Doctor Who season 4 finale
Jun. 17th, 2012 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkYesterday I thought staying up late yet again on Friday to watch the end of season 4 was worth it. After two days of constant headaches I'm starting to change my mind. Almost, because those episodes were amazing.
Turn Left: Fortune tellers are creepy! See also "The Fires of Pompeii". Beetles are also creepy, especially if you can't even see them properly. Poor Donna! And her screwed up relationship with her mother - no wonder Donna doesn't think she's special.
So Time Lords do die permanently if they die in inconvenient ways. Good to know, I've wondered about that.
Martha, Sarah Jane, Jack... a nice preparation for the giant crossover, but it's still sad. But Rose!! To be honest I'm still not entirely clear on what Rose was doing or more specifically how she was doing it: it can't have been random jumping, because she landed near Donna each time and at fairly specific moments, but that means she needs to have the necessary technology to aim. Something her father made? How did she find out what happened? Why did she give Donna so much time to realize what was happening if the stakes were so high? And why didn't she tell her her name? It worked very well in the episode, but I'm not sure why she did it. (Many answers are probably "because the episode works best that way.")
I liked the dystopia: wow, the death toll without the Doctor would be enormous.
And then Donna goes and sacrifices herself, oh Donna *hugs* Rose tells her she's special, at least, and Donna needed that. (She phrased it strangely, made it sound like destiny starting from her birth - actually, the concept of destiny on the Whoverse is very interesting...)
Bad Wolf, of course! Off to save the universe!
A great alternate timeline episode with a cliffhanger. Of course before we watched the next one L. insisted on rewatching the part of "Fires of Pompeii" where the fortune teller says Donna has something on her back. I couldn't have cared less at that moment.
The Stolen Earth: Where to begin? With the best part: Harriet Jones! Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister! "We know!" xD I'm so happy she came back, and even though she died she died as a hero, saving the world. She didn't regret what she did in "The Christmas Invasion", and in a way the episode proved her right: Earth can't afford to rely solely on the Doctor. Harriet Jones realized that he was still their best bet in absolute emergencies, and the best help are his associates, and so she figured out a way to bring them together and to save the world. She's fantastic.
Sarah Jane! And Luke! The only reason Clyde and Maria weren't there was because they didn't fit into the crossover, otherwise they definitely would have been. It's a bit strange that Mr. Smith still has his Xylox screensaver design (the episode aired between SJA seasons 1&2).
Rose! Poor Rose, left out of the subwave network because nobody knows she's here. Rose looks badass with a big gun; but since when does she use guns? The other universe must have changed her, I'm so curious what's happened over there.
I was underwhelmed by the Shadow Proclamation. There were probably budget constraints, but they could have at least hinted at something more epic than one librarian and five police officers in a giant empty room who all follow the Doctor's lead without question. That made them seem rather ineffective and not as powerful as previously hinted at, and the "we shall go to war and you will lead us" seemed a bit strange and out of the blue. The Doctor and Donna collecting the random links from all of their adventures seemed a bit too coincidental, but that's TV logic for you.
The Daleks again! Every time the Daleks are resurrected I feel so sorry for the Time Lords: In the Time War both the Time Lords and the Daleks went extinct, which is sort of balanced (okay, so the Doctor lives, but so do a handful of Daleks), but every time the Dalek Empire appears again it's almost as if the Time Lords died for nothing. And then every time the Doctor defeats the Daleks on his own my estimation of the Time Lords' ingenuity falls: the Doctor really is that special.
The Doctor warning Donna about Jack *g*
Awww, the scene where Rose and the Doctor run towards each other! ...and then he gets shot. Of course.
Journey's End: Again, where to begin? I don't want to leave things out, but there was just so much, and I don't have the episode at hand to rewatch right now, so I'll just have to pick the things that made the biggest impression.
Time Lord (Lady?) Donna and her human! (Awww, I loved that moment.) A clever solution to the regeneration 'problem', and it opens up so many interesting possibilities.
I have to go back and watch Rose's reaction when she finds out that Jack is alive, btw: if she knew that he's alive, why didn't she insist on going back for him after "The Parting of the Ways"? After "Utopia" I assumed the Doctor told her Jack was dead. Just one little reunion scene between Rose and Jack would have been wonderful.
Sarah Jane and Jack are fun together: she doesn't approve of Torchwood's methods, is less susceptible to his charm than most, but in the end the situation is grave enough that she gives him a (very pretty) bomb. In fact, all of the Doctor's friends suddenly run around using weapons: even though he hates weapons, he's turned them all into soldiers of sorts.
Especially Martha! Her transformation from medical doctor in training in season 3 to full doctor and high-level UNIT officer was a bit too fast for me, and then her willingness to blow up the Earth... She did fight a guerilla war during the apocalypse, but the whole point was that it was without weapons! Oh Martha. I don't think she was bluffing either. Something must have broken in the meantime.
