Well I thought the 2008 Xmas Special was a load of hokum and could not get any worse.

 

..... But my goodness oh was I wrong. That was quite probably the worst ever episode I have seen of the 21st Century revival of Doctor Who.

 

From the very start with the cat burglar scene and the James Bond-esque music; the 1999 Entrapment movie came into mind starring Sean Connery. The big difference being that Catherine Zeta Jones can act and is sexy.

 

Unsurprisingly, this generations Lysette Anthony: Michelle Ryan did her usual blank canvas acting performance that makes Billie Piper seem like Katherine Hepburn in comparison; add the lazy bus stranded in desert that eventually flies and you end up with a lame 6th rate Flight Of The Phoenix ripoff of the 2004 Dennis Quaid movie let alone the bloody brilliant 1965 James Stewart original.

 

Then add Lee Evans doing a bizarre Welsh accent that leaves you wondering why on earth RTD did not just go and cast Rob Bryden to do a variation on all his character parts (because: 1) at least he is Welsh & 2) At least he is hilariously funny).

 

Plus as UNIT has the capacity surely it would have been easier to send the Tardis through the wormhole? Or would that have killed an unfunny 1 hour special over in 5 minutes flat?

 

The only bit that was good was the preview of the next darker episode (at least Lesley Duncan is a geat actress).

 

If I wanted laugh out loud Sci-Fi Comedy then stick to the Red Dwarf revival of Dave cable TV and give this a wide birth. As this Special achieved the incredible feat of making Love & Monsters seem not so bad.

 

A famous Catherine Tate catchphrase of her Nan character comes into mind to describe tonight's episode "What a load of old $h!t!"

 

1/10

Each to their own :P Harsh!

Wasn't Lesley Duncan already in Dr Who, Rich? :unsure:

Each to their own :P Harsh!

 

Nope. When you are routing for the electronic manta ray characters to eat a Dr Who assistant, then you know the episode is going badly wrong.

 

I bet I wasn't he only one who cheered when Michelle Ryan's Lady Christina de Souza Lara Croft (very) lite character was arrested; and then groaned when the Doctor allowed her to escape a la something out of the Back To The Future DelOrean time machine at the end.

:heehee: Probably not!

 

I did cringe a little at the bus but I'm a sucker for stuff like that! Seems love/hate so far. But really is up there as one of my favs!

the one criticism is the whole Happy Easter thing. I don't need all these Easter/Xmas links in specials. Just make a good dark dramatic special without lowering it with chocolate eggs :lol:

 

 

Here come the drums

 

Wasn't Lesley Duncan already in Dr Who, Rich? :unsure:

 

Sorry Lesley Duncan was a 1970s female session/backing musician for the likes of Elton John; Cat Stevens; etc and was most famous for singing on Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album. :lol:

 

I definitely remember seeing Lindsay Duncan (& Wikipedia confirms it was her) in Spooks; but I can't recall her being in a previous Dr Who episode, but I could easily be wrong.

Sorry Lesley Duncan was a 1970s female session/backing musician for the likes of Elton John; Cat Stevens; etc and was most famous for singing on Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album. :lol:

 

I definitely remember seeing Lindsay Duncan (& Wikipedia confirms it was her) in Spooks; but I can't recall her being in a previous Dr Who episode, but I could easily be wrong.

Ahh, I was thinking of the woman who got 'posessed' in the diamond planet episode (the brilliant epi from the last series) - who was she? She was in Clocking off too. I am confused :( Either way, the next episode does look alot better (though I still enjoyed todays).

Oh that was the superb Lesley Sharp in Midnight. Another of my top 5 episodes! :wub:

 

 

Anyway if I wanted to watch fantastic British TV with a dramatic moment featuring a British Double Decker bus then this puts tonight's episode of Dr Who to shame:

 

 

:D

Oh that was the superb Lesley Sharp in Midnight. Another of my top 5 episodes! :wub:

Oh yeah - Lesley Sharp! Now there is a superb actress ^_^

 

Anyway if I wanted to watch fantastic British TV with a dramatic moment featuring a British Double Decker bus then this puts tonight's episode of Dr Who to shame:

 

 

:D

Hahah, I love that Young Ones episode!

