It started well but went downhill as soon as the second episode started and they copepd out of the regeneration, the Daleks rounded up the companions too quickly with a stupid teleport and Donna fixed everything by pressing a few stupid buttons. typical RTD cop outs, he seemed more interested in the overlong Mawkish goodbye and how much the doctor seems to corrupt and manipulate his companions and will be forever alone twaddle.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

Yes, I did mean that, djellison, without any exaggeration at all. Your mileage will vary, I'm sure, because taste is subjective.

Keep in mind that I'm not speaking as a dogmatic old Doctor Who fanboy. I've yet to see a single episode of Old Who. (Other than the Rowan Atkinson portrayal of the doctor in the comedy special, and that doesn't really count. Funny as heck, though.)

Other than Firefly and Manny Coto episodes of Enterprise (especially ones where Sean Coombs was featured), there hasn't been anything at all on TV that has engaged me so completely since From the Earth to the Moon and (three seasons of) Babylon 5. There can't be more than a dozen or so movies since 1990 that I'd consider especially good.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

Apologies, Jim, I should have blanked my review. I'd thought of it briefly while writing it, but got distracted.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Wow. Just.....wow.

I mean, I don't like period dramas very much - but I know people who would risk getting speeding tickets to be home in time to the next episode of Pride and Prejudice or whatever...and whilst I don't like them, I can appreciate that they're great TV for some people. Ditto, I am sure, they would question my fascination with Top Gear, Mythbusters, The Sky at Night, Spy ( a bbc series ) and so on.

But things like Planet Earth from the BBC, one of the most beautiful series ever filmed - indeed anything from the Attenborough stable at BBC Natural History. For space-nuts, Nova's two documentaries about MER. Roving Mars on an Imax screen - a real life adventure that brought tears to my eyes. The frankly awe inspiring dramatization of Shackleton's adventure featuring Kenneth Brannagh. The comedy of Bill Bailey, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connoly. Oceans 11. American Beauty. The Prestige. The Lord of the Rings triology, Gladiator - exquisite movies all. In the Shadow of the Moon - one of the best big screen documentaries of all time.

Does none of that even rate close to a bad Dr Who episode for you?

I can't begin to comprehend that. It makes NO sense.

The Shakespeare Code. There's some slippertalk about the witches using some kind of technology, but most people recognise it for what it is.

The catwalk does not allow access to the motors - only the tips of the fan blades. They are high enough above the catwalk that the Doctor could have slithered along on his belly to get past them, or hung from the edge of the catwalk. Or at least considered these things before he suddenly used a hitherto-unmentioned ability to magically get around them.

[Snip the rest.] I do feel you are so eager to like it that you are trying to find depths and rationales that simply aren't there. I don't believe the production team put as much thought into it as you would claim is evident.

It was the same with the Sycarox ship and the button next to the door (the one the Doctor threw a tangerine at). Despite being right next to the door, it actually opened a panel in the floor some distance away, which just happened to allow the Doctor to kill the baddy.

Now you might come up with some sort of explanation for why that panel needed to be opened, and why the switch should be in such an illogical place, but in narrative terms it was as nonsensical as it was unforgivably convenient.

It's no good coming up with some handwavy explanation two years later. There was no indication that any of the world-crossers could see in advance what they'd encounter when they crossed timelines.

New Earth. The one that also had that "mix all the drugs up and they'll cure everyone" thing.

Well maybe it was addressed but it didn't convince.

What, not even the Prime Minister?

And anyway, this was the least of Boom Town's faults.

In an untold adventure prior to Boom Town, or else in Boom Town itself. It was implied that there were a fair few untelevised adventures, and at least one contemporary spin-off book is referenced in the TV series.

Mmm, I don't buy it. In many other episodes, things we might conclude was magic was revealed as "sufficiently advanced technology". Even if it's a bit more handwavey than usual, this really isn't an exception. "Sufficiently advanced technology" is one of the major themes of Doctor Who.

I'm thinking more in line of access to the shafts and bearings, than the motors themselves. Stop the fan, set up a stepladder (where's the OHSB when you need 'em), then grease it up.

Why you'd install them parallel to the shaft, near walls, rather than perpendicular, however, still escapes me.

Retconning entertains me, and I'm generally forgiving of the technical details in any case. Doctor Who isn't hard sci-fi. They don't pretend to be. And I don't see any reason to hold them to that standard.

They're still leaps and bounds over just about anything else on TV.

In any case, the characters and what drive them are what interest me. I'm in it for the wonder and adventure, not the tech.

Yeah, that was forgivable only for the Doctor's "one chance" comment.

