Rate and Discuss 3.10: Blink

[Wayne]

Has Transvamp hacked Pip's account?

C'mon Dave, There's only 30 words!

[Jason Thompson]

It's like the last 2 episodes, people were disappointed that the story appeared to start part way through but Rose started in the same way & no one moaned about it then (IIRC) but it's a problem now?

Rose was about Rose, and her story started part way through an Auton invasion when she met the Doctor. The alien invasion was straightforward and secondary to the main point of the story. Similarly, the story of Blink started once Sally found the message in the house. Why she went there made no difference to the plot. The plot of Human Nature, on the other hand, hinged on a drastic decision taken by the Doctor in a direct response to events we did not see. That's the problem there, as far as I am concerned.

I know people like to justify why they don't like an episode & want to rate it lower but to be honest I'm happy if someone just says, "yeah, it was ok but it really didn't do anything for me". I'll wonder why but I don't see why everyone has to justify it. It's a personal view point & we don't all enjoy the same things to the same level.

While I agree with you, if I see things I think deserve criticism I'll criticise, if I see things that I particularly like I'll flag them up, and if the episode just works or doesn't for reasons I can't pinpoint, I'll say so. I can pile heaps of criticism of The Two Doctors for its nonsensical plot and other elements, but I adore that story for reasons I can't actually articulate. Similarly The Gunfigters does very little for me either way, so I can't really go into detailed critiques of that story.

On the other hand, get the physics of black holes wrong and I'm in there with talons out...!

[Dirk Gently]

@Dave & Wayne.

[Milky Tears]

I fear that my episode reviews aren't thorough enough for Planet Skaro.

[Jon Masters]

I didn't watch that so maybe I saw in ads for it or something.

And I'd like to point out that Jody actually got quite into this episode. People who know her will realise just how significant that is

I thought for most of the episode that she was the woman who played Claudia Brown in Primeval - but apparently she's Lucy Brown.

[Rob McCow]

but apparently she's Lucy Brown.

From Peanuts?

[Captain Tancredi]

Life was quiet and serene for little Lucy Brown
Up until the day her eighteenth birthday came around;
Her pa said, "Guess what I've bought you!"; she said "I dunno".
"I've only gone and bought you a brand new piccolo!"

Benny Hill, 'The Piccolo Song'

[Si Hunt]

I'm just completely bewildered that everyone is raving about this episode. I enjoyed it, but it didn't stand head and shoulders over everything else. I thought it was very similar to Fear Her, which wasn't raved about generally.

I thought it was much better than "Fear Her" (though I was an inexplicable champion of that one at the time). Firstly, it didn't have a forgettable little girl actress in it, Secondly the monsters were chilling moving statues and not a talking wardrobe, and twenty thirdly it was steeped in suspense, mystery and time travel and not visualised like an episode of "Brookside".

To those complaining about "Doctor-lite", I fear if you didn't get your Doctor-lite we would have only 12 episodes a year. The schedule is very hectic, and maybe after the first year (when the lead actor left allegedly because of the workload) they felt it just wasn't do-able without giving the leads a break. Treat them as "bonus" episodes that you wouldn't get otherwise.

Si.

[Milky Tears]

Now I'm waiting for Nathan to pop in and drop some big hints about Series Four's production schedule.

[Logo Polish]

I suspect Milky is referring to the fact that Jon Older (one of the assistant directors) has just said the other day that the production period for the next series will be a bit longer, apparently so as to avoid double-banking and doing another Doctor-Lite episode.

[Si Hunt]

Maybe they're pushing all the stops out because they know they'll have a LONG LONG rest afterwards...

Si.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

To those complaining about "Doctor-lite", I fear if you didn't get your Doctor-lite we would have only 12 episodes a year. The schedule is very hectic, and maybe after the first year (when the lead actor left allegedly because of the workload) they felt it just wasn't do-able without giving the leads a break. Treat them as "bonus" episodes that you wouldn't get otherwise.

Si.

I'd be one of those "Doctor-lite" complainers!! - Sorry about that
Fair enough - I'll admit that the heavy schedule idea hadn't really occured to me and I guess when you look at it like that it does make sense.
Although the question (for me anyway) is would I rather have 13 episodes a season (with a 'Doctor-lite' episode amoung them) or 12 episodes, where the Doctor features throughout?? Actually a difficult question for me to answer. In some ways the last episode didn't make me feel as though I was watching Doctor Who anyway -so what's the difference???

