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John Potts

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  1. OK, this was just fun - just the sort of thing I want to see on Christmas Day (baby eating being particularly festive!). You could really see where that Disney money went with the whole song-and-dance act featuring hundreds of puppets (no making do with spray painted green bubble wrap any more, I guess). Anita Dobson (“Get Outta my Pub!”) seemed to know what was going on. Or she’s just seen all the previous Christmases in London (that haven’t since be retconned) and just expects weirdness to happen. Yes. At least, probably. With celebrity relationships, I frequently find I'm two partners out. I'm guessing "Who left Baby Ruby?" is going to be the Season's over-arching mystery. My first thought was that it was going to turn out to be Ruby herself and then that it might turn out to be Jodie Whitaker's Doctor (so it's probably neither of those!).
  2. Did anyone else get “The Wire” vibes off the whole television bit (the Doctor Who episode, not the US Series)? Not exactly an episode I'd look to remind people of, but fortunately it was handled better here. I also had the impression that the (Celestial) Toymaker was a rogue Time Lord, but I guess not. 5 days ago, everyone started believing they were always right. So it was the Toymaker (and not Al Gore!) that invented the internet? And even if everyone could access to the internet you’d still need a device to do so - the whole world isn't actually online, even if they have the potential to be. OK, why did the Doctor leave before seeing whether taking out the satellite worked? He has a time machine! He doesn’t need to rush off half cocked. Good to see UNIT’s response to a hostile is still “Five Rounds Rapid” – and still just as effective! And also good to see that Donna's first instinct is to head into danger, regardless of her own safety. But I wasn't happy with the "Bi-Generation" - I don't need to see the Doctor standing amid a pile of corpses, but Nine's "Everybody Lives!" was powerful because it was rare: now it seems "Nobody Dies!" would be more accurate. I loved the fact he was running about with no trousers (pants) and just didn’t care! I like reminders that the Doctor only looks human, he doesn't have to act like a (modern Western) human. I guess the bi-Regeneration didn’t duplicate their clothes and they had to share them.
  3. I loved this one! A creepy space station is a Who staple (Arc in Space, Robots of Death, 42, Midnight) and this handled it well. My only slight disappointment was that the aliens were actually “evil” – they could still be a threat without actually being malign (like, say, a lion – or The Ambassadors of Death). Did like that they got around the “Security Question” of spotting an impostor by introducing mind reading. And even if I’m not a fan, I’m glad RTD didn’t immediately RetCon that the Doctor is not in fact a Gallifreyan (as far as we know). And I was definitely not expecting to see Wilf at the end (RIP Bernard Cribbins). One thing I don’t understand – why did the (dead) pilot set off a 5 year countdown rather than a rapid one? It didn’t seem to achieve anything (other than putting our heroes in danger).
  4. That was my take, too. Naturally, since she apparently gave birth to a 5 years old!
  5. 20 minutes in and I went "Wait I minute... I've seen this before!" It was in Dr Who Weekly/Monthly back in the 70s/80s, which rather spoilt the twist (though the Meep didn't plant a bomb in the Doctor's stomach in this story). Still, it wasn't a bad story, even if London seemed to recover from having cracks nearly swallowing it up somehow (I guess the Doctor managed to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and got the drive to fill them in again). What I didn't like was Donna surviving. Like Rose in Doomsday, while I don't want to see Companions dying, I wish they'd actually commit to having meaningful consequences and have no last minute saves. Floved Donna getting her essential Donna-ness back and shouting at the Doctor before going on to save the day, but she knew it would cost her her life and accepted that (after a bit of a rant, but even the Doctor did that when he saved Wilf) - so to then have her go, "Actually, I'm fine" was a real cop out. Also, thought the ending was just silly - why would the Doctor put a coffee machine in the control room if it could do so much damage? The number of times the TARDIS gets thrown around, it's just asking for trouble. Overall - fine, but not great.
