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

[aervir.livejournal.com]

The cave scenes were shot in a quarry, weren't they? Even though I have only seen one proper old school quarry so far (masking as Skaro in Genesis of the Daleks), this made me smile.

I really want the disappearance of the TARDIS to turn out to be plot rather than convenience.

Now that would be nice. I strongly suspect, though, that it will turn out to have been merely a convenient device to make the situation genuninely claustrophobic and life-threatening. Otherwise, they could just cram the whole crew into the TARDIS and leave the creature from the pit behind...

Some people were speculating that this episode might be a ret-con of Pyramids of Mars and that the Unbenign Presence will be Sutekh or any other Osirian. Personally, I'd rather like it to be Cthulhu. Preferably the baby plush version (http://www.paizopublishing.com/image/product/catalog/IMPTYV/IMPTYVHP004_360.jpeg).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Baby Plush Cthulhu is so cute!

I was also wondering whether Sutekh might turn up - it's the same guy doing the voice of the Unbenign Presence. But I hope it isn't - on the whole I'd rather they kept on inventing new stories than refining old ones.

The cave scenes were indeed done in a quarry. If you ever see any Blake's 7, you'll get quarries in abundance.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Baby Plush Cthulhu is so cute!

Just imagine it rising out of that pit and doing the evil laughter in a really tiny, squeaky voice...

But I hope it isn't - on the whole I'd rather they kept on inventing new stories than refining old ones.

I completely agree with you.

And I'm really, really looking forward to the next part, as I have no idea what exactly is going on there. Apart from the fact that Satan is on the loose.

If you ever see any Blake's 7, you'll get quarries in abundance.

From what I've heard, a show is not really BBC retro sci-fi if there is no quarry involved.

The only sci-fi show Germany ever produced, way back in the 1960s, was partly shot in the bed of the river Isar right here in Munich, where people tend to go for a pick-nick or a barbecue in the summer. It's not that easy to buy the alien planet thing under these circumstances.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

a show is not really BBC retro sci-fi if there is no quarry involved

They did a couple of radio plays of B7 (which are awful), but one of the good lines was when they teleported down to an alien planet, and one of the crew remarks it looks like they're in a quarry.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've set at least one little story in a quarry, just for artistic verisimilitude...

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Neither The Prisoner nor Sapphire and Steel had quarries, as far as I can remember, and they were both excellent SF. Maybe they weren't BBC?

And Germany has produced at least half of one other SF series, the wonderfully deranged Lexx (which was a co-production with Canada).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Both were shown on ITV, tho' I don't know off the top of my head which production companies made them.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

ITC and ATV, I think.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I'm feeling much too hot today to do research.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I didn't count Lexx due to the co-production aspect. I don't think it would ever have been produced at all if it hadn't been geared to an international market right from the outset.

'Cause German audience are apparently considered not to like sci-fi well enough, especially not German sci-fi. (Um, don't mind my complaints about that. I might be slightly bitter. :D)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

If you're counting co-productions, then you'd have to include Star Maidens (http://www.animus-web.demon.co.uk/maidens/)!

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I had never even heard of that one before. I don't know whether this is a good or a bad thing...

A planet ruled by women dressed in platform boots must have some kind of appeal, though.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

aervir said: Just imagine it [Baby Plush Cthulhu] rising out of that pit and doing the evil laughter in a really tiny, squeaky voice

And we will call this quarry...THIS QUARRY!
I think we will call it...your grave!

[aervir.livejournal.com]

*g*

And you won't be able stop me! FROM BEYOND THE QUARRY GRRRAVE...