The Caves of Androzani, Earthshock, Spare Parts
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhatsApparently it is Torture Five week chez Jenni. Lovefilm sent me The Caves of Androzani and Earthshock, and I finished listening to Spare Parts. I had some thoughts about them. Do not expect too much.
The Caves of Androzani: Kind of like Phantom of the Opera, if Raoul had turned into Colin Baker at the end. I liked Peri a lot in this. The first scene was very fun, and they kinda reminded me of perky!Buffy and Giles, which made me happy. And then, oh poor Five! He suffers muchly but is still all noble and a bit sarcastic. Yay! This story did a very good job at ratcheting up the tension all the way though - you really feel Five's struggle to get back to the cave, get the bat's milk(!) and escape with Peri. Even though I'd already seen the regeneration scene there was a part of me that wasn't sure he was going to make it. Though I do wonder why they used the take where Colin Baker fluffed his line - I'm sure he said "Change, my dear, and on a moment too soon" rather than "not a moment too soon." Maybe it was my ears though. What else? Robert Glenister was very good, particularly as the android version of himself. He moved very smoothly. And that shot after Jek has died and Salateem(?) just stands there in the burning cave because he's obeying his last instruction was great.
And then on to Earthshock to find out why Five's last word was "Adric". I have not seen any Adric before and hear he is annoying, but he wasn't particularly here so I was quite sad when he exploded. There was also a lot of shouting "don't yell at him, you'll have to have emo about it later!" and suchlike at the screen. I have come to the conclusion also that Cybermen are Rubbish In Colour. Maybe I have just been watching the wrong episodes but still. They didn't look right! (though the one stuck in the door was cool.) They had all emotions and stuff! Their plan was confusing! (if they were planning to blow up the Earth with the bomb in the cave, or alternatively throw the ship at it, why would they fill the ship with cybermen? why not put the cybermen somewhere else? Am I missing something?) Also there were many many occasions where they chose not to kill our heroes at this time for no apparent reason. Grumble. It was cool to have two female officers who were not space totty though* (even if one of them didn't really know what was going on).
Spare Parts was dead good. It was a nice contrast to Genesis of the Daleks in that there the Doctor was debating whether he had the right to destroy a whole race because of what they would do whereas here he was debating whether he could justify changing the future that he knew would happen. I suppose it was the result of the different situations (Four being sent by the other Time Lords sanctioning changing the future, Five in a situation where otherwise saving Mondas would clearly be A Good Thing) but it worked very well. It also reminded me of Dalek in a way - luckily one of the bits I did like about it rather than one of the bits I didn't - with the Doctor coming face to face with an enemy who has not only done terrible things but has done them to him, personally and recently, and reacting in a non-Doctorish way. They both lose their normal sympathy and altruism and their companion has to remind them of it. Under normal circumstances Nine would definitely have tried to help a creature that was trapped and the last of its race, and Five would have been sympathetic to the situation on Mondas. I am not sure where I am going with this, but I liked it. Also, the Cybermen scanning the Doctor and incorporating him into their programming? Nice touch. The end was very good too, they fooled me for a moment into thinking it was All OK and then it was not, as it had to be. Plus Jenna off Blake's 7 was in it.
*This comment brought to you by SFX's big picture of the cast of Heroes. Though I am looking forward to it, I am slightly annoyed that the man characters come in all shapes and sizes whereas the woman ones are all young and pretty (disclaimer: yet to see an episode so this is based on pictures and assumptions). I have no objections to Pretty People On TV but it annoys me a bit that is is more acceptable for the men to be not pretty/not twentysomething than the women. Actually this reminds me of something else that I liked about the Sarah Jane Adventures - the women were running around doing the main heroing and villaining whilst the men were looking pretty and being sympathetic (the father) or looking pretty and following orders (Leon off of Hex). Here endeth the digression.
The Caves of Androzani: Kind of like Phantom of the Opera, if Raoul had turned into Colin Baker at the end. I liked Peri a lot in this. The first scene was very fun, and they kinda reminded me of perky!Buffy and Giles, which made me happy. And then, oh poor Five! He suffers muchly but is still all noble and a bit sarcastic. Yay! This story did a very good job at ratcheting up the tension all the way though - you really feel Five's struggle to get back to the cave, get the bat's milk(!) and escape with Peri. Even though I'd already seen the regeneration scene there was a part of me that wasn't sure he was going to make it. Though I do wonder why they used the take where Colin Baker fluffed his line - I'm sure he said "Change, my dear, and on a moment too soon" rather than "not a moment too soon." Maybe it was my ears though. What else? Robert Glenister was very good, particularly as the android version of himself. He moved very smoothly. And that shot after Jek has died and Salateem(?) just stands there in the burning cave because he's obeying his last instruction was great.
And then on to Earthshock to find out why Five's last word was "Adric". I have not seen any Adric before and hear he is annoying, but he wasn't particularly here so I was quite sad when he exploded. There was also a lot of shouting "don't yell at him, you'll have to have emo about it later!" and suchlike at the screen. I have come to the conclusion also that Cybermen are Rubbish In Colour. Maybe I have just been watching the wrong episodes but still. They didn't look right! (though the one stuck in the door was cool.) They had all emotions and stuff! Their plan was confusing! (if they were planning to blow up the Earth with the bomb in the cave, or alternatively throw the ship at it, why would they fill the ship with cybermen? why not put the cybermen somewhere else? Am I missing something?) Also there were many many occasions where they chose not to kill our heroes at this time for no apparent reason. Grumble. It was cool to have two female officers who were not space totty though* (even if one of them didn't really know what was going on).
Spare Parts was dead good. It was a nice contrast to Genesis of the Daleks in that there the Doctor was debating whether he had the right to destroy a whole race because of what they would do whereas here he was debating whether he could justify changing the future that he knew would happen. I suppose it was the result of the different situations (Four being sent by the other Time Lords sanctioning changing the future, Five in a situation where otherwise saving Mondas would clearly be A Good Thing) but it worked very well. It also reminded me of Dalek in a way - luckily one of the bits I did like about it rather than one of the bits I didn't - with the Doctor coming face to face with an enemy who has not only done terrible things but has done them to him, personally and recently, and reacting in a non-Doctorish way. They both lose their normal sympathy and altruism and their companion has to remind them of it. Under normal circumstances Nine would definitely have tried to help a creature that was trapped and the last of its race, and Five would have been sympathetic to the situation on Mondas. I am not sure where I am going with this, but I liked it. Also, the Cybermen scanning the Doctor and incorporating him into their programming? Nice touch. The end was very good too, they fooled me for a moment into thinking it was All OK and then it was not, as it had to be. Plus Jenna off Blake's 7 was in it.
*This comment brought to you by SFX's big picture of the cast of Heroes. Though I am looking forward to it, I am slightly annoyed that the man characters come in all shapes and sizes whereas the woman ones are all young and pretty (disclaimer: yet to see an episode so this is based on pictures and assumptions). I have no objections to Pretty People On TV but it annoys me a bit that is is more acceptable for the men to be not pretty/not twentysomething than the women. Actually this reminds me of something else that I liked about the Sarah Jane Adventures - the women were running around doing the main heroing and villaining whilst the men were looking pretty and being sympathetic (the father) or looking pretty and following orders (Leon off of Hex). Here endeth the digression.