As you know, I enjoyed it immensely, pacing issues and all. Sometimes I wonder whether the odd distribution of materials at the end of RTD's stuff is actually aimed at making some sort of a point about how problematic the idea of closure, ending, and conventional plot is when dealing with a semi-immortal time-traveller, or his actually immortal associate. Thus, the false closures, bizarre flashforwards, and weird pacing help to suggest how hard it is for the Doctor or Jack to wrap their minds around human ideas of narrativity. Rather over-ingenious, as interpretations go, however, and I am not sure that what you gain is worth what you lose.
I loved the Time Lords. The litany of terrors from the Time War successfully freaked me out more in the course of one sentence than some horror films manage in two and a half hours. It was indeed like all the best bits of Greyhawk distilled. Wilf was exceedingly awesome, and the Silver Cloak was an idea of genius. I do hope that we shall see more of them, some day - the exact antipodes of the Baker Street Irregulars.
The Cult of Saxon was a bit of a waste of an interesting idea, I thought. It would have been great if, for example, they had been originally introduced as antagonists for an episode of S2 Torchwood: many possibilities for angst if the Books of Saxon contained a true record of what happened to Torchwood Three during the Year That Never Was. (Of course, what with production schedules and all that, it would have been a pipe-dream, but a nice idea, all the same.) As things stood everything was a bit compressed. But I did love the tone of Lucy's voice as she was laying the well-deserved smack-down on Hubbie - again. It is not often that a high-fantasy Disrupt The Ritual moment is conducted in the register of a domestic dispute.
Naismith and his daughter can be justified, I think, as introducing the thematic play with parent/child relations which runs through the episodes: the Doctor thinking of Wilf as his dad; the red fields on the estate of the Master's father; the Doctor and the Master as wayward Sons of Gallifrey. Naismith and Gel were rather like some old-school Who human villains, in fact: greedy and unprincipled enough to start the ball rolling, and almost immediately thereafter squashed by it when it does.
Fun Theory for the Day: the circumstances of Ten's regeneration consciously evoke elements from all the previous ones. Thus:
A. Age and weariness - "A Time Lord lives too long" (One).
B. Intervention by a renegade Time Lord (Six, Seven).
C. Intervention by the Time Lord top brass (Two).
D. Massive dose of radiation (Three, Nine).
E. Falling from a great height, with extensive foreshadowing (Four).
F. Taking the bullet for a friend (Five, Nine).
G. Ending the Time War (Eight [presumably], Nine).
Some of those are very tenuous indeed, of course. Fun idea, though.
no subject
I loved the Time Lords. The litany of terrors from the Time War successfully freaked me out more in the course of one sentence than some horror films manage in two and a half hours. It was indeed like all the best bits of Greyhawk distilled. Wilf was exceedingly awesome, and the Silver Cloak was an idea of genius. I do hope that we shall see more of them, some day - the exact antipodes of the Baker Street Irregulars.
The Cult of Saxon was a bit of a waste of an interesting idea, I thought. It would have been great if, for example, they had been originally introduced as antagonists for an episode of S2 Torchwood: many possibilities for angst if the Books of Saxon contained a true record of what happened to Torchwood Three during the Year That Never Was. (Of course, what with production schedules and all that, it would have been a pipe-dream, but a nice idea, all the same.) As things stood everything was a bit compressed. But I did love the tone of Lucy's voice as she was laying the well-deserved smack-down on Hubbie - again. It is not often that a high-fantasy Disrupt The Ritual moment is conducted in the register of a domestic dispute.
Naismith and his daughter can be justified, I think, as introducing the thematic play with parent/child relations which runs through the episodes: the Doctor thinking of Wilf as his dad; the red fields on the estate of the Master's father; the Doctor and the Master as wayward Sons of Gallifrey. Naismith and Gel were rather like some old-school Who human villains, in fact: greedy and unprincipled enough to start the ball rolling, and almost immediately thereafter squashed by it when it does.
Fun Theory for the Day: the circumstances of Ten's regeneration consciously evoke elements from all the previous ones. Thus:
A. Age and weariness - "A Time Lord lives too long" (One).
B. Intervention by a renegade Time Lord (Six, Seven).
C. Intervention by the Time Lord top brass (Two).
D. Massive dose of radiation (Three, Nine).
E. Falling from a great height, with extensive foreshadowing (Four).
F. Taking the bullet for a friend (Five, Nine).
G. Ending the Time War (Eight [presumably], Nine).
Some of those are very tenuous indeed, of course. Fun idea, though.