New Who Review for ‘Parting of the Ways’
Posted By Kathleen David on June 12, 2006
Well this is the end of the first season of the New Who Review and Eccleston’s Doctor in one swell foop. I still got a bit teary at the end. A lot of the threads that had been running through the season were tied up into a pretty neat little package with a bow on top. Solid performances by all I think. I liked Rose having to deal with things that she didn’t want to deal with or be forced to find another way. I will miss Mr. Eccleston’s Doctor but I am glad that he added his take on our favorite Time Lord. Someone (I think it was Terry O) described this Doctor as having post-traumatic Stress Disorder. I don’t think they are far off considering what this Doctor when through before meeting up with Rose.
Now a question for the Doctor Who fans. Do all the Doctors have blue eyes? Or have we a brown eyed one finally? I believe that Paul McGann’s are green. (I won’t even go into the color of his jacket.)
Spoilers of course behind the cut and in the comments.
I am grateful to everyone who got Doctor Who back on the air.
Wrapping the Tardis and its force field around Rose to rescue her was brilliant. The Doctor came through in spades on this one. The dalek who was the emperor and now is the self-proclaimed Dalek God was fun as was all the Daleks saying Worship with the same vocal tones as exterminate. I can’t decide if I like the fact that we now see the “pilot” for the machine almost every episode they appear now. It was almost more fun when we didn’t know what the blobs within looked like.
“Bad Wolf” is finally explained sort of. The question is what it Rose or the TARDIS who did that or a combination of both. I really didn’t mind that the TARDIS is basically presented as female. I had always assumed so since the Doctor first called her old girl with great affection. I can remember many years ago getting into a debate that almost turned into an argument about the reason that the Doctor didn’t “do” Romana was that he was already committed to the TARDIS. The other question comes was it Mickey who opened the heart of the TARDIS or the TARDIS itself knowing that it was going to save the Doctor.
I loved Rose trying to explain to her Mother and Mickey why she was going to miss the Doctor so much and what her travels meant to her. They went for the obvious well you saw strange new worlds and stuff, where her explanation was much more emotional and intangible. “He showed me a better way.”
I knew that Captain Jack was coming back at some point because I had heard about Torchwood and that the actor was connected to the project as Captain Jack. But he died a good death. Now did Rose heal the rest of the people on the station or just Jack? And I am still unclear what the Daleks did with the people that were trans-matted to them.
And then there was the sacrifice and the regeneration of the Doctor. Morphing technology has made that process look a lot smoother than in the past. I think the first one we saw was 3 into 4 and that was a very simple camera trick. Now they can do the whole head change. The final speech was wonderful and poignant all at the same time.
I have seen the first 7 1/2 episodes of the first Tennant season. So far School Reunion is my favorite of this season.
I loved this season ender, I’ve seen it a half-dozen times, and I still get teary. That’s what I love about this iteration of the Doctor, they’ve really brought the emotional connection to the fore. Not that it never was before, but it’s much deeper this series.
I’ve seen… I believe it’s up to ep 9 of Tennant, and I love his Doctor just as much as Eccleston’s. I love the diverse combination of personality traits, the sense of wonder he has even when confronting something horrible, and that great sense of arrogance he displays on more than one occasion.
So far ‘School Reunion” and ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ are my favorites of this series.
What were the Daleks doing with the humans? Turning them into Daleks. The Emperor outright said as much.
I wonder what Davros would think of someone else declaring himself god of the Daleks.
I thought the episode was a brilliant end to Eccleston’s brilliant run. I sure hope Sci-Fi is planning to pick up both season 2 and Torchwood, and I hope they start airing soon.
Just watched it last night. I’m sorry to see Eccleston go, but there had to be some form of dramatic cost for the solution that Rose came up with. If there wasn’t, it would have been the most literal example of deus ex machina that I remember seeing on TV. As it was, we got a mixed happy/bittersweet ending and are left wondering how things are going to change
It was the Mary Sue’iest Mary Sue of all the Dr. Who episodes I’ve ever seen, with the possible exception of the McGann movie. But then, that’s what Dr. Who is supposed to be about. Quite lovely, all of it. The regeneration was a LOT smoother than past ones have been, usually the new Doctor is disoriented for much of the first episode featuring him. I like to think Rose saved the rest of the people, but I also like that it’s an open question.
Awful, awful, awful. Even worse than “Dalek”. I’d go into all the reasons why, but I’ve done that on Tony’s site and I really don’t want to think about this steaming pile any more.
SciFi has put out a press release touting the ratings for the series and indications are it may return in October (possibly paired up with Galactica).
Here’s a funny video from the Dead Ringers comedy show on the “real” reason Eccleston left:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLrmm8zfjvA
Lee Whiteside
PS, did Peter’s King Kong chess set arrive OK?
And the scene in the diner I really found offensive. Basically saying that all of us lead little insignificant lives, next to Rose. What a little twit!
“Basically saying that all of us lead little insignificant lives, next to Rose. What a little twit!”
No, Rose said the Doctor showed her a better way to live; and that she can’t just sit around and do nothing, while he (and the others on the station) are fighting and dying. This isn’t analoguous to the Fourth Doctor dropping off Sarah Jane (at the wrong locale, natch), because he can’t take her to Gallifrey. In that case, the Doctor’s life wasn’t in danger (so far as Sarah knew), and she had no means to get to him, even if she thought it was. In Rose’s case, she not only knows the Doctor is in danger, she has the TARDIS, and thus at least the theoretical means to get back to him.
And she needs to get back (or at least make every best effort to do so) _because_ he showed her a better way to live. To use another analogy, I went to a Jesuit High school, and the Jesuit motto was to teach us to be “men for others.” In Rose’s case, the Doctor taught her to be a woman for others. But the same concept applies.
Rick