doctor who memorandum

[spatch]

To: Mr. Russell T. Davies
From: Mr. D. Spatchel, Esq.
Re: Love & Monsters

Just watched Gridlock.
All is forgiven.

S.

Comments

[thebitterguy]

Yer kiddin', right? That was an awesome ep.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

I assume he meant that he was forgiving all previous crimes because of the AWESOME of "Love & Monsters".

Just saw it this week, and oh my god, fabulous episode! i want to watch it again already. so funny and adorable and *sigh*

right now i am rewatching "the empty child". less funny. :)

[thebitterguy]

Less funny, but just as awesome. The conclusion is a great second hour.

[spatch]

The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, there, now there was one hell of an awesome two-parter (won a Hugo and everything!)

[spatch]

The feelings towards that particular episode, I've found, are extremely polarized. You either really loved it or you really hated it. I fall under the second category, even though I adore Shirley Henderson. We all have our reasons, I know, and I don't think less of anybody who loved it.

However, I just watched Gridlock and if this is the way Tennant's second series is heading under Mr. Davies' guidance, all the dislike I had for the things I seriously disliked about the previous series are slowly being erased. If that makes a lick o' sense. My opinion doesn't change, but the teeth no longer are set on edge when the episode is mentioned.

[thebitterguy]

Oh, don't bring me down.

Yeah, I remember the dwin commentary on it. People got upset about it for some reason.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I thought "Love and Monsters" was one of the best episodes of the new series until the last quarter, which was embarrassing crap. If it had just been a bad episode (such as, say, "Fear Her"), it wouldn't have been nearly as dismaying; but it was a good episode that went horribly wrong.

[zhym.livejournal.com]

I seem to be in the same 2x2 matrix cell as you. I hated hated HATED Love & Monsters, despite Shirley Henderson.

Gridlock, however, was OMGWTFPWNIES great. Sure, the plot fell apart if you so much as looked at any of the loose threads, but in terms of atmosphere and setting and character and mood and all that, it was fantastic. It had the Brazil dystopian thing going on, and the instant killer mumble, a la Ice-9, and Ten pretending Gallifrey is still fine, then owning up to it not being fine, and quirky drivers in the Permanent Gridlock, and the Face of Boe, and KITTENS, and....whew.

I'm a bit fanboy over this episode.

[spatch]

Yeah. If you actually start thinking about the story, it starts to fall apart, but it was presented so well, paced incredibly tight (so much happened! there was rarely a slow moment) and realized with great visuals, the story wasn't too much of a problem for me. When the story stinks and the pacing lags, you'd be left to start thinking about how and why things are stinking.

Another reason why I think RTD did a great job on the episode was because he didn't have to write an actual, specific villain. The bad forces in this story were either non-sentient or de-evolved lifeforms. One of RTD's weaknesses in my opinion is the inability to write decent, original villains who don't just strut around acting all evil and camp. Granted, the Love & Monsters villian was the product of a children's write-in contest (but even then, the concept was cool and it could've been handled so much better) but when I think about the farty Slitheen, I just shake my head.

Okay, the Editor and monster on Floor 500 of Satellite 5 were pretty cool, I'll give him that one.

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

I actually just had to go back and check which episode Love and Monsters was becuase I hated it SO much I had blocked it out...

but yes, all is now forgiven as far as I'm concerned. I like the way Tennant is going this series, but I also loved him last series. I thought it was a nice balance after the Eccleston series, and would help acclimitize new viewers to the fact that the Doctor CAN change... it's like, after Tom Baker, who was the first Doctor most Americans knew, the next Doctor was never really accepted, and this, from what I can tell, generally led to the show's decline.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The first three episodes this season have all been a hoot. I think the Tenth Doctor has finally come into his own--seems to me the production budget is bigger, and also I am really liking Freema Agyeman. I think Martha's a much more compatible pal for #10 than Rose was; the Tenth Doctor's a bit lighter and sillier than the Ninth, so you need somebody who will call him on it and make common-sense observations, which Rose had mostly stopped doing.

[saint-buddha.livejournal.com]

I liked Love & Monsters because I loved the guy's description of himself which is a perfect description of almost every white guy in England. But he made it sound like he was unique which I thought was hilarious. Plus, the impausibility of how quickly he found Rose's mom was pretty funny as well. Everything else in that episode was lame but I tickled by those scenes.