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kalihaYou got a bit of foam on yer nose, no, the other side
Whenever an episode starts with the Doctor and his companion off having fun and not running for their lives I get automatically suspicious. Because we all know that we'll never get an episode of Donna buying little nick nacks and the Doctor embarrassing the locals, not for forty-five minutes. I give it three minutes before there is running, and screaming...
Chan it's Chipo Chung tho
Chan It's nice to see her not under half a ton of latex and little whirry motors, tho. (I wasn't doing this all the way through the episode, honest. No really, I only did it for a couple of minutes)
What's scuttling in the shadows?
It's not going to be a small fluffy kitten is it? There should be more fluffy little kittens in skiffy.
So Donna makes a different choice and picks right instead of left and we are left to get a potted history of the next few years.
Her family probably consider her to be a bit fey
It's nice to see that the entire human race aren't completely oblivious to the presence of the paranormal.
Oh, this takes me back
I wonder who's in charge. It won't be Saxon telling the army to fire on the ship. But Harriet would have been pensioned off for being 'tired' as that happened before Donna joined the Doctor's timeline. I wonder who ended up as Lance's pawn though? Did she escape?
The Donna from the Runaway Bride wouldn't have gone running towards the alien firing on London
Just sayin'.
Probably the most depressing shot of the series
There's something wrong about the sonic lying on the floor forgotten and abandoned.
Oh and who else was sad that it wasn't Ross playing the 'familiar UNIT character' role?
And Billie plays another familiar face. *waves*, hi Rose!
How awful for her to force her way across the universes only to discover that she was too late. Poor Rose. And I'm completely ignoring the fact that Rose apparently spent every waking moment of being in the other universe trying to find a way back to the Doctor (because coming back = opening the void + making the universes go splurmpt and that's not a good situation) according the Uncle Rusty in the Confidential.
(Moving away from the plot for a minute, what the hecky heck was going on with Billie's voice? It sounded like she'd just come from the dentist after having a filling. And it was rather distracting too. However I do have a rather fanwanky way of handwaving it away which I'll go into later.)
A quick jump forward a few months and it's the day Martha's hospital disappears
Meanwhile, Donna is getting the sack and isn't taking it well.
This is more like the self-absorbed Donna of old, who didn't notice a third of the population standing on the edge of buildings or the Dalek v Cybermen face off. And frankly, it's not a nice Donna to be around because we know that she's better than that now. (In the background, but not in this screencap is my standing lamp from IKEA - I know, fancy the Doctor Who set department buying set dressing from IKEA???)
The only survivor?
Hello Oliver, how nice to see you again. I hope you stood up to the Judoon again and I'm sure you did all you could to try and help everyone, just like you did the first time round.
Oh Martha, how soon we lost you. But then it gets worse when we discover that Sarah Jane was playing at being the Doctor and tried to save the day but failed and took Luke and Clyde with her (possibly Maria too although I didn't hear her name mentioned). The cull of the cast has begun in earnest.
Wilf's more aware of the world falling apart than everyone else.
Donna goes out for that new!Who staple, chips
And oh, what a surprise, bumps into the mysterious lady again. Rose pretends to be surprised at bumping into Donna, but we all know that it's no coincidence. I wonder what Rose is up to.
Isn't this the same place as where Donna's wedding reception took place?
It certainly looks a lot like it. (Ignore the fact all the trees are in full bloom and it's supposed to be the middle of December)
That's my sort of Christmas morning
A nice lie in with a box of Marks & Spencers luxury chocolates. Poor old Wilf being dumped on the sofa. That's just not fair, a man of his age.
And now we're catching up to Christmas present
Only this time the Doctor wasn't around to save the day (or the Queen)
And London went boom
But surely the city would have been practically empty (remember Wilf telling the Doctor and Astrid that everyone had abandoned the city after the previous two Christmases?) So although the city and a lot of the surrounding area was irradiated, the body count isn't in the 6-7 million level because so many people decided to get the hell out of Dodge for Christmas.
Packed off to the country
My thoughts in the previous caption seem to be born out as the relocation admin talks about re-homing 7 million people around the country. Surely not as difficult as they were making out, there's piles of building going on (even with the credit crunch at the moment) and not everyone lives in or around London, a lot of people would have had family elsewhere in the country. And what about all the caravan sites and hotels and Butlins and Haven sites and Pontins sites across the country? More than enough space for everyone to stay there's no need to pack half a dozen families into a two up two down in Leeds.
Those sorts of places are where people would be put up first or Caravans and stuff requisitioned and dumped in fields. There's plenty of space for everyone.
