The season 3 finale… oh boy, call over the villians!
Well I finally picked up Dr.Who again, sorry for the long wait! Mostly business… editing, and general non-who-ness. But I swear, I’ll try get these reviews out in the timely-iest of fashions… (heh… heh… get it? Time…)
So today I got the pleasure of seeing the shows FIRST three parter! A movie-length season three finale, and is it just me, or is the show really running the whole “end of the world” thing to the ground… but I guess in a show like this, we know the outcome… we are here for the ride. And what a ride it was… for the most part.
Let me just say, that the first episode in this three episode extravaganza was downright splendid, I REALLY liked it… I wasn’t expecting it to go where it did, and for a moment, I thought this whole series of episodes would be incredible! No… no, definitely not incredible. Passable would be the word for it.
I loved the way it got set up though, the entire first forty minutes was splendid, and it had great characters, great progression, splendid pacing, and best of all, a really interesting premise. I like that the Doctor isn’t the last timelord, and his “arch-nemisis” is “The master”… but one has to wonder, how come no one else got these names? Are there only a few hundred Time lords to ever live? Because god damn, these seem like pretty popular names if they were able to be chosen!
But anyway…. JACK’S BACK! Yay!!! I missed him, a lot! He is a fantastic character, the chemistry he had with Tennant was still good… although not as perfect as it was with Eccleston. Also, the entire aspect of him being literally unkillable is interesting, and honestly, not too bad. So far, this three party doesn’t quite have the Deus Ex Machina this show’s creator loves oh so much…
Now… the second two episodes. This is where the two parter goes into full swing. I will say, I liked “The Master” he was a neat villain… intimidating? No. Interesting? No. Incredibly acted? No… But still neat, his entire premise is what elevated him beyond “cliché archetype” and more of an “odd freakazoid” character.
His place was an odd one… and the entire concept of him taking over the earth through some unexplained “drum beat” could have been executed SO much better… and unrealistic amount of missiles being built… and the entire concept of the last two episodes was way too far out there. There was no believability to any of it, it was in its own world of crazy. And I would have loved that… if it was actually explained. Killing the American president really isn’t enough to get the entire world under your control.
But… anyway… after you overlook these glaring flaws, it was still a fun episode. It was nutty, bonkers, and I think the over-use of decent CGI is just not necessary. As we saw in Blink this show is at its best without an over-abundance of explosions and eye-gouging effects. And I’m making a complete bet… that season four’s best episodes will not feature some deafening amount of Michael bay-esq explosions to gain my coveted “A” score.
In the end, it was simply too farfetched, and not well enough executed… but if there was one thing that brought a massive smile to my face, and absolutely made my night, was the final few minutes of the finale. Not only did Tennant deliver a great performance, but oh my… JACK IS THE FACE OF BO!!!!! I’m so done! This was like my favorite thing ever!
Grades
Ep 1: A-
Ep 2: B-
Ep 3: B
Overall: B
Season Grade: B+
awkwardreviews 
Jack is the Face if Boe was the most awesomest revelation ever, especially since I ws also watching Torchwood at the time and trying to figure out if they’d make a reference to it in that series or not.
The Timelords have always had mental abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis, but some are more skilled than others. The Master is a master of domineering telepathy, he can brainwash people into following him blindly, esecially a lesser species such as humans. The Angel Network amplified his telepathic brainwashing abilities which is nothing when you consider the TARDIS gets inside the minds of her travellers to act as a translator. Plus having an army of Toklofane (sp?) helps to establish world dominance. He also took over the UNIT flying warship which is chock a block with lifted alien tech which is how he wad able to oblitorate Japan with a flick of a switch and how he wax able to keep the humans under control. Also John Simms at this point was riding high on a Life on Mars wave and this let him have a little fun. (BTW if you haven’t seen the UK version of Life in Mars may I suggest it for a blind commentary when you’re waiting for Ponies S5) The drums thing will be explained but I won’t tell you now cause it’s a spoiler.
Now that you’ve finished S3 I can give you my view of the whole thing without spoilering you. This is why i haven’t commented so much on this season because it’s a season overview problem. Mostly it’s Martha’s story ark. Here they have a female charachter with an intelligence to rival the Doctor if not the knowledge, and what do they do? Dummify her with a stupid unrequainted love story to try and capture the DoctorxRose thing I guess. Anyway, I felt Martha’s character suffered as a result, well untill the finale when she was working independently if the Doctor and showing that she really did have brains. It was kinda sad to see her go at the end there, but on the other hand, all things considered, it was the smartest move she made all season. Seriously, by the end of this season I was starting to grow sick of the whole ‘eberyone fancies the Doctor’ spiel.
I hope you move onto the next Xmas special in the series soon 🙂
oh remember back to the Absorber ep I saud how he was the result of a Blue Peter competition? Well the Utopia ep had the winner of that years comp, which was to appear in an episode. The little blond kid who Martha befriends was the one who won
I do agree, martha had such a great start as a companion, but i really despise the blatant love line… i mean, i think i mentioned this countless times in my season one and two reviews. If there has to be this “love” thing, it should be done EXTREMELY subtly, and not some blatant and slightly stupid affair.
You did mention it a few times and it’s something that irks me too. You don’t need a love interest to keep things interesting. Especially with Doctor Who. The whole Rose thing was something new in Doctor Who, having a love story between the Doctor and one of his companions actually showcased was new. In the classic series they were not allowed to allude to there being anything going on behind the TARDIS doors because censorship was on different things back then, especially putting a relationship in a children’s program between an unmarried couple who had no intention of marrying either. Mary Whitehouse would have had them off the air faster than you could say ‘think of the children’. Of course there’s a lot of fan speculation over which of the companions the Doctor probably copped off with and why he always seems to pick young attractive females to travel with him. But I’m getting side tracked again.
The point was that the Doctor being allowed to love was something new and therefore welcomed as a refreshing change. Trouble was they seemed to think they needed to play out something similar with Martha. It just got so tedious by the end that I kept telling her off every time she would make goo goo eyes at the Doctor and he’d blatantly ignore her. And then that explanation of how the key camo worked, guh, force the issue why don’t you.
I’m glad to say that they get over that right sharp in the first episode of S4 but I’m not gonna tell you how, don’t want to spoil it.