The TARDIS Project

H = Historian

K = Ketina

R = Ronelyn

P = Photobug

A = Altair

E = Ezio

Cz = Cz

E: “I don’t care what my brother says, I’m going to destroy everything!”

P: I think, it’s telling that they had to recharge before they attached. I think it’s going to be pretty major in the next episode.

K: I was amused by the fact that they had to move to recharge.

R: <robot voice> “Recharge through interpretive dance… Now record all technical data through interpretive dance.”

H: I thought it was a kinetic kind of thing.

A: Like those windup flash lights.

R: Historian, at some point we need to explain to you about physics.

P: It’s only earth physics. It’s different elsewhere, you know.

R: So what you’re saying is that they had very, very heavy arms?

P: Could be?

K: I think it was more like “let’s show something visually happen” and there’s only so much they can do with the robots.

Cz: I’m trying to picture children playing with the toy versions.

H: Well, there are children playing IN the Quarks.

A: <TV commercial voice> “With recharging arm action!”

R: I’m picturing little Timmy picking up his toy Quark, with it’s giant mace-like head covered in spikes and whacking his little brother with it and putting an eye out.

H: So, getting back to the destroying…

R: Always with the destroying.

H: Something that I think was there that got lost in the choppy rewrites and scene changes was that the junior Dominator probably thought that his superior was still in that building when he ordered the Quarks to destroy it.

P: Also Jamie and the Doctor escaped and were immediately at the base in story time. So that kind of screwed with us a little.

H: Well, remember they didn’t escape from the spaceship, they escaped from the museum, which was right near the base.

R: The only cute little robots that I want to see in this story line would be in silhouette form at the bottom of the screen.

H: I’m going to go on record as saying, I think the Quarks are fine. I like them. I think they are a perfectly good design. I think they are fun. And I love the fact that it gave three school kids a thrill to be in Doctor Who.

P: Despite your MST3K reference, I think the robots here are practical as an instrument for those who are used to controlling others. So it’s perfect for this story because the Dominators have experience with absolutely controlling another entity.

H: You know, I thought this episode worked better than last week, but I could still definitely tell that the script had been chopped and put back together and rewritten and chopped and then put back together. And I wonder how many of the problems there are with this story can be laid to that. Pacing, etc. Not all of them, obviously.

K: Yeah. Not the acting. And certainly not the costumes!

H: I was really expecting Zoe to say “does this make me look fat” because it kind of does.

A: It does.

P: I think it’s fair to say that she was showing a lot of her feminine shape in her original outfit, and even more in the native clothing. The bathing suit.

<discussion of Dulcian outfits and Zoe outfits>

R: Speaking of clothing, I swear I recognize the pleximask that the Dominator is wearing.

K: They used it previously in The Ice Warriors.

H: First of all, they did add some bits to it to make it look more sciency. Secondly, I think it was used in more than just The Ice Warriors…

P: The Moonbase too.

A: I liked those swirly pattern things inside the Dominator’s ship. Up on the wall.

H: It’s very late 60’s.

R: They were clearly painted on.

A: The ones that were moving, though.

R: Probably rear projection then?

P: Or Plexiglass.

A: I looked like lenticular plastic.

K: Ooookay.

<Google it>

R: But yeah, the Dominator’s acting still left a lot to be desired. And they still looked to me like grumpy babies stuffed in éclairs.

K: So, this is really random… I thought it was a British accent thing, but it was pronounced both ways in this episode. How come some people say it “RO-bots” and other says “ro-BUTs”?

H: People in the US say it both ways as well. In the 50’s and 60’s especially.

K: Anyway… Cully just proved it wasn’t an accent thing to me.

H: Speaking of Cully, do we all get the subtextual message of this story.

R: “Parents just don’t understand”

H: This was supposed to be a “generation gap” story. Remember it was 1968.

K: So why was the hippy kid balding?

R: Please tell me we won’t have to use to groovy space-oud music.

H: No one is journeying to Eden in this story. <reference to classic Star Trek episode.>

P: Isn’t there a different story here that’s larger, in that if you don’t continue to learn from the past you forget it?

H: I think the whole thing is “you gotta ask questions, man. You can’t just accept things the way they are, man!”

