Ahhh, Series Four!

[happydalek]

I am really, really enjoying it.  Really!  Donna has got to be the best thing that has ever happened to Doctor Who since the show came back in 2005.  The episodes look fantastic, we've had a lovely sprinkling of history and space, mysterious references to current events (the disappearing bees), aliens who are not evil (the Ood and Adipose), a companion who isn't in love with the Doctor actually debates and argues with the Doctor and isn't wrong.  It really feels like the show is finally hitting its stride.  But is it just me, or does seem as if the storylines have gotten very SJA this season?  I almost want to think that it's being done as a deliberate compensation for having an "older" companion.  (But I love SJA, so this isn't necessarily a problem for me.)

--Plus a really broad demographic range in the cast, from Wilf, to the oft-doomed gutsy journalist women (what is with the animosity towards the free press, anyway?) to this week's bad boy-genius (who sounds a little bit American to me, which raises an eyebrow, given the trend that's been established by the other prominent American characters in this show).  And now...Sontarans! 

--Sontarans from Sontar!  With three fingers and facial hair and probic vents and spherical ships and creepy potato heads!  I have to say, I was worried the short stature thing was going to bother me, but the redesign of the Sontarans is actually not that bad.  They really look alien.

--And who watched Martha!clone rising up from the goo and immediately thought, "Cylon"?  C'mon, I know I'm not alone.  (And I don't even watch BSG!)  The umbilical cord out of the neck was a really neat touch, but difficult to explain if the clone is really a human being, because of, well, biology.   Though given that I've never heard of a human embryo displaying that particular developmental pattern and the "human embryo" remark came from a UNIT foot soldier, perhaps I'm being too picky, eh?

--Can anybody with a better grasp of chemistry and physics than me confirm if the Sontarans' copper-excitation method of disabling guns is even remotely accurate?  All I could think of was that if the point of it was to make the bullets get stuck in the guns, then firing a weapon should have resulted in a very messy backfire, instead of the nothing that we saw.   

--Doesn't Donna's mum's car have a tire iron in it?  I was yelling at the screen during the last scene: "HIT IT WITH A ROCK!  BREAK THE WINDOW!  WILF!  NOOOOO!"

--On a different note, I am starting to get a little tired of the aliens-exploiting-consumerism angle.  Let's see...the Daleks did it with Satellite Five, the Bane had their drink, Lumic had his little earpods; then there was the Master with the Archangel network.  Now the same tactic has been used by the Adipose, and the Sontarans in the same season!  (Did I miss any?)  I'd say "Get a new strategy already!" unless the point is to show that humans are incredibly gullible. 

The faithful viewer, however, is not.  So, yeah.  Rusty and co., "Get a new strategy already!"

Comments

[rhube.livejournal.com]

Season 4 SQUEE!

Although, yeah, new plots plz. And get the fuck off planet to somewhere where there are aliens! And aliens that look like Human Beans - it's unavoidable canon that this is the case (and quite commonly so). Even ignoring evidence from many Old Skool companions, can we say The Doctor, hello? Yeah, OK, it actually doesn't make a great deal of sense, but given that it's a part of teh universe, why not play with it? (I guess I'm not actually that fussed on the point, although I would like to see more off-planet to non-human colonised worlds - they have a whole universe to play with!)

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Ugh! Yes! Who needs more non-humanoid aliens, stat. If only alien aliens and other planets weren't so expensive to make! That's always been the trouble with science fiction telly. No monies!

I think they addressed this point in one of the BFAs, where Rassilon had this thing about bipedal humanoids, so he seeded the universe with a lot of them? Or something? Star Trek pulled a similar trick in the OS episode "Return to Tomorrow," alleging that the overwhelming number of humanoid aliens was due to the seed-spreading ways of an evolutionarily advanced race of brains-in-jars. (Spock seemed to think the notion had merit, anyway.)

[rhube.livejournal.com]

I kinda want Who not to be ashamed of its humanoid aliens (especially when the non-humanoid ones have a tendency not to look very good).

Star Trek did do that in a TNG episode (rather than OS) but I don't recall any similar thing with Rassilon - that said, I haven't seen all episodes eva, so who knows?

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Star Trek did a TNG episode ("The Chase") that built on the theory put forth in the OS episode. Alas, I don't think I've ever seen the TNG episode (at least not for a very, very long time).

Geez, if only I knew real stuff as well as I know silly sci-fi trivia!

Humanoid aliens are such a staple that there's no reason to be embarrassed of them anymore (except if you're Trek and your idea of making someone alien is to stick a decal on their nose!). The Sontarans are great in this way because they are only humanoid in the broadest sense of the word, as opposed to the people in VotD, who I assumed were human (except for the little red cyborg dude with the impossible name).

[naushika.livejournal.com]

As far as the umbilical cord out Martha's neck, I just got the impression that Sontarans modified one of their own Sontaran-cloning-machines to spit out a Martha instead of a Sontaran. I would guess the vent in the back of the neck is where their umbilical cord is when they develop in their vat.

Haha, I was screaming to hit it with a rock too! The ATMOS can't alter the molecular structure of gas!! They can't kill Wilf, he's too adorable.

We need planets and new plotlines, for sure. Torchwood has more variety in its storylines and they're stuck on Earth anyway.

[naushika.livejournal.com]

Oh you don't have an edit button! I meant the molecular structure of glass. *lol*

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Lol, me have freebie lj! *g*

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Hmm...a Sontaran made to look like a Martha. Now that's an interesting notion. Does that mean the clone has a probic vent, too? And no navel? Would be a handy way to tell which was which. *Starts thinking of the Simpson's episode that had a bunch of navel-less cloned Homers* Hehe.

Wilf can never EVER die. He should become a companion and fly around in the TARDIS having wacky adventures. Yes.