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Chase
Registered: 03/25/08
Posts: 505
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 Saturday, April 18 2009 @ 06:15 PM EDT |
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Well this is more like it. We are back on track. Well lit, scary, dark, fog shrouded night, mystical things happening. The TARDIS, at one point, vanishes from behind Leela as the shot changes but never mind. One thing about this is the acting is all pretty good, the mood kept, and the story tight.
Another thing is that, like REV OF THE DALEKS, the Doctor and is companion are are like guest stars in their own series as they wander in and out of an anthology show. Nothing wrong with that change of pace for this one story but I wouldn’t want it to happen often. In fact, the Doctor and Leela don’t get properly involved at the Priory until the end of ep3. Which also emphasizes DW’s strongest and weakest point: DW can be anything and go anywhere with almost no roots to settle down and yet…this makes the characters have to wander in and force themselves to be part of the story and if, like the Hartnell years, it was just to survive and get back to the TARDIS, then why exit in the first place?
Anyway, Leela and Doc interact quite nicely here. Her rhetoric as a savage and a student mix well and the Doctor…well, since he’s been back to Gallifrey, he’s been acting more and more erratic and silly and strange and goofy, talking to himself. It happens slow but he…he seems as if he’s going off the deep end and here he talks to himself again and offers the Skull a jelly baby ! Leela’s “You are very heavy” is quite funny and most of what Tom and Louise do here is very funny. One thing: why did the Doctor take off in the TARDIS in the middle of the story and only to come back? And why was Leela sleeping on the floor of the console room? Very strange stuff. In hindsight before ep4 the Time Loop wasn’t really fully explained but no matter, it will be.
The guest stars are strong this time and one almost wonders that Colby, Ma and Jack Tyler, and maybe even Thea could have become companions. Colby is especially sarcastic and both Tom and Louise have a real rapport with both Tylers. What a good idea an old lady companion would be. One can also see the Time Rift stuff that later populates TORCHWOOD and a few DW stories in the new series and such. Haunted places always have a time fissure about, or so the Doctor says. The coven idea, the hiker dying, the guards, evil Max…all remind me of other things but here, the old ideas mesh well into the story and in very deadly earnest. I’m reminded of the movie version of THE DUNWICH HORROR and a few other Roger Corman movies, some with Vincent Price but to be honest, IMAGE is better than all of them. The Fendahl creature to me is creepy, disgusting, etc but one has to realize what it is. If you just look at the worm thing, then it could look stupid but in the context of the story, it’s revolting and creepy and very HP Lovecraft.
Much is made by fans of the Doctor escaping the locked room but watching it, it seems as if the makers of the show just meant for the sonic screwdriver to have worked, only the door lock was delayed in responding or something. There doesn’t seem to be any other real logical explanation.
I once read that a fan or a person involved with the DW Magazine or someone (!?) sat a friend down to watch DW to get him to like it and it was this story that came on, and the fan described it as the creakiest, static story with little to no movement or involvement. I didn’t find it like that to be honest. I found it very involving. Yes, there is a lot of talk but it’s talk that drives the plot…which is quite involved.
Poor Thea. A high body count, this story, in the end, but at least there are three pseudo companions left at the end.
The Doctor, however, seems almost useless in his helping stop this menace…and instead of making him fallible, it makes him seem…dim and asleep or something. They try to explain this in ep3 as the Doctor being afraid of his nightmare as a child…but somehow the Doctor’s not a big help in this story to the other characters until ep4! I guess if he came in and solved it in ep1 there would be no ep2 to 4. Still, he seems like a big useless buffoon who can’t save himself…let alone anyone else.
All in all, eps1-3 are creepy, scary, funny, logical, and thought provoking in an excellent mix. Just what DW should be.
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President Nice
Registered: 11/18/06
Posts: 83
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| Sunday, April 19 2009 @ 06:01 AM EDT |
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[Quote by: Chase] he talks to himself again and offers the Skull a jelly baby
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| I remember that bit from the story because if you look very carefully the sweets are actually Licquorice Allsorts! Also, is this the story where someone offers the Doctor a cup of tea and he takes it and puts it in his pocket?
Other than that though didn't much care for the story. It was okay but no classic. |
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Bollocks...sir.
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Chase
Registered: 03/25/08
Posts: 505
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| Thursday, April 23 2009 @ 07:47 PM EDT |
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I seem to remember the tea bit as well but I didn't see it this time out. Maybe it was cut or maybe it was another story?
ANyway another thing about this story is that, on first viewing, I thought they had gone into the past as the whole thing looks...yeah, abit less than modern with big giant computers, a very isolated place, and hick like farmers |
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