Sfdebris.net

It's out for Patreons, will post the link when it's out for everyone, but I wanted to discuss it and not wait (and lose my thoughts).

I'm one of those who believes that Harriet Jone's actions were fully justified. Putting aside that the leader of the Sycorax had shown that he's not bound by his word, assuming the rest of his people (Who all seemed to willingly follow him) would is at best naive - putting aside any threat the Sycorax could represent to Earth - It's not like they've suddenly reconsidered their entire culture. They just happen to have bitten more than they can chew this time. It's not like the Sycorax were a peaceful agrarian race who decided to try their hand at enslavement just one time and now it's back to the fields. There was no mistake the Sycorax we're leaving Earth to make their way to the next primitive race could trick into enslavement. Harriet frankly did the universe a favor.

Also, am I the only one finding some unfortunate implication about Harriet Jones, a female politician, whose career is cut short by a commentary about her appearance? It's a fact that female politicians face way more scrutiny about their appearance, health, and such than men do - and yes, Chuck in the episode points out a male example of the same thing. But I've always wondered if Harriet Jones had been "Harry Jones", if the writers would've had the doctor use those same words to topple his government.

*Ahem*

Description for Video Reviews wrote:This forum is for discussing Chuck's videos as they are publicly released.

The review is now public. Have at it.

For the most part I really enjoyed this episode, I'm not a big fan of the ending as while Ten does have his I cannot think of any instance where he does something like this to people who don't deserve it and at least Harriet gets a chance to redeem herself and the Doctor is viably shocked by her death.

In relation to Mass Effect 3 I've gone on record that I hated the ending to that game as I felt it undercut the series as a whole and I didn't much care for other creative choices the third game made. The Christmas Invasion on the other hand has a frustrating ending but otherwise is a fun journey, not the best but still fun.

10 is my least favorite of the modern Doctors. I don't dislike him, but I like 11, 12 and 9 more. And this episode is a big part of why that is. I thought the episode was all right up to a point. Not great. The Doctor was out of commission a bit long, but I thought it made his grand entrance on the alien ship appropriately epic.

But I cannot agree with his decision to depose Harriet Jones. She made the right call. The Doctor will protect the Earth when he can. But while he can be anywhere, anytime, he is not omnipresent or omniscient. And the aliens proved they would murder people without hesitation. She had every reason to take them out, protecting her country, her planet, and any other planet these guys may bother. And the Doctor got all self righteous about it, and cancelled the Golden Age she would have ushered in. It made this a bad first impression of this Doctor.

I was kind of hoping after the cold miser/heat miser bit, Chuck was going to segue into a "at least it can't get any worse" joke and the show the live action version. Ah well.

Tennant was fine as the Doctor, lot of people's favorites, and some really strong episodes... but like 9 he's saddled with Rose and that makes his first chunk of episodes nearly impossible for me to rewatch. Then Martha is kinda whatever... and when he finally gets a really fun companion that switches things up and changes the dynamic with Donna, she gets completely shortchanged with multiparters and cameos from Martha.. she only gets half a season.

And then his farewell parade of death season....

Just overall a mixed bag. He was a great representative of the show, and still is.

(11 is my favorite of the current generation... and a toss up between 2 and 3 of the old guard.)

My favorite part of the episode was the Arthur Dent name drop, which didn't make it into the review. Unfortunately, I didn't get into the new companions because I dropped the show about five episodes into Tennant's season.

I am more upset with the Doctor in this episode because he breaks his own Prime Directive. He involved himself in political squabbles. It is difficult to categorize Jones as any kind of existential threat to the Human race or the galaxy at large. Even if she was the Trumpiest of Chicken-Hawks, Earth tech cannot make the jump to make her dangerous to nearby aliens in her tenure.

Earth makes what is essentially a political statement; "Do not fuck with us, steer clear, I'm not ready to deal with this shit like I thought". It's how their elected representatives have chosen to deal with first contact situations, and it isn't as black and white as Ten tries to make it. This whole thing feels way too far from "Ah, but that's not my problem," in the Face of Evil for me to respect his choice to topple her government.

Pre-dating the episode, as well, I'm sure there's a dozen examples in London, but on the other side of the pond Muskie's run in 72 was toppled by something just as simple; he gave a speech in the snow and the melting flakes made it look like he was crying, and his primary season ended in a night, after having won both Iowa and New Hampshire.

...A speech which was a response to the Canuck Letter, which Watergate later revealed was fabricated by the Nixon campaign to discredit his run as the presumed front runner...so maybe a few too-close-for-comfort parallels with Ten xD

Going against the grain here, but I disagree with Harriet Jones' decision. Regardless of whether or not the Sycorax would continue to honor their agreement, the fact of the matter is that they were honoring it at the time. They had ended hostilities with Earth and were leaving the planet. And humanity shot them in the back. If Earth is sending out any message to all the other alien races out there with that act, it's "We cannot be trusted". The Sycorax did as they promised. Earth killed them anyways.

(Mind you, I also disagree with Doctor's decision to depose her since it's both meddling with history and Earth politics.)

Trooper924 wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 9:47 pm Going against the grain here, but I disagree with Harriet Jones' decision. Regardless of whether or not the Sycorax would continue to honor their agreement or not, the fact of the matter is that they were honoring it at the time. They had ended hostilities with Earth and were leaving the planet. And humanity shot them in the back. If Earth is sending out any message to all the other alien races out there with that act, it's "We cannot be trusted". The Sycorax did as they promised. Earth killed them anyways.

Also removed any reason for future invaders to surrender if they found they'd bitten off more than they could chew, but instead double down in desperation and fight to the very last, which is why shooting at a surrendered enemy is a real life war crime even if you do suspect them of going to do the nasty on you later.

Plus, and this is the big one for me anyway, it was militarily stupid to give away the existence of a giant space laser at a time when she had no real immediate reason to do so. The time to reveal that is when an enemy is attacking and they suddenly get a space laser to the face. Next enemy that comes along gets go to in with the knowledge of the space laser's existence and effects and thus has time to devise a counter in advance of their invasion. The Torchwood gun isn't a space nuke for deterrence (that would be that Osterhagen Key, invade and we'll take your forces with us, that was kept secret), but artillery to be used in active defence. You want to make sure people know about your space nukes in advance and your artillery as a surprise, the show had it the wrong way round. If the Sycorax turned around then she could always have shot them then. It wasn't like there was a best before date on the side of her space laser. She should have kept that one in her back pocket for later if she had to.

I think that is why Harriet "Cottage Hospitals" Jones did have to go; she made herself seem untrustworthy, and she exposed Earth to more dangers than she solved, all through a scared and impulsive gesture of defiance to a problem she wasn't even faced with.