Dr. WHO: Aliens in London/World War III

[SuccubusYuri]

Part 1: http://sfdebris.com/videos/doctorwho/s27e04.php

Part 2: http://sfdebris.com/videos/doctorwho/s27e05.php

[SuccubusYuri]

I will say this much about the story: I really, really liked Harriet Jones in this story. She had an actual, honest to god character arc, and it is clear from the presentation that she has the stuff to rise to greatness, she just hasn't had scope or circumstances to provoke it.

Then the Doctor meets her a 2nd time and ruins her administration, and she's reduced to a gag character for the rest of RTD's run so, who knows how much of that was intentional.

I am in the same boat as Chuck on the farting. I get the idea, and when it's explained it makes a cute kind of sense, a little mundanity messing with the alien invasion, ha-de-har-har. But the sheer volume in these two episodes is a circle of Hell Dante wishes he could dream up.

[Paul Walker]

I HATE the farting aliens. Say what you will about Steven Moffat, but he knew how to create awesome aliens-of-the-week, and kept some kind of intrigue in his running stories (even if he did struggle to cap it at times - though Davies had a similar issue).

[GandALF]

"gone metric"

[Deledrius]

I will say this much about the story: I really, really liked Harriet Jones in this story. She had an actual, honest to god character arc, and it is clear from the presentation that she has the stuff to rise to greatness, she just hasn't had scope or circumstances to provoke it.

Then the Doctor meets her a 2nd time and ruins her administration, and she's reduced to a gag character for the rest of RTD's run so, who knows how much of that was intentional.

I agree, and I really liked how the character was initially presented. It's a point of annoyance to me that she was later undermined for no discernible reason and then reduced to a joke instead of coming back from it stronger; she could have been an interesting ally-antagonist for the Doctor. One of the few major character missteps made during this era.

I HATE the farting aliens. Say what you will about Steven Moffat, but he knew how to create awesome aliens-of-the-week, and kept some kind of intrigue in his running stories (even if he did struggle to cap it at times - though Davies had a similar issue).

I think this two-parter illustrates the difference between the two well. Even despite the juvenile flatulence (either RTD or BBC must have thought this was the target audience), it still was a smart, engaging story with lots of great character moments that build internally to the episodes as well as for the season as a whole. I can't say the same for what I saw of Moffat's tedious run. I care about these people instead of loathing them.

Put very simply, I think it's because while bad humor is subjective (some probably enjoy the immature jokes here), bad writing is not nearly so much. I can put up with and ignore the toilet jokes if the rest of the story is good, but when I can't stand the arrogance of the characters and the story thinks itself "clever" but is terribly contrived or anti-science like Moffat's there is little left to save it.

Unrelated: Why is this thread's topic about the World Health Organization?

[unknownsample]

I HATE the farting aliens. Say what you will about Steven Moffat, but he knew how to create awesome aliens-of-the-week, and kept some kind of intrigue in his running stories (even if he did struggle to cap it at times - though Davies had a similar issue).

Exactly Moffatt had his faults and made mistakes, but he sure as hell doesn't deserve some of the OTT criticism he has received from fans, so much so that it actually makes me tune out most criticism. But yeah this is a terrible episode and not just because of the farting, from simple jokes to an approach to politics that makes a Trump supporter look sophisticated and in depth to an idiotic plot, which makes little sense.

[DanteC]

Harriet Jones is (probably) the only good thing about this two-parter, which makes her next appearance so gut-wrenching. Not going to say anything since it's not been reviewed yet, but, yeah, screw you 10th Doctor.
Not being familiar with earlier seasons, this episode marked the beginning of alien invasions conveniently forgotten later on as well. Which I found a particular annoyance.

[TheLibrarian]

Harriet Jones is (probably) the only good thing about this two-parter, which makes her next appearance so gut-wrenching. Not going to say anything since it's not been reviewed yet, but, yeah, screw you 10th Doctor.

It was such a dick move, it took me almost his whole first series before I stopped hating Ten.

[unknownsample]

Oh and Chuck don't do a Cockney accent again.

[Darth Wedgius]

I didn't hate the farting aliens. I just kind of held my nose (metaphorically speaking) and went with it. Even without that, it was a largely forgettable episode. It was nice character building for Harriet Jones and Mickey, but given that they took HJ in another direction with the next episode, her development here was kind of wasted...
And then she turned into a zombie and Shaun had to shoot her. She really can't catch a break.