In the name of deserving a welcome break I turned on Doctor Who just as the opening titles started up. The episode was "Midnight"; soon after I realized I not only saw this one before but had actually liked it, which is saying a lot with my relationship being the way it is with the new Who.It reminded me very much of an episode of the old Outer Limits television series. "Counterweight" appeared in that series' second season, a year considered by many fans to be lesser than the first. By the way, this particular OL installment features a cool stop-motion animated creature. Knowing what I do about visual effects I would guess that that bit of animation cost more money to render than the entire visual effects for Who's "Midnight" did. No question about it, in fact. (Ah, technology!)
"Counterweight" is a more successful episode: It enjoys a better sense of drama, and is supported by Harry Lubin's spooky music.
2 comments:
Yes, this was a good episode. Whenever I start to think Russell T. Davies is a poor writer, he pulls out something like this or Torchwood: Children of Earth. Guess the worst I can say about RTD is that he's a terribly inconsistent writer.
My only criticism would be that they were trying to hard to generate tension and jeopardy.
Way too much dialogue -- a common problem in this show. Davies talks too much in his scripts. (Script flak.) He does not understand nuance.
But, as you say, Russell is gone.
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