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

[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.