Radio Free Skaro #271 – Heeeeey Macarena!
< The Girl Who Waited was, to varying degrees, praised by the Three Who Rule as one of the best episodes (if not THE best, according to Warren) of this season, with acclaim for the direction, the visuals, the timey-wimey-ness, and most of all for Karen Gillan’s double performance as herself and…herself.
But wait! Torchwood: Miracle Day also wrapped up its 10 episode run with rockginas, immortals, f-bombs, and Oswald Danes doing what he does best: making the blood of civilized folk curdle. Add a dollop of stats, DVD news and Matt Smith being a stylin’ mofo, and you’ve got yourself, well, a podcast! Next week…..Night Terrors! Or, more accurately, The God Complex! |
| Show Notes:
– The Girl…Who Waited! |
6 Comments on “Radio Free Skaro #271 – Heeeeey Macarena!”
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Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro 
Wow. I hated this episode. I thought it was the worst episode of new Who ever. Honestly. Ridiculous premise, perfunctory explanations, unbelievable results, unearned conclusion. Miserable. I look forward to hearing your defense of it.
What if this episode had happened before The Rebel Flesh / Almost People and ganger-Amy had entered the Red Waterfall room?
Would real-Amy have felt she was ageing? What would have happened when there was curent-age-ganger-Amy together with old-age-ganger-Amy? Would real-Amy have been connected to them both?
I have found that ignoring the hype is the way to go. I guess it is harder for you guys, being leading Dr Who podcasters; obviously, you want to be “in the know” about what’s going on in the Whoniverse. But I don’t even look at the BBC promo pics prior to each new episode. (Granted, avoiding spoilers has become easier now that we are getting the episodes in North America day-and-date with the UK.) Coming to each episode fresh and without any preconceived notions (save my own, based on how the series has been progressing) allows me to experience each one more fully, I think, and more on its own terms.
I found this an incredibly moving and powerful episode, probably the strongest of series six so far, even though the denial of Amy-Then’s chance at life makes me angry. (I humbly offer a link to my fuller response, if you’re interested: http://thescifichristian.com/2011/09/tardis-talk-%e2%80%9cthe-girl-who-waited%e2%80%9d-series-6-10/) Bottom line, though, if the Doctor’s “daughter” could get to go on to have adventures of her own, why not Amy-Then?
How can you say the robots went nowhere? They delivered a lethal dose of medicine to Amy-Then at the end! And, only then, is it truly “a kindness.”
The “Chekhov’s Gun” element which Chip @ Two-minute Time Lord champions is what I said went nowhere. Why introduce the question rejection if you’re not going to show more (showing the same thing again shortly after doesn’t count). They could have done something with a question being accepted as a plot point, an acceptance/rejection at a major turning point could have been done… something more just needed to be done with it.
Hi Chris – I don’t see the problem with the “Chekhov’s Gun” element of the robots and the question lights. Doctor Who is often littered with such elements at the start of the episode where you basically know that the “gun” is going to play a major part later. Off the top of my head, the acid in the gangers episode, the treasure in the pirates etc.
Often whenever the camera focuses on an object or a character asks a question then you can be pretty sure that it will play a part later in the story. Now, whilst the robot questions may have had an importance which were removed from a later draft of the script, I thought it made a really nice change to have something in their to throw the viewer off the scent. I admit that as soon as I saw it I wondered how it would turn up in the denoument and I am thankful to have been proven wrong. Whilst scripts do need to be tight, I see no reason why everything they TARDIS crew come across always has to have significance. The odd red herring can certainly help.
That’s nice that it didn’t feel incomplete to you, but it did to me. There was no red herring feel to that IMO.