Runaway Bride

iguana

That wasn't very good was it? Perhaps it was just me as I hate Catherine Tate, just her voice goes through my skull. It had a few nice moments, and I thought the way DT said Rose's name at the end was very well acted, but overall it wasn't great. My husband fell asleep during the episode which said it all to me.

My high point was the trailer for the upcoming season, I'm definitely looking forward to meeting Martha.

Stark

I thought it was alright. Tate didn't irritate me as much as I thought she would. No "Golden age of England" lady this time round either.

The spider lady was done very well costume wise even if it was irritating to hear her speak. I was relieved when she let the smarmy fiancé do the talking for her.

Spot the obligatory "Torchwood" reference btw. What, you mean that super sexy smart sensational superlative sucky ****e scifi show is a spinoff of this? Thanks for pointing that out RTD.

BuffyBot

Tate was actually alright. It was good to see a companion actually not go with the Doctor, and point out why..it does kind of reinforce the kind of life he leads..as an episode it was a bit rushed (no explanation really as to why Tate's character was targetted, or it needed 6 months to be dosed when they dosed the fiancee in 5 seconds it seemed). Not the best, not the worst.

monkeyfudge

I thought it was terrible stuff... easily the worst new Doctor Who episode yet.

Tate was horrific.. but that was a given... but the villain was incredibly ineffectual for all her talk. How useless was her space ship which seemed to be made out of tin foil and could mildly scorch footpaths with it's death ray?

shinzon

I didnt think the episode was that bad tbh, although i havent watched any of catherine tates shows ever, so possibly wasnt as clued up as everybody else was to how irritating she is, although her constant shouting did grate on me a bit

I thought the sfx were brilliant, especially the TARDIS car chase and the take off at the end

I must admit david tennant is growing on me as the doctor, i didnt think much of him acting as a mockney type of character, but hes certainly added gravitas to the role as witnessed by his near annihilation of the racnoss and the way tennant played it re: the stare was excellent

plus the micro acting moment at the end when he metioned rose was just excellent

So no it wasnt the complete disaster that iguana seemed to think it was

Shin

Pigman II

Not a Dr.Who fan but I had the Xmas special from last year sitting on my HD for about 6 months now and I only watched it last week out of curiosity. Have to say I liked it a lot and was all-set to watch this years Xmas special too. But then I saw yer woman was gonna be in it so I gave it a miss.

Glad to hear I haven't missed much

iguana

BuffyBot wrote:

(no explanation really as to why Tate's character was targetted, or it needed 6 months to be dosed when they dosed the fiancee in 5 seconds it seemed). Not the best, not the worst.

Tate was targetted because she was easily led by the guy. And Parish's character said that she could dose the guy instantly because she now knew the exact dose needed after studying Tate.

Torchwood guys sure were sitting on their asses this Christmas. One of their London sites gets breached, blown up and the Thames drains to the core of the earth, while the Cardiff branch are moping about some people from the 50's.

polly oliver

I really liked this one. I even enjoyed catherine tate. The spider woman looked amazing. Can't wait till the new season.

Gavin W

iguana wrote:

Torchwood guys sure were sitting on their asses this Christmas. One of their London sites gets breached, blown up and the Thames drains to the core of the earth

I thought it was explained that this was an old abandoned Torchwood site? The building had been bought by the company that Donna and her fiance worked for.

Jack B. Badd

Pretty weak alright. Got my hands on the Cardiff Christmas Concert though and that was fantastic! And the luscious Mr. Tennant maintained his gorgeous Scottish accent throughout the show. Nyom!

iguana

Gavin W wrote:

I thought it was explained that this was an old abandoned Torchwood site? The building had been bought by the company that Donna and her fiance worked for.

No the company they worked for was a Torchwood cover, and either way an alien spaceship over London and the Thames being drained to the core of the earth should be enough to warrant Torchwood being on alert in case they were needed.

