h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I knew before I'd seen the episode that she couldn't be a real policewoman with a skirt that short but it did throw me when she didn't have a scottish accent. However, when she first spoke scottish and shouted "why did you say five minutes?", I got prickly hairs

Some of the nods were beautifully subtle (the ambulance after he gets hit with the cricket bat- cf. Spearhead From Space; "are you trying to poison me"/"are you insane"-cf. Twin Dilemma; the whole fact that the regeneration wasn't quite working yet- cf. Castrovalva) and as someone said above, that was so much nicer than RTD's shoehorning in of nods to the past. Having said that, the scene with Sarah-Jane and Davros in season 3 was immense.

The whole episode was a joy for me (holes in the plot and all.) "You're Scottish, fry something," cracked me up and the whole concept of an "adult" getting a child to make loads of food and then refusing to eat it was and I'm not even a parent.

Still not sure about the title music (though love the new title graphics) but, aside from the first bit, it is a good mixture of Delia Darbyshire's arrangement and the 'New Who' version. I'd advise listening to the 'clean' version on the DW website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/episodes/b00rs6t7/videos/p00765br

Very happy, thought it was ice hot but still a bit worried about how Karen is!

Van

P.S. Btw, If you've never read the Doctor Who annual 2006, Amelia Pond is who Sally Sparrow could have been.

I'm not a Who purist by any means (never seen the pre-Ecclestone episodes) but I didn't like the new start sequence and I don'#t like the bow tie costume.

That said, those a minor quibbles and overall I was pretty impressed. I think I'm going to like Matt Smith as the Doctor.

Costumes: Eccleston didn;t have a costume he just wore clothes.
Tennants costume was a bit more costumey...the suit and plimsoles/pumps but still contemporary.

Smiths costume is defintely a costume. Smith had some input inot it and it will change over time a wee bit.

The pre-opening credits didn't give me much hope; it was a fairly meaningless sequence. New theme music was a definite step down, despite the fact it sounded like the Tom Baker theme at its best.

Matt Smith was a bit too manic - hope he doesn't turn into Ecclestone, and I didn't really like the arrogant ending; isn't that what earned the 10th Doctor his regeneration?

As for Karen Gillan, all I can say is...cor. What a relief after Catherine Tate. And in no way do I feel her skirt is too short.

B

Don't like the first 15 seconds of the new music ... just takes to long to get to the woo-wooooo bit that signals Dr Who to me ... lose those 15 seconds and I'm fine with it ...

And the opening 2 seconds after the screech remind me of late 80s pop music possibly a Stock Aiken Waterman mix ...

I would like to know what happened to those wonderful rumbling strings that underlined the David Tennant music.

B

yeah, liked that.
I mean plot wise and pace wise it was a bit lacking in places but given what that episode had to do it is remarkable how well it was pulled off.

Didn't have a problem with the sfx like some did (not watched it in HD yet though). New TARDIS interior didn't totally grab me but might be a grower.

But Matt Smith was rather good. And Amy, well, I'm interested in the story, we'll see where it goes.

Good things though, something to look forward to watching at the weekend again - been a bit of a drought since Being Human finished.

Oh, and reading all the DT fans howling in anguish and making up any old guff to criticise Matt.

Which one?

2006 ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02hh8_HAGyk

2008 ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx8H7nezeGw

On the whole, I'm reassured. Matt Smith started out with exactly the "goofyness" I'd feared, but calmed down and got sensible as he went on. I thought the entire time he was chained to the radiator he acted very well.
I'm very pleased at the lack of "spectacle". It had a quite big alien baddie and some other aliens who were even bigger, but no cities being terrorized, nor cultural/historical icons getting involved. The emphasis was all on the story and characters, which is exactly where it should be.
Just one gripe though: the girl Amy Pond acted terribly. I know you're generally asking for a lot if you want a genuinely convincing child performance, but still I'm glad she's gone.
Incidentally, did anyone else notice a load of references and images linked to Easter and Genesis? My friend and I spotted the following:
1. A saviour who died and yet returned to life, emerging from a box in a garden in front of a young woman.
2. The first thing he eats is fish.
3. He then leaves her, but with a promise that he will return.
4. Also, albeit later, he meets someone who has met him before, yet does not recognize him.

In terms of Genesis (also linked to Easter, but not quite as firmly):
1. A woman gives him an apple.
2. There is a deceptive, villainous snake which exerts influence on the woman.

We're not certain what point they're trying to make, or even if they're making any _point_ at all, but Moffat definitely knows what he's doing, so we're both pretty sure it's all deliberate.

Too many people are reading too much into the plot and any comparisons with religious texts.

You can pretty much rad anything into nything when it comes to comparing thing to religious texts.

Indeed, depends on how selective you are.I shall have to recheck genesis for the bit where Asherah carved a smiley face into the apple for Eve And I don't recall custard making it into the Easter story either

But there is definitely something going on with Amy.
The leather bound monitor in the TARDIS showing a line on it that matched the crack in Amy's wall and the way the Doctor turned it off subtly without Amy seeing it and then the look he gave her. Amy's going to be key in anything to do with resolving the cracks in reality I feel.

Btw, did anyone else wince at him using the "timey-wimey" line? It sounded like him trying to borrow some of Tennant's popularity by borrowing a catch-phrase. Okay, in terms of plot it's perfectly justifiable, since he's still undergoing regeneration and so would have some shadows of his former personality, but it didn't help him to establish his own portrayal, which was crucial in that early part of the episode.

Slight change of topic, I did think the plot thread for this season was well introduced.

Gif

Surely we don't know what the plot thread is yet, so we can't say.

I noticed him using a phrase that Tennant's Dr had borrowed off Peter Davison's Dr...*cough* *cough*... in an epsiode also written by Moffat.

yes we do...silence and something called the Pandoric...

Well, since only one episode has aired so far, all I know is that some interesting hints were dropped and, yes, it was done in a pleasingly subtle way. I'm also hoping that there will be a couple of things I didn't even notice that will turn out to be significant when they refer back to them.

Oh I think the arc is fairly obvious in its signposting, at some point he's gonna have to seal or repair these cracks (or their cause and thus them). And Amy is going to be somehow key and linked with them.

Just wondering if the 'Myth' electronics is going to be something or nothing.

'Myth' electronics?

Gif