The True Meaning Of Christmas

[alexsarll]

As we all know, December 25th marks the arrival on Earth of our saviour - the Tenth Doctor. As such, it saddens me beyond measure to see television programming which has lost all sight of the true meaning of this special day, namely The Runaway Bride. I mean, the usual Russell T. Davies sappiness aside, the fact that he tried to get sodding Tate along rather than being glad to get rid of her aside, the sheer incoherence of the pilot fish aside - was it not blatantly obvious that she would be seeking to retrieve a clutch of Rachnos eggs rather than her second-best handbag or something? Was there any point whatsoever to nipping back to the dawn of Earth? And "be magnificent" - even compared to your previous assistant, she is a worthless chav. Sometimes, I really miss the Ninth Doctor's loathing of the human race. Which reminds me, had to timeshift Who because the stepgran wanted Emmerdale, during which I caught an ad for some godawful ITV drama (tautology?) where Eccleston was pretending to be Catholic to get his kid a decent school. Yeah, great career move you made there, Chris.

In happier news: Devon Blue may sound like a porn star, but it's actually a very nice local cheese.

Comments

[azureskies.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Ecclescakes thing is pretty good. It's written by Joe Ahearne, and it's the thing I went to see shown a couple of months back.

(but then, as I commented on here recently, Ahearne liked Runaway Bride. So you may not be able to trust him...)

It's bound to be better than Dracula, anyway...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

But I like almost the whole cast of Dracula, and the director is at least making the right noises. True, I will be unsurprised if it's a hyper-trendy turkey, but I'm optimistic. Whereas ITV contemporary drama - since Secret Smile and the Cracker comeback, I simply don't even consider bothering anymore.

[billywhizz.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they deliberately chose to echo Tate's breathless mockney rantings with all that frantic scattergun jump-cutting, but it made half the programme nigh on physically unwatchable.

That aside, there's surely only so many times that "crap, crap, crap, but ooh look there's a Dalek coming at some point" can work as an enticement.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

And I can't be the only one for whom the Daleks are now having the opposite effect. Even after that shambles, the 'coming soon' had me almost excited again (Martha looks great)...until the pepperpot popped up. Yes, perhaps Daleks are the best-remembered alien, but the answer then is to revamp some of the other classics - not to give up, let the Daleks utterly massacre the rebooted Cybermen, and forever after make them the only plausible Big Bad, returning every bloody season.

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

I liked all of it apart from the bits with Catherine Tate in. Seriously, why is she touted as a big talent?

-x-

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know. She's so bad that even the special of the long-since-lost-plot Little Britain was more entertaining than Who, and even bloddy Chrissytittybangbang was about level. Hell, at least the fat girl from the latter is amusing in Thick Of It (where is that christmas special, incidentally?) and Smoking Room. Whereas Tate is simply...worthless.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

(Also, the overacting spider queen wasn't much better)

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit 'Doctor Who?' anyway, but I am a Sarah Parrish fan, but I found the endless repeated lines of Sarah hissing in a funny voice unbearable. We heard you the first time, you overwritten trollop of an SF travesty!

That Mr Tenannt, though ... I would.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, he's a looker, and a great Doctor to boot. But increasingly he's having to manage with material worse even than that which deep sixed poor Colin Baker, and no good will come of it.

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

The pilot fish had been taken over by the spider lady - that made sense didn't it? I suppose the point of going back in time was to see what was going on rather than just guessing. And it's quite obvious that the Doctor wanted Tate to come with him because he misses having a "chav" around (although she's not a chav, she's lower middle class and dim).

How can you say the show was sappy when it revolved around the woman's life being destroyed by a fake relationship, not to mention that excellent moment with the "Christmas star" floating above Oxford St, frying children?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The children being zapped by the star were good, granted. Also, the references back to Rose were well-done. That much, and that much alone, I will give it.

The pilot fish being taken over...well, I suppose that was an outlandish coincidence enabling a lazy writer to reprise a 'christmassy' image that wasn't so great in the first place, rather than actively nonsensical.

Going back in time - the Doctor has worked out far more convoluted plans than that before, without needing to go back in time and see Whodunnit for himself. If he never hops back to see which marauding alien killed the body for which he's just been blamed when he arrives, then why in the name of Rassilon would he head back to something so far back and so dangerous as the formation of the Earth?

I didn't care that Donna's life had been destroyed, because she was hateful, stupid and screeching; I regretted only that she didn't die. That the Doctor should invite her along when she was so devoid of redeeming features made *him* seem sappy, not to mention desperate, and that's what angered me.

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

Devon Blue may sound like a porn star, but it's actually a very nice local cheese.

Can't it be both?


Should really start downloading some DR. Alas, I'm a lazy slob.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I tried watching the Doctor Who but couldn't hear any of the dialogue properly because the incidental music was so high in the mix it obscured pretty much everything apart from the Tate woman's constant braying. Whatevs.

[azureskies.livejournal.com]

Actually, this was true, for about the first ten minutes at least. I wondered if it was just our telly, but my parents have got snazzy home cinema-type surround sound, so apparently not.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

There were lines obscured, I suppose, but the dialogue was mostly so poor that you weren't missing much. I could make out the Doctor's lines, nothing else seemed worth the effort.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I love new Who's championing of ordinariness actually. The Doctor loves humanity because he actually loves them, with all their faults. Not because he feels all smug and superior about his huge IQ and intergalactic lifestyle :P

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Loving Rose Tyler, with all her faults, I can understand. But loving Donna? She's nothing but faults. The only way to use her legitimately in a story would be to take a slavering alien's side and let it eat her.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

She was a human being, infinite in potential! Plus I actually thought she was quite endearing.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, Matthew, your contrarianism goes too far.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed it. Apart from going BUT THE TARDIS CAN'T MAKE IT SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry. well actually i'm not but there you go. :P

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the snow, actually. It wasn't a patch on last year's 'actually, that's Sycorax ash' but it seemed well within the TARDIS' capabilities. As opposed to charging down the road after a taxi rather than simply materialising around it, which was just stupid.

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

I loved it, unsurprisingly. Tate is actually capable of better (appalling writer, or at least even more in need of a decent editor than RTD to sort out the wheat, but a good comic actress if given decent direction), but she was clearly told to "play it as one of your annoying thicko Cockneys", whereas if she'd gone down the route of one of her subtler, more downtrodden characters I would have had more sympathy for her plight and got less annoyed by her voice.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Her subtler characters are only any improvement in so far as boredom is preferable to skin-shredding annoyance.

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

Funny how your criticisms of it make me like it even more.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm genuinely surprised, all the other people who like it at least have form as awkward sods and/or in love with Tennant.