[DW] Ep. S4x10 - "Midnight"
Jun. 16th, 2008 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiI got a sick day off! Thrilling, except for the part where I don't feel so hot. In reality, I probably could have worked if I'd forced myself. But oh god, I needed a break so bad for some reason (I've been dragging so badly that I keep falling asleep no matter what I'm trying to do or catch up on - I almost fell asleep on my break yesterday), so I'm grateful that the Boss's Daughter is closing for me tonight.
I've been so tired recently that I didn't even watch Doctor Who Saturday. OR Sunday. Finally managed to today. Back to regular point-form notes. That full-sentence, full-paragraph thing for the last two episodes was utterly exhausting.
(And I SWEAR I'll post something that's not Who-related sometime soon. Really. I will. I have about a half-dozen posts bouncing around in my mind right now. Problem is, I lack the energy to post ANY of them.)
-DoctorDonna are on a pleasure planet! The entire fandom's been writing this since day one of series four, and now they have somewhere canon to set it! Awesome. (True, pleasure planets are sci-fi standards. I'm just saying, now it's canon.)
-Anti-gravity restaurant - with bibs. HAH.
-DATE! If you have to explicitly deny it's a date - it's SO a date.
-"What could possibly go wrong?" You know he just said that to make the trip more interesting. Adrenaline junkie.
-Man, does the Doctor ever get his tourist on. Peering around really wide-eyed at everything like he's trying really, really hard to find it interesting.
-OH GOD, Jethro and his parents remind me of every trip I've ever taken with my parents, ever. "Look, we get slippers!" Sounds like something MY mother would say.
-"Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon..." And people wonder why I like sci-fi.
-Midnight has no air. I'm quite certain THAT will result in someone dying a horrible death.
-OH GOD, "ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" OVERWHELMING NIGHTMARE. *sensory-sensitive sympathetic horror for passengers*
-Did the sonic screwdriver just...get an erection? Or was the Doctor slipping it upwards, and I've been reading too much porn? Actually, "slipping it upwards" sounds hopelessly dirty too, so it's probably too much porn.
-"I guess we'll have to talk to each other instead." Oh Doc, I love you. And look, he's so lonely without Donna or anyone else there that he's thrilled he gets to talk to a grumpy middle-aged woman, the family with the angsty teenager, a professor's assistant and the professor, who may just be more pedantic than the Doctor himself.
-Grumpy woman evidently wants to keep to herself, as does Jethro, but the others are having a good time. Love the Doctor kneeling on the seat. Oh, and David's big laugh in there, which I really don't think we've heard him do much as the Doctor. No moment is coming to mind, anyway.
-I like RTD measuring the time/distance in "klicks," although since I'm not sure how fast they're going, I don't know how that compares to ours.
-Okay, I heard about people complaining about the "emphasis" on "she" earlier, and I have to say, I think it's simply Grumpy's accent. I cringed more over the Doctor comparing the loss of Rose to the loss of her ex. Yes, RTD, we know Doc/Rose is your OTP. Shut it already.
-"Is this chicken or beef?" "I think it's both." INNER CARNIVORE DOES WANT.
-The professor's "no living thing" speech now guarantees there is something horrible and sinister living on Midnight.
-"We've broken down! In the middle of nowhere!" Only a teenager could sound that pleased. ...Well, okay, no, that's a lie. I'd probably be pleased, too. WE'VE BROKEN DOWN. COULD BE DANGEROUS. AWESOME!
-Of course, the second there's any sign of trouble the Doctor muscles (so to speak) his way in via psychic paper to see what's up. ("I'm a Doctor, I'm very clever.") And people start deferring to him. I don't want to see it in canon, but I'd love to see a fic where something goes wrong and the Doctor just shrugs and sits there. "I'm sure they can handle it, it's their job." JUST FOR LULZ.
-A shadow running toward them. Nope, doesn't sound like any bother at all.
-I love when Ten does that little sniffing thing before he proposes something nuts. Is it just me?
-I love how the Doctor always seems to know or find out whose talents are being ignored, and brings them to the attention of others.
-KNOCK KNOCK. The Doctor puts his stethoscope up to the wall for no apparent reason whatsoever. Really Doctor, what good is that going to do?
-Professor Hobbes (and I'm vaguely curious to know why that name in particular) insists that nothing can be outside because the sunlight is "extonic." Which is not a real word. (Although "extoxic" is, and perhaps RTD just took major liberties with that concept, i.e. poisonous sunlight. ARGH, I don't know why I keep expecting his science to make the slightest fucking bit of sense.)
