Doctor Who (with spoilies)

[innocent_lex]

I've found this current series to be better than the last one, partly due to the general lack of nauseating lovey-dovey crap that came with Rose, and partly because the writing seems to have improved (along with Tennant's acting).

I do like the idea of the Master coming back, and I thought Derek Jacobi was absolutely perfect last week - as such a brilliant actor would be. Yesterday, though, it was as if I was watching a pantomime. The great thing about the most recent incarnation of Doctor Who is no matter how unbelievable the storylines, the actors make it believable and allow the audience to suspend disbelief. John Simm playing a bad guy in a way that was best left back in the seventies ruined the episode for me, and that's such a great shame as I loved having Cap'n Jack back on the show. Last week's episode was absolutely fabulous, brilliant, excellent, only to be followed by this disaster.

'tis only television, at the end of the day, but somehow I feel like I was conned into buying a dud. Ho hum. I can't see that next week will be any better with all the chewing of scenery going on. I don't blame John Simm - if the director / writer didn't want him acting that way then they'd have stopped him - but again it's a big shame to not see him at his best.

Comments

[dallista.livejournal.com]

Simm made a very interesting comment in the confidential: he spefically pointed out that he did nothing except what was written in the script. Unspoken: if you don't like my performance as a crazy Master, blame the writer, not me the actor. ;-)

That said, TPTB make it very clear that they were trying for a *crazy* Master. Now I can accept it easier, I guess, but last night, I wasn't so impressed with Simm's master. He looked like the Joker at times! But apparently they were really going for that look, so okay, fine, and anyway, I'm sure the kids loved it! I like the episode much better now (watched it three times so far!)

I'm more annoyed about captain Jack than the Master, actually. The Sound of Drums reeked of the one big problem Torchwood has: let the captain sit in the background and do nothing. The story would've worked just as well without Jack there.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

Okay, so not the actor's fault, then. In a way that's reassuring, because even though I didn't like Life On Mars, what I did see of John Simm I was impressed by him.

I completely agree with you on Captain Jack, too. I'm fed up of Torchwood having way too little Jack, when Jack is meant to be the star. Having too little Jack in Doctor Who isn't as big as a problem for me because it's the Doctor's vehicle, but there's been so much hype about getting Jack back that I was expecting a great deal more. Last week delivered that; this week it was as if Jack was forgotten. I think we're on best 2 out of 3 for this 3-parter - hopefully next week will have lots of Jack, less scenery chewing from Simm, and the Doctor without the generic 'really old person' make-up where it could be anyone under there.

[sg1scribe.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid Sims ruined the character of the Master for me (or as you say the writers did if Sims simply followed the script and direction). My memory may be quite hazy, but I remember the Master as being extremely sinister and evil. Here we got an insane pantomime bad guy who was just rather irritating.

Very disappointing.

There was an awful lot of rip-offs in the episode too. Aliens that resembled the interrogation droids from Star Wars and a complete lift of Cloudbase from Captain Scarlet. Disappointing again.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I suspect my memory is as hazy as yours, but what I recall of the Master is that he was as scary and sinister as the show required at the time. As in Doctor Who in the seventies could be exceptionally camp or extremely scary, and all of the characters would move together from one theme to another. This Master seemed wholly out of synch with the rest of the characters and the point of the episode, so for me that was a real problem. Still, I understand kids liked it.

It really was disappointing. And the lack of Jack doing much at all, as Dallista mentioned, was another frustration. There was a lot of good stuff in the episode overall, but those two things mean I'm unlikely to give it a second watch.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

One other thing on the rip-offs. Didn't those droids appearing through the rift and then shooting up the world look an awful lot like the Daleks appearing and shooting up the world... and that wasn't even that long ago.

[carole-london.livejournal.com]

There's very little that's new in sci-fi.....

I haven't seen Captain Scarlet, so any rip-offs didn't ping my rip-off radar. Or maybe I was just on a high from being away for the weekend to see JB in the flesh (even if that did entail standing in the rain at a country fair!) but I loved this episode. Simm was completely over the top in megalomaniac mode and I thought it worked really well. Some nice character moments for the Doctor, Martha and Jack.

Agreed that there was not enough Jack though. There never is.

[readerjane]

I thought the droids appearing through the rift looked an awful lot like the... what were they called? Carnitanes? The witches from The Shakespeare Code, the way they appeared when their own rift was opened. For a moment, I thought "WTF? Why is the Master teaming up with them?"

[mfluder42.livejournal.com]

The Master was very much that - sinister - not only in manner but in appearance as well. In that way Dr Who was a little obvious in that they made the Master *look* bad - twirly moustache look and all (well, almost) and completely black outfit (if memory serves).