Post by dastari on Oct 28, 2016 0:01:53 GMT
I thought this one had a great premise. Wouldn't it be interesting if Vicki could talk to herself? After all, she died sometime in ancient Carthage (if Frostfire is anything to go by), which was years before she was even born. What would you say to your own dead self? It could deal with some of the themes raised by The Mists of Time but more directly. Instead we get a very tedious and overly long framing sequence with a story that's obviously false from the get-go. The story, once they got to it was fine in and of itself. I loved the air conditioning bangles. It's such a 60's Who concept. There was just far to little of it.
I also don't know why it was set between The Romans and The Web Planet. What purpose did that serve? The same story could have happened at any time that the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki traveled together. Why spend so much time trying to plug over a non-existent gap with far from convincing explanations for why they were wearing their Roman clothes for several days, even in 20th century London.
The ending was just awful. So the spirit plots revenge for one hundred years, but when Vicki doesn't go for it, it's just like "Oh, I'm so glad because we're such good friends." Seriously? Pardon me if I don't buy it at all. Then there's the time bubble that keeps Vicki from even remembering it, which renders the entire tale obsolete. It might have actually been interesting if Vicki had to decide to go through the motions of the story that she already knew and befriend her attempted murderer, knowing how she'll end up. That would have been compelling and would have spoken better to the theme about the friendship of young girls. This just seemed like it was hastily put together and none of it quite worked.
O'Brien's performance, though, was spectacular and the production itself was top notch.
What did anyone else think?
I posted a few other thoughts here.
I also don't know why it was set between The Romans and The Web Planet. What purpose did that serve? The same story could have happened at any time that the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki traveled together. Why spend so much time trying to plug over a non-existent gap with far from convincing explanations for why they were wearing their Roman clothes for several days, even in 20th century London.
The ending was just awful. So the spirit plots revenge for one hundred years, but when Vicki doesn't go for it, it's just like "Oh, I'm so glad because we're such good friends." Seriously? Pardon me if I don't buy it at all. Then there's the time bubble that keeps Vicki from even remembering it, which renders the entire tale obsolete. It might have actually been interesting if Vicki had to decide to go through the motions of the story that she already knew and befriend her attempted murderer, knowing how she'll end up. That would have been compelling and would have spoken better to the theme about the friendship of young girls. This just seemed like it was hastily put together and none of it quite worked.
O'Brien's performance, though, was spectacular and the production itself was top notch.
What did anyone else think?
I posted a few other thoughts here.
