exit, or that it was so ludicrous you can't believe they actually did it?
For me, her exit pretty much summed up everything wrong with that era. I didn't care much for her character (though I think she might have fared better with a longer stretch of time with the Fifth Doctor), so I wasn't particularly sad to see her go, but they way they did it was so brutal that it really bothered me at the time. And it's not like we were getting an improvement with the next companion.
I'm not sure if their later reversal of it helps or not. Neither ending makes much sense.
All this looking back at some of the lowlights of companion exits has got me to thinking about the times when the show was more of a disappointment. Not to be too negative, as I think for most of its run Doctor Who has been great, but there are certain seasons that simply don't work for me.
In order of more successful to least:
Fourth Doctor: Seasons 15-17
This is probably the most controversial choice on my list, but for me, those seasons after Sarah Jane leaves are pretty unmemorable, and things don't kick in again until Baker's final season. Leela's season 14 episodes (Robots of Death, Talons of Weng Chiang) are classics, but as I look at the titles of season 15, I can't remember anything about them. Image of the Fendahl? The Sun Makers? Underworld? I honestly have no idea what happened in those stories.
I know the Key to Time season has its fans, but if it weren't for the season long story arc, I doubt I'd remember much of them, either.
But the real failure here is season 17. Until the Colin Baker/McCoy era, this would have stood as my least favorite season. It has City of Death, which is excellent, but the rest of the season is dreadful. Completing Shada as the final story might have helped, but instead we're left with one classic and four terrible stories with lots of Baker clowning around and looking like he doesn't give a crap. I remember when Leisure Hive, the first episode from season 18, aired. I watched it multiple times because I was so happy to see the show change for the better. And it's not even that great of an episode, but it just felt like the people working on the show cared again.
Third Doctor: Season 11
Pertwee really should have left after four seasons. We get Sarah Jane in this season, but other than that, it's not good. Roger Delgado dying pretty much killed any chance of giving us the regeneration story this era needed.
First Doctor: Season 3
Painful to watch. I actually enjoy Hartnell's first two seasons, and I think more people should give those stories a chance, in spite of their age and being in black and white. By season three, though, he's clearly suffering from some health problems, and he often appears to hate his job. Every workplace has that guy that constantly looks like he doesn't want to be there. Now imagine that guy playing the Doctor. The turnover rate in companions and behind the scenes staff doesn't help. It's no wonder they couldn't wait to get rid of him.
Sixth Doctor: Seasons 22 & 23
Yeah, Colin Baker's entire run. I was even tempted to include Davison's final season here, as it contains the beginnings of the problems we see here, but for the most part I still find those episodes enjoyable. Subtract the Fifth Doctor and his companions, though, and all the flaws come through. It's mean-spirited, garish-looking, and nobody seems to like one another. I remember it felt like Peri and the Doctor were shouting every line. In spite of how bad this era was, though, it's still not the worst, in my opinion.
Seventh Doctor: Season 24
Anyone who says Colin Baker represents the nadir of Doctor Who must not have seen McCoy's first season. It starts with the worst regeneration ever, contained within the worst debut episode ever. Yes, even worse than the Twin Dilemma. We get a full dose of Melanie, possibly the worst companion ever. None of the four stories contained in this season are enjoyable. For the most part, they're downright awful. It's bad that I can't recall many stories from the other seasons I don't like. It's worse that I can vividly recall each story from this era, because they were each so terrible. I haven't seen them since I was a teenager, yet I can still remember sitting on my couch late on a Sunday night and cringing as the Doctor and Melanie frolic around a holiday camp while '50s rock music plays in the background. It's the season that nearly made me stop watching, so I was relieved when Season 25 almost immediately turned things around.
I've been less than impressed with the writing all this season overall. I found the cyborg cowboy episode outright stupid, and dinosaurs in space should never EVER be boring.
That said, Angels Take Manhattan was pretty powerful stuff. Power of Three was decent, so hopefully going in to the second half this will be a trend.
My favorite was Perry's exit. Unceremoniously killed. And no one cared. Ha! Second would be the abstractly touching scene when Sarah Jane left. The doctor didn't want to deal with it. Heartbreaking.
Peri wasn't killed! She wound up married to Brian Blessed, a fate which most consider to be a worse then death.
My favorite was Perry's exit. Unceremoniously killed. And no one cared. Ha! Second would be the abstractly touching scene when Sarah Jane left. The doctor didn't want to deal with it. Heartbreaking.
Peri wasn't killed! She wound up married to Brian Blessed, a fate which most consider to be a worse then death.
Yeah. Imagine being woken up each morning by a voice going all the way up to 11 shouting: "Gordon's Alive!"
