I've got to say that the most surprising thing about Series 2 was how very little of it I remembered. Sometimes I caught myself asking myself, "did I watch this? Did I skip this? How did I erase this completely from my mind?" I don't have the answers for any of those questions, but those impressions speak greatly to the experience of series 2, for me at least.
There were a ton of episodes that felt weak, but it's a season that is punctuated by lovely character moments, especially if you are invested in the relationship between Rose and the Doctor.
Granted, this rating is happening from fuzzy memory, but I feel good about giving it anyway:
Kirsti: Good call, friend. Good call.
Mari: I told this story in a vlog recently, but I watched this episode for the first time the same weekend I saw The Body for the first time. It was emotionally taxing, to say the least.
Kirsti: Good call, friend. Good call.
Mari: I told this story in a vlog recently, but I watched this episode for the first time the same weekend I saw The Body for the first time. It was emotionally taxing, to say the least.
We open in space, looking down at the earth. Rose voiceovers that this is where she was born and where she died. We zoom in on London and watch Past!Rose going through her boring daily life as she voiceovers about how nothing happened in her life before she met the Doctor. We get a shot of the first time she met Nine, and I'm pretty sure I can hear Mari's "NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!" feels from here.
Marines: Pretty sure? Girl, that was definitely me.
Marines: Pretty sure? Girl, that was definitely me.
We start with bright blue sky, cheery music, a banner proclaiming the 2012 London Olympics and even some houses with little Union flags in the windows. It reminds me of when Kirsti was last in the US and astounded by the number of flags we fly. #Merica
K: TRUE. Y'all need to back off on the flags. It's RIDICULOUS. I have yet to see any private residence in Australia flying the Australian flag. Wait. Maybe the posh place with a freaking turret near my cousin's old high school that usually flies a pirate flag puts up the Australian flag for Australia Day? IDK IDK.
K: TRUE. Y'all need to back off on the flags. It's RIDICULOUS. I have yet to see any private residence in Australia flying the Australian flag. Wait. Maybe the posh place with a freaking turret near my cousin's old high school that usually flies a pirate flag puts up the Australian flag for Australia Day? IDK IDK.
We open on a guy with terrible bleached blond hair running through a quarry or gravel yard or some shit. IDK. He ends up by an industrial looking building, and stops when he sees the TARDIS. He walks slowly towards it, and music gets all floaty vocals and spookiness. He touches the TARDIS, then Rose yells out for the Doctor from somewhere off screen. Bad Hair Guy runs towards it. He ends up in a factory. Rose and the Doctor, both still off screen, yell at each other about where "he" has gone. Bad Hair Guy finds himself in a corridor with lots of doorways off it. There's a pig-like grunting noise from somewhere, and he cautiously walks down the corridor. He pulls open a door and finds himself face to face with a giant spitty alien.
We had such a lovely time last episode, I'm feeling all giddy about this recap! Shoutout to the, um, science side of that recap (basically Mairead...) for the insight into black holes. (K: SERIOUSLY. I may be shitty at replying to comments, but those comments were the freaking bomb.) Now, let's all watch as the show ignores all that science and gets to the FEELS shall we?
Oh, we cut from really extensive previouslies to the credits:
Oh, we cut from really extensive previouslies to the credits:
The TARDIS vworp vworps its way into a spaceship-y looking storage room. It sounds decidedly unwell. The Doctor and Rose walk out the door, and he makes worried sounds while stroking the TARDIS. Rose says if he's worried, they can leave and go somewhere else, and they both fall about laughing.
Marines: Those crazy kids and their lack of self-preservation! But seriously, watching them laugh in those last two gifs is everything.
K: LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
Marines: Those crazy kids and their lack of self-preservation! But seriously, watching them laugh in those last two gifs is everything.
K: LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
Rain, thunder, lightening. Somewhere, a guy sits inside a shop, pouring over a book. A TV program is playing in the background. The announcer signs off just as the guy realizes he's overdrawn and needs a money miracle. Watching TV while also maybe thinking about needing money miracles? MY LIFE. But with less "God Save the Queen" playing in the background.
Kirsti: I had a total "IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT THING!!" moment when he came on screen, but wasn't sure what that thing was. According to IMDB, it's our old friend Britain Only Has Ten Actors, because he's been in Hot Fuzz, Little Dorrit, and Chocolat.
Kirsti: I had a total "IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT THING!!" moment when he came on screen, but wasn't sure what that thing was. According to IMDB, it's our old friend Britain Only Has Ten Actors, because he's been in Hot Fuzz, Little Dorrit, and Chocolat.
After the previouslies, we go straight to the credits, because why the fuck not. DOO WEE OOH.
