Season 2 on Australian ABC

[Theta Sigma]

School Reunion:
Prior to the ABC broadcast I last saw this episode at a club screening last month.
Someone who is a Buffy fan said as soon as he saw Tony Head said this: "He looks familiar."
Tony Head was the librarian in Buffy and now he is the headmaster in Doctor Who. Quite a promotion.
Love the correctimundo line.
Like the music when the kids were using the computer.
When Lis Sladen turned up someone said "Battlestar Galactica". This is most probably because it is something that I have noticed for a couple of years now and that is Lis Sladen and Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica shares a remarkable resemblance with each other.
Another person said that he had a huge crush on Lis when he was a kid. You would not believe how big his grin was upon seeing her.
For people unfamiliar to Sarah, the club president had to explain that Lis was from the original series.
From the dialogue it seems Sarah has no memory of her appearance in The Five Doctors. This is fine with me as I do not like her being in that story.
Mickey's "Missus and the Ex" line got a huge laughter.
Mickey and Rose were very dismissive of K-9 upon seeing him yet Mickey realises that he is the tin dog. That also got a huge laughter.
So funny that it took Mickey a while to realise he and K-9 were in a car while he tried to figure out how to get into the school.
Also laughter at Finch's shooty dog and bad dog lines.
The school explodes. I find this reminiscent of the Buffy finale Chosen which Tony Head was also in which also had the school exploding.
Sad that K-9 got killed off.
Mickey finally joins the TARDIS crew.
K-9 Mark IV is revealed at the end. When I first saw the episode, it took me a short while to realise this was Mark IV as I somehow thought it was Mark III reconstructed again. Oh well.
Like the music at the end.
As this episode ended the club president mentioned a spin-off featuring K-9. He thought it was a live action series, I therefore had to clarify to him that the spinoff is called K-9 Adventures and it was animated. (This was before K-9 co-creator Bob Baker revealed recently that K-9 Adventures was live action but with a CGI K9.)

 

[Majestic]

I was a good episode and had alot happening. Rose was also quite upset in the episode not realizing before that the Doctor has had a number of companions in the past. It looks like they are setting it up for Rose's departure down the road.

At some points I was a little disappointed in the episode but at others it was great.

I hope to see K-9 down the road in future episodes.

 

[Emmapeel]

I lived it and cried.......

 

[Majestic]

Lived it?

 

[Theta Sigma]

Michael Idato in the SMH Guide gave Girl In The Fireplace a thumbs up with a glowing review. He said it was stunning, a standout in an already impressive series and it is easily one of the finest scripts in the entire opus of Doctor Who.

The episode being shown on August 5 comes fifth place in TV WEEK's highlights of the day. Interestingly it got beaten by two places by the season 2 finale of The Last Detective starring Peter Davison which came in at third place.

Also TV WEEK has placed David Tennant as the Doctor as the What's Hot on TV saying he is cheeky, funny and the sexiest Doctor ever.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Last night saw the trailer of The Girl In The Fireplace which had the voiceover saying "Could the Doctor be stranded in time?" and I quite liked it.

 

[Theta Sigma]

The Girl In The Fireplace:
After I saw Sophia as Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds movie I made a wish that she would appear in Doctor Who and I was so delighted that the wish got granted. In fact according to the poll on her website her fans like her more as Reinette than as Lady Penelope. The Doctor Who role got 19.9% while Thunderbirds 5.7%. The Thunderbirds role was at fifth place while Doctor Who came second only to be beaten for her role in Tristan and Isolde which got 29.1%. http://www.sophiamyles.org/
When this was shown at my club they laughed when Mickey says even French, the sight of Arthur the horse and Mickey's Rambo stunts.
The Doctor does a mind meld on Reinette. If people remembers the Ninth Doctor gets called Mr Spock by Captain Jack in The Empty Child also written by Steven Moffat. Also Reinette tells the Doctor to dance with him, sounds like a reminder to Moffat's concluding episode to Empty Child, The Doctor Dances.
The clockwork robots really scared my niece.
Absolutely impressive the Doctor on Arthur smashing through the mirror.
The music is lovely and sad that Reinette dies.
The last few minutes was very emotional and I was close to tears.
The name of the ship really came as a surprise.
There was no Torchwood reference since Moffat was not informed he should include one. However the Doctor Who Reference Guide points out that Reinette's time predates the creation of Torchwood and therefore says it is understandable in its omission.
The voiceover in the end credits mentioned Peter Davison as a former Doctor being in The Last Detective later in the night.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Karin Bishop in the SMH Guide gave Rise of the Cybermen a thumbs up. It started off with her saying "I like the new Dr Who". However what follows is not so flattering to the Doctor Who of old. It was really more of a preview rather than a review as she only describes what is going on.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Prior to Art Safari last night saw the Saturday line up trailer which includes Rise of the Cybermen. The shot of a Cyberman breaking in I thought was a bit too much for viewers to see prior to its broadcast. As someone who already seen it that particular shot took me aback as I was watching it.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Last night saw an ad of Rise of the Cybermen just prior to At The Movies in which the Doctor and Rose are standing with other people and Rose making searches on her phone. Definitely had mysterious aura to it. After At The Movies the Saturday line-up ad again.