Like I said, don't get me wrong I though 'Blink' and Human Nature/Family of Blood were all excellently made, with some of the best acting I've seen in a long time - I just didn't feel that they were Doctor Who episodes and as the show is 'Doctor Who' then I expect the Doctor to feature a bit more than has done for the last 3 episodes.
It's almost as though I've watched a spin-off show that is finding it's way - you know what I mean, whereby they put a familar character in the first episodes just to reasure people where the spin off has come from (like Charlie Fairhead from 'Casualty' in the first episode of 'Holby City' or DeForrest Kelly in the first episode of Star Trek TNG)!!!

I hope Logo is right and that have a longer period to avoid double-banking and Doctor avoiding. I hope that cheeky Si Hunt is wrong with his Long, long rest post!!!

Anyway, I think I've well and truely hammered this point to death, so I'll shut up now - next week's episode looks great!!!

[Andrew Curnow]

I know Hartnell & Troughton had the odd episode off, when they were doing it virtually full-time, but even in the 70s, wasn't the production schedule pretty much the same as today? I can't imagine it took them less time to produce season 18 than it did to produce the show nowadays, but I think we'd have felt short-changed if, say, Warriors' Gate had been a virtually Doctor-free story.

HST, I really enjoyed L&M last year, and Blink last week, so it doesn't bother me, other than that there is a limit to how many times you can pull off that trick.

[Si Hunt]

wasn't the production schedule pretty much the same as today?

Surely not. Today's Doctor Who (and TV production techniques in general) are far more complex, involved and carefully produced than those in the seventies. I don't want to demean old Who, but I'm not being flippant when I suggest they effectively still turned up and did most of it in a few takes back then. Today, every frame is scrutinised on DVD and they often seem to spend hours (or longer) on a few second-long effect.

Si.

[Logo Polish]

Another point about having episodes with the Doctor hardly in them is that it wasn't only a small number of fans who objected, but a large number of the children weren't happy about it (many complaining on the Newsround site last year after L & M went out), and I would think that's been more of a factor with the production people than any fan reaction.

[Andrew Curnow]

Surely not. Today's Doctor Who (and TV production techniques in general) are far more complex, involved and carefully produced than those in the seventies. I don't want to demean old Who, but I'm not being flippant when I suggest they effectively still turned up and did most of it in a few takes back then. Today, every frame is scrutinised on DVD and they often seem to spend hours (or longer) on a few second-long effect

True, Si, but I was really thinking in terms of the workload on the regular cast - the Doctor-lite episodes must still require the same behind-the-scenes attention, work, scrutiny, etc, so I can't see them really reducing the workload of anybody except the two regulars. The amount of time taken on CGI at the Mill, or in editing and reviewing, and all that jazz, won't have any real influence on the actors' workload.

I'm not particularly complaining, I'm just curious really.

Just looking on the net, it looks like filming (as opposed to rehearsal) on "The Leisure Hive" began 20th March 1980; and filming on "Logopolis" wrapped on 22nd January 1981.

[Perry Vale]

And I'd like to point out that Jody actually got quite into this episode. People who know her will realise just how significant that is

Watched it again on monday with my girlfriend, and she did too, the first time she's seen an episode that she actually enjoyed (rather than just tolerated)!

[Milky Tears]

Maybe they're pushing all the stops out because they know they'll have a LONG LONG rest afterwards...

Si.

They'll all be gone by this time next year. We're doomed!

[Dirk Gently]

Surely not. Today's Doctor Who (and TV production techniques in general) are far more complex, involved and carefully produced than those in the seventies. I don't want to demean old Who, but I'm not being flippant when I suggest they effectively still turned up and did most of it in a few takes back then. Today, every frame is scrutinised on DVD and they often seem to spend hours (or longer) on a few second-long effect.

Si.

I'm fairly sure that both Mary Tamm & Sarah Sutton have said in interviews that filming took 10 months. That's about the same as now isn't it?

[Rob McCow]

I'm fairly sure that both Mary Tamm & Sarah Sutton have said in interviews that filming took 10 months.

Yes, for one scene each, the fussy old harridans!

[Dave Lewis]

Another point about having episodes with the Doctor hardly in them is that it wasn't only a small number of fans who objected, but a large number of the children weren't happy about it (many complaining on the Newsround site last year after L & M went out), and I would think that's been more of a factor with the production people than any fan reaction.

I think Blink* had enough of the Doctor and Martha in it to keep the kids happy... when they weren't hiding behind any living room seated furnishings, that is.


*inadvertent rhyming incident...

[Middle Aged Loomsy]

I quite liked this story but there were a couple of holes.

Firstly, even though something that causes something can happen after the thing it causes, due to time travel, there still has to be a first thing. There has to be a cause, for there to be an effect. Otherwise, I think we are breaking one of (Azimov's?) rules of Time.

