Dirk Gently episode 2
Apr. 26th, 2012 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidc(Yes, episode 2; I forgot to Sky+ ep 1 of the series, and then didn't want to watch it on iPlayer until I'd seen the pilot. Which I did this week, by which time iPlayer was no longer offering the series. It'll be repeated.)
St Cedd's! Nice to see a return to the Cambridge location of the book. Bill Patterson was brilliant as Professor Jericho, the man who inspired Dirk; and I did like how Dirk's usual spiel about the fundemental interconectedness of all things founders when he tries it on Dr Ransome, who actually knows how quantum mechanics works.[1]
And I owe the show an apology; Dirk did get expelled for successfully predicting exam papers. He doesn't go into all the details from the book, but nothing he says rules them out either.
The gradual reveal that Prof Jericho Wasn't All He Seemed, and neither was his faith in Dirk was nicely handled, especially Dirk's reaction. Deep down, Dirk knows he's untrustworthy, and it's a bit of a blow that the guy he thought did trust him didn't. And I liked putting the Replacement Goldfish concept front and centre from the start, then revealing that wasn't what was going on at all.
The friction between Richard and Susan did remind me a lot of John Watson and ... any girlfriend who's met Sherlock, but the setup means that can't be helped. (Now there's an awesome CiN/Comic Relief crossover idea, to go along with the Sherlock/Doctor Moffatfest and the Dirk/Doctor Adamsfest. Or how about all three of them?)
Max/Elaine/Jane was a brilliant character. I figured out there was something weird about her early on, and suspected it might be that she was Max, but I only realised she was also Elaine at about the same time Dirk did.
(Oh, and Dirk says there's no such thing as ghosts? His literary counterpart would disagree. TV!Dirk probably doesn't believe in Norse gods either.)
[1]I won't complain about the absence of Reg; the book makes it clear Reg remembers Dirk (and vice versa), but not that they had the sort of special mentor/student relationship Dirk felt he had with Jericho.
St Cedd's! Nice to see a return to the Cambridge location of the book. Bill Patterson was brilliant as Professor Jericho, the man who inspired Dirk; and I did like how Dirk's usual spiel about the fundemental interconectedness of all things founders when he tries it on Dr Ransome, who actually knows how quantum mechanics works.[1]
And I owe the show an apology; Dirk did get expelled for successfully predicting exam papers. He doesn't go into all the details from the book, but nothing he says rules them out either.
The gradual reveal that Prof Jericho Wasn't All He Seemed, and neither was his faith in Dirk was nicely handled, especially Dirk's reaction. Deep down, Dirk knows he's untrustworthy, and it's a bit of a blow that the guy he thought did trust him didn't. And I liked putting the Replacement Goldfish concept front and centre from the start, then revealing that wasn't what was going on at all.
The friction between Richard and Susan did remind me a lot of John Watson and ... any girlfriend who's met Sherlock, but the setup means that can't be helped. (Now there's an awesome CiN/Comic Relief crossover idea, to go along with the Sherlock/Doctor Moffatfest and the Dirk/Doctor Adamsfest. Or how about all three of them?)
Max/Elaine/Jane was a brilliant character. I figured out there was something weird about her early on, and suspected it might be that she was Max, but I only realised she was also Elaine at about the same time Dirk did.
(Oh, and Dirk says there's no such thing as ghosts? His literary counterpart would disagree. TV!Dirk probably doesn't believe in Norse gods either.)
[1]I won't complain about the absence of Reg; the book makes it clear Reg remembers Dirk (and vice versa), but not that they had the sort of special mentor/student relationship Dirk felt he had with Jericho.
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Date: 2012-04-26 02:24 pm (UTC)I did like how (if you include the pilot) Dirk gently had a nice Sci-fi, non-scifi, scifi, non-scifi alteration.
I just hope it doesn't get killed by BBC cuts.
Please people write tot he BBC and ask it be transferred to BBC2 (or BBC ONE) since BBC 4 lost all of its drama budget.