It seemed a bit too easy for the Daleks to just teleport all of them out without difficulties, but whatever.
It's interesting how Davros manages to guilt the Doctor about the people who died because of him when just two episodes before we saw the millions that were saved by him. The Doctor didn't see that part, and apparently he doesn't think about it enough. That, and he thinks he should be able to save everyone. (M. and I couldn't stop laughing at the image of the Doctor going to actual serious therapy. He needs it! But the poor therapist. Hm, which character from anywhere would be up for that?)
Super-Donna and her human come to save the day! Yes! I liked the revelation that Dalek Caan planned the defeat of the Daleks, though I don't quite get how he managed to influence all the events the Doctor accused him of. He must be more than a little bit psychic for that. Maybe he is, who knows.
K-9 and Mr. Smith *g*
Why can Mickey stay in this universe, but Rose has to go back? Rose is originally from this one, too. Doesn't make any sense to me. I liked Sarah Jane telling the Doctor that he has a family - with the implication that he has to reach out for it: he never calls, never writes, except when they're in trouble. Later he tells Wilf that they all have someone more important than him: characters with low self-esteem can be so annoying.
The goodbye at Bad Wolf Bay sucked for everyone. For Rose, because despite of everything she's done to come back to the Doctor she's left behind again. For the human Doctor, because he doesn't want to stay behind. They're each other's consolation prize, more or less, which isn't fair to either of them. Not a good start for a relationship, and if they ever become happy together (I hope they will!) it won't be easy at all.
And Donna! Oh Donna :( I can see that it had to happen, in a way: you can't destroy a Dalek empire without consequences, and from a Doylist perspective it had to be Donna (Mickey or Jackie wouldn't make enough of an impact, arguably neither would Martha and it would come out of the blue, Sarah Jane and Jack have their own adventures, and Rose already had her tragic ending, twice.) But poor Donna!! She's lost everything and she doesn't even know it. Back to her small life she was never happy with without even knowing how amazing she is. And in constant danger that she'll remember and die, so she can't even make that step towards the stars again. At least that part they have to fix, right? The Doctor will figure out a way to at least stabilize her brain that much, even if she doesn't remember, at the very least? (No spoilers, I'm just hoping.) The only chance that at least she'll have a happier life on Earth is that her mother might stop belittling her all the time, and I want to think it'll make a difference and Donna will find something she loves doing on Earth.
In conclusion, season 4 is fantastic. More please.
Turn Left: Fortune tellers are creepy! See also "The Fires of Pompeii". Beetles are also creepy, especially if you can't even see them properly. Poor Donna! And her screwed up relationship with her mother - no wonder Donna doesn't think she's special.
So Time Lords do die permanently if they die in inconvenient ways. Good to know, I've wondered about that.
Martha, Sarah Jane, Jack... a nice preparation for the giant crossover, but it's still sad. But Rose!! To be honest I'm still not entirely clear on what Rose was doing or more specifically how she was doing it: it can't have been random jumping, because she landed near Donna each time and at fairly specific moments, but that means she needs to have the necessary technology to aim. Something her father made? How did she find out what happened? Why did she give Donna so much time to realize what was happening if the stakes were so high? And why didn't she tell her her name? It worked very well in the episode, but I'm not sure why she did it. (Many answers are probably "because the episode works best that way.")
I liked the dystopia: wow, the death toll without the Doctor would be enormous.
And then Donna goes and sacrifices herself, oh Donna *hugs* Rose tells her she's special, at least, and Donna needed that. (She phrased it strangely, made it sound like destiny starting from her birth - actually, the concept of destiny on the Whoverse is very interesting...)
Bad Wolf, of course! Off to save the universe!
A great alternate timeline episode with a cliffhanger. Of course before we watched the next one L. insisted on rewatching the part of "Fires of Pompeii" where the fortune teller says Donna has something on her back. I couldn't have cared less at that moment.
The Stolen Earth: Where to begin? With the best part: Harriet Jones! Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister! "We know!" xD I'm so happy she came back, and even though she died she died as a hero, saving the world. She didn't regret what she did in "The Christmas Invasion", and in a way the episode proved her right: Earth can't afford to rely solely on the Doctor. Harriet Jones realized that he was still their best bet in absolute emergencies, and the best help are his associates, and so she figured out a way to bring them together and to save the world. She's fantastic.
Sarah Jane! And Luke! The only reason Clyde and Maria weren't there was because they didn't fit into the crossover, otherwise they definitely would have been. It's a bit strange that Mr. Smith still has his Xylox screensaver design (the episode aired between SJA seasons 1&2).
Rose! Poor Rose, left out of the subwave network because nobody knows she's here. Rose looks badass with a big gun; but since when does she use guns? The other universe must have changed her, I'm so curious what's happened over there.
