Doctor Who Club of Australia

[dave]

It's funny, but I never thought I'd criticise the special effects in Doctor Who. The corny sfx in the classic series is something I love, so I find it kind of odd that I was so disappointed with the way the creature looked in this episode. It just looked too obviously computer generated. It's skin didn't look real, and if that was supposed to be Mark Gatiss' face on the front of it, it was nowhere near.

All that said, I thought this was a really good story. There's some nice character development in the Doctor and Martha's relationship for a start, with him taking her onboard the TARDIS for good. The appearance of Martha's family wasn't a problem either, as it gave an opportunity for the appearance of Mr Saxon's man with some mysterious information about the Doctor.

The machine looked cool, and the use of the reversal of the polarity was apt; it's just a pity he didn't utter the classic line. The makeup on Gatiss as the aged Dr Lazarus was excellent; very convincing. All the effects except the creature itself were great. The dead bodies in particular were good, and harking back to Planet of Evil. Strange that somewhere in our evolutionary past is a giant scorpion thing which can suck the life force out of people, but that's just an example of modern DW technobabble. Ah well, the rest of the story was solid and well paced.

[meglos]

I really enjoyed this episode, the mystery man was unexpected and the Jones family were pretty good.
I loved the reverse the polarity line

[Todd]

I agree. After 2 weeks of very mediocre Dr Who, this was a very enjoyable episode with a number of nice touches and surprises to move the season storyline along, without being hit over the head with it like Torhwood. Feeling better that the season is now headed in a good direction. The trailer at the end was brill too

[Hiruma]

Brill? What are you, Ace?

Ive enjoyed this season for the most part. This weeks episode was quite good, and again I think it worked because it was contained.

Now as for this Mr Saxon. I believe he was funding the project but, Ive been looking at the name and trying to go back through some of my Doctor Who reference guides. I cant find it. Great addition though.

[obsecration]

[FredDag]

A good story. Definite improvement on the last story. Nice to see and companion in a real lot of danger. Loved the creature, it looked brilliant. Loved the whole idea of the story and the Mr Saxon character. Now I have to wait an extra week for the next episode!

[El_Zoof]

Horrible. This is the first story that has been, to my mind, utterly ruined by the short format. There was no time for us to get to know Lazarus before he became a monster (well, an inhuman mons... okay, literally an inhuman monster). Yes, yes, yes, the backstory stuff is all intriguing (well, nearly) and will no doubt become oh so important later in the season. But the main plot felt as though it had been stuck on as an afterthought, something to fill in 40 minutes so that we got 5 minutes worth of "coming soon". NOT a good way to go into a break. Three good weeks, three... mediocre weeks. Let's hope that we can finish off the season with style, panache, and a complete lack of Daleks.

[Tegan]

I really thing this was the best episode yet in series three, and that is on top of the best start to a series yet.

Only one or two minor glitches. The Doctor pulled what looked like a power lead out of the cabinet to stop it when Lazarus was in it, yet later on the Lazarus/Scorpion started it up by simply pressing the Big Red Button.

It could be one way for a 13th Doctor to get a new regeneration if ever it was needed. He did mention a couple of times that using sonic waves was a brilliant idea, so it's something of a new technology.

And Harold Saxon? The last Saxon king of England was King Harold II. Harold Godwinson to be precise. I wonder what happened to him?

Anyone called Hastings or Norman or William coming up in future episodes do you think?

[Sulp Niar]

Enjoyable, at least. There were few things wrong with this episode, but I can't see it being anything more than a liked story. Not a classic, but good enough.

Mark Gatiss was fantastic though. Boy, if this Saxon bloke is a better character than Lazarus (as cliched as the latter was), then I'll be bloody impressed.

Martha's family was great too. Martha's mum was, in particular, so much less annoying than Rose's. So much less annoying. In fact, the Joneses seem a lot more grown up than the Tylers.

Plus the Doctor, from what I remember, didn't manage to annoy me even once.

The music score was far too heavy in the opening scene too, but surprisingly changed a bit later on and felt more... I don't know... American sci-fi, I guess. Which is not an insult. Speaking of the opening scene, I felt it would have been really interesting if the Doctor had left and then accidently been reunited with Martha at the party, instead of him being a tad sentimental. Still, it was pretty well done.