After the credits, the Doctor aims a mystery thing at the Cybermen, and a beam of orange light bursts out. It hits one Cyberman and spreads to the others, kind of like how the Nazis die in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Cybermen crumble to ash and everyone makes a run for it.
I cannot stop laughing over that gif. Conveniently, Driver pulls up in the blue van and everyone piles in. Except for A Pete, who makes a run for the house to rescue A Jackie.
After the credits, the Doctor aims a mystery thing at the Cybermen, and a beam of orange light bursts out. It hits one Cyberman and spreads to the others, kind of like how the Nazis die in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Cybermen crumble to ash and everyone makes a run for it.
I cannot stop laughing over that gif. Conveniently, Driver pulls up in the blue van and everyone piles in. Except for A Pete, who makes a run for the house to rescue A Jackie.
Lab. A scientist we can't see hits a button and electricity crackles. He tells someone else that the prototype has passed every test and is working. In the shadows, a man says that "working" isn't the correct word because that would apply only to machines. The man comes out of the shadows so that we see he's in a motorized chair.
Kirsti: I flail with excitement because it's Owen from Vicar of Dibley!!! Excuse me while I spend the rest of the episode expecting him to talk about how he's late because his sheep exploded or something.
Kirsti: I flail with excitement because it's Owen from Vicar of Dibley!!! Excuse me while I spend the rest of the episode expecting him to talk about how he's late because his sheep exploded or something.
We open at Versailles in the height of its opulence. Courtiers run and scream from an unseen threat. A man in a red velvet coat approaches a woman in a dress four times wider than she is, and tells her that they have to go. It's Sophia Myles, who I know better as Beth from Moonlight and Beth from Spooks. Also as Fanny Price's little sister from the Mansfield Park movie.
Marines: MOONLIGHT! It is my far away dream to recap some one-season-wonders a la Firefly, and Moonlight is way high on that list. Also, Sophia Myles was dating David Tennant at this point, which is fun.
Marines: MOONLIGHT! It is my far away dream to recap some one-season-wonders a la Firefly, and Moonlight is way high on that list. Also, Sophia Myles was dating David Tennant at this point, which is fun.
We'll start this with an announcement: Sweeney is officially bowing out of these recaps. It's mostly because she needed to reorganize how she spends her time and this was an easier thing to take off her plate. She can probably tell you all her reasoning in the comments, because she's still going to try and hang out there and perhaps keep up with the series. That said, Sara will be joining us as the third recapper and our official Snow. YAY SARA!
Now episode:
GILES. I'm glad we're getting this out of the way so soon in the episode because GILES, GILES, GILES!
Now episode:
GILES. I'm glad we're getting this out of the way so soon in the episode because GILES, GILES, GILES!
A group of monks approach a castle and a bald one, the head monk presumably, tells a man that they want the house, and they will be taking it now. The owner is like LOL okay, do you want my wife, too? But Bald Head Monk isn't kidding around and says that he will take that shit with his fists. He kicks Home Owner to the ground and a fun(ny) fight scene develops as Bald Head Monk orders the other monks to remove their hoods, revealing a group of Not Monks who are actually Ninjas with badass fighting sticks. They fight their way through the entire castle, taking it over. Learning martial arts would be so be worth it if it kept you from having to sign a 30-year mortgage loan.
The Tenth Doctor and his Converse take charge of the TARDIS, and fiddles with various things on the console. He flicks a switch, and the engines start up, and he grins. It's pure Tennant "OMG THIS IS MY CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE" and I love everything about it. Outside, Rose hugs Jackie and Mickey goodbye and runs in with what's clearly an empty pack on her back.
Marines: At least she's graduated to proper goodbyes with her family now. The sadness on Mickey's face as he watches her walk into the TARDIS and Jackie just walking away, sending her girl back into danger? I want to hug them both.
K: Same, girl, same.
Marines: At least she's graduated to proper goodbyes with her family now. The sadness on Mickey's face as he watches her walk into the TARDIS and Jackie just walking away, sending her girl back into danger? I want to hug them both.
K: Same, girl, same.
First, there is a mini-episode that connects The Parting of the Ways with The Christmas Invasion, which you can watch here. Mostly it's Rose asking this new Doctor who he is. It's a single shot, tight scene that looks like it was filmed like this: Hey. No one move! Read this script real quick! We're gonna shoot it in five. And I mean that it in the nicest way possible, as I think this was aired to benefit charity... Point is that the acting is a bit off and it is a strange introduction to David Tennant's Doctor. I watched this and at the end yelled, "BRING BACK ECCLESTON."
Kirsti: Whereas, you know, I watched it after I'd already seen all of Ten and I squealed.
Kirsti: Whereas, you know, I watched it after I'd already seen all of Ten and I squealed.