1)At long last, Rose Tyler's reign of terror is almost over! ;) As I've said before, I actually kind of like Rose, but I do feel that she is somewhat overrated as a character. That said, she had some good moments in this story. "This is the story of how I died." Then how are you able to tell us the story, dear? I'm afraid I did not get all weepy over the somewhat drawn out parting scene the way I was supposed to. Shocking lapse on my part, I'm sure.
2)Lots of good moments for Jackie here. It's funny, but I find Rose's supporting characters to be more interesting than Rose. I liked the bit at the start where Jackie hugs and kisses the Doctor - I think he was more comfortable when she hated his guts, which says something about him, I suppose. The conversation between Jackie and Rose was also interesting -one wonders what it would've been like for Rose if she had gotten her wish, and been able to travel with the Doctor indefinitely. The meeting between Jackie and Alternate Pete was well-handled, too. I liked the reactions shot of the Doctor and Mickey when Jackie said, "There was never anyone else." Priceless. One does wonder what their domestic life was like once they got settled down on Earth-2. How did they explain Jackie's suddne "reappearance"? Or, fo rthat matter, the fact that they suddenly had an adult daughter that no one had ever seen before? Did they have to re-name the dog? "And the baby." Obviously, Pete didn't waste any time.
3)And we finally get the pay-off on Torchwood as well. Yvonne was an interesting character, even if they did end up Cybernizing her in the end. "I did my duty for Queen and Country." She got a nice exit scene, as well: "You shall not pass." The bit with her weeping machine oil, was a bit much, though.
Oh, and look, there's Martha's cousin working for Torchwood!
4)Actually, I question whether five million Cybermen are enough to conquer the Earth just like that, especially that a)they're not immune to human weaponry and b)most of them seem to be occupied either visiting national monuments or terrorizing that one family we keep cutting back to.
"Cybermen will remove sex and class and color and creed." Buggers want to take all the fun out of life.
5)Good to see Mickey again, too, and not have him spending the whole time mooning over Rose.
6)Cliffhanger: Holy crap! The Daleks are invading a Cybermen story! This was one of the show's few true "Holy s***!" moments for me. I particularly like how the momentous confrontation between the two Doctor's two legendary enemies immediately sinks to aplayground level. Lots of fun bits here, so much so that it gets its own Fun Quotes Section:
- "Our species are similar, although your design in inelegant." "Daleks have no concept of elegance." "This is obvious." Wait, what do Cybermen care about elegance?
- "Cybermen plus Daleks - together we could upgrade the universe."
- "This is not war. This is pest control."
- "We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?" "Four." I can never hear that without thinking of Jeff and Tracy.
- "You are superior in only one respect." "What is that?" "You are better at dying."
7)Other Fun Quotes:
- "She's gone mad." "Tell me something new."
- "Allons-y!" So, that's where that started!
- "If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you!"
- "They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." I was half hoping someone would shoot him at that point, the smug bastard.
- "I'll show you where my ankle's going!"
- "Which of you is least important?"
- "You didn't need to kill him!" "Neither did we need him alive."
- "The female's heartbeat has increased." "Yeah, tell me about it."
- "Social interaction will cease."
- "Emergency temporal shift!"
8)Do they really have a CCTV network like that in Britain?
9)Why would the Time Lords keep millions of Daleks prisoner? And if they did, wouldn't they rig the prison to destruct if anyone unauthorized got their protuberances on it?
10)The Cult of Skaro is an interesting idea. Goofy names, though.
11)How the heck did Pete know to pop back in just in time to save Rose? Were they just phenomenally lucky?
12)And we get the first "What? What? What?" ending. And the arrival of Catherine Tate, another one of these people who were apparently a big deal, but of whom I had somehow managed never to hear.
Overall: One of my favorites, one which I've re-watched a number of times. Might've liked it a little better if the Cybermen hadn't been such pushovers for the Daleks - I have no trouble with the Daleks being top heels, but I don't like to see the Cybermen job to them as though they were Triple H or something.
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"one of the show's few true "Holy s***!" moments"
THAT's the one I was talking about. I had actually managed to completely avoid ALL the advance promos to the point where, when the cliffhanger ending came up, it was a TOTAL SURPRISE for me!! This never happened with Daleks and me in my entire life before. I let out a SCREAM at the TV-- partly mock terror, partly a happy cheer that such a major surpriuse had actually been one, for once.
Of course, try as I might, I keep running across references to later episodes since then, which is probably gonna make it tough for this sort of thing to ever happen with me again.
I really should have liked Rose a lot more than I did. I think Billie Piper is IMMENSELY attractive... but there's something about her character on the show that just isn't clicking with me somehow. Not sure why. Part of it may be, as my best friend suggested, the way she treated her ex-boyfriend. Part of it may be that, as fascinating as it was to explore so many areas the show never did or never was able to do before, in the long run it seems like nothing BUT an exercise, since, you know, SHE LEFT before too long... just like everyone else.
I really think Patrick Macnee on THE AVENGERS must be a real rarity when it comes to English TV series...
I bought a t-shirt for Tracy that said, “Rip open the universe and go get Rose” (or something like that), but I’ve never seen her wear it. She bought a Dalek one for me which I wear around the house sometime or to sleep in. I never told her this, but I would have rather had the one that said, “The Angels have the Phone Box.”
Why does “Four” remind you of me and Tracy? What am I forgetting?
You once told me that you used to say "Four!" to each other after watching this episode. Maybe I'm misremembering.
No, that's true, we did. I thought... oh, well... nevermind.
I'm confused. Sorry.