I also hated the cheap handcuff joke — something that belongs on “Coupling,” not “Doctor Who.” Granted, Captain Jack, also of the fifty-first century, has been known to engage in more than his fair share of innuendos, and that has never got on my nerves — but there was something character-breaking about that joke because it involved the Doctor. I have never been a fan of Moffat’s Give The Doctor Another Romantic Interest plotlines, and that’s basically what this two-parter was, and it makes me apprehensive about him becoming the show runner next year.

What can I say — I’m going to miss RTD a _lot_ …

I admired the attempt to introduce some mystery and anticipation with the Dr. Riversong character. It was a pretty good effort, although not one I’m really looking forward to watching play out. (Don’t get me wrong, I liked Dr. Riversong and the actress who played her was awesome, it’s just… I don’t really care what the Doctor’s real name is. I was hoping we’d never find out.)

I agree that some of the horror bits were quite good. I liked the suit men running on shadow monsters and data ghosts. That was a nice creepy effect.

But, quite frankly, Moffat was writing a lot like M. Night Shyayan in this episode. The “surprise” about the computer isn’t much of a surprise (I suppose it isn’t supposed to be as the key tinglers of the episode seemed to be the introduction of the Riversong-Doctor dynamic and the hungry shadow monsters.)

I think that the Planet of the Ood was one of the better stories this season and this two-parter didn’t quite stack up to it. The pacing in both parts was very slow and a lot of the revelations came a scene or two after the average person could have put them together.

In fact, that’s really the problem with the episodes. Neither can make up their mind about what should be a twist and what shouldn’t be. It’s as if someone in authority thought it should be played a cheap spook show and someone creative knew better.

I thought the two daves were a waste of a great naming convention, for throw-away characters and the transformation of the pretty-but-dumb girl into an ugly-but-smart mentor was interesting, if a bit goofy.
(Frankly, it was more touching when she died, which is weird, because it’s the opposite effect of Jenny dying in the Doctor’s daughter. It felt more “real” when the pretty-but-dumb girl died than when Jenny died. There’s probably some sort of subtle line there that got crossed.)

Tripping over subtle lines seems to be a rough spot this season.

Well, anyway, this two-parter was sweet in parts and horrible in others and it very nearly went over the edge into sickening sentimentalism, but it pulled back just in time to be a decent episode. Good enough but not the best (which pretty much seems to define this whole season.)

I’ll chalk it up to a transition phase.

“Well… at least we’ll have Torchwood…”

Not quite, it’s only been approved for five episodes so far >.< Reduced Torchwood AND Doctor Who, great. 2009 is going to suck!

I guess I was thinking of it in a more colloquial type of way where the shepherd moons help clear parts of the ring system and also help maintain the rings overall. When they said that the doctor moon was there to watch over and protect the CAL system I just took that a little too far.

Thanks.

Derek Bartholomaus, it’s not a british term; I think he made it up.

Why do you think it fits the definition of Shepherd Moon? From the definition I’ve seen of the that it only refers to moons connected to ring systems. The doctor moon is like an antivirus program.

Okay, finally got to sit down and watch it. For some reason while watching the flashbacks from the last episode before this one, I was able to figure out the plot, but there were still some creepy and some brilliant moments. Overall a major *win*. Oh I can’t wait to see what they have cooked up next!

I’m glad that you had a posting on this because I was about to email you.

SPOILER if you haven’t seen the episode…

I had not hear of the term “doctor moon” before. Do you happen to know if this is the British term for “shepherd moon”? The way they described the doctor moon is the description that I have usually heard for a shepherd moon.

Thanks.

-Derek

2009 is going to a long year.

(OK, I won’t repeat it. “Spoilers….”)

I’ve only enjoyed two episodes this season: ‘Partners in Crime’ and ‘Fires of Pompeii; none of the others possess the sparkles of wit or conviction that elevated season 3 (apart from the unmitigated failure of its last two episodes, of course).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/doctorwho/

Coupling, however, was one of the best shows on TV ever.

This story reminded me of the old Tom Baker ‘Gothic Horror’ days. Putting it over 2 episodes helped, plenty of time to develop atmosphere and story. 45 mins is too short for a Doc adventure, all you get is a lot of running around and shouting.

I can’t believe that they’re going to take most of 2009 off. They drop all this stuff on us: Jenny, the Medusa Cascade, River Song (I’m speculating she’s his wife), the bees (although I’m thinking the bees are a red herring), River’s words to Donna, Donna’s stammering companion; and then make us wait an ENTIRE year to see them through???? Are you kidding me???

Well… at least we’ll have Torchwood…

And Freema’s going to be on Survivors; which I’m hoping is going to be as great as the original.

(Although, TBH, I’m not entirely sure when Survivors starts. I know they’re currently shooting…. anybody know when the premier will be?)

Anyway, although I agree that the shock points of this episode were fairly predictable (as was the ending – I had the whole second episode worked out by the end of last week’s episode; after the setup of the first episode it was ‘narrative imperative’ that the story would progress much as it did), I still found this to be by far the most enjoyable story of the season so far.

We also have to be careful using Blink as a benchmark for everything. Very rarely do we see something of that quality, even by Moffat. Saying that a particular episode is not as good as Blink is like saying that some person is a good scientist, but not as good as Newton. The information content in such sentences is low.