- this isn’t science fiction. It is science fantasy, and inherently weak on logic. RTD doesn’t understand SF, merely its trappings.

- Tate is simply terribly annoying to watch in Dr Who. There is NO reason to root for her. I rather wanted the cable to snap and put her out of my misery.

- Large rabbitsized adipose creatures pop out of victims through their skin, bloodlessly? Utterly cartoony. Absolutely silly in an unfunny creepy way.

- What ill director plays reactions of helpless infected victims for comedy, as done several times?

- Overuse of the damned sonic screwdriver as deus ex machina. Since when do sonic screwdrivers have weapons capabilities able to heat steel cables, melt door locks – with sparks! ENOUGH.

- TERRIBLE special effects. The legions of adipose creatures were BLURRY in the street scenes. The character design was cartoony in the extreme. We’re not infants watching teletubbies.

- Reactions of the infected people in the bar scene not credible at all, just silly.

- Glossy spectacle outweighed character credibility and plot sense. One might almost just turn the sound off and watch for the spectacle, forget the story.

- Plot holes aplenty. Did RTD actually expect us to accept that hundreds of thousands of adipose creatures popped out of hosts each night unseen, and roamed the streets like rats until collected by black vans? Or that a fleet of vans dispatched perhaps like taxis, one per creature? Or that the nanny would allow potential children of the royal family to roam unprotected on an alien planet?

RTD has been infected with Uwe Boll Disease.

Romana left the series at the end of Warrior’s Gate, where she opted to remain in E-Space (a small pocket universe outside of our own — the “e” stands for “exospace”, and the term would likely apply to any of several exospace universes accessed via charged vacuum emboitments — CVEs). She stayed there to help the enslaved Tharil race free itself and rebuild a society.

In the novels and audio dramas (which have separate continuities), Romana eventually returned to Gallifrey and ultimately became President. The canonicity of this is unclear; in generally, it is best to assume that the books are not canon. However, elements of the books have appeared on the series (most notably “Human Nature”, which was worked into a two-parter last season) and a lot of the authors of the novels are now script writers for the series. Some things said by Davies suggest that they are operating on the assumption that Romana did return to Gallifrey and become President, ultimately perishing along with Gallifrey itself.

But Davies can’t possibly be the producer forever, and since this hasn’t been enshrined in any actual episode, it could always change. And if not, well, more fun for the fanfic writers!

All of this does leave unanswered the question of where other Time Lord renegades wound up. Drax, Cho-Je/K’Anpo, the Rani, the Meddling Monk, Chronotis, Omega, any Time Lords imprisoned on Shada…. Drax most likely could not have returned to Gallifrey to assist in the Time War, as he was stranded without transportation. (He wasn’t technically a Time Lord anyway, as he dropped out of the academy. Dialog in that episode and in “Invasion of Time” suggests that Time Lords are the Gallifreyan elite, but that there are working class Gallifreyans as well — and also indicates that it is possible to renounce the title, as the hunter-gatherer Shabogans had done.)

There is also the possibility of refugees. Not just people who couldn’t get to Gallifrey in time, or who wouldn’t have heeded the call anyway (I can’t imagine the Rani caring about the outcome, for instance) but those who were involved in the war but dropped out due to injury or stranding and then were left behind, accidentally or otherwise.

I am certain that if there were Dalek survivors, there will be Time Lord survivors too. And not just the Doctor and the Master.

The references to other Sci-Fi classics are becoming a bit tiresome.
The Adipose mother-ship was very like the intergalactic spinning top in “Close Encounters”. The little-adiposers themselves looked like they might have fitted into ET’s toy cupboard.

When the Tardis shot up into space towards the end, it looked like it had been filmed by the BBC Special effects departments of the 1960′s.
- Like a cardboard box on a wire.

Either this was a very clever retro reference, or the cuts in the BBC’s budget must have gone further than we thought.

Can only get better.

