Episode 3 :The verdict

[Nick]

Well I thought it was another cracking episode...I still stick with my first comment that it should be in serial form

[RitaLittlewood]

One word - brilliant! This is easily my favourite episode so far. It was everything Dr Who should be and actually worked in the shorter format without everything being too rushed. My only gripe was the incidental music which a couple of times drowned out the dialogue. But I could easily watch this one again and again. Reminded me at times of Ghost Light (the house references) but was far superior to that. Mark Gatiss is a good writer. I enjoyed his Virgin New Adventure novel, Nightshade and I've heard a few of his Big Finish audios and thoroughly enjoyed them. It was so much better than last week. Perhaps if Mark had written that it wouldn't have been so boring.

Episodic is better but I feel with this one it would have had unnecessary padding. The past 2 eps needed them though that's for sure. If Mark Gatiss's future eps are as good as this one, I suggest RTD takes a back seat for series 2 (or should that be season 28? !

Patsy

[Nick]

28 Deffo...yes i thought it was well written..Simon Callow was brilliant as Charles Dickens...and he was on BBC4 later doing Dickens life story ..he was brilliant in taht to..he did it like a monologue on a stage...tyelling Dickens story and doing extracts from his books in character voices

[RitaLittlewood]

With, of course, the 8th Doctor. McGann, good though he was despite it being crap and good on the BF audios, can be lumped with Cushing and the stage plays and non-canon. I saw The Web of Fear at the Southsea Arts whatever it was called in 2000 (after plugging by Michael Sheard at breakfast). My friend Jo came all the way down from Redcar just to see it too! Actually, Michael was meant to be there the same performance we were but didn't turn up. The bloke playing the 2 1/2 Doctor was very disappointed. Anyway, as good as that was it's still not REALLY Dr Who. I'm not really interested in Dickens (even though apparently A Christmas Carol was published on my birthday) so didn't bother with BBC4. Was that at the same time as DW Confidential on BBC3? Simon Callow was great as Dickens and for once in this series guest cast weren't given bugger all to do. I hope next week's is as good.

Patsy

[Nick]

It came on BBC4 as the BBC 3 prog finished..I love a bit of Dickens..Pickwick papers and Oliver twist are my favourites

[RitaLittlewood]

That was good timing then. Was there lots of minutes in-between? I wish BBC3 would. Less than 20 secs to get those tapes and channel changed over today. WHY don't they repeat the flipping thing??? One of these days BBC1 will start late. You just watch.

Didn't Simon Callow play Dicken in something else? I read in the latest DWM an interview and I think he said he'd already played him near death so this was nothing new or something like that.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

I forget to set my video but saw most of the episode last night. Have to watch it again on BBC3 tonight. I thought it was brilliant, especially as it was set in Cardiff.

[sootycat]

I thought it was great, definitely a behind the sofa one for kids. ;D

If the rest are all of this standard I will be very happy.

The trailers of next weeks look good as well.

[RitaLittlewood]

Praise at last from Garry Bushell in today's People:

HOW GREEN WAS MY ALIEN? Apr 10 2005




Garry Bushell


THE dead walked the streets of Cardiff on Dr Who (in Barry, they just prop 'em up at bus stops).

Turned out their corpses had been taken over by gaseous creatures from another dimension...the first known example of gas-powered central haunting.

This was sharper, scarier and more inventive than the first two episodes thanks to a script by the League Of Gentleman's Mark Gatiss.

I'm still not sold on Eccleston - and plummeting viewing figures suggest I'm not alone. But regular writer Russell T. Davies is the real problem.

The cult of Davies is strong in TV circles. Why? Bob & Rose flopped. Mine All Mine did little better. And his CBBC approach to sci-fi means Russell T is more likely to be Who's anchor than his saviour.

-RANDOM questions about Jabe the Dr Who tree woman: Where does she get her roots done? Would she ever do Page Tree? And why doesn't the smitten Doc time travel to when Jabe was alive so she can get her log over?

-----------------------------------------

I'm beginning to agree. RTD is a good writer but clearly, going by his first 2 eps, not suited to DW. I think it's a mistake having Rose's family and boyfriend in it one way or another throughout the series. They never did that in the past and it worked. If the clip of a spaceship crashing into the Thames they showed on Newsnight Review last month is from next week's the CGI is terrible. Isn't this another RTD one?