And Leeds isn't that bad
It's nicer than where I live that's for sure.
I can't believe that the country would have started to fall apart so quickly
With no rubbish collection and everyone suspicious and hating on each other.
Just because London's gone it doesn't mean that the country will grind to a halt. Most of the MPs would have been at home or in their constituencies and not in London and even the PM would have been out of town. It depresses me to think we could fall into such social disorder in such a short time.
We'd still have electricity (although it would probably be part-time power like in the early Seventies) and telecoms systems (of a sort), the local councils are granted emergency powers during times like this and there'd be rationing and we wouldn't starve because we grow an awful lot of our own food anyway (apart from fruit and stuff like that) and people would be turning their back gardens into allotments like they did during the Second World War. We'd be wasting less food because it would be rationed. It really wouldn't be as bad as the episode made it out to be. Not in such a short space of time anyway. Maybe after a couple of years, but not so quickly.
Donna's whippet comment did make me laugh though. I'm such a bad person.
Day 2 in the Big Brother house
It's Luigi from Ashes to Ashes!
It's like when you turn up on holiday
to discover that the brochure was lying somewhat.
Meanwhile, America dissolves into a big pile of fat
It's cute though. Look at the little Adipose waving. Awwwwww. It's a cute way to die. Which makes it all the more disturbing. 60 million people, that's quite a substantial part of your population.
The Noble wimmin have a heart to heart
Donna's not giving up, even if her mother is.
However, even a terrible situation can be made better with a bit of Queen
And I bet if they got as far as the headbanging bit they'd be having a bit of a Wayne's World headbang. Scaramouche, scaramouche!
Just what is on your back Donna?
Even Lucius could see it, before you even got it.
And look who turns up like a bad penny
Even Donna's now caught on that this is more of a co-incidence. And now Donna wants answers. I loved the following scene between Donna and Rose, no bitchiness or snark, just Donna's confusion and Rose's sorrow. And it's true, the Doctor does have great, almost sentient, hair.
The sky is on fire
Donna's finally paying real attention to the world around her. Let's face it, we'd all be looking quite similar.
Just a nobody
Poor Donna, she thinks she's so powerless. But considering she's trapped in a universe made especially for her, she's actually rather powerful. It's just accessing that power which is a bit problematic. Lucky Rose is around then.
Great. Less than six months after the fall of British Civilisation we have holiday camps across the land converted into 'labour camps'
Oh, so that's why no one was moved into the holiday camps then. It was hardly subtle was it? Why are all the sea lanes closed? Why are people not allowed to return home? Why can't they just fly back? We've got plenty of airports, the Chunnel, Ferries go from lots of ports along the Eastern and Western sides of our country. We're not that isolated.
Wilf's watching history repeat itself
Can I just mention how ace Bernard Cribbins was right the way through this episode? His understated acting was so powerful, especially during this scene.
Donna's mum is the embodiment of the British people in this
She's completely given up.
The stars are going out
It's like the end of the universe all over again. And how scary must it be to watch the stars flicker out one by one, knowing that something is out there but being completely powerless to stop it or even discover what it is until it is much too late.
This is serious Rose
Rose has changed a lot since the last time we saw her, on that beach in Norway. Feels like a million years ago. She's a lot harder, much more serious. It's almost as if her love of adventure has been snuffed out and surely that's not all down to being parted from the Doctor. There is something very wrong in Pete's world, more wrong that just the apocalypse-iness of the universes imploding if Donna doesn't fix the timeline.
I'm actually a bit sad to see Rose like this. Like Martha, she colder and harder and she's lost her joy.
The wrong word in the wrong place...
I can understand why Rose is going incognito around UNIT at least, because they'd search the records and see that she 'died' at Canary Wharf and they wouldn't trust her. However, walking in as if she owns the place and having a good idea of just what is going on gains her immediate tust. Just like the Doctor does. In fact Rose is acting an awful lot like the Doctor and not much like Rose. The secrecy of her name, the riddles, the knowledge of what is going on, it's all very Doctor-like.
Rose is the Doctor in a Doctor!lite episode.
The joy of seeing someone meet the TARDIS for the first time
Right down to seeing someone going into the TARDIS and go...
....Bloody hell, it's massive in here!
it's always great to see.
The TARDIS is dying
Poor TARDIS, without a Time Lord to patch it up, and most likely mourning for its companion of the last few hundred years it's no wonder the TARDIS is feeling a bit emo. Although there's just enough spark left for it to respond to Rose touching the console.
New for Christmas 2008 - Beetle rucksacks
And a real "we've got no budget left" beetle at that too.
