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

I finally got around to watching it on Wednesday. Mixed thoughts really.

Good bits ...
- lots of emotion with Donna leaving.
- lots of emotion and tidying up Rose's story.
- Exterminieren!
- performances by DT/CT/Bernard Cribbins/Julian Bleach
- dialogue for DoctorDonna.
- the musical score.

Average ...
- the resolution to the Davros/Daleks/stolen planets story. Seemed so incidental and filler for completing the season.
- use of the 2nd Doctor. Again, seemingly incidental and useful way of resolving the regeneration, trying to outwit Davros, and Rose's story. Could have been good if there'd been equal screen time with the original DT.

Didn't Understand ...
- Why it's a Reality *BOMB* ... don't think there was any casing being dropped or let off.
- the German woman.
- Caan's "everlasting death for the most faithful companion". None of them died. It stretches a point to suggest that Donna's memory being wiped is everlasting death. If anyone has everlasting death it's the human doctor.

The rubbish ...
- towing the Earth back. Completely pointless and unbelievable. It would have sufficed to put it back in place the same way as all the other planets.
- sound quality. A lot of dialogue poorly pronounced, or drowned out by music/effects.
- the whole regeneration thing. Just too contrived IMHO. But it was a good shocker when it happened.
- the goodbyes to all the 'minor' companions. Too drawn out.

The future ...
- Cybermen in Victorian age. Exciting (though possibly a little Evil of the Daleks).
- Donna. I think the ring flashing in the light is a real sign that she'll be back. Also the fact that her mother got no sort of comeuppance.

I'm sure there was more but that mostly sums it up ...

Though, thinking about it, Caan didn't say when the most faithful companion would die, just that it would be eternal.

Obviously, you expect that to be resolved during the episode, but who is to say that it has?

And does Donna count as the most faithful? Yes, she went looking for the Doctor after her first encounter with him, but Jack has done that twice now. Surely that makes him more faithful?


Geggs

Towing the earth back got a big chuckle from our sofa - as Dad pointed out the inertia of the planet being dragged through space when the TARDS applied the breaks should have smashed the TARDIS to transdimensional splinters.

I wish my dad knew about transdimensional astrophysics...

I've a top dad.

Dad Who?

At least we can say "it's ok, it's only tv".

Just seen the repeat of the last 2 eps on BBC1. At the end there was a promo for the next Sarah Jane Adventures series. Was that Russ Abbott in there?

Didn't see Russ Abbot but did see a very old friend of SJ Smith!!

"Caan's "everlasting death for the most faithful companion". None of them died. It stretches a point to suggest that Donna's memory being wiped is everlasting death.."

No it doesn't. Presuming you had just gone on the most unbelievable adventure ever and had the time of your life, but because of a freak accident and for your own safety all those memories had to be taken away from you. What would you be left with? Nothing. Emptiness. That's death in a way. (I personally think that would be worse than death, but there we go).

why she isnt missing anything she has no idea things just continued on as they always did she could still have a full and happy live after she kills her mother

Perhaps it's more subtle... we're all agreed that Donna's character developed significantly over the season. Now she's right back where she started. So... does the late-period Donna really exist any more? Was she really a whole different person at the end of the season?

Or is Martha just going to get spectacularly butchered by a rogue Weevil halfway through the next season of Torchwood?

Gif

Don't forget though, one of them is going to die who wasn't before!
John Smith - R.I.P
Eventually.

"So... does the late-period Donna really exist any more? Was she really a whole different person at the end of the season?"

Which surely was the point of the whole 'dont make me go back' lines from Donna. She didn't want to go back to being who she was before.

"- towing the Earth back. Completely pointless and unbelievable. It would have sufficed to put it back in place the same way as all the other planets."

This one was explained by the Supreme Dalek shooting the console they were using to put the other planets back. That's why they couldn't do the Earth the same way so they had to tow it instead. Also, I don't know anything about inertia and the rest of it, but i) wouldn't the Doctor, being all clever and that, have been able to make that not happen? and ii) yeah, "don't worry, it's tv" works for me.

Also, has anyone else pretty much decided that Martha and Mickey are going to replace Owen and Toshiko respectively in Torchwood next year? We pretty much have, would get the re-casting out of the way pretty sharpish so they can get on with their new format of 5 nights in a row on one long story.

And I have to admit, I don't think the ring is anything significant.

Another point I was thinking of, with the end of RTD at the helm does this not mean that the series, after the specials next year, will have something of a fresh start, much like it did when he revitalised it? In a way the last episode sewed up the past 4 series, what with Rose being finally gone and, in a way, Harriet Jones, because she was a link to Earth without ever having been a companion, in the same way as Jackie was in the beginning, and Mickey. What could happen here is a completely new take on it from Moffat, with a new Doctor based dynamic, maybe more than one companion at a time*, longer stories maybe, less Earth based stuff, and more top quality story telling from Moffat that we've come to expect from him so far in his writing, though this time going through a whole series.

Also we could have something different from the plot arc format that we've had so far like with Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Mister Saxon, all the references in series 4 to past episodes ("are you my mummy?""it'd be like Charles Dickens, with Ghosts!") as well as the missing planet stuff... I wonder what else he could do as a format? Whatever it is I'm sure he can make it work. This is the man that took being afraid of the dark and turned it into a skeleton in a suit!

*I'm hoping for a guy who doesn't fancy the Doctor, maybe 2 or a guy and a girl, neither of whom fancy him. I'm all for the gay angle but frankly Jack's enough of that, even for me. Also if there's a guy and a girl it could be a new dynamic of, say, them treating it like a holiday together (if they're brother and sister or a couple) and the Doctor being like 'hey, listen to me!' and effectively being like a chaperone or bumbling dad figure. That'd be funny.

"- towing the Earth back. Completely pointless and unbelievable. It would have sufficed to put it back in place the same way as all the other planets."

This one was explained by the Supreme Dalek shooting the console they were using to put the other planets back. That's why they couldn't do the Earth the same way so they had to tow it instead.


-- I understood that. My point was that there was no particular script need for the Supreme Dalek to shoot the console. SupDal could just have descended, made a few utterances, perhaps even shot a companion to create some 'everlasting death' then been blown up itself.

It was probably trying to stop them sending the planets home. That or it missed one of the companions.

I could get extremely y about the earth moving bit (and lets not mention the inertia effects on some things but not others and the degree of effect) but I shall keep it to a minimum.

The towing the earth back bit again showed a lack of comprehension of what the TARDIS is by the makers of the programme. And a difference from other moves. Yes I'm sure the TARDIS police box can be moved on a continuous line through 4D space (eg xmas special with Donna). But other times when the doctor wants to get from A to B the TARDIS clearly flies through some sort of dimensional pathway. It disappears *here* and reappears *there* (to our 4d perception). It most certainly does not fly through space to get from A to B.

I suspect this might come under "artistic license" which merely makes me glad that the universe appears to work on scientific principles and not artistic ones.

The TARDIS also pulls the shuttle away from the black hole in The Satan Pit episode, so that's at least 3 examples of it moving in 3D space without disappearing in our perception.

* 4D space. Whoops.