Wednesday 3 March 2010

Parting of the Ways

Following on from 'Bad Wolf', the Doctor must stop a new reborn Dalek menace.

The thing I love most about this story is the designs. The Dalek ship is delightfully Art Deco. And the Daleks have flying saucers! Fantastic! Not to mention the Dalek Emperor. He just looks like a panel straight out of the TV 21 Dalek comic strip. It was also great to see a new and convicining Dalek army.

The story? Basically, RT Davies could not write decent stories. The plot is a mess and the ending has something of a cop-out feel to it.

There is an awful lot of human carnage in this story. This is an unfortunate reminder of Resurrection of the Daleks. I am not sure this is handled all that well, particularly after the triviliazing of killing in Bad Wolf. The death of Lynda is rather saddening.

It is interesting to see the Doctor fighting an hopeless battle. Personally, I don't like the fact that the Doctor ends up failing this way. What happened to the old invinicble Doctor? With it being a children's show, is there anything wrong with having a Doctor who can resolve any situation?

The change of pace resulting from Rose's return home makes for an odd viewing experience. Great dramatic tension is created by Rose's frustration. I do find it hard to sympathize with her forever. It is clear that she is not worried about the future of humanity so much as full of self pity at being trapped in an unsatisfying life. The sudden appearance of all the 'Bad Wolf' graffitis was good though.

The transformation of Rose into a sort of goddess was kind of weird, but still rather interesting. But it still seemed like a deus ex machina ending, the sort of thing RT Davies typically resorts to.

As much as I hate the character of Captain Jack, it was cool seeing him going into action, fighting off Daleks. Its always nice to have a bit of shooty stuff in Doctor Who and to have a tough male companion.

The ending with Rose left perplexed as the Doctor starts to change was nicely done.

4 comments:

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  2. Congrats on you blog, Matthew.

    I haven't really seen Dr. Who. Is there an episode that would work best as an introduction? Sometimes the first episodes of shows are not good indicators of what the series is like.

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  3. Difficult one because the show originally ran from 1963- 1989, a long period and then was revived in 2005.

    The first episode of the 2005 series, 'Rose' would probably make a good introduction for a modern viewer. Though if one only watches the post-2005 show, one misses out on a lot of the great elements of the original series.

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