The Impossible Planet

[altariel]

That rocked!


Didn't it look good? In a way you don't expect BBC SF to look good. They went to a quarry and made it look brilliant! Quarry redemption!

Strong echoes of Chris Boucher's The Robots of Death (mining on an isolated planet, the omnipresent servitors who suddenly become a danger everywhere). Event Horizon and Alien in there too.

I loved the music: Ravel's Bolero for a descent into hell was smashing; also the single, mournful violin (viola?) over empty space - very Firefly.

I really want the disappearance of the TARDIS to turn out to be plot rather than convenience. Because you don't need to remove the Doctor from the TARDIS in order to make him stay - he'll stay because there's a mystery, and because things are happening. I suppose if all else fails I can pretend Unbenign Presence targeted the TARDIS because it perceived it/the Doctor as a threat.

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

My daughter said 'This episode sounds like Firefly'

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I really like the music week by week, although I know others find it too loud.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

A passing side comment: I assume that the theme tune never appears *during* an episode? Cos', y'know, that would be wrong.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I gather from my resident expert that the licence doesn't allow them to use the theme during an episode.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Good-oh. But did they used to? It struck me that you get things like the Bond theme, or the Mission:Impossible theme, that plays during dramatic moments. But the Who theme just wouldn't fit.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Mr A says it was used a lot during the 1980s (by Paddy Kingsland, Dominic Glynn), particularly the "ooo-eee-ooo"... But not really before (or after).

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Yes, but they never used the full theme tune as incidental music. What did happen was that musical motifs from the main theme were incorporated into the incidental music. It's not really analogous to the way the James Bond movies break into the full theme tune at moments of maximum nonsense.