The Bells of St John
Apr. 3rd, 2013 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcStill haven't written this up, have I?
First off, a nice explanation for the title, albeit one that had nothing to do with the story whatsoever.
The basic concept was a nice one - evil WiFi. The Moff said somewhere that he wanted to do a technothriller, rather than a conventional sci-fi story, and I think this achieved it, especially as it didn't have a "monster" in the rubber suit/CGI sense and didn't need one. Yes, the Great Intelligence shows up right at the end - and that came as a surprise - but he's just a face on a screen, so it still counts.
Clara ... I'm not sure about her, but she's growing on me. I thought she had some nice lines, even if I still think I preferred the Victorian version[1]. I note that the Moff has casually added another mystery to her; who was the woman who handed her the Doctor's phone number[2]?
Obscure Hitchhiker's reference for the win: the "Fine, we'll do it together!" line is a quote from Zaphod after he's established that neither Ford, Trillian nor himself can pilot the Heart of Gold manually. (Arthur: I can't either. Zaphod: Yeah, I guessed that.)
The baddies were good, especially Celia Imrie as the boss - essentially an evil version of the HR woman from dinnerladies. And she was totally heartbreaking when the Intelligence leaves and she reverts to being a little girl.
(Although the more you think about this the less sense it makes - why brainwash a bunch of people to believe they're a ruthless corporation working for you? If you actually need a ruthless corporation working for you, wouldn't you get people who actually know what they're doing, rather than the plumber? If they're just puppets controlled by G.I. for the look of the thing, why do they have disagreements and so on?)
Not clear if the Great Intelligence itself was the "client" or if it was providing human brain patterns to a third party. Not even clear if it's Intentional Ambiguity or not. At least, not to me.
But a few nitpicks aside, an excellent episode.
[1] I have to aknowledge an alternative viewpoint, however - my sister arrived on Easter morning and announced "I don't care who Almost Amy is!"
[2] A possible answer might be Billie Piper's presence in the 50th aniversary episode. Which would suggest that Rose and Tenth's role in this is to be part of Clara and Eleventh's story, which is probably how it should be.
First off, a nice explanation for the title, albeit one that had nothing to do with the story whatsoever.
The basic concept was a nice one - evil WiFi. The Moff said somewhere that he wanted to do a technothriller, rather than a conventional sci-fi story, and I think this achieved it, especially as it didn't have a "monster" in the rubber suit/CGI sense and didn't need one. Yes, the Great Intelligence shows up right at the end - and that came as a surprise - but he's just a face on a screen, so it still counts.
Clara ... I'm not sure about her, but she's growing on me. I thought she had some nice lines, even if I still think I preferred the Victorian version[1]. I note that the Moff has casually added another mystery to her; who was the woman who handed her the Doctor's phone number[2]?
Obscure Hitchhiker's reference for the win: the "Fine, we'll do it together!" line is a quote from Zaphod after he's established that neither Ford, Trillian nor himself can pilot the Heart of Gold manually. (Arthur: I can't either. Zaphod: Yeah, I guessed that.)
The baddies were good, especially Celia Imrie as the boss - essentially an evil version of the HR woman from dinnerladies. And she was totally heartbreaking when the Intelligence leaves and she reverts to being a little girl.
(Although the more you think about this the less sense it makes - why brainwash a bunch of people to believe they're a ruthless corporation working for you? If you actually need a ruthless corporation working for you, wouldn't you get people who actually know what they're doing, rather than the plumber? If they're just puppets controlled by G.I. for the look of the thing, why do they have disagreements and so on?)
Not clear if the Great Intelligence itself was the "client" or if it was providing human brain patterns to a third party. Not even clear if it's Intentional Ambiguity or not. At least, not to me.
But a few nitpicks aside, an excellent episode.
[1] I have to aknowledge an alternative viewpoint, however - my sister arrived on Easter morning and announced "I don't care who Almost Amy is!"
[2] A possible answer might be Billie Piper's presence in the 50th aniversary episode. Which would suggest that Rose and Tenth's role in this is to be part of Clara and Eleventh's story, which is probably how it should be.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-04 08:52 am (UTC)Maybe the take-over is a necessary step for the remote-control and change-thing (from a tablet, although I am not 100% sure I think it was a Nexus 7).