Arnold
CibbuanoThe Idiot's Lantern
August 28th 2006 12:08
Last Saturday's episode of Doctor Who was rather uninspiring stuff after the two-part return of the Cybermen. I suppose it had to happen, we'd had such a good run... the werewolf in 'Tooth and Claw', the return of Sarah and K9 in 'School Reunion', the fabulously well-written 'Girl in the Fireplace' and the impressive reinvention of the Cybermen in 'Rise of the Cybermen' and 'The Age of Steel' all went a long way to making this current series of Doctor Who even better than the last (something I didn't think was possible). I guess the streak had to have a hiccup somewhere or other.
'The Idiot's Lantern' is by no means a terrible episode, it's just so... I don't know, uninspired. The Doctor and Rose land in 1950s London where the rather put-upon Mr. Magpie is distributing TV after TV in the hope of getting enough installed in time for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Why does he need to get so many TVs installed? An alien entity known as 'The Wire' is behind Mr. Magpie, using the televisions to steal people's indentities. Soon enough, the Doctor loses Rose and has to race against the clock to stop 'The Wire' from using the televisions to manifest itself on Earth and do bad stuff. Or something.
There were interesting facets to this episode... I liked the interplay between the 'sensitive' boy Tommy and his domineering father, Eddie. The 50s was nicely recreated and - as always for the new series - the effects were top-notch (hard to get used to after so many years of dodgy Doctor Who effects!)
The Wire was just so uninteresting though! And I'm sick to death of seeing Earth. And 20th century Earth. And Earth in London at that. And Earth in suburban London! For fuck's sake, the Doctor can travel through all time and space - the possibilities are endless! Find some new places to take us!
Anyway. Like I said, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It's by no means the worst episode of this series. Bring on this week's 'The Impossible Planet' - finally, an episode set on an alien planet!
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Comment by Grant
That and the latest doctor is really cool.
Agree that this episode wasn't all that good. I think it was trying to say something about the New Britian, post Empire, but it just got lost in all the noise about the tv trying to suck everyones face off.
As if the doctor shouldn't have gone back and picked up that hot French chick from a few weeks ago. He owns the tardis for goodness sake!
Comment by Luke
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