The V

Donna snuffs it. That's no big surprise - but there are a lot of rumours popping about - and some people at the BBC are also spreading them - that Donna isn't actually all she appears to be and has been infected by a spider that survived from the Xmas Special which introduced her.

Anyway what everyone seems to be agreeing on is that Donna dies - a noble sacrafice to save the universe - and the Doctor is so furious about this that he rewrites the rules - and time and space - and goes back in time so that Donna lives. He basically uses all his skills and powers as the last of the time lords to bend time to his will (apparently there's a thought that power corrupts might be used as an ongoing theme for a season with a darker doctor but I believe it's a tad early for that)

I'm sceptical, but I heard this one weeks ago and it seems to be gathering steam. I really hope the BBC is just getting good at false spoilers because the 'go back in time to save the day' ending was lame in the TV Movie and would be even worse here...

Oh, that will go over well.  Especially with the implied pun.

 I can't do anything to any posts, as no-one has mod powers. So people will just have to avert their eyes.

That fits in broadly with set reports - there was a scene shot where the Doctor is talking to Bernard Cribbins and shouts something like "You can never tell her" at him, which would make sense if the Doctor arranges it so that Donna never meets the Doctor (whether the first time or the second).

The spider thing is a little more up in the air - again from set reports, it almost certainly slots into the Doctor-lite episode that's on in a fortnight rather than the finale itself, and there are conflicting sources in respect of whether it's related to the Rachnoss or not.

To be honest, I'm not that worried about this turn of events - from what you've said, it's a downbeat ending as opposed to the triumphant conclusion that we saw in the TVM, and if it's played like that (and shown to be a huge deal rather than the fairly cavalier way that the TVM dealt with it) then I'd be okay with it.

That would explain the otherwise inexplicable "There's a spider on your back" statement from the Pompeii oracle, which only makes sense if one considers that Donna has significant spider-related backstory.

Then there's all the talk about the Doctor having to make "a terrible decision." All along I've been taking it to mean that he has to choose which companion lives and which dies, but if it refers to what he does AFTER that, it could be interesting, if executed well. They've certainly been playing up the whole "most terrifying individual in all of time and space" thing with him as of late.

Didn't he already do all of that when he went back and saved the family in "The Fires Of Pompeii" ?

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He only says "There is something on your back" - some people are saying that the thing on her back is some kind of scarab-y time monster she picked up when she went to Egypt (after which trip she suddenly decided she had to track down the Doctor).

Either way, some kind of back-monster effort.

Thanks for clarifying. I think my memories of "Planet of the Spiders" sort of merged with the Pompeii episode and gave me the wrong quote.

I may be way overthinking this, but I still wonder why the elder oracle hesitated significantly before calling Donna "Daughter of ... London," given that they didn't hesitate even on things like the Medusa Cascade or Gallifrey. Almost as if he knew more than he was telling and wasn't going to let on.

This also may play into an odd bit of dialogue from a couple episodes back.  When The Doctor was talking about going back to change history and save the Time Lords, he said, "I can't.  I just can't."  Something in the delivery made me think that he was talking about a decision he couldn't bring himself to make, not a limitation of space and time.

I could see a strong season built around the idea that the Doctor has gone back in time, reset the Time War and made things horribly worse.

Every so often I get the idea that he actually did try, and it DID make things worse, leading to the cataclysmic conclusion. (His few statements on the subject would seem to indicate that he didn't try, but he could be fibbing on that point, or is using that point as his factual basis for not trying it again.)

Time and again I keep going back to the Reapers from Father's Day, and the fact that the Doctor didn't actually seem terribly surprised to see them.

While I am no fan of SPIDERS, I would certainly hoot if there was a reference to it.

I think the Doctor-lite episode is actually the first part of the three-parter finale, but I'm suddenly of an urge to go back and watch some previous eps after someone posted about the line 'your song will end soon' from Ood ep. (that and his line about wanting to meet Agatha Christie)

(and I know it could go terribly pear-shaped but I think this has been the strongest season yet. The scripts have hit some decent beats, Tait has been really good, the comedy has been dailled down and seems naturalistic in parts and DT has been really good going from the light-hearted traveller to 'you do not want to fuck with me' moments.)

