Reviews

No rating for this title. I enjoyed the plot, but here I ask questions about what this is supposed to be.

First of all... if the Time Lords (not sure about Gallifreyans as a population) can regenerate, how did the Master kill them all? Wouldn't they regenerate and come back to fight the Master again?

Is Hartnell the first doctor? I started watching the newer series (2005 onwards but started watching in 2013) and I thought Dr. Who had many reincarnations every since inception. I mean Hartnell looked like an old Doctor, and he was supposed to be about a thousand years old, so isn't it possible in the past 1,000 years he underwent many reincarnations? (Of course Hartnell is the first Doctor we know from the series... that's just fine!)

Why are the Cybermen so keen to kill the humans which had dwindled down to 5 or 6? Who cares? Let them run. It'll take 1,000 years and tons of inbreeding for the humans to even achieve a 100,000 population again.

And... I'm wrapping my head around... this hunt takes place far, far in the future, and the Doctor and her companions go back to modern day when life on Earth was normal. So... what was the point of fighting the Cybermen that far in the future? I mean only three or four humans were left. So if you think about it, it means if history is repeated, instead of billions of humans, only three or four humans survive that far in the future when the Cybermen would presumably continue what they had at that point in time because the Doctor didn't intervene in any tipping point further back in time for that Cyberman war. Is that any victory at all?

And the death particle, oh come on, it's a tiny vial of glass, why was that even in the plot? If Ashad had a big sneeze or fell down on his chest wouldn't it break?

And how did the Master get a shrink ray gun? Isn't that more like magic instead of science fiction? Cells are made up atoms, you can't shrink the atoms any further, only move them closer together.

And how the heck did the black guy (already forgot his name, one of the three companions) ever throw a futuristic grenade the 500 metres where the Cybermen marched? Looks like you can only throw that thing about 10 metres, at best. In the episode prior to that, the Doctor also throws a grenade... way too unrealistic a distance to pull it off. And about ten bombs are enough to blow up a Cyberman ship that looks the size of three city blocks. Yeah....

And how did the companions and their allies step through the magic curtain (the Boundary) and end up right on the planet? No spaceship needed? Very convenient.

This episode literally did not make sense.

So one old man... who's probably a few years away from a natural death by old age... wanders off in hostile country and about twelve people including the Doctor rush off to save him? I agree with saving every life possible but the odds were insane, so instead of one dead you end up with say, thirteen dead. And bringing a ten-year-old boy and an elderly woman into danger? Very poor judgment.

And the crazy woman with the braids pulls a gun and threatens to kill them all when they're in the thick of danger? And blames it on a terrible family from her childhood? Nice villain backstory for an idiotic character.

Running after an old man with a crew of twelve people into the wasteland.... but abandoning a mother and adult daughter at the end without a second thought. Consistent much?

For a planetary spa, there were so few guests... only about thirty? Way to go to make a profit from the economics of this enterprise. I've seen resorts in tropical places that have three hundred to a thousand guests... Good luck terraforming a planet occupying only 0.0001% of its surface.

And how the heck did barbed wire even stop this gigantic tank? Tanks in World War I did even better...

As I said before the sight of about twelve people (with an old lady who can barely run more than ten kilometres per hour) against aliens who looks very sleek and fast and own the terrain... goes back to my point about the stupidity of sending twelve people just to save one life....

What the heck was that about the security guard shooting the old man just because he asked for it? And then the doctor's crew berating this security guard. It's called mercy killing and it was asked for by the victim... no different from shooting a horse because it's in severe pain. He was an old man at the mercy of about six to seven aliens surrounding him anyway with no hope at all...

Green wigs, yuck, looked like a high school set. And that squirrel costume too.

One saving grace. The aliens (aside from the stupid close-ups at the beginning) actually looked pretty cool when shot from a distance. It may be on budget but looked pretty effective, real rubber suits without relying on fake CGI. That was the only good thing about this episode.

I forget the name of the episode but I remember one about the Doctor staying at a spa with robots that had smiley faces on a screen... I think Peter Capaldi? That was much better than this trash.

Interesting premise, but could be much better.

1. Why do none of the characters try to meet each other? I would be soooo curious to meet my alter self and say "hello". I wouldn't be afraid, either. It's me! I like myself, no?

I think the filmmakers decided not to show that option because it would have doubled or tripled the budget to bring up the special effects to allow an actor to duplicate himself or herself in the same shot. Pity.