P: I see this as more of an Utopian scenario where the decline of civilization is partially caused by the lack of education.

H: People were educated, but they were taught facts, they weren’t taught to think. Which is something we talked about last week. And, as I said “You gotta question, man. You gotta question everything… and don’t trust anyone over… (how old is Cully?)… 40!”

R: I thought the lesson was that Polyester and Lycra rotted the brain. When the old guy popped up and said “Ah, I can see we won’t get any work done is until you have positive proof.” And what I immediately thought was, actually, they specifically wanted negative proof. If they get positive proof that there are robots on the island, you’re never going to get anything done!

Cz: Why is it always two hearts, and not like four livers or something?

H: I absolutely loved how they got around testing the Doctor’s mind. “It’ll just be the same as Jamie.”

R: Yeah, nobody in this story can do science.

K: Except the Doctor, Zoe, and apparently Cully.

H: That’s true, Cully does do observational science.

P: Who has rapidly learned, recently.

H: So, speaking of the Doctor and Jamie, Pat and Fraze were really good this week with what they had.

K: “Ow” zap zap zap.

R: Yeah, I really laughed when Frazer reached out and grabbed the Doctor and they both went “aalglaggleglaggle”

H: Yeah. They improvised that kind of business all of the time. Like the hand holding in Tomb of the Cybermen.

R: So the chief council of the Dulcians is named Bobo? Or Bono? I mean, we might as well just call him Droppo.

H: Looking it up, I believe his name is Bovem. A lot of the names had intentional Greek joke roots. Senex, for example, is old man. Boven means bull, as in bull headed.

Cz: So, did anyone else almost see a piece of Jamie that they did not need to see.

H: Mister Mother isn’t here, so I think we can all say yes.

A: I’m sorry I missed that.

H: Except for Altair, apparently.

Cz: He handled it really well, like he’s had to sit down in that kilt many times.

K: I felt like we were going to be seeing bits of Zoe that we weren’t supposed to see either.

H: But she was wearing a bathing suit.

R: A bathing suit with it’s own built in shower curtain.

Cz: I think it was too small on here, which was the problem. It was cutting into her thighs.

H: Before we move on to final thoughts, or as potentially part of final thoughts, I want to make a request. It has been pointed out to me that we were relentlessly negative last week about the episode. So, either before final thoughts, or as part of final thoughts, I want everyone to say one positive thing about the Dominators so far.

E: Ah….

H: I doesn’t have to be a big thing.

A: I like the Quarks.

H: Do you want to say anything more about the Quarks.

A: I like them. I also like the Dominator’s ship interior. Lots of shiny things. And moving things, patterns.

R: It’s an exersaucer.

Cz: I found something I liked. I liked the fact that the old men had long dresses on, and not the short ones.

<laughter and applause>

H: I guess that’s turning a negative into a positive. I guess.

K: I like Cully. And I… even though it was a little squicky… I liked the way he kept holding Zoe’s hand. I don’t know why.

H: It was kind of cute. He was so excited about actually finding someone who was interested in learning things, and doing things with her to learn things, in a non-squicky way.

R: Someone who’s excited by new things, rather than disdainful of them.

K: It reminded me of two kids holding hands. It was only a little squicky because he’s a balding older guy.

H: Who else hasn’t said anything positive?

P: Made nice use of breaking the laws of physics.

H: That’s not positive.

E: Well, at least they did a good job of it!

Cz: Okay, yeah.

P: I did have something positive. <thinks>

H: What about the model work? Or the model design of the little capsule? I thought it was pretty good.

K: Better than last week.

P: Honestly, I thought Zoe looked rather good this episode, despite your disclaiming that the outfit made her look fat. As a man, I appreciate good form fitting clothing on a woman.

R: Yes. I read Zoe for the article.

H: Okay. So we just have Ezio and Ronelyn for positive thoughts.

E: So, commenting on Photobug’s comments doesn’t count?

H: No.

E: Uh…

H: Anything about the story so far. Anything.

E: The scene where the Doctor is trying to act like an idiot was really well done. Poor Jamie. Took him a few moments to catch on. But it was very well put together, in my opinion. “Doctor, you can’t put a square peg in a round hole.”

K: I dunno, I’d have a hard time putting things together being zapped all the time.

