mrv3000 | (no subject)

The Good

Donna as Super Temp. Now that I've got the character flaw-type stuff (thanks to stuff from last week), I can sit back and enjoy her awesome Temping powers. :D (I seriously do need more depth to a character than "Awesome" for me to like them. Pure "Awesome" without anything else tends to make me twitchy.)
The Doctor explaining why he couldn't do the family thing again. It was interesting knowing that to him at the moment, family equals loss. And it's easier to see why he doesn't get involved with anyone's families as a rule. I think Donna was dead-on in saying he was wrong about it, since if Jenny had gone with them it really would have been like Donna said: "It won't always be like this." Meaning, he wouldn't have always looked into her eyes and seen loss. (It's called healing, Doctor. Maybe you'll be allowed that one day.)
The Doctor slowly getting attached to Jenny. It was very well played - starting as mistrust/distance/distaste to acceptance/attachment, although you knew it meant certain doom. (This episode? Very predictable.)
A plot element was straight out of classic Who - the whole thing with a ship coming to a planet and life starting anew, sometimes with facts being altered or history even forgotten. They did that one a lot (it even resulted in companions like Leela and Adric.) I was amused.
Jenny herself. For the most part I liked her. I am SO glad they skipped stuff like "What is this? A shoe? And what I'm feeling? It means I have to pee?" That gets old really fast.

The Bad

The very ending with Jenny coming back to life was not only extremely predictable, I was rolling my eyes a bit. I liked her for the most part, but there was something about the ending where she was a bit too "Tralalala! I'm outta here to ~~save the universe~~ go traveling!" Okay... *waves*
The Doctor got YET ANOTHER kick to the groin. Here, Doctor! Let's instantly give you a daughter, have you start to get attached, AND THEN TAKE HER AWAY FROM YOU SO YOU RELIVE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY'S HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DEATH! MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Like...is the Doctor ever allowed to have more than 5 minutes of happiness? No? Really? Hopefully Donna never decides to get a dog, because the second the Doctor would get attached, IT'D DIE A HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DEATH JUST LIKE HIS FORMER TIME DOG.
I said "HUH?" practically nonstop through the last half of the episode.
- So no one has been alive for more than 7 days? Seriously? Surely someone could have fought the odds and lived that long. No?
- What about the original crew? They really all were killed? Fighting got that bad in 7 days? Seriously?
- How did they manage to lose all that information in 7 days??
- And where were these robots building the tunnels? (You know, they sure grunged-out the place in a couple of days. They're as bad as a rock band with a hotel room.)
- And Jenny didn't regenerate because "she's too much like [the Doctor] me?" Uh...Jenny had a death wish? Exactly how does that statement make sense? It's like I know those were words coming out of the Doctor's mouth, but the TARDIS translation was on the blink. (Side note - what was up with the bubbling instead of talking? And Martha understood? Why couldn't the audience? What up?)
- The Doctor's spent the night in a morgue before regenerating once. He was actually dead and everything. You'd think he'd give Jenny a bit of time before taking off. "You know, my cousin once took 2 days. Probably should stick around for a bit. Cards, anyone?"
- Why the hell didn't Jenny regenerate? Don't be doing that glowy regeneration mouth stuff without actual regeneration. :P I thought this was the way Time Lords cheated death. They don't get to choose to regenerate or not. You die, you regenerate. Or else you...die. Did they simply want to keep the actress? But that's cheating! (She's going to have her own spinoff show, isn't she? I know it.)
The story was very predictable. No surprises, really.

In spite of my long list of bad (which really was a lot of parasailing through the typical DW plot holes), I enjoyed this episode. It could have been a nightmare with the whole Jenny thing, but I thought they did a pretty good job with it. Got some really nice moments with the Doctor along the way. The ending was a little too over-the-top for me - plus you knew she wouldn't actually die. But still. Enjoyable.

Plus little bit of Donna mindset at the end, about staying with the Doctor forever. Ooh boy. Last person that said that got sucked into a parallel world. (Because the Doctor isn't allowed to have nice things.)

Finally, I am REALLY excited about next week's episode because AGATHA CHRISTIE!! \o/ My bar is high for this one, and I expect awesome things! Gimme.