khaosworks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
khaosworks) wrote2005-04-17 11:31 am
khaosworks) wrote2005-04-17 11:31 am
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Aliens of London
This week on Doctor Who: alien spaceship lands in London, the world is put on red alert, but is it humanity's first contact with alien life or something a bit more sinister?
Well, the high had to drop sometime. While not bad, this was the weakest of the four episodes so far. While Davies is able to sustain the adrenalin for a 45 minute story, the slower pace that some fans were clamoring for shows up some of Davies' difficulties in switching between action and character development. Davies is very, very good at characterisation, but the sequences aren't arranged very well with the action, so that when the characterisation comes, it feels like a whole different programme. We got a hint of this during the "world spinning" speech in Rose, but here it becomes a whole lot more obvious because the scenes are longer.
Still, it's a good story: the plot, of an alien invasion faking an alien crash to divert attention from the real invaders and to gather all the experts together to eliminate them, is a pretty nice little twist. There were nice little touches - UNIT being mentioned, finally; the fact that the key words "THE DOCTOR", "BLUE BOX", and "TARDIS" immediately set off alarms; the Doctor stumbling into a bunch of rifles being aimed at him and immediately taking charge - but the directing and pacing seemed a bit off. I chalk this up to Keith Boak, whose directing in Rose also needed a bit more oomph. Euros Lynn is better at this kind of thing, in my view.
We also get a proper cliffhanger. It but it's diluted by the fact that we get a "Next time..." which shows our heroes out of the danger situations, so... not much of a suspense factor there. Sure, we know they'll get out of it, but it's one thing to know that and it's another to actually see it. The silly pig alien was cleverly done and explained, and I didn't even mind the fart jokes all that much. My fanbody soul really, really wants to see more of UNIT, though. 3 out of 5.
Next week: World War Three
Well, the high had to drop sometime. While not bad, this was the weakest of the four episodes so far. While Davies is able to sustain the adrenalin for a 45 minute story, the slower pace that some fans were clamoring for shows up some of Davies' difficulties in switching between action and character development. Davies is very, very good at characterisation, but the sequences aren't arranged very well with the action, so that when the characterisation comes, it feels like a whole different programme. We got a hint of this during the "world spinning" speech in Rose, but here it becomes a whole lot more obvious because the scenes are longer.
Still, it's a good story: the plot, of an alien invasion faking an alien crash to divert attention from the real invaders and to gather all the experts together to eliminate them, is a pretty nice little twist. There were nice little touches - UNIT being mentioned, finally; the fact that the key words "THE DOCTOR", "BLUE BOX", and "TARDIS" immediately set off alarms; the Doctor stumbling into a bunch of rifles being aimed at him and immediately taking charge - but the directing and pacing seemed a bit off. I chalk this up to Keith Boak, whose directing in Rose also needed a bit more oomph. Euros Lynn is better at this kind of thing, in my view.
We also get a proper cliffhanger. It but it's diluted by the fact that we get a "Next time..." which shows our heroes out of the danger situations, so... not much of a suspense factor there. Sure, we know they'll get out of it, but it's one thing to know that and it's another to actually see it. The silly pig alien was cleverly done and explained, and I didn't even mind the fart jokes all that much. My fanbody soul really, really wants to see more of UNIT, though. 3 out of 5.
Next week: World War Three
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