The Savages episode 3 discussion:
R = Ronelyn
P = Photobug
Sp = Spoo
H = Historian
K = Ketina
Cz = Cz
A = Altair
R: Naneeenaaaahh!
P: I shall remember that name the next time I suck the life out of you.
Sp: Things not to say in Vegas.
H: “Chale is the leader! Because he can make fire!” I can’t be the only one who thought that when he said “I am the leader!”
R: The way that was framed, he says “I am the leeeeaader” and it cuts back to Tor…
Sp: The guy with the sweet potatoes fries for the helmet?
R: No, the guy with the bowl cut. Anyway, it cuts back to him and there’s this really long beat where he doesn’t say anything, and I’m thinking he’s like “…all roight.”
H: So, the Savages part 3, won’t you.
Sp: Jano was very noble in his own way.
H: Care to elaborate?
Sp: So, if you ignore the fact that he completely ignores the Savages as people…
P: Or just does not see the Savages of people.
Sp: He’s being very noble and self sacrificing. Taking one for the team, as it were.
K: I think he’s being Lex Luthor about it and wants all the power for himself.
P: I agree.
Sp: No, we have no evidence that he’s been manipulating the rest of the nobles, or otherwise trying to suck the savages for himself.
H: To break it down, Jano orders the Doctor to be drained against his scientists better judgment. Then he orders him to be drained more than his scientists say that he should be. He does this because the Doctor is a higher form of life and can give more life power. Then, instead of doing what the scientists says and taking the concentrated life essence and dividing it among various people, as they always do…
Sp: Yes…
H: He decides he’s going to take it all for himself. He’s going to take all of the higher life essence for himself. There’s definitely a moment there where he seems disingenuous of his “self sacrifice” but he really seems to want all of the higher life essence for himself.
P: I agree, and I expected him to come out as a two-year-old boy or something.
K: Instead he’s been turned into a weird Doctor clone, and will likely save them from the cliff hanger.
H: Instead we get Frederick Jaeger doing a wonderful William Hartnell’s Doctor impression.
K: “Oh, yes yes yes, Chesterton.”
Sp: So, you can take it that way. Or, the leader of his people decides to try out this wacky time traveler juju on himself rather than potentially poisoning half a dozen people by distributing it “the normal way.”
R: You know, it’s people like you that put Pol Pot in power.
H: It’s nice to see some innocent idealism here.
K: It’s Doctor Who, we need a bad guy!
Sp: Okay, if Jano dies in some horrific way leaving him a vegetable, then fine.
H: If he’s dead, how can he be a vegetable?
Sp: He’s a dead vegetable. If he gets him comeuppance then you guys are right, that means he was being greedy and will pay the price. If he comes out of it a changed man, than nyah.
H: But he could come out of it a changed man and we’d still be right. Not everyone has to die.
Sp: Yes they do, it’s Doctor Who. Anyway, Steven was clever. You’d think they would have thought of the mirror trick before.
H: They don’t have mirrors, they’re Savages.
R: “Maybe we can bounce the beam off this rock!” “Ughh!”
Cz: I thought they didn’t want to fight back because they thought the city people were their masters.
P: They didn’t fight back because they lost the will.
H: It was not clear how this world’s situation started.
P: It probably started with lower forms of life.
H: I mean the division between the Savages and the City Dwellers. But we did get a hint when they described the cave. And Chal said that they’d formerly been artists before their talent had been stolen from them by the City Dwellers.
P: Art haters suck!
R: “Yes, those guys are total squares.”
Sp: Okay, if Jano wanted it all for himself, why did Senta go along with it?
H: Because Jano is the leader.
Sp: But, Senta had control over all the knobs and switches…
H: “BECAUSE JANO IS THE LEADER!”
Sp: Thank you.
R: Jano almost made fire.
<laughter>
Sp: I guess Senta thought that he was nice and not naughty.
R: The other thing… Senta bore such a striking resemblance to Rowan Atkinson that for a little bit I was picturing Senta Blackadder, but that would have gone down very differently.
Sp: So, another Doctor Who without so much Doctor in it. Was Hartnell on a bender again?
A: Not much Dodo though. She didn’t really say very much.
K: There were long scenes of flipping switches and spelunking. And that was most of the episode.
H: I have to say that I know I’m really tired this week, but I thought the episode dragged.
R: Really?
H: Stuff happened, but I agree. There was a lot of flipping switches and spelunking.
Sp: The flipping switches was not nearly as egregious as the first episode, and I thought the cave scenes were broken up with good dialog and well paced. This is one of the better paced episodes I’ve seen in a while.
H: It might just be that I’m tired.
K: I almost fell asleep.
A: Me too.
P: I thought the bubble based dials was interesting enough to keep my attention through what otherwise would be a fairly boring scene.
H: And it was nice that there were the fire effects in the recon. That was pretty cool.
Cz: And a door opened.
H: As was the few seconds of actual footage. That was really cool. I always gasp whenever I see that.
Sp: Footage from beyond time!
H: Final thoughts?
A: I don’t have anything.
P: My final thoughts is, “I wonder if I can jump that far…” Wrong kind of final thoughts?
H: Wrong kind of final thoughts.
P: Well, we’ve been away for a few weeks, and you kind of get addicted to it. This might not have been the best episode, but it sure felt good to see it.
Cz: Yeah. These episodes would be so good if they weren’t so bad.
H: Would you care to elaborate?
Cz: The whole “scifi” and important-ness of what they are trying to tell you is cool, but they are just SO SLOW. I could read this in like 10 minutes, and wow that was really cool. But I have to wait four weeks to get the whole thing. It’s not fast enough for me. I like jump cuts. Don’t like shooting in slow motion.
H: The voice of the younger generation, folks.
R: To start off, I hope I was not the only one who, when Jano was getting his treatment and he had the little jiffy pop over his head, was thinking “the plastic seals in the flavor.”
P: I think you were alone thinking that.
R: And, second, dude, when Dodo says “I got a bad feeling about this drop,” DON’T GO! How stupid do you have to be. The woman who would stick her tongue in a light socket for a pat of butter is saying “I’m really worried that this is going to get us killed.” and Steven’s reaction is “oh, it’s fiiiiiine.”
H: This goes back to what we saw in episode one. Steven and Dodo have switched in this story. Dodo is being far more inquisitive and intelligent, and Steven is being more trusting and impulsive.
P: Maybe she sucked the life force out of him?
<horrified silence then laughter>
R: I actually, I think it’s more likely that the Doctor has been running her through a program of operant conditioning in a Skinner Maze somewhere in the back of the TARDIS.
H: “Find the cheese!” Bzzt! “Find the cheese!” Bzzt!
R: “Don’t touch this button, Dodo.” Bzzt! “Ow!” “I said, don’t touch the button.”
Sp: The bit with the mirror was clever. All the bits with the old man were funny. Action Steven was fun. And zombie Hartnell was some of the best acting of the season.
H: And don’t forget Harnell Jano.
Sp: He was seriously impressive. I could have sworn that was a dub.
K: Pretty much everybody has already said what I was thinking. My favorite bit was certainly Harnell Jano, and I’m looking forward to more of that. Oh, and nice legs.
R: Naaaneeenaaa!
H: Alright. I think, again, everyone has said pretty much what I would have said for a final thought. I’m looking forward to next week and seeing the end of this story.
R: <laugh>
H: I mean, I’m looking forward to seeing how the story ends.
Sp: And I’m looking forward to watching you see it next week all rested, because I can’t be the cheerleader next week.
Everyone: NAAA NEEE NAAA!
Sp: Now with sparkling lemon flavor.
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