What the hell happened to RTD? (Who spoilers for S1-4)

[Thanas]

^Actually, he tries to contact her and inform her that the air is breathable before trying to figure out what happened and tries to get into contact with Ida several times later.

I do get that he abandons her to die alone in some way, but there is the miniscule chance that he might find something down there that would help them. And with sitting there and doing nothing except slowly dieing....sucks worse. So yeah, I think he still made the right call, though I suspect it is a matter of opinion in the end.

Also, can someone please answer my questions, namely how I can view the reviews on GO and why Piper left the show in the first place?

[Stark]

^Actually, he tries to contact her and inform her that the air is breathable before trying to figure out what happened and tries to get into contact with Ida several times later.

I do get that he abandons her to die alone in some way, but there is the miniscule chance that he might find something down there that would help them. And with sitting there and doing nothing except slowly dieing....sucks worse. So yeah, I think he still made the right call, though I suspect it is a matter of opinion in the end.

You misunderstand. I'm not criticisng the character's decision, but the handling of it dramatically. There were some very powerful moments there at the end of the rope, having been built up along those pit scenes ('don't leave me', 'I have to know', 'tell Rose' etc) but then it kind of petered out into the monster business. Like Rye says, they had a great sense of atmosphere but it kinda petered out. Contrast with Midnight, where as insensitive bitch Donna tries to crack a joke the Doctor has the look of a haunted man. That's a payoff.

Also, can someone please answer my questions, namely how I can view the reviews on GO and why Piper left the show in the first place?

I haven't looked in some time, when I was reading them they were in a public area.

[Thanas]

You misunderstand. I'm not criticisng the character's decision, but the handling of it dramatically. There were some very powerful moments there at the end of the rope, having been built up along those pit scenes ('don't leave me', 'I have to know', 'tell Rose' etc) but then it kind of petered out into the monster business. Like Rye says, they had a great sense of atmosphere but it kinda petered out. Contrast with Midnight, where as insensitive bitch Donna tries to crack a joke the Doctor has the look of a haunted man. That's a payoff.

Okay, got it now and I agree. Yet I also have to wonder how they could have handled that better given the time constraints. Because one needs a monster scene eventually and I don't think there was enough time left to do both.

So I agree that I would have wished more, but have to wonder how they could have handled it differently. Maybe cut one supporting character and have less Ood time?

Also, can someone please answer my questions, namely how I can view the reviews on GO and why Piper left the show in the first place?

I haven't looked in some time, when I was reading them they were in a public area.

Ah, okay. They seem to have moved them. As for Piper, wikipedia (*shudder*) claims it was her own decision to leave, so unless someone has more info, I'll accept that as the truth.

[Stark]

To be honest, 'tell Rose... ... oh, she knows' for me is both one of the most powerful lines in the second season, and unlike later seasons actually works with regard to the finale, instead of invalidating it (like 'lol he's regenerating even though we just learned he doesn't'). They managed to sum up the Doctor's personality ('that's why I travel, to find something new'), have him face death, AND key into the finale WITHOUT fucking up the story it's in all in well-paced atmospheric scenes that didn't eat up screen time. After that, 'oh yay there's air and a silly logic puzzle' is just a bit of a letdown.

[Thanas]

To be honest, 'tell Rose... ... oh, she knows' for me is both one of the most powerful lines in the second season, and unlike later seasons actually works with regard to the finale, instead of invalidating it (like 'lol he's regenerating even though we just learned he doesn't').

Agreed. That line was my favorite from the episode as well and Tennant nailed that performance. And they also did a nice bit of foreshadowing setting up the finale, with the whole "if I believe in one thing... just one thing... I believe in her." and the beast prediction of her "death". That is the way one does foreshadowing and then come to a conclusion instead of the waste of time that is Season 4, because unlike Season 4, one actually believes in what the doctor is saying and how much she means to him.

Fuck. This actually caused me to remember another thing - in "School Reunion", the doctor promised Rose that he would not just leave her behind or discard her. Yet in the S4 finale, he does exactly that - and he does not even give her a choice. In fact, his whole behaviour in the finale contradicts how he acted towards her in S1/2. So yeah, great job remembering your own show, RTD.

They managed to sum up the Doctor's personality ('that's why I travel, to find something new'), have him face death, AND key into the finale WITHOUT fucking up the story it's in all in well-paced atmospheric scenes that didn't eat up screen time. After that, 'oh yay there's air and a silly logic puzzle' is just a bit of a letdown.

Well, when you put it that way, I'd have to agree. Thing is, though, at that time it didn't bother me that much because I was too caught up in the story. I mean, that is the thing with S2 - one does not necessarily notice the flaws because the execution is good. Unlike S4, where even the best execution ever (and no, it was nowhere near as good) could have glossed over the facts.

[DaveJB]

How do you watch the reviews without registering?

Here ya go. They stopped accepting new reviews after "Blink," but they amassed plenty of crazy ones before that.

[mr friendly guy]

Dude, go there. Look up reviews for hilariously bad novels, and compare to reviews of decent or good episodes. It's HILARIOUS. Typical 'if it's in our tiny elite niche it's good, if it's on mainstream anything regular people enjoy it's bad' disease.

Oh and I hope you like BO's pompous posting style and aping of actual critics. He's soft by OG standards.

Outpost gallifrey must have changed a lot since I last looked. Back in the day when Doctor Who was being revived, a lot of OG were fearful that the new series was not going to be mainstream enough, such that they didn't want mention of Time Lords or Gallifrey, because apparently mentioning the Doctor's home planet would make new fans all confuse or something.

[Thanas]

How do you watch the reviews without registering?

Here ya go. They stopped accepting new reviews after "Blink," but they amassed plenty of crazy ones before that.

Thank you for making the effort.

And a huge thank you for providing the means to make my brain hurt.

To elaborate: The majority of reviewers seem to think Doomsday was meh/crap, whereas that brainfart known as "Love and Monsters" gets praise like "one of the freshest, finest, funniest and most gloriously life-enhancing episodes of Doctor Who that has ever been screened" all across the board. Enough said.

Everything Stark has said is completely right. Fuck. I hope they are not representing the larger fandom.

[Revy]

Just watched Doomsday - fantastic finale. A meh on Torchwood though - did anyone else think of Henry Van Staten and his little museum when we saw them in Army of Ghosts for the first time?

Overall I enjoyed S2 with the exception of a few crap episodes, such as Love & Monsters (my utterly least favourite episode ever, even beating out Journeys End, and that's saying something) and Fear Her - are we seriously supposed to accept that an alien spore child can make the whole population of Earth vanish in the blink of an eye, when not even the Daleks have that kind of power (discounting massive doomsday machines)?

[Thanas]

^filler episodes. That's the problem with Love & Monster/Fear Her, because all the budget went into the finale. However, in S4 the "filler" episodes like "Midnight" were actually better than the finale.

[DaveJB]

I think Fear Her was also a rush-job to replace some other episode that didn't get its script completed in time. Not that it excuses how completely worthless it is... and if you need any indication of exactly how much that is, it's the only new series episode to get a median rating of 3/5 on the OG forums!