I thought the S4 opener was the worst episode of the revival. Not because of Tate (she did OK with the direction and writing she was given), but because of RTD’s insipid, repetitive, and poorly timed script. C’mon, we’ve had farty marshmellow aliens before. We’ve heard the Doctor give alien races “one last chance” before going medieval on them. It just seemed like RTD was throwing in all sorts of unrelated catch-phrases and bits of contrived tension from previous episodes. Too much wink-winking and nudge-nudging.

The sooner Moffat takes over as head writer the better.

Afraid not – Zygons while they control the lochness monster still have backbones. And considering who the current ‘monster of the series’ is he would definetly be a Rutan.

“In their natural forms, Rutans resemble large green jellyfish, glowing blobs of biomatter with long ropy tentacles….”

Kaptain K:
Ah yes, the old TV will rot your mind blarney( or is it that you just can’t afford a TV?).

Actually, neither!

I am 50 Km from Austin and the transmitters are on the other side of Austin (call it another 50 Km.

I have two TVs. What I don’t have is cable. although that’s about to change (I think)

Anyway, I’m curious whether our “special guest” was simply a preview, or if that scene was part of a future event. (iow: Do things/events in the finale cycle back to the series start?)

Very happy to hear about Prof. Dawkins’ upcoming role. Can’t wait. Is it too much to hope for Lalla to reappear? (Actually… I have this theory that hinges on a very, very slight similarity that I perceive between Romana (2) and this week’s special guest. They do sorta, almost, kinda look like they might be partially related, eh?)

To clarify Calli Arcale’s post a tad for you non-fans, Romana is a young, fresh out of school Time-Lord that the Doctor is paired with. She was originally played by Mary Tamm in 1978/79 but replaced by Lalla Ward when MT left due to pregnancy and other reasons. So, one character, but 2 incarnations. That regeneration thing comes in handy for the writers, eh? :p

* The Master (Flash Gordon ripoffs nowithstanding – I just hope they go back to the Mr Sinister ‘Delago style’ as opposed to the hyperactive Joker ripoff)
* Romana II (in E-space if books are ignored, president of Gallifrey otherwise)
* The Rani – (stuck on Tetrapyriarbus)
* Meddling Monk (stuck in 1066 or on an icy rockball)
* The Valyard (again canon dependant)
* Drax (working as a mechanic on Atrios)
* Omega (may or may not still be in the anti-matter universe)
* Professor Chronotis (at Cambridge)
* Cho Je (a Tibetan monk)
* Many many more if you go to the books….Dr Who cannon is all over the place sometimes.

As for having an octopus monster appear in Torchwood…well…I think there’s enough sexual escapades without bringing in tentacles.

(The commentary track did disappoint me, though. Most of the Dr Who “classic series” DVDs have the commentary tracks played over the episode audio, but on “Destiny of the Daleks” you can only hear the episode audio *or* the commentary track. Not both.)

And for those readers who are not Doctor Who fans (or at least not fans of the old series), Lalla Ward played the second Romana, a Time Lady who traveled with Tom Baker’s Doctor. (Lalla Ward and Tom Baker subsequently got married, but the marriage only lasted 18 months — they had essentially fallen in love with one another’s on-screen characters, which is sort of a hazard of the acting profession.)

I bought a copy of “Destiny of the Daleks” recently. That was Lalla Ward’s second Doctor Who story, but her first as Romana. (She’d previously played Princess Astra in “The Armageddon Factor”, who turned out to actually be the sixth segment of the Key to Time.) She developed a friendship with the script editor at the time, Douglas Adams, who later on would introduce her to a good friend of his at a skeptic’s convention: Richard Dawkins.

Doctor What
http://www.doctorwhatus.blogspot.com

I got goosebumps at the very end with the blonde girl. Spooooky.

Oh, I noticed in the preview that the next episode is set in Roman times, in Pompeii on “Volcano Day.” Now, there’s no confirmation about the canonicity of the Big Finish productions and the books, but in the Big Finish audiodrama “The Fires of Vulcan”, the 7th Doctor and Mel visit Pompeii on Volcano Day. I’m wondering if there will be any subtle references to the the BF story, or indeed, if it will just use that story (it’s a very good one, btw), like they used a book story for “Human Nature”/”Family of Blood.”

Oh, so excited!!

The previews have been … enticing…