The Daleks' Master Plan, The Massacre, The Ark
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 16:55![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
Some Classic Who what I have watched recently:
- The Daleks' Master Plan, which I love, in all its epic sprawling crazy glory. OK, it doesn't always make sense, and it doesn't really have twelve episodes worth of plot, but I somehow don't care: it hooks me in anyway and when it works, it really works. Sara Kingdom is just wonderful. The Doctor's eulogy for Katarina is very moving, I thought.
- The Massacre was really excellent, Peter Purves was great in it and there was unexpected Andred! Don't really have much to say about this one other than "thumbs up, can we have the pictures back plz?"
- I know when I finished watching The Ark I had lots of thoughts about it, but I didn't write any of them down. That would have been too sensible. So here are the ones I remember, in a list.
1. It looks great, the space effects in particular are really good. Also pleased to see it continues the fine old Hartnell era tradition of making the male extras wear really short skirts. Made of ribbons, in this case. Excellent.
2. Dodo! At last I see one of her stories. She is just so adorable! There was a great bit where Steven was trying to comfort her and she just tells him "I'm not crying, me nose is watering," which says so much about both characters. Also, in all the bits in the pod going down to Refusis, she and the Doctor are holding hands, which I though was a lovely touch. I've always liked the outfit she changes into at the end, with all the circles, and having seen it in action, yep, I'd wear that. Maybe not the hat. I do not suit hats. If the universe also saw fit to provide me with a matching Steven, that would be most acceptable.
3. The structure was really nifty - sort of two stories, linked by the setting and the theme. When they were discussing Dodo's cold I was pleased to see them raise the question of whether they've done the same thing to lots of places, even if it did get dismissed with "on second thoughts... let's not think about that."
4. It was good to see the Doctor suggesting that the humans might want to start treating the Monoids as equals on Refusis. Unfortunately there's not much indication that they actually will, but still, I'm glad he said it.
5. Some nice bits of direction: I'm thinking of the shot of the Doctor, Steven and Dodo looking up at the statue in particular.
6. It does run out of steam a bit by the end though. The last half of part four feels a bit like the writer's gone "ok, ten minutes left, better tie up all these loose ends posthaste, good thing I decided to chuck in some all-powerful invisible aliens."
7. I'd like to see a sequel to this story. Did the Monoids and humans manage to resolve their differences? How do the Refusians fit in/affect the dynamic? Given that it's a story at least partly about consequences - both of the Doctor's previous visit and the human's treatment of the Monoids - it would be quite fitting.
I am really enjoying watching it all in order. Sometimes I get impatient and want to skip ahead to other stories I've heard about, but for the most part I like seeing how it all develops. I'm reading the first About Time book as I go along, and though I don't always agree with the analysis, the bits on the culture context and history of the program are absolutely fascinating.
- The Daleks' Master Plan, which I love, in all its epic sprawling crazy glory. OK, it doesn't always make sense, and it doesn't really have twelve episodes worth of plot, but I somehow don't care: it hooks me in anyway and when it works, it really works. Sara Kingdom is just wonderful. The Doctor's eulogy for Katarina is very moving, I thought.
- The Massacre was really excellent, Peter Purves was great in it and there was unexpected Andred! Don't really have much to say about this one other than "thumbs up, can we have the pictures back plz?"
- I know when I finished watching The Ark I had lots of thoughts about it, but I didn't write any of them down. That would have been too sensible. So here are the ones I remember, in a list.
1. It looks great, the space effects in particular are really good. Also pleased to see it continues the fine old Hartnell era tradition of making the male extras wear really short skirts. Made of ribbons, in this case. Excellent.
2. Dodo! At last I see one of her stories. She is just so adorable! There was a great bit where Steven was trying to comfort her and she just tells him "I'm not crying, me nose is watering," which says so much about both characters. Also, in all the bits in the pod going down to Refusis, she and the Doctor are holding hands, which I though was a lovely touch. I've always liked the outfit she changes into at the end, with all the circles, and having seen it in action, yep, I'd wear that. Maybe not the hat. I do not suit hats. If the universe also saw fit to provide me with a matching Steven, that would be most acceptable.
3. The structure was really nifty - sort of two stories, linked by the setting and the theme. When they were discussing Dodo's cold I was pleased to see them raise the question of whether they've done the same thing to lots of places, even if it did get dismissed with "on second thoughts... let's not think about that."
4. It was good to see the Doctor suggesting that the humans might want to start treating the Monoids as equals on Refusis. Unfortunately there's not much indication that they actually will, but still, I'm glad he said it.
5. Some nice bits of direction: I'm thinking of the shot of the Doctor, Steven and Dodo looking up at the statue in particular.
6. It does run out of steam a bit by the end though. The last half of part four feels a bit like the writer's gone "ok, ten minutes left, better tie up all these loose ends posthaste, good thing I decided to chuck in some all-powerful invisible aliens."
7. I'd like to see a sequel to this story. Did the Monoids and humans manage to resolve their differences? How do the Refusians fit in/affect the dynamic? Given that it's a story at least partly about consequences - both of the Doctor's previous visit and the human's treatment of the Monoids - it would be quite fitting.
I am really enjoying watching it all in order. Sometimes I get impatient and want to skip ahead to other stories I've heard about, but for the most part I like seeing how it all develops. I'm reading the first About Time book as I go along, and though I don't always agree with the analysis, the bits on the culture context and history of the program are absolutely fascinating.