[ZeoRangerV]

Waters of Mars ranks as one of my all time favourite David Tennant episodes, but even that can't save the specials "season" as a whole.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

Waters of Mars ranks as one of my all time favourite David Tennant episodes, but even that can't save the specials "season" as a whole.

And even Waters of Mars has some moments that make me want to bang my head against the wall. The big problem with the specials was that Russel T Davies was so far up his own ass by this point that everything was just ridiculous, repetitive, and self-indulgent.

[AkibaSilver]

It's been a while but here's the next review! Enjoy, or the Whisper Men will attack you and do nothing!

Season 1 Episodes 1-4: An Unearthly Child- 23/11/13-14/12/63

The Doctor and his granddaughter abduct two teachers and take them back to caveman times. They make fire.

Plot
We open on a policeman in a junkyard. The camera follows him until we land on an object; a police box, humming slightly, fully fixed and not junk at all. We cut to two teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. They are talking about their student, Susan Foreman. She is brilliant at some times, but knows nothing about others (she think's Britain's on the decimal system ). Barbara gives her a book on the French Revolution, and we see her. She seems like an ordinary teenage girl, with a couple of strange point, like when she says she'll finish the book tonight.

Ian and Barbara follow her home to a junkyard. They go inside, and hear her voice, following it to a police box and an Old Man. He won't let them enter the box and is antagonistic towards them. They threaten to get a policeman and almost set off, until Susan comes out of the box. They force their way inside, against the protest of the old man, to find themselves in a large white room, with a strange machine in the centre. It's revealed to be the TARDIS- Time And Relative Dimension In Space- and the old man is revealed to be the Doctor - "Doctor Who?", asks Ian. The Doctor locks the doors and sets the controls against the wishes of Susan, Ian and Barbara. The machine emits a horrible noise, and we cut to the outside of the machine in a different place. With a caveman outside.

The travellers leave the machine, with Susan expressing surprise at the exterior of the TARDIS-it hasn't changed, which it usually does. The Doctor leaves the TARDIS to explore, lights his pipe, and gets knocked out by a caveman, who just saw the man create fire, which none of them can do. He brings him back to a cave with leadership problems - Za is the son of the last leader, but can't make fire, while Kal, a foreigner from another place, boasts he should be leader. Kal is winning over the tribe because of his prowess of killing for food. The Doctor awakes and starts mumbling about how he's an old man and can't hurt them, rushing towards them. He says he can make fire, but then realises he doesn't have his lighter, and can't. Ian, Barbara and Susan show up and try to save him, but are soon enough overpowered by caveman. The caveman decide to lock them in the Cave OF SKULLS!!! in order to kill them to make the sun rise.

They escape when an old caveman lady frees them through a back exit and they flee through the forest, Za in hot pursuit. He gets attacked by a boar, but Ian and Barbara save him, tending to his wounds and putting him on a makeshift stretcher so they can carry him back to the TARDIS and heal him there. At the Caveman's cave, Kal arrives and kills the old lady for freeing the travellers. He seizes leadership of the tribe in Za's absence and take over the tribe to capture the group. And it happens just as the group is really close to the TARIDS.

They are returned to a hostile tribe, but the Doctor reinstates Za as leader by tricking Kal into showing the tribe his bloody knife, showing he killed Old CaveLady. This leads them to chase him out. Za shows the travellers amazing gratitude by locking them back in a cave and threatening to kill them unless they give him fire. Ian makes fire for Za using a stick and dry leaves. Unfortunately, his attempts to convince Za to share the secret don't work, and he decides to immediately show everyone. Kal arrives and tries to kill Za, but he gets killed himself after a long wrestling match! Za shows everyone the fire, which ensures he is leader. He announces the travellers are to become part of his tribe, and leaves them in the cave. They escape by using skulls on sticks and rush back the TARDIS. This time, they escape. The Doctor comes clean, and reveals to Ian and Barbara that he can't fly the TARDIS, or rather, the codes are still a secret. He was aiming for 1963, but ends up on a strange, wasted world. They leave the TARDIS after making sure the radiation levels are fine. Of course, just as they leave, the radiation meter starts to work and shows danger levels! We end on a cliffhanger! The plot of the first episode is well spaced, and fills out nicely, but afterwards the caveman plot can sometimes feel a bit slow. 6/10

Characters
The First Doctor seems strange to us now, but back then we had no one else to compare him to. He is well portrayed as a grumpy, unhelpful old man and completely different to the Doctor's we know today. Susan gets practically no development, but Ian and Barbara gets some. They go from constantly rejecting everything the Doctor says to semi-trusting him, and by the end, Ian accepts the Doctor as the leader of the group. 7/10

Scare Factor
Nothing too bad by todays standards, but the Cave of SKULLS!! could be creepy. 3/10

Favourite Quote: "Did you ever wonder what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?"- First Doctor

Overall
Overall, this episode is OK. I'm sure you expect me to say better, but it really is just OK, maybe on the good side. The caveman story is sort of interesting, but compared to action episodes today, this episode has nothing stand out. If Doctor Who had been permanently historical based, it wouldn't have run as long as it did. But next episode changes all that...

[Sentai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

Waters of Mars ranks as one of my all time favourite David Tennant episodes, but even that can't save the specials "season" as a whole.

I liked those Specials, honestly. Waters of Mars, and End of Time, especially.

[coturos]

Am I the only one who hated water on mars? Wow....

[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sentai

I liked those Specials, honestly. Waters of Mars, and End of Time, especially.

I've already done the epic "why I hate End of Time" rant in this thread, so we shall have to agree to disagree there

Quote:

Originally Posted by coturos

Am I the only one who hated water on mars? Wow....

How so? Not that there's anything wrong with disliking it, I'm just genuinely curious.

[Sentai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

I've already done the epic "why I hate End of Time" rant in this thread, so we shall have to agree to disagree there



How so? Not that there's anything wrong with disliking it, I'm just genuinely curious.

I missed it, how far back in the thread is it?

[AkibaSilver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sentai

I missed it, how far back in the thread is it?

Page number three. Have fun!

[Sentai]

I disagree... with completely everything you said in that Rant. I'd adisgaree with the word The if I could find a way to. Not going to stop me from trying.

[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sentai

I disagree... with completely everything you said in that Rant. I'd adisgaree with the word The if I could find a way to. Not going to stop me from trying.

Feel free to disagree, most other people do