Doctor Who 30.05: "The Poison Sky"
Okay! Not quite as awesome as part 1, but part 2 held up pretty well nonetheless. And, extra bonus WTF-ery in the teaser for next week!
First and foremost: "Are you my mummy?" *chortle* *snorfle* *giggle* BEST LINE IN THE SEASON SO FAR. I'm still imagining the entire cast falling over laughing the instant Tennant delivered that line.
Second up: OOH HEY Unexpected Rose Flash! Interesting that we saw only a teeny glimpse of her cutting in somehow to the communication going into and out of the TARDIS. To wit, what IS she doing? I'm starting to favor the theory that Rose over in the other universe is now actively trying to find a way back--and is perhaps even trying to track the TARDIS. Which of course raises the very interesting question of if she is tracking the TARDIS, enough that she can try to patch into any communication it's doing, how the hell is she doing that?
And, for the episode in general--THANK YOU, Donna's mother, for running out there with a sledgehammer and busting open the windshield on that car. THANK YOU, Doctor, for finally remembering you have a sonic screwdriver, even though it didn't work. I'm willing to cut Ten some slack for not knowing the immediate whereabouts of a suitable windshield-smashing tool, and working with the tool he's got; I'm also glad, though, that Donna's mother contributed something to getting Grandpa out of the car.
Yay for continued UNIT competence! And for the obligatory reference to the Brigadier!
I'm very pleased that the Doctor knew right out of the gate that the Martha-clone was in fact a clone. As he damn well should have. He is, after all, brilliant. ;) And I'm glad that the clone subplot went where it did, to wit, having the clone finally give in and help them when she's confronted with the Actual Martha, and the Actual Martha draws on the impact of their shared memories.
Meanwhile, go Donna! I'm glad she wound up calling her mom and granddad while she was stuck in the TARDIS, and I really rather felt for her flipping out a bit as the Doctor urged her over the phone to go out and find the transmat controls--and how to handle any Sontarans she ran into. She's clearly got some self-esteem issues to work through still, but I was quite pleased to see her overcome that and get out and do what needed to get done.
It's interesting to see the dynamics of Donna's little family--a third type of family interaction, after Rose's and Martha's. It's a nice contrast. Rose had Jackie and Mickey in the loop fairly quickly; Martha never told her family until the big crisis with the Master; here, we have Donna's granddad urging her on while they both agree not to clue in her mother. I find myself wondering how long Mom's going to be in the dark here, and when she'll get to see how traveling with the Doctor matures her daughter.
Nifty mileage with the Sontarans here too. General snickers at the short jokes, especially the Doctor's. But better were the little touches like the one Sontaran who's shot down and who dies quite happily--because he's fallen in battle--and says "Wonderful!" on his last breath. And the General not having any of the Doctor's trying to give them their obligatory warning, and telling him to get on with it. Entirely appropriate. I very much liked that the Doctor was calmly determined to give them that warning to begin with--Donna's influence here, I think, giving him back some of that mercy he'd lamented losing way back in "School Reunion".
Where the episode falls apart a bit for me is with psycho geniusboy Luke. I still am not sure where the hell he was coming from that he was willing to destroy the world and hand it over to the Sontarans--I mean, seriously, was this simply the biggest case of nerd revenge in the history of nerds getting revenge? And it took all of his chosen ones bailing on him and the Sontarans dismissing him as well to make him realize this? I dunno. Maybe the lad playing him didn't quite have a handle on the role or something; I can see where they were trying to go with this, having Luke's worldview shattered and such and the Doctor's one line to him about doing something worthwhile with his life triggering an epiphany, but it didn't play for me with the impact it should have.
And last but certainly not least, in re: the teaser for next week and the mysterious and noticeably BLONDE young woman who shows up, I have this to say:
What? What?! WHAT?!
Man, I can't wait to see how they explain the Doctor having a daughter. A blonde daughter. As ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
spazzkat pointed out, "Who else is blonde?"
And me, I would just about die from fangirl squee if this means they're laying the groundwork to finally explain where Susan came from. ;> The new series has been doing an excellent job maintaining continuity that goes back pretty damn far, but if they actually go all the way back to "Unearthly Child", that will be a mighty serving of Awesome with an extra side helping of Awesome on top!