Clearly you just have something against Michelle Ryan. She's been fairly widely-praised for her role in this and to say she's not sexy, besides being irrelevant, is fairly damn ridiculous.

Well I thought the 2008 Xmas Special was a load of hokum and could not get any worse.

 

..... But my goodness oh was I wrong. That was quite probably the worst ever episode I have seen of the 21st Century revival of Doctor Who.

 

From the very start with the cat burglar scene and the James Bond-esque music; the 1999 Entrapment movie came into mind starring Sean Connery. The big difference being that Catherine Zeta Jones can act and is sexy.

 

Unsurprisingly, this generations Lysette Anthony: Michelle Ryan did her usual blank canvas acting performance that makes Billie Piper seem like Katherine Hepburn in comparison; add the lazy bus stranded in desert that eventually flies and you end up with a lame 6th rate Flight Of The Phoenix ripoff of the 2004 Dennis Quaid movie let alone the bloody brilliant 1965 James Stewart original.

 

Then add Lee Evans doing a bizarre Welsh accent that leaves you wondering why on earth RTD did not just go and cast Rob Bryden to do a variation on all his character parts (because: 1) at least he is Welsh & 2) At least he is hilariously funny).

 

Plus as UNIT has the capacity surely it would have been easier to send the Tardis through the wormhole? Or would that have killed an unfunny 1 hour special over in 5 minutes flat?

 

The only bit that was good was the preview of the next darker episode (at least Lesley Duncan is a geat actress).

 

If I wanted laugh out loud Sci-Fi Comedy then stick to the Red Dwarf revival of Dave cable TV and give this a wide birth. As this Special achieved the incredible feat of making Love & Monsters seem not so bad.

 

A famous Catherine Tate catchphrase of her Nan character comes into mind to describe tonight's episode "What a load of old $h!t!"

 

1/10

 

harsh...but your referances were spot on... they are obviously running out of ideas dispite having a time/space machine! lol.

 

on the plus side, at least they kinda got off earth...

Huge audiences for 'Talent', 'Who'

 

The first of this year's Doctor Who specials, 'Planet Of The Dead', was seen by a respectable 8.41m (39.6%) on BBC One in the hour from 6.45pm. The episode guest starred Michelle Ryan and Lee Evans and was the first episode of Who to be simulcast in HD on BBC HD, where it was seen by 184k (1%)

 

Despite going up against Talent, Robin Hood actually grew its audience by over 1m to average 5.26m (22.9%) for BBC One between 7.45pm and 8.30pm.

 

Primeval, meanwhile, shed over 1.5m in its head-to-head battle with Who. This week's episode, which saw one of the major characters killed off, averaged a disappointing 2.71m (14.3%) from 6.15pm.

Well i enjoyed anyway, and i like Michelle Ryan's character.

It was good to see an actual alien planet this time too.

Better than the Xmas special i thought, and the trailer for what's to come

sounds good.

9/10

 

I actually thought it was pretty good, and I really liked Michelle Ryan as an assistant even though I wasn't sure at first

To be honest, I was quite underwhelmed by it :nocheer:

 

Michelle is fabulous, not to mention rather attractive, and was without a doubt the best part of the show. The story was terrible and completley none-sensical, i mean one minute the stingray things where behind them then it took them 10 minutes to get through?! Lee Evans was EMBARASSING, but was still well cast - the best part of the whole thing was the ending and the stupidly unsubtle refernce to the Master's return :w00t:

 

5/10

Edited April 13, 200916 yr by James.

Clearly you just have something against Michelle Ryan. She's been fairly widely-praised for her role in this and to say she's not sexy, besides being irrelevant, is fairly damn ridiculous.

I think she's a rubbish actor. :lol: Really bland, but she is a nice looker.

It was OK i guess, it was certainly an improvement on the xmas special which doesnt say a lot though tbh.

 

5/10

I wasn't really impressed... Michelle Ryan was OK but her voice grated on me and I think she was just THERE as opposed to being integral to the episode, which surely she was meant to be? That's meant to be a reference to her acting abilities not the script-writing btw. I was SO glad when the Doctor told her he didn't want her to travel with him. I don't mind a return but please not as an assistant...

 

The episode as a whole was a little odd, the fly creature things were ridiculous, nothing made any sense. Better than the christmas one though.

 

7/10.