Doctor Who Club of Australia

[phase5]

Well; it was either 7:30pm or 8:30pm .....

BUT; only 6 episodes!! (45 mins each).

So I expect it'll be on and gone before most people realise.
Overall it didn't do very well in the UK, so I don't think anyone is expecting a second series.

Friends tell it's good for passing the time.
I wonder if Channel 9 is hoping to attract the DW audience?

[Theta Sigma]

The debut of Primeval on Saturday April 28 is TV WEEK's Pick of the Day. The review says that the show does not take itself too seriously and it's a lot of fun.

[phase5]

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 1:
A good start to the series.
Solid start at the beginning with that scene of Cutter's wife.
Terrifying whenever that dinosaur turned up and Rex flying in that building was cute.
Interesting casting info: During Easter I saw Douglas Henshall as Arthur Conan Doyle in the BBC TV movie The Strange Case of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes in which he played Doyle. Doyle had written The Lost World which featured......dinosaurs. So in that movie Henshall had played a man who had written a story about dinosaurs and now here he is on Primeval as someone who investigates dinosaurs!

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 2 on Saturday May 5 like the first episode is TV WEEK's Pick of the Day. The reviewer was impressed with the giant spider as seen in the trailer at the end of Episode 1.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 2:
This is a case of the trailer looking better than the episode.
Did not gripped me as much but still a passable episode.
Connor remarked about liking Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. I for one understands how he feels (although in my case it is much more to do with liking the person playing Buffy rather than the character herself).

[phase5]

Episode 02 had so many holes in the script; (not to mention cliches); no wonder the nasties from the past are getting in.

Rumor has it that ITV threw big bucks at this production.
Makes you wonder where it went.

After last weeks opening story that established the premise of the show, the second episode didn't advance the overall plot at all.

Are the time portals natural?
Are they an experiment by a 3rd party?
Why do they pop up where they do?

And so on.

Only 6 episodes.
Not much time to generate an audience.
And from what I've heard it doesn't get much better.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 3:
That crocodile like creature was sure scary and it should not have been surprise that Helen Cutter would be brought back to the present one way or another.

[phase5]

Episode 03:

There's just something bland and forgetable about this series. The young ones might find it interesting; "Look Dadfy that man's being chased by a dinosaur!"; but that's about it.

It it wasn't illegal I'd probably have a machine watch it for me so I wouldn't have to bother, at which point I am.

The only realistic thing about the show is the completely pathetic way it's being handled by the government. (Let's send the innocent woman to prison for murder, rather than admit something is going on).

And honestly, who in their right mind would go diving in a lake thats got a monster in it?

[phase5]

Lets capture the missing wife and then give her a huge great knife, take her to the next portal and then let her escape.

These people are tops ........

Then lets have a really dull episode; but to liven it up and hopefully attract some male viewers lets have Hannah Spearritt (of S Club 7 fame), wander through the first half in her underwear to distract everyone from the lack of anything happening.

Let's not forget however that Channel 9 says this is a "Saturday Night SMASH HIT"! Which is a pity as there are only 2 more episodes ....

Normally I enjoy shows like this, but there's just something about "Primeval" that makes it totally forgettable ...

PS. Expected the BG & B7 mention as warned of it by friends OS.
No surprise there.
Apparently done by the writers for the obvious reason.
("Hey the characters a scifi nut, lets mention some scifi shows, that'll attract the nerds, they'll wet their pants ...." and so on ...).

Some decent scripts, characters and ideas might work better.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 4:
Connor's friends finally gets something more to do but it is quite sad that it ends in tragedy.
So much for dodos being harmless.
Did not expect to hear a Blake's 7 reference as that is a very rare occasion.

[Theta Sigma]

The penultimate episode of season 1 on Saturday May 26 is TV WEEK's Pick of the Day.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 5:
Wow what a very good penultimate episode with all those dinobirds (can't remember what they are actually called) and that explosion.
Claudia looked really good in the red top she was wearing.

[phase5]

A bit of a cheat during the opening sequence where the golfer appears to be lifted off the ground as though grabbed in the beak of a giant bird.

Enter the Pteranodon, so we all naturally think it's responsible because it's big and flying, which it isn't because if you know your dinosaurs you know about it's preferred diet.
A nicely done, but rather clumsy red herring.

When the real villains turn up, they turn up to be a flock of anurognathus, who even in a group of a 100, seem unable to pick anyone up. Our heroes manage to fall in the only blood spill for miles around, (how clumsy of them), resulting in them being chased by the anurognathus.

Overall, not a bad episode, probably the best of a very average series so far. Next week the final episode, a creature from the future comes hunting ...... is it an elvolved human?

And aren't all the costumes lovely. That's really important.

[Theta Sigma]

The final episode of the season on Saturday June 2 is TV WEEK's Pick of the Day. I get the feeling it will be a very interesting end to the season.

[phase5]

Episode 06 and it's all over. My that was quick.

I had to sit down and strain to recall the plots/storylines of early episodes. They all blur together. Overall not a "bad" series, but it just didn't make an impression. Definitely not a rival to "Doctor Who" by any means.

A few things raised in last nights episode have been bugging me for a while. In episode one the Proffessor and an SAS guy travel through a portal, find a abandoned camp and a skeleton. Why didn't they take the head of the skeleton back with them for dental idenification? Because then we wouldn't have had part of last nights "surprise" ending.

Still creating your own past/present/future is a concept thats often been overlooked in DW because of the paradoxes it can cause. Nice to see at least being addressed in the show. (See "The Flipside Of Dominic Hide" for a good one. Available on DVD).

And has anyone seen the animated Star Trek episode where they use the time portal from "City On The Edge Of Forever" and what happens when they return?

If you enjoyed this series may I suggest you go to your local video shop and get a copy of "A Sound Of Thunder" based on Ray Badburys famous short story about "time tourists" and what can happen when you don't follow the rules. It's quiet good.

And it gives a much better idea as to what would happen if you went 60 million years plus into the past and changed something. The "present" would be changed beyond recognition. One person wouldn't simply be "gone" on your return; the whole world would be different; but then you wouldn't be able to have a "it's been done before" "shock" "surprise" (and yet another) "cliffhanger" ending to your tv series.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 6:
Wow what an end to the first season.

What indeed has happened to Claudia.

[Theta Sigma]

Found out from DWM 384 that Paul Cornell is the writer of the penultimate episode of season 2. Be interesting to see what his episode will be about.