 

[Theta Sigma]

It has been five days since Girl In The Fireplace was shown on the ABC and coincidentally I was looking in the uni library, books on the French Revolution when I spotted some books on Madame de Pompadour, books that I wasn't even looking for. Knew there was a good reason why I decided to do research on the French Revolution (even though it took place after Reinette's time), apart from the 1964 serial The Reign of Terror.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Prior to ABC News last night saw the "They Feel No Pain..." ad. My niece was in the room at the time and she was very scared by it.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Rise of the Cybermen:
Roger Lloyd-Pack was David Tennant's on-screen father in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Here he plays John Lumic who is obviously a mix between Dalek creator Davros and Tobias Vaughn from the 1968 Cybermen serial The Invasion. The Invasion will be on DVD in a forthcoming release.
Graeme Harper director of the classic series serials Caves of Androzani & Revelation of the Daleks becomes the first classic series director to direct in the new series with this Cyberman adventure. In fact he is now one of the few people to direct for both the Daleks and the Cybermen.
Jackie's 40th birthday party (although she insists she is 39) is an in-joke to this year 2006 being the 40th anniversary of the Cybermen's first ever appearance when they appeared in the final First Doctor serial The Tenth Planet in 1966.
Jackie says that she was born on the same day as that of Cuba Gooding Jr. The date in the episode has been mentioned to be February 1 yet Gooding was actually on January 2 1968. Since it is a parallel world it could be possible that the Gooding of this world was born on a different day to that of Gooding of our world.
Funny that Rose of this world turns out to be a dog.
Playing Mr Crane is Colin Spaull and it is no coincidence that he was in Revelation of the Daleks directed by Harper. What is a coincidence though is the fact that he was in last week's Last Detective episode Dangerous and the Lonely Hearts alongside Peter Davison.
International Electromatics was also the name of the company that Tobias Vaughn ran in the aforementioned Invasion serial.
Appearing as the President is Don Warrington. He was School Reunion guest star Tony Head's co-star in the TV series Manchild and like Head, has also appeared in the Big Finish audios.
There is a contradiction with Mickey's history here. In the new series' first episode upon thinking that Mickey was dead, Rose said that she had to tell his mother about his death. Here Rose says that Mickey's grandmother has been the one who was under Mickey's care.
"What are you doing there/here" lines when Mickey and Rickey saw each other was quite fun.
Funny of all the people they could have come into the party as, the Doctor and Rose came in as servants.
Rose reacted in surprise that there was a President not a Prime Minister. A little education here they are countries that has both a President and a Prime Minister just in case you have always thought that each country has one or the other and not both. Even the US has a Prime Minister only he is called the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Even though I seen this episode before the Cybermen break in still took me aback.
"Exterminate" has always been the word to associate the Daleks. Prior to Rise of the Cybermen, the Cybermen never had one word that associates them. Now they finally have one, "DELETE".
Wow what a cliffhanger.
This is the first time that the words "To be continued" has ever appeared in a Doctor Who episode. Prior to the debut of the new series, I had asked whether those three words would ever be seen in the series. Very delighted I was correct in my anticipation.
Marc Platt gets the "Thanks" credit since elements of his Big Finish Cyberman story Spare Parts was used for this adventure. This would explain why Mickey said about being a "spare part".
Surprised that the voiceover mentioning in the end credits that Doctor Who Magazine is now available at the ABC Shop.

Setting the story in a parallel Earth was a good way to introduce the Cybermen to new viewers and reintroducing them to veteran fans.

 

[Theta Sigma]

TV WEEK has placed The Age of Steel on August 19, fifth place in its Pick of the Day.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Saw the "Incoming transmission..." ad just after the 9:25 News Update last night. Instead of showing scenes from The Age of Steel it instead showed the last shot of Rise of the Cybermen. The ad teased the viewers by saying they know what happens next but won't tell them about it. A very good teaser indeed.

