One of the many things I love about Russell T. Davies ’ reinvention of Doctor Who is the fact that it ’s taken the prison term to wonder some of the show ’s most canonical ( and quasi - wizard ) tenets . What ’s more , it ’s done so in a way that ’s in reality boosted our abeyance of skepticism , rather than subvert it , which is no easy joke . In season one , we saw Rose freak out over the fact that the Doctor ’s fourth dimension machine had invaded her head to understand foreign / alien languages without her permit . And in time of year three , Martha incur into the question of how she can claver the yesteryear without stepping on the haywire butterfly stroke or circumstantially killing her grandfather . And now , in last Saturday ’s episode , we get to the biggest doubt of them all : why can the physician shift history only sometimes ? Spoilers forrader !
It ’s actually a really valid interrogative , and one the show has waffled on quite a morsel , ever since 1964 ’s “ The Aztecs , ” where the Doctor merely throw a hissy fit about the idea of Barbara trying to save the Aztec civilization but never explains why that would be dissimilar from bar the Daleks or the Voord . The obvious resolution is , “ Because the Doctor pass so much time in one particular version of 20th./21st . century Earth , and he wants it to be the same whenever he goes there . ” But there ’s probably more to it than that , since he does occasionally meddle in Earth ’s past tense as well .
And so now we get a bit more of an explanation , and it ’s one which raise a bunch more questions — which is a good affair . The Doctor sees account as either pay back or in flux , and when he comes to a tip that ’s fixed , he ca n’t ( or must n’t ) disturb it .
And this episode actually yield me a intellect to love Donna , who was one of the dozen or so thing that annoyed me in last workweek ’s installment . She , more than any other recent companion , really put up up to the doc . And she keeps doing it long after he ’s explained himself , and give his passionate speech , and abuse her down . She take heed to all the Doctor ’s reasons , and then keeps tell apart him he ’s wrong . It ’s meant to be refreshful after the comparatively adoring attitudes of Rose and Martha , and it is .
I sort of take that the whole “ we ca n’t redeem Pompeii ” plot of ground would be dropped about two - third of the style through the installment , to make elbow room for the tangible plot , about the rock candy monsters who desire to do something or other . But then I was really happy to be essay wrong . The rock demon plot , as flimsy as it was , was just there to advance the “ we ca n’t make unnecessary Pompeii ” plot . Which was a brave pick , and a really honorable one . In the end , because the stone monsters are averting the volcanic bang that ’s “ say ” to happen , the Doctor actually has to take province for his pick to let everyone in Pompeii die .
And the other reason it works so well is because the worker sell the story : You in reality think that Donna and the Doctor are anguished by this choice , instead of just sort of tossing it off .
And then there are all the little hints drop in the scene featured above — like the thing on Donna ’s back . Is it , as some have speculated , something to do with the Racnoss , those spidery creature we fulfill in her first dangerous undertaking ? ( In which display case it would n’t be the first prison term the Doctor ’s companion had a spidery affair on her back , since that happened all the way back in 1974 ’s “ Planet Of The Spiders . ” ) Is the byplay about the Doctor ’s real name actually going to be pregnant ? Are we fail to read his real name at last ? ( And no , I ’m guessing it ’s not “ Theta Sigma , ” the moniker he was promise by in one episode years ago . ) And then of class the hints that the replication of Rose is significant to the overarching plot of the time of year .
And then there ’s the dangling plotline at the end , the family the Doctor last chooses to save from the volcano . The one time he actually hear to Donna and does the nice thing instead of the smart matter . I will be dreadfully disappointed if that decision does n’t come back to thwack him in the frontal bone in a future instalment .
So — as I and many others call — this instalment was a immense advance on the fat - people - uncanny - babies episode last week . It definitely was n’t perfect . I could n’t quite severalise you what the rock people ’s plan was , except that it involved circuit boards , and the mountain , and psychic people being turned into rock citizenry . And the rock mass were preposterously easy to stop — with a water system shooting iron , no less . But as I said earlier , the “ primary ” plot of the episode was so transparently just an excuse to get into the government issue the episode want to talk about , so it scarce count . Oh , and there was campiness , but it worked with the story . So yes , I ’d say it was jolly decent , all told .
( And to those of you who are expire to say it was good because Russell T. Davies did n’t write it — his signature was all over it , include wads of little touches of sense of humor . ( The zany affair where Donna ’s Latin sounds like Gaelic to the Roman people . ) I would n’t be surprised if RTD rewrote this script extensively — this is just an exercise of what RTD and his author do well : a somewhat silly , fluffy story with an real idea at its center , and an emotional crux of the matter that the character actually get engaged with . It ’s only when he serve up pure fluff — and it ’s not even good fluff — that I get annoyed .
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