So, 'The Waters of Mars'. Described by some (involved in the production) as 'possibly the scariest episode ever'.
Good God.
I'm sorry, but even the tamest of Moffat's episodes was scarier that this dull, derivitive dross from Russell T. Supposedly there was some sort of emotional core to the episode... I guess I must have missed it in all the unconvincing vascillations in The Doctor's behaviour. First he wants to get away from a disaster he's all too familiar with, then he wants to rewrite history and save some 'little people' then, fast as a gunshot (oops - Spoiler), he realises how wrong he was to interfere. Seriously, if you're going to pull that sort of personality switch, at least have the decency to do it over a number of episodes. Consider the Pompeii episode as the beginning of this change, keep ramping up the 'last of the Timelords' angst, twist it into 'The Only Lord of Time' egotism, THEN pull this story out of your hat. Set up the fall before delivering it.
Sheesh.
What made it all the more unpalatable (for me) was sitting through the Confidential show which ran after the special. The impression the team gave was that they were utterly proud of their accomplishments, without ever acknowledging its shortcomings. Russell T. and team appear to be suffering from the same delusion they painted onto The Doctor: Whatever we do is good and right, because we are the Doctor Who production team.
I can understand some of the cuts - particularly those that turned Gadget from a complex, WALL-E style robot into the flimsy Meccano mating of a webcam and a Segway. What I couldn't understand is why we had a crew we were barely introduced to (and therefore didn't care about) turning into barely threatening zombies that gushed water from every orafice (in the first draft, at least) in an environment that was neither dark nor claustrophobic enough to facilitate any sense of peril.
It honestly felt like half the script had been cut out to keep to a rigid running time, and the end just didn't make any sense (no spoilers this time).
Sure, it had to lead into the Christmas special but, like the rest of these one-shots, lacked any punch and, in all honesty, did not show any true development in the character of The Doctor. In so many ways, it was just cheap.
In other news, I'm off work this week, and I'm not doing too badly so far - went out today and picked up a Christmas present for a friend. I've also been digging around in my old graphic design work for the SAM Coupé, having been recently contacted by someone who's still active in the scene (in the sense of working on a magazine, an accelerator, an Ethernet interface, internet connectivity... and a Twitter client, amongst other things), and intending to do an anniversary issue of his magazine with a feature on games that were announced, but never happened. This article would include one of mine...
Only, since I wrote back in such detail, he's changed his plans... Now, it may well be that some of my other stuff will feature in the 'Games That Never Happened', and the one he contacted me about first will appear in a feature all its own, in the following issue.
How cool is that?
Guess we'll have to wait and see ;)
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