According to my expert viewer this episode is considered pseudo-historical, as in they were in a part of history but they encounter an alien so it's not strictly historical. This is our very first pseudo-historical episode, so I feel like we should cheer or something. I'm beginning to learn DW jargon! Yesterday I kept using the word recon instead of the episode with pictures without thinking, and my husband found this vastly amusing. Blast! And yes, I found out how many recons are in the following seasons and I am screaming.
I should mention --- with embarrassment --- that I have finally finished the second season. Didn't think I would get this far, eh? Neither did I. If I were to compare the first season with the second, I think the show is improving. Well, at least the Doctor is slowly changing, and his personality is emerging. The particularly obnoxious episodes haven't changed much. We still get a lot of those. But now that Ian and Barbara left, he is more independent, and is forced to figure things out on his own while Tricky Vicki and Stevel Weevil do nothing except act like small children. Oh you clever man!
I was correct in my assumption that Steven Taylor becomes a companion in this one. I've only seen him in one episode so far, but I like that he is completely different from Ian. Ian was a stodgy old stick in the mud, while Steven is hot headed and impulsive. Ian was reliable, and Steven is not. [How long did they wait by the TARDIS after the Doctor told them to stay put? Approximately 29 seconds.] Ian also didn't carry round a squishy security bear. He and Vicki were together through most of this episode, and they were perversely annoying, but hopefully they won't do too much of that. Considering the age of Stevel Weevil, Tricky Vicki needs to grow up a bit so the age difference doesn't seem quite as bizarre.
This episode revolved around the discovery of a time meddler who goes through time, messing with significant historical events. I would presume that he is another time lord, but the concept of the Doctor being a Time Lord has not yet been developed. They are either keeping it a secret that the Doctor is a time lord, or they have not thought this up. Methinks it is the latter. In the more recent doctors we are beaten to death with the "I'm a TIME LORD" fact. It's nice that we've heard nothing about this just yet.
The Doctor and his companions have landed in 1066 AD, when Vikings are bothering everyone. The Time Meddler's goal is to prevent the Vikings from landing, which would prevent King Harold from losing the Battle of Hastings. I don't remember much about this time period, so I'm not sure why I should care if King Harold wins the Battle of Hastings. I'm sure someone will explain it to me.
But of course the Doctor prevents the Time Meddler from actually messing with history. And then he hijacks the Meddler's time machine so that it shrinks. HAH! Now that was just mean, Doctor. Tsk tsk. If only the Time Meddler can shrink himself, like in the Planet of Giants, and he would be just fine....The Doctor and his companions take off, while the Time Meddler has a small panic attack, shaking his fist in the air and yelling, "Doctor!". Wait, he just leaves him there to get beaten up by Vikings?
I thought the actor did a good job in portraying the Time Meddler. He could have come off as a crazy psychopath, but he didn't. He made the Time Meddler an interesting character. He reminds me of the Loki character from the Avengers. And not the Loki portrayed in the movie. The Loki in the actual comics. In the movies Loki come off as a deranged psychopath, while in the comics Loki more like a subtly sly relatively harmless meddler. Why am I talking about Loki????? My point is that it's much easier to make a bad guy downright deranged, rather than making him subtly tricky and crafty.
Is it me, or did they have some of the wimpiest Vikings known to mankind???
The woman villager is so obviously attacked and raped. There is no getting around that. Children shield thine eyes.
"Are we going to see the Time Meddler again? I wouldn't mind meeting him again," I asked my expert DW viewer.
"You'll see," he said, with a great deal of smugness.
"There's no need to be coy about it," I glowered.
Really, my DW expert can be so annoying sometimes.
Next Up: Peter Cushing's Doctor Who and the Daleks [Didn't think I'd watch this, eh?]
No comments:
Post a Comment