 

[Theta Sigma]

The latest TV WEEK includes a letter from a Peter who said he was pleased to see Sarah again and hopes this would lead to other former cast members in coming back to the show even it is in different roles. I certainly don't think it is a bad idea for former regulars to appear as different characters, after all Jackie Hill was quite good in the 1980 serial Meglos.

Greg Hassall in the SMH Guide gave The Idiot's Lantern a thumbs up saying it is a wonderful script and it is fabulous stuff. Just guessing here, Hassall's use of the word "fabulous" could have something to do with who is in this episode.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Who Magazine has included The Idiot's Lantern on August 26 in its Must See section giving it four stars with the subheading "Glued to their sets".

 

[Theta Sigma]

Saw the ad for The Idiot's Lantern just over an hour ago and it was well done.
The headline was "TV Steals Your Soul". They got that right.

 

[Theta Sigma]

The Idiot's Lantern:
Aaargh that voiceover as the episode begins.
Ron Cook (Magpie) was Girl In The Fireplace Sophia Myles' co-star in the Thunderbirds movie. He was Parker to her Lady Penelope. Funnily enough there is this parallel between waiting for these two particular episodes to come on the ABC. On the night that Girl In The Fireplace was shown I was alone in the house and thought I was going to watch it in peace only for my sister and niece to come home just in time. The exact same thing happened last night with this episode.
Ron Cook looks like Carry On star Kenneth Connor.
Among other things Cook had appeared in Funland which was on SBS earlier in the year.
Writer Mark Gatiss also an actor was also in Funland. Also Gatiss had appeared with David Tennant in last year's Quatermass Experiment remake.*
The Doctor says that he loves telly.
Really hated Eddie Connolly. He is definitely the idiot referred to in the title.
Laughed the way Rose made her exit from the Connollys' place.
Cute when Bishop says portable and then colour television.
Nice reference to Kylie.
Maureen Lipman is wonderfully good as The Wire.
As the Doctor Who Reference Guide pointed out the Tenth Doctor climbing the transmitter is reminiscent of the Fourth Doctor's last moments in his swansong Logopolis.
When I first saw The Idiot's Lantern last month at my club wasn't too sure that I liked it. Watching again on the ABC however it was much more enjoyable the second time around.

Surprised when the voiceover at the end credits said that Foreign Correspondent on Tuesday will be showing Trekkies filming a movie!!!

*The original Quatermass Experiment like the Queen's Coronation which served as the background for The Idiot's Lantern, was originally shown in 1953. A coincidence perhaps.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Clare Morgan in the SMH Guide gave The Impossible Planet a thumbs up. She says the episode has unexpected turns and concluded by saying that they may be dealing with the biggest bad guy of them all.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Last night saw the "THEY'VE TAKEN THE TARDIS!" ad of The Impossible Planet. Amazing that it looks intriguing and does not give too much away.

 

[Theta Sigma]

The Impossible Planet:
First of all I hope everybody has been enjoying Father's Day. Just incidentally the Paul Cornell episode of that name was the eighth episode of the 2005 season just as The Impossible Planet is the eighth episode of this year's season.
Finally got to see the ad with the Planet Earth music just half an hour before it began.
Playing Zachary is Shaun Parkes. He was David Tennant's co-star in Casanova. He was his manservant Rocco. Probably explains why the Doctor decided to hug Zachary!!!
Scooty is very pretty which is why I hated it when she got killed off.
Love the use of the Bolero music for this episode.
I actually saw the episode before last month but the sight of the writing on Toby's body still gave me a shock.
The music is brilliant.
The voice of the Beast is Gabriel Woolf, Sutekh in the Fourth Doctor serial Pyramids of Mars. In Pyramids of Mars the Fourth Doctor mentioned that Satan was one of the other names that Sutekh was known by. I have noticed other people have been speculating whether the Beast is actually Sutekh.
When I watched this the first time, did not get to enjoy it very much as lot of people were talking about what was going on. So upon watching it again, I enoyed much much more and my eyes were definitely transfixed to the screen in the lead-up to the cliffhanger.
I was not really expecting to see the Next Time trailer at the end as I thought it would be the same with Rise of the Cybermen in which nothing was revealed about the concluding episode.

 

[Theta Sigma]

I like to express sympathies with Queenslanders who will have a delay in seeing The Satan Pit due to the State Election next week. NT viewers will know how they feel since they had an election when World War III was shown last year. Interestingly enough World War III like The Satan Pit was the second episode in a two-parter.
Speaking of elections, all Australian viewers should take note: the Federal Election is due in the second half of next year. This means that if it is held during the ABC's third season run we could wait two weeks between episodes. If that happens the best we could hope for is that it does not come in the middle of a two parter.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Saw "The Devil Can Be Very Tricky" ad last night prior to ABC News. I have been told that the song that was used in the ad was Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. What a choice of song.

