cheers Mile-o i thought i was on my own here..
..:
Well here was something I posted elsewhere the day after watching it:
...that episode last night, the culmination of four years, was awful. Sure, there were good points throughout when RTD was doing the bits he does best: character interactions. But, when he takes on plot, his scripts turn to dust and the dust turns to atoms and the atoms become...nothing. This is his ultimate victory: the destruction of credibility itself.
The biggest problem with RTD's plot-centric scripts is that he writes himself into corners and then uses a deus ex machina to solve it. Last night, for instance, everyone is trapped in Davros' vault - that's Davros the prisoner - and there just so happens to be a panel with a bit of wiring that can be rejigged that can turn millions upon millions of daleks into wonky dodgems before destroying, once again, a whole race at the touch of a button.
Remembering that The Stolen Earth and Journey's End were one large story, questions have to be asked about the whole thing. What was the whole point of the Shadow Proclamation? It smacked of filler, which was a disappointment. Oh planets are disappearing and you are yet to lose something, Donna - now off we go.
Hooky science I think we can forgive, since it's the fiction part of sci-fi but we should still want it to be, at the least, credible. But we've got the whole world calling a mobile phone in space, or, as in the previous year, with the world praying for the Doctor, or....[insert your own here].
As for the Osterhagen Key: since the daleks have uber-tech that can scan everything, why didn't they bother finding twenty-five nukes under the planet's surface.
Other questions include what the hell Jackie was doing there. She served no purpose other than to have the actress in it. (Personally I'd have liked RTD to have the balls to remove her from reality.) Hmmm, what else? Oh yeah, Rose being responsible for Jack's eternal resurrection, not knowing about it, and never having it explained to her. Or the Doctor and Rose meeting after all this time was given short shrift. Surely, if Mickey had spent two years in a parallel universe he would at least say goodbye to Rose. (And with Torchwood being in Cardiff and Sarah Jane being in London, it seems strange that the Doctor, with a track record of taking everyone home, would let them all off in the same place - someone's got a bit of traveling to do.
There's also a smattering of whimsy in his scripts - take, for example, Tooth And Claw - where a werewolf story with Queen Victoria would have been okay in and of itself, but he threw in pointless kung-fu monks (in Scotland!).
And the thing about involving parallel universes and putting them all at risk is that, even though Davros was - defeated doesn't strike me as le mot juste - beaten and his reality bomb never saw success, there are bound to be many parallel universes out there with a Davros who does succeed - so what's the point?
The thing about if being a family show is that it's for kids and adults. So it can't all be dismissed as for the kids.
Gridlock, Doomsday, Midnight, Turn Left, and Smith And Jones - these are RTD's best episodes. I would even throw in The Long Game. But everything else? Nah. He's capable of good character moments, but, Doomsday aside, his season finales are wasted opportunities.
Oh, and Mickey Smith for Torchwood. Puh-leez! I don't think they are ever going to get that show right. Hey, I've killed a couple of daleks, can I join your team? Sure thing, Mickey, you can be our new Tosh, you know, the genius computer expert - you used to run a website, so you know what you are talking about. And when the time comes to replace you, we'll get even younger professionals in until the audience of a CBeebies is outside the government, beyond the police.
Add naff effects to good humour, everyone's a winner