She looks like the Doctor, covered in bits of wire
it's like that bit in Doomsday. I think it's mostly due to the long coat. Saving the world with wire and bits of string, that's something we've seen before too.
And this is to combat dehydration
Possibly my favourite bit of the episode. It was just so matter of fact and delivered so beautifully too.
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry
Again more Doctorish behaviour from Miss Tyler. (and something which lends a tiny bit of possibility to my little theory). The Rose we all know and love would have tried to come up with any way, any way at all to try and prevent Donna's death. Even after meeting with the Reapers first hand.
That's a point. How do the universe changing beetles deal with the Reapers whose job it is to fix broken or damaged timelines (like they did with the off-shoot of 1980s London where Pete lived)?
Time travel is an explosive business
I wonder if it looks like that outside the TARDIS all the time. Note how all the lights have come back on inside the TARDIS (ie the lit up interior blackcloth has been hung up inside it).
I made it to the right year!
She complains that she's ended up half a mile away from where she should be, but at least she ended up on the right planet, in the right town in the right year. It's something that doesn't happen all that often where timetravel in this show is concerned.
A dreadful realisation
She's not going to get to her past self in time. She's going to die and the only way to fix history is to step out in front of a lorry. It's a rather sucky way to go.
There seems to be a distinct rise in traffic related accidents when Rose is around
Don't worry Donna, it happens to a lot of people Rose likes.
I really hope that this is the death so many people have foretold in the series this year. I get this really sinking feeling that it's not.
You have so much power!
Well, she had a bit of a helping hand. Or did she? Was this actually all in her head? No time's passed since the start of the episode (for Donna anyway). Oh time travel, why are you so confusing?
Very pleased to see you.
The Doctor hopes to get a reception like this all the time.
Poke it with a stick
it's the classic way of investigating a strange lifeform. Although I don't think many people use a joss stick to investigate strange alien symbiotes.
Donna and her attraction to parallel universes
I'd hardly call it happening twice more than a co-incidence. If it had been happening every single week or every other week then it would be a different story.
Bad Wolf
Now there's two words to strike the fear of, well, whatever Time Lords are feared of, into a Time Lord's hearts. And like River knowing his name it's two words that prove that Donna's been pulled into something unusual. After all, there's no way that Donna would know Bad Wolf or what it means. If she'd have said Rose Tyler it certainly wouldn't have had the impact. After all, there's only 3 beings still living that know the phrase, the Doctor, Rose and the TARDIS (the Emperor Dalek was wiped from existence so unless he was liveblogging when he was dissolved no one else could possibly know)
Two words, scattered through time and space
it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
And now time for a bit of a fanwanky theory
This is my little fanwanky theory. This could be completely Jossed within the first thirty seconds of the next episode. The Rose that Donna saw during this episode wasn't actually Rose but was actually a projection or something by the TARDIS. Because if the way between worlds is currently closed (due to possible splurmpt-ing then there's no way that Rose could have got across, especially into a pocket universe that is just a cul-de-sac due to alien interference). Hence the slightly off-kilter voice and the way Rose was more Doctorish and less Roseish.
Because the TARDIS exists outside of normal time and space (at least, parts of it does) and also exists in all parts of time and space then it should be aware of the formation of the little pocket universe and the probable causes for it.
It's not too big a jump them to suppose that the TARDIS takes matters into its own 'hands' and tries to put Donna on the right path in order to preserve the time line and save Donna at the same time.
Now like I said this could all be Jossed within minutes of the next episode starting because if Rose knows/recognises Donna beyond bumping into her after the Adipose incident then we know that it wasn't the TARDIS it was actually Rose visiting Donna in the pocket universe, which then leads to a lot of questions about how she managed to do it. The technology in Pete's world wasn't that much advanced compared to our own which can only imply that outside forces are involved. How and why we'll discover over the next couple of weeks I suppose.
It looks so strange
Now is this the TARDIS's influence, no? After all it's the ship that translates everything the Doctor and Donna sees (and it was also the ship that scattered the words through time and space). The TARDIS is obviously a lot more aware of what's going on than her driver is.
The sky is falling the sky is falling!
Can you hear the Cloister Bell? Can you?
In conclusion
If I ignore the fact British society would completely break down if London got blown up I did actually enjoy the episode. I love having Rose back (even it was wasn't completely the Rose we remember), I though the way she was introduced and the way she was with Donna was very well played (I was worried that we'd have School Reunion style bitchiness and was so, so glad we didn't).
