Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
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HH with spoilers for Episodes 1 and 2 or season 4
In Reply To
CrazySugarFreakBoy!

Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
Subj: Weakling.
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 11:03:17 am EDT
Reply Subj: I finally broke down and watched "Partners in Crime" and "The Fires of Pompeii" online ...
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 02:57:59 am EDT (Viewed 446 times)


> ... And the first was a lot better than a lot of folks seemed to be saying - except why does Russell T. Davies insist upon killing off his hottest MILF archvillains? Miss Foster, Mrs. Wormwood and Yvonne Hartman all need to form their own Estrogen Legion of Doom - due in no small part to Tate as Donna.

Donna got off to a very strong start with this one. The only problem I had with the script was the realisation of the Adipose. the concept was fine, but the execution was a step beyond how much I can suspend my disbelief. It felt like one of those concepts that sound great when you think of them at 3am in the morning but should be given a reality check the next day. I wasn't in love with the Adipose anything like as much as the production team was and thought I should be.

Mind you, I felt the same about the effusive production team gushings about the Ood in episode 3.

> I get the feeling this is going to be for her career what Good Morning Vietnam was for Robin Williams, in terms of showing the dramatic range of a previously mostly comic actor.

You may well be right. She seems to be benefiting from the exposure anyhow; and given that she already has her own series over here with her name in the title that's quite remarkable.

> The second was really quite awesome, living up to the promise of the clip that you and I already discussed in e-mail at length. Davies seems to be a fan of the Asterix comics, by the way he named the characters,

Actually, Caecilus and his wife and son are from the Cambridge Latin Primer, the textbook that I and a generation of schoolboys had to study back in the 70s. Caecilus and his family (no daughter) actually lived in Pompeii in those books and they died in the eruption at the end of the series.

And okay, Lucius Petrus Dextrus means "Light Stone Left Hand". Talk about a giveaway name.

> and the clarification of why the Doctor can interfere with history at some times, but not others, was perfectly consistent with classic series continuity, while allowing enough wiggle room for future interpretations.

Yes, I thought that was well done.

The throwaway line about the Doctor being in Rome before was a fan-feed too, referring to how the Doctor accidentally started Nero's great fire of Rome while Nero was chasing Barbera round his bedroom.