E: That probably only helped in his case.

H: Alright. Positive, Ronelyn.

R: Okay. I can do this. <deep breath> No, I can’t.

<laughter>

R: <old man voice> “Who is this young woman, Cully? I suppose this is another one of your customers!” <Cully voice> “What? No, all of my customers were killed off in a… more or less totally unrelated incident.” Okay. Lemme try taking another cut at this. “Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!” Crap. Sorry. Come back to me.

H: We did. You’re the last one.

R: I liked the set designs?

H: There we go.

R: Except for the fact you could clearly see that all the bas relief on the space ship was clearly painted on!! I mean who does that… <slaps hand over mouth>

P: Okay. I have a happy point. The writers can really write architypes. There you go.

R: <through her fingers> I think the word you’re looking for there is stereotype.

P: Fine. They write in stereo.

K: Why did you make me type that pun, Historian?

H: Because it’s relatively positive.

R: Souffle anyone?

H: So now we’re at final thoughts?

K: So we can say bad things again?

H: Sure. But try not to get too bad, please. Remember, keep a positive attitude, even with a negative story. The worst Doctor Who is still better than..

K: The Ordeal. Wait, that is the worst Doctor Who. Old joke.

E: So by now I’ve come to expect that any peaceful world encountered on Doctor Who does not stay peaceful for more than 5 seconds. And this story certainly does not disappoint. In fact, it plays that pretty straight.

A: Bad acting not withstanding, the Dominators do amuse me. The one guy’s constant struggle to destroy what ever he can is hilarious. It’s like a petulant child.

E: “Please! Can I please destroy this? But Mom!! Please!”

R: “Billy’s Dad lets him destroy.”

A: “The other Dominators always get to destroy things.”

P: “Not in my space ship”

H: “While you’re living in my space ship you’re living by my rules.”

R: “I will turn these Quarks around. No! Stop that, you three!”

<laughter>

P: Really enjoyed transport systems they had.

K: I loved Cully in the travel scenes.

P: We saw some leg. It made me wonder what principles of physics were used to start and stop the ships when they moved without killing the occupants, but it’s a kid show. There were no seat belts. No bathroom.

A: It was only an 8 minute trip.

R: No one pees in the future.

P: That’s it. Awesome.

Cz: Huh?

H: Final thought.

Cz: Uh… I had one. Where’d it go? Oh. So in the last episode the teacher guy was all like explaining that they believed people because they believed people. When they were looking at the graphs of the radiation going down he was like “Well, it just stops after 172 years, I believe. Look, the data’s right here.”

H: It’s the whole thing about “facts are facts, and we must not question them because they are facts. We don’t care why, because they are facts.”

Cz: Just thought it was weird. Like it was almost a good idea. Then it got weird.

R: So I guess the councilman didn’t exactly believe exactly what Cully and Zoe said because “they’re not trained in science.”

H: Apparently Cully has some kind of reputation for making trouble. Although he’d probably say “I’m just trying to make people question.”

K: So, my turn? Well, I already talked about liking Cully. I think I might be remembering stuff about what happens later… it’s been aaages since I’ve seen this one, so I can’t remember the details. But I wonder if my opinion of him is colored by something that happens later? In any case, despite the silly, or maybe because of the silly, I am enjoying this story. Okay, pretty much exclusively because of the silly. A week at a time is definitely making it less grueling.

H: Well, as I said, I did like this episode better than last week. I honestly can’t remember details about this story at all. So I can’t say anything is a pleasant surprise yet. But I can’t remember exactly what’s coming, either. It’s not quite as bad as I remember it being…

R: That’s your version of positive? It’s doesn’t smell quite as bad down here as I recall. The rancid odor seems to have decreased since the last time I visited.

H: I did say something positive earlier. Continuing what I was going to say, I can’t say it’s good. But it’s definitely not as dull and featureless as I remember it being. I agree, absolutely with Ketina <heart attack… just a sec… can’t type… OMG!… He agrees with me.> that doing it an episode at a time really… I can’t say improves this story… but I can say makes it a lot more bearable.

R: Reduces the nondramatic impact?

H: Sure.

P: Can I destroy it?

H: NO! We have to conserve TARDIS Project energy.