Of course with mere wonderings aside, let’s rewind to the beginning, to see former Mars and Ashes star Marshall Lancaster—and definitely the male star of this episode, without counting the usual TARDIS gang—as he pulls the audience into the confusion of events to come; how his character gets quite literally disintegrated in a vat of undisclosed acid (in a manor similarly seen, though not as painful, in the movie ‘Volcano’, starring Tommy Lee Jones, but that’s for another time) only to reappear alive a well moments later, even jokily complaining! A fantastic set up, although slightly slow on the start. That said, most of the episode, to me, falters between moments of fantastic and simple ‘filler’, but more to that shortly.
DARTS! Just brilliant—brilliant!—seeing Rory playing such and EARTH game inside the console room, Amy comically judging and putting her best ‘I wanna win’ expression on as she verses him in the game. Arthur and Karen, as said before, are just fantastic. And then there’s a long-running arc of the series, although two common ones now definitely (points to people who can spot more though), as the Doctor constantly checks for Amy’s false pregnancy on the TARDIS screen. What’s to bet that that element was added just slightly later than the original script? I can see it now: ‘Amy and Rory are playing darts in the control room, Rory is winning—or hope he’s winning—as Amy laughs along, enjoying herself. Suddenly the Doctor comes bounding in down the stairs….’ seems like the thing that would be written more than ‘…the Doctor checks the scanners to see Amy’s positive/negative pregnancy.’ Well, it’s a thought anyway.
Solar flares are another thing to point out. TIDAL solar flares to be precise! Look out sea, there’s a new (and ancient) creator of tidal waves about to make you look like mere ripple in a raindrop! Those effects though: WOW! The Mill (Beeb SFX department for those coming out of their hermit caves for the first time in ten years) really do go all out for Who, although that’s not surprising considering the amount of effects available to such a show, when other programmes only need mild touching up, or a thickening of fog clouds (shut me up, I know NOTHING of CGI bar what I pick up in random behind the scenes stuff and such). The golden ripples, the beauty and yet the knowledge of terrifying danger is just so perfectly transferred to screen that it’s amazing to see. Something I wouldn’t mind as a netbook background after Who finishes for the summer actually…
What scale for the episode though, all the locations used for a ‘monastery’, despite the dodgy dealings going on inside—it really was movie-scale epic-ness within some scenes, two particular standing out in mind being the expanse of the corridor used at the very beginning of the episode; the other being nearer the end, where the ‘Gangers’ go to ‘war’ with the humans, walking across the misty remains of part of the monastery in the darkness: Simply astounding.
NOW we come to part of the review where one takes a closer look at the enemy, this week being the Gangers, whom I don’t personally count as enemies, considering they were simple liquid matter given life by unspecialised, unknowing hands (and minds). Nevertheless, they are an interesting species to observe: their Lord Voldemort-inspired looks, how they were made as demonstrated by the character Jennifer, and even what little is actually known about them. Now that’s an interesting way of putting it, isn’t it? ‘What little is known of them’. It seems a human trait to simply construct a thing before reading the instructions these days doesn’t it? If the characters had taken just a little time to research the stuff essentially cloning them, maybe the whole event could’ve been avoided!
“A lot can happen in an hour”—now isn’t that just true? It wasn’t until second watch did I truly realise, and call me slow if you must, that the Gangers had an HOUR free to plan what they needed. It seems easy now, to realise that Jennifer’s ganger was simply acting with Rory, to see and maybe even confirm, whether their ‘originals’ were trouble to them or not. In fact, it seems more likely that the female Gangers are the planners more, seeing as Ganger-Jennifer and Ganger-Buzzer were the ones who took voice, took charge… And let’s hope that the tormented screams of all the Gangers are explained properly in the next episode, along with that snow globe!
The snow globe, now if you ask me, and let’s face it, who else are you gunna ask (bar the million other Whovians out there…), seemed to help the Doctor indicate the/a solar tidal storm… well, at first. It seems pretty much in similar taste to the Tenth Doctor’s 3D glasses way back in Doomsday; used as a seemingly background prop but suddenly the most important part of the plot, so here’s hoping it has mystery hidden in it’s white-speckled liquid. Ooooh, and let us not forget the Eye Patch Lady—the second common series arc! Missing thankfully in last week’s episode, she’s retuned even briefer than before in the Rebel Flesh, now literally scaring Amy she searched for Rory and his new… friend.
Now I won’t dwell too deeply into the forming relationship of Rory and Jennifer, as we were promised troubles in the Pond relationship and I want to see this thing out before voicing any speculation, but I have to say: Moffat, you may not have RTD’s love of soaps, but a relationship like Amy and Rory share need to be put to more test than what’s been seen so far…
Now anyway, down to the dirty work…
- Doctor = 9/10 – Excellent as ever, but slightly lacking. Think I’m gunna put that down to the absolute sub-zero temperatures the cast had to face when filming in early December last year.
- Amy = 9/10 – More of a background character in this episode, letting Rory shine a little brighter.
- Rory = 10/10 – C’est Fantastique! …or something like that.
- Jennifer = 10/10 – really lovely, sweet and innocent. Or the real Jennifer is anyway…
- Gangers = 8.6/10 – Slightly confusing in a way, their Voldemort-looks did put one off a little bit, but otherwise not too bad, definitely needs some questions answered next week.
- Plot = 8/10 – Lacking in some respects, brilliant in others. It’s definitely one of those episodes where it’s appreciated the more it’s watched.
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10—not disappointing, considering that advertisement to build up the excitement for the episode in question was reasonably lax, but there was potential in itself for the plots and ideas involved, and they were executed reasonably well. Nevertheless, here’s looking forward to next week’s episode: Doctor verses Doctor!!
Now on a completely different topic, though this has to be said… due to the amazing lack of response to the birthday competition (although a million thankyou’s to those who HAVE submitted their own works) I have hereby decided to extend the deadline to midnight Tuesday (the 24th) in my own vain hope that you, the readers, will be able to do SOMETHING to dedicate towards the Who Review’s first birthday. Now, I know there’s no physical prize, no giveaways to the winner, but still, the chance to just write, to ant, to express that what you love (or even hate) in words is enough of a reward. And for others (however sparse) to be able to read those submissions, it’s good. Honestly it is good. So please, PLEASE do something; type and let your fingers do the work and don’t be scared about voicing your thoughts and simply be brilliant. Type and be brilliant. Not for me, but for yourselves…
So remember; the new deadline is at 11:59PM, Tuesday the 24th of May—Please do something!
No comments:
Post a Comment