[phase5]

It reminded me somewhat of "The Long Game" from series 1, in that while being a self contained story in itself, it also appears to be setting up the basis for another story. ("Mr.Saxon" gets a good go in this episode after the last minute voice over dub in episode one, so I expect he'll turn up in episodes 12 & 13 ......).

(That wasn't totally apparent in "The Long Game" but the structure of each series 13 episodes now appears to run along that line).

Having said that I thought it was a very entertaining episode, good effects nicely done, nicely structured with the three acts, the final one concluding in the Cathedral, which did hark back to the conclusion of the original television episode of "The Quartermass Experiment". (It was different in the Hammer film, the "live" remake was closer).

Overall I've found series 3 much stronger than series 2, which got off to a really bad start with "New Earth". The 6 episodes in the first half of series3 have all been very good with the possible exception of the Dalek double, which while entertaining had very questionable "science", and at times I just had to giggle.

[Ohica]

I thought this was a good ep. They didn't over do the family which was good. Martha's mother is a bit wierd though. The sister is cool and the brother is just good eye candy. I hope we don't see too much of them. I want to get away from the family thing. I was interupted towards the end and missed the bit where the man changed back to being old. How did that happen? I guess I"ll have to rewatch it. I am just about to go watch the next ep which looks really exciting. I bit of Torchwood in there by the looks. Was that Captain Jack in the trailer?
I still think this season is the best yet. I really love the way Martha is genuinely excited about travelling with the Doctor and she is amazed by the things she is seeing and doing. She's got lots of enthusiasm and a very normal quality about her. I agree that the Jones seem more down to earth and mature than the Tylers.

[Greg]

Funny what you notice a second time through - the whole Southwark Cathedral thing had a very Hunchback of Notre Dame, withe the deformed man witha taste for pretty girls seeking sanctuary in the church.

But, annoyingly, we see the Doctor change the set-up of the device and unplug it while it was going haywire - and yet, it was activated at the press of the big red button a short time later. I find it hard to credit that some technician would say, 'This device almost blew up before and we've got a high profile party going on right now, but I'd better restore the settings and plug this potentially dangerous device back in right now!'

Ah well, that's the sort of thing that can slip past most viewers caught up in the pace of teh story - as it did me, first time around.

[g,uest]

Reverse The Polarity is back

[g,uest]

You see there when David was playing the Organ,
They slipped in the 'Spinal Tap' JOKE,

"TURN IT UP TO 11 "

(Why not just make 10-Louder)

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=spinal+tap+turn+it+up+to+11&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

[Dougy]

Really enjoyed this. A lot! I thought the little fan moments were brilliant and that Martha's family was really fun. Brilliant ep!

[montypython]

A good ep, but a little too fast-paced.

Lazarus's make-up was good, however he looked more like 86 than 76.

I find it very hard to believe that humans could have evolved into giant scorpions with weird little heads.

It was nice to actually catch the Mr Saxon reference for a change.

I was a little annoyed that Martha's mum slapped the Doctor. Can't they stop doing that now?

My brother would like me to mention that he was annoyed at Martha's incapability to run and talk at the same time. When you're being chased by a big flesh-eating scorpion, you don't stop running!

The Doctor was Martha's 'plus one'. A S1 reference, perhaps?

[kangamac]

A good story.

Wow - three good episodes in a row. Finally...

I enjoyed this story, but it did seem awfully derivative of DW's recent past. There seemed to be numerous comments made that have been heard before in the previous two seasons and certain situations and locations - or variations of them - were re-visited and re-used. However, this is a relatively minor point for me - I was just glad to enjoy the story.

And it was nice to see another decent title too. It may not win the prize for the best DW title in history, but it far outshines many others.

[Ickabod]

I enjoyed it and was happy to hear the "Mr.Saxon" word....reminds me of Bad Wolf and Torchwood....yayyyyyyyywho's the actor that played Lazouras (?spelling)....he looks familiarliked Martha's family....but not the slap in the face from the mum.....DT was great as usual and the reverse the polarity was a great in-joke as well....just sad as we are now half way through the series

[Greg]

[Ickabod]