Friday, September 14, 2007
Better Not Take Your Eyes Off This Doctor Who Discussion Post
Currently airing in the US: "Blink." Once again, you may feel free to comment below if you have anything you want to say about this episode, previous episodes, Farscape episodes, Shakespeare plays, action figures, the Doctor's love life, whatever. Just remember, no spoilers for anything past "Blink." Thanks!
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Just watched the episode. Didn't have a real Doctor Who feel to it, but man what a great story!! Awesome episode well done. Those statues were almost as scary as the scarecrows.
ReplyDeleteby the way, what was that creepy little kid from the Human Nature 2 parter in?
This was one of those episodes where, because of the shooting schedule, they didn't have Tennant and Agyeman available for very long, so the script had to mostly not use them. Hence the very different feel to it, although something still seems quite Who-ish about it to me, anyway. In any case, yeah, it's brilliantly written, isn't it? Well-crafted time-travel plot, great guest characters, a wonderfully originally original concept, and it manages to be scary and funny and sad and happy and suspenseful and intellectually interesting all at the same time. If Stephen Moffat doesn't win another Hugo award for this one, I'll be surprised.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think the statues were way scarier than the scarecrows, personally. I know one person who says she literally had nightmares about them. :)
You're the second person I know who's thought that kid from "Human Nature" looked familiar. I think he's just got one of those faces. here's his IMDB page. Nothing on there that I've ever seen.
Actually, I think "Blink" has about a half dozen wonderfully original concepts going for it. Moffat's scripts have a real "let's throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" feel to them. Yet he manages to weave together all these elements that...well, shouldn't be weave-able.
ReplyDeleteFour terrific -- perhaps even flawless -- episodes... Jekyll... and apparently he also wrote "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death" for Comic Relief. I may just have to give Moffat's Coupling another chance.
Yes, Moffatt rocks. The man is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI rented the first season of Coupling pretty much entirely due to my high opinion of him, and, I dunno. It's basically nothing more than an endless stream of sex jokes. Because it's Moffatt, they're funny sex jokes, which makes it infinitely more watchable than I usually find that kind of thing, but to expect anything else from it will only lead to disappointment.
By the way, for anyone who has not seen "The Curse of Fatal Death," you are missing out! It, too, is utterly brilliant, as well as being funny as hell.
Actually you're right about the statues being scarier than the scarecrows. God especially the scene where they are trying to get into the Tardis. Oh and I noticed that at least the first commercial break was sponsored by the People of the United Methodist Church. Hope they didn't mind the killer weeping angel statues :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, the way you never actually saw them move, but only saw them change position during "blinks" of the camera was incredibly effective, IMO.
ReplyDeleteAnd, heh. Did you hear about the Doctor Who-themed church service in Wales?
I agree with Betty. The screaming angels are far freakier than the scarecrows. If I can't sleep tonight, I'll know why.
ReplyDelete"The kid" from Human Nature/Family of Blood also played young Hitler. I wonder if his other roles are all as creepy.
I didn't find him all that creepy. Now, the actor who played Baines...and the little girl...
ReplyDeleteAnd well, I don't hold out high hopes for Coupling. I've seen a little on PBS, but it struck me as little more than an over-sexed British Friends. (When the American remake failed, I seem to remember someone arguing it was because the show was a bad remake of a bad remake.)
Jekyll, while not perfect and definitely a little messy, is pretty good. A lot of that is due to James Nesbitt (who's terrific), but Moffat's writing comes through as well, especially in a few particular scenes.
If and when Davies leaves, I think Moffat's the fan favorite to take over running the show, no?
Yeah, Baines was creepy. And little girls have the same kind of intrinsic creepiness as scarecrows, apparently. But I'm still voting for the statues; the only thing I've seen on Who that gives them a serious run for their money as far as the creep-factor goes is that kid with the gas mask from the first season. I think he might win, actually.
ReplyDeleteWould you believe I've never seen a full episode of Friends? I think I watched about five or ten minutes and decided that I'd seen all I needed to see, ever. But one of the first things that struck me about Coupling is that it feels much more like an American sitcom than a British one, somehow. That's not an endorsement.
I still need to see Jekyll.
And Moffat's definitely my favorite choice, anyway.
