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

I'm not too keen on Tate, but at least she's not particularly annoying any more. I do thik most of the assistants get put in to provide some kind of "common touch" that the viewer can identify with. Unfortunately, I don't identify with the kind of people these characters have been in the slightest.

I remember watching the first of the revived series a couple of years ago and thinking it was fantastic, just like when I was a kid. However, for me, it has lost a little of its shine since then. I have a couple of recordings of episodes from end of last series I haven't even watched yet.
Personally, I think each series could be longer apart as with Christmas Specials as well it can feel like it has never been away. Perhaps a new Doctor each series would help to keep it fresh.

I forgot to add, to me one of the strenghts of Dr Who has been the scarey monsters, I mean really, in last weeks they looked all cute like little Mister Blobbies !
I really think they want to think less about being right on and touchy feely and get some scarey monsters back in every week!

They can't do that! There are already too few regenerations left for them to waste them like that.

* @ post 82. I'm more in agreement with your statement on monsters, although I'm happy for there to be some variety.

Ok, how about much more scarey monsters but when they bite someones head off they say, "I like you as a person, it is your behaviour I don't like". So it is scarey, but in a touchy feely way for variety, lol!

This week's were pretty superb, fantastically rendered too. It confuses me that they can go from the terrible animation/compositing of last week's fatty blob blobs to something as brilliantly realised as this week's.

i remember as a kid Dr Who adventures were spread over several episodes, this new incarnation all seem to be one off stand alones apart from the end of series couple.....maybe what we need are a few good old fashioned cliff hangers at the end of episodes.....

Just watched it again (don't know why, I don't usually) and a couple of things:

'I'm Spartacus!' -

Two important quotes from the soothsayer (Lucius?) that are - deliberately - almost lost in the surprise as you realise he's really able to see the future:

'She is coming back' - Rose, presumably
'[Donna] there is something on your back' - to be explained, presumably.

Plus Donna says 'I really love you' to the Doctor and they over-deny being married in this episode and next episode according to the preview. Uh-oh.

Not an auspicious start to the season so far, still waiting for a real 'killer' episode, story-arc twists looking a bit obvious. Is RTD past his best? Has Who gone through one of its periodic three-year flashes of brilliance and will we have to wait four or five years for the next one?

And you wanted cliff-hangers

Gif

That well maybe true, I sometimes feel they are worrying too much about upsetting the kiddies watching these days but a lot of kids still enjoy the scarey stuff. The will he or wont he die endings of old did bring a bit of suspense to a series.
Perhaps they are moving away from things like the Cybermen being cold hearted, emotionless killers and trying to make them more human, like where they put humans, or parts of them inside. To try to soften the image of the monsters is perhaps a mistake as the coldness of Cybermen was what made them scarey.

Yeah, we could really do with an out-and-out scary episode. Surely the Sarah Jane Adventures are for the kids watching?

Gif

It is like the Daleks. When I was a kid they were simpler and a REALLY scarey episode was where the Doctor captured one and removed the creature inside and it was covered by a blanket but started to crawl out and was a crab like creature, it was really scarey!

the bit with donna tied up about to be sacreficed would have been a nice clif hanger ending. but the doc just pops up as if he followed them down the street

go figure

I think the scariest series was the one with the sea monsters , i think John Pertwee was The Doctor . Mind you i was probaly only 5 or 6 years old , i doubt if i would find it scarey now . [ although i would not bet my mortgage on that ]

best fishes......tod

was that the sea devils

baldy lizards with fishnet outfits and tea saucer weapons

>baldy lizards with fishnet outfits and tea saucer weapons<

Well it doesnt' sound scarey if you put it like that ! .You have to have been there , hiding behind the settee .
I like the new series of Doctor Who , we should all be gratefull there is something on a mainstream channel thats not a #?#!?## soap opera or a ?##@!%~~? talent contest .

best fishes..tod

i was there

i was living in a small welsh mining village and after seeing the one about the giant maggots in the mines i tended to keep away from a lot of my usual playsites for a while....just in case

One of the most up and down episodes I've seen. At its worst it was terrible - Caecilius and family coming across like a standard teen soap family, good grief, no, and Phil Cornwell as Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibblus was also a bit much. And as for "Oh you're Celtic. There's lovely." I just cringed.

On the other hand, the scene with the two seers showing their real power was fantastic, enhanced by the changed lighting and offset camera angles, really, really good stuff.

And the moment when the Doctor realised that the creatures were actually going to PREVENT Vesuvius from erupting, and that in order for history to happen "properly" he would be required to *cause* it, thus killing 20,000 people... wow. That's a moment right up there with Tom Baker's "Have I that right?" speech in Genesis of the Daleks. (For non-fans - the fourth Doctor had an opportunity to wipe out the Daleks completely before they were even created. He hesitated, realising it would be genocide, pondering whether he had the right to destroy a species entirely. It was a great moment. And if you've seen it, it makes Ecclestone all the more shocking in "Dalek", when he screams "I watched it happen. I MADE IT HAPPEN!".)

SoRB

I'm in agreement with SoRB. The Caecilius and family stuff, while good for a few laughs for the Latin geeks amongst us, got pretty tiresome quickly.

The actual meat of the story, with the prophecy and the eruption of Vesuvius was excellent. The look on Donna's face as she helped the Doctor make the decision to allow the volcano to erupt has helped convince me that Catherine Tate will do an excellent job. Her pleading with him to save *someone* was similarly brilliant.

The scene where they all watch the eruption destroy Pompeii was probably the best bit of SFX I've seen on Who since the Satan Pit. It was just superb.

hmm, yes, very uppy downy. But watchable and good fun. Some jokes, some terror, quite a bit of cheese.

So, Catherine Tate - again, patchy. When she does the normal running about stuff, and the emotional stuff she comes across quite well. What she cannot do, though, is surprise/shock/indignation - she always plays it the same and always over the top. To the degree that I feel it doesn;t work for the character. Lets see if she can tone it down a bit and act it rather than just pull funny faces. Mind you, I know there's them as can't stand Tennant due to his face pulling antics so *shrug* there ya go.