paratti (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} paratti) wrote,@ 2008-04-12 20:55:00 |
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Doctor Who - The Fires of Pompeii
I'm still trying to work out what I thought about this, so bear with me.
Its The Aztecs meets The Massacre done in the 21st Century rather than the 60's and for all we've gained in many ways since that era there's something we've lost - the trust that the audience is tough enough to take the Doctor leaving sympathetic characters to be massacred or that we can't save societies from enslavement and destruction, no matter how our route into the story companions want to. This story doesn't leave Anne Chaplet to be hunted down and murdered - still possibly one of the darkest things the Doctor has ever done - and it goes further than saving one man's moral status if not a civilisation, it saves the family. I'm sure some of those that like bashing the Doctor over his morality would hate it, I'd far rather have gone Massacre. That they didn't is clearly building on the Doctor on a recovery arc and that it is due to the humanising influence of the companion, and CT's Donna did give a performance that did stand up with (the surviving) Barbara and (missing) Steven scenes exploring the same issues in their stories and I love that the Doctor did (again) burn a world (Pompeii) to save a larger one. I also love that Donna did press the button with him - as I'm sure Romana did - when it came to making the hard call. I just wished they'd gone the full monty and pyroclastic flowed the family.
And I'm saying that from having been to Pompeii, seen those casts of the dead and walked those streets.
Though they did do a nice job of showing that the stakes were people like us. The Celtic jokes were great fun, though I missed most of the Asterix ones owing to being distracted by looking for Jack on Volcano Day trips - possibly with John too, has a James in a toga moment *Wibble*, looking out for the now both wealthy and respectable descendants of Pullo and Vorenus in their holiday homes in Pompeii and having Up Pompeii flashbacks of Titter ye not!, Ooh, stop messing around!s, which were complicated by watching the Frankie Howerd docudrama this week and how sad that was.
I am also trying to ignore that Vesuvius blew up in Etruscan times and so the earthquake 17 years earlier and the Boom itself were definitely natural.
But Pompeii looked great, as befits were they filmed it, on the streets of Rome. CT and Donna continued to rock - while not turning to it. She cares and will not only try to save others, she's smart and has watched documentaries as she knew about the beaches not being safe and she'll sacrifice herself to save the world, as well as having the sheer bloody minded persistence that did save one family. Ct's also not afraid to look like she really has been crying. The story was a Who romp with side order of moral issues being addressed and continuation of the ominous stuff coming, with what seems to be a Rose ref and something at Donna's back. Meeps.
Re bringing back the Time Lords/changing history aka the logical step that gives the Doctor what he most wants so it can present all its own set of problems/story strands fro the next production team - was that a gun being placed on the wall that I spy?
I'm still trying to work out what I thought about this, so bear with me.
Its The Aztecs meets The Massacre done in the 21st Century rather than the 60's and for all we've gained in many ways since that era there's something we've lost - the trust that the audience is tough enough to take the Doctor leaving sympathetic characters to be massacred or that we can't save societies from enslavement and destruction, no matter how our route into the story companions want to. This story doesn't leave Anne Chaplet to be hunted down and murdered - still possibly one of the darkest things the Doctor has ever done - and it goes further than saving one man's moral status if not a civilisation, it saves the family. I'm sure some of those that like bashing the Doctor over his morality would hate it, I'd far rather have gone Massacre. That they didn't is clearly building on the Doctor on a recovery arc and that it is due to the humanising influence of the companion, and CT's Donna did give a performance that did stand up with (the surviving) Barbara and (missing) Steven scenes exploring the same issues in their stories and I love that the Doctor did (again) burn a world (Pompeii) to save a larger one. I also love that Donna did press the button with him - as I'm sure Romana did - when it came to making the hard call. I just wished they'd gone the full monty and pyroclastic flowed the family.
And I'm saying that from having been to Pompeii, seen those casts of the dead and walked those streets.
Though they did do a nice job of showing that the stakes were people like us. The Celtic jokes were great fun, though I missed most of the Asterix ones owing to being distracted by looking for Jack on Volcano Day trips - possibly with John too, has a James in a toga moment *Wibble*, looking out for the now both wealthy and respectable descendants of Pullo and Vorenus in their holiday homes in Pompeii and having Up Pompeii flashbacks of Titter ye not!, Ooh, stop messing around!s, which were complicated by watching the Frankie Howerd docudrama this week and how sad that was.
I am also trying to ignore that Vesuvius blew up in Etruscan times and so the earthquake 17 years earlier and the Boom itself were definitely natural.
But Pompeii looked great, as befits were they filmed it, on the streets of Rome. CT and Donna continued to rock - while not turning to it. She cares and will not only try to save others, she's smart and has watched documentaries as she knew about the beaches not being safe and she'll sacrifice herself to save the world, as well as having the sheer bloody minded persistence that did save one family. Ct's also not afraid to look like she really has been crying. The story was a Who romp with side order of moral issues being addressed and continuation of the ominous stuff coming, with what seems to be a Rose ref and something at Donna's back. Meeps.
Re bringing back the Time Lords/changing history aka the logical step that gives the Doctor what he most wants so it can present all its own set of problems/story strands fro the next production team - was that a gun being placed on the wall that I spy?
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