When I first got word that parts of the Easter Special would be filmed in Dubai, and Russell T Davies has stated that the location shots would be for an alien world, I was somewhat excited, because my first thought was "he's finally going to an alien world." However, after further thought, I realized that it was a rip of either Tatooine, or a rip of Abydos. For those of you not familiar with the latter, it's the name of the planet in the StarGate film.
Everything about this episode just felt like a mess. It's like Davies came up with the plot - that of The Doctor and some fellow bus passengers getting stranded on an alien world via a portal - but didn't bother to come up with a resolution for the story until he was wr
iting it, in which case he wrote multiple obstacles, and then had to invent ways to take care of them all in the final ten minutes. Normally, I would say that this is typical RTD style.
Let's start with the pointless opening sequence. A young lady steals a precious cup from a secured museum Mission: Impossible style, and then for a speedy getaway she hops on a bus. Rather than use the advanced tracking capabilities of the TARDIS, The Doctor boards the same bus with a little scanner thingy....and Easter chocolate. A spine-tingling 25 MPH hot pursuit begins, with cops chasing down the bus through a tunnel. A London tour bus outrunning police cars? Hmmm.
The episode finally starts an upward climb when the bus is transported across the universe to a barren desert planet. The next ten to fifteen minutes is more or less a repeat of the ten to fifteen minutes of "Midnight." There's crying, whining, "we're gonna die" and a lot of finger pointing at The Doctor. Sound familiar?
The Doctor and Lady Christina venture out from the stranded tour bus, and notice an approaching storm on the horizon. The episode then takes another Doctor Who form when we see that someone is watching the two of them from afar. It not is revealed what the aliens look like until later, and they turn out to be reminiscent of the Foamasi from "The Leisure Hive." Speaking of nods to the original series, The Doctor also mentions "the giant robot" when asking about past UNIT involvements, referring to The Fourth Doctor's first story, "Robot." Something that an original Doctor Who episode would not have done that this one did was have The Doctor snatch a passenger's cell phone to ring up UNIT for help. Really? The man who has seen all of time and space and he needs help from HUMANS to get out of this? He can defeat armies of Daleks, Cybermen, Toclafane, he can outsmart Weeping Angels, he can destroy all the Time Lords, but when he has car trouble he has to call road side assistance?!
Probably the most useless character was that of Dr. Malcolm. It was clear on numerous occasions that his character was introduced for the sole purpose of comic relief, and often drained the episode's serious tone dry.
Meanwhile back on Earth, the chasing police are stunned to see a tour bus vanish in front of them. Ok, here's the plothole. The bus is heading through the tunnel towards the roadblock, but passes through the portal at the end. Later, the cops giving chase are with the cops manning the road block. How did they get around the portal? Did they turn, go back and make two blocks? Is the portal anti-police?
About forty minutes in, Davies starts wrapping things up. It was already clear that the bus was not getting out the sand trap under its own power. To solve this, Davies introduces a crystal at the end of a long shaft held with anti-gravity clamps. Why would the Tritovores construct their ship that way? Oh I see. So the opening sequence can have meaning. Lady Christina uses her Mission: Impossible skills to retrieve the clamps. The Doctor offers to give the two Tritovores a lift, but rather than deal with writing a TARDIS scene for them, Davies just kills them off.
Back to the tour bus, The Doctor installs the anti-gravity clamps on the wheels, which oddly enough, seemed to be tailored specifically for clamping bus wheels. A fifth clamp is placed on the steering wheel, and after requiring to hammer the hell out of Lady Christina's earlier swag, the bus suddenly has the capability to fly, steered and accelerated using the bus' steering wheel and pedal.
The Doctor and company fly safely through the portal just in the nick of time, trailed only by two of the metal stingrays. This leads to a fire fight between UNIT forces and the two stingrays. The bus sets down, and there is an overly emotional group of passengers filled with joy that they're back in good ol' London town. The ending virtually goes on a killing spree of WhoScale points. Malcolm is in tears that he finally gets to meet the legendary Doctor, and continuously chants "I love you!" Enter homosexual humor here. Additionally, UNIT now caters to The Doctor by picking up his TARDIS where ever it was and delivering it to him. Funny how the Fourth Doctor had to walk back to his TARDIS in "Terror Of The Zygons" and "The Android Invasion." Who are you kidding, Russell? Just another way to conveniently tie up a plot hole you had not foreseen until you were writing the ending.
Lady Christina asks to join The Doctor in his travels, which he declines in favor of justice for her theft at the opening. The Doctor then has a change of hearts and sonic screwdrivers Lady Christina's handcuffs at a distance. She hops on the tour bus, and flies away into the starry sky.
Rather than traditionally have The Doctor figure out how to close the expansive portal when he gets back, the scientist Malcolm accomplishes it. My question is, if they had the tech to detect and close portals of this magnitude, why wasn't it detected and closed immediately?
