Doctor Who Season Four
Dec. 18th, 2008 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuWe've made it to the end of season four. A few thoughts:
"Silence in the Library" reminded me of more other stories than anything I've ever seen or read. We Can Remember it for You Wholesale; A Mind Forever Voyaging; that ST:TNG episode with Scotty; The Matrix; Raiders of the Lost Ark; and many many others, sometimes just for one fleeting detail ---- and yet it didn't exactly feel derivative.
The finale was disappointing from a plot perspective, although it was touching to see Season Two finally get its happy ending. There was too much spoken exposition, followed by manic technoaction (the action version of technobabble, that is). It was exciting to have an episode with essentially five Companion credits at the beginning, yet they didn't really use any of them particularly well. They threw in everything but the Tardis sink, but it was just noise.
And, frankly, I really liked Doctor Donna and it's a shame they couldn't have given her a few episodes to explore that.
I like the tradition of having one author episode per season. Shakespeare was fun, Dickens was fun, Christie was fun. I can't remember whether there was one in Season Two. But I was thinking it would be really cool for them to do one for Beowulf. One wonders what the Doctor would do with Grendel's mother.
At the start of the season, I found the new theme music arrangement annoying; thirteen eps later, I found myself really digging it.
"Silence in the Library" reminded me of more other stories than anything I've ever seen or read. We Can Remember it for You Wholesale; A Mind Forever Voyaging; that ST:TNG episode with Scotty; The Matrix; Raiders of the Lost Ark; and many many others, sometimes just for one fleeting detail ---- and yet it didn't exactly feel derivative.
The finale was disappointing from a plot perspective, although it was touching to see Season Two finally get its happy ending. There was too much spoken exposition, followed by manic technoaction (the action version of technobabble, that is). It was exciting to have an episode with essentially five Companion credits at the beginning, yet they didn't really use any of them particularly well. They threw in everything but the Tardis sink, but it was just noise.
And, frankly, I really liked Doctor Donna and it's a shame they couldn't have given her a few episodes to explore that.
I like the tradition of having one author episode per season. Shakespeare was fun, Dickens was fun, Christie was fun. I can't remember whether there was one in Season Two. But I was thinking it would be really cool for them to do one for Beowulf. One wonders what the Doctor would do with Grendel's mother.
At the start of the season, I found the new theme music arrangement annoying; thirteen eps later, I found myself really digging it.