Doctor Who Club of Australia

[mortigitempo]

... Well it was the first decent episode of this series, period.

Watching it just confirmed how terrible New Earth, Tooth and Claw, and School Reunion were.

The directors finally decided not to film at 1000 miles an hour, and let the characters and plot develop and a sensible pace that pulled you in. I do think the fingers-on-the-temple would have been much better if replaced by a Doctor-esque hypnotism... and the fireplace exit at the end was a little unbelieveable... but other than that..... FINALLY! A GOOD STORY!(lets hope RTD NEVER writes again!)

[charlie]

I just realised. Madam Papadam wrote that letter asking for the Doctor to come to her before she died. How did she plan on getting it to him?

[Commander]

Agreeing with mostly everyone here - best episode thus far in 2006. Actually quite liked the way that the Doctor reversed to some classic style, and became the easy focal point of the whole story, with companions going back to being understudies. Mickey is great, absolutely support his casting as a companion and definitely looking forward to seeing him in the Cybereps.

Didnt find Rose quite as annoying this time around, but i know who my new fav companion is in Tennant's TARDIS.

Another Brilliant episode from Moffat, incomparable to EC/DD because it was a one-parter, but excellent storyline and there were no plot holes compared to previous episodes in Season 2.

RTD eat your heart out.

[wilsonces]

Girl in the fireplace.
It was good but there too many loose ends.
I've been a fan for ages and alot of the older episodes have helped me understand physics. It is amazing how close to fact this fiction has been over the years.
Anyway as stated before too many loose ends. Did anyone notice the name of the ship and what happened to after the portals were closed, also why did the the ship come in to being (who built it and why).
As for the requirement for madame pompadours' mind to be complete that one is easy. After the doctor scanned the madames' mind. He opened hers, shared an understanding, kinda broarden her perspective. With a perspective beyond her years her mind could have easily been intergrated in to a "living ship". Did the Doctor travel to a time a prevent some calamity or pehaps prevented the future ... ? (what was the episode with Tom Baker ??) ... If we recall the Doctors reactions when he discovered who this "girl in the fireplace" was he rattled off her achivements as if so well known, she would have to be well known to him.
Could this woman have been the Ada Lovelace of time travel ... ?
And just back to the ship, it seemed more like a momument in space, like a testament to achivement.
and yes the clockwork robots fitted the story perfectly, brass is un-effected by magnetics and tie in with the period.
I say good show.
Great stories should linger an entice healthy debate.

[Theta Sigma]

After I saw Sophia as Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds movie I made a wish that she would appear in Doctor Who and I was so delighted that the wish got granted. In fact according to the poll on her website her fans like her more as Reinette than as Lady Penelope. The Doctor Who role got 19.9% while Thunderbirds 5.7%. The Thunderbirds role was at fifth place while Doctor Who came second only to be beaten for her role in Tristan and Isolde which got 29.1%. http://www.sophiamyles.org/
When this was shown at my club they laughed when Mickey says even French, the sight of Arthur the horse and Mickey's Rambo stunts.
The Doctor does a mind meld on Reinette. If people remembers the Ninth Doctor gets called Mr Spock by Captain Jack in The Empty Child also written by Steven Moffat. Also Reinette tells the Doctor to dance with him, sounds like a reminder to Moffat's concluding episode to Empty Child, The Doctor Dances.
The clockwork robots really scared my niece.
Absolutely impressive the Doctor on Arthur smashing through the mirror.
The music is lovely and sad that Reinette dies.
The last few minutes was very emotional and I was close to tears.
The name of the ship really came as a surprise.
There was no Torchwood reference since Moffat was not informed he should include one. However the Doctor Who Reference Guide points out that Reinette's time predates the creation of Torchwood and therefore says it is understandable in its omission.
The voiceover in the end credits mentioned Peter Davison as a former Doctor being in The Last Detective later in the night.

[montypython]

After seeing the ABC trailers just about every night (with the Doc and Reinette pashing) I was a little worried about this episode. I don't like to imagine the Doc getting it off with anyone (except Rose). But then it turned out it was kinda harmless, except when he and Reinette "danced".

Did anyone else join the dots on the "Bananas are good" line? The Doc said that in The Doctor Dances (also written by Steven Moffat) when he was talking about the banana plantation that replaced the factory where Jack got his sonic device.

Overall, a great episode. I liked the final twist and the use of the horse. Can't wait 'til next week!

[Blue Box]

I absolutely loved it! Hardly any Rose, lots of the Doctor doing his thing- does it get any better than this?
I was so freaked out when we saw the name of the ship at the very end... wow. Everything made sense, but it wasn't predictable.
Mickey is awesome, if only for the fact that he keeps Rose out of the way and shows genuine fear like all normal humans who aren't as cocky as Rose "Oh the Doctor will be along to save us soon" Tyler.
Loved the story.... the ending killed me... To echo most other posters, this is the best episode of the season so far!

[Ickabod]

[dave]

One thing that strikes me the more I think about this story is how good a bridge it makes between School Reunion and the upcoming Cybermen stories. It looks at the Doctor being romantically involved with someone and what that might entail, reinforcing to Rose some of the lessons she learnt in the previous ep, and also involves a rough parallel to cybermen with the ship's crew being used as 'spare parts' for it. The ship and crew are almost cybermen in reverse - the machine using organic parts as opposed to organisms using machine parts. Moffat manages to take all these elements, as well as Madame du Pompador and a horse, and weaves a damn fine tale.

10/10 from me too, although I probably implied that already.

[Drakul]

Brilliant. *claps hands*.
just when I thought that season two was going nowhere fast, I get slogged with this gem of an episode. This will always be fondly recalled by myself as the first of DT's episodes that really hit the mark and established him as 'the doctor'.
If only he kept the horse. It would have made a much better companion (and more intelligent too) then others who have been given the role in the past.

[Amano07]

[wilsonces]

Damaged logic .. , Broken, damaged logic ...
Amano07, your logarithms require verifacation...

[Ickabod]

[Sulp Niar]

K9 then the horse... interesting... will he adopt a Cybermat in the next episode??

But this is easily the best episode of the new series since The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. I'm so glad the romance was handled with metaphor more than the bluntness of RTD's scripts.

The music was beautiful at the end... but annoying elsewhere! Why does the silly music (that wishes to inform us these are comedy scenes) keep playing when Mickey and Rose discover the eye and human heart? Potentially sickening concepts are suddenly comic...

I've heard a lot of people - no-one here - deriding David Tennant's drunk acting. Um, he's not drunk. Idiots. But I noticed here that Moffatt can't help but reference his previous scripts, with the banana line and dancing metaphor. Oh, and he didn't have sex with Madame de Pompadour.

Overall, absolutely brilliant. And he's writing another one. Yay!

[Ickabod]

[Tom N.]

[Theta Sigma]

[Commander]

[Odnet]

[Amano07]