Well, as most of you know it usually pointless to try and justify the plot holes that Davies often overlooks in favor of writing a good EastEnders drama. The episode scored a high five because that's about what it was. Thirty minutes of what felt like Doctor Who, and thirty minutes of "am I still watching Doctor Who?"
Everything about this episode just felt like a mess. It's like Davies came up with the plot - that of The Doctor and some fellow bus passengers getting stranded on an alien world via a portal - but didn't bother to come up with a resolution for the story until he was wr
iting it, in which case he wrote multiple obstacles, and then had to invent ways to take care of them all in the final ten minutes. Normally, I would say that this is typical RTD style.Let's start with the pointless opening sequence. A young lady steals a precious cup from a secured museum Mission: Impossible style, and then for a speedy getaway she hops on a bus. Rather than use the advanced tracking capabilities of the TARDIS, The Doctor boards the same bus with a little scanner thingy....and Easter chocolate. A spine-tingling 25 MPH hot pursuit begins, with cops chasing down the bus through a tunnel. A London tour bus outrunning police cars? Hmmm.
The episode finally starts an upward climb when the bus is transported across the universe to a barren desert planet. The next ten to fifteen minutes is more or less a repeat of the ten to fifteen minutes of "Midnight." There's crying, whining, "we're gonna die" and a lot of finger pointing at The Doctor. Sound familiar?
The Doctor and Lady Christina venture out from the stranded tour bus, and notice an approaching storm on the horizon. The episode then takes another Doctor Who form when we see that someone is watching the two of them from afar. It not is revealed what the aliens look like until later, and they turn out to be reminiscent of the Foamasi from "The Leisure Hive." Speaking of nods to the original series, The Doctor also mentions "the giant robot" when asking about past UNIT involvements, referring to The Fourth Doctor's first story, "Robot." Something that an original Doctor Who episode would not have done that this one did was have The Doctor snatch a passenger's cell phone to ring up UNIT for help. Really? The man who has seen all of time and space and he needs help from HUMANS to get out of this? He can defeat armies of Daleks, Cybermen, Toclafane, he can outsmart Weeping Angels, he can destroy all the Time Lords, but when he has car trouble he has to call road side assistance?!
Probably the most useless character was that of Dr. Malcolm. It was clear on numerous occasions that his character was introduced for the sole purpose of comic relief, and often drained the episode's serious tone dry.
Meanwhile back on Earth, the chasing police are stunned to see a tour bus vanish in front of them. Ok, here's the plothole. The bus is heading through the tunnel towards the roadblock, but passes through the portal at the end. Later, the cops giving chase are with the cops manning the road block. How did they get around the portal? Did they turn, go back and make two blocks? Is the portal anti-police?
About forty minutes in, Davies starts wrapping things up. It was already clear that the bus was not getting out the sand trap under its own power. To solve this, Davies introduces a crystal at the end of a long shaft held with anti-gravity clamps. Why would the Tritovores construct their ship that way? Oh I see. So the opening sequence can have meaning. Lady Christina uses her Mission: Impossible skills to retrieve the clamps. The Doctor offers to give the two Tritovores a lift, but rather than deal with writing a TARDIS scene for them, Davies just kills them off.
Back to the tour bus, The Doctor installs the anti-gravity clamps on the wheels, which oddly enough, seemed to be tailored specifically for clamping bus wheels. A fifth clamp is placed on the steering wheel, and after requiring to hammer the hell out of Lady Christina's earlier swag, the bus suddenly has the capability to fly, steered and accelerated using the bus' steering wheel and pedal.
The Doctor and company fly safely through the portal just in the nick of time, trailed only by two of the metal stingrays. This leads to a fire fight between UNIT forces and the two stingrays. The bus sets down, and there is an overly emotional group of passengers filled with joy that they're back in good ol' London town. The ending virtually goes on a killing spree of WhoScale points. Malcolm is in tears that he finally gets to meet the legendary Doctor, and continuously chants "I love you!" Enter homosexual humor here. Additionally, UNIT now caters to The Doctor by picking up his TARDIS where ever it was and delivering it to him. Funny how the Fourth Doctor had to walk back to his TARDIS in "Terror Of The Zygons" and "The Android Invasion." Who are you kidding, Russell? Just another way to conveniently tie up a plot hole you had not foreseen until you were writing the ending.
Lady Christina asks to join The Doctor in his travels, which he declines in favor of justice for her theft at the opening. The Doctor then has a change of hearts and sonic screwdrivers Lady Christina's handcuffs at a distance. She hops on the tour bus, and flies away into the starry sky.
Rather than traditionally have The Doctor figure out how to close the expansive portal when he gets back, the scientist Malcolm accomplishes it. My question is, if they had the tech to detect and close portals of this magnitude, why wasn't it detected and closed immediately?
Well, as most of you know it usually pointless to try and justify the plot holes that Davies often overlooks in favor of writing a good EastEnders drama. The episode scored a high five because that's about what it was. Thirty minutes of what felt like Doctor Who, and thirty minutes of "am I still watching Doctor Who?"
No comments:
Post a Comment