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selenakUnspoilery: a fun adventure to relax with.
Gareth Thomas obviously likes female cat burglars as much as I do, given that he already had one in The Unicorn and the Wasp. I'm told that the opening sequence is from a thousand action adventure movies (and also as I recall got parodied brilliantly in Buffy's sixth season when the trio tried it, being fanboys), but the example I immediately thought of was from none of those but from Highlander, where the one and only Amanda pulled off such a stunt as well. She'd approve of Christina de Souza, and if there is no crossover in which the two meet, I'll be disappointed. Christina was a fun one shot character, ably played by Michelle Ryan, who I gather has fans via Merlin and detractors via The Bionic Woman; not having seen either, she was new to me, and I liked her a lot in the role. But Christina isn't the type that would work as a long term companion, or at least not with the later incarnations of the Doctor; not enough contrast and grounding, thrill seeker that she is. (Earlier versions are a different matter. I could see her with Five, for example, who'd ground her. Or with One as long as there is someone else around.) For one shared adventure, though, she was great, and got a good goodbye with Ten saying no to the co-travelling but helping her escape the law via sonic screwdriver and providing a flying bus. Loved the flying bus, btw: it's just the type of "wonderful nonsense" (to quote last special's guest, Jackson Lake) that makes the show. Also, her being a thief makes for the first New Who on screen reference to a fact familiar to Old School fans: that the Doctor nicked the TARDIS. (Or to put it more romantically, they ran away together. Or maybe the TARDIS would say she stole the Doctor?) Which was far from the only sneaky continuity reference, to both Old and New Who episodes past; they ran from geeky fun like "the one with the giant robot" (aka Four's first adventure) to the the saddest reference of the episode: "I had a friend who called me spaceman."
(Incidentally, I am a hypocrite. I rolled my eyes at many, though not all, of the Rose references in s3, but squeed about the Martha talk in Partners in Crime, and now the Donna reference (the second one in a row if you count the one in the last special, which was more indirectly phrased but unmistakable, aka "and sometimes, they forget") made me very happy indeed.)
Mostly this was an angst-free special, though; while the bus driver died, none of the passengers did, the Doctor, Christina and UNIT were able to bring them all home safely, as promised, and everyone (safe the late bus driver, and the two late fly aliens) was better off than at the start of the adventure. As mentioned, Christina ended up with the flying bus, and the Doctor got the two boys a job with UNIT. And might I say, as someone still bearing a grudge for the UNIT slander in Torchwood's Fragments (though the Sontaran two parter in DW's fourth season already rectified that somewhat), I wasn't just happy about the depiction of UNIT here, I was positively gleeful that a) Captain Magambo (last seen in the alternate timeline of Turn Left) carried on the tradition of the Brigadier of being a positive, sympathetic character who takes a different position than the Doctor does on a key question for valid reasons, and is not punished by the narrative for this, b) the Doctor when needing help on Earth called UNIT, not Torchwood, and c) got his new two unemployed friends jobs at UNIT, not Torchwood as well. I mean, yes, I like the newbies in Cardiff now. But not as much as I love the old organization, and like I said, grudge. I expect we'll see the two new UNIT soldiers again in the other specials. Mind you, I hadn't known UNIT would be in this one. Very nice surprise. And fleshing out of Captain Magambo who only appeared briefly in Turn Left, after all. Malcolm I thought was a bit over the top, but in an endearing way, and I loved we heard the term "scientific advisor" again.
The bus passengers were likeable, too, especially Carmen and Lou, though they didn't get much to do. As for the aliens, the llangoliers wormhole causing metal eaters were nicely menacing in a can't help themselves, that's their life cycle kind of way, while I really liked that the fly-like aliens turned out to be crash-landed as well, and not menacing at all. Also, one of my favourite Doctor and Donna stories in which he can sort of speak insect language just got canonical.
Most amusing trivia: the Doctor, not to be outdone by Christina's preparedness, changes his glasses to sunglasses.
Most touching trivia: other than the Donna reference, the Doctor telling Captain Magambo he hopes to see her again. For all that the Doctor snarking at UNIT commanders has a fine old tradition going back to Three and his occasional rants, the Doctor being friends with them has an equally long tradition. Plus I really like Captain Magambo and hope to see more of her, too.
Most hoped for result of this special: like I said, FANFICTION in which Christina meets people. Doesn't have to be from HL, any old verse will do.
Lastly: I loved the teaser for The Waters of Mars, because omgServilia Evelyn Lindsay Duncan! And Mars. Never let it be said New Who does't take you places.