Concur, I've been told its a parasitic infestation. And whatever it is that Donna does stops the "Medusa Cascade", all levels of parallel dimensions crashing together. Hence the Rose reappearances.

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As long as we're spoiling like hell, any word on if there's something to the frequent references to bees going missing?

In the end, the Doctor must learn to "bee" himself.

I am sorry about that one. Ah well, it'd make us much sense as the whole Bad Wolf resolution...

HAven't heard a thing. I was presuming it was tied into the parasitic thing.

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It will be.

Maybe it's a reference to Billie Piper's pop song from back when she was 14.

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LiveJournal

It's sad that the only thing that is alien about the Doctor nowadays is his regeneration.

 Hurray, Doctor Who is back on shit form! That, I think it's safe to say, was one of the weakest episode this series - though Doctor's Daughter still holds the wooden spoon. It felt very much like Davies knows Moffat's episodes are the most popular and he wanted to make his own. 'What's creepy? Mysterious knocking! What do kids do? Repeat people in an irritating manner! I'll make a monster who knocks and repeats what people say!' It was a dismal, incoherent concept with no payoff and lots of horribly heavy-handed 'we are the monsters' moralising. And I really missed Donna.

 Next week's looks good, though. Let's hope it's good enough to justify making us sit through this week's.

For some kind of, what, disembodied (semi)conciousness?, it certainly had the wherewithall to knock on solid objects AND destroy the cabin of a vehicle. And I suppose it must have been visible at some point, unless the object mechanic Claude spotted was a red herring or a delusion.

I thought it was okay, probably because it was played straighter than RTDs more cartoony episodes.

CoH/V: @Obakeneko

If the Doctor wasn't there, they'd have chucked Sky overboard a lot earlier.

So without the Doctor, three people died. With the Doctor, four people died. Well done Doctor!

Having said that, did enjoy it, especially the matched speaking scenes. But it was also a little bit Clocking Off In Space though? And we did get to see Russell's original Rose.

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I thought it was all a bit Lord of Flies myself. But....errrr...not as good.

Less conch action.

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I thought it wasn't bad, although a bit jarring to see that it was essentially a stage play on TV. The "monster" really wasn't the point of the episode, though - it was the monstrousness of normal people when they're looking for new and unknown things to be scared and hateful of.

The problem was that RTD used a sledgehammer to indicate this.  The build up was good, but the big nosed gal going mental was a bit odd as she'd been the most restrained person up until then.  I did like the use of torches, though, when the power failed.

The lack of any exposition regarding the monster was just frustrating.  Isn't one of the great things about the Doctor that he solves things?  He started solving the puzzle of the creature, but once it was gone (not that it's necessarily truly gone as it only inhabited the woman's body) that was it.

Also, the lack of Donna Noble also annoyed me.  Which is curious since Donna Noble annoys me.  Still, insect on her back it is!

 Kev
 BIGHATDINO

I loved that they didn't explain the monster. Sometimes stuff just happens and the Doctor's just going to have to deal with a situation - the thing that's grated the most for me about the Doctor since the show came back is that every time they encounter anything he already knows what it is - Vashta Nerada, Judoon, Weeping Angels, all that. It was kind of refreshing to see the Doctor in a situation where he doesn't know what's going on, he doesn't know how to fight it and not only does he not save anyone, he's in genuine danger himself. It's so rare in nu-Who that there's a threat that actually makes you think that the Doctor is out of his depth that it was very pleasing to see it in this episode.

It's quite interesting to see an episode where the Doctor's standard operating procedure pretty much failed on every conceivable level, and as you pointed out, actually increased the body count in the end. 

For what was basically a filler, presumably cheap, one-set episode, the matched speaking must have made this a gigantic pain to direct.

The old professor kind of reminded me of Patrick Troughton, and the cast list had a David Troughton in the role -- any relation? (I'm careful jumping to conclusions ever since learning that frequent director Alice Troughton -- who did this one, oddly enough -- was no relation.)

Never mind my question about David Troughton -- should have IMDB'd first. Turns out, for those interested, he is Troughton's son, and appeared on the series a couple of times back in the 1960s and 70s as well.