The Sound of the Universe
I have all of Doctor Who season 3 on my Mac. I have most of it on the DVR. So it was about time for me to get around to finishing season 2.
The last four episodes restored my interest in the Tenth Doctor, and I’m looking forward now to seeing “Runaway Bride”. While I had nits to pick, these scripts really engaged me again, and I honestly think that this season’s two-part finale is stronger than season 1’s.
But I have to say that I’m pretty divided about episode ten. The episode was clearly about science-fiction fandom, and I understood all too clearly the points it was making from that angle. But the last bits with the guest lead and his grilfriend were wrong in so many ways… and I mean that seriously, not in that rueful fun manner.
This season has been full of fascinating medical information. In “New Earth”, we established that IV fluids could be just as effective if applied to the skin by fire sprinklers. In “The Girl In the Fireplace” (an otherwise excellent episode) we learn that a human heart, once ripped from a body and deprived of a blood supply, still makes an excellent spare pump for spaceship fuels. In “The Idiot’s Lantern”, we discovered that humans do not require noses, mouths, or any air passages at all to breathe. But in “Love and Monsters”, we’re treated to the information that a human can think and speak while missing heart, lungs, spinal column, digestive apparatus, and indeed the back half of their brain. And that, in fact, this could be a fulfilling life!
Perhaps the title of this season could have been “Doctor WTF?”
And I really, really, really did not need the “love life” line. At least I got a laugh out of the female lead having been Moaning Myrtle.
After all that, though, I’ve enjoyed the majority of the season, and am slowly learning to just hand-wave such things away. Now for season 3.
Tags: doctor who, science, tv
I’ve never held Dr. Who to quite the same standards as say, Star Trek or B5, where those kind of things really bothered me. I guess it’s because I’ve always thought of Dr. Who as more fantasy with SF trappings.
Besides, whe you get to “Evolution of the Daleks” you’ll see what is one of my favorite scenes in a Dr. Who episode.
I hated that episode. Part of the reason that I loathed it so much was that it was so light and old-Dr. Who and then turned a corner and got nasty. Really, at the end, everyone should have been restored and all well with the world.
My impression, watching season 3, is that they are following a universal BBC trend at the moment and making everything darker. The Doctor is being worked around to be public enemy number one, which doesn’t even bother me that much because David Tennant screams so much. I miss Eccleston so much.
I don’t think there has been an ep so far in season three that I can say I really liked. Last night I watched yet another lonely-outpost-where-one-of-the-small-number-of-crew-members-gets-possessed-by-a-malevolent-entity episodes.
Really, at the end, everyone should have been restored and all well with the world.
I can’t think of one classic Doctor Who episode where everyone was okay at the end and all was right with the world. The only one that comes to mind is from the new series, The Doctor Dances. Even then, the Doctor was astonished and overjoyed that everybody lives (“Just this once Rose, everybody lives.” This illustrates how just rare an occurrence this is.
Former Doctor Who producer, Philip Hinchliffe, once said (paraphrasing) of the violence in Doctor Who that it was important to show that there are consequences (death) when one resorts to violence. More simply stated, Actions have consequences. If you don’t show the proper consequences (pain, death, and suffering), you encourage the actions.
BTW – I think series three was much better than series two – though I’ll have to disagree with Jerry and say the Evolution of the Daleks two-parter was the worst episodes of the series.
Also worth mentioning that if you are watching the episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel, they end up cutting 2-5 minutes from each episode for commercials. I’m not sure what they’re going to do to the series 3 finale. It was 10 minutes(ish) longer than normal. If you want the full experience, download them or wait to buy the DVDs.
My impression, watching season 3, is that they are following a universal BBC trend at the moment and making everything darker.
If that is your fear, fear no longer. In a SXF magazine article, Doctor Who Exec Producer, Russell T. Davies says:
“It does get very dark, series three, as it progresses, and I think there’s a little element of fun missing. I love those final three episodes, but part of me misses a great big Dalek/Cyberman war – the fun of it! I’m sure that fandom was luxuriating in that run of ‘Human Nature’, ‘The Family of Blood’, then ‘Blink’, which was very dark, and then the darkness of bringing back (***series three finale spoiler***). Fandom might think that’s the way forward… but it’s not. Next year we’ll be pulling back from the darkness. Absolutely. The greatest mistake with TV drama is to presume that darkness=good. And if you’re expecting Doctor Who to head further that way just because of the success of ‘Human Nature’ onwards, that’s not going to happen. Sorry…. we’re starting at Christmas, with a big, fun spectacular, and then the first few episodes next year are going back to the colour and liveliness of ‘Smith and Jones’ and ‘The Shakespeare Code’. More fun! Those are my instincts.”