Illustrated thoughts on DW 4x04

[kaliha]

You should always be suspicious of people in red tracksuits

Although I do like the purple mood lighting for the Rattigan Academy. They may have rubbish uniforms (I mean, just look at those dangling strings. You'd go up if you came into contact with a Bunsen burner)

Sat Nav, the bane of our lives

People switch on their Sat Navs and switch their brains off. What's happened to the ancient art of map reading? Or y'know, reading signs. At east the Sat Nav voice isn't that sarky woman who has a go at you if she has to recalculate the route.

Oh look it's taken me the wrong way

This happens in real life more often than you think/ There's a river by my house which must be a good 15ft deep, yet nearly all Sat Navs reckon that at the 15ft deep part there s a navigable ford and people DRIVE STRAIGHT INTO THE RIVER. Like I said, they turn on the Sat Nav and turn off their brains.

Not particularly impressed by the way the Sat Nav has complete control of the car. It's like an evil KITT.

Mind that Planet!

Donna has her first TARDIS driving lesson (surely an important bit of foreshadowing for a later storyline. You just wait and see). The Doctor's a bit of a backseat driver, bless him. I wonder how long it'll be before Donna gets the "where to hit the console with the mallet" lesson?)

Doctor Jones, Jones, Calling Doctor Jones

Yay it's Martha. Amused that, while on the phone, she's looking up into space. The whole mobile phone thing of Who makes my head hurt, purely due to the non-linear-ness that is time travel. What would have happened if she'd had called her past (obviously the Doctor would have come to help, he's like that, but it would have got awfully confusing).

A happy reunion?

There seems to be equal amounts of trepidation on both sides.

Luckily it's all forgotten in a moment



Martha meet Donna.

It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship and I'm really pleased that (other than Martha's "didn't take long to replace me" comment) Donna and Martha get on like a house on fire and immediately start picking on the Doctor.

Donna's uncanny powers of observation notice that Martha's all engaged. (She's a woman, of course she's going to notice that.) I'm a bit pleased that Martha's a bit engaged to the lovely Doctor Tom. After all he's willing to give his life for Martha, and that's something you like to see in a man.

UNIT, come on a bit frm the olden days

I do like the uniforms, less so the way they stormed the factory.

The Doctor gets some respect

Could the Doctor be court martialled for going AWOL? These are the random things that fall into my head when watching this.

Donna demands some respect

And really everyone should salute her. She's going to save your life at some point over the next couple of episodes. It's just what she does.

A test run

For something more nefarious? No one in Russia seems to own an Atmos car to take place in this experiment by the looks of things. I wonder if everyone drove into a river like the reporter.

The Doctor puts his glasses on to have at think

He does exactly what Buffy's Giles does and uses putting on his glasses to play for time.

I spy with my little eye the chair/bed from Cyberoman

Maybe they hope that so few people watched Torchwood during series one that we won't notice.

Creepy Clone is creepy

The fact it's mouth is sort of stitched up gave me actual nightmares. Bad form TV show.

Aww, he's so small and wee!

I can't help it. They are.

The Doctor suspects shenanigans

He's probably right too. I'm a bit suspicious of the science behind it all. How does a box on a back box make a car carbon neutral?

Super!Temp uses her powers of observation, again

It's true, empty files in an office does look very suspicious. Donna needs her own little cape and super hero outfit.

This was the one bit of the episode I didn't like

I can understand the reasoning behind Martha warning Donna (after all Martha's family suffered through the most horrible year), but it wasn't technically the Doctor's fault. If you're going to point the finger of blame at anyone, it would be Martha (as much as I love her) because her actions directly led to the Master de-fobwatching. (of course, the Doctor isn't entirely free of blame, he did knock Harriet Jones from power leaving the Master with a perfect opportunity. But I digress…)

I thought the dialogue was pretty clunky, it could have been expressed so much better.

The Doctor makes a fool of himself

Donna should have slapped him to shut him up.

