....NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 14/5/05, EPISODE 8, FATHERS DAY...

ARRISARRIS · 14 May, 2005, 11:57:44 AM

...ooooooo-eeeeee-oooooooo, here we go again chaps, bring on the Reapers if your hard enough...

SamuelAWilkinson · 15 May, 2005, 01:52:04 AM

Quite enjoyable, I thought, without being too offensive to everyone's deeply held beliefs about what happens when you mess around with time.

One quibble: why did the various incarnations of Rose all have different coloured eyes?

ARRISARRIS · 15 May, 2005, 02:00:24 AM

...and since when did the timelords fix rifts/anomilies in time?...

the other dredd · 15 May, 2005, 02:14:13 AM

And as someone pointed out on another forum and I have shamelessly used as my own point, wasn't the car going a bit slow to kill Rose's dad?

The Amstor Computer · 15 May, 2005, 02:39:25 AM

Pretty good, I thought. Not the best episode so far, but nicely written and directed. The music was intrusive and schmaltzy at points, and the Reapers, while generally convincingly rendered, weren't a great design. The "death" of the Doctor and the disappearance of the TARDIS were nicely done, and the reference to the Timelords was interesting.

All in all a decent, solid episode that even managed to stir this old computer to a stifled sob ;-)

Next week's opening part of the "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" double episode looks promising. I'm looking forward to finding out what the thing the Doctor chases through time is (though I think a preview elsewhere has already answered that for me) and the period setting looks well-realised.

Wils · 15 May, 2005, 03:14:36 AM

weren't a great design

They *did* have a look of 'flying cunt' about them, didn't they? ;)

An enjoyable episode, if somewhat marred slightly by the major similarities to The Langoliers.

Bico · 15 May, 2005, 03:41:53 AM

Someone really should take the guy who does the incidental music outside for a quiet word.
Like 'intrusive', perhaps. Or 'annoying'.

The Amstor Computer · 15 May, 2005, 05:00:08 AM

"They *did* have a look of 'flying cunt' about them, didn't they?"

???

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/travolta.jpg">

the other dredd · 15 May, 2005, 06:01:54 AM

"They *did* have a look of 'flying cunt' about them, didn't they? ;)"

That is without a shadow of the doubt the most 'interesting' quote I have ever read on 2k's board. Hard to know how to reply to that!!!!!!

SamuelAWilkinson · 15 May, 2005, 06:23:04 AM

"...and since when did the timelords fix rifts/anomilies in time?..."

Since always. It was one of the things Rassilon decided they should start doing after he'd convinced them that using their time technology for their own amusement was a generally bad idea.

the other dredd · 15 May, 2005, 07:53:44 AM

I heard that Quantum Leap geezer was going to fix the time wound but couldn't be arsed.:)

ARRISARRIS · 15 May, 2005, 12:50:34 PM

...when i said 'since when did the timelords...' it was meant in the context that it was suggested in last nights program, which implied that was there remit to fix time problems, now i know most casual viewers and new fans wont have picked up on this, but the timelords were always more observant but when they interfered it was always more as a covert operation...

Lobo Baggins · 15 May, 2005, 03:55:12 PM

The music was intrusive and schmaltzy at points,

The incidental music is naff every week.

Is it just my telly, or does it sometimes drown out the dialogue? I was struggling to hear every conversation between Rose and her dad in the church...

Endjinn · 15 May, 2005, 07:22:14 PM

I watched it this morning, and I thought it was pretty good for a paradox thing.

Okay, so there were plenty of minor niggles I could work myself up about, but I just let myself go along for the ride.

I don't have a clue what was going on in Next Week's Spoiler, but that's a good thing :-)

The Enigmatic Dr X · 16 May, 2005, 03:23:43 PM

Worst episode so far. I can take the dodgy already aged SFX (it is, after all Doctor Who) but the woeful use of time travel is unforgivable in a show about time travel.

Rose can't touch herself as a child becasue it creates a paradox? Why is that then?

Surely there were two paradoxes (paradoxi?):

1) The first time the Doctor and Rose see her father die, they don't see Rose run out and save him.

2) Rose saved her dad. That creates a paradox along the lines of the chestnut "what happens if you kill your grandfather". The point is if she saved her dad then she wouldn't want to go back to 1987 later on, meaning that she wouldn't go back to save him, so he would die, meaning that she would want to go back, so he wouldn't die. ETC.

I realise I am sounding off like a sad fanboy twat, but I was really excited when she saved her dad as I thought the story was going to explore this classic time travel conundrum. Instead, we get dodgy music, dodgy monsters and dodgy haircuts (the 80s 'dos were the most scary thing in the episode).

In isolation, I thought there were some nice touches: Mickey on the swings while all his mates vanish; Rose meeting Mickey; and, the well done father-Rose emotional bit.

I also think that, perhaps due to the 45 minute per episode limitation, the whole series is relying a bit too much on the Doctor as a Deus Ex Machina/ narrator/ handy plot device.

There seems to be a bit much of things being taken for granted if the Doc says them; for example, "They can't get in the church becasue the walls are old". Oh, okay then.

And is there anything a sonic screwdriver can't sort? I wonder what Rose does with it during the night?