Kwekubo

Motorway SFX sequence was fantastic, as was the Bride's thickness; nice character acting; some dumb bits like the George of the Jungle swing. The plot had some patchy bits (so nothing new there), but I enjoyed the episode.

marie_85

I was pleasantly surprised with this episode. Not being a fan of Catherine Tate, I wasn't expecting much but I thought she was hilarious. She brought out the best in David Tennant.

I think he'll be better off without Rose, who overshadowed him, being an established character in the show when he joined. My only complaint is that he doesn't use his own accent.

Gavin W

iguana wrote:

No the company they worked for was a Torchwood cover, and either way an alien spaceship over London and the Thames being drained to the core of the earth should be enough to warrant Torchwood being on alert in case they were needed.

Yes having watched it again I realise you're right about it being a Torchwood cover. However the Doctor did say that someone else had taken it over following the battle of Canary Wharf, that someone being the Empress. Torchwood's London operation seems to have been almost completely wiped out so they don't seem to have the facilities or the manpower to deal with those sort of events any more.

popebenny16

Thanks to BBC3 i've now seen it three times and I'm sorta not dissapointed in it, if you know what i mean. It wasnt good enough to be the prime time BBC1 show on Christmas Day, and in some ways it just seems to be a big ad for the next season.

Recurring joke of no-one actually noticing the Dalek/Cyberman war is ok if you hadnt noticed it in the first ep of Torchwood (which was a reference to last years Christmas special). The notion that the Doctor needs a companion to dampen down his excesses was well made although we did have the Doctor offering a peace offering to the Queen before flooding the hole which has to be made given what we know of him as a perosn after all these years. This may change with Tennats replacement who the Beeb want to be a bit more stern and manly. (I for one am fed up with Tennant {and Ecclestone for that matter} getting all excited by revelations).

Donna actually grew on me after a few viewings but was still a Tate-by-the-book character. Not as bad as having peter kay in it but for gods sake give it up, do we really want to see Ant and feckin Dec next Chistmas Day?

Yet again we have a new ultra villain who can destroy the Earth yadda yadda, they've been inside the core all the time, very hot down there you know that water trick wouldnt work you know, all turns to steam, whose ship (all the nifty particles are gone soe fire away lads) gets walloped by a few Chieftain Tanks. She looked good, but she was, contemporaritivly speaking (is that a word?) about as much use as those dangerous looking red duvets that chased Jon Petrwee around.

Anyway, it did its job, perhaps better suited to St. Stephens Day, and it was miles bettter than torchwooden.

Sleepy

I miss Rose

Tennant played it excellently though Tate was head-wrecking.

secret_squirrel

It wasnt a patch on the Xmas invasion but it wasnt as bad as I had feared.

Catherine Tate was far less irritating than I expected, and almost redeemed herself with her acting in the last scene which was very well played. She still sets my teeth on edge though.

I did like the point that the Doctor needs an assistant to keep him on the straight and narrow. The implication being that since the Timewar the the Doctor has become far more ruthless that before.

Thought the Racnoss were pretty crap though - could barely understand the Woman. Definately an Dr Who Monster by the numbers. Not convinced by the Effects used either.

The chieftan tanks shooting down the Starship was also far too cheesy. Would have been better to see the Torchwood lasers used again, or some kind of torchwood tank.

All in all fair to middling. Had a massive amount to live up to after the Xmas Invasion though.... which for me is probably the best single episode so far.

Didnt like the new season trailers at the end though... Too many spoilers.

K!LL!@N

It was an enjoyable enough episode.
I had a horrible feeling that she was going to become the new assistant.
Thankfully it didn't happen.

When does the new season start?

Killian

aidan_walsh

I think I heard April.

Enjoyable, though I was a little disappointed with the "climactic" end. No battle to save the day, the Queen\Empress\whatever just sitting there and taking it. Could have done better there. Other than that it was pretty standard RTD Who-based affair, which isn't always that bad IMO (leaving Love and Monsters aside).

daveirl

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Mahatma coat

watched every other ep of the new series,and have tosay that that was by far the worst of all time. please tell me that the rumors of ttes revival of that role are lies.

frumpy shouty screamy annoying just dosent do it for me