...NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 05/05/07, 7pm, THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT...

Keef Monkey · 07 May, 2007, 08:56:41 AM

"Well, despite the image she tries to portray, Lavigne is about 25 so I guess it's depression for you."

Well I'm only 26 so yes, deep deep depression. Maybe I should just have a mid-life crisis now and get it over with.

Tweak72 · 07 May, 2007, 08:58:39 AM

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_Lavigne" target="_blank">Avril Lavigne is 23

http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/misc/img/379_good%20charlotte%20killing%20avril%20lavigne.jpg">

dweezil2 · 07 May, 2007, 04:03:42 PM

A really strong episode, which for me had distinct shades of Nigel Kneale's Quatermass-which can only be a good thing in my book.
Some genuinely frightning scenes, some very good effects only spoiled by some over ripe acting-step forward Martha jones' mother. Apart from the odd gripe, a much improved episode!

Richmond Clements · 07 May, 2007, 04:11:34 PM

I had a thought (hard to believe I know, but there you go...) while watching this episode.
The over use, as some see it, of the sonic screwdriver. My opinion is this- if I had a handy gadget that did all that stuff, well, I'd use it all the time for everything too!

Keef Monkey · 07 May, 2007, 04:44:52 PM

Fair point, but you do realise everyone around you would be praying for you to break or lose it everytime you waved it around smugly?

Buttonman · 07 May, 2007, 05:00:50 PM

I thought the monster was poor and the head looked nothing like Gattis. Very reminisent of the Scorpian King at the end of 'The Mummy Returns'.

TordelBack · 07 May, 2007, 05:09:43 PM

Very reminisent of the Scorpian King at the end of 'The Mummy Returns'.

Very. But that's not necessarily a bad achievement for tea-time TV SF in Brit-Cit, is it? I thought it was pretty scary fare, with a good sense of both mass and speed. The Gattis face may have been very CGI-ish alright, but I suppose that's because it was, well, CGI. Better that than a retread of the Raknos!

Adrian Bamforth · 07 May, 2007, 05:22:45 PM

"A really strong episode"

Would you go so far as to say though that there's a single thing in this episode that we haven't seen done before many times in exactly the same way?

Quirkafleeg · 07 May, 2007, 05:36:04 PM

I missed a good ten minutes out of the middle of that ep and it didn't seem to make an ha'p'orth of difference...

Adrian Bamforth · 07 May, 2007, 06:47:23 PM

I'd say you could assume the whole story without seeing any of it:

There's a prof called Lazarus. Well, we know what he's going to try and do. The Doctor will be there, because it's his show, and there are always monsters (and it's always in the Radio Times), so the prof will probably become one. However, no-one dabbles with that kind of science or plays God without something going wrong, plus maybe it is he who is the REAL monster. The Doctor will defeat the prof-monster by using his sonic screwdriver. Hint again about someone appearing at the end of the series who is The Master. The end.

Art · 07 May, 2007, 07:06:37 PM

Ah, but the thing that you've forgotten Mr Bamforth is that the Human race is brilliant. Really really brilliant...

Lobo Baggins · 07 May, 2007, 07:48:51 PM

I thought the monster was poor and the head looked nothing like Gattis. Very reminisent of the Scorpian King at the end of 'The Mummy Returns'.

That's because hooman beans have a big chunk of their brains dedicated to recognising faces. A GCI face therefore needs to be really, really good before it looks 'real'. Any GCI monster with a 'human-face' is doomed to failure because the face is going to look fake, no matter how good the rest of the creature is. It certainly looked nothing like Gatiss...

However, I was very impressed with his old age make up and Gatiss in general - even though the blonde wig he was wearing as the younger version made him look like his League of Gentlemen vet character.

Quite liked the story, too - even if it was a bit Quartermass Experimenty at the end, and included a character whose sole task was to step into shot from stage left and crowbar in referances to this year's spot-the-ball competition...

Richmond Clements · 07 May, 2007, 07:57:20 PM

The Doctor will be there, because it's his show, and there are always monsters

Well, if we saw the times when the Doctor arrives in a place, nothing happens and he lays around the beach for a couple of weeks, it wouldn't be half as interesting, would it..?

Adrian Bamforth · 07 May, 2007, 11:46:49 PM

Well yes a monster is good though my point is that it would be good if it wasn't so easy to join the dots, otherwise he may as well lie around on a beach - at least it would be different.

Adrian Bamforth · 07 May, 2007, 11:50:41 PM

"Ah, but the thing that you've forgotten Mr Bamforth is that the Human race is brilliant. Really really brilliant..."

Though did he say in the Dickens episode that it was some backward mudball of a planet? I could be wrong, I guess it was just an episode where he hated Earth.