Shir, I'm not arguing the

Tennant love aspect of your review. Not in the least. But the plot wasn't all that plotty...as in moving a story forward. What did we really learn? The Master came back wrong. He's cute but the cheese has slipped off his cracker. There is something special about Wilf. But we knew that already. And now, a bigger bad is on the way. Also not new.

As for whether or not we've seen 10 broken like that. Oh yeah, we have. Several times.

In re: the cactus people. I felt their naivete was appropriately depicted to make minor sense of their ever so convenient contribution to the Master's plan. The device was explained to be sufficiently altruistic and medically useful to justify its existence.

Plus, without a bit of much needed comic relief, the whole thing would have been way too grim.

bonny, I guess it's the difference between us.

I can't say I'm watching the Doctor, or TV, to learn something new (about the plot). I'm there to feel it, to experience it. And it was there, galore.

As for broken Ten, I meant that yes, he was broken. But never about himself - always wrt others/others and himself. Also, dude, the drums are the Master's heartbeats! Heh!

Random question, as I have had SG-1 playing in the background over the holiday...In the 1st and 2nd season, the Zat is described as sort of a three strikes device. 1) hurty 2) killy 3) disintigratey.

I don't remember seeing it used to hide bodies like that in later seasons. Was the shift ever explained or was that feature eventually just ignored?

The 'dusting' function seemed very Buffy.

Yep Shir, I agree that the brokenness was usually about someone else...though the loss of Rose could be construed as self-interested.

Your first sentence there pinged me as possibly offended by my response. I sincerely hope that is not the case. My intention could not be further from that. Just friendly bantering, you know?

Oh no, bonny. I certainly wasn't offend, and I hope it's the same at your end. I was just pointing out that I think that we are looking for different things when we're "consuming" Who, and that's why we differ.

EoT

As for the plot device of the medical thingy. I think it was meant to be a healing device for a whole planet as described, but the Master re-wrote the code to make it copy his matrix directly.

Speaking of which, I wonder if all of the six billion copies of The master have the same superpowers? I guess we find out Friday.

Huh, well wouldn't that be something? six billion crazy mad bad Masters. They could climb onto one anothers' shoulders, and simultaneously jump, and a few of them might make it to the moon. Dunno what they would do when they got there, but it would be fun to watch.

Skipping all the whitefont to ask, anyone up for a watch-and-post at 6:00 board time?

Shir, regarding what you said about Doctor Who and not watching just for plot. Well, no, I don't watch just for plot. But I do expect there to be some plot. Ideally without gaping holes. There was NO explanation of who the father and daughter were, nor why the hell the father wanted the daughter to become immortal. And what was with RTD building a mythology from nowhere? 'The Book of Saxon': excuse me?? There are decades of Doctor Who mythology to draw on, especially if you're about to bring back Time Lords. I haven't seen all of the original series, but I'm fairly sure the Book of Saxon won't have featured in it, nor his disciples. Messianic imagery only works if it stays metaphorical (and a bit of foreshadowing helps too. Any bit).

Essentially, the whole thing felt overblown and needless, with any necessary stuff - whether plot, decent writing or characters I actually care about - sidelined in an extended excuse for bringing back the Time Lords. If that's all proven to be worthwhile next episode, then I can pretend this one didn't happen. While I agree with you about the good stuff, particularly with Tennant, there was too little of that to redeem it, for me.

Tom, if you mean when it is broadcast on BBCA today, then Hells, Yeah! I'll be here!