Doctor Who - The Hungry Earth

[Leigh S]

It loses marks for incredibly bland Silurian design, for dialogue that seems to be cribbed entirely from other episodes, for the weird "ooh, there you are visiting yourselves" bit at the start (unless they do something clever with that next week) and for generally veering a bit RTD/Torchwood in its naive view of any subject it touched upon - (this supra-advanced mining set up is run by a few locals?)


Might redeem it self next week, but not really taken by it.  Sure old Doctor Who might have "Hand of Evil" science to 'justify' the shoddiness of this one, but again, I think thats the problem of having fans writing these things - they know how low the bar can go and still be a decent story.  I'd rather they aimed high, even if the end result is a less than heroic failure.
 

Also forgot to add the rubbish "I know one of you will kill me" bit from last weeks being potentially rubbish.  

The second part went the wrong way for me in ways I couldn't have imagined, but I can only assume are part of the whole series, so I cant really comment on them as yet.  did feel a bit more shark jumpy than I could have envisaged though - particularly [spoiler]("dont let the light touch you" following sticking your hand in the sodding light!  and lots of other unconvincing mismarrying of cliched dialogue allied with weak Whedonisms as if this somehow waters down or excuses the former.)[/spoiler]

Oh, and the new silurians look really, really, rubbish! If you wanted to make them blander you couldnt have begun - and its been some time since i last saw the Silurians, but surely they werent as stereotypically divided into warmongers and kindly old men?

[House of Usher]

No separate thread for Part 2, 'Cold Blood'?

I enjoyed it. I thought it was very old-fashioned and hackneyed, which is a plus in my book. Minor science, technology and logic quibbles, but they're minor, so who cares? Stephen Moffat gives much better emo than Russell T. Davies. Rory's death and erasure from existence brought tears to my eyes, so job done there.

[dweezil2]

I was slightly indifferent to episode 1 of this, but episode 2 was quite brilliant.
Probably my favourite episode of the series so far.
No doubts about Matt Smith as the Doctor though-he's quite brilliant!

[Mardroid]

[spoiler]("dont let the light touch you" following sticking your hand in the sodding light! [/spoiler]

Yeah, I wasn't keen on that either. Made very little sense. [spoiler]I'm not sure of the existence eating crack containing stuff either, but then it could be argued stuff not existing in the universe doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the crack. If there is an 'in' in the crack. I liked the twist of the identity of the shrapnel though.


Then again, what about the contradiction right at the start where the crack eats ducks, yet the young lady in the very room containing the crack is fine? And the fact that an alien can use it to escape prison without erasing himself in the process? There have been contradictions right from the start.[/spoiler] Or we're just not privy to all the facts yet.

[spoiler]Also, what happens to the city after they leave? I have an idea we may well see the Silurians and the couple who stayed behind again in a future episode, possibly in a future series, but wouldn't the crack expand and gobble them up too? (Possibly not if it's following them through time.)

And considering that little 'view through the keyhole' a couple of episodes back, (or was it last) I wonder if the stiff lock was a little foreshadowing....[/spoiler]

I really did like the episode overall though. And this series as a whole has been pretty cracking.

[Mardroid]

No bad pun intended.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

RORY WHY?!!!!!!????

[Cthulouis]

This episode did everything that RTD Who did wrong (Oh look, a child is in danger, YOU MUST CARE ABOUT THIS WITHOUT BEING GIVEN A REASON TO!!!), and a few bits that Old Who did wrong that I thought we were trying our best to leave behind ("As you know, we are both of the same rank..."). It even confirmed the badness of the previous episode by letting loads of plot threads die unused.

I really hope that if this episode leads to a "Thousand Years Later" plot, they either leave it until next series, or get it written by someone else.

I accept that watching Doctor Who is a bit like reading 2000ad, in that there may be a story you don't like, but someone else will be enjoying it who may not enjoy the ones you do. This means you just have to push on through the depressingly disappointing ones, hoping that the next one is more to your taste. During the Tenant years, it quickly became apparent that every story was aimed at the exact same audience, and I soon stopped watching. This series has shown it is much more varied. If this means that two episodes every year are going to suck hard, then I will suffer that if it means the rest are watchable.

Also, sometimes, in country villages, duck ponds don't have ducks. I thought it was an observation of country life, a "Look, this isn't set in London/Cardiff!" moment. I realise I am almost definitely wrong about this. Oh well. 

[Paul faplad Finch]

Are we definitely not having a new thread for Cold Blood then? You realise this will be the first time since Rose taht a new ep. hasn't had a thread of it's own. Do we want to see this noble tradition die?

Whats that? No-one cares? Righto.

I'll post my thoughts on the episode later. After I've consoled myself over Rory.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Silurians!!!, now Who is getting interesting again.

To tell the truth, I read about it here first and was so looking forward to seeing a another old enemy brought back into the series, refurbished. However, where it ended, I was alittle dissappointed with their [spoiler]underground city[/spoiler], but still enjoyed the episode over all.

Is it strange that the new improved Sonic Screwdriver can't open old wooden doors?

As I thought that works on everything and I mean everything.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

The old one didn't work on wooden doors either. Says so in Silence in the Library.

Oh god. Oh god I've become one of those fans.

[House of Usher]

Is it strange that the new improved Sonic Screwdriver can't open old wooden doors?

I remember Jon Pertwee once using the sonic screwdriver to unscrew the metal screws holding down the grille of an air vent remotely, thus providing an escape route. I dare say it would be less effective against nails, although it does some to be able to explode padlocks and the like.

a "Look, this isn't set in London/Cardiff!" moment. I realise I am almost definitely wrong about this. Oh well.

It wasn't set in Cardiff, but it was filmed just outside in Llandaff. The duckpond was just a bit of clever set dressing. A lot of effort to go to if you ask me, for the amount of difference it made to the story.