2. What are they scared of? It's just a comet, for goodness' sake. True, multiple universes may be unsettling when confronted personally, but think of it... it's just another version of harmless, boring you.

3. No need for shaky camera. There's no running or going through a forest.

4. The dialogue felt a bit weird. I've been to a few dinner parties (yup among yuppies too) and I don't know people who talk like that.

5. The lead actress at the end doesn't hesitate to knock her alter ego out. Really? Can you imagine yourself doing that, if your alter ego presented no threat whatsoever? Or just an existential threat only?

The overall 6 is for all three seasons. Season 1, 10/10, Season 2, 8/10, and Season 3, 3/10.

Clunkers for Season 3:

1. Zero chemistry between Hopper and Joyce. They don't even seem compatible size-wise... Joyce is skinny and Hopper is overweight and tall. Plus, that infantile bickering... even the first argument they had (before I knew there would be many more I was thinking, uh, oh. Mature--not! They seemed more juvenile than the kids when the kids argued! And why pair together Joyce and Harper? No need, doesn't advance the plot. And that bearded guy calling out their love in graphic detail was just.... creepy. At that moment, I just disliked the bearded guy.

2. Joyce in that ridiculous Russian outfit. She sure looked out of place, and the bad guys waved her in? I think she was the only woman in uniform too, whch should have raised several red flags.

3. That horrible ambush of that lady lifeguard and then her turning onto her loving parents... how painful to watch. Also when Billy brought her in all tied up... I was expecting more of an outraged outcry from the public! None of the three deserved their fates. A lovely family dinner now fraught with suspicion on screen... that is so wrong!

4. Yeah, monsters need to be scary. But the Mind Flayer, while scary, was also too gross and this detail was shown A LOT of on-screen time. I like to be able to watch without my stomach churning.

5. Couldn't believe all these people disappeared and the monster practically boasted its public presence and NO ONE noticed? Don't people talk to each other in this town?

6. Hopper and the boring Russian stalk each other inside the obstacle course at the July 4 Fair and NO ONE is inside there for about ten minutes? Thankfully no children but there were tons of people at every event at the fair, crowded and bustling. Too convenient.

7. Hopper suddenly becoming a skilled tactical attack officer... enuf said. He's the chief of police in the town, he doesn't do this type of fighter chops during his day to day job. In fact Season 1 showed him sitting and smoking a lot at his office and at his run-down home. Can't a chief of police's salary afford him a more decent home?

8. El and Mike smooching all the time at the start. I may be older than that generation but I don't think this type of lust is realistic among that age group. More likely they would talk and act out silly or unfortunately, move on beyond just necking, which is why they typically wait a bit longer. It would have been nicer for them to act like goofy lovers, which means chasing each other outside and between rooms, playing silly games, preparing snacks in the kitchen... that would have made me believe more.

9. Fireworks disturbed the Mind Flayer... really? Fireworks don't explode like bombs, they just shoot projectiles. And they're no where as powerful as bombs. And there was no control over the trajectories of the fireworks, they could have just as easily shot off from the Mind Flayer's surface toward the air, not harming it one bit. That was so silly. It would have been better if somehow the gang found real bombs (maybe from the evil Russians' supply room) and the bombs really exploded some of the Mind Flayer.

10. WHY WAS THERE A SUBPLOT ABOUT FERTILIZER? This was never explained. It was very shaky motive for Nancy to start investigating when she did. She just got lucky it ended up to be a key investigation.

11. WHY ARE THE RUSSIANS OPENING THE GATE? The Mind Flayer could conquer Russia, too, after nicely disposing of America (not that anyone would wish it!). Nice going, smart.

12. Too much action and bickering, I loved the Christmas lights mystery of Season 1 and how Barb disappeared and how Jonathan developed the revealing photos that led to the monster. Very subtle, very intriguing. In contrast the investigation of the lab below the mall was like 100% luck. Like a 12-year-old could figure all this out. No need to report to work, Hopper.

It's true. At the halfway point I was watching the playhead which shows the time elapsed and time remaining. Everything about the show is so contrived that it's like a game for kids (like a corn maze with different paths) where you push two of them one way and another two a different way and hope they can find their way out of ridiculously easy situations. This ain't the universe. It's a pre-ordained game where for once, I was let down by the sudden change in Graham's personality, which made me cringe. Lemme tell ya. If Graham and Ryan had the real task of fighting their way out of a paper bag they would be down in three seconds flat. What's with the idiotic plot point of bending down and letting two sections of the enemy army fire at each other at the exact same time and EVERY ONE of them falls down dead?

