I’m just this crystalline entity, y’know?

  • 4 Posts
  • 91 Comments
Joined 3 months ago
Cake day: June 11th, 2026
  • SiliconAvatar@startrek.websitetoDoctor Who Social Club@startrek.website•Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) | 2x08 "The Impossible Planet"English
    3·
    3 days ago

    I remember feeling truly unsettled watching this for the first time. For one thing, the Doctor and Rose strands without the TARDIS — on a planetoid that really has no business hanging so close to a black hole. A small world teetering on the edge of certain and utter destruction, while the population assure themselves “we don’t know how this works, but it’ll be fine”. And they rely on a race of “willing” slaves to do menial support chores. Perfect metaphor for Western civilisation, really.

    But add to that the occult-tinged threat of the presence, voiced by Sutekh himself, Gabriel Woolf, that possesses the Ood and Toby. There are decidedly Lovecraftian themes at play here that sit really uncomfortably in a Doctor Who story, certainly in 2006. Of course the inferior, “mindless” slaves are affected, like racist old HPL would like to imagine, but the real trespass is the corruption of a white researcher who studies eldritch knowledge and is taken over by primal forces (probably sexuality).

    Up to now, the modern show has thrown ghosts, werewolves, and walking dead at us, with a comforting “—but it’s aliens” twist to moor it in (light) science fiction. Here, like with the physical situations of the castaway Doctor and the impossible planet, there is no safety net to keep the storyline from plunging into superstitious darkness. It’s like Event horizon, barely adapted for a family audience.

    So this is a solid first-of-two episode with high stakes on several levels; as high as one can expect in a show where you sort of know they’ll be okay at the end. The guest cast do a great job of presenting a convincing, everyday work situation. Everybody is weary and a bit jaded — even Ida opening the dome to reveal the black hole comes with a tired sigh as if to say, “oh sure, I’ll show off that old thing again” — but you get the impression they’ve worked together for a while.

    As first halves go, this has to be top shelf for modern Who. The followup — let’s talk about that next week, don’t want to ruin the good mood in advance.

  • SiliconAvatar@startrek.websitetoDoctor Who Social Club@startrek.website•Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) | 2x07 "The Idiot's Lantern"English
    2·
    10 days ago

    I think Mark Gatiss is unduly criticised in some fan forums. He does fine little standalone scripts that stand out not for excellence, but for their atmosphere, attention to detail, and a good bit of quirk.

    He’s an old school fan, and here he clearly wanted to make a Classic Who-style historical. Ironically, the Coronation element is overshadowed by the Wire plot, the advent of television (which RTD swiped in “The Giggle”), and the terrible family dynamics.

    [Edit: Duh, you’re right. Moffatt also used the transmission thing to defeat the Silence in season 6]

    Personal gripe, I preferred faceless Rose. They could have left her like that for a few episodes for all I care.

    I will say this for the episode, the Wire is a memorable adversary for the Doctor. To this day, my family will imitate her “Hu-u-ungry-y!” part regularly. Mostly just before dinner.

  • SiliconAvatar@startrek.websitetoStar Trek Social Club@startrek.website•STLV/Star Trek: Legacy (premise talk)English
    1·
    15 days ago

    Well, Seven would still be the captain, and it would probably be wise to have the main story not be about her, but how she leads the crew through it. I would even say, an adult Alexander who has lived a life on his own — could be interesting if done right. Which is a big if.

    But with the junior LaForge and the secret Picard heir already on the crew… It all starts to reek of those franchises where generation after generation of one or two bloodlines are magically hurtled to power. Not at all what I think of with Star Trek. But I suppose that should be expected from a show called “legacy”.

    And I’ve already said my part on Terry Matalas’ ideas for a geopolitical metaphor…

  • SiliconAvatar@startrek.websitetoStar Trek Social Club@startrek.website•STLV/Star Trek: Legacy (premise talk)English
    1·
    16 days ago

    The Klingons were always stand-ins for the Russians

    In 1967, perhaps. The movie versions sort of took a step back from 1:1 interpretations. If anything, the Romulans are a better simile to the (Cold war/Soviet) Russians from a Western standpoint.

    Echoing today, there was an unstable element in the Empire

    Really, you look at contemporary Russia, and you think dissidents are the most obvious issue? Not oligarchy, state disinformation and war mongering?

    TL;DR — don’t let Matalas anywhere near your favourite franchise.

  • SiliconAvatar@startrek.websitetoDoctor Who Social Club@startrek.website•Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) | 2x06 "The Age of Steel"English
    3·
    18 days ago

    Going off on a tangent here, this double episode set the parallel universe signifiers for another show, Fringe, that stated airing a couple of years later. The Zeppelins in particular, but also the in-ear headsets (although without the Cyber-implications) and the need to carry identification.

    The later development, from “Doomsday”, that crossing over impacts the stability of the parallel universe, also comes into play in Fringe. The Zeppelin escape scene from the episode discussed here is copped almost verbatim in season 4 of the latter show — with Cybermen substituted by zombies.

    There is also a time travelling character whose apperances are telegraphed pretty much the same way that Clive (RIP) presents the Doctor in “Rose”. It would be shameless, if the creators and writers of Fringe weren’t gleefully and openly borrowing from pretty much every scifi-adjacent show out there.

    X-files and Twin Peaks are directly referenced more than once, and there are obvious callbacks to Cronenberg’s The fly, as well as The Manchurian candidate, Firestarter, Altered states, and more.

    Tangent over, the scheduled discussion will continue as planned.