Russell T. Davies has dragged Doctor Who , the BBC ’s veteran meter - traveling show , into the nineties . His concede influences include early Buffy , but the revamped Who has always reminded me of some other XC shows , including X - Files and , more and more , of Lois and Clark , with its focus on a male - distaff couple and their romanticist / intimate tenseness or lack thereof . It ’s too bad physician Who continue about a decade behind the times , even as it keeps mine its own past . Spoilers for the time of year opener below the fold .
The equivalence between this weekend ’s season premieres of Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who does the latter no favour , unfortunately . BSG was all fresh , black and conspiracy - given , with lots of pharynx - cut and scream action . Who was at its downright campiest , schlocky and backward - looking . It honestly felt kind of old - schooltime compared with BSG .
As with the sometime Lois and Clark Superman series , the new Doctor Who tries to turn back the traditional Doctor - familiar family relationship , putting the companion in the starring role . And as with Lois and Clark , the gadget feels a mo hollow , because the Doctor is still the one we ’re invested in , the someone who saves the day .
The disgraceful twisting this prison term around is that the companion , Donna , is n’t in love with the Doctor . She pursues him and desperately demand him to make full an emptiness in her life — but it ’s a need for adventure , not sexual love . It ’s not as much of a remainder as I ’d hop , because her life is still totally worthless without the Doctor , as we ’re usher at great length . The only intellect she ’s even investigating the evildoing of Adipose is because she skip the Doctor will show up there too .
Whether you think this fresh spin on the Doctor - companion dynamic is enough to sustain a whole season may look mostly on how much you care the clip above , where the Doctor and Donna have a mimed reunion while they ’re both spying on the same barely - a - supervillain . My sympathies are entirely with Miss Foster , who need to have intercourse if her evil scheme is interrupt their recollective ASL processing conversation . But to be just , the plot of “ Partners In Crime ” is so thin , there ’s not that much for the Doctor and Donna to interrupt .
utter of being fair , I made a resolution last class , after I watched the end of season three — the bit where the Doctor suddenly hark back to young person after being aged 900 years — and levitates — because everyone on Earth believes in him . That moment was at the same time so awful , and yet so horrific , that it totally destroyed my critical faculties . I decided that you ca n’t really judge Russell T. ’s employment based on any normal standards of just or bad . You just have to take it on its own terminus .
But even if you judge “ Partners In Crime ” on its own footing , as a “ jolly romp , ” it ’s just barely okay . It does n’t quite ever muster enough verve to be a real hoyden . And the joviality is a mo strained . A destiny of the apt second sense a routine rehashed , as if Russell T. is running through his greatest hits . Especially the family relationship between Donna and her ma , who feels exclusively like a stock character made up of pieces of Jackie and Martha ’s mother . And the main plot , with the juicy people who make farting disturbance and then have babies split out of them , is literally a rehash of the Slitheen . Except that this clip it ’s not vicious aliens venture to be fat people , it ’s innocent fertile people who give birth to evil noncitizen . And the exotic babies are actually sister this clock time , instead of just looking baby - like .
I take comfort in the fact that the old two season openers were also paper - thin : the one in the hospital with the cat - nuns , where the hospital gets sealed off and there ’s an evil secret . And the one in the infirmary with the Judoon , where the hospital gets seal off and there ’s an evil secret . Russell T. has a book of toss out his fluffy sequence first , and then get into the heavy stuff later . And indeed , everyone who ’s go steady next week ’s Pompeii episode says it ’s miles serious than the USA - of - baby one , with Donna actually showing more worked up range .
Meanwhile , I ’d be remiss if I did n’t observe that the installment sets up some mysteries for the season ’s overall electric arc . The primary one , of form , is the Rose - shade whom Donna severalise about the automobile identify in the rubbish bin . ( Which , if I was Donna ’s mom , would be grounds for disowning her , by the way . ) Then there ’s also the interrogative sentence of where Miss Foster got her own version of the Doctor ’s sonic screwdriver , but there ’s a good luck we ’ll never bump out . And then it ’s potential there ’s some signification to the fact that Donna and her grandfather Wilf both met the Doctor one by one , a yr aside . But it ’s probably just a coincidence . ( And why was n’t Wilf at the hymeneals anyway ? )
But , yes , it was a jolly romp , and it was nice to see David Tennant project his chin and shouting , “ Oh , yes ! ” again . And astill - telling 8.4 millionBrits tuned in . So even if you trust ( like me ) that we ’re reaching the tail oddment of the RTD earned run average of Who , the phenomenon still seems to be run substantial . And I ’m pretty trusted there are better episodes ahead . What did you think ?
Catherine TateDavid TennantDoctor WhoDoctor Who RecapX - file
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