Three members of the Woolstencroft family are contributors to BC Magazine. Each discovered the BBC's Doctor Who at a different point: Tony goes all the way back to Hartnell, Ian started with Pertwee, and Daniel came on board during Davison's stay in the Tardis. Each week, they will offer their take on the latest episode. WooWho continues...
The Script
Ian: It's a bit more like BooWho this week for me, I'm afraid. The old SF chestnut of a nomadic community gets the Russell T. Davies treatment in this absurd tale of the ultimate traffic jam. Is he trying to make some kind of statement about our over-reliance on technology? It would seem so as, instead of taking his usual approach of playing it for laughs, he appears to be in deadly earnest.
Tony: Not exactly sure what happened here. What started out as one of the most ludicrous plots ever seen on Doctor Who suddenly turned into a surprisingly moving piece on loss and loneliness. Quite an impressive achievement.
Daniel: The Motorway elements didn't really work; it felt like too much of a forced analogy with today's environmental issues - something that Russell Davies does quite often, I've noticed. However, beyond that (the concept of the planet being wiped out, and the Face of Boe) this was another decent effort.
Ian: And why, with a wealth of classic villains to choose from, do we see the return of Patrick Troughton's naff crab monsters: the Macra?
Daniel: I suspect it was a bit of fun: RTD stated as much in the Doctor Who Confidential episode that followed "Gridlock".
The Effects
Tony: Brilliantly effective transformation of Father Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon) into a cat. Unfortunately The Motorway wasn’t quite so well done. A little over ambitious perhaps?
Ian: At times the special effects were quite good; and the ending - with the flying cars zipping around New New York - looked great. Just a shame that the previously crap plastic Macra have evolved into the equally crap CGI Macra.
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