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rivendellroseDear Davies & Associated Production Team (I'm looking at you, Helen Raynor):
Once upon a time (between the late 1960s and the moderately-late 1980s) was this nice little government organization back in the old days. The Doctor worked with them. In fact, he was their scientific advisor during the years that he spent trapped on Earth. He brought some of them to travel with him. One of them, by some accounts, was one of his very best-ever Human friends, and he was certainly fond of several others of them. They were a bit dumb sometimes, and they certainly tended to use guns to solve their problems far more than the Doctor would have liked, but they were generally polite and friendly and law-abiding, and everybody really liked them. Including the Doctor (this will be important to our story in a few moments). Everything seemed to be going really well, even when the Doctor's maybe-best-friend (a man with a very silly mustache, by very-fun-to-say name of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stuart) retired. And then retired again. And eventually took up teaching math at a boys' school for no apparent reason. Still, everything was happy.
And then one day, a seemingly psychopathic writer named Russell Davies decided that these nice military people who the Doctor liked were making his little band of adorably inept sociopaths look bad. One might have thought that the fact that they were inept jackasses was sort of the whole point to this merry little band, but apparently Davies had Bigger Things In Mind for them. Like... well... zombies? Or... maybe not? Anyway. Unfortunately, rather than actually having his sociopaths see the error of their ways through character development in some reasonable manner, Davies decided it would be more fun if he took the nice, friendly military organization, and turned them into some kind of Guantanamo Bay Black-Ops secret organization prone to kidnapping helpless civilians, locking them away without trial, and then inexplicably looking the other way when some moron from the other organization rode in on a white horse to rescue them.
The peasants, also known as viewers, were very confused.
I'll grant you, the portrayal of UNIT in "The Sontaran Strategem" was infinitely better than the last time we saw them, in Torchwood. I was thrilled to see them again, thrilled to hear their theme, thrilled to death to see Martha saving the world and running things and being her remarkable (and, of course, beautiful) self. But for crying out loud, why do we suddenly have the Doctor hating his oldest allies on Earth and acting like they're his enemies? What the hell happened between the late 80s and now?
As for the rest of the episode... meh. The Sontarans were fun, but neither as scary nor as funny as they sometimes were in old episodes. The Atmos thing is nifty, but I have no idea why, at the end of the episode, no one just picked up a fricking rock and broke the window to get poor Donna's-Grandpa the hell out of that car. Donna, I must say, was nothing but wonderful. Ross was wonderful, and I want the Doctor to take him along for a few trips. But I know he won't, of course, because nobody believes in boy-companions anymore unless they're a) along to make the Doctor look better by comparison, or b) setting up a spin-off.
Incidentally, did they have to name this new teenage-dark-haired-genius-boy... Luke? LUKE. Doctor Who writing team? Please, for the love of all that's holy, pay attention to your naming. You keep reusing the damned things for the same damned characters without apparently noticing, and it's really annoying! This new one is just a rehash of Adam Mitchell from the first season, and I was bored almost before they'd completed his introduction.
Oh, and one more thing. While I appreciate that Martha's moving on with her life and I love that she's happy with UNIT and still willing to talk back to the Doctor all that he needs and I'm thrilled that she and Donna are getting on so well... boy, she moves a bit fast getting engaged so suddenly, doesn't she? Is this de facto "SHE'S HAPPY!" happening? I wonder how awkward it must have been for her to meet with Tom Milligan, being that they met and fell in love (ish) during the year that he doesn't remember. Their first few dates must have been very odd for Martha.
Ironically, considering the content of this entry, the top entry on my BBC documentary podcast list this morning? A documentary about policing corruption in the UN. A very sad and disturbing subject in reality, but... it felt sort of weird to write this entry while I had that going on in my ears.
Oh, and my computer's still being a butt. Alas. I do have my new thumbdrive, though, and I love it, so I'm back in business in terms of my writing and all... now if only I could just finish something, rather than starting a billion little mini-stories and not quite managing to complete anything. Argh.