@chrisw let's just say we differ in opinions on Tom baker's run. Underworld indeed is one of the worst episodes ever. Sun,Akers, one of my favorites. Leela episodes are rarely not entertaining. Destiny of the daleks and the horns of nimon are great cheese episodes. The series was half good half forgettable. Key to time? A misstep here and there in it but still ambitious and successful.
Yeah, Colin Baker's entire run. I was even tempted to include Davison's final season here, as it contains the beginnings of the problems we see here, but for the most part I still find those episodes enjoyable. Subtract the Fifth Doctor and his companions, though, and all the flaws come through. It's mean-spirited, garish-looking, and nobody seems to like one another. I remember it felt like Peri and the Doctor were shouting every line. In spite of how bad this era was, though, it's still not the worst, in my opinion.
22 is mostly pretty hard to watch, though at least we get to see 2 and Jamie together one last time, and a not-terrible Dalek story, even if those are both full of unpleasantness and Chris Clough's leather daddy mercenary fetish. And, yes, The Worst Costume in TV History. But on retrospect, I kinda like 23, the trial season. It's cheesy and melodramatic and, yes, it inflicts Mel on us, but I like it overall. We finally get to see 6 and Peri getting along.. according to the interviews on the DVDs, it wasn't written that way, but Colin and Nicola were apparently so tired of being forced to snipe at each other that neither of them acted it that way and instead played everything like they got on famously now, which really makes it so much easier to watch. It makes Peri's "death" that much more shocking, too.
Another benefit of the DVDs - while they were recording commentary for the two stories of the trial in which Peri appears, they show Nicola Bryant the fate that was revealed for Peri in the last episode, the fact that she ended up married to Yrconos. Apparently Nicola had never seen that before, so they got her reaction to seeing it. It was pretty much "Oh, god, they should've just killed me!" :D
Gotta agree on Season 24, though. Watched Delta and the Bannermen a few months back for the first time in years. Truly painful TV. My favorite worst part was the alien baby dressed up like in green and looking like some sort of baby in an asparagus costume from an Anne Geddes print.
Comments
http://www.rpsteeves.com/2012/09/wrapped-up-like-doctor-who-review-power.html
I should also point out that the Doctor's heart has been stopped before. Off the top of my head...
Martha - Smith and Jones (plasmavor)
Rose- The Shakespeare Code (witches)
Martha- in Human nature/ The family of Blood, one of the Doctor's heart remained dormant for a whole year (as a disguise), as proved by the Matron when she listened to the Doctor's heart.
All of which failed to cause as much of a fuss as last episode. *sigh*
I have high hopes for the next episode though X)
Finally the weeping angles reappear!!!!! They're terrifying
It should be GREAT :)
And I totally didn't recognize Mike McShane as Grayle! Maybe if he'd still had his beard and was making up a musical based on audience suggestions on the spot with Josie Lawrence I'd have figured out it was him. :D
Good points about previous heart-stoppers, all managed much more calmly than this one.
The Doctor: Coming, Leela?
Leela holds the hand of the Time Lord soldier she only met a day ago.
The Doctor: Oh, I see. Goodbye, then.
The episode had some great atmosphere, plenty of scares. It was a fun hour. I'm just not sure I buy the concept they concocted to keep them separated. If I think too much, it withers, but it was still one of the strongest episodes in some time.
I'm very curious to see how things move along from here. For many Americans, Amy Pond was almost the star of the show. Up until this season, her voiceover even introduced each episode. I imagine there are some newer viewers a little confused by what's going on.
You know, thinking about this, Amy and Rory seem to be very unique in the Doctor's world. Unlike other companions, we actually see both Amy and Rory age and evolve in a way we don't ever see any other companion. I was a bit miffed that we didn't get a proper end to Rory. His ending was so sudden and shocking to me that it kind of pissed me off a bit. Amy's was a bit better though. I'm glad that they got their ending and I really do wonder if this is truly the end of Amy and Rory Williams. I loved how the gravestone said Amy Williams. It shows another bit of growth from the character. I liked it.
This was the most beautiful and wonderful bookend to Amy and Rory and this episode did one other thing for me. It now pushes the Weeping Angels as the most deadliest Doctor Who villain ever. Daleks who? Cybermen what? The Weeping Angels are scary. Scary. Scary. The best that the Doctor has ever done when it comes to the Weeping Angels is that he's survived with some other people. He's never beaten them and that's a very interesting thing to me. Can't wait to see what happens in the Christmas Special and more importantly what the deal with the new companion is. I mean, is she the same person as the person from Asylum of the Daleks? So many questions.