  6. Well I quite liked it! Miss Harbottle might be needed at the practice, but she was in the 70s series too, so I assume she's out of the books. Quite why Helen didn't take her job (especially after James - not unreasonably - insisted on her being kept away from potential xenoviruses) when she's already at a lose end is a mystery to me, though. I also wondered where she was going when she first thought she was pregnant, since it's well before commercial pregnancy tests existed (I did wonder if the practice might have some sort of animal pregnancy test she was planning to use, though calibrating it for a woman would be something of a challenge), though since they were trying for a child it does make sense she'd be monitoring her cycle. I thought the interaction with her father over her mother's miscarriage was believable too. Really missed Tristan this season, though Carmody grew on me. He reminded me a bit of JD from Scrubs, in that he's knowledgable about animals but inexperienced with people. Once he's learned to deal with the clients and stand his ground, he should be a good vet. I never thought Mrs Hall would actually leave, but there was a lot of stiff upper lippery going on there, with everyone bottling up their real feelings like true Yorkshirefolk should! Loved the fact that while Gerald asked her to leave his home, he still came round to have his dog treated and fixed the pipe while he was there. I also wondered why his sister didn't come to stay with him, especially since Darrowby is considerably less likely to be bombed than Bradford (I think that was where they said she was living). Maybe we're too early into the war to consider the threat from bombing raids, given France has only just fallen, though I can easily imagine a call out to a farm where a stray bomb has landed that injures an animal coming up next season
  7. Presumably the Enterprise is (or at least is considered to be) a more impressive/intimidating ship to oppose the Cardassians. Other than real world (they have the sets) reasons, of course!
  8. I haven't seen the show but I have read the book and what really annoyed me was how Jake - in all his time travelling - never considered he might be making things worse. Even if he thought JFK was the greatest President ever (which, to my recollection, he didn't particularly) you'd think he might consider the possible negative consequences of his actions. And while I get that Jake hadn't seen all the subsequent time travel stories about how killing Hitler didn't actually make the world a better place (and he certainly couldn't account for its rather unnecessary literally Earth shattering consequences) you'd think he might wonder whether a surviving President Kennedy would be able to push the Civil Rights Act through Congress like President Johnson did by using Kennedy's death as a rallying point. It's not like he didn't have the time to do it!
  9. Tal-Rho! Wow, was not expecting him to show up to save the day! Though why they decided to throw Supes into the sun to power him up rather than either Jordan or Tal (who seemed less injured) is another matter. Maybe they know he's the main character? They are family - half siblings, one Universe removed! If I was going to Fanwank it, I’d guess that there is enough of a Hydrogen/Helium atmosphere if you’re close enough to the sun to carry sound. As for being able to breathe in space - well even Batman can do that! More to the point, why would you keep the two together? Even if they don't snap back together, they might if you leave them together long enough. Are there no other cells available? I figured he just knocked the corners off the merged Earth and went "Eh, good enough"!
  10. I flove Nat trying to think her way to a solution - too often Superhero stories come down to who can hit harder than whom. And I’m glad that the damage to Supes wasn’t permanent, but repairable. Because biologically, he’s still a Kryptonian and he shouldn't be turned into an ordinary human. Not that I believe he'll stay depowered for long (maybe try a big sunlamp?). Kinda with Chrissy on this one. Better to publish what she has to let people know what’s going on (yes, I believe people act better when they’re fully informed – nobody elected the DoD to act on behalf of America, let alone the world). Always amused by how often superhero stories assume that the right thing to do is to keep facts from people and act outside the law. Why are people looking to the Mayor of a small town in Kansas to have answers? And then ignoring the answers she gives even after all the $%*@ they'd seen last year! Jordan actually learnt some tactics from training with his grandpa! Good job taking out two superpowered enemies (alongside Natalie). I’m guessing everything that Ally says is pure BS and that she is the only one who will gain powers. If everyone else dies… well there are always other worlds to take over. Since Clark never swears, that would prove that he wasn’t the real Clark. Which actually might help, because it might convince people that Supes had been replaced by a doppleganger!
  11. Wow, way to make me feel old. The Kessel Run? Alanis Who? What sort of cultural upbringing are kids getting these days? I’m starting to wonder if TPTB understand how the military works. Generals are well aware that sending too few people to do a job is a good way of getting people killed (and tipping off your enemies in the process). There’s a reason the FBI use overwhelming force in a confrontation – it saves lives (at least, that’s the theory). Chrissy you had one job – and you botched it. The idea is to call in the cavalry before the people you're watching out for are nearly killed. But at least Ally managed to do what Lois’ words couldn’t! Even if I don’t care about the family drama, I’m glad the Cushing/Cortez family are doing better. Shouldn’t the DoD have Supes under a UV lamp? They seem to know the effect of radiation on Kal and Mon-El, so you'd think they'd try something along those lines.
