DW Rewatch - 4x05, The Poison Sky
Mar. 13th, 2010 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963A little bit of meta and a lot of pretty pictures for the concluding part of the Sontaran two-parter :-)
What a way to start a picspam! You didn’t think I’d miss out that cap, did you?
Given the way Sylvia feels about him, I can’t help thinking the Doctor’s worried she’s coming for him with the axe!
SYLVIA
Donna! Don't go! Look what happens every time that Doctor appears! Stay with us, please.
WILF
You go my darling!
SYLVIA
Dad!
WILF
Don't listen to her! You go with the Doctor! That's my girl!...
How awesome is Wilf? I like that you can see how torn Donna is between her family and the Doctor; it feels completely right that she’d feel that way, even if she does opt for him over them.
Back at UNIT HQ at the ATMOS factory
Keep that! Go on, that's yours! Quite a big moment really!
Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death!
The ‘key moment’ has always been such a big deal before – I remember it with Martha at the end of 42 and she was completely bowled over and almost kind of pathetically grateful, actually. I reckon Donna’s probably a bit overwhelmed as well, but she’d never show it.
Donna heads back to the TARDIS, while the Doctor heads off to stop a war. Just a normal day at the office for him, then.
Nicking the motor
Although they’re getting a bit more than they bargained for
I’m stuck, on Earth like... like an ordinary person. Like a human! How rubbish is that!
Clone!Martha is so busted
*pout*
What is it about the Doctor that makes people NOT listen to him when he gives them such excellent advice?
Let’s talk to Mr Potato Head
COLONEL MACE
You’re not authorised to speak on behalf of the Earth.
DOCTOR
I’ve got that authority; I earned that a long time ago.
TakeCharge!Doctor is hot :-)
Since when did you lot become cowards? Still rude and not ginger.
I’m really glad you didn’t say belittle cos then I’d have a field day. Bwah!
'Sontar-Ha', Sontar-Shmah.
Donna nobis pacem. Does he write himself little post-its and stick them on the top of the screen like the rest of us do?
Remote control. He really should get one of those.
While Rattigan’s plans fall apart, Donna phones home. That's a great shot of her, so totally alone in the expanse of the control room
And the Doctor is still trying to figure out what the gas is for
While he’s distracted, the UNIT bods are going to try fighting the Sontarans. They never listen…
Time for some crazy faces
It amuses me that there are all these military types sitting around amid consoles and screens and big, shiny red buttons – but Clone!Martha can stop the launch from a PDA!
Incoming! But why are they so keen to stop the launch when the missiles won’t even scratch their ships?
The military are still taking no notice of the Doctor. Will they ever learn?
If anyone is able to pay the slightest attention to what he's saying when faced with such a large amount of drop dead gorgeous, there’s a little mention of the Brigadier around here somewhere :-)
More fighting ensues
and one spoilt brat realizes he’s been played
He needs to get himself a bloody phone! (Actually in some of the books/audios he does have one!)
His secret weapon
But I can’t even mend a fuse!
Donna! Stop talking about yourself like that. You can do this. I promise.
There’s Sonterruns – Sontarans – out there!
Back of the neck!
Oh, you are brilliant, you are!
But he has to put her on hold
Are you my mummy?
Heh.
The Valiant
The Doctor (and his hair!) is just the teeniest bit impressed, despite himself ;-)
More fighting ensues and they all leg it back inside. At least this time, UNIT seems to have the upper hand.
He hasn’t forgotten Donna
But it’s time to deal with Clone!Martha
One of the things I'll miss most about Ten is the panache with which he wields the sonic screwdriver
Phone! - blimey, he's in demand today :-)
Real!Martha manages to get Clone!Martha to tell them what's in the gas -
It's clonefeed!
They’ve found me!
Zap!
Have I ever told you how much I hate you?
Nice hug. But he’s got to get the TARDIS back. I suppose Donna should be pleased she came first!
The new team
If you're calling him Dad, you're definitely getting over him.
Geek-boy doing what he does best
Thinking on his feet -
- and explaining on the run
I'm not even going to start with the "how come the burning gas doesn't set fire to trees and buildings?"
Now we're in trouble. Like they weren't before...
Right, so... Donna, thank you. For everything. Martha, you too. Oh... so many times. Luke, do something clever with your life.
