Doctor Who SE30E05: The Unicorn and the Wasp [Spoilers]

[Zixinus]

The idea behind the episode wasn't so bad - murder mystery with famous crime author and sci-fi mixed in. Trouble is, it was doomed from the start by the inclusion of that stupid giant wasp; which I got the impression was just there to show off the CGI anyway.

I think that may be partly the reason why this season sucks more and more. They have a CGI budget and want to play with it. Using awe to make you skip over the badly or lazily written parts. Instead of using it for more awesome things, like showing a futuristic city or alien environments.

[Straha]

Utterly dull.


A few good moments (The Colonel walking, Charlemagne, "I was taking my constitutional. Not with anyone. No one around. Not anyone I know.") but on the whole dull and utterly pointless. More duds than laughs. And a couple utterly wasted potential plots. The Agatha-wank was annoying. Especially because they seemed to waffle between letting Agatha Christie solve it all and having the Doctor be an important part of it. If they'd gone one way or the other it could have (not necessarily would have) been a lot better.

At best a 2 or a 3.

[Stark]

I think that may be partly the reason why this season sucks more and more. They have a CGI budget and want to play with it. Using awe to make you skip over the badly or lazily written parts. Instead of using it for more awesome things, like showing a futuristic city or alien environments.

This is someone you notice if you rewatch S1. The CGI was poo by comparison, but they used it for awesome shit like 'holy fuck 40,000 Daleks in space' instead of 'stupid Sontaran pod thing' and 'wow a big brain'. Looked worse, but was better!

[Straha]

I think that may be partly the reason why this season sucks more and more. They have a CGI budget and want to play with it. Using awe to make you skip over the badly or lazily written parts. Instead of using it for more awesome things, like showing a futuristic city or alien environments.

This is someone you notice if you rewatch S1. The CGI was poo by comparison, but they used it for awesome shit like 'holy fuck 40,000 Daleks in space' instead of 'stupid Sontaran pod thing' and 'wow a big brain'. Looked worse, but was better!

No. No. No. Russel T. Davies knows what the people want. And they don't want alien worlds with greater detail, they want more Earth more super-natural enemies and more subway-stations passed off as sprawling city-scapes. You should know that better than anyone Stark.

[Hillary]

How many references to Christie books? Ignoring the Orient Express one, I spotted

Body in the Library
Sparkling Cyanide
Why didn't they ask Evans
They do it with Mirrors

The Indian woman's death was also straight out of Ten Little Indians (as it was renamed).

Utterly throwaway episode - it sort of betrays a man who has run out of ideas and has moved on to self-parody instead.

[Zixinus]

This is someone you notice if you rewatch S1. The CGI was poo by comparison, but they used it for awesome shit like 'holy fuck 40,000 Daleks in space' instead of 'stupid Sontaran pod thing' and 'wow a big brain'. Looked worse, but was better! Smile

Actually, I think there is a correlation. Then they had a low CGI budget thus had to use it wisely. The writers had no choice but to try to use simple drama instead. Now they have enough to play with it, so they can skip story and drama with impressive CGI.