Gareth Thomas obviously likes female cat burglars as much as I do, given that he already had one in The Unicorn and the Wasp. I'm told that the opening sequence is from a thousand action adventure movies (and also as I recall got parodied brilliantly in Buffy's sixth season when the trio tried it, being fanboys), but the example I immediately thought of was from none of those but from Highlander, where the one and only Amanda pulled off such a stunt as well. She'd approve of Christina de Souza, and if there is no crossover in which the two meet, I'll be disappointed. Christina was a fun one shot character, ably played by Michelle Ryan, who I gather has fans via Merlin and detractors via The Bionic Woman; not having seen either, she was new to me, and I liked her a lot in the role. But Christina isn't the type that would work as a long term companion, or at least not with the later incarnations of the Doctor; not enough contrast and grounding, thrill seeker that she is. (Earlier versions are a different matter. I could see her with Five, for example, who'd ground her. Or with One as long as there is someone else around.) For one shared adventure, though, she was great, and got a good goodbye with Ten saying no to the co-travelling but helping her escape the law via sonic screwdriver and providing a flying bus. Loved the flying bus, btw: it's just the type of "wonderful nonsense" (to quote last special's guest, Jackson Lake) that makes the show. Also, her being a thief makes for the first New Who on screen reference to a fact familiar to Old School fans: that the Doctor nicked the TARDIS. (Or to put it more romantically, they ran away together. Or maybe the TARDIS would say she stole the Doctor?) Which was far from the only sneaky continuity reference, to both Old and New Who episodes past; they ran from geeky fun like "the one with the giant robot" (aka Four's first adventure) to the the saddest reference of the episode: "I had a friend who called me spaceman."
(Incidentally, I am a hypocrite. I rolled my eyes at many, though not all, of the Rose references in s3, but squeed about the Martha talk in Partners in Crime, and now the Donna reference (the second one in a row if you count the one in the last special, which was more indirectly phrased but unmistakable, aka "and sometimes, they forget") made me very happy indeed.)
Mostly this was an angst-free special, though; while the bus driver died, none of the passengers did, the Doctor, Christina and UNIT were able to bring them all home safely, as promised, and everyone (safe the late bus driver, and the two late fly aliens) was better off than at the start of the adventure. As mentioned, Christina ended up with the flying bus, and the Doctor got the two boys a job with UNIT. And might I say, as someone still bearing a grudge for the UNIT slander in Torchwood's Fragments (though the Sontaran two parter in DW's fourth season already rectified that somewhat), I wasn't just happy about the depiction of UNIT here, I was positively gleeful that a) Captain Magambo (last seen in the alternate timeline of Turn Left) carried on the tradition of the Brigadier of being a positive, sympathetic character who takes a different position than the Doctor does on a key question for valid reasons, and is not punished by the narrative for this, b) the Doctor when needing help on Earth called UNIT, not Torchwood, and c) got his new two unemployed friends jobs at UNIT, not Torchwood as well. I mean, yes, I like the newbies in Cardiff now. But not as much as I love the old organization, and like I said, grudge. I expect we'll see the two new UNIT soldiers again in the other specials. Mind you, I hadn't known UNIT would be in this one. Very nice surprise. And fleshing out of Captain Magambo who only appeared briefly in Turn Left, after all. Malcolm I thought was a bit over the top, but in an endearing way, and I loved we heard the term "scientific advisor" again.
The bus passengers were likeable, too, especially Carmen and Lou, though they didn't get much to do. As for the aliens, the llangoliers wormhole causing metal eaters were nicely menacing in a can't help themselves, that's their life cycle kind of way, while I really liked that the fly-like aliens turned out to be crash-landed as well, and not menacing at all. Also, one of my favourite Doctor and Donna stories in which he can sort of speak insect language just got canonical.
Most amusing trivia: the Doctor, not to be outdone by Christina's preparedness, changes his glasses to sunglasses.
Most touching trivia: other than the Donna reference, the Doctor telling Captain Magambo he hopes to see her again. For all that the Doctor snarking at UNIT commanders has a fine old tradition going back to Three and his occasional rants, the Doctor being friends with them has an equally long tradition. Plus I really like Captain Magambo and hope to see more of her, too.
Most hoped for result of this special: like I said, FANFICTION in which Christina meets people. Doesn't have to be from HL, any old verse will do.
Lastly: I loved the teaser for The Waters of Mars, because omg
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 06:20 pm (UTC)Anyway, I really liked this one for the reasons you mentioned.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 07:08 pm (UTC)A Flight of Fancy (http://jinxed-wood.livejournal.com/157684.html#cutid1) by
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Date: 2009-04-12 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 06:52 pm (UTC)Understandable human hypocrisy, though. You like Rose less than the Doctor (or RTD) does, but like Martha and Donna as much he does. I adore Rose and thus squeed at her mentions quite a bit. We all want more of what we like and less of what we don't.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 07:15 pm (UTC)*raises hand* Yup, same here. And I'm only mildly ashamed about that. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm not ashamed at all.