  12. Well I guess it's rare for a Supes story to address the meta issue of why people can't tell Clark is Superman, so props for that. And I guess it is believable human behaviour for people to transfer anger onto other people (like Lana) or teenagers to act selfishly (like Jordan). But... that doesn't mean I want to see it. And I care even less about Sarah's potential singing career. I guess they needed a cheap episode (or at least to save money for the Mon-El/Supes/Ally battle). But on the subject of dealing with the pendant - did nobody consider throwing it into the sun? Mon-El had a ship in close solar orbit, so we know Kal (and his brother) can get pretty close to the sun. Surely our boy could just fly up there and toss it in? Not that I didn't enjoy seeing Mon-El/Morgan Edge again, though I was surprised he never betrayed our hero. I guess Jordan will learn it's not a good idea to Eye-jaculate on a load bearing pillar. I'm sure it's the sort of thing his dad would teach him... if he wasn't playing truant. Still, that jaunt was actually fun and might have inadvertently helped if it buried the portal and so blocks (at least for a while) a bizarro invasion. Agreed. Lois could have mentioned how long before Clark told her (I think it was just before he proposed?) which might have made it clear just how closely Clark guards his secret identity. There’s not a lot else to do but read when you’re stuck in a 10’ * 10’ cell!
  13. OK, Jonathan was kinda bratty about why he kept the drugs secret… but he did have a point about secrets. Rightly or wrongly, he seemed to genuinely believe Candice's (and her family's) lives were in danger if it was revealed she was trading - which is exactly what Clark has argued about protecting his identity (or had argued, prior to the Lana reveal, anyway). That was smart from Alt!Jonathan (threatening Lana to get Clark to get caught in the Kryptonite explosion) – evil, but smart. Good on Natalie, taking down Lana. A real chip off the old (Steel!) block. Was not expecting the reveal at the end. On Smallville, if you learned Clark's secret, it was your death warrant, but Lana has too much plot Armour to die (I guess she could get mind wiped, like Lois in Superman II). I briefly wondered if we were going to get the “hilarious” misunderstanding where she thinks Clark is about to declare he loves her but gets called away before he can set her straight (he did start off as if he was going to say something like that). So – did Jordan’s training with his Granpa amount to “Take a pounding for five minutes, then strike back”? You’d think he’d learn more tactics like “Dodge” and “Block”. Though I suppose if he knew he could outlast his "brother", it was valid (if painful) tactic. Even for teens, the “You were talking to my girlfriend!” should not trump “There's a psycho after my girlfriend's mum”! And we know how reliable prisons are at holding Supervillains… I don't know how it works in US schools, but it seems X-K is a newly discovered element. Maybe it wasn't a controlled substance until after the original QB was busted over it? Presumably it takes some time to add new substances to the banned list.
  14. I know Bizarro Earth is canonically a cube, but I can’t help wondering - what happens at the edge? Does gravity switch from North/South to East /West when you go over the edge? I guess we’ll never know. I do wonder if we’re going to revisit another Bizarro World, because (a bit like Star Trek’s Mirror Universe) it can be a fun place to visit. How did Lois instantly know it wasn’t “her” Jonathan? Does she know he never changes his hairstyle? Also, I don't see how unifying your various selves makes you any more powerful. In Supes case, he would actually gain powers (fire as well as ice breath, for example) but for most people you'd just gain knowledge. But maybe I'm overthinking this. I don’t think it was explained, but “our” Fortress managed to translate Bizarro, so I assume “their” Fortress did the same for Clark.
  15. While I tend to find most of the “drama” stuff annoying, it actually made sense here. Nat grieving over her dead mother, the Kents worried about their father, even Sarah feeling she’s being neglected by Jordan (which was fair, at least from her POV) actually gave a real reason for them to act the way they did. The Mayoral stuff was kinda dull and the result inevitable, only Lana seemed to have gone from plotting in her kitchen to having a whole campaign operation big enough to run a Senatorial campaign (which I know Smallville did). Isn’t Smallville meant to be a small town? Lois charging in to danger without thinking into danger is in keeping with her character, but why did the head of the DoD go with no back up!? What did Clark do to shield himself going through the portal? Though that kinda pissed me off. Apparently, now Superman is meant to deal with every disaster. Have the coastguard/police/army all been disbanded? He's a volunteer, they're actually paid to deal with this stuff. Of course, it's possible people would still whine about him not being there to help out, but it would be rather self centred. I’m impressed at how loyal Jon* is. He could expose at least some of his fellow X-K users but he didn’t and only gave up his girlfriend when his family learned of the X-K connection. I’m guessing she (and her family) will be OK, because govt protection proving worthless is not the sort of show this is. Nah, just put on a pair of glasses. That makes you completely unrecognisable. Except how many are there? The break out should have been revealed immediately or at least once she tried to leave the base, unless there are a lot of others who failed to prevent her escape. Even if she bluffed enough guards to escape, you'd think somebody would check with the commander well before she could get to the mine. * I guess we should refer to him as "Jon Prime"
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