...NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 24/06/06, 7pm, FEAR HER...

[ARRISARRIS]

...CRIME CRACKERS, Cracking Down on Crime...

[Leigh S]

hmm - I have "Woody Allen" syndrome fears about this one.  It was the one I was most looking forward to, given it's by "Life on Mars"s Matthew Graham.  However, he's given an interview with Doctor who Magazine that reminds me of the interviews given by Kenneth Branagh and Will Ferrell (to name just) two after appearing in Woody Allen films.

When they are questioned about why they are doing a (bad) Woody impression, they always claim it was Allen who kept asking them to do it that way, and how in the end he was right, etc.

similarly, Matthew Graham gives an interview where he says he came up with an idea that RTD thought was clever, but not kidcentric enough, so he went away and came up with something "better"... presumably with the odd kid friendly blow job gag in there as well.

Of course that could well be me reading stuff into his comments that isn't even subconsciously there, but my anticipation factor has declined about 7 notches since reading that interview...

[Leigh S]

And those tardisodes have been uniformly amateurish have they not?  At best tangental to the episode, at worst actually utterly at odds with them!

[Quirkafleeg]

cough cough 'Paperhouse' cough

[Art]

Paperhouse is an ace little movie, though underservedly obscure to the point where practically no-one else seems to have heard of it.

[Quirkafleeg]

I'm not hundred percent sure I've actually seen it but at one point it seemed to trailered on every single rental video I watched

[MIKE COLLINS]

>cough cough 'Paperhouse' cough<

Pah!

Poor, poor version of the fabulous MARIANNE DREAMS book (somethines published as 'Marianne and Mark) which missed all the key bizarre fantasy elements and added a nasty and inappropriate child abuse theme. It got made into a TV serial by ATV in the early 70s and scared the bejesus out of me. Hasn't been issued on DVD so maybe it got wiped for episodes of The Golden Shot.

Hmmm, wonder if the rights are up for that? Would make a great strip....

[JTurner]

Just watched it.

Worst, episode, EVER.

[Artificial Idiot]

I agree with that sentiment, but next weeks looks AMAZING!

Did I spot somebody getting Dalek zapped in there?

[JTurner]

The idea was great, but making it 'kidcentric' seems to have involved making you want to slap every character, and that child... Fear her? Loathe her, more like. The most obnoxious, overacting, slappable little brat...

I'm sorry, but that episode was total shite. I'm not even going to bother with coherent critical analysis.

[The Amstor Computer]

"It's all coming up Doctor"? The Doctor carrying the Olympic Torch? Emo overload & lonely child alien? Shame, as otherwise this wasn't a bad episode.

Next week looks promising, and it seems that the guesses as to how the Cybermen cross over were correct. And did I see a soldier being killed by a Dalek beam in there? God, I hope we don't have a Dalek/Cyberman double act...

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Better than last week, with some good bits, but still not great. Is it me, or did they not explain how the kid could trap people in drawings, other than 'oooh, she's possessed by an alien.'


Next week's, however, looks pant-wettingly fantastic.

[Wils]

Worst, episode, EVER.

You obviously didn't see last week's, then!

I thought this was an ok episode with *tonnes* of potential, which it sadly didn't quite live up to. A cynical me thinks this may be due to its RTD-ing and being rewritten.

[The Amstor Computer]

I thought the suggestion was that the creature could create virtual worlds using "ionic power", and that it had been sending the people to that world. It could also summon things into existence by using the same power (the scribble-beast and "Father").

It was a little bit vague on that point, though.

[The Amstor Computer]

Wils --

I must admit, I'm beginning to think the same thing. There've been a fair few really promising episodes this series that seem to have had another pair of hands hacking about with them, to the detriment of the finished product.