The Ghost Monument
Oct. 14th, 2018 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcI forgot to write up "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" for a number of reasons, but mostly that I was discombobulated by it being Sunday. So lets nip that in the bud before it becomes a pattern.
This was brilliant. I mean, basically it was a dungeon crawl, with a suitably sci-fi gloss on the "cursed temple" concept. But I think dungeon crawl is one of the vanishingly small number of subgenres Doctor Who has never attempted before, so why not?
I was surprised the weapons factory turned out to be created by the Stenza. I had a feeling Tzim-Sha would be returning, but mentioning them again so soon suggests they're going to be an actual arc villain. Although I'd be astonished if "The Timeless Child" isn't the arc words, so it remains to be seen if these tie together somehow.
The characterisation of the two racers was good; in the circumstances, they have to be kind of similar, but the script did a good job defining them by their differences, with Angstrom fighting for her family, and Epzo regarding being out for number one as a virtue. And Art Malik as Ilin was suitably smug. I hope he returns again for the Doctor to take him down a peg.
The characterisation of the regulars ... hmm. Jodie's Doctor continues to be brilliant. And it was good that Graham and Ryan got a conversation about Grace and that's not just being forgotten, but beyond that they didn't seem to go much beyond a two-line character description. Graham is down-to-Earth and practical, Ryan has an NVQ and is brave when he puts his mind to it. (Although I'm pleased they didn't shoehorn in a reference to dyspraxia, even in the ladder scene; mention it when it's relevant, and when it's not, it's not.)
But they did better than Yas, who -- reference to her family aside -- was just there for most of it. Seriously, having a female Doctor doesn't mean you can backslide on characterising the female companion. Last week it wasn't so obvious because she was in police mode for most of it. Here she doesn't have that, and I'm honestly not sure what she has instead. Hopefully, future episodes will give her more to work with.
I'm still deciding if I like the new console room. There's nothing about it I especially don't like, I just can't quite get my head around it. Even after that panning shot, I'm still not clear how all the elements fit together. I do like the idea the "doorway" is the entire police box as a sort of atrium. To my mind, that somehow makes more sense than having police box doors set into the TARDIS wall.
This was brilliant. I mean, basically it was a dungeon crawl, with a suitably sci-fi gloss on the "cursed temple" concept. But I think dungeon crawl is one of the vanishingly small number of subgenres Doctor Who has never attempted before, so why not?
I was surprised the weapons factory turned out to be created by the Stenza. I had a feeling Tzim-Sha would be returning, but mentioning them again so soon suggests they're going to be an actual arc villain. Although I'd be astonished if "The Timeless Child" isn't the arc words, so it remains to be seen if these tie together somehow.
The characterisation of the two racers was good; in the circumstances, they have to be kind of similar, but the script did a good job defining them by their differences, with Angstrom fighting for her family, and Epzo regarding being out for number one as a virtue. And Art Malik as Ilin was suitably smug. I hope he returns again for the Doctor to take him down a peg.
The characterisation of the regulars ... hmm. Jodie's Doctor continues to be brilliant. And it was good that Graham and Ryan got a conversation about Grace and that's not just being forgotten, but beyond that they didn't seem to go much beyond a two-line character description. Graham is down-to-Earth and practical, Ryan has an NVQ and is brave when he puts his mind to it. (Although I'm pleased they didn't shoehorn in a reference to dyspraxia, even in the ladder scene; mention it when it's relevant, and when it's not, it's not.)
But they did better than Yas, who -- reference to her family aside -- was just there for most of it. Seriously, having a female Doctor doesn't mean you can backslide on characterising the female companion. Last week it wasn't so obvious because she was in police mode for most of it. Here she doesn't have that, and I'm honestly not sure what she has instead. Hopefully, future episodes will give her more to work with.
I'm still deciding if I like the new console room. There's nothing about it I especially don't like, I just can't quite get my head around it. Even after that panning shot, I'm still not clear how all the elements fit together. I do like the idea the "doorway" is the entire police box as a sort of atrium. To my mind, that somehow makes more sense than having police box doors set into the TARDIS wall.
