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

I forgot to mention, I loved the idea of a planet turned into a giant asylum for insane daleks. Its a shame it was destroyed.

I also told Rory not to touch the sleeping dalek!

I didn't pick up on any hint of "previously on Dr Who..." so if they were trying to bring new viewers up to speed I don't think they'd have succeeded. Any past references were perfectly in tune with the episode, as far as I could tell.

I loved the Amy/Rory stuff. I'm really gonna miss 'em.

Oh, and daleks disguised as people? Scariest thing ever.

All in all I thought this was a good episode. And next week's looks fab! As has previously been said: Dinosaurs! On a Tardis!

Deb

Excellent episode - the Daleky humans worked much better than pig slaves or Dalek Troopers with silly helmets. Shame the Special Weapon Dalek didn't get to do much, but if it hadn't been catatonic, all of those doors wouldn't have lasted long...

Strange introduction to the new companion, mind you Martha Jones' turned out to be the cousin of the woman who was Cyber converted and River Song was introduced with her 'death'...

<BB<

Just me watching tonight's then?!

Mitchell and Webb were a bit too Mitchell and Webb-y, and it wasn't a patch on last week's ep, but the dinosaurs were good. And I did like it when Rory and Brian got to fly the spaceship.

Mol

I thought that Mitchell and Webb seemed only a slight improvement on the Trin-E and Zu-Zannah Droids...

<BB<

At last, a replacement for the phrase 'Jump the Shark'.

That show really Rode the Triceratops.

I mostly enjoyed it though. I guess I'm easily pleased.

I think that was the silliest episode we've had in a while, but enjoyable so. One thing though: twice in as many episodes now, the Doctor has callously left someone to face certain death. That seems like something he wouldn't have done before.

I switched my brain off and enjoyed it too.

Yeah, I found that a bit odd too, but in my brain-off state I couldn't bring myself to care too much.

He's not going to do that to Amy and Rory is he?

When the Doctor and Amy were talking together ... and said something about being there at the end ... I thought the Doctor looked as though he Knew Something.

But I could have imagined it.

Mol

This episode was so cheesy. I loved it . I especially loved the triceratops chasing the golf ball - dinosaur as big goofy puppy .

I'm afraid I'm completely lost by the Mitchell & Webb comments previously - have I missed something that's completely obvious to everyone else? It wouldn't be the first time.

Deb

I enjoyed the Mitchell and Webb bots (deb the two robots were voiced by Mitchell and Webb - took me while to realise) but then I also enjoyed the Anne-Droid, Trin-E and Zu-Zanna from S1. I guess if you work with kids for long enough you start to take on the mentality of kids. Parts of the episode were a lot of fun with the dinosaurs and especially Brian Williams sitting on the TARDIS step and having tea whilst overlooking the Earth.

The thing that really got me and made me feel slightly uncomfortable was how dark the episode was. The Doctor straight-up murdering someone was bad enough but Solomon was a degree of evil you don't normally see on Who or at Saturday teatime. I'm not squeamish (well, not that much) but Solomon's description of how he murdered the Silurians one-by-one, his casual wounding of Rory's dad and especially his threat of rape against Nefertiti was unpleasant viewing. There was depth and darkness last week, with Amy and Rory's break-up, but this felt quite gratuitous. Didn't like it one bit.

".. Solomon's description of how he murdered the Silurians one-by-one, his casual wounding of Rory's dad and especially his threat of rape against Nefertiti was unpleasant viewing."

Actually, I'd forgotten this part. It was pretty nasty and uncomfortable.

Yes he was particularly evil. But the Doctor offered to rescue *Davros* in Journey's End for Pete's sake, it's not like he normally sends people off to their doom because they're evil.

Mol

"Parts of the episode were a lot of fun with the dinosaurs and especially Brian Williams sitting on the TARDIS step and having tea whilst overlooking the Earth."

I was about to mention that the actor's name is _Mark_ Williams (of Fast Show/Harry Potter fame) but then realized you were referring to him by the character's name. Confusing, that.

Yeah, maybe I should have followed the Doctor's example and called him Brian Pond. One question I did have is why wasn't he at Rory's stag night/wedding and recognise the Doctor from those.

Yeah, I wondered that too. I'm going to assume it's just a continuity error (and not a big one at that) for now, although I suppose there could be a reason for it. I noticed that the Doctor knew his name, even though I'm pretty sure Rory only introduced him as "my dad".

Re: Mitchell & Webb - thanks, HI, for the clarification. I did look on IMDb but they aren't all that informative as to characters outside the norm for some reason.

I'd forgotten about the rape threat too. That was pretty nasty. The guy definitely deserved to die. Maybe the Doc didn't have any option - it's not like he had an Infinite Improbability Drive to turn them into a blue whale & .

And on that topic - did anyone else think the robots were almost a cross between Marvin & the Vogon guard?

Deb

I've enjoyed the last two episodes. (Haven't read the backlog)

I thought the girl on the Dalek planet was the new companion, then figured she wasn't given how the episode ended - and I thought she had a different name in the credits, but maybe I was wrong. I'm interested to see how they introduce her then. Is her entire relationship with the Doctor going to be on the basis that he knows how she dies? But she didn't know who he was...

Still, what's scarier than a dalek? An insane dalek. I was shouting at Rory when he didn't realise they were trying to say "Exterminate!"

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was silly but fun. I wonder if the writer saw Snakes On A Plane and thought "I write for a sci-fi show! I can top that!"

I like Mitchell and Webb but the robots were a bit annoying, although I did like their entrance. Big, threatening robots greeting our heroes with "We're very annoyed at you!" or whatever was funny and cut through the tension well.

I'm going to miss the Ponds.

I thought the thing with Brian Williams (Pond) was that the Doctor had simply forgotten him. It's been about nine years in the life of the Ponds - and it's possible Brian might not remember everyone from that wedding, or that maybe if Rory's mum isn't on the scene, they might have been estranged and then Brian came back into his life.

But there's also the fact that, from the Doctor's point of view, there have been 300 years since he first met Amy. It's entirely possible he simply forgot Brian.

But as it's also a lovely joke, I'd be happy not to dwell too much on it

"But there's also the fact that, from the Doctor's point of view, there have been 300 years since he first met Amy. It's entirely possible he simply forgot Brian."

I'm happy with this.