awkwardreviews

 

Today’s installment brings world war three and farting aliens, what a combination…

 

Ever since I began watching this show it has teetered on the edge of being too goofy and absurd, and too cliché and campy… the shows two parter takes it both ways. We see WWIII break out over London, and we also see a bunch of aliens farting like crazy and laughing. Was this a comedy? Or a tragedy? Was it both?

No, this was Dr.Who. The show that seemingly has no idea what demographic it is being pitched to. At one point, I saw humor that was more childish than what I see in the other TV-show I review “My little pony: Friendship is Magic”, and at another point, I saw a badly animated missile blow up a building.

Now I know this isn’t the first (and probably isn’t the last) time I’ve complained about this shows inability to lock itself in to a set demographic, but in this episode it is most prevalent. Now I’m not saying the show’s humor is bad by any means, when the show wants to be witty, it is witty without a doubt. However, these fart-jokes and gags are almost cringe-worthy in the sense that they just don’t fit, and aren’t funny.

The first episode of this two-parter had me fairly uninterested, after the solid two episodes before this, full of diverse environments and characters, we return back to London. This was a somewhat bland location, and generally stayed indoors (probably due to the budget). And then low and behold, we see our first alien, which looks like a fat green baby with bug-eyes… but this isn’t before we see a pig-man-thing running through the halls only to be gunned down by a soldier.

All of this had me laughing, and I’m not sure if it was due to the shows humor, or due to how badly it was executed. Needless to say, the first episode was thoroughly underwhelming, neglecting to show true progression until the second part, where things ramped up in a much more entertaining fashion.

The aliens take an unexplained interest in Rose, micky/ricky, and her mother, and the Doctor needs to pretty much save the day with their help. However, we actually get a guest star whom I enjoyed quite a bit, as she was actually a good actress with an entertaining array of dialogue.

My favorite sequence comes in at around the twenty minute mark of the second episode, where an alien is busting through a door (funny enough, they didn’t have trouble breaking down government doors), and Ricky and Roses mother (pardon, I simply do not know her name for the life of me!) were on the phone with the Doctor as Rose and Ms.Guest star lady were listing off the features of the aliens, I found myself thoroughly impressed by the intense situation that was laid out before me. In fact, I noticed this midway through and had to tell myself that it was Dr.Who, and I shouldn’t be so caught up in the action!

The Doctor figured out they are from some hard to pronounce planet and said that they need to have vinegar thrown at them… and then that alien exploded. What a stupid grin I had on my face during that scene!

After that, they fired a missile at themselves, Micky proved himself useful, and the aliens got blown up. The story of this episode was pretty hackneyed, it didn’t make much sense and was too silly for its own good.

In the end, I think this two parter was brought back from the boring mediocrity by a fast paced and interesting second half of the second episode, which swiftly exterminated the non-threatening threat. Then we had a slightly emotional sequence involving Rose and her mother, and in the end, they end up climbing back in the TARDIS (yay) and leaving to wherever they are going to next!

P.S – The news reported said that the aliens (disguised as the prime minister etc.) provided evidence of the threat to humanity… yet the Doctor pointed out they were lying about the threat. How exactly did they point it out then?

P.S #2 – I thought the whole “zipper” thing was both silly and charming, who DOESN’T want a zipper on their forehead? How the hell did the zipper even get there? Did they have to spend a few minutes embroidering it into the forehead once they somehow take out all the bodily fluids, and organs?

 

Grade:

Part 1: C

Part 2: B-

Overall: C+