Agreed with Fred the guy who played Baines was awfully creepy. I thought he did a great job. I've never seen any of the things it says Thomas Sangster was is. Maybe he just looks like another actor.
ReplyDeleteI'll make a tangent back to an earlier discussion about Tennant's IMDB page telling us he was Barty Crouch, Jr. in the fourth Harry Potter movie (which I haven't seen). I am nearly finished rereading the fourth book, and when Barty is under the power of veritaserum, the book says, "an insane grin spread across his face." I can believe Tennant being cast in the role just to perfect that description.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember whether or not he actually employed it in the movie, but there's absolutely no doubt that Tennant does one hell of an insane grin. :)
ReplyDeleteI kept mentioning to Janice that Baines was actually pretty scary.
ReplyDeleteI found that the way the Statues were moving, very similar to something Alfred Hitchcock might have come up with. I agree with Kathy about the way the statues attacked the Tardis.
It was quite well done, although, Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone might have had a jump on that type of camera use.
Oh, I wasn't meaning to imply that that camera technique was original, just that it was very, very effective. Especially given the nature of the creatures.
ReplyDeleteI thought the DVD Easter eggs were a very original idea...
ReplyDeleteMe, too! Although it's easy to overlook that in admiring the originality of the angels themselves.
ReplyDeleteJust how many wacky ideas are there in the episode?
ReplyDeleteThe angels. Very scary.
They kill you by sending you back in time and sapping your potential energy.
The DVD Easter Eggs. A great idea and a great way of working the Doctor in.
All the time travel stuff, like the writing underneath the wallpaper, the letter delivered by the grandson right "after" she disappeared, finding Billy at the hospital as an old man minutes after meeting him (as a young man) mfor the first time.
Plus a non-Doctor-specific episode of Doctor Who.
All those things shouldn't necessarily work together. That they do is a testament to Moffat's writing.
They kill you by sending you back in time and sapping your potential energy.
ReplyDeleteThat and the "quantum-locked" nature of them both strike me as not just original ideas, but utterly inspired original ideas. (Scientifically, they may not actually make any sense, but I honestly don't care. :))
And just yes to all the rest of your comment. Moffat really is quite marvelous at combining together a lot of disparate elements in ways that work much better than you'd think they should.
So I recently asked you for your favorite episodes of Doctor Who -- available in print next month! Just saying.
ReplyDeleteDare I ask for your least favorites?
Just, y'know, in the interest of dragging this comment thread on like the others...
It should be noted that, strictly speaking, that wasn't exactly a list of my favorites, but a list of really good episodes that happen to illustrate the relevant points and are reasonably accessible to newbies... many, but not all, of which would also be on the list of my own top-10 personal favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the bottom list. Aargh, I dunno. "The Sontaran Experiment," for sure. I used to say "The Gunfighters," but it's been so long since I've seen that I don't feel comfortable dissing it based on my memories. And "The Twin Dilemma," no question. Maybe I'll get back to you on the rest. :)
By the way, speaking of dragging the comment thread on, I'm boggling slightly at the fact that, so far, all the comments here are about Doctor Who, and almost all of them are about the actual episode. I think that's a first. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's because there were so many twists to talk about. For instance, in an e-mail to you, I had asked if you thought Martha (who seems to get all the grunt work) hung the wallpaper for him, or if he actually got his hands dirty. Now I'm wondering who chose the wallpaper pattern...
ReplyDeleteWell, if she was working in a shop to support him, he should be the one doing the housework, right? :)
ReplyDeleteI actually like the "Sontaran Experiment". I also like "The Omega Glory" just saying.
ReplyDeleteNo one asked me but one of my favorites is "Ark in Space" love that episode as well as "City of Death". Yes I know they are both 4th Doctor and my scope is broader than that.
I understand that there appear to be reasonable, rational people who actually like the Sontarans, but, really, there's no excuse whatsoever for "The Omega Glory." :)
ReplyDelete"City of Death" definitely makes my top-ten list. "Ark in Space" doesn't, but it's still terrific, and quintessentially Who, rubber monsters and all.
I just just choked up at the end where Kirk it reciting the Constitution *tears up*
ReplyDeletecorrection should read "I just get choked up..." see I'm so choked up thinking about the episode that I can't type.
ReplyDelete*rolls eyes*
ReplyDelete