Patsy

[RitaLittlewood]

I'm sure it'll come to you, SW, what the gas creatures reminded you of. Was it an earlier DW? We know Rose was Spearhead From Space and Terror of the Autons and someone elsewhere compared last week's to Curse of Peladon which I don't agree with because even that wasn't as boring as End of the World. DW always had a tradition of nicking ideas from other things but then so has Star Trek really though doesn't admit it. It was still miles better than last week. I wonder how many people have given up after that so never saw last night's?

I dug out Spearhead this afternoon. Is mine the only DVD cover to go a funny colour? Sort of splodgy brown. It may be about 100 mins but I still preferred that as an introductory story to Rose. More to do for the Autons, more character development. It's when you get to Terror and the repeated themes and dialogue (Spearhead - "Channing is controlling your mind, you must resist him!" and Pertwee gurning as the octopus wraps itself around his face. Terror - "The Master is controlling your mind, you must resist him!" and Pertwee gurning again as the phone line wraps itself around his face) it goes a bit dodgy. But both, for all their faults, were better plotted than Rose.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

Watched it in full tonight from my BBC3 recording, it was a brilliant episode.

The 2nd episode has been the 1 ive least enjoyed out of the 3 yes. I think it works better when they do past or present.

[RitaLittlewood]

It also works better longer most of the time. There are some from the original series that could have done with an ep or two less. The dropped the historicals in the 60s after The Highlanders and any after weren't as accurate as they were during the Hartnell era. They were marvellous and so well researched. It's a shame Marco Polo only exists on audio. 7 eps (about 3 hours) and it sounds wonderful and I wish I could see it. And The Reign of Terror only has 4 eps out of 6 existing on tape. The Romans is sort of historical but more comedy than accuracy but it's a good romp anyway.

The Daily Mail, one of the few good reviews for ep 1, gave Saturday's a bit of a panning. My friend Linda said it reminded her of Curse of Fenric and Ghost Light.

SW's post has got me racking my brain now to remember what it reminds me of too. If it's anything Davison to McCoy I don't watch them as much so that won't be much help! LOL!

Patsy

[RitaLittlewood]

Just chatting with that friend who won't join and he said Sapphire and Steel type of thing.

Patsy

[Peter]

I really enyoyed this episode, the subtler humour was great. Definetly better than last week's and the best so far, to date.

[RitaLittlewood]

Have to see what this first 2-parter is like. I'll get mad if the Dalek one is crap. I love the Daleks (even though they've had some rubbish stories). Have to see I suppose. But so far I don't like this series as much as the past. The Davison era is my least favourite but even crap like Warriors From The Deep has been better than The End of the World.

Patsy

[Nick]

isn't it funny..i quite enjoyed the Davison era..but towards the end (When Turlough,then Peri arrived) I went off it a bit...I blame Michael Grade for trying allsorts to get rid of it

[RitaLittlewood]

I didn't enjoy much even watching it on UK Gold. Though I quite liked Turlough. Hated Adric and bloody Tegan. Wished she'd got blown up with Adric!

Patsy

[eithne]

I sort of liked Episode Two but have to agree that Episode Three was better. The characters developed more and it was nice to see them change their clothes.

I'm looking forward to the two-parter to see what that will be like and what sort of cliffhanger there will be at the end. Does Bruno Langley appear in these next episodes?

The stunts from the promo clips do look bad though, especially the space ship crashing into Big Ben. Maybe it'll be better when we see the real thing.

I'm liking the show so far, and am strangely addicted.

[eithne]

The new series of Doctor Who added 1 million viewers at the weekend, according to early ratings figures.

Saturday's third outing drew an average of 8.34 million (36.7%) to BBC One between 7pm and 7.45pm, up from the previous week's 7.3 million but still down on the 9.9 million who saw the debut.

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway remained behind with an average of 7.14 million (32.3%) between 6.45pm and 7.55pm.

From Digital Spy (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/)

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So, any of you shocked by that news?

[RitaLittlewood]

Yes. Though it is good it's still doing so well. It's just a shame TV isn't like it was with longer scenes. Maybe if there were, we wouldn't need all these reminders of what happened last time, like the day before in The Bill.

Patsy