a question

ShyBrunette · a question

did season 2 start yet ?

Zhord

It hasn't started at the mo... apparently, its supposed to be out on 15th April in England but I don't know about Canada.

ShyBrunette

Der Martin

Oh no that will be hard. !! The series one I think was shown with a minimum of delay in Canada (feel free to correct me) And the Xmas special was shown first off in Canada (Again feel free,). I live in Germany and have to wait till my sister posts the series over to me. Shes usually quite quick but the wait is unBEARRRRRRRRable. Shocked

If the Fall in Canada is the same time as Autumn in EUrope then I feel for you all out there.

Zhord

How did you find the Christmas Invasion, Der Martin?

ShyBrunette

season 1 episode were 2 weeks late here and the Christmas Invasion was on Boxing day (december 26).
Oh well this season will not play until later but my fiance will be download them so i will be able to watch them before the fall Very Happy

Deako

For your sake I'm glad to hear it! Wink

ShyBrunette

yes I meant autum.. I wouldn't be able to stand the wait Embarassed

Deako

4 months is a long time to wait. Like you say, if your fiance has a fast enough connection, then downloading them is by far the best alternative! -- Good luck with that. Very Happy

ShyBrunette

thanks..had a talk with him and he said yep he will be downloading it Cheers!

Deako

Der Martin

Hmmm your fiancé is almost as good as my sister who records them on her DVD player and ships them out to me in Germany.

How did I find the Xmas invasion?

I was pleasantly surprised although not quite overwhelmed.

First episodes for a new Doctor are always very hard to pull off but I think that RTD got away with it quite well. The Sycorax bear an uncanny psychological resemblence to the Sontarans by the way (Ancient rites of Combat, would never filthy my tongue, etc.)

There was a hideous amount of stuff to squeeze into the plot somehow which again was quite difficult. I think if it was someone Else and not RTD it would have generally been impossible and indeed doomed to failure. Let's look at the content:

Apart from the doctors new face and character,
1) Torchwood has been introduced,
2) Capt Jack's abscence was explained, (or was that in the CIN clip?)
3) Harriet Jone's reappearance and Moral Demise has been thrown on the table at the last minute. (uh.. Why? I ask myself. How could she be so stupid after all that she had been through?) Such a tragic figure well paralled to certain contemporary British politicians who shall remain nameless... Actually Harriet Jone's fall from grace as it were is an extremely cunning and very healthy way of planting conspiracy theories into the hearts of British children who once they have seen this episode may well never trust a politician again. No mean feat! Many parallels to contemporary British politics I feel, keeping it all very relevant for viewers of all ages. (Pure genius!) It is definately heartening to think that 6 words can bring down a government. Smile

Harriet Jone's character can now however be binned or given tremendous importance along other lines, perhaps in Torchwood, perhaps a future enemy who teams up with Cassandra O' Brien or Adam I dunno),
4) the Tardis translating alien languages
5) quick summary of all gone before
6) a Christmas storyline and finally
7) the concept of regeneration.

To get all that into a one episode show, albeit an hour long is very tough going and I guess I kind of knew beforehand that some things would have to suffer in order to get it all crammed in.
Point 3 was indeed a complete surprise to me and is definately the most important part of the story.
Regeneration stories are famous for cramming things in and being a bit superficial at the same time. (Castrovalva, Time and the Rani, e.g.) So somethings may have been left a little superficial. e.g Pilotfish!!! What was that all about? Something so destructive just had the willies scared out of them just by looking at a sonic screwdriver! Yeah ok I can live with it Smile

- I thought that the Blood control concept was very well thought out and had me quite frightened,
- A 'great big threatening button' was definately neccesary!
- Bit naff the way the tea just happened to spill into the heart of the tardis.
- Swashbuckling sword fight....... well you can make your own mind up there,

- It was nice to see Rose being a bit wet behind the ears with her shadow proclamation-jagrafess-Daleks speech which I suppose had to be put in to hold on to diehard fans of the last season and sum it all up at the same time.

All in all I think it was a reasonable effort but will not go down as one of the classic Dr. Who storylines of all time but will generally be well respected for being a regeneration story which by their very nature can only really go wrong coz the concept is so weak and brilliant at the same time.

The best of RTD is yet to come I feel (and hope) The Xmas episode is just there to keep us all tied over until the real Dr. returns. Which will be very soon .........

Der Martin

Er sorry Zhord. was the correct answer that my sister recorded it and sent it over to me by post? If so sorry for that last outburst.

sciscens

I just so happened to catch the last minutes of episode 13 on the Belgian tv a few weeks ago. Looks pretty weird with the dutch subtitles since I've become used to watching the series without subtitles. It was said the 2005-series would be on dutch tv in spring 2006, but I still haven't heard anything about it.

Guess I'll just watch series 2 with you all. Just too bad BBC Three isn't available in the Netherlands. I had to watch confidential online all the time and I can't watch Torchwood...

Deako

Words and nuggets of pure wisdom as always there, Der Martin! I'm (obviously) not an expert on regeneration episodes, but I do agree that an awful lot of stuff has to be crammed in to such a litle time. -- It must be hard work... Cool

Zhord

Torchwood will be screened on BBC 1 in the autumn as well

Der Martin

Yes Deako it must be extremely difficult. Fandom from the classic series generally remembers the stories leading up to a regeneration as being tremendous climaxes only to be followed by a dud first new doc episode/story. Huge expectations fulfilled and then peetering out so to speak until the new doc gets to grips with the role. As it is a well known phenomenom writers of first new doc stories try to overcram things in just to make sure that it won't be a dud and then end up trying a little too hard. BUt RTD did do a good job, certainly better than all gone before him IMHO.