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Gemsie
Reviews
Doctor Who: The Idiot's Lantern (2006)
Simply amazing
I've been a little disappointed with the last couple of weeks of Doctor Who, the Cybermen story just didn't seem to cut it for me, especially after The Girl in the Fireplace, but The Idiot's Lantern just completely redeemed the series for me. I thought the way that this episode was put together was absolutely amazing, I'm a bit of an obsessive when it comes to 50s culture and music and stuff, and this managed to pull it off brilliantly. Maureen Lipman was fantastically cast as The Wire, she actually seemed to be like a genuine 1950s style television announcer. Mark Gatiss of "League of Gentleman" fame did an absolutely fantastic job of writing this episode, it was brilliantly done, enough to terrify millions of small kids into not watching TV for fear of having their faces sucked off!!! I thought David Tennant was amazing in this episode, as ever. He just seems to get better for me the further this series progresses, and The Idiots Lantern was no exception. His emotional range in this episode was superb, especially in the scene where he starts shouting and bawling at Eddie. Billie Piper was also great last night, I'm not particularly a big fan of hers but she excelled herself last night. Brilliant episode, lets just hope the rest of the series is at the same standard!!!
Doctor Who: Rise of the Cybermen (2006)
Awful episode comparatively
Compared to other episodes in the series, this was absolutely awful, however if this were the first time I'd ever watched Doctor Who I wouldn't have said it was so bad. I thought the whole Pete Tyler thing was awful, we should have left him in the last series, after the fantastic episode with the Reapers. I thought a couple of great touches were the doggy called Rose, and the fact that they had yet ANOTHER woman for Rose to get jealous of, if only briefly (The waitress, Lucy(?), blink and you'll miss her). Seems we're gonna get more and more of these. I thought that the TARDIS breaking thing was absolutely rubbish. I mean, "oooh, look, there's a pretty light and if I blow on it, everything'll be alright". They could have handled that SO much better, like the bit at the end of the last series when they are forced into the Gamestation. The greatest redeeming feature of the episode, obviously, was the Cybermen. Their storyline was awful and should have been handled by Russell T David as opposed to one of these 'Side-writers'. The design team have done an amazing job redesigning them, I think they're absolutely gorgeous. The Mickey/Ricky thing was handled well, but as a story I don't think it's that great. I don't particularly like Mickey, I thought he was necessary in "The Girl in the Fireplace", so that Rose had a distraction from the Doctor, leaving him to romp with Reinette. However, I don't think he should be on the TARDIS for much longer. I don't know what it is about him that I don't like, I just feel the character is really lacking in something. If we need a distraction for Rose, bring back someone Captain-Jack-Like, a character who is more easygoing. Mickey seems to take everything so seriously, and this definitely came off in last nights episode
Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)
Not as good as school reunion, but still good
Not as brilliant as last week's episode, but still fantastic, This week's episode of Doctor Who was really interesting, but slightly confusing. The bit with the time windows confused me a bit at first, the fact that they were positioned round the ship for different time periods, but the one at the start worked at both. I though Sophia Myles was really great, her comment about the Doctor being an angel was so cute!!! David Tennant was, in my opinion, as good as always, but they need to get rid of Noel Clarke, he annoys the HECK outta me!! Overall I thought that after the high of School Reunion last week, which had me blubbing, this was a little bit of a let down, but still good. I expected more chemistry in the kiss between The Doctor and Madame du Pompadour, considering their real life relationship, but this was a bit disappointing. The horse rocked though!!
Edit:28/5/06: I've watched this episode repeatedly over the last 3 weeks since it was screened, and I've fallen in love with it!!! I can't understand how I criticised it as much as I did, but it's definitely one of those episodes you can watch again and again!!!