I too liked seeing Captain Magambo, and that she had priorities other than the Doctor's, but not treated as wrong. I'd love to see Privates Nathan and Barkley again, that'd be very nice.
Lastly, yeah, I guess Christina and Ten are too similar to work for an entire season; at the same time, I liked their dynamic very much indeed here, and thought they got some wonderful dialogue. She was excellent.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 09:15 pm (UTC)She certainly would. Obviously she taught Christina some of her skills :)
I must admit to hypocrisy too about the Donna reference. This special was a fun romp but the Doctor obviously hadn't forgotten the events of Journey's End, and nor should he.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 09:21 pm (UTC)It was fun.
But the music was intrusive. They should fire the composer.
I squeed at the Donna reference. *sigh* I really loved Donna.
I had to look up Michelle Ryan on IMDB to find out why I knew her face. Was very ashamed and ready to pawn my TV geek credentials when I found out that I knew her both from Merlin and Bionic Woman. *hides*
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Date: 2009-04-13 05:07 am (UTC)Composer: actually, he leaves as part of the great turnover anyway.
And hey, in the SCC finale it took me an abominably long time to realise where I knew the FBI agent from until, in his very last scene, I figured out he was Will from West Wing, and I only relatively recently watched the entire show!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 09:47 pm (UTC)SAVE!
I don't think it's hypocritical to enjoy the Martha and Donna references; if anything, they make the Rose references slightly less annoying, as she no longer appears to be uniquely memorable and angst-worthy.
I thought it was OK, though I disliked Christina (too smug) and wished the comic Welshman had been slightly less OTT. I'd have liked less of them (especially her) and more of the insect people.
PS And the best news was the imminence of Lindsay Duncan.
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Date: 2009-04-13 05:17 am (UTC)I was so happy to see Lindsay Duncan in the trailer!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 11:17 am (UTC)I think I became a lot more negative about the episode afterwards, because my initial reaction was that it was OK, and then I got home to find my friends list full of "OMG that was brilliant!" reviews, and that made me much more conscious of the things I didn't like. Particularly Christina.
I've spent some time trying to work out why she irritated me so much, when Wendy Kroy in The Last Seduction fascinates me, and I think Christina is a milder version of that type. I think it's partly because the makers of TLS never pretended Wendy was likeable - their attitude was more "You think she might have a redeeming feature here? Let us disillusion you!" whereas I'm pretty sure Davies meant us to like Christina. I can hear his voice in my head chortling "You've got to love her!" and mine replying "No I don't!"
But it may also be because I find Linda Fiorentino stunningly beautiful, whereas Michelle Ryan didn't do anything for me.
Actually, I've thought of another RTD character in that vein whom I do like: Stuart Alan Jones. Same self-centredness, same smug smirk, and I keep shrieking "You manipulative bastard!" at him... but he does have a redeeming feature, in that it becomes clear that he genuinely cares for Vince, even if he doesn't fancy him. And he comes to believe in something, as his rage with Alexander's parents turns him into a Gay Avenger. So it's possible that in time Christina might have developed enough depth to provoke my interest. But I think my previous point holds here; I do remember an interview with Davies in which he said something like "People keep telling me they love Vince, and of course they do, because I wrote him to be loveable. It's difficult to like Stuart." So perhaps the character works better for me because I never felt I was being told to like him, and I admired RTD more when I didn't feel he expected me to like his characters because he did.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 12:12 am (UTC)Christina would never have worked but they did part of friendly terms. We could see her again...
And yes, Malcolm was over the top but we've come to expect that from Who occasionally. If fact, I'd say we need it sometimes...
I liked the line, "Water always wins" from the trailer. Will be curious as to what that means...
no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 05:10 am (UTC)"Water always wins": my first thought was "against stone"...
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Date: 2009-04-13 01:30 am (UTC)See, I'm one of those lucky fans who gets warm fuzzies whenever the Doctor mentions any of his former companions. That said, I'm so looking forward to seeing Donna again. Why can't we have more Who this year?
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Date: 2009-04-13 05:14 am (UTC)Amanda and Christina: *appreciates*
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Date: 2009-04-13 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-14 12:49 pm (UTC)Both make sense, too, but Bionic Woman is actually mostly bad not because of Ryan, but because it, well, sucks. Katee Sackhoff's homage to Tricia Helfer's various Six characters is awesome, though.
(I haven't seen this yet.*cries* *hates the Telekom*)