Doctor Who: World War Three   Rewatch 
July 23, 2014 4:47 PM - Season 1, Episode 5 - Subscribe

A two parter with Aliens of London the Doctor and Rose (and mickey the idiot) stop a coup d'etat of green farty aliens.

This episode features.
Harriot Jones (MP for flydale north)
The first appearance of Trinity Wells (A recurring newsreader)
Hamfisted parody (massive weapons of destruction which could be deployed in 45 seconds)
Deus Ex Internet (Missiles from your web browser)
posted by Just this guy, y'know (11 comments total)
 
Besides Rose, the only thing I hated about the run with Eccleston and Tennant was the treatment of Mickey. He didn't have to be an idiot.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 9:26 PM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


I felt like Mickey wasn't really an idiot, the Doctor just treated him like one. Mickey didn't really cope with the reality of the Doctor and all that in an unreasonable way, certainly not any worse than Rose, but he was the designated buttmonkey, and so the characters had to treat him as such. If anybody came off badly, it was the Doctor, who was rather plainly unfair to him.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:24 AM on July 24, 2014 [2 favorites]


I liked how he was redeemed a bit more in the Tennant run as a time hopping gun toting badass.

Also, in this episode the sort of nod to classic who educational programming with Harriet Jones talking about Hannibal and vinegar. (which really seemed to come out of nowhere)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:46 AM on July 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it was clear to me that Mickey was never as stupid as the Doctor treated him as. I kind of chalked that up to the Doctor not really wanting competition for Rose's attention.

The farty aliens were ... yeah. Every once in awhile this show goes out of its way to really appeal to the 10 year old boys in its fan base and this was one of those instances. As not a 10 year old boy, I could have done without the farty aliens.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:21 AM on July 24, 2014 [6 favorites]


I fart in the general direction of the Slitheen.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:34 AM on July 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, this was not my favourite episode. But Harriet Jones from Flydale North is definitely one of my favourite characters, so maybe it balances out.
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:55 PM on July 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


I liked how he was redeemed a bit more in the Tennant run as a time hopping gun toting badass.

Too far in the other direction, I thought. The Doctor was clearly being a jerk to him for no warranted reason, but the swivel to full-on mercenary type was way out there. I'd have been happy leaving him in Cyberworld, having made the decision to try and be that guy, without seeing him turned into an action movie cliche.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:16 AM on July 25, 2014


Awww. I like the farty aliens. Sometimes you just want a non-serious goofy rubber-suit alien. And Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North) (Yes, we know!) is probably my favorite part about this episode. She's just so ... refusing to be pushed aside, even if she is insignificant in the greater part of things. She's kind of an unassuming badass.

Also, "You kiss this man?!"
posted by sldownard at 1:07 PM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yes, yes, yes to Harriet Jones -- a character who the series naturally made out, in the end, to be too good to be true, or a lesson on the corrupting influence of being granted power.

It's not so much that Mickey was dumb as that he was incurious. I think his evolution as a character worked -- it was his earlier treatment that was out of bounds. But they were making him the comic relief and, speaking as an American, using black guys as comic relief doesn't come off all that well, especially if you have them showing exaggerated freakout.
posted by dhartung at 5:36 PM on July 27, 2014


"using black guys as comic relief doesn't come off all that well, especially if you have them showing exaggerated freakout."

Exactly. Especially since the writers put zero effort into casting solid characters, throughout the series, to balance that shit out.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 8:51 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


The thing that stood out most to me in this episode was Rose's mother. Her insistence that Rose must remain safe seems so over the top, even for a protective mother. I mean they're on the phone with her, she knows something big is happening, yet she's insisting that any plan must be perfectly safe. It bugged me, but for reasons I can't put my finger on.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:35 PM on August 5, 2014


« Older Aldnoah.Zero: Beyond the Horiz...   |  Movie: Sleepaway Camp (1983)... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster