None of your reasons listed above apply to my dislike for this episode.
We have had so many different types of episode on 'Dr Who' over the years that practically anything can be included. Even the dreadful TV movie has to be included in canon somehow.
I don't like Rose. I'm not particularly fond of Tennant's doctor. So their absence didn't bother me. I disliked the bits where they did appear because they were totally out of character.
I don't know what you mean by 'confounds expectations'. It confirmed mine - unfortunately.
It wasn't like a soap opera - I could have coped with that, and there are elements of the soap opera in current continuity anyway. (Jackie, Mickey, the Doctor/Rose romance.) What it was was a sitcom, and not a very funny one at that. What annoyed me about this was that it was played as sitcom, which is completely at odds with the way 'Who' is normally played. They might just have got away with it if the continuing characters had played their roles straight. Unfortunately, the Doctor, Rose and Jackie were also playing as sitcom - or even farce. The result is to downgrade the rest of the season, because when you are watching high drama - if we get any amid the camp - this episode will be at the back of your mind. If it had been hilarious or moving this might have been justified, but it was funny only in odd moments, and not at all engaging.
It is not original. The outsider view has been used many times - the most familiar will, I think, be its various appearances in 'Babylon 5'. Fannishness as send up sitcom is the whole purpose of the dreadful 'Kinwig'. And us nerds are being sent-up all the time.
Finally, over the other side of the fence, apparently RTD was heard to say that it was aimed at males because women don't watch 'sci-fi'... This has caused much hilarity in Trek fandom, apparently.
no subject
We have had so many different types of episode on 'Dr Who' over the years that practically anything can be included. Even the dreadful TV movie has to be included in canon somehow.
I don't like Rose. I'm not particularly fond of Tennant's doctor. So their absence didn't bother me. I disliked the bits where they did appear because they were totally out of character.
I don't know what you mean by 'confounds expectations'. It confirmed mine - unfortunately.
It wasn't like a soap opera - I could have coped with that, and there are elements of the soap opera in current continuity anyway. (Jackie, Mickey, the Doctor/Rose romance.) What it was was a sitcom, and not a very funny one at that. What annoyed me about this was that it was played as sitcom, which is completely at odds with the way 'Who' is normally played. They might just have got away with it if the continuing characters had played their roles straight. Unfortunately, the Doctor, Rose and Jackie were also playing as sitcom - or even farce. The result is to downgrade the rest of the season, because when you are watching high drama - if we get any amid the camp - this episode will be at the back of your mind. If it had been hilarious or moving this might have been justified, but it was funny only in odd moments, and not at all engaging.
It is not original. The outsider view has been used many times - the most familiar will, I think, be its various appearances in 'Babylon 5'. Fannishness as send up sitcom is the whole purpose of the dreadful 'Kinwig'. And us nerds are being sent-up all the time.
Finally, over the other side of the fence, apparently RTD was heard to say that it was aimed at males because women don't watch 'sci-fi'... This has caused much hilarity in Trek fandom, apparently.