Planet of the Dead

[neadods]

Fun. Not brilliant - the storyline was too A to B to C for that - but fun. There were a couple of things I really adored: The Doctor having an oyster card. "We have to call UNIT." (Not so much on how UNIT itself was portrayed. I rather hope that once a showrunner without a personal stake in UNIT's replacement comes onboard, it will be more like old school UNIT.) "I didn't just salute." Malcom the squeeing scientist. And I literally LOLed at "I'll just step into this police box and arrest myself."

I see they're already dropping regeneration anvils.

And heh. Something I postulated in Operation Awesome is now canon.

Comments

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

What "something" might that be?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Y'know... you changed your icon and I didn't even recognize you in a different thread.

It was that the Doctor is on one of his "I don't need people" kicks due to residual Donna guilt and general emo over having had a TARDISful of people who didn't want to stay and play.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

See my explanation here.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

Agree - fun and by the books (which is really what the specials are about for me). I thought he just showed his psychic paper to the Oyster reader" and it "saw" what it expected.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Did he? I wasn't paying that close attention. Still, he might have a card. It's the sort of thing he'd pick up and squee about and then forget.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

well, we didn't see the side he "showed" to the machine. I just assumed it was the psychic paper because it was that leather holder that always has the psychic paper in it. It could have been a Oyster card. It would fit in the same kind of holder

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah I got the impression it was the psychic paper too... And I don't think Oyster cards work through plastic - I think you actually have to put it on the reader so the reader can access the data chip.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Huh. Here the travel cards work like that - touch it to a plate and you're good.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I've only used an Oyster card on one occasion since they introduced them, since I go to London so rarely - and I automatically took it out of the card holder I had it in, so I'm just guessing.

But given Rose used the PP on a "card reader" device in AoG/Doomsday, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the PP Ten was using, not an Oyster card.

[radiantbaby.livejournal.com]

And I don't think Oyster cards work through plastic

Actually that bit bothered me, just like when Rose used the psychic paper in 'Doomsday' to get in the room with the void ship -- how in the world does psychic paper even work on machines? It's not like they are cognizant to interpret the paper, you know?

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

It's Uncle Rusty's MagikSkience!! *rolls eyes*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

how in the world does psychic paper even work on machines? It's not like they are cognizant to interpret the paper,

That's my problem with it. The paper doesn't display what you want it to display, it shows what the other person expects to see, and (as we know from Empty Child) you have to have your mind right, or it's going to show what you're thinking instead.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Did he really have an Oyster card? I thought he was just using the psychic paper.

I didn't care for the portrayal of UNIT in that particular three-minute sequence either. Up until then, I'd really liked what they were doing with UNIT and I enjoyed the return of Magumba... and then her character just got assassinated. :( I can see her responsibility to the planet, but pulling a gun on Malcolm like that? No.

Other than a few humorous moments (such as the police box/arrest myself bit), it did nothing for me :(

And what in particular did you postulate? And did you mean Operation Awesome?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

He was using something. Since I'm not sure that the psychic paper works on non-psychic machinery, I'm keeping the image in my head of him picking one up just because it amused him.

I can see her responsibility to the planet, but pulling a gun on Malcolm like that?

EXACTLY! Especially as his ability to then *shut* the wormhole in time was compromised by his defensive position rather than being poised to get the job done.

We won't even discuss the "logic" of threatening to kill the one person who can accomplish a vital job before said job has been accomplished.

did you mean Operation Awesome?

Yeah. I claim post-paint exhaustion. I thought it would logically flow that the Doctor would be on one of his periodic "I don't need companions" kicks.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I thought it would logically flow that the Doctor would be on one of his periodic "I don't need companions" kicks.

True, and we did already see that in The Next Doctor, if you recall - also shown after you wrote OA.

I do think it was the psychic paper, by the way, because we saw him with the black leather wallet in his hand and that's what he keeps the psychic paper in. Yes, it doesn't have a SIM card or chip or whatever technology Oyster uses, but we're not supposed to get that clever in DW ;)

We won't even discuss the "logic" of threatening to kill the one person who can accomplish a vital job before said job has been accomplished.

Oh, yeah. Pure stupidity, that. Bad writing.

I do like RTD's writing in general, though I know many don't, but he does do things occasionally (like this UNIT stuff, though he wasn't the writer for TSS/TPS) that make me want to tear my hair.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

we did already see that in The Next Doctor,

Yeah, but I liked it more this time around. He wasn't making a big emo deal out of it.

I do like RTD's writing in general

I find him very uneven. When he is good, he is very, very good, but when he is bad, he is horrid.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

If the movie Scanners has taught us anything, it's that psychic powers totally work on computers.

whenever RTD does a clued in military organisations it always goes wrong slightly - torchwood 2 and 3 had a tendency towards being run or staffed by idiots who never thought through the consequences of their actions - and part of that is because the whole Who ethos, as far as RTD is concerned (and I don't entirely fail to agree with this), is that the doctor is basically an emo pacifist with the ability to blow up suns, and so RTD uses military organisations as a thing for the Doctor to play off of in that regard... with the inevitable result that occasionally the organisations in question have to hold an idiot ball and do daft things to make the Doctor look better by comparison.

Or at least, that's the reason why I'd write them like that (or more accurately, why I'd try to avoid writing them like, but if I did write them like that those would be the reasons for doing so).

All we know for certain is, he's called the stig the man loves his anvils.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*LOL at the icon*

RTD uses military organisations as a thing for the Doctor to play off of in that regard

True. RTD's also got that X-Files "the gummit is eeeeeeville" thing going on; he's said as much in interviews. So I suppose that it was a step in the right direction that at least this time the guns and the orders were expressly for the sake of the Earth's immediate defense, and not just (as in the Osterhagen Key) saving the planet by blowing it up.

[bizarra.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a darned sight better than the Christmas episode.. and the more I think about it, the more like it. Kinda reminded me a bit of Midnight. Which I LOVED.

I liked that it was simply an episode. Not an event, but an episode.

And yes, it was his psychic paper. I saw him flip open the leather holder and stick it in his pocket after he used it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Not an event, but an episode.

This. Yes.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

I agree with your notes on POTD... Anvils? Anvils AND the classic 16-ton rock AND the ACME Safe!
And would like to add that I thought it was such a nice continuity detail, that the aliens didn't speak with an English accent! (Well, they Might have had a London lilt to their clicks, but you know what I mean!) Classic Who would have had them speaking English with some sort of "Alien" effect added to the soundtrack.

And I'm glad that UNIT, for once- got to meet an alien menace that Wasn't immune to bullets!

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Those were amusing moments all. The police box comment was quite fun.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I think the police box comment is my favorite line of the Doctor's in this episode.