imagining of what an alien might look like when forced to age without regeneration
The thing is that the imagining is so bathetic that it's very hard to ignore: it severely undermines what might otherwise have been an extremely effective demonstration of the Master's dominance and the Doctor's powerlessness. Martha's reaction still works really well, but it's hard to weep tears for the Doctor when he's turned into a little wizened CGI creature with big dewy eyes who sits in a Tweety Pie bird cage. You can't criticise it as not what he'd actually look like, but you can criticise it because it fails dramatically.
I can rationalise the Master's refusal to regenerate - it is after all a means of "winning" over the Doctor for certain values of winning. It still seems a little odd for a character who clung grimly, horrifically to life well past his initial set of regenerations and who is enough of a megalomaniac to assume he'd always emerge on top given enough time. However it can be argued to make sense in context. (And of course the final shot of the ring may imply that he's cheated death after all, which is a get out clause should one be needed.)
The President having been murdered is in theory a non-reset, especially as I think the murder took place on worldwide TV at the behest of the British Prime Minister. It doesn't stop it from being a big reset in every other way, but I agree that it may still have ramifications. Bear in mind though that this is a show which rebuilt Downing Street in a throwaway line and whose depiction of international politics is somewhat broad--but I suppose Harriet Jones's ousting did pave the way for the Master storyline so that's an example of follow-through.
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zvi and
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Date: 2007-07-01 12:15 pm (UTC)The thing is that the imagining is so bathetic that it's very hard to ignore: it severely undermines what might otherwise have been an extremely effective demonstration of the Master's dominance and the Doctor's powerlessness. Martha's reaction still works really well, but it's hard to weep tears for the Doctor when he's turned into a little wizened CGI creature with big dewy eyes who sits in a Tweety Pie bird cage. You can't criticise it as not what he'd actually look like, but you can criticise it because it fails dramatically.
I can rationalise the Master's refusal to regenerate - it is after all a means of "winning" over the Doctor for certain values of winning. It still seems a little odd for a character who clung grimly, horrifically to life well past his initial set of regenerations and who is enough of a megalomaniac to assume he'd always emerge on top given enough time. However it can be argued to make sense in context. (And of course the final shot of the ring may imply that he's cheated death after all, which is a get out clause should one be needed.)
The President having been murdered is in theory a non-reset, especially as I think the murder took place on worldwide TV at the behest of the British Prime Minister. It doesn't stop it from being a big reset in every other way, but I agree that it may still have ramifications. Bear in mind though that this is a show which rebuilt Downing Street in a throwaway line and whose depiction of international politics is somewhat broad--but I suppose Harriet Jones's ousting did pave the way for the Master storyline so that's an example of follow-through.