Oh, that was why it was taken off air 10 years ago. Only managed the first of the three episodes (which, due to series linking on Sky+, ended up buggering up all other Friday night recordings by saving everything else on Dave that night). Gave up after a woeful bit of pantomime where the crew wrestled with a giant tentacle while another character failed to see the danger on a monitor. The sort of scene that would be rejected by Lazytown producers for being childish. When a spoof sci-fi "comedy" delivers fewer laughs than the sort of show it's parodying, you know it's drifting lifeless in space...
Doctor Who
Much better than expected - a simple race against time with a sprinkling of portent to get Whoies twittering and a movie reference every few minutes for laughs. It looked fantastic – Dubai was somehow more convincing as a desert planet than Penarth. The aliens were a great mix of old-fashioned blokes-in-monster suits (the fly-people) and top-quality CGI (the flying metal manta rays, which must have upset a few Steve Irwin fans). And, apart from thankfully minimal interruptions from Lee Evans, the lack of shrieking is so welcome. The first Tate-free episode, with David Morrisey, was moving; this one was a romp. And Michelle Ryan's cool and sassy character had it right when she said "We could have been so good together" - the campaign to write her in as a companion for the 11th Doctor should start now.
Skellig
Sorry, The Masters was too exciting.
Would agree there were some excellent things about the Doctor Who special, Ryan (shwing), the banter and the manta rays amongst them, but by far the most exciting moment for me was the foreshadowing comment; "He will knock four times". It's what RTD does very well, as he showed throughout the Ecclestone series with the Bad Wolf references.
ReplyDeleteAs for the bad stuff, well there was the flies in suits, the 'big bad corporation / government' angle (RTD has done this so many times - here with UNIT trying to close the wormhole and doom the doctor before he has a chance to get back) and, most of all, the flying bus. The episode would have been a natural 45 mins but left with an additional quarter of an hour to fill they jumped the shark with the rubbish flying bus which looked like a poor Harry Potter substitute.
Enjoyable enough, though. Bring on the Waters of Mars!
Oh, no, loved the bus - a little nod to classic Brit films like One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (bus chasing a diplodocus) and Bedknobs & Broomsticks (unconvincing flying bed).
ReplyDeleteBy the way - was that a prototype of Boris's new double deckers? It looked a bit like a Routemaster but no open platform at the back...