Doctor Who Series 3

Doctor Who Series 2

X: The Runaway Bride July 6, 2007

(First watched 2007-07-06)  Wow, this episode never let up.  Feeling like 2 episodes in the space of 1.5, and existing as a mostly standalone episode between companions, this felt very movie-like.  Mysterious transportations, TARDIS flying down the street, draining the Thames!  It kinda bugged me that a few series back the Doctor was agonizing over the decision of committing Dalek genocide, but he didn't seem very concerned about exterminating the Racnoss tonight.  Of course, he did... change... between then and now.

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01: Smith and Jones July 6, 2007

(First watched 2007-07-06)  Not a bad introduction for Martha Jones.  Good thing she's made out to be a bit less clueless about things; Rose was used as a reintroduction to the series, but it's not needed again just two years later.  Those Judoon rhinos looked pretty nice; my expectations were pretty low after the goofy-looking Slitheen.  Great use of a bit of audience-unexpected time travel trickery at the beginning/end.

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02: The Shakespeare Code July 13, 2007

(First watched 2007-07-13)  Heh.  Well, Harry Potter and Back to the Future references certainly weren't something seen in 60s Doctor Who.  "Wait until you read book seven.  I cried."

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03: Gridlock July 20, 2007

(First watched 2007-07-20 and -25)  I found this episode... unbelievable.  In an allegorical sense I can appreciate that the people of the undercity were wasting their life away trying to get from one place to another, but... to have the entire upper city die off and noone notices?  That they very quickly get used to taking decades to go from one place to another, when noone is actually reaching above after all?  That nobody could figure out a way to open the ceiling?  That there were giant devolved crab people living down there, somehow eating enough people to sustain a population even before there was the permanent traffic jam?  That people already had the easy technology to create essentially free food and energy, but wanted to take a years-long trip to get a job?  That even if the believed rules of traffic worked properly, it would actually be that hard to get a group of three or greater when EVERYONE wanted to get in the fast lane?

The old couple dying in the intro reminded me of the folks in the American Gothic painting.  I wonder if that was intentional.  If so I don't see that it was supposed to mean anything...

On a plus, the Doctor's trip down the levels dropping down and going through various odd peoples' vehicles was quite cool.

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04: Daleks in Manhattan July 27, 2007

(First watched 2007-07-27)  I'm getting tired of the Daleks, frankly.  They're a cool enemy, but in that they were supposed to be wiped from time and yet this is the... fourth random run-in the Doctor has had with them in less than three years, it seems a bit much.

Perhaps I missed something, but after the "One trip to the past, one trip to the future" thing, there wasn't an excuse given for this third trip with Martha, or admission that it's going to be a more lasting thing.

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05: Evolution of the Daleks August 3, 2007

(First watched 2007-08-03)  Interesting how the combination of one evil Dalek and one nasty lackey human ended up making for such a progressive human Dalek, though of course I knew things wouldn't work out.

For a guy who just a couple years ago was telling Rose it was OK to allow disembodied spirits to control corpses in 19th century England, the Doctor sure seemed sure tonight that there was no way for a group of human Daleks to live on the planet.

I like Martha, but less so when this whole Doctor/Rose/Martha thing comes up.  She seems so worried about whether the Doctor considers her a substitute that it diminishes her sense of self-worth and makes her seem weaker.

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06: The Lazarus Experiment August 10, 2007

(First watched 2007-08-10)  OK, so finally Martha Jones is permanent.  Well, as permanent as companions get.

The CG Lazarus monster was interesting... it was easily discernable as CG, but as far as completely inhuman CG monsters go, it's about as good as I've seen for a television show.

Interesting that the Doctor gives speeches about how long life isn't always great, and the natural lifespan is worth respecting... when clearly as a Time Lord he's into cheating death.  And inevitably if the show is around (in some form or another) a decade or two from now, they're going to start to hit the limit of even how many regenerations he should be getting and write in some workaround.

Spinal Tap reference hurf burf.

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07: 42 August 18, 2007

(First watched 2007-08-18)  Beyond the near-real-time gimmick, this episode didn't do much for me.

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08: Human Nature August 25, 2007

(First watched 2007-08-25)  Combined for the next episode.

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09: The Family of Blood September 7, 2007

(First watched 2007-09-07)  Nice episodes.  I'm glad the conclusion had time to boil with a second episode; I was afraid things were going to get quickly resolved in the last five minutes of the first.

I'm reminded somewhat of Enterprise episode Similitude, in that for some reason there's a temporary alternate version of a character created to aid the original, making for identity problems and ethical questions.  In this case, John Smith has to try to deal with the fact that what he perceives as his entire life is just a fiction, what he thought were dreams were the reality, and that he essentially has to die to allow the Doctor to live.

The notebook and sketches John Smith kept of his dreams of past adventures and selves was too cool.

Baines--I quite enjoyed the crazy face his actor used for the alien-possessed version.  What a sniff.

Complaints... doesn't a device that completely rewrites genetics seem... too convenient to have just been sitting around?  Considering he's been faced with various people trying to prolong their lives through gruesome means, people with strange physical disorders, and that he himself should be running out of regenerations soon, doesn't it seem that this device would be able to take care of such problems?

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