I thought Catherine Tate was absolutely brilliant. A bit shouty (but then again she was playing the Donna-that-was, not the Donna-that-is and shoutiness comes with the territory.
I am looking forward to next week with a massive amount of glee based on the trailers alone.
8/10
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(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 06:10 pm (UTC)Your theory is really interesting, I am really curious to find out if that was actually Rose and how she managed to get there. The "Doctorish" things she did seemed almost too obvious which makes me think something is a little fishy. Still, glad to see Billie Piper! Next week is going to be so, so epic.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 06:25 pm (UTC)Glad you mentioned it! I found it extremely distracting!! You could be right about the Rose/Tardis thing. Her voice was so annoying i dont understand why it was like that
You are spot on, sure having London blow up would effect the country, but it wouldnt cause everyone to relocate to Leeds and concentration camps. Bit over the top that, it was very sad at the time, but like you say very unrealistic particularly in the time frame.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 09:28 pm (UTC)Your theory saddens me because it seems plausible, but I loved the strong, spunky Rose. It was the Rose I feel we should have had in season 2 but didn't. I'd be terribly sad if she turned out to be a manifestation of the TARDIS (also - I think I wrote a fic like that once)
I think the other coincidence in the episode was that Rose keeps bumping into Donna, in any universe, even the universes that she's not supposed to be in. How the Doctor would known of that I have no idea.
I'm trying not to think too hard about it because I LOVED this Rose. I LOVED the Bad Wolf too (because Bad Wolf is Rose, and that leaves me hopeful for Bad Wolf which I think was hugely underused)
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 04:15 am (UTC)Martha and Rose, together they fight crime!
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:40 am (UTC)I want a series of their lesbians adventures. Just to really piss people off.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 01:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 02:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 01:37 pm (UTC)My theory is that if it wasn't real Rose then it's possible that it was Bad Wolf. And hence the more Doctorish Rose.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 02:11 pm (UTC)(I like Bad Wolf)
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, June 27th, 2008 07:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, June 27th, 2008 08:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, June 27th, 2008 09:28 pm (UTC)It's worse than Star Trek Voyager. My not-so-inner scientist is frustrated.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 09:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 10:03 pm (UTC)The impression I got was that it was a lot more than just London that had to be evacuated. And I expect some areas close to London were probably dosed with lethal amounts of radiation even if they weren't killed in the blast.
Good point about other countries not letting their own citizens back after this.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 01:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 02:04 pm (UTC)And if the west country and Cornwall are all fine that's a LOT of countryside for homes to be built on. May take a while, and it'd sacrifice a lot of farms and previously protected areas, but there's a lot of land.
Which would give some hope that they may recover in the future even if the next few years are pretty crap.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 06:44 pm (UTC)And yes, there's space for houses down here. But at the same time if people weren't crossing water full stop then we'd effectively become and island and maybe they didn't want that. Or maybe the cornish finally set up that defensive border but included the rest of us those silly sods.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 07:04 pm (UTC)And I wouldn't mind being cut off with the Cornish, far better than those northern people *mock throwing of spears towards Leeds). I could actually see that, and who knows - Cornish may make a comeback!
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 01:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 01:44 am (UTC)I had to go look it up, but that seems to be about 1/5-1/4 of our population. Yeah, that would be a bit of a problem.
On the other hand, it would open up space to take in 7 mil refugees, easy.
Poke it with a stick
*snerk* They kept handing David odd props and making him do something about it this episode. He's emoting his little heart out over that hedgehog thing in the background earlier, and then they hand him a rubber bug and tell him to look knowing. Without making the inflatable prop explode.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 03:48 am (UTC)I didn't recognise Luigi! *shame*
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 06:03 am (UTC)Enh, you'd be surprised. Things are awfully interconnected. Take, say, September 11th: I'm in Seattle, on the opposite side of the continent, 3,000 miles away. Did anything happen that day that affected my life in any permanent way (barring travel stupidity)? No, not really. It would be easy to think it had nothing to do with me. But then again, the local Boeing employees might have thought differently. All emphasis below is mine. This happened within one week.
So. Economic ripple effects? Fuck yes. And imagine an event like that expanding beyond (not to diminish things, but it was fairly contained, all things considered) a few office buildings. Think that might start wrecking things in very short order in pretty much every part of the country? Short version: uh-huh.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:44 am (UTC)That's the reason why there were jobs in Glasgow ;)
And Northern Ireland would be brought in to Ireland again, so really it's just Nuclear contaminated Wales and North England that suffers, if you ask me. Maybe that's what was happening.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, June 26th, 2008 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, June 27th, 2008 07:52 am (UTC)