Doctor Who 7x09: Cold War
Apr. 14th, 2013 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI liked that. Pretty much a paint-by-numbers sort of story, but the actors gave it their all, and the atmosphere hit the right notes even if the plot was rather simplistic.
Hunt for Red October! David Warner!
I'm glad RJA mentioned both those things, especially David Warner, because I was therefore on the lookout for him. The Professor was nice. I was really expecting him to get killed; I'm glad he didn't. I want fic! I want fic with Professor Grisenko!
"Karaoke? You speak Russian very well, but sometimes I don't understand a word you say."
(grin)
Yes, a pretty standard "trapped while a monster picks them off one by one" story. I like the choice they made to only show the hands and head of the Ice Warrior outside of his armour; less is more. It had shades of "Alien" the way the Ice Warrior skittered swiftly in the shadows.
(Mind you, if Skaldak was going to have true revenge, he should have attacked every single human being with a cattle prod. Guess the Ice Warriors haven't heard of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".)
I liked the anecdote about Skaldak and his daughter.
I liked the touch where the Doctor opens the wallet of the dead warmongering officer and there's a picture of a wife and child there; that kind of put him in the "misguided fool" category rather than the "one-dimensional psychopath" category.
I liked the captain. He had a nice beard.
As soon as the TARDIS disappeared, I wondered if it was the HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System), and I was right. Adjusted a bit wrong. Need to change the setting so it waits until they're back inside.
That's one of the problems with having instant transportation: in order to have a "trapped" episode, one has to render the transport inaccessible. Not just a problem with Doctor Who; I think Star Trek had the worst of it, considering their transporter could lock on to anyone from orbit. At least with Blake's 7 it was simpler; while they still had a teleport, all one had to do to make it inaccessible was take away someone's teleport bracelet. Of course, with DW, most of the time there's no need to take away the TARDIS, since (as the Doctor said last week) "we don't walk away"; the Doctor's character won't let him leave. In a "trapped" story, it's not so much that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't escape, it's that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't enable everyone else to escape along with him.
Clara... um. She's very cute?
I liked the bit where she realizes that she's speaking Russian. (grin)
Hunt for Red October! David Warner!
I'm glad RJA mentioned both those things, especially David Warner, because I was therefore on the lookout for him. The Professor was nice. I was really expecting him to get killed; I'm glad he didn't. I want fic! I want fic with Professor Grisenko!
"Karaoke? You speak Russian very well, but sometimes I don't understand a word you say."
(grin)
Yes, a pretty standard "trapped while a monster picks them off one by one" story. I like the choice they made to only show the hands and head of the Ice Warrior outside of his armour; less is more. It had shades of "Alien" the way the Ice Warrior skittered swiftly in the shadows.
(Mind you, if Skaldak was going to have true revenge, he should have attacked every single human being with a cattle prod. Guess the Ice Warriors haven't heard of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".)
I liked the anecdote about Skaldak and his daughter.
I liked the touch where the Doctor opens the wallet of the dead warmongering officer and there's a picture of a wife and child there; that kind of put him in the "misguided fool" category rather than the "one-dimensional psychopath" category.
I liked the captain. He had a nice beard.
As soon as the TARDIS disappeared, I wondered if it was the HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System), and I was right. Adjusted a bit wrong. Need to change the setting so it waits until they're back inside.
That's one of the problems with having instant transportation: in order to have a "trapped" episode, one has to render the transport inaccessible. Not just a problem with Doctor Who; I think Star Trek had the worst of it, considering their transporter could lock on to anyone from orbit. At least with Blake's 7 it was simpler; while they still had a teleport, all one had to do to make it inaccessible was take away someone's teleport bracelet. Of course, with DW, most of the time there's no need to take away the TARDIS, since (as the Doctor said last week) "we don't walk away"; the Doctor's character won't let him leave. In a "trapped" story, it's not so much that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't escape, it's that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't enable everyone else to escape along with him.
Clara... um. She's very cute?
I liked the bit where she realizes that she's speaking Russian. (grin)
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 01:50 pm (UTC)In a "trapped" story, it's not so much that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't escape, it's that one has to remove the TARDIS so that the Doctor can't enable everyone else to escape along with him.
Yes, though in this case even if he'd had the TARDIS he couldn't just have taken everyone with him and scarpered, as it would still have left Skaldak in a position to start World War 3.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 03:59 pm (UTC)True. There have been other cases where it was just as well that the TARDIS was unavailable, since the Menace-of-the-episode might have escaped with them and/or stolen the TARDIS (e.g. "The Impossible Planet"). On the other hand, in an episode like "42", if the TARDIS had been available, he could have rescued them all if they'd been willing to abandon ship.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 02:10 am (UTC)