Doctor Who: Volcano of Doom

[matgb]

Sat watching Doctor Who ranting at the computer while doing so. Here there be spoilers...

• 18:48 sitting down for Who and annoyed with Tate already. Can I really stick this series? #
• 18:50 on the other hand, the pretty girl in red is rather nice. I'm such a goth. #
• 18:51 prophecy of the blue box? Where've I heard that before... #
• 18:53 crazed art collector, a pervy teenage son and an appeal to the household gods. Cliché or actual plot? #
• 18:57 well, there's the crazed soothsayer—empire of Pompeii? Possible I suppose, but fixed point in time and all that. #
• 19:00 she's from Barcelona. Beats Torquay I guess. #
• 19:03 oh here we go, arc plot in every episode again. Why does it always have to be bloody Rose? #
• 19:06 bribery through tricks? Soothsayers that are always right? Breathing Vesuvius? It's at least turning out to be fun. #
• 19:09 Donna Noble, the false prophet? And a prophet making circuits in marble inspired by the gods? #
• 19:10 they're breathing in rock and turning to stone? Wonder what the lord of the mountain's going to be? #
• 19:12 big glowing CGI thing that's killed by a few drops of water? A footsoldier of what? Hmm. #
• 19:13 are they going to kill Donna? Oh no, the Doctor's turned up to save her. Ah well, hope springs eternal. #
• 19:15 High Priestess also turned to stone? The voices bless them? #
• 19:18 Shadow Proclamation (again), human brain with latent psychic talent and a water pistol. Now they're crawling through volcanic tunnels. #
• 19:20 oh good, they're worshipping the gods of the underworld. They've got the Balrog look down fairly well. Oh look, Helm's Deep too... #
• 19:24 oh good, Time Lord angst. Ah well, at least he's not gurning smuggly like he normally does. Gah, soppy music begone! #
• 19:26 Hah, they're in the pyrowossname escape pod. Lucky for some. #
• 19:28 the white ash storm is fairly good. Donna's histrionics are a bit OTT though. #
• 19:35 Ah, nice cutesy ending? Nope, they're deifying the Doctor again. Joy. Ah well, Ood next week, but back to 6.20 again. Fools. #
• 20:06 thinking even the Confidential is boring. Am I getting too cynical for Who? #

I guess it wasn't awful, I think overall I would've enjoyed it if I could get past my dislike of Tate and Tennant's Pretty!Boy! smugness. Ah well, others have enjoyed it. For a more balanced view, with actual knowledge and analysis, Pen's review is rather good.

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Comments

[gominokouhai]

> Am I getting too cynical for Who?

Possibly? It wasn't that bad.

Also, spoiler cut? Not everyone's seen it yet.

[matgb]

There was supposed to be a cut, LoudTwitter didn't save my settings, which meant it also junked the review I put in there. Useful tool, if it's working...

But yeah, as an episode, it was actually fairly good. It's just I can't stand Tate or the way Tennant is now playing the Doctor, and it's harder to get past that. I shall keep trying.

[sunflowerkits.livejournal.com]

Is he a lot more smug now? I haven't seen any of the 3rd series, so don't have anything to compare it to.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

See, for me, I find Doctor Who actually warrants and rewards my complete attention. so I find cynicism from live bloggers a little inevitable. I'm sure if I was watching it wondering what comment I was going to make next I'd end being far more cynical. Maybe it's the MST3K effect.

I'm now completely sold on Donna, which I'm surprised at. Tennant's Doctor can be a bit smug, but I don't expect him to change.

19:03 oh here we go, arc plot in every episode again. Why does it always have to be bloody Rose?
I was thinking Rose's return was going to be a present-day only thing, like Saxon, and I did groan at the reference here but it's an easier "i can see the future" proof than describing the return of the Ood.

I'm hoping Donna keeps the dress she acquires in this ep, it stops me looking at her face.

I do think 45 minute Confidentials are excessive, although I don't know what I'd lose. I could present strong arguments for splitting the "Tennant sees the real Pompeii" type stuff to a separate show as that has different appeal to the making-of stuff, but on the other hand it's easier and more flexible having all the ancillary stuff in one show (as there's no Totally this year). But it was well worth watching just for confirming my suspicion that the main family were named after the one from the Cambridge Latin Course.

[raksaksa.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the only reason they did a 45 minute Confidential was the whole 'OOO! ROME!' aspect of it.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

Nope, 'OOO! OOD SPHERE!' warrants 45 minutes of BBC3 airtime too, so it looks like it's that for the whole series. Somehow they cut it down to 10 minutes for the Friday repeat; neither length is "just right", to quote Goldilocks.

[raksaksa.livejournal.com]

Ood-ear...

(sorry...couldn't resist)

[matgb]

Um, you die now. KTHXBY.

[matgb]

I find Doctor Who actually warrants and rewards my complete attention

See, I've never been able to sit and just watch a show (well, so incredibly rarely). I'll virtually always have a book, a newspaper or something as well, regardless of how much I want to watch, I'll get distracted.

So if I'm liveblogging, or just 'taking notes' as this effectively was, I'm paying more attention than less. And the previous week I sat down (with SB) to watch it and we just ranted at each other about the bad bits or about Tate. So the cynicism is there anyway, writing it down as I go was a way of sharing that with SB when she got home from work, and making me pay more attention to what's going on (as otherwise I'd have to watch again).

I actually knew about the Cambridge course thing already, no idea where from, but they even got the history wrong for that. Ah well.

Confidentials are great if they're 15-20 minutes, but the 45 minute version guarantees an interview with Rusty, and he always annoys...

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

I see your point; as the secondary activity is about the primary activity your brain's more focused on Who than if you were reading the paper. I certainly don't give all TV with my full attention and there are a number of backgroundy shows on my planner. With Primeval I sometimes missed entire plotlines and didn't much care. My favourite shows get more attention - there's likely to be a lot of circularity in this.

Actually, I used to be a lot more likely to get distracted, but living on my own with Sky+ I'm now only watching things when I'm actually in the mood for them - and I can pause and rewind without annoying anyone. I can spread one show out over 3 hours with enough distractions. For Who, I pretty much turn the light down to avoid distraction and watch it in one go as a roller-coaster; if you mess with the pacing, new Who falls apart.

Thanks for pointing me towards Pen, she's a good read.