-Okay, it answers back, but how intelligent is it? That's always my question with a new enemy. How easily can you fool it? I want to jump into this episode...do something like incorrectly bang the Fibonacci sequence, see if it copies or corrects me.
-Well, the Doctor at least establishes the creature can retain four pieces of memory. And then Grumpy starts freaking out in paranoid fashion, seemingly convinced people are staring at her. Uh? And then she starts yelling, "It's coming from me!" Wut? Maybe it's "for me," but I swear that's not what I'm hearing.
-The Crusader rocks really hard from side to side. (Apparently this allows evil aliens to pass through walls when we're not looking.)
-"Arms, legs, neck, head and" - did he say "nose?" Seriously? I thought at first he said, "hose," but hey - family program.
-THAT Rose appearance was very far from subtle. And it's exactly the same as the one Donna saw on the TARDIS, so it's probably a recorded message. Also, we've clearly established by now that Rose doesn't just appear to Donna.
-The cabin's gone. That was predictable. Oh, but then the Doctor dooms at least a few people on board by promising everyone that they're going to be safe. Dumbass.
-Whoo, Grumpy/Sky is acting all animalistic. Possessed. Nice.
-The Doctor's got the square root of pi memorized? Wow indeed.
-Jethro is, of course, the first to notice that possessed!Sky is now speaking at the same moment they are. This show may be a bit more adult than it used to be, but it still takes up for the younger set on a regular basis.
-I love the Doctor testing possessed!Sky, trying to get her to slip up. (And wow, the synchronization here is just wild. She even leans forward and back as he does. How much rehearsal did this take?)
-"Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you." LOL RUSTY CRUSH MORE OBVIOUSLY.
- And he's so thrilled right now! Look at him, all excited by this fascinating new thing.
-The Doctor warns them not to speak and to get to the back of the bus, where they stare and Dee-Dee quotes, "Goblin Market." (To the Doctor's dismay. Yes, avoid educating the new lifeform on board by quoting classic poetry, good job.) I'm sort of guessing that reference is a bit of a sweeping condemnation of the entire "Lesiure Palace" idea on this planet, as well as possibly a note that not standing together dooms them.
-So then we have the hostess suggesting throwing possessed!Sky out the bus, which everyone except Jethro, Professor Hobbes and the Doctor (natch) thinks is a good plan. Wonderful.
-The Doctor has a lovely speech about how this thing may be a brand-new lifeform, and if it is, and the first other life it meets is human, should the first thing humans show it be murder? Unfortunately, no one is really affected by that argument except, I'm sure, the audience. The Doctor's all WHAT THAT ALWAYS WORKED BEFORE.
-The other passengers then turn on the Doctor. Apparently they've failed to notice that he's put himself between them and her.
-And then in the middle of trying to convince everyone what a really terrible idea this really is, the Doctor basically waves a big flag. "I'm the cleverest one! Pick me! Pick me!" So it does... Whee, possessed!Doctor. And probably-still-possessed!Sky, who is now clever enough to fool everyone into thinking she's safe. Idiots. And poor Doctor, who looks like a terrified six-year-old. Unlike Sky, I think he's putting up a fight.
-Dee-Dee argues (with the hostess urging the others to listen) that the creature hasn't moved to the Doctor, only evolved to the point it can steal his strength and voice. And Professor Hobbes orders her to shut up, "and that's an order!" WHOA, says something about what he considers their relationship to be. And if I'm not mistaken, that's a turning point for the hostess, seeing Dee-Dee treated like that. Racial context is actually subtle there in the hostess's reactions (RTD? subtle? ever?), although nowhere else in the episode is it ever that subtle.
-And then they try to throw the Doctor out, with definitely-still-possessed!Sky egging them on with the Doctor's intelligence. Until she makes the mistake of saying, "Molto bene! Allons-y!" So we get BURN WITH ME redux, and the hostess flings herself out with possessed!Sky and frees the Doctor. (See? Not subtle.)
-Everyone's horrified by what just happened, and what nearly happened. I'm sure the Doctor's wondering right at this moment what he ever saw in humans in the first place.
-"The hostess - what was her name?" "..." "..." "..." "..." "I don't know."
-Oh my god, his face when Donna sees him! She can't take him anywhere without him getting into trouble. The hug was very sweet, though. And the Donna repeats him. OMG DON'T.
Final conclusions:
-Nice episode. Excellent acting. It just sort of bored me, though.
-NEEDS MOAR DONNA.