You're saying goodbye
I've got to give them a choice
You know, I read something a few weeks ago - I can't remember if it was on LJ or another blog somewhere - which seemed to be a generally negative DW commentary (so God knows why I read it!) wherein the writer was complaining that the Doctor was content to let aliens kick human butt and kill loads of people before he'd step in and give them (the aliens) "a choice", by which time, lives had been lost. I don't think the writer was being tongue-in-cheek about it, although if you know the piece I mean, and I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me. But whoever it was can't be watching the same show as I am, surely. This Doctor has been consistent to his "no second chances" stance from The Christmas Invasion. (And I think the earlier Doctors have taken more or less the same position most of the time). But the baddies do get A chance. Just one. The Doctor has never been one to shoot first and ask questions later, and given that most of the time he can take out his enemies at the drop of a hat, they're lucky to get that. The point is though, that the choice is always "stop or I'll stop you" - and when (as is often the case) the enemy makes the wrong decision, the Doctor can be absolutely merciless in whatever punishment he metes out. It's one of the things about him that reminds us that although he looks like us, he's not human and that sometimes his sense of... justice or morality is different. And I think that with Ten those contrasts are especially stark because he's so congenial; he's funny, warm, garrulous - but you get on the wrong side of him and you're toast in the blink of an eye.
Anyway...
On board the Sontaran ship, they think he's bluffing.
You'd think they'd have learned by now. It's not as though this is the first time they've encountered the Doctor.
Taking the Doctor's advice and doing something clever
She really thwacks him there! You have to love the look of total shock on his face - as well as the fact that he looks just that little bit scared.
But that's a typical "you stupid idiot, you could have been killed and I was scared witless!" Donna reaction
So it's back to life as normal - well, apart from a bit more walking, it seems.
And you go with him, that wonderful Doctor. You go and see the stars. And then bring a bit of 'em back, for your old Gramps. *wibble*
I was watching the DWC for Forest of the Dead earlier, and in it, Steven Moffat makes an interesting comment about the difference between Donna and Rose/Martha, or rather, about the difference between having a companion who's in her 30s rather than her 20s. He says something to the effect that for someone like Donna, her choice to go with the Doctor is bound to be a lot weightier than for someone younger, who is still working out where their life is going. Donna's been around longer; she's more settled and set in her ways, has more ties, and that's what I think we're shown in this story. It's easy to say, "well, if leaving her family upsets her so much, why doesn't she just stay at home?" But look at what she's be giving up if she stayed. I really think that it's a much harder choice for Donna than it was for either Martha or Rose, despite the fact that both of them seemed to have a much better relationship with their mothers than Donna does. (Although of course, Donna has Wilf to leave behind.) And I like that we're shown it's hard for her to leave, even though she wants so much to be with the Doctor and to travel the universe with him. The fact that she's so conflicted is something that I think many of us can identify with, and is - I think - one of the many reasons that so many fans cite Donna as their favourite nu-Who companion so far, even if they're Doctor/Rose 'shippers (which I'm not) or Martha lovers or whatever.
Look at Martha's face. She knows what Donna's going through and how torn she is.
She's not tempted to stay though
*melts*
The TARDIS, however, has other ideas...
Take me home!
It's not me!
So there we go; the first two parter of S4, and a pretty good one at that.
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.
What a way to start a picspam! You didn’t think I’d miss out that cap, did you?
Given the way Sylvia feels about him, I can’t help thinking the Doctor’s worried she’s coming for him with the axe!
SYLVIA
Donna! Don't go! Look what happens every time that Doctor appears! Stay with us, please.
WILF
You go my darling!
SYLVIA
Dad!
WILF
Don't listen to her! You go with the Doctor! That's my girl!...
How awesome is Wilf? I like that you can see how torn Donna is between her family and the Doctor; it feels completely right that she’d feel that way, even if she does opt for him over them.
Back at UNIT HQ at the ATMOS factory
Keep that! Go on, that's yours! Quite a big moment really!
Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death!
The ‘key moment’ has always been such a big deal before – I remember it with Martha at the end of 42 and she was completely bowled over and almost kind of pathetically grateful, actually. I reckon Donna’s probably a bit overwhelmed as well, but she’d never show it.
Donna heads back to the TARDIS, while the Doctor heads off to stop a war. Just a normal day at the office for him, then.
Nicking the motor
Although they’re getting a bit more than they bargained for
I’m stuck, on Earth like... like an ordinary person. Like a human! How rubbish is that!
Clone!Martha is so busted
*pout*
What is it about the Doctor that makes people NOT listen to him when he gives them such excellent advice?
