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[Thad]

New logo!

I love it. 

Yeah, the DW/TARDIS design is neat, and I love the retro-futuristic font on the main title.  Could do without the lens flare, though.

As I understand it, it's not BBC -- apparently K-9 is (at least partially) creator-owned.  (The Daleks, similarly, are owned by the Nation estate; when the '05 series started there was some hand-wringing about whether they would be allowed to appear in the new show.)  But the Beeb owns the likeness, which is why he had to be redesigned.  Complicating things further, there's more than one K-9; #4 left one with Sarah Jane, but kept another with him.

So whether any of this series is canon is something I'd just as soon leave up to people who care more about that kind of nonsense than I do.  The question is whether it's any good.  From the trailer, the answer appears to be "No."

[Thad]

Drought's over, boys and girls!

Waters of Mars airs in 2 weeks.  After that, it's 6 weeks until Christmas, but somewhere in there we're getting an animated special.

And the Doctor just appeared in a 2-parter called The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith on her eponymous series.

Don't watch part one.  Seriously.  It's not very good, the Doctor doesn't show up until the last minute (though the TARDIS materialization sound taunts you several times prior), and everything you need to know about it is covered in the recap at the beginning of part 2.  (Basically it's just a bunch of mundane crap.  And I LOVE stories that juxtapose the fantastic with the mundane, but it just really falls flat here; it's a series of very boring cliches.)

Part 2 is actually pretty good!  It's got a decent premise, a good monster, and Tennant being Tennant.  There's a certain amount of overlap with both Runaway Bride and Father's Day, but the twists on those plots are enough to make this story stand out.

All in all, worth watching part 2, especially knowing that #10's days are numbered.  And the child actors aren't bad, either; I quite like Clyde.

As far as canon, there's been some hinting that this leads into the finale in some way.  Best guess is that the Pantheon of Discord will crop up again.  (There's also a magic ring, and we know the Master is coming back, but I think I may be reaching just a bit there.)

[Niku]

someone give me a goddamn working waters of mars torrent

[Thad]

Got the NZB from tvnzb.com .

"How to use NZB's" is something of a tangent, but sabnzbd is nicely automated, and you can roll your own RSS feed for it to monitor at mytvnzb.foechoer.be.  The only thing I had to do with Waters of Mars was file and rename it after it was done, and if it were a numbered episode I wouldn't even have had to do that.

Anyhow:

I liked it.  Overblown, maudlin, and longer than it needed to be, but by RTD's standards it was downright subtle and concise.  #10 at his bipolar best.  As an examination of the rules of time travel, it was a lot less forced than Fires of Pompeii (which it shamelessly references); it is of course no City on the Edge of Forever, but that's its most obvious inspiration.

The ending brings the return of the Scary Doctor; it's a return to the theme that's been prevalent in Rusty's work since Runaway Bride that the Doctor needs someone to ground him or he'll fucking lose it.  And yeah, there's fire and water to bring that all back.

It manages a neat little balance of a self-contained plot that represents the culmination of four years of character development.

In the end, a perfectly decent little drama, and better than anything we've seen since...probably Midnight?  And as I have little hope for The End of Time, this may very well be the last good Tenth Doctor story.  (On the other hand, knowing RTD's history, it's entirely possible that it will have a very good first part.)

Meantime, the animated Doctor Who: Dreamland runs Saturday the 21st through Friday the 27th.  It's apparently showing on some goddamn thing called Red Button, which is either PPV or Internet TV, I can't really tell which.  Either way, we filthy colonials will have to find other means to get it.

[LaserBeing]

It is pretty much constantly skirting the line between "ridiculously overblown" and "just exactly overblown enough" that is RTD's signature. But on the whole, I quite liked it. I don't know if it was an accident or cleverly done on purpose but the way [spoiler]the Doctor's helmet light illuminates his face as he is walking away makes him look almost skull like.[/spoiler] The bit in the airlock is also quite well directed to give the normally adorable Tennant a colder, more alien aura. I can't help but be reminded that, as he gets closer and closer to his 12th and final regeneration, he may eventually have to deal with the possibility of becoming or manifesting the Valeyard in some way.

Then again I am always a fan of more or less infallible heroes flirting with villainy (see also: Sisko is the best captain).

[Niku]

Doctor Who: Dreamland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWL0L8IttFs
i don't think i can watch this.  seriously.

Found a working torrent before bed last night finally!  And .. yeah, I really liked it.  But then, I even actually like overblown RTD Melodrama despite how dumb and silly he can get, so I'm not entirely objective.  I am going to miss Tennant something fierce.

[Mothra]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Ahh the things done in the name of PROFIT!!!

Ours is truly the age of wonders.

[Thad]

i don't think i can watch this.  seriously.

Eeeeyeah, looks pretty bad.  But

I am going to miss Tennant something fierce.

so I might have some beers and watch it.

Pity they abandoned the animation style they were using before -- it was 2D CG and didn't look any more expensive than this, and was a whole lot more pleasing to the eye.  The one with #10 and Martha was forgettable but I remember it being all right, and I quite liked the two missing #2 episodes that they animated and was hoping we'd see more like that.

[Mothra]

Thad please don't tell me you are actually going to watch this

[Classic]

If he can watch it without drinking himself into a coma... I'd probably try watching it.

[Thad]

I couldn't actually make it through the whole preview, so it's questionable.

However, I have been known to watch badly-written but prettily-animated cartoons with the sound off, so perhaps I will do the opposite here and see if I can make sense of the audio without having to look at it.

[Thad]

Isn't as bad as it looks.  Not great, either, but a perfectly serviceable, middling Tennant ep.  And bear in mind we only have two hours left of Tennant after this and should enjoy it while it lasts.