NEXT EPISODE:
Apparently this is the Doctor-lite episode. DO NOT WANT. First no Donna, now no Doctor. These next weeks I predict suckage and the destruction of Donna (and DoctorDonna by extension), which pretty much defines suckage. *POUT* *goes to re-watch the first three episodes*
I've been so tired recently that I didn't even watch Doctor Who Saturday. OR Sunday. Finally managed to today. Back to regular point-form notes. That full-sentence, full-paragraph thing for the last two episodes was utterly exhausting.
(And I SWEAR I'll post something that's not Who-related sometime soon. Really. I will. I have about a half-dozen posts bouncing around in my mind right now. Problem is, I lack the energy to post ANY of them.)
-DoctorDonna are on a pleasure planet! The entire fandom's been writing this since day one of series four, and now they have somewhere canon to set it! Awesome. (True, pleasure planets are sci-fi standards. I'm just saying, now it's canon.)
-Anti-gravity restaurant - with bibs. HAH.
-DATE! If you have to explicitly deny it's a date - it's SO a date.
-"What could possibly go wrong?" You know he just said that to make the trip more interesting. Adrenaline junkie.
-Man, does the Doctor ever get his tourist on. Peering around really wide-eyed at everything like he's trying really, really hard to find it interesting.
-OH GOD, Jethro and his parents remind me of every trip I've ever taken with my parents, ever. "Look, we get slippers!" Sounds like something MY mother would say.
-"Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon..." And people wonder why I like sci-fi.
-Midnight has no air. I'm quite certain THAT will result in someone dying a horrible death.
-OH GOD, "ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" OVERWHELMING NIGHTMARE. *sensory-sensitive sympathetic horror for passengers*
-Did the sonic screwdriver just...get an erection? Or was the Doctor slipping it upwards, and I've been reading too much porn? Actually, "slipping it upwards" sounds hopelessly dirty too, so it's probably too much porn.
-"I guess we'll have to talk to each other instead." Oh Doc, I love you. And look, he's so lonely without Donna or anyone else there that he's thrilled he gets to talk to a grumpy middle-aged woman, the family with the angsty teenager, a professor's assistant and the professor, who may just be more pedantic than the Doctor himself.
-Grumpy woman evidently wants to keep to herself, as does Jethro, but the others are having a good time. Love the Doctor kneeling on the seat. Oh, and David's big laugh in there, which I really don't think we've heard him do much as the Doctor. No moment is coming to mind, anyway.
-I like RTD measuring the time/distance in "klicks," although since I'm not sure how fast they're going, I don't know how that compares to ours.
-Okay, I heard about people complaining about the "emphasis" on "she" earlier, and I have to say, I think it's simply Grumpy's accent. I cringed more over the Doctor comparing the loss of Rose to the loss of her ex. Yes, RTD, we know Doc/Rose is your OTP. Shut it already.
-"Is this chicken or beef?" "I think it's both." INNER CARNIVORE DOES WANT.
-The professor's "no living thing" speech now guarantees there is something horrible and sinister living on Midnight.
-"We've broken down! In the middle of nowhere!" Only a teenager could sound that pleased. ...Well, okay, no, that's a lie. I'd probably be pleased, too. WE'VE BROKEN DOWN. COULD BE DANGEROUS. AWESOME!
-Of course, the second there's any sign of trouble the Doctor muscles (so to speak) his way in via psychic paper to see what's up. ("I'm a Doctor, I'm very clever.") And people start deferring to him. I don't want to see it in canon, but I'd love to see a fic where something goes wrong and the Doctor just shrugs and sits there. "I'm sure they can handle it, it's their job." JUST FOR LULZ.
-A shadow running toward them. Nope, doesn't sound like any bother at all.
-I love when Ten does that little sniffing thing before he proposes something nuts. Is it just me?
-I love how the Doctor always seems to know or find out whose talents are being ignored, and brings them to the attention of others.
-KNOCK KNOCK. The Doctor puts his stethoscope up to the wall for no apparent reason whatsoever. Really Doctor, what good is that going to do?
-Professor Hobbes (and I'm vaguely curious to know why that name in particular) insists that nothing can be outside because the sunlight is "extonic." Which is not a real word. (Although "extoxic" is, and perhaps RTD just took major liberties with that concept, i.e. poisonous sunlight. ARGH, I don't know why I keep expecting his science to make the slightest fucking bit of sense.)
-Okay, it answers back, but how intelligent is it? That's always my question with a new enemy. How easily can you fool it? I want to jump into this episode...do something like incorrectly bang the Fibonacci sequence, see if it copies or corrects me.
