Post by Mike MorrisI've never got the thing about Spare Parts, I think it's really pretty
poor. It's a terribly meandering storyline, and all that "Wilst tha'
not stay fer another cuppa lass" stuff gets on my nerves and I never
found Mondas believable. RotC isn't short on SF cliches, of course,
but it establishes its parallel universe with extraordinary ease.
Also, whereas RotC actually has a relevant edge - it's about mobile
phone culture and our obsession with being connected - Spare Parts
seems to rely on collective stupidity and docility of an entire
society in order to make the Cybermen even happen.
I quite liked the idea of how media bombardment keeps people docile
and distracted, and how horrors like the abduction of the homeless,
the people who've sunk below society's field of vision goes on under
everyone's noses. Though as a much more consequential story, I still
prefer Spare Parts. I think it's more effective in that the Doctor
loses there, so there's a lot more fallout.
Post by Mike MorrisRose nipping off to tell her parallel mum and dad how to live their
lives is the standard self-involved S2 stuff, of course, but I quite
like the way the story makes clear that Mickey's had a much harder
life and questions Rose's attitude. Tentatively, but at least it's
there. It's plotting-by-numbers in many ways, but at least the plot
actually goes somewhere. Plus, it's got threat. I watched it with a
non-fan friend, and halfway through the Age of Steel he exclaimed
"Bloody hell, they make the Daleks look like *pets*."
In parts I empathised with Rose's desire to see her parents and her
err in coming across too familiarly to Jackie. But in other ways her
moaning moments were a bit indulgent and schmaltzy, and her jealousy
of the Doctor talking to the waitress Lucy made her seem unpleasantly
spiteful.
Mickey had grown on me by this point, and I agree that the tentative
critique of Rose's pettiness should have been more than a promising
red herring, since by the end of Series 2 she hadn't learned anything.
Post by Mike MorrisPost by t***@yahoo.co.ukI know what you mean about the 'parrallel universe where I rode my
bike a few inches to the left' theory. I'd say though that Doctor Who
has so far avoided anything so banal. I don't think the parrallel
universe genre has been overused in Doctor Who, and certainly it's
avoided the fanwankish, insular mundaneity of differences that say the
Star Trek Next Generation epsiode Parrallels did, where Worf is
married to Troi, or Picard was killed by the Borg. Doctor Who uses the
gimmick for the big events where there really is a whole universe of
possibilities.
I agree with all that, or at least all the bits I recognise...
I used to be a major Trekkie in my teenage years, I've since
rehabilitated myself and now I strangely find it repellantly stuffy.
(apart from some lingering nostalgic fondness I still harbour for the
Trek film with the whales).
Post by Mike MorrisPost by t***@yahoo.co.ukStill my favourite parrallel universe strand is Dalek Empire, where
the Daleks encounter a parrallel universe with a different species of
more benevolent Daleks with a female creator. Just like RotC, it kind
of redefines the Daleks as something that was inevitable, and that the
specific origins don't really matter.
Must try Dalek Empire when I've cash to spare. I know you're a big
fan. I'm put off by Jubilee, actually, which annoyed me a bit - in
fact, the parallel universe thing was a big part of what annoyed me,
come to think of it
At the moment I'm only a big fan of the first two series of Dalek
Empire, but after that point I just found it rather aimless. I did
write a rather gushing review on Dalek Empire III, but after the high
died down, I realised it had gone nowhere and had cheated me of an
ending. I wasn't impressed with Dalek Empire 4 either. I thought that
one had really lost the plot.
Dalek Empire is a very expensive hobby. I'd recommend the first two
series but nothing after that, and I'd say it's probably best to wait
until Big Finish is doing a Summer sale on their website before
forking out. Otherwise each season costs 40 pounds to collect.
The series picks up plot threads from Genocide Machine and Apocalypse
Element, but they're not essential to follow. Infact I found Dalek
Empire II quite easy to follow without having heard the first series.
The first series ends in a cliffhanger (Rob Matthews and several fans
here were understandably very unhappy with that), but the second is
more conclusive, and really marks what should have been the natural
end of the series.
It doesn't really have ties to Jubilee, though there are thematic
similarities, such as stockholm syndrome and the power of propaganda,
and of course giving the Daleks a real psychological advantage over
humans. Similar gruesomeness as well. And of course it's got Gareth
Thomas playing a more ruthless Blake kind of character.