I was underwhelmed by the Shadow Proclamation. There were probably budget constraints, but they could have at least hinted at something more epic than one librarian and five police officers in a giant empty room who all follow the Doctor's lead without question. That made them seem rather ineffective and not as powerful as previously hinted at, and the "we shall go to war and you will lead us" seemed a bit strange and out of the blue. The Doctor and Donna collecting the random links from all of their adventures seemed a bit too coincidental, but that's TV logic for you.
The Daleks again! Every time the Daleks are resurrected I feel so sorry for the Time Lords: In the Time War both the Time Lords and the Daleks went extinct, which is sort of balanced (okay, so the Doctor lives, but so do a handful of Daleks), but every time the Dalek Empire appears again it's almost as if the Time Lords died for nothing. And then every time the Doctor defeats the Daleks on his own my estimation of the Time Lords' ingenuity falls: the Doctor really is that special.
The Doctor warning Donna about Jack *g*
Awww, the scene where Rose and the Doctor run towards each other! ...and then he gets shot. Of course.
Journey's End: Again, where to begin? I don't want to leave things out, but there was just so much, and I don't have the episode at hand to rewatch right now, so I'll just have to pick the things that made the biggest impression.
Time Lord (Lady?) Donna and her human! (Awww, I loved that moment.) A clever solution to the regeneration 'problem', and it opens up so many interesting possibilities.
I have to go back and watch Rose's reaction when she finds out that Jack is alive, btw: if she knew that he's alive, why didn't she insist on going back for him after "The Parting of the Ways"? After "Utopia" I assumed the Doctor told her Jack was dead. Just one little reunion scene between Rose and Jack would have been wonderful.
Sarah Jane and Jack are fun together: she doesn't approve of Torchwood's methods, is less susceptible to his charm than most, but in the end the situation is grave enough that she gives him a (very pretty) bomb. In fact, all of the Doctor's friends suddenly run around using weapons: even though he hates weapons, he's turned them all into soldiers of sorts.
Especially Martha! Her transformation from medical doctor in training in season 3 to full doctor and high-level UNIT officer was a bit too fast for me, and then her willingness to blow up the Earth... She did fight a guerilla war during the apocalypse, but the whole point was that it was without weapons! Oh Martha. I don't think she was bluffing either. Something must have broken in the meantime.
It seemed a bit too easy for the Daleks to just teleport all of them out without difficulties, but whatever.
It's interesting how Davros manages to guilt the Doctor about the people who died because of him when just two episodes before we saw the millions that were saved by him. The Doctor didn't see that part, and apparently he doesn't think about it enough. That, and he thinks he should be able to save everyone. (M. and I couldn't stop laughing at the image of the Doctor going to actual serious therapy. He needs it! But the poor therapist. Hm, which character from anywhere would be up for that?)
Super-Donna and her human come to save the day! Yes! I liked the revelation that Dalek Caan planned the defeat of the Daleks, though I don't quite get how he managed to influence all the events the Doctor accused him of. He must be more than a little bit psychic for that. Maybe he is, who knows.
K-9 and Mr. Smith *g*
Why can Mickey stay in this universe, but Rose has to go back? Rose is originally from this one, too. Doesn't make any sense to me. I liked Sarah Jane telling the Doctor that he has a family - with the implication that he has to reach out for it: he never calls, never writes, except when they're in trouble. Later he tells Wilf that they all have someone more important than him: characters with low self-esteem can be so annoying.
The goodbye at Bad Wolf Bay sucked for everyone. For Rose, because despite of everything she's done to come back to the Doctor she's left behind again. For the human Doctor, because he doesn't want to stay behind. They're each other's consolation prize, more or less, which isn't fair to either of them. Not a good start for a relationship, and if they ever become happy together (I hope they will!) it won't be easy at all.
And Donna! Oh Donna :( I can see that it had to happen, in a way: you can't destroy a Dalek empire without consequences, and from a Doylist perspective it had to be Donna (Mickey or Jackie wouldn't make enough of an impact, arguably neither would Martha and it would come out of the blue, Sarah Jane and Jack have their own adventures, and Rose already had her tragic ending, twice.) But poor Donna!! She's lost everything and she doesn't even know it. Back to her small life she was never happy with without even knowing how amazing she is. And in constant danger that she'll remember and die, so she can't even make that step towards the stars again. At least that part they have to fix, right? The Doctor will figure out a way to at least stabilize her brain that much, even if she doesn't remember, at the very least? (No spoilers, I'm just hoping.) The only chance that at least she'll have a happier life on Earth is that her mother might stop belittling her all the time, and I want to think it'll make a difference and Donna will find something she loves doing on Earth.
In conclusion, season 4 is fantastic. More please.
