Seriously? You even liked THIS one? Tom, if there was ever going to be an episode to burst you out of your “Dr Who (the series) is so dreamy and cant’ do anything wrong” bubble, I would have thought this would be it. Did you notice the lack of anything to actually do with the Doctor? And the annoying main character? And the bad jokes, such as that bloody elephant which is actually the worst joke I’ve heard in ages
andy 21 June 2006, 12:46 AM
2
You don’t need every Dr Who episode to star the Doctor. I like an outside perspective on the show I’m watching. Note these SG-1 episodes that lacked much SG-1 involvement: The other guys and Citizen Joe
The annoying main character became less annoying and almost likeable about 10 minutes in.
Aside from the ending, my biggest dislike was the comic timing. It was slow at times so the jokes lacked the high impact energy of Scrubs or Arrested Development but weren’t funny enough for a slower delivery. But once the show got going and tried less hard to be quirky, it found its rhythm and was fun to watch.
Tom 21 June 2006, 01:38 AM
3
I did say I didn’t like the elephant. Every week I list a bunch of things the series does wrong. Except that one week. It’s just, overall, I find it’s more good than bad. Is that so odd? I wouldn’t watch a series where the bad outweighed the good.
I don’t see how not having the Doctor in automatically makes it bad. As I said, I didn’t find the main character annoying after his first scene. He was great when talking to Jackie. You know my position on bad jokes.
I thought it had a nice, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ish vibe to it. As I say, something different and interesting. Could have been funnier — at times they seemed to be trying for quirky but the episode found its feet when it settled on a more realistic tone I thought. My least favourite episode this year would be ‘Rise of the Cybermen’, for what it’s worth.
Jack 21 June 2006, 03:49 AM
4
Surely, for every bad or mistimed joke there was a handful of good ones. The Benny Hill-esque sequence at the beginning was probably the funniest sequence in the entire series. Jackie was funny for the entire episode, I loved the TARDIS hieroglyph and the Absorvalof naming joke.
I did find the concept of the Absorvalof a shade too silly, but then Tom mentioned that it was created by some school boy who one a competition and that made it okay somehow.
Like everyone else, it’s mainly the ending that I dislike. Stone slabs aside, the episode would have been better served by a more poignant tone at the end, instead of just being ridiculously silly. I felt the whole tragedy of the situation was lost, and I do like episodes that switch moods like that.
Jack 21 June 2006, 03:50 AM
5
I don’t usually make typos, but the won in the above post is particulary embarassing. I feel like I need to point it out before someone else does.
Tom 21 June 2006, 04:19 AM
6
Which typo? I can’t believe you got the name of the Abzorbaloff wrong.
I agree — that first scene with the Doctor and Rose is hilarious — a great little parody of the usual Doctor Who running about. If only we’d never had that played seriously in ‘World War III’. The scene with Jackie and Elton in the laundromat was great too.
Tom 12 July 2006, 07:51 AM
7
Just to add further proof of non-fanboy nature, Conrad loved this one too. So did Lawrence Miles.
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shannon
21 June 2006, 12:05 AM
Seriously? You even liked THIS one? Tom, if there was ever going to be an episode to burst you out of your “Dr Who (the series) is so dreamy and cant’ do anything wrong” bubble, I would have thought this would be it. Did you notice the lack of anything to actually do with the Doctor? And the annoying main character? And the bad jokes, such as that bloody elephant which is actually the worst joke I’ve heard in ages
andy
21 June 2006, 12:46 AM
You don’t need every Dr Who episode to star the Doctor. I like an outside perspective on the show I’m watching. Note these SG-1 episodes that lacked much SG-1 involvement: The other guys and Citizen Joe
The annoying main character became less annoying and almost likeable about 10 minutes in.
Aside from the ending, my biggest dislike was the comic timing. It was slow at times so the jokes lacked the high impact energy of Scrubs or Arrested Development but weren’t funny enough for a slower delivery. But once the show got going and tried less hard to be quirky, it found its rhythm and was fun to watch.
Tom
21 June 2006, 01:38 AM
I did say I didn’t like the elephant. Every week I list a bunch of things the series does wrong. Except that one week. It’s just, overall, I find it’s more good than bad. Is that so odd? I wouldn’t watch a series where the bad outweighed the good.
I don’t see how not having the Doctor in automatically makes it bad. As I said, I didn’t find the main character annoying after his first scene. He was great when talking to Jackie. You know my position on bad jokes.
I thought it had a nice, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ish vibe to it. As I say, something different and interesting. Could have been funnier — at times they seemed to be trying for quirky but the episode found its feet when it settled on a more realistic tone I thought. My least favourite episode this year would be ‘Rise of the Cybermen’, for what it’s worth.
Jack
21 June 2006, 03:49 AM
Surely, for every bad or mistimed joke there was a handful of good ones. The Benny Hill-esque sequence at the beginning was probably the funniest sequence in the entire series. Jackie was funny for the entire episode, I loved the TARDIS hieroglyph and the Absorvalof naming joke.
I did find the concept of the Absorvalof a shade too silly, but then Tom mentioned that it was created by some school boy who one a competition and that made it okay somehow.
Like everyone else, it’s mainly the ending that I dislike. Stone slabs aside, the episode would have been better served by a more poignant tone at the end, instead of just being ridiculously silly. I felt the whole tragedy of the situation was lost, and I do like episodes that switch moods like that.
Jack
21 June 2006, 03:50 AM
I don’t usually make typos, but the won in the above post is particulary embarassing. I feel like I need to point it out before someone else does.
Tom
21 June 2006, 04:19 AM
Which typo? I can’t believe you got the name of the Abzorbaloff wrong.
I agree — that first scene with the Doctor and Rose is hilarious — a great little parody of the usual Doctor Who running about. If only we’d never had that played seriously in ‘World War III’. The scene with Jackie and Elton in the laundromat was great too.
Tom
12 July 2006, 07:51 AM
Just to add further proof of non-fanboy nature, Conrad loved this one too. So did Lawrence Miles.
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