Doctor Who - 11/10

[Brakkart]

Personally what I liked about this episode is that the Doctor keeps a period motor scooter in the TARDIS. Makes me wonder what other vehicles he's got stashed in there... somewhere.

 

[Huw]

Really, the story was just kind of blah. The good news is that there was no mention of "torchwood" from what I remember. Focing that word into every episode has been annoying.

It was mentioned. I won't spoil the memory by reminding you where.

Anyway, cheer up, you've now got The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit two-parter to look forward too!

 

[sniffles]

A nice episode in the 50s. Until you stop and think about it, at which point you realize how incredibly stupid it actually is. One little shopkeeper innundates half of London with cheap TVs. How? Where does he get the resources for this? The Wire sure isn't providing any. It would take him months, if not years, to do so using his own time and money. Once you realize that, the whole thing just falls apart. There's no way the police would be able to haul off people without faces for that long without a word without a HUGE stink being made and lawsuits flying like confetti. Did I mention lawsuits? How about wrongfu death for all those faceless folks who died because the cops shoved them into warehouses instead of hospitals?

Then there are the cops themselves. With as long as they'd have to work on the case they'd have to be the most incompetant morons on the face of the planet not to make the connection between the TVs and the faceless plague. And even if they were, they could call in Agatha Christy, who'd straighten them out within 24 hours, tops.

And speaking of morons, why wasn't our shopkeeper concentrating on putting his TVs in pubs and other public places instead of private homes? Dumb but fun entertainment. (I especially liked the first few minutes with the Doctor and Rose going to see Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show... in London!)

I have to chime in that Plane Sailing is right about the police and lawsuit angle. In the 1950s the laws were different than they are now, and people weren't nearly as litigious as they are now, either. Not to mention this is Britain we're talking about, not the U.S.

I also doubt any publican would have wanted a television in his establishment in those days. Part of the point of the episode was that it was unusual for there to be so many television sets in people's homes at that time; in real life tv's were less common.

Okay, pedantic mode off.

 

[Rykion]

A nice episode in the 50s. Until you stop and think about it, at which point you realize how incredibly stupid it actually is. One little shopkeeper innundates half of London with cheap TVs. How? Where does he get the resources for this? The Wire sure isn't providing any. It would take him months, if not years, to do so using his own time and money. Once you realize that, the whole thing just falls apart.

Where in the episode does it say he provided 1/2 of London with TVs? I got the impression he sold a lot on his street, maybe a few dozen at most. The wire could only get into TVs locally from the shop. The cheap TVs were just to sustain the wire while it waited on its ultimate plan. Once it was in the broadcast tower it could get to all London TVs and maybe most of the TVs in England. The coronation guaranteed that people with TVs would be tuned in and their neighbors without them would likely be invited to watch. Even with the relatively few TVs at the time, this would likely be tens of thousands of people.

 

[Tonguez]

It was mentioned. I won't spoil the memory by reminding you where.

Yes it was and that has me thinking - if a regular working man on the street in the 1950's knows what Torchwood is, how come the Doctor has never heard of it before, even when he was with UNIT....

 

[glass]

I have to chime in that Plane Sailing is right about the police and lawsuit angle. In the 1950s the laws were different than they are now, and people weren't nearly as litigious as they are now, either. Not to mention this is Britain we're talking about, not the U.S.

Not only that, but even if it had occured to the people involved to sue, and they had wanted to do so, how could the possibly have afforded it?


glass.

 

[Henry]

I loved it, myself -- it was damned creepy to hear the stately TV lady orgasmically yelling "HUN-GRY!" when she was about to feed. I haven't felt that chill since I heard "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" When I was about age 14 or so.

 

[Morrus]

Yes it was and that has me thinking - if a regular working man on the street in the 1950's knows what Torchwood is, how come the Doctor has never heard of it before, even when he was with UNIT....

Because his visit to Scotland, which prompted the creation of Torchwood, was only recently in his own history. He changed time by visiting. Back in the UNIT days, Torchwood didn't exist.

The Doctor's memory has never changed to reflect altered timestreams. Thus he can arrive on modern day Earth after someone or something has gone back in time and changed things for the worse, and see that it's now different to how he remembers - thus creating the classic "I have to go back in time to stop X changing time" scenario.

In The Doctor's memories and personal history, Torchwood hasn't been around long at all.

 

[sniffles]

I loved it, myself -- it was damned creepy to hear the stately TV lady orgasmically yelling "HUN-GRY!" when she was about to feed. I haven't felt that chill since I heard "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" When I was about age 14 or so.

I thought they did a great job of recreating the feel of 1950s tv shows. The actress playing the Wire looked perfect for a tv hostess of the era.

In the Confidential for that episode they described how the production went to the BBC's original studios - the building where the transmitter tower was located in the episode - to film, and how they found an old set to shoot the Wire's performance so it would look more authentic. I thought that was great.

 

[Prince Atom]

The whole "Hungry!" meme reminded me of Paradise Towers, which made me think of the very little time that Mel got on Doctor Who. Which made me kinda sad, in a way.

Oh, well.

Spoiler Alert!!! Spoiler Follows:

Spoiler

I was a little irritated in that the poor television vendor didn't even get a chance to redeem himself: The Wire just killed him. I guess it shows how rapacious its appetite was, but he should have gone out trying to pull the plug, however futile it was.