Let’s talk to Mr Potato Head
COLONEL MACE
You’re not authorised to speak on behalf of the Earth.
DOCTOR
I’ve got that authority; I earned that a long time ago.
TakeCharge!Doctor is hot :-)
Since when did you lot become cowards? Still rude and not ginger.
I’m really glad you didn’t say belittle cos then I’d have a field day. Bwah!
'Sontar-Ha', Sontar-Shmah.
Donna nobis pacem. Does he write himself little post-its and stick them on the top of the screen like the rest of us do?
Remote control. He really should get one of those.
While Rattigan’s plans fall apart, Donna phones home. That's a great shot of her, so totally alone in the expanse of the control room
And the Doctor is still trying to figure out what the gas is for
While he’s distracted, the UNIT bods are going to try fighting the Sontarans. They never listen…
Time for some crazy faces
It amuses me that there are all these military types sitting around amid consoles and screens and big, shiny red buttons – but Clone!Martha can stop the launch from a PDA!
Incoming! But why are they so keen to stop the launch when the missiles won’t even scratch their ships?
The military are still taking no notice of the Doctor. Will they ever learn?
If anyone is able to pay the slightest attention to what he's saying when faced with such a large amount of drop dead gorgeous, there’s a little mention of the Brigadier around here somewhere :-)
More fighting ensues
and one spoilt brat realizes he’s been played
He needs to get himself a bloody phone! (Actually in some of the books/audios he does have one!)
His secret weapon
But I can’t even mend a fuse!
Donna! Stop talking about yourself like that. You can do this. I promise.
There’s Sonterruns – Sontarans – out there!
Back of the neck!
Oh, you are brilliant, you are!
But he has to put her on hold
Are you my mummy?
Heh.
The Valiant
The Doctor (and his hair!) is just the teeniest bit impressed, despite himself ;-)
More fighting ensues and they all leg it back inside. At least this time, UNIT seems to have the upper hand.
He hasn’t forgotten Donna
But it’s time to deal with Clone!Martha
One of the things I'll miss most about Ten is the panache with which he wields the sonic screwdriver
Phone! - blimey, he's in demand today :-)
Real!Martha manages to get Clone!Martha to tell them what's in the gas -
It's clonefeed!
They’ve found me!
Zap!
Have I ever told you how much I hate you?
Nice hug. But he’s got to get the TARDIS back. I suppose Donna should be pleased she came first!
The new team
If you're calling him Dad, you're definitely getting over him.
Geek-boy doing what he does best
Thinking on his feet -
- and explaining on the run
I'm not even going to start with the "how come the burning gas doesn't set fire to trees and buildings?"
Now we're in trouble. Like they weren't before...
Right, so... Donna, thank you. For everything. Martha, you too. Oh... so many times. Luke, do something clever with your life.
You're saying goodbye
I've got to give them a choice
You know, I read something a few weeks ago - I can't remember if it was on LJ or another blog somewhere - which seemed to be a generally negative DW commentary (so God knows why I read it!) wherein the writer was complaining that the Doctor was content to let aliens kick human butt and kill loads of people before he'd step in and give them (the aliens) "a choice", by which time, lives had been lost. I don't think the writer was being tongue-in-cheek about it, although if you know the piece I mean, and I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me. But whoever it was can't be watching the same show as I am, surely. This Doctor has been consistent to his "no second chances" stance from The Christmas Invasion. (And I think the earlier Doctors have taken more or less the same position most of the time). But the baddies do get A chance. Just one. The Doctor has never been one to shoot first and ask questions later, and given that most of the time he can take out his enemies at the drop of a hat, they're lucky to get that. The point is though, that the choice is always "stop or I'll stop you" - and when (as is often the case) the enemy makes the wrong decision, the Doctor can be absolutely merciless in whatever punishment he metes out. It's one of the things about him that reminds us that although he looks like us, he's not human and that sometimes his sense of... justice or morality is different. And I think that with Ten those contrasts are especially stark because he's so congenial; he's funny, warm, garrulous - but you get on the wrong side of him and you're toast in the blink of an eye.
Anyway...
On board the Sontaran ship, they think he's bluffing.
You'd think they'd have learned by now. It's not as though this is the first time they've encountered the Doctor.
Taking the Doctor's advice and doing something clever
She really thwacks him there! You have to love the look of total shock on his face - as well as the fact that he looks just that little bit scared.