Therefore, the DVD "conversation" with Sally doesn't seem to work. And even with a "transcript", how does the Doc know to tell Sally to "look to her left" - except that, maybe, just maybe, in the wodge of documents that Sally gave the Doc, she mentioned that the geeky feller was sat to her left. Sally would have also had to tell the doctor the 17 DVD's that she owned.

My point is, that there should have been a cause to the DVD thingy in the first place; although, I suppose the Doc (even if he didn't know about this from Sally) could have planned to set up a DVD "conversation" with someone - anyone - and it turned out to be Sally - but what good luck that it was someone who was involved already with the house and the "angels". So, I'm a bit unsure of all that. Also, the Doc is presumably unaware of Sally's pal going back through time; unless, again, Sally tells him in the wodge of documents - come to think of it, I think she does, 'cos I seem to think she has pictures and stuff in the wodge of documents.

The bit I'd like to watch again is the bit where Sally collars the Doc - surely he should be MUCH more surprised that this stranger greets him - and even MORE surprised that she casually says (something like) "of course you're a time traveller, aren't you" - apart from Rose's family/friends, only Martha (and of course, presumably some people in Torchwood) know about that.

As a result, of course, he does realise the wodge of documents is important; but I would have thought he might have made some effort to revisit Sally?

The other hole (which might not be a hole) is that the feller who had been the young copper knew exactly when he was going to die.. again, I suppose Sally told the Doc about this - but why tell him? And the fact that he went into new technology - are we to assume the Doctor trained him up in some way for this? Or was it his idea to create the DVD conversation (yet he could maybe have just set about finding Sally and talking to her, OK, she might think he was mad, but....)

The last bit that puzzled me, was how the Tardis key came to be where it was. Is it just that the Doc lost it when he got got by the Angel things? But if so, why didn't the angel things realise what it was and do summat with it?

[Logo Polish]

I think Blink* had enough of the Doctor and Martha in it to keep the kids happy... when they weren't hiding behind any living room seated furnishings, that is.


*inadvertent rhyming incident...

Yeah, but the decision to extend the fourth series' production period would have been taken before Blink aired...

[Milky Tears]

Loomsy speaks the truth... again.

[Perry Vale]

I quite liked this story but there were a couple of holes.

A couple of tiny ones, perhaps.

Firstly, even though something that causes something can happen after the thing it causes, due to time travel, there still has to be a first thing. There has to be a cause, for there to be an effect. Otherwise, I think we are breaking one of (Azimov's?) rules of Time.

I think that "cause" is Sally's friend delivering her the letter via her grandson, imo.

Therefore, the DVD "conversation" with Sally doesn't seem to work. And even with a "transcript", how does the Doc know to tell Sally to "look to her left" - except that, maybe, just maybe, in the wodge of documents that Sally gave the Doc, she mentioned that the geeky feller was sat to her left.

Or perhaps the geeky feller mentioned it when he wrote up the transcript on the net? You're right, that probably was overlooked in the writing, but as I've just shown, fairly easy to accomodate after the fact.

Sally would have also had to tell the doctor the 17 DVD's that she owned.

She had the list from the geeky feller, that would have been in all the documentation she gave the Doctor. That makes perfect sense, imo, as long as you can entertain the idea of a paradox.

The bit I'd like to watch again is the bit where Sally collars the Doc - surely he should be MUCH more surprised that this stranger greets him - and even MORE surprised that she casually says (something like) "of course you're a time traveller, aren't you" - apart from Rose's family/friends, only Martha (and of course, presumably some people in Torchwood) know about that.

Well, you might think that, but the Doctor does say he leads a complicated life, and it's not the first time that such a thing has happened......it's already happened once before this season.

As a result, of course, he does realise the wodge of documents is important; but I would have thought he might have made some effort to revisit Sally?

Maybe he does, not everything that happens to him happens onscreen.

The other hole (which might not be a hole) is that the feller who had been the young copper knew exactly when he was going to die.. again, I suppose Sally told the Doc about this - but why tell him? And the fact that he went into new technology - are we to assume the Doctor trained him up in some way for this?

As for the new technology, the Doctor didn't need to train him, the copper said himself he went in to publishing, then video publishing, then dvd publishing. It was a natural progression. There are thousands of people in our world today doing just that, they don't need an alien to train them! The Doctor only had to suggest he got in to these things (by starting in publishing). Why Sally told the Doc about when he died, well yes, seems odd, but I just take it that she had this in her notes/documentation. She may have a added a journal/diary type thingy? There's no real reason why she couldn't have.....

The last bit that puzzled me, was how the Tardis key came to be where it was. Is it just that the Doc lost it when he got got by the Angel things? But if so, why didn't the angel things realise what it was and do summat with it?

Yeah, I can't really explain that one.