diekahvi

401
I was determined to silike Donna because I found her extremly annoying in the x-mas special. But I liked her a lot in this episode. In fact the whole epsiode and the interaction between the Doctor and was great! I loved their first scene together. The episode was lots of fun, lots of tension and even had some creepy body-horror.

402
I don't know why but this episode had a very classic-Who feeling for me. And I loved that. The set was of course awesome (Cinecittà, Rome) as were the costuems, the humor was great (a bit like "Asterix" and "Life of Brian"), good story and interesting characters. I loved Donnas Latin-scene at the beginning and her shouting at the Sybills.
I could sooo relate to Danna running through the streets during the eruption shouting at the people not to go to the beach. (So true!!! *sigh*) I was surprised that she knew this and not just the common knowledge of "big explosion, all die, city gets buried". But yet this mix of fantastic-fiction and history made me want to shout "what happend to the fuckin 19 hours?!?!?" when the volcano erupted. So in the Whoverse it was more like 19min ... hmmm

403
... was ok. The paradox of the Ood looking like coming right out of the pages of a slimy H. P. Lovecraft horror story but being revealed as very peaceful and loveable creatures is great. I also like that they brought them back to explain their origins. The big bad boss, the marketing girl and the scientist were well written and played characters and atagonists.
But that big grabber chasing the Doctor was silly. That reminded you that this is a kids show and therefore serves that audience from time to time with such silly stuff.
On the other hand I never expected them to execute the transformation plot. I suspected that plot when the boss held the large amount of hair in his hand in fron tof the mirror. Pretty scary story for a kids show. But brilliant and awesome. That was something I would have expected on "Twillight Zone" but not on Who.
Donna annoyed me a bit. I found her mood swings to fast and extreme. Made me wonder if she had PMS in this episode, Maybe I was to caught up in the other two episoded to notice it in them ... I don't want to say that I find her reaction unrelatable. But I found the range of reactions a exausting to watch. Maybe they just wanted to make very clear how her view of traveling with the Doctor changes. And she is certainly excited about all the new experiences. Something Martha lost to fast, IMO. But still it was a bit annoying for me.
That's why I haven't joined the Donna-praise on my f-list. I haven't made up my mind about her yet. But I love how she grounds the Doctor and challenges his decisions and opinions. He needs that because he can be a hypocrite from time to time. He always was. Donna therefore reminds me of Romana - and that's a big bonus :-)
Strangely I'm not that excited about Donna meeting Martha. I would love to see her meet Jack insted. I bet they hate each other at first but then "team-up" for teasing the Doctor :-)
I don't know what to make of the Oods statement about the doctors song to end soon. (I won't mention any spoilers I read about the series future here.) That confused me. If there were a regeneration in the near future, wouldn't they say "his song changeing" instead or something like that? This sounds so final. I hope they are not planing a stupid plot for the finale were the Doctor is destroyed and the companions team up to miracelously revive him from the dead. That would be cheesy and as bad as "Tinkerbell-Doctor" in the last finale (and that nearly ruined the last episodes for me).

For the first time all the new episodes felt too short. Throughout the whole 3 seasons before I never had that feeling. The episodes either felt too long or having the right lenght. That's peculiar :-)
I like were the story is heading and I find it very fascinating to see how the new 4 cylons are dealing with that revelation. The events among the cylons are fascinating an I think they opened Pandoras box with giving the centurions a mind of their own. Looks a lot like they start plotting something.
Peter David speculated about the final cylon in his blog.
Personaly I don't think that Kara is a cylon, that would be too abvious. To represent all 12 archetypes they would have to bring back Boxey and make him the final one. But that's not very likely IMO. Very coold would be Dirk Benedict showing up as Karas father and being revealed as the final cylon :-) But that's whishfull thinking. I agree however with Peter that it would be extremly metatextual if Zarek is the final one!

Lex descent into the darkness, very well done. Lana is still in a coma *bounce* ( yeah I know I'm strange). Lois is the nosey reporter and Clark slowely does characterdevelopment. Nice :-) And an unknown new (???) player entered the game, interesting. I don't think that it's a Swann or a Queen - I bet Mr or Mrs Teague are still alive.
All the involvement of the Queens in Veritas screams for Oliver to make an appearance - but I fear we won't see him anymore this season :-(

P.S.: I haven't seen the new Bones episodes yet.

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