But that's a typical "you stupid idiot, you could have been killed and I was scared witless!" Donna reaction
So it's back to life as normal - well, apart from a bit more walking, it seems.
And you go with him, that wonderful Doctor. You go and see the stars. And then bring a bit of 'em back, for your old Gramps. *wibble*
I was watching the DWC for Forest of the Dead earlier, and in it, Steven Moffat makes an interesting comment about the difference between Donna and Rose/Martha, or rather, about the difference between having a companion who's in her 30s rather than her 20s. He says something to the effect that for someone like Donna, her choice to go with the Doctor is bound to be a lot weightier than for someone younger, who is still working out where their life is going. Donna's been around longer; she's more settled and set in her ways, has more ties, and that's what I think we're shown in this story. It's easy to say, "well, if leaving her family upsets her so much, why doesn't she just stay at home?" But look at what she's be giving up if she stayed. I really think that it's a much harder choice for Donna than it was for either Martha or Rose, despite the fact that both of them seemed to have a much better relationship with their mothers than Donna does. (Although of course, Donna has Wilf to leave behind.) And I like that we're shown it's hard for her to leave, even though she wants so much to be with the Doctor and to travel the universe with him. The fact that she's so conflicted is something that I think many of us can identify with, and is - I think - one of the many reasons that so many fans cite Donna as their favourite nu-Who companion so far, even if they're Doctor/Rose 'shippers (which I'm not) or Martha lovers or whatever.
Look at Martha's face. She knows what Donna's going through and how torn she is.
She's not tempted to stay though
*melts*
The TARDIS, however, has other ideas...
Take me home!
It's not me!
So there we go; the first two parter of S4, and a pretty good one at that.
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 07:25 pm (UTC)I love that coat... I know David kept one of the suits and one of the screwdriver props. I wonder if he's still got the coat as well.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 08:12 pm (UTC)He's such a (lovely) fanboy!
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 08:14 pm (UTC)And yeah, I want to say it's the commentary for End of Time Part 1?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 08:25 pm (UTC)He's also a huge fan of my "other" show, The West Wing - so clearly he tends towards fanboyishness in general :-)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 08:30 pm (UTC)And YES, he's a total pedantic geek about Doctor Who! And the West Wing, and like, anything else he knows a lot about. I think that's part of why I love him so much. He's one of us in a fundamental way, even if his career kind of makes it impossible for him to express it in the way that we do.
I think in the Chain Reaction episode from Radio 4, where Catherine "interviews" him, he talks a bit about meeting Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson, and how they were so hardcore in their nerdiness about Who, and how impressed he was at their openness about it. :)) Totally hilarious.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 07:38 pm (UTC)YES. That statement of his resonated so well with me, and really solidified why Donna is my favorite companion, even though I love both Martha and Rose.
He went on to talk about how Donna has settled the answers to certain questions about her life, that Martha and Rose had not. And god, just a world of YES.
I'm 29, and Martha and Rose...my love for them was kind of tinged with nostalgia in a way. "Yes, if I was 19 and had a crap job, I would so go with him like Rose does" or "Yeah, if I was finishing up med school, and kind of in that rut of one thing ending soon and another beginning, I'd be going with the Doctor too". I got why they went and all, but I was kind of past the stage where I could have made the same choice. It didn't make it all mean less. It was just a different kind of meaning.
But Donna, she's got her head on, and there's a little less awe and more like appreciation, if that makes sense? I mean, I definitely think she's dazzled by him (as she even says so), but I think it's tempered more with reality, and it's kind of the wrapping around the package of why her stint as companion spoke to me on a much deeper level than previous companions.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 08:19 pm (UTC)Back to the point .*g* Moff is spot on in what he says, and I think that's what we're seeing here. It should be a difficult decision to leave your family and wander off to god-knows-where or when, and we'd not really seen that before. It's not that Donna has any doubts about what she wants, it's just not easy.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-15 01:28 am (UTC)Hm. I didn't see this post you mentioned, so I may be totally off base, but does this writer have any understanding of drama at all? Do they think the Doctor is, or should be, omniscient? He's not. He doesn't know who the baddies are or what they're doing right off the bat, but actually has to figure it out. During which time, unfortunately, the baddies will be doing bad stuff, which often includes killing people. But that's what raises the stakes high enough for there to be a story that we want to watch.
And the fact that the Doctor gives the baddies a choice (never mind the fact that they almost always choose wrongly) is what makes him a hero rather than a boring killing machine.