While I enjoyed the visuals in the movie purely for escapist reasons and also watching the coolness of the late 1950's (looks a lot like the 1960's to me) I kept thinking, "How plausible is this really?" and if one is constantly thinking that despite a desire to have fun watching, that's not a good thing.

Basically, my problem is, "Why is everyone behaving that way?" For example, the bad guys going after Thornhill at first instance just on the basis of a very flimsy move--just standing up really at the wrong time. You'd think experienced spies would look for far more clues, like following him home, checking his statistics in official records, etc. I know there was a paging at the time, but still.... I think in real life, the bad guys would have let him go after just a few minutes after realizing they were acting incredulously.

Secondly, there was no reason for the femme fatale Kendall to be so friendly to Thornhill... okay, maybe she's attracted to him regardless, but a lot of the time she helps him and at other times she totally forgets him, even sends him to certain death (by the crop duster plane). What? There wasn't consistency. It was hard to believe she worried about him at all, and at the end she loves him? Please.

Thirdly, it was so complicated for the bad guys to send Thornhill in the middle of barren countryside. Huh? Just gun him down in a dark alley, why go to such trouble. It seemed the entire movie was written just for visual effects, not on the basis of reality. Yeah, yeah, I know movies aren't reality, but still, this was so unbelievable that it left a hollow feeling inside me, wondering why it couldn't at least make sense. Another problem with sending Thornhill so far out in the middle of nowhere... the female agent Kendall tells him to go, right? Obviously the bad guys want him to go there to meet his end (complicated way of doing it, but anyway...). But at the same time, (spoiler, but it's been decades since this movie was out) she's a double agent, so why would under her "government agent role" she send him to his doom? She would at least pretend to fumble the instructions, but no, she cruelly and callously sends him to certain death (does anyone really think he would have escaped if this wasn't a movie?). And why wouldn't the government, if it wants to keep Thornhill alive, know of (through Kendall) or instruct Kendall to not send Thornhill to a fight he can't win? Baffling.

Fourthly, I know security was far less in the ol' days, but Thornhill could go inside a United Nations building and meet a diplomat there, and the diplomat says yes right away instead of channeling through staff? Surely in the history of diplomacy in hundreds of years were far more professional and sensible than that. And the diplomats would stick around in waiting rooms where there's a crowd and anyone could have emerged from the gritty streets? They work in offices, and they're very busy, usually with weeks booked in advance.

Fifthly, why did Thornhill keep going and seek the answer to all this? I know without Thornhill, the movie would have ended right there, but he doesn't have any personal stake in the outcome (true, he becomes attached to the safety of the female Kendall near the end, but that comes in pretty late in the movie) so I felt as if he was detached from what was really at stake in the movie. He doesn't passionately believe in saving America from secrets, nor is anyone in his family threatened, nor is he seeking fortune, so what was his motivation for hanging in so long at great danger? With him going through so many situations, with so much danger already happening in different ways, I couldn't understand why he kept going. All he had to do was hide out and stay with family or something. Yeah I know, it's a movie, so he has to keep going. That's the plot problem of using a main character as disinterested bystander who still discovers no personal stake as the movie drags on (as opposed to other movies where the unwitting hero starts to learn about and feel strongly about an injustice against a person or a group, or finds out secrets that could lead to personal fortune, or avenges someone close to him).

Okay, so the scenes in the barren farmland and at Mount Rushmore, (Really? You can own a property on top of Mount Rushmore, just a ten minute run away from the famous faces!) okay, they don't make sense, but I think people like the movie because of these two scenes, without them, I think this movie would not be as famous today. I agree these scenes are exciting and original, and fresh to watch, but I have to cast aside disbelief to enjoy these (and I do enjoy). The problem is I can't cast aside my disbelief for the other scenes of the movie, about 90% of it in fact.

Well, there's more, and I could go on and on, but those are the things at the top of my head. And why in some scenes do the bad guys hold back (crowds sometimes stop them, sometimes the crowds still don't stop the bad guys from extracting Thornhill away) and in other scenes do the bad guys act foolishly in eagerness. Very selective motives if you ask me. To please the writers.

The movie was written for its visual effects and to make the story continue no matter what to make sure it was slightly over two hours. That's all I think it was. Excellent visuals at times (and the 1960's colour and "cool" styles and historical reference) and thrilling showcases of famous landmarks that aren't overused in other movies, though.