Meh. a) Not every technical detail has to be explained right away. Pete knew our Earth was in trouble and sent Mickey to help. There was no real need to explain the "how". If they could teleport to a parallel universe at all, it's reasonable to assume they can perceive events in that universe, if only for targeting purposes. Given that, it's equally reasonable to expect Pete to have been monitoring just as soon as he'd evacuated.

In any case, there's really no reason to handwave at all. If they can do one, they almost have to be able to do the other. Rose's later comment only confirms the capability.

Ah. Yeah, that was a pretty massive engineering blunder, still, it's not like RTD invented the "big red button that must never be pressed" trope. One can criticize him for using it, but not over-and-above the rest of TVdom.

Nitpick: it didn't convince you.

Considering he was planning on sabotaging his own ship and getting his PR-bots to commit the murder of everybody on board, riding out the crash in a crash-proof bunker to fake his own death for insurance purposes was pretty much the least irrational thing he did.

Yeah, good point. I'd forgotten about Harriet Jones. She'd almost have to have recognized her, wouldn't she?

Definitely in the "least of" list. Still, Jack was a lot of fun in that episode.

Okay, so my observation this morning was correct, Jack probably knew all about "Mickey the Idiot", if not during, then immediately afterwards, but I'm pretty sure they never quite met on camera. I was wracking my brain trying to figure that one out. I'll have to sit down and watch that episode again at some point to be sure.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Top Gear's okay when I can get. Mythbusters is an excellent, high-quality show, but it doesn't captivate me quite to the extent that Doctor Who does. (They don't blow up cement trucks every day, after all.) I do tend to prefer documentaries or almost-documentaries, but the good ones are almost non-existent, unless you consider "is this ghost pyramid a psychic UFO" to be in the "good" category.

There's nothing wrong with stand-up comedy, but that's a televised almost-live performance. That's an apples and orange comparison.

Here's the difference: I listen to (not so much watch) good stand-up from time to time, usually leaving it on in the background when I'm doing something menial. I use a number of podcasts for the same reason. I watch good documentaries when I can get them on DVD and have some mellow time to watch them. That's maybe once or twice a month. I watch new Doctor Who episodes just as soon as I possibly can, and always get the DVD sets within a few weeks of their release. Other than Firefly, I cannot name you a single show I have consistently enjoyed more, and they have depressingly few peers in my mind. Babylon 5 and FtEttM sit a close 3rd and 4th.

The list has a pretty wide gap from there.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

IIRC, she made a comment about people in London not being aware of what was happening in Cardiff - something along the lines that "Wales could fall into the ocean and no-one in London would notice it".

Again going from memory, but was Mickey with them in the cafe (in Boom Town) when they were reliving some old memories, just before the Doctor saw the photograph of the Mayor in the paper?

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

They met. The episode starts with Mickey going into the TARDIS and talking with Jack, the Doctor and Rose. This is clearly their first meeting, since they both said 'who the hell are you?' to each other. All four of them then went to a cafe and were having a whale of a time recounting past adventures until the Doctor saw the picture of the Slitheen woman in the paper. All four of them then participated in catching her and imprisoning her in the TARDIS, so Mickey and Jack definitely met.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

Good point, thanks for the reminder. You're right, Mickey and Jack both played a role in chasing her down.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Never mind the stupid fan switch or the button by the door opening the hatch, what about having an important reset button OUTSIDE a space ship just out of reach from the hatch!

That was in the rehash of 'Planet of Evil'

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

That's being a bit generous to Mickey, though.

Hey, cringing and being ballast is just as participatory as using a personal teleporter to prevent the alien's escape. It's just a matter of degrees.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Personally, I don't care for Donna much. Though she is outrageously funny sometimes, I don't think much of her character, nor some of the eps including her for this season.

I wonder what direction the show in the next season? Tennant has been the Doc for three seasons now, and Donna had been there all of season 4, plus a few eps of season 3.

I'd imagine they'd be preparing for a new Doc soon. I'm rather fond of David Tennant, and his predecessor, Chis Eccleston. But I've heard no word of replacing Tennant.

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Angel of the Abyss
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"I am Ripper...Tearer...Slasher...Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength...and Lust...and Power! I AM BEOWULF!"

I was thinking that it was Mickey that didn't stop her from leaving the building, right? The Doctor, Rose, and Jack were all right after her, but Mickey lost her, and she was going his way. (I think. It's been a while since I've seen Boom Town.)

To be honest, she's my favorite official companion so far. Yes, her character can be abrasive when angry (and the Bridezilla episode made for a not-so-stellar first impression), but there's a lot of depth to be found in Donna Noble, especially when her conscience kicks in. Besides, Catherine Tate and David Tennant have great buddy chemistry together. They play off each other so well. I'm really going to miss her when they get around to doing s