:D
Hartnell's final season has a particularly high companion turnover rate, and none of them get decent exits. Vicki leaves offscreen, Katarina gets sucked out an airlock, The Doctor volunteers Steven to remain and lead a planet of savages at the end of the universe, Dodo gets hypnotized and sent to a country house... when Sara Kingdom getting aged into a withered husk is the best exit, you know you're in trouble.
Second would be the abstractly touching scene when Sarah Jane left. The doctor didn't want to deal with it. Heartbreaking.
For me, her exit pretty much summed up everything wrong with that era. I didn't care much for her character (though I think she might have fared better with a longer stretch of time with the Fifth Doctor), so I wasn't particularly sad to see her go, but they way they did it was so brutal that it really bothered me at the time. And it's not like we were getting an improvement with the next companion.
I'm not sure if their later reversal of it helps or not. Neither ending makes much sense.
In order of more successful to least:
Fourth Doctor: Seasons 15-17
This is probably the most controversial choice on my list, but for me, those seasons after Sarah Jane leaves are pretty unmemorable, and things don't kick in again until Baker's final season. Leela's season 14 episodes (Robots of Death, Talons of Weng Chiang) are classics, but as I look at the titles of season 15, I can't remember anything about them. Image of the Fendahl? The Sun Makers? Underworld? I honestly have no idea what happened in those stories.
I know the Key to Time season has its fans, but if it weren't for the season long story arc, I doubt I'd remember much of them, either.
But the real failure here is season 17. Until the Colin Baker/McCoy era, this would have stood as my least favorite season. It has City of Death, which is excellent, but the rest of the season is dreadful. Completing Shada as the final story might have helped, but instead we're left with one classic and four terrible stories with lots of Baker clowning around and looking like he doesn't give a crap. I remember when Leisure Hive, the first episode from season 18, aired. I watched it multiple times because I was so happy to see the show change for the better. And it's not even that great of an episode, but it just felt like the people working on the show cared again.
Third Doctor: Season 11
Pertwee really should have left after four seasons. We get Sarah Jane in this season, but other than that, it's not good. Roger Delgado dying pretty much killed any chance of giving us the regeneration story this era needed.
First Doctor: Season 3
Painful to watch. I actually enjoy Hartnell's first two seasons, and I think more people should give those stories a chance, in spite of their age and being in black and white. By season three, though, he's clearly suffering from some health problems, and he often appears to hate his job. Every workplace has that guy that constantly looks like he doesn't want to be there. Now imagine that guy playing the Doctor. The turnover rate in companions and behind the scenes staff doesn't help. It's no wonder they couldn't wait to get rid of him.
Sixth Doctor: Seasons 22 & 23
Yeah, Colin Baker's entire run. I was even tempted to include Davison's final season here, as it contains the beginnings of the problems we see here, but for the most part I still find those episodes enjoyable. Subtract the Fifth Doctor and his companions, though, and all the flaws come through. It's mean-spirited, garish-looking, and nobody seems to like one another. I remember it felt like Peri and the Doctor were shouting every line. In spite of how bad this era was, though, it's still not the worst, in my opinion.
Seventh Doctor: Season 24
Anyone who says Colin Baker represents the nadir of Doctor Who must not have seen McCoy's first season. It starts with the worst regeneration ever, contained within the worst debut episode ever. Yes, even worse than the Twin Dilemma. We get a full dose of Melanie, possibly the worst companion ever. None of the four stories contained in this season are enjoyable. For the most part, they're downright awful. It's bad that I can't recall many stories from the other seasons I don't like. It's worse that I can vividly recall each story from this era, because they were each so terrible. I haven't seen them since I was a teenager, yet I can still remember sitting on my couch late on a Sunday night and cringing as the Doctor and Melanie frolic around a holiday camp while '50s rock music plays in the background. It's the season that nearly made me stop watching, so I was relieved when Season 25 almost immediately turned things around.
That said, Angels Take Manhattan was pretty powerful stuff. Power of Three was decent, so hopefully going in to the second half this will be a trend.
"Gordon's Alive!"
Destiny of the daleks and the horns of nimon are great cheese episodes. The series was half good half forgettable.
Key to time? A misstep here and there in it but still ambitious and successful.
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B0-YTpAMmew
Another benefit of the DVDs - while they were recording commentary for the two stories of the trial in which Peri appears, they show Nicola Bryant the fate that was revealed for Peri in the last episode, the fact that she ended up married to Yrconos. Apparently Nicola had never seen that before, so they got her reaction to seeing it. It was pretty much "Oh, god, they should've just killed me!" :D
Gotta agree on Season 24, though. Watched Delta and the Bannermen a few months back for the first time in years. Truly painful TV. My favorite worst part was the alien baby dressed up like in green and looking like some sort of baby in an asparagus costume from an Anne Geddes print.