andraste: The reason half the internet imagines me as Patrick Stewart. (Default)
Andraste ([personal profile] andraste) wrote2008-06-15 02:14 pm
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Doctor Who: Midnight

The audience seems to be very split on this one; not surprised that it's a 'marmitey' story given the unusual format.



Depending a bit on how you count (you have to include the incomplete Shada and consider Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords all one serial) this is the Doctor's TWO-HUNDREDTH television adventure. Think about that for a moment. Two-hundred televised stories.

I can't think of a better way to mark the occasion than with an experiment episode from the pen of the man who brought the series back to life. As [livejournal.com profile] londonkds said, they could have done this in 1963 with one room, a model planet and a big spotlight. It goes to show that what makes Doctor Who is the writing, casting and acting, not how shiny the special effects are.

The episode stands on the strength of it's ideas, with one of the creepiest aliens ever, and the acting. Can we give David Tennant an Oscar for this, please? Sure, I know they don't give out Oscars for acting in British TV shows, but they should make an exception for the way he conveyed the Doctor's absolute panic without being able to move or do anything but parrot the creature's lines.

It was refreshing to have an episode where the panicked humans turned on the Doctor; Ten has been cruising through the series on sheer charisma, but without a human companion to bond with the new characters, I can certainly see why they decided he might be up to no good.

I did roll my eyes a lot when we ended up with a dead possessed lesbian and two dead CoCs, but that aside? Genius. Not quite my favourite RTD episode, because it did not have A BASKET OF TINY KITTENS.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2008-06-15 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
Loved it as well. Very awesome, and I agree with all your points.

We have Baftas

[identity profile] redfiona99.livejournal.com 2008-06-15 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
will that do?

I enjoyed it enormously for all the reasons that people (that aren't you) seem to have hated it. Like the humans in all their awful glory and that it was basically a theatre piece.