On the CG: the humans and humanoids look awful, with the Doctor looking the best and Cassie looking the worst.  The monsters look pretty good.  Some of the vehicles, like the underused fighter jets, look good; others, like the alien spaceship, not so much.  (I'm assuming the opening sequence with the ship being shot down over Earth is a deliberate homage to Beast Wars, which is really not a very good idea seeing as it's a reminder that BW did better CG fourteen fucking years ago.  And then they KEEP SHOWING IT in case you forget.)  Some of the sets (like the TARDIS -- they spent a lot of time on it for only showing it for 30 seconds -- this would make me fear a sequel, except the TARDIS interior is being redesigned next season anyway) look pretty great, others made me think of Goldeneye.

All in all, not a complete waste of time.  If The Waters of Mars is possibly the last good Tennant ep, this is possibly the last one that isn't terrible.  (Although again, knowing RTD, it is entirely possible that the first half of the finale will be good.)

[Niku]

[spoiler]FUCK YEAH THE MASTER IS SADAKO.

also the first time the tv flickered i was like "seriously he's bringing back the goddamn wire?" so you know, thank god that didn't happen.

also it wasn't very good, but eh, THE MASTER IS SADAKO.  And the scene in the cafe worked for me because I am a big fool for obvious sentimentality.[/spoiler]

[Mothra]

what you saw it what

??????????????

[Niku]

merry christmas B)

[Thad]

also it wasn't very good

I thought it was pretty neat.  Predictable, sure (though I didn't really see the Master's plan coming), but did a pretty good job of looking back at where we've been, both in the current series and the original.  (Master as the desperate, dying version from Deadly Assassin/Keeper of Traken, with a reference to his master-of-disguise career and a resurrection scene that recalled the TV movie.)

I do not like the "there is something special about you" bit with Wilf, no I do not.  It recalls the very very silly finale to last season.  I was briefly worried during that conversation that he might own a fob watch, but fortunately that appears not to be the case.  Which is not to say it won't turn out to be something even dumber!

A few references to Moffat taking the reins sprinkled throughout, too; a woman named Sally on a bus that says Sparrow, and the roach coach saying "Steven's Point" on it.

Simm kicked ass; the storytelling was hamhanded but overall enjoyable IMO.

Of course, I expect next week's to completely blow it, because RTD.

Scene we still haven't seen: the Doctor in the bookstore with Jessica Hynes.  Hard to see where exactly that's supposed to fit in the second half of this story.  What, he defeats the Master, the world calms down, he goes to have a quiet moment in a bookstore, and then gets hit by a bus as he walks out?  Frankly that's a better ending than what we're actually liable to see.

Anyway.  I liked this one!  I dread the next one.  Which is about what I expected.

[Niku]

[spoiler]I just didn't care for the pacing of the episode;  the narration from the Time Lords didn't really work for me, I thought the new famous dude with the book and the alien machine felt weirdly out of left field, and it just generally didn't feel like it was building to a proper head.

Also while I like crazy ravenous Master, did he really need to shoot lightning too?  Or was that just so the Doctor could walk around with explosions behind him?  I did like that the Master's plan was basically corrupting the one jubilant success that Nine had in another Moffat nod though, intentional or not (on both RTD and the Master's part).[/spoiler]

[Royal☭]

[spoiler]In this new world of people all the Master, all economy and industry was halted for 2 hours as people laughed maniacally at the absurdity of their own victory[/spoiler]

[Thad]

I just didn't care for the pacing of the episode;

I thought it was decent, actually.  Action scene, then pull back for something quiet; repeat.  And the quiet scenes weren't nearly as cloying as RTD's usual fare.

the narration from [spoiler]the Time Lords[/spoiler] didn't really work for me,

It was hokey but I thought it worked as a framing device, especially given how it built to the twist ending.

I thought [spoiler]the new famous dude with the book and the alien machine[/spoiler] felt weirdly out of left field

Yes; no argument here.

and it just generally didn't feel like it was building to a proper head.

Yeah, while the Master's resurrection was adequately (if not completely) explained, the other major events in the episode came out of nowhere.  I mean, we knew Dalton was coming back as a Time Lord, and extrapolated certain other hypotheses from that, but...yeah, it's twist ending at the cost of having to spend ten minutes of exposition explaining it next week.  And while I find it hard to believe it could possibly be as lame as the explanation for Davros's return (which, as noted earlier, was explained by "Caan wanted to destroy the Daleks, of which he was the last, and so for some reason he went back in time and saved several thousand of them"), it's still likely to be very awkward.

[spoiler]Also while I like crazy ravenous Master, did he really need to shoot lightning too?  Or was that just so the Doctor could walk around with explosions behind him?[/spoiler]

Of course it was.

Yeah, that was pretty dumb too.  Master was a straight-up supervillain in this one.  He got some good mad scientist-y bits, though.

[spoiler]I did like that the Master's plan was basically corrupting the one jubilant success that Nine had in another Moffat nod though, intentional or not (on both RTD and the Master's part).[/spoiler]

Took me a minute to realize what you meant, but yeah, you're dead on.  [spoiler]The Immortality Gate is pretty much the same thing as the nanogenes from The Doctor Dances.[/spoiler]  I hadn't thought of that; good noticing.

[spoiler]In this new world of people all the Master, all economy and industry was halted for 2 hours as people laughed maniacally at the absurdity of their own victory[/spoiler]

It does perhaps bear repeating that this guy used to go around turning people into dolls.

[Bal]

The Master being a fucking loon isn't anything new, but he usually has it, if only barely, repressed. I like this bold, new, totally out of the batshit crazy closet Master. I also like that the tie in to the drums, and that they turn out to be the not just the knocking, but possibly a contributing factor to his madness all along, just getting worse and worse over the years as he approached the actual events to which they are related.