Doctor Who IV, The Tin Dog Options

[Wife Of Rolex]

A good finish to a two parter. I think Helen Raynor has redeemed herself after Daleks In Manhatten last year, which was a bit poor in my opinion. Nice little nods here and there, especially the 'Are you my mummy?' line. Although I do think it's about time Donna stopped getting teary. That's 4 episodes in a row now. Isn't it about time she enjoyed her TARDIS travels with the Doctor?

Anyone notice Rose on the TARDIS screen?

That was a bit too unsubtle for me. Particularly as everyone would've easily spotted it. I like something like that to only be visable to the keenly observant so they can enjoy a geeky moment.


I'm going to be a slightly pissy fan for a moment (just to be finicky) and say The Doctor's daughter should really call him 'father' and not 'dad'.

[Raven]

I enjoyed last night's episode, and the story as a whole, but I'm not entirely sure why.

I think that for the second year running Raynor has shown that she can write, but that she just can't write science fiction, or at least original science fiction.

If you look at both stories they have too many clichés (short alien kicks patronising soldier’s arse, the not really bad guy switches places with the hero when the ultimate sacrifice is called for etc) and they also contain some pretty poor science (burning the planet's atmosphere? Just how does that work without killing everyone?).

Despite these gripes though, it still managed to remain entertaining, and I think a large part of that was down to the Sontarans, and Christopher Ryan in particular, simply for being very believable characters.

I didn't have a problem with the blink-and-you'd-miss-it appearance by Rose, it's just set up for later in the series and it didn't really distract from what was happening.

There were some other good performances, and some good one-liners - the afore mentioned "Are you my mummy?" being the best self reference I think they've had in new Who, but the "belittle" line was pretty good as well.

So, overall, it was pretty enjoyable, but as I said at the top, I’m still not entirely sure why.

[Drifter]

It was a good episode, not so sure about Martha and her GI Jane switch but I too loved the little one liners in there. Bernard Cribbins is fantastic as the grandfather, glad he has been given more airtime.

Im just looking more to the Moffat stories, whilst I like the series so far, there really hasnt been a stand out episode for me yet but Im sure its coming and its looking as if the latter half of this season is going to be better than the first half again.

This post has been edited by Drifter: May 4 2008, 07:37 PM

[curtinparloe]

I defintely enjoyed tonight's episode, including a real WTF moment at the end...

Next weeks is looking EXTREMELY interesting...

Anyone notice Rose on the TARDIS screen?

I missed it, but saw the name in the credits and said "Oh, for fuck's sake."

They'll have to do something really special for that narrative thread to not be shit.

[NiteFall]

I have to say I rather enjoyed that. Yes some of it was horribly cliched but overall good fun. I especially liked the use of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Valiant, rather than just having the Doctor magic away the fog with his handy do-anything plot device Sonic Screwdriver.

[Kick in the Head]

Nice that the Doctor had a Rose screensaver on his computer.

Also, if those 'geniuses' at Rattigan's were so smart, they wouldn't be wearing red romper suits like a bunch of kids doing PE.

[Zoe]

I thought it was awful.

If I see Helen Raynor in the street, I'm going to punch her.

I just watched an episode of MI High on the CBBC channel that revolved around 'nano nits' and 'personality downloading'. Embarrassingly it reminded me of certain types of Doctor Who episodes. I kept expecting David Tennant to bound into frame.

Evil sat nav? Jesus.

[widowspider]

I thought it was a really fun episode - the relationship with Bernard Cribbens and Catherine Tate is one of the best in the whole series, I think. VERY excited to see what happens next week with gymnast-girl.

[Imlovinit]

Im just looking more to the Moffat stories, whilst I like the series so far, there really hasnt been a stand out episode for me yet but Im sure its coming and its looking as if the latter half of this season is going to  be better than the first half again.

Same here, the episodes have all been ok for me so far but none have really stood out.
Next weeks looks good, was that Chris from Skins that the Doctors Daughter was kissing in the trailer?

[Svein]

I thought it was awful.

If I see Helen Raynor in the street, I'm going to punch her.

Bit harsh, innit? Feel the love!

[Starscream`s Gho...]

Evil sat nav? Jesus.

Yeah, much worse than shop dummies, armchairs, evil school teachers, yeti, evil mobile phone systems, evil bluetooth, and so on...

Though admittedly the MacGuffin was a bit shit, this time.

[Raven]

As I said before, I'm not really sure why I liked this episode, the story is riddled with plot holes, clichés and implausible get outs (like telling the sat nav to drive into the river, how does that work? It wasn't doing the opposite of what the driver wanted, it was obeying a set command!), but at the same time this all seemed to wash over me for once.

I suspect it got away with it because it didn't rise to the "Human Dalek" levels of absurdity Raynor's last story did - although burning the atmosphere did come dangerously close to that!

[Svein]

I just think it was entertaining telly!

[Zoe]

Sometimes people need a punch, I make no apologies.

It's not her fault, so much as the people who are comissioning writers who can't write SF to write for SF shows.

This lack of culpability doesn't mean she'd escape a punching though. My rage is violent and unfairly administered.

I will concede that evil sat nav isn't as naff as an evil wheelie bin, or trinny and susannah-bots; but that's not saying much.

[Raven]

I don't know about others, but both of the Raynor stories seem to have a "Davis Lite" feel to them, to me.