Monday, April 07, 2008

My Perfect Weekend

So Dr Who's back. And oh what fun we had...

We enjoyed (to my surprise) Catherine Tate.
We loved Super Nanny Sarah Lancashire.
We laughed at The Doctor and Donna missing each other at the beginning.
Spouse and I particularly enjoyed the Bernard Cribbins cameo (and for me there was a particular sweetness about the fact he had an allotment).
but we thought on balance the adipose aliens were just a bit crap. No2 in fact thought they were the most rubbish aliens since the Absorbalof, and as she pointed out, THAT was designed by a nine year old, what's the Dr Who team's excuse hmm? All that CGI and that was the best they could do?

Having said that, it does hearken back to the pre CGI era, because let's face it, to those of us of a certain age most of the aliens (daleks and cybermen excluded) were a bit crap when we were growing up. And the sheer silliness of Dr Who sometimes is part of its perennial appeal. So I can put up with crap aliens for the enjoyment of Donna and the Doctor racing around, and having lots of good jokes. I particularly liked the one about journalists, and the mating one at the end.

And I did enjoy seeing a lot of him... (goes without saying)


And I was genuinely surprised to see something of her... which is nice and intriguing. My theory has been since Rose got trapped in the parallel universe that she is going to find a way through parallel universe Torchwood Cardiff rift, and make her way into our world as a ghost. It will be fun to see what they are going to do with it.

So that's my family's Saturday night sorted for the next twelve weeks. Haven't DARED tell them that Dr Who is off air for most of next year.
And if the return of the good Dr wasn't enough. We also wokeon Sunday morning to a blizzard, so we hotfooted it up the Downs (why aren't they called Ups? No 1 has been asking this question for years and I really have no idea), where we tried (and failed) to use plant trays and wash baskets as sledges - though luckily we met some friends who generously shared their proper sledges, the girls made snow angels, a really decent snowman for the first time ever, we had a snowball fight, and Spouse's fingers nearly fell off because he made the mistake of leaving his gloves in the car.
Once everyone was quite cold enough we went home to hot chocolate and hotcross buns, and all the kids put their pyjamas back on as they decided it was cosier.
Aaah. Dr Who, and snow. What a perfect way to spend the weekend. (Ok, Persephone, if you're reading this, I'm sure you won't have the same sentiments, it just doesn't happen to us very often!)
By the afternoon the sun had come out and the snow had melted as if it had never been.

I wonder if we perchance strayed into a parallel universe for the morning?

3 comments:

Persephone said...

Yes, a fine way to spend the weekend --- but not six months! (Snow, that is, not Doctor Who which, between the magazine, the DVD's, ripping videos off YouTube, and the old episodes on BBCKids, takes up rather a lot of time around here...)

Nic said...

I was also impressed by Catherine Tate. We never saw her Christmas special properly, so i watched it on iPlayer on friday and felt she was all a bit too much like an amalgam of Elaine and that awful one who laughs all the time, but actually, it was so refreshing to have NO unresolved sexual tension!

And I actually liked the Adipose - I think I liked the conceit of it appealing to our "quick fix" attitude to weight loss...

All in all, a good start.

And maybe you were right about Rose, she did fade back out very quickly.

It was nice for some light relief after a totally heart-wrenching Torchwood on Friday, that left me with tears streaming down my face for a while afterwards ;-)

Jane Henry said...

Persephone, I have family in Canada, and I can still remember the letters they used to send my parents about the winter grinding on... We just never get proper snow like that, and my children have barely seen it. Am sure if they had it all the time they'd hate it!

Nic...I didn't really feel teary at all at Torchwood (Desperate Housewives, now, that had me in floods!) - although it was quite touching and though I was expecting Owen, I wasn't expecting Tosh, so they are capable of surprising. This run of Torchwood has been much better, but then you watch Dr Who and you say. Nope. No contest....