-Well, the Doctor at least establishes the creature can retain four pieces of memory. And then Grumpy starts freaking out in paranoid fashion, seemingly convinced people are staring at her. Uh? And then she starts yelling, "It's coming from me!" Wut? Maybe it's "for me," but I swear that's not what I'm hearing.
-The Crusader rocks really hard from side to side. (Apparently this allows evil aliens to pass through walls when we're not looking.)
-"Arms, legs, neck, head and" - did he say "nose?" Seriously? I thought at first he said, "hose," but hey - family program.
-THAT Rose appearance was very far from subtle. And it's exactly the same as the one Donna saw on the TARDIS, so it's probably a recorded message. Also, we've clearly established by now that Rose doesn't just appear to Donna.
-The cabin's gone. That was predictable. Oh, but then the Doctor dooms at least a few people on board by promising everyone that they're going to be safe. Dumbass.
-Whoo, Grumpy/Sky is acting all animalistic. Possessed. Nice.
-The Doctor's got the square root of pi memorized? Wow indeed.
-Jethro is, of course, the first to notice that possessed!Sky is now speaking at the same moment they are. This show may be a bit more adult than it used to be, but it still takes up for the younger set on a regular basis.
-I love the Doctor testing possessed!Sky, trying to get her to slip up. (And wow, the synchronization here is just wild. She even leans forward and back as he does. How much rehearsal did this take?)
-"Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you." LOL RUSTY CRUSH MORE OBVIOUSLY.
- And he's so thrilled right now! Look at him, all excited by this fascinating new thing.
-The Doctor warns them not to speak and to get to the back of the bus, where they stare and Dee-Dee quotes, "Goblin Market." (To the Doctor's dismay. Yes, avoid educating the new lifeform on board by quoting classic poetry, good job.) I'm sort of guessing that reference is a bit of a sweeping condemnation of the entire "Lesiure Palace" idea on this planet, as well as possibly a note that not standing together dooms them.
-So then we have the hostess suggesting throwing possessed!Sky out the bus, which everyone except Jethro, Professor Hobbes and the Doctor (natch) thinks is a good plan. Wonderful.
-The Doctor has a lovely speech about how this thing may be a brand-new lifeform, and if it is, and the first other life it meets is human, should the first thing humans show it be murder? Unfortunately, no one is really affected by that argument except, I'm sure, the audience. The Doctor's all WHAT THAT ALWAYS WORKED BEFORE.
-The other passengers then turn on the Doctor. Apparently they've failed to notice that he's put himself between them and her.
-And then in the middle of trying to convince everyone what a really terrible idea this really is, the Doctor basically waves a big flag. "I'm the cleverest one! Pick me! Pick me!" So it does... Whee, possessed!Doctor. And probably-still-possessed!Sky, who is now clever enough to fool everyone into thinking she's safe. Idiots. And poor Doctor, who looks like a terrified six-year-old. Unlike Sky, I think he's putting up a fight.
-Dee-Dee argues (with the hostess urging the others to listen) that the creature hasn't moved to the Doctor, only evolved to the point it can steal his strength and voice. And Professor Hobbes orders her to shut up, "and that's an order!" WHOA, says something about what he considers their relationship to be. And if I'm not mistaken, that's a turning point for the hostess, seeing Dee-Dee treated like that. Racial context is actually subtle there in the hostess's reactions (RTD? subtle? ever?), although nowhere else in the episode is it ever that subtle.
-And then they try to throw the Doctor out, with definitely-still-possessed!Sky egging them on with the Doctor's intelligence. Until she makes the mistake of saying, "Molto bene! Allons-y!" So we get BURN WITH ME redux, and the hostess flings herself out with possessed!Sky and frees the Doctor. (See? Not subtle.)
-Everyone's horrified by what just happened, and what nearly happened. I'm sure the Doctor's wondering right at this moment what he ever saw in humans in the first place.
-"The hostess - what was her name?" "..." "..." "..." "..." "I don't know."
-Oh my god, his face when Donna sees him! She can't take him anywhere without him getting into trouble. The hug was very sweet, though. And the Donna repeats him. OMG DON'T.
Final conclusions:
-Nice episode. Excellent acting. It just sort of bored me, though.
-NEEDS MOAR DONNA.
NEXT EPISODE:
Apparently this is the Doctor-lite episode. DO NOT WANT. First no Donna, now no Doctor. These next weeks I predict suckage and the destruction of Donna (and DoctorDonna by extension), which pretty much defines suckage. *POUT* *goes to re-watch the first three episodes*
