Comments on The House Next Door: Doctor Who, Season Two, Ep. 11: "Fear Her"

Nick -I didn't mean it quite that way. What I mean...

2006-12-19T18:57:25.756-05:00

Nick -

I didn't mean it quite that way. What I meant was that BOOMTOWN! redeemed the Slitheen as a concept, after their lacklustre intro in the ALIENS OF LONDON two-parter.

Ross wrote: RE: I agree with your take on BOOMTOWN...

2006-12-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

Ross wrote: RE: I agree with your take on BOOMTOWN, which is the most underrated ep of S1. An alternate title for it could have been REDEMPTION OF THE SLITHEEN.

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. The slitheen committed horrible atrocities and deserve the fate that was awaiting them. I would no more blame the doctor for their deaths than I would blame a policeman who arrests a murderer who is later put to death.

Ross wrote: When you bag on Tennant without anythi...

2006-12-18T06:31:00.000-05:00

Ross wrote: When you bag on Tennant without anything to back it up, I get pissy.

I'm not "bagging" on Tennant - I just (1) don't like him, (2) think there must have been a better choice after Ecclestone left (3) think he sucks with the bizzaro manic/depressive impersonation he seems to favor.

Noel - There's no freakin' way this comes close to...

2006-12-16T22:43:55.776-05:00

Noel -

There's no freakin' way this comes close to being as good as the last three eps, but I don't think it's
as bad as I've heard many say it is. (Joan found a much quicker way of summing up my feelings with her comment.)

RE: I agree with your take on BOOMTOWN, which is the most underrated ep of S1. An alternate title for it could have been REDEMPTION OF THE SLITHEEN.

Sheik -

The minutes they get outdoors or in a "mood" the cockney accent becomes annoying and atrocious - barely understandable. If you have to work to listen to the dialogue, what's the point?

Now we're getting somewhere, you and me...finally. When you bag on Tennant without anything to back it up, I get pissy. This however makes a lot of sense, and if it's genuinely difficult for you to muddle through some of Tennant's often times spitfire delivery, I can understand that being problematic. One of my favorite lines of his from SCHOOL REUNION is barely intelligible:

"It's very well behaved, this place. I thought they'd all be happy-slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones!"

Another, from FEAR HER, that I swear I've never heard, but IMDB lists under memorable quotes is:

[Rose spots a cat while her and the Doctor are in the street]

Rose: [Kneeling down to stroke it] Oh, aren't you a cutie?

The Doctor: [Who has his back to Rose] Thanks. I've been experimenting with back-combing... oh.

The finale two-parter has plenty o' 'splosions, dude.

Joan -

RE: The Doctor carrying the Olympic Torch.

Jeanne gave me massive amounts of crap for not mentioning that in the review as she hated it and thought it was so OTT that I was remiss in not saying so. I told her it would come up in talkback. When I first saw the ep, I hated it, too - but as you point out, it sort of symbolizes the themes of the story. I've grown to sorta like it.

It's another one of those moments where Tennant seems to channel Tom Baker something hardcore. I can totally picture Mr. Baker doing the same if his Doctor was starring in this story, and that's the grin he'd have doing it.

I find it surpassing odd that I agree with Tom (ak...

2006-12-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

I find it surpassing odd that I agree with Tom (aka SheikY) on this point, but the accents were particularly thick in this episode. I was surprised that there were a few lines of dialog that I found completely inpenetrable; it's the first time that's ever happened to me in this series. (I remember watching the opening scenes of Branaugh's Henry V like 6 times trying to understand those Welshman, but other than that, I don't usually have any trouble.)

Aside from that, I enjoyed this episode. It was goofy and fun and light, and it had a happy ending. Whoever they got to do those kids drawings was very good! They really did look like a kid's drawings, not some adult's idea of what a kid's drawing would look like.

Cheesy as it was, I really got a kick out of the Doctor carrying the flame. Even though it was very silly, Tennant's slightly insane grin perfectly conveys the Doctor's love of humanity and our ability to hope and to dream. If every episode were like this, the series would suck, but a dose of warm fuzzies isn't so bad every now and then.

I have finally figured out why I find this season ...

2006-12-16T06:45:00.000-05:00

I have finally figured out why I find this season so annoying.

1 - There seems to be a father affliction to most of the stories - it's almost like every other episode has an abusive father somewhere in the storyline.

2 - When the episodes are - well, no other word for it - sludge, they telegraph what's going to happen 40 minutes before it does. For instance, the street patching. As soon as the Doctor said look for the pod, I knew where it was and the rest was just boring.

2a - Did it occur to the script writers that to patch a hole, it requires a lot of heat? Or is that a silly nit pick?

3 - When they do plot holes, they do plot holes so wide you could drive the entire fleet of Pensky trucks through them side-by-side without touching the edges.

4 - When they do their one-on-one interior scenes or interacting with other characters, The Doctor and Rose are understandable. The minutes they get outdoors or in a "mood" the cockney accent becomes annoying and atrocious - barely understandable. If you have to work to listen to the dialogue, what's the point?

I will stick it through to the end, but I don't expect to be back for Season Three.

That's great.I don't know, I don't seem to have wa...

2006-12-16T05:28:00.000-05:00

That's great.

I don't know, I don't seem to have warmed to this one as much as the previous three--it isn't as chiling as The Impossible Planet and its second part, it isn't as moving as Love and Monsters; what's left is the drawings and the sight of the Doctor running with that torch. I don't dislike it, my feelings are rather flat. Well, except for the TARDIS between garbage bins--that was a nice touch.

And off topic somewhat, but it occured to me that there's something to the Slitheen's flatulence--being a parody of British government officials, I think that's an excellent way of slandering them outrageously.

Plus Boom Town, the second part of sorts, redeems the concept of the characters, I think; everything said against the Slitheen as killers turned around and pointed at the Doctor. Nice.

I neglected to mention in the article that next Fr...

2006-12-16T00:58:38.396-05:00

I neglected to mention in the article that next Friday, starting at 8AM (EST), SciFi will broadcast an 8 episode DOCTOR WHO marathon beginning with THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE and ending with FEAR HER. So if you missed any of the eps in that block, this is your chance to play catch up.