fangrrl_squees | Starting to Catch Up.

No, I haven't finished Torchwood, yet, but I just watched Partners in Crime.

It was... alright. There were some moments that were lovely and fun and everything I like about Doctor Who, and there were some moments that had my eyes rolling so hard, I'm surprised I didn't sprain something. Granted, a bit of eye-rolling goes with DW territory, in my opinion, but the line between traditional and too much was crossed more than once in this one.

It pains me to admit it, but the more RTD writes, the less I like what he's writing. The Mary-Sue thing? I accept that. The really treacly sentiment, the occasional fixation with baby-faced aliens and the handling (er, so to speak) of fat characters? Not so much. If nothing else, it's a bit bloody predictable.

I'm trying not to break out in a rash of political correctness, as the PC crowd are, forsooth, a dire and dreary bunch, but there's a point beyond which even I'm going to sigh and mutter, and I did it several times during this eps.

I want to say that Tennant's performance is getting predictable, but that's not quite correct. The pacing of The Doctor's reaction to whatever's going on in the story is getting predictable. 'Tain't the actor's fault. Methinks this is another one of those drawbacks of single-episode stories. Everything has to happen so quickly and certain things - emotional tropes or whathaveyou - tend to stick out.

Still, overall, the story was alright. Nothing ground-breaking, mind you, but alright. I liked the reference to the Shadow Proclamation, Donna's grandad, the concept of using another (sentient) species to perpetuate another and, oh yeah, Catherine Tate is remarkably bearable when she's not mugging at the camera. I'm going to make a point of rounding up all the DW/TW stories directed by James Strong because, if I remember aright, mugging is a common issue I've had with all of them - but I might just be feeling a bit uncharitable at the moment.

And, okay, yes, the Adipose were sort of cute, in a disturbing way. Points to Donna for "That's a change from last time" (reminds me of why my father gave up meat for a few years - the hypocrisy of not eating the cute animals - but that's another story)

I've got up through Planet of the Ood stored up on the DVR. I suppose I'll get around to catching up over the next few days, now that I've gotten started.