Once upon a time (between the late 1960s and the moderately-late 1980s) was this nice little government organization back in the old days. The Doctor worked with them. In fact, he was their scientific advisor during the years that he spent trapped on Earth. He brought some of them to travel with him. One of them, by some accounts, was one of his very best-ever Human friends, and he was certainly fond of several others of them. They were a bit dumb sometimes, and they certainly tended to use guns to solve their problems far more than the Doctor would have liked, but they were generally polite and friendly and law-abiding, and everybody really liked them. Including the Doctor (this will be important to our story in a few moments). Everything seemed to be going really well, even when the Doctor's maybe-best-friend (a man with a very silly mustache, by very-fun-to-say name of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stuart) retired. And then retired again. And eventually took up teaching math at a boys' school for no apparent reason. Still, everything was happy.
And then one day, a seemingly psychopathic writer named Russell Davies decided that these nice military people who the Doctor liked were making his little band of adorably inept sociopaths look bad. One might have thought that the fact that they were inept jackasses was sort of the whole point to this merry little band, but apparently Davies had Bigger Things In Mind for them. Like... well... zombies? Or... maybe not? Anyway. Unfortunately, rather than actually having his sociopaths see the error of their ways through character development in some reasonable manner, Davies decided it would be more fun if he took the nice, friendly military organization, and turned them into some kind of Guantanamo Bay Black-Ops secret organization prone to kidnapping helpless civilians, locking them away without trial, and then inexplicably looking the other way when some moron from the other organization rode in on a white horse to rescue them.
The peasants, also known as viewers, were very confused.
I'll grant you, the portrayal of UNIT in "The Sontaran Strategem" was infinitely better than the last time we saw them, in Torchwood. I was thrilled to see them again, thrilled to hear their theme, thrilled to death to see Martha saving the world and running things and being her remarkable (and, of course, beautiful) self. But for crying out loud, why do we suddenly have the Doctor hating his oldest allies on Earth and acting like they're his enemies? What the hell happened between the late 80s and now?
As for the rest of the episode... meh. The Sontarans were fun, but neither as scary nor as funny as they sometimes were in old episodes. The Atmos thing is nifty, but I have no idea why, at the end of the episode, no one just picked up a fricking rock and broke the window to get poor Donna's-Grandpa the hell out of that car. Donna, I must say, was nothing but wonderful. Ross was wonderful, and I want the Doctor to take him along for a few trips. But I know he won't, of course, because nobody believes in boy-companions anymore unless they're a) along to make the Doctor look better by comparison, or b) setting up a spin-off.
Incidentally, did they have to name this new teenage-dark-haired-genius-boy... Luke? LUKE. Doctor Who writing team? Please, for the love of all that's holy, pay attention to your naming. You keep reusing the damned things for the same damned characters without apparently noticing, and it's really annoying! This new one is just a rehash of Adam Mitchell from the first season, and I was bored almost before they'd completed his introduction.
Oh, and one more thing. While I appreciate that Martha's moving on with her life and I love that she's happy with UNIT and still willing to talk back to the Doctor all that he needs and I'm thrilled that she and Donna are getting on so well... boy, she moves a bit fast getting engaged so suddenly, doesn't she? Is this de facto "SHE'S HAPPY!" happening? I wonder how awkward it must have been for her to meet with Tom Milligan, being that they met and fell in love (ish) during the year that he doesn't remember. Their first few dates must have been very odd for Martha.
Ironically, considering the content of this entry, the top entry on my BBC documentary podcast list this morning? A documentary about policing corruption in the UN. A very sad and disturbing subject in reality, but... it felt sort of weird to write this entry while I had that going on in my ears.
Oh, and my computer's still being a butt. Alas. I do have my new thumbdrive, though, and I love it, so I'm back in business in terms of my writing and all... now if only I could just finish something, rather than starting a billion little mini-stories and not quite managing to complete anything. Argh.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 06:28 pm (UTC)This just continues my "I love Ten, but he's a jerk" feelings. :P
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 07:15 pm (UTC)Guh, he really is a jerk. I liked whatshiface, the commander. He was very sweet.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 07:28 pm (UTC)The one who was going around with the Doctor and Donna in the jeep, or the one who was in charge? They were both cute, although the guy-in-charge was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. But... kind of in a cute way, if you know what I mean.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 10:08 pm (UTC)