All right, yes, I saw it.
May. 15th, 2011 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerNeil Gaiman tipped the balance and I actually sat still for it.
He's a good writer. He's especially good at wittily meaningful gibberish. There were many lines to enjoy here, many nods to canon old and new, many interesting bells and fascinating whistles of the sort that nuWho deploys so generously, done with that special Gaiman touch. The performances were good, I suppose, as such things go.
So it seems even more churlish of me than usual to point out that there was absolutely nothing new in it. TARDISes in human bodies have been done before, several times, in other formats. The junkyard planet was one hop, skip and a CGI background away from the London Below of Neverwhere, and the main villain was recycled cardboard in the extreme, despite Michael Sheen's lifelike impression of Gabriel Woolf (should have done Hugh Laurie speaking Murkin*). And dear gods, Rory fake-died again! This has got so far beyond a joke it's almost funny again. I can only assume they want their audience to sit there going "yeah right, he's dead, ho ho, get on with it." And then when the actor does leave they'll expect people to be all shocked. Doesn't work that way. You can't un-blasé people once you've blaséd them. Writers should know that.
As a work by Neil Gaiman it was good. As Doctor Who it was...nuWho. I really should stop entertaining the possibility that it might ever be anything else.
The "Next time..." trailer told me absolutely nothing beyond the fact that some people move very fast, there is at least one explosion, and flesh is mentioned. Presumably this is all we know on earth, and all we need to know. I'll be back in the kitchen, or the garden, or somewhere.
*Actually, I could see that House as a Who villain. Not sure what his evil plan would be, but at least he'd do it with some originality.
On the other hand, we have been watching episodes of "The Penguins of Madagascar" which are charming and funny and reminiscent of the cartoons I used to watch as a kid, without making me feel embarrassed to be watching them as a grown-up. Nice work.
He's a good writer. He's especially good at wittily meaningful gibberish. There were many lines to enjoy here, many nods to canon old and new, many interesting bells and fascinating whistles of the sort that nuWho deploys so generously, done with that special Gaiman touch. The performances were good, I suppose, as such things go.
So it seems even more churlish of me than usual to point out that there was absolutely nothing new in it. TARDISes in human bodies have been done before, several times, in other formats. The junkyard planet was one hop, skip and a CGI background away from the London Below of Neverwhere, and the main villain was recycled cardboard in the extreme, despite Michael Sheen's lifelike impression of Gabriel Woolf (should have done Hugh Laurie speaking Murkin*). And dear gods, Rory fake-died again! This has got so far beyond a joke it's almost funny again. I can only assume they want their audience to sit there going "yeah right, he's dead, ho ho, get on with it." And then when the actor does leave they'll expect people to be all shocked. Doesn't work that way. You can't un-blasé people once you've blaséd them. Writers should know that.
As a work by Neil Gaiman it was good. As Doctor Who it was...nuWho. I really should stop entertaining the possibility that it might ever be anything else.
The "Next time..." trailer told me absolutely nothing beyond the fact that some people move very fast, there is at least one explosion, and flesh is mentioned. Presumably this is all we know on earth, and all we need to know. I'll be back in the kitchen, or the garden, or somewhere.
*Actually, I could see that House as a Who villain. Not sure what his evil plan would be, but at least he'd do it with some originality.
On the other hand, we have been watching episodes of "The Penguins of Madagascar" which are charming and funny and reminiscent of the cartoons I used to watch as a kid, without making me feel embarrassed to be watching them as a grown-up. Nice work.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 07:43 am (UTC)But I did enjoy it - I can't take Gaiman's books, but his scripts in the hands of other creators usually turn out well.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 06:49 pm (UTC)I used to love listening to Gabriel Woolf on the radio. He had a beautiful voice.