Martha changes into super!Doctor

complete with stethoscope accessories.

Another happy reunion

Wilf's excitedness to see Donna was so, so sweet.

Nooooooooo Martha!!

She's going to need a bit of rescuing. Where's Donna when you need her?

I like Ross

But he's so sweet, snarky and perfect for Team TARDIS v3 that he's going to be dead by the end of the episode.

Who'd like in a house like this?

David it's over to you…

*ahem*

I wonder if the Doctor is seeing more than a shade of Adam there.



Ooh a teleport!



I-troo-der window

The old puns are always the old puns. The Sontarans are all so wee you an see the Doctor over them.

I love the fact they have no neck

and this really rubbish goatee. And the fact their heads are the same shape as their helmets.

The Doctor is a closest squash fan


Martha is unimpressed by the situation she's in

And tries to appeal to the better side of a Sontaran. It doesn't go well.

This shot reminds me of the popular shot of the Ninth Doctor and Rose in The End of the World

You can decide who is playing who.

Clone Martha!

No wonder she was looking quite annoyed. That must have been great fun to film. (I doubt very much).

Run away

The Doctor tries to save Ross from the massive explosion…

But is somewhat sadden by the lack of bang

The Doctor secretly resolves to impress Ross with a massive explosion later on in the story.

Twice the fun!

The Sontaran's pay god attention to detail by actually taking Martha's earrings and piercing clone Martha's ears. It's the little details that count.

OMG! It's you!

You were with that blonde at Christmas! You vanished! It takes the Doctor a moment to recognise Wilf without his little bobble hat. I hope, really, really hope that Wilf gets a ride on the TARDIS.

That wouldn't pass it's MOT

Although all cars should have it's own bed of nails.

Wilf! No!

it's like something out of a Stephen King novel with murderous cars. Why isn't Donna kicking in the window? Or ripping the road sign off its pole and using it as a battering ram? This is why electric windows are bad mmmmkay.

The Doctor panics and is no use at all

Will someone smash the bloody window already???

The Sontaran's rave it up

Although you shouldn't really party until the war is won.

The Doctor stands alone, lost and emo

And not breaking the bloody car windows in to save Wilf. Focus Doctor!

In conclusion
Loing all the guest cast in this. Especially Ross. He's a cutey. And would be perfect on board the good ship TARDIS (which really needs to up it's quota of male). Just a shame they were let down by a slightly rubbish script and the last scene with Wilf trapped in the car was infuriating rather than the tense think it as trying to go for.

I do like the Sontarans. They're so small and wee.

6/10. could do better.

to be continued...

Comments

[magicallaw.livejournal.com]

Look at the Doctor's cheesy grin when he hugs Martha! *pets them both*

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

Evil KITT HA HA HA awesome.

I loved the wee!Sontarans. Kept half imagining some silly skit in which one of them de-helmets to expose Davy Jones or an undead Dudley more. SHAME ON ME.

Wilf getting to ride in the TARDIS would be ace.

[aknockout.livejournal.com]

Russia hates ATMOS.

[lm-jillybean.livejournal.com]

I've been musing on the phones - I reckon they've got their own internal clock and the same amount of time passes for each phone.

Either that, or the TARDIS routes the call to whenever it likes.

I still don't know when Rose phoned her mother in 'The End of the World'

[steviesun.livejournal.com]

Could the Doctor be court martialled for going AWOL? These are the random things that fall into my head when watching this.

I suspect the Brig swiftly left notes about how the Doctor does it his own thing and it's impossible to stop him. And that it's pointless punishing him. It is all down to the Brig you know, he's great.

The old puns are always the old puns. The Sontarans are all so wee you an see the Doctor over them.

They seem to be getting smaller. And posess time travel abilities (because all the higher species do these days). In the Sontaran Experiment the Sontaran was the height of a normal human. I'm annoyed they've made them little. But thankfully thanks to Scrubs we should perhaps just call them "fun sized" instead.