The Doctor is... Out

[angelophile]

Usually I post a spoiler-freeish review on the latest Doctor Who episode, but I realize that anything I post here this week, including the episode's title, will be a spoiler, sooo... this one's under a cut. And will be more spoilery than normal, so you might want to wait until you see the episode before clicking.



So, the episode is called "The Doctor's Daughter".

And for about two minutes, there's an air of mystery behinf that one.

But wait, what's this? Pre-credit sequence they not only introduce the character, show her origins and ruin the slightest sense of mystery they might have had by revealing, hey, she's a clone.

And you know what else is a clone?

THIS ENTIRE EPISODE.

As soon as the credits rolled I had predicted the whole episode, practically, based on what I'd seen then and the trailer.

newbumber6 complained last week about the lack of surprises in the new Who.

Well, this week he's going to have a field day.

As soon as anything happened, you could predict how it was going to end up.

Martha gets dragged off by the (admittedly cool) fish guys?

Hey, let's bet she saves one's life, gets accepted by the team and then her newfound buddy dies saving her life.

Ooh! Tick!

The Doctor suddenly becomes a 'father'?

Hey, I bet his daughter and he are like chalk and cheese at first and fight, but gradually learn to love and accept one another?

Hey, guess what?! Tick.

Ooh, look, a laser grid. What say the Doctor's daughter does incredible gymnastic backflips through it like that scene in Ocean's Twelve, Entrapment, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and, hey, even a bloody Britney Spears video.

I do need to bother? Tick.

Now, let's see. Two sides fighting an underground war for generations. What's the betting there's some big twist and the war is somehow ultimately futile and some Douglas Adams-esque microcosm of a bigger picture?

Whee. Tick.

ooh, a hardened general character. When the war ends, is he going to accept it? Is he going to lay down his gun? Or as soon as you see him, do you go "hey, I bet he tries to kill the Doctor when his soldiers lay down their weaspons when peace breaks out and the Doctor's saughter, who he's only just getting to know, herocially throws himself in front of the bullet to save him"?

Ding! We have a winner!

The crowning turd in the water barrel was Georgia Moffett in the Doctor Who Confidential afterward saying of that moment "It just comes out of the blue. It's not expected."

Maybe not if you're clinically dead.

I'm already seeing other reviews coming in saying that they liked this episode, but man...

Freema, once again given an emotional moment! And she acts! For about ten seconds! Although the Doctor Who Condidential suggests it was less acting miserable and more being miserable after freezing her buttocks off on a cold December night falling into puddles. Because the rest of the episode she was still wearing that stunned rabbit expression. Why do people care about this character or actress?

And then there's the twist ending, which of course wasn't a twist, but makes no sense within the confines of the Who universe at all. Like the Master's "I don't want to regenerate so I shan't", they seem to be just making this shit up as they go along. Since when has regeneration worked like Captain Jack?

Speaking of whom, one fine joke in the episode, about Miss Saigon. Almost worth the price of admission.

And not the only decent moment as Catherine Tate continues to utterly turn around my expectations by being excellent, sympathetic and generally great as Donna. Some great lines and some great moments bouncing of Tennant.

Unfortunately, Tennant himself struggling under the weight of so much damn cliche could only do so much.

No superpowers plucked from the Doctor's arse, this week, but unfrtunately enough were pulled out of other people's and he ended the episode getting treated like a god again, so any good was quickly washed away.

I did like the fish people, thought. Unique design and they totally went the right way by cutting their lines instead of dubbing them over (as the Confidential showed was the intention). They worked far better without dialogue than they would have with the awful "Goodbye friend Martha" crap we heard there.

I didn't loath the episode, Georgia Moffett was admittedly cute and appropriately sassy as the daughter of a Doctor (and in real life, former Doctor) shoould be, but she got saddled with an awful bunch of predictable cliches sewn together masquerading as an origin story.

Not as weak as the opener, but I can safely say, as an episode, this wasn't up to much.