Doctor Who: The Impossible Planet

[butterfly]

Sometimes, the sheer extent to which we are all viewing our own versions of television shows boggles my mind. I've just been reading a lot of various meta recently, and I just constantly find myself thinking, "Seriously, does the episode magically warp when it gets to my screen? Because I can only see what these people say is obvious if I stand on my head while quoting lines from The Life of Brian (chiefly, the ones about the cheesemakers)."

Which is to say -- I love Rose Tyler (I also love Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii. And Buffy Summers. And Joey Potter, thank you very much.). Except for (what I continue to feel was) the colossal misstep of The Girl in the Fireplace (if an episode only works completely divorced from the context of the show, it is not a good episode of that show, regardless of it being well-done in general), I have been vastly enjoying the second (twenty-eighth) series of Doctor Who.

I enjoyed this one tremendously, not in the least because (yay!) they were on an alien planet. With aliens! And danger! Very exciting.

This was really pulled off the 'creep' factor. The characters were very vivid and felt real even though we didn't really spend all that much time with them (and I agree with people who said the episode had a touch of a Firefly vibe). I found the Ood really interesting and I'm very curious as to how their possession is going to turn out.

In short, I'm just really looking forward to finding out what happens this next Saturday.

How will they get the TARDIS back?

Will Rose and the Doctor discuss car loans now that they've tackled the pressing issue of mortgages?

How many of the hapless crew will survive?

Is the reason the Doctor fell on his way back to the big seal because Rose's kiss smudged on his helmet and he couldn't see where he was going?

Will this next week's episode manage to be as good as this last week's was?

Most importantly, what will Rose use for eyeliner if they really are stuck there?

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I'm just hoping that the next episode lives up to The Impossible Planet.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

I've just been reading a lot of various meta recently, and I just constantly find myself thinking, "Seriously, does the episode magically warp when it gets to my screen? Because I can only see what these people say is obvious if I stand on my head while quoting lines from The Life of Brian (chiefly, the ones about the cheesemakers)."

*snort* Half the time, I've been rolling my eyes and backing out of the post. The other half, I've been skipping the paragraph(s) in question and moving on to the rest of the otherwise rational post.

Is the reason the Doctor fell on his way back to the big seal because Rose's kiss smudged on his helmet and he couldn't see where he was going?

*snicker* Yes, because clearly Rose has messed things up for the Doctor again by pushing her romantic ideas on him! *cough* Or not.

Most importantly, what will Rose use for eyeliner if they really are stuck there?

Seriously, does the Doctor make regular stops for Rose to get more makeup, or does the TARDIS come up with it for her? Hee.

[twistedchick]

I'm not entirely convinced that 'Girl in the Fireplace' was a mistake. There were several episodes last season that didn't seem to fit into a sequence for me -- such as the one where they went back for Rose's father, and the Dickens one -- and those were folded back into the plot by the end of the season. The question for me then becomes what aspect of that episode will reappear -- and I suspect it will be the spaceship with mirrors.

As for this current epsode, it didn't just have Firefly on it, it also had sufficient squiggles of Cthulhu and 1930s serials like Flash Gordon. Actually, it felt very like a retake of something from about 20 years ago with Doctor Three or so, with added theological padding.

[larakailyn.livejournal.com]

"The Girl in the Fireplace" worked for me as a coda to what was discussed by the Doctor and Rose in "School Reunion", by taking what the Doctor spoke about with watching people he loves withering and decaying in the end and giving that in the microcosm of an episode. I think there were some things that possibly could have been done differently with it, but overall, that was why I took to it as much as I did.

That said, "The Impossible Planet" was my favorite episode of the season next to "School Reunion" (which has my love because of Sarah Jane, Finch and the Sarah Jane-Rose bonding scene). My friend and I were saying that the episode was seriously Doctor Who meets Firefly meets The Black Hole (with a little bit of Angel since the black hole looked like the blacked-out sun from S4 in some ways). I loved what they did with this episode from the Doctor/Rose moments to the creepy bits and really hope that this next week lives up to what they started.

I also loved seeing Shaun Parkes (Acting Captain Zack) in this because he was in Casanova with David Tennant as his best friend (also played Izzy in The Mummy Returns), so total squee moment for me there.

And I'm with you...I really do want to know what Rose is going to do for eyeliner as well.

[amy13.livejournal.com]

Bless-ed are the cheesemakers, honey. :)

I felt that way about the season finale of CSI. People on my flist were all "I'll never watch again!" and "They've ruined my show!" and I thought, "huh, way to go, CSI! Hook up Sarah and Grissom, and have them only do a few subtle eye contact-y things in the eps leading up to the finale to clue us in."