Gridlock

[owl]

Thank goodness the football didn't overrun.



Okay, it's an interesting setting: the upper city dead, the lower levels trapped, running on automatics. But the place where the TARDIS landed first had rain and light, so it must have been open to above. Why did the inhabitants not go up, instead of getting trapped on the motorway?

The little homes and the community of the eternal commuters was nice (though something so small as those cars could never have been a closed system. It's even worse than 'where does Battlestar Galactica get all that paper?). I liked the little old ladies' crochet, and friends lists and carspotters. And David Tennant describing them on Confidential as 'so wee'. I wish they'd let him have his own accent as the Doctor.

Father Dougal's kittens were too cute for words, especially the one that said ma-ma. (Poor woman having a litter, though I suppose giving birth to kittens might be easier than a considerably larger human baby.)

The Macra! Where can you go wrong with giant people-eating crabs?

The Face of Boe is dead! I was really hoping he would say, 'There is...another....Time Lord... a la Yoda'. It was so sad, the two final survivors of their races, in the dead city. Poor Ten, with his big dark sad puppy eyes! And pretending that Gallifey Not Go Boom *sniffle*

Martha continues good, having bright ideas like making like a submarine like in Das Boot. And ripping off the drugs. She does good screaming too, when appropriate, like being eaten by giant crabs. And she can get Ten to actually talk about his Emo. She got more info on Gallifrey out of him in ten minutes than Rose did in two years. Go, Martha! She sits down in that alley and says she wants answers. Martha and the Emo were co-starring in this episode. Although I note that he did not mention that he pressed the Big Red Button of Doom himself, at least not onscreen.

The Doctor has the guilt for taking her somewhere and getting kidnapped because he is a big hubristic show-off. See, she gets him to admit it even when she is not actually there! I think he's starting to cotton on that he wants to keep this one, but because she is Teh Smart she can see that maybe what he's looking for is a security blanket so that he's not all alooone with his emo. But she trusts him to rescue her and everyone with his brilliant l33t hotwiring skillz, yay!

I liked the resolution to this better than the last New Earth episode. The Doctor opens the doors and frees the prisoners. Those final scenes with the cars soaring up through the city to the sun, and the Doctor telling Martha about Gallifrey, and the whole city singing Eventide was gorgeous. (I only know tunes, not the hymns that go with them, because in our church we sing psalms but grab tunes from everywhere.)

And I liked that line from the trailer: "They always survive and I lose everything." Poor emo Time Lord.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

The two hymns were That Old Rugged Cross and Abide With Me - I loved the choral arrangement.

[owl]

LOL, they certainly lasted a long time! 5 billion, isn't it? I bet it's because of all the Wales :-P

[tree_and_leaf]

The Old Rugged Cross is a bit kitsch, but 'Abide with me' is a great hymn - and given it's connotations as a funeral hymn (and, allegedly, what the band of the Titanic played as it sunk.)

[jackzter.livejournal.com]

I too liked how Ten admitted he had taken Martha to the year 5 Billion to impress her with New Earth. Especially when martha had said beforehand about him being on the rebound. Not just because Ten repeated the New New New New Earth patter but becuase he was repeating exactly what Nine had done with Rose to impress her. First trip to the past was to see some famous wordsmith and first trip into the future to the year 5 Billion. Also nice to see that it was in the year 5 Billion that both Rose and Martha realised they were travelling with a stranger. Martha was just a bit more direct getting him to open up.

[aligoestonz.livejournal.com]

I just found it funny that after all the hooha about tonight's episode possibly being postponed because of the FA Cup semifinal, that they ended the show with the hymn that's played at the FA Cup final/

[brak666.livejournal.com]

Old Rugged Cross is also a common funeral hymn. I sing at funerals from time to time and it's one of the ones requested most often. At least in my neck of the woods.

[owl]

You could fill a small hymnbook with hymns alledgedly played during the sinking of the Titanic.

[owl]

Good point about Shakespeare and Dickens being similar, I hadn't noticed that before.

[tree_and_leaf]

True. And then there are the jazz tunes..

[tree_and_leaf]

I've always associated it with America rather than Britain, but possibly this is at least partly a matter of denomination/ tradition.

[brak666.livejournal.com]

You may be right. I am from the U.S.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It now strikes me that high on the list of "where to go and solve the mystery" should time travel ever be invented ought to be hovering just above the orchestra on the Titanic.

[owl]

Must get a bit crowded, those TARDISes have sharp corners...