 

[Theta Sigma]

The Satan Pit

Rose apparently swearing to the Doctor on the communicator makes me think of The Chief in Get Smart doing the same to Maxwell Smart on the phone.
Loved the shaft scenes.
What a shock that the Beast still possessed Toby.
Due to background noise when I saw this episode late in July I did not hear a lot of what was said in the episode so I was surprised with the Doctor mentioning Draconia, Daemos and Kaled which are names familiar to people who have seen the original series.
Rose tells the Beast in Toby to go to hell. How very apt.
The last time we see the Doctor and Rose in this episode in the TARDIS was actually the last scene recorded for the season. Therefore Billie concluded her work on the series with this scene and it seemed very suitable the Doctor saying "stuff of legends" as that is exactly what Rose has become.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Love and Monsters:
Written by Russell T. Davies eight episodes after his previous episode Tooth and Claw. Longest gap between two RTD episodes.
Marc Warren like Edward de Souza from the 1965 episode Mission to the Unknown gets to be the star of Doctor Who for this one episode. one difference though is that whereas Mission to the Unknown did not feature the Doctor or his then companions at all, the Doctor and Rose do have a limited appearance in this episode.
Like the cartoon like chase scene at the beginning.
Ursula's last name is Blake. There was a Major Blake in The Christmas Invasion also written by Russell T Davies. Couldn't RTD had come up with another name?
Mr Skinner is obviously named after Walter Skinner in The X-Files. In fact this episode has an X-Files type music.
The men (and women) from LINDA sounds like a take of The Man From UNCLE.
So fun seeing the group playing in a band.
Very funny how Jackie manages to meet the first four steps that Elton was about to take.
The Abzorbaloff appeared in this episode as a result of winning the Design a Monster contest for the series in Blue Peter. (Coindentally I saw an old Blue Peter segment on the Blake's 7 season 4 DVD very recently.)
Very funny Rose had a go at Elton even though the Abzorbaloff was right next to him.
The CBC credit I have noticed is now gone.
I actually liked this episode and is definitely much better than the 100th Andromeda episode Pride Before The Fall which I saw on FOX8 later in the night.

Marc Warren will soon be seen as Dracula in the new BBC version of the vampire legend alongside Girl In The Fireplace guest star Sophia Myles and executived produced by Julie Gardner.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Fear Her gets a thumbs up from Michael Idato in the SMH Guide. He likes it very much that he even said that if we are so inclined that we check out the audio commentary for this episode which is available at the official Doctor Who BBC site.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Last night saw the "Of All The Parking Spots In The Universe" ad for Fear Her and it was quite funny.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Fear Her:
Finally saw the Mysteries Abound ad just half an hour before the episode started.
Like Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit guest star Shaun Parkes, Nina Sosanya (Trish) was David Tennant's co-star in Casanova. She played one of Casanova's lovers. She is not the only one of David Tennant's on-screen lover to appear with him in Doctor Who as Sarah Parish (Blackpool) will appear in this year's Christmas Special.
Nina like Aliens of London/World War Three guest star Navin Chowdhry was a regular on Teachers.
Written by Matthew Graham one of the creators of Life on Mars (in fact I read SFX's feature on Life On Mars in the Doctor Who special after this episode was aired). This slot was originally given to Stephen Fry with a script called The 1920s but it got moved to next year before being dropped altogether as Fry became busy with other projects. Graham himself was also slated for next year but he too had to drop out as he was busy setting up his own production company.
This took place with the 2012 Olympics about to begin. This I noticed was in the same year that the Ninth Doctor and Rose was in Utah in Dalek.
Car engines not working. Looks like this could have been borrowed from the original series Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (which was remade for the 2002-03 update).
The Doctor and then Chloe does the Vulcan salute. Star Trek celebrated its 40th anniversary this month on September 8.
Like Father's Day, the Doctor and the TARDIS gets taken out the storyline for a short while.
Stunned upon seeing the empty stadium and the picture of Chloe's dad coming to life.
Very delighted that the Doctor mentioned Papua New Guinea as I grew up there. It's too bad this episode was not broadcast the previous Saturday on September 16 as that is PNG's Independence Day.
The Next Time trailer is WOW.
The CBC credit is back.

 

[Theta Sigma]

A few hours ago saw the ad for Army of Ghosts with the voiceover saying that it is the episode people must before seeing the season final. It looked pretty good.