I've flipflopped at least twice on this since last night. I've managed to swallow The Kiss as more than just a climactic emotional bleurgh that could be resisted no longer, but actually a coherent response by Rose to her situation: a life with the 'real' Dr would be tragic and hopeless too, as she would age and die and he wouldn't. Perhaps we saw her recognising that. But yes, of course it was tasteless, and desperate is probably another helpful word. As for Donna, I can't recall seeing anything so viciously cruel in a fiction. It's not just what happens to her - after all, she doesn't know how cruel her fate has been - but to her family who now have to hold her secret themselves, and the Dr who has to remember and deal with her lack of memory. Her dismissive goodbye to him, as someone she no longer recognises, was heartwrenching. I never saw Runaway Bride so I had no prior expectations. But the character has been wonderful this season, developing into a brave and sensitive person - and I kept increasingly thinking how beautiful Catherine Tate is. No wonder all those people who denounced the idea of Donna have apparently been won over.
Yes, I really enjoyed the German Daleks - although there was a slight shudder from the conceit being rather too close to history ... And I'd love to know whether the idea of the Daleks needing precisely 27 planets to build their weapon, and everything going wrong if one dropped out, came before or after the Irish voted down the Lisbon Treaty! Julian Bleach was marvellous, as I'd expect (having seen him in Shockheaded Peter AND The Gorey End with the Tiger Lillies, so nyah), even carrying off the maniacal laugh. His goading the Dr was splendid and so needed to be said, and Davros then lurching to impotent disbelief as everything falls apart (again) was enormously funny.
But overall, as you say, it had all the virtues and vices of the RTD era. The wit, moral ambiguity, invention and style on the plus side, and on the other the colossal overblown emotionalism and inability to think things through beyond the stunning images and grandiose concepts which the stories are framed around. I can forgive everything and everybody being chucked into this final stage though - as somebody said to me today, it was the end-of-school party. I'm looking forward to something a bit more restrained now!
I hope you can find more Who to watch. Your wonderful reviews will be all I have to keep me enthused until Christmas ...
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Yes, I really enjoyed the German Daleks - although there was a slight shudder from the conceit being rather too close to history ... And I'd love to know whether the idea of the Daleks needing precisely 27 planets to build their weapon, and everything going wrong if one dropped out, came before or after the Irish voted down the Lisbon Treaty! Julian Bleach was marvellous, as I'd expect (having seen him in Shockheaded Peter AND The Gorey End with the Tiger Lillies, so nyah), even carrying off the maniacal laugh. His goading the Dr was splendid and so needed to be said, and Davros then lurching to impotent disbelief as everything falls apart (again) was enormously funny.
But overall, as you say, it had all the virtues and vices of the RTD era. The wit, moral ambiguity, invention and style on the plus side, and on the other the colossal overblown emotionalism and inability to think things through beyond the stunning images and grandiose concepts which the stories are framed around. I can forgive everything and everybody being chucked into this final stage though - as somebody said to me today, it was the end-of-school party. I'm looking forward to something a bit more restrained now!
I hope you can find more Who to watch. Your wonderful reviews will be all I have to keep me enthused until Christmas ...