Agamemnon
2010-05-08 20:22:51 UTC
From the plot revelations in this episode and the ones earlier it looks like
Steve Moffat is deliberately copying RTDs first season, but much, much
better.
RTD The Time Lords have been destroyed in a Time War with the Daleks and
this has had a catastrophic impact on the whole universe with diverse alien
races being wiped out too or turned into refugees. Voila, The Unquiet Dead.
SM The Time Lords have been destroyed in a Time War and the result of this
is a crack in the whole universe with diverse alien races being wiped out
too or turned into refugees. Voila, Vampires of Venice.
RTD We need to set an episode on a space station with an alien lurking
inside. Voila, Vampires of Venice.
SM We need to set an episode on a space station with an alien lurking
inside. Voila, The Beast Below.
RTD The Doctor has just regenerated, comes to earth, saves it from an alien
about to destroy it and finds a new assistant. Voila, Rose
SM The Doctor has just regenerated, comes to earth, saves it from an alien
about to destroy it and finds a new assistant. Voila, The Eleventh Hour
Obviously you could probably point out other similar examples from the
original series which would lead you to claim that the two new series are no
different but both the RTD and SM series have something else in common
linking them together.
I have concluded that both RTD and Steve Moffat are being forced to use a
Doctor Who Style Manual written by John Nathan Turner on the orders of
Michael Grade in order to appease Mary Whitehouse and the show's critics.
1) MW/MG The Doctor always subliminally convinces his assistants and
other people to sacrifice themselves for him. This is not a good example for
children.
JNT We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake. Adric.
RTD We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake. River Song, Donna (Turn Left).
SM We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake.
2) MW/MG The Doctor isn't human and shows no humanity. This is not a good
example for children.
JNT The Doctor must show more emotion. We'll make him show more
anger with the villain. But what if the villain isn't on screen. Ah, the
Doctor can show anger at his assistant too. Obviously he wants her to be the
best and if she doesn't live up to his expectation then he can shout at her.
Eric Sewell We'll make the Doctor half human in the TVM
RTD We'll make the Doctor show more anger, and if his assistant
isn't good enough he can be angry with her as well.
SM We'll make the Doctor him show more anger, both with the villain
and his assistant.
3) MG Doctor Who must be modernised.
JNT Make the assistant modern slang which the Doctor has no problem
understanding
Eric Sewell Make the show more American in style and introduce US
slang of course
RTD Make the Doctor use modern slang and the show more American in
style
SM Make the Doctor use modern slang and the show more American in
style
4) MG The Doctor is too serious.
JNT Get the Doctor to play the spoons and clown around
Eric Sewell Make the Master camper than ever so the Doctor can play
it down
RTD Get the Doctor to do a shoe dance and clown around
SM Make the Doctor think he's Captain Jack Sparrow
5) MG Doctor Who must appeal to and portray ordinary people
JNT Give the Doctor a juvenile delinquent for his assistant
Eric Sewell Give the Doctor a teenage gang member to look out for
RTD Make Doctor Who into a soap opera. Give his assistant a
boyfriend and a family.
SM Give the Doctor's assistant a boyfriend, friends and relatives
6) MG The Doctor always gets it on with the rules of alien planets but he
never behaves like that with the leaders of Earth.
JNT The Doctor gets it on with the Queen
RTD The Doctor gets it on with the Queen, in fact several of her
SM The Doctor gets it on with the Queen
and so on and so forth.
Now lets get down to today's story.
It felt to me like it had been written and filmed as a two parter and half
the material had been cut out to make it shorter, with it jumping from one
scene to a different one without any explanation of what happened in between
and how the people got to know what they knew or to be where they were. For
example, the Doctor pops out of a wedding cake. What happened to the story
about how he got in it? In the next scene Rory (Amy's boyfriend, if that
isn't his name) is right inside the TARDIS. How did he get there? Where was
it parked? And after that they all end up bumping into trouble all over the
place with no proper explanation of how they got there. This is not story
telling. It's set piece after set piece and for this reason Vampire of
Venice his is the weakest story of the season so far.
Knowing that, why did they choose a scene from the weakest story of the
season to promote the series on the Jonathan Ross show, and not only that,
they also chose the weakest scene in the whole story and series so far, the
Johnny Depp impersonation in the cellar, and made some cuts to it which made
it look even worse. Um and how can houses built on water have cellars, won't
they be flooded all the time?
The ending wasn't very convincing either. Whatshername's father sacrifices
himself to blow up the fishy people. Like he conveniently has all those
explosives lying around and the aliens chose to put all their eggs into one
basket. Amy somehow inexplicable kills the fishy alien by pointing her
mirror at him? And then the fish lady jumps into the water and sacrifices
herself for no reason. Where did all the other fish men go? Are they still
all swimming under Venice?
9/10
Steve Moffat is deliberately copying RTDs first season, but much, much
better.
RTD The Time Lords have been destroyed in a Time War with the Daleks and
this has had a catastrophic impact on the whole universe with diverse alien
races being wiped out too or turned into refugees. Voila, The Unquiet Dead.
SM The Time Lords have been destroyed in a Time War and the result of this
is a crack in the whole universe with diverse alien races being wiped out
too or turned into refugees. Voila, Vampires of Venice.
RTD We need to set an episode on a space station with an alien lurking
inside. Voila, Vampires of Venice.
SM We need to set an episode on a space station with an alien lurking
inside. Voila, The Beast Below.
RTD The Doctor has just regenerated, comes to earth, saves it from an alien
about to destroy it and finds a new assistant. Voila, Rose
SM The Doctor has just regenerated, comes to earth, saves it from an alien
about to destroy it and finds a new assistant. Voila, The Eleventh Hour
Obviously you could probably point out other similar examples from the
original series which would lead you to claim that the two new series are no
different but both the RTD and SM series have something else in common
linking them together.
I have concluded that both RTD and Steve Moffat are being forced to use a
Doctor Who Style Manual written by John Nathan Turner on the orders of
Michael Grade in order to appease Mary Whitehouse and the show's critics.
1) MW/MG The Doctor always subliminally convinces his assistants and
other people to sacrifice themselves for him. This is not a good example for
children.
JNT We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake. Adric.
RTD We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake. River Song, Donna (Turn Left).
SM We'll address the problem of subliminally by making this
completely obvious and having someone such as the main villain or the
assistant challenge the Doctor on this at least once in every season or get
themselves killed for his sake.
2) MW/MG The Doctor isn't human and shows no humanity. This is not a good
example for children.
JNT The Doctor must show more emotion. We'll make him show more
anger with the villain. But what if the villain isn't on screen. Ah, the
Doctor can show anger at his assistant too. Obviously he wants her to be the
best and if she doesn't live up to his expectation then he can shout at her.
Eric Sewell We'll make the Doctor half human in the TVM
RTD We'll make the Doctor show more anger, and if his assistant
isn't good enough he can be angry with her as well.
SM We'll make the Doctor him show more anger, both with the villain
and his assistant.
3) MG Doctor Who must be modernised.
JNT Make the assistant modern slang which the Doctor has no problem
understanding
Eric Sewell Make the show more American in style and introduce US
slang of course
RTD Make the Doctor use modern slang and the show more American in
style
SM Make the Doctor use modern slang and the show more American in
style
4) MG The Doctor is too serious.
JNT Get the Doctor to play the spoons and clown around
Eric Sewell Make the Master camper than ever so the Doctor can play
it down
RTD Get the Doctor to do a shoe dance and clown around
SM Make the Doctor think he's Captain Jack Sparrow
5) MG Doctor Who must appeal to and portray ordinary people
JNT Give the Doctor a juvenile delinquent for his assistant
Eric Sewell Give the Doctor a teenage gang member to look out for
RTD Make Doctor Who into a soap opera. Give his assistant a
boyfriend and a family.
SM Give the Doctor's assistant a boyfriend, friends and relatives
6) MG The Doctor always gets it on with the rules of alien planets but he
never behaves like that with the leaders of Earth.
JNT The Doctor gets it on with the Queen
RTD The Doctor gets it on with the Queen, in fact several of her
SM The Doctor gets it on with the Queen
and so on and so forth.
Now lets get down to today's story.
It felt to me like it had been written and filmed as a two parter and half
the material had been cut out to make it shorter, with it jumping from one
scene to a different one without any explanation of what happened in between
and how the people got to know what they knew or to be where they were. For
example, the Doctor pops out of a wedding cake. What happened to the story
about how he got in it? In the next scene Rory (Amy's boyfriend, if that
isn't his name) is right inside the TARDIS. How did he get there? Where was
it parked? And after that they all end up bumping into trouble all over the
place with no proper explanation of how they got there. This is not story
telling. It's set piece after set piece and for this reason Vampire of
Venice his is the weakest story of the season so far.
Knowing that, why did they choose a scene from the weakest story of the
season to promote the series on the Jonathan Ross show, and not only that,
they also chose the weakest scene in the whole story and series so far, the
Johnny Depp impersonation in the cellar, and made some cuts to it which made
it look even worse. Um and how can houses built on water have cellars, won't
they be flooded all the time?
The ending wasn't very convincing either. Whatshername's father sacrifices
himself to blow up the fishy people. Like he conveniently has all those
explosives lying around and the aliens chose to put all their eggs into one
basket. Amy somehow inexplicable kills the fishy alien by pointing her
mirror at him? And then the fish lady jumps into the water and sacrifices
herself for no reason. Where did all the other fish men go? Are they still
all swimming under Venice?
9/10