The Poison Sky (3005/405)

[ShadowMaat]

Is it just me, or is this the Season of References? In this ep alone we get Jack, "Are you my mummy?" the Valiant, the Hand, Rose, and probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting about. LOVE it.

For all that I loathe the thought of that whiny brat Rose coming back, I'm resigned to it and am a bit curious as to how it'll play out. Is she trying to find him in order to solve a problem in her 'verse? And is she connected with the "lost" worlds? 'Cos if there's a world lost for every attempt she makes to try and break through to our 'verse, well, that might be interesting.

Was very sorry to see Ross go. I had a bad feeling he was toast, but it was still sad to see. Yay for Donna's mum and the ax. That's kinda what I was waiting for Donna to do last week, so I'm glad SOMEONE thought of it and it being her "obnoxious" mother is a good touch, IMO.

My thought on the whole "igniting the sky" thing is that the device was at atmospheric converter, right? So yes, it DID ignite the sky, but at the same time it was converting it back to Earth-normal atmosphere. Er... right? The science is probably dodgy (imagine that!) but that's what I got from it, anyway.

Can't say I'm very impressed by the Sontarans. Nor all that impressed by UNIT, quite frankly. Did they always ignore the Doctor so thoroughly, or is this one of those "rites of passage" things and next time maybe they'll pay more attention to what he has to say? That kiss thing at the end? Seemed kinda lame and tacky to me. More eye-rolling than amusing.

Previews for next week...

Spoiler:

Yeah, she does seem a bit Rose-like, doesn't she? Being blonde and all. I dunno about her being a clone, though. When I saw the Hand I immediately thought of Jack, although, alas, I don't think he's due to appear. Not yet anyway. *fingers crossed* HOWEVER, the Hand was Jack's Doctor Detector and my guess is that someone is using the Hand in order to call the Doctor to wherever. Boy, if Jack could have managed THAT little trick he'd have saved himself a lot of time and effort.

Of course, I also don't think she's a "true" daughter, so I'm not sure what other options there are unless someone used a genetic sample from the Doctor and combined it with a genetic sample from someone else. Or it's something really out there. LOL!

"Are you my mummy?" Hee! That never gets old...

[Mr Prophet]

Nor all that impressed by UNIT, quite frankly. Did they always ignore the Doctor so thoroughly, or is this one of those "rites of passage" things and next time maybe they'll pay more attention to what he has to say? That kiss thing at the end? Seemed kinda lame and tacky to me. More eye-rolling than amusing.

But she's a girly! Girlies are all emotional and impulsive and bad at sports!

Or in other words, yeah; tell me about it. so much for professionalism. How many Armageddons did Liz Shaw get through without needing to snog anyone?

I actually liked that they went ahead and did their own thing... and it worked. UNIT work best, for me, when they're the alternative to the Doctor. The Brigadier was always at loggerheads with him over whether to break out the bazookas, and as much as the Doctor always advised the careful approach, Sir Alastair's way worked; to a point at least. And I loved the fact that, when it came right down to it, the Colonel did have a plan, and that it involved something we'd seen before instead of pure deus ex.

And if the converter's fireball can blow up a spaceship and it swept the Earth's atmosphere at altitude... Well, no wonder the bees have bogged off.

(Next week on... spoilers)

Spoiler:

Yeah, she does seem a bit Rose-like, doesn't she? Being blonde and all. I dunno about her being a clone, though. When I saw the Hand I immediately thought of Jack, although, alas, I don't think he's due to appear. Not yet anyway. *fingers crossed* HOWEVER, the Hand was Jack's Doctor Detector and my guess is that someone is using the Hand in order to call the Doctor to wherever. Boy, if Jack could have managed THAT little trick he'd have saved himself a lot of time and effort.

My theory is that the Master cloned her from the Doctor's hand. It didn't look like present day Earth, and the far future is the only other time the hand has been (I may have said that much already). He cloned her and trained her to use her Time Lord instincts (perfect timing and manifold, super-acute senses) to be a perfect warrior. He was probably waiting to bring her out as the leader of his armies as a final kick in the, um, teeth to the defeated Doctor. She may or may not have been the one taking the ring at the end.

I think (hope? pray?) that the blonde is less because she's Rose's daughter than because she's Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson's.

Of course, blonde kung-fu chick vs pointy-teethed people-eaters may seem a little bit familiar...[/QUOTE]

[ShadowMaat]

Might wanna fix those tags there, Proph.

I suppose I can see that working, and it does still tie things together in an interesting way. Also a bit weird and creepy, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. LOL!

[Major Clanger]

I absolutely loved how this used backstory to help us along. Valiant? Brilliant. Colonel not a total blimp? Fantastic.

Mention of the Brigadier? Nearly had me doing a fangrrl dance.

Fantastic.

[Pitry]

Brilliant!
Are you my mummy! The Brigadier (hey I'm just watching the Pertwee years now...)! Rose! Jack mention! "Being stuck on this planet like an ordinary human, no offence meant.."! Ross died . Donna not trusting the Doctor blindly and questioning him about sending her alone in a ship full opf Sontarans! First hitting him and then hugging him! The Valiant!

And I love Wilf. Seriuosly. Why can't Donna invite him over for a trip or two?

And next week's trailer! Coolness.

Also, I have to admit the list of countries with nuclear weapons made me chuckle. Oh, the diplomacy..

[Willow'sCat]

Oh...

Spoiler:

is she Peter's daughter? Oh well that changes everything. I am gonna love her! That is so cool, like really she is The Doctor's daughter.

I have been avoiding reading any info on the new series, I just don't want to be spoiled.

One thing though, if she is a clone shouldn't she be male and look like The Doctor? How's her being female and completely different looking suppose to work then? Major advanced cloning techniques... well of course.

Hmm, on UNIT. They have always yelled at The Doctor. Usually never listen to him until it is almost too late and basically were used on the show to slow down the The Doctor's efforts as a means to create drama and suspense.

You look at eps like Robot, UNIT were totally in the way. They made the dam thing grow!

[Alipeeps]

Is it just me, or is this the Season of References? In this ep alone we get Jack, "Are you my mummy?" the Valiant, the Hand, Rose, and probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting about. LOVE it.

Well RTD has said that there is no Saxon/Torchwood/Bad Wolf running theme this season but that rather one element of each episode will be relevant in the final episode. Or something like that. But yeah, I do love that the series has gone on long enough now that they can be a little self-referential and do that kind of thing.

Previews for next week...

Spoiler:

Yeah, she does seem a bit Rose-like, doesn't she? Being blonde and all. I dunno about her being a clone, though. When I saw the Hand I immediately thought of Jack, although, alas, I don't think he's due to appear. Not yet anyway. *fingers crossed* HOWEVER, the Hand was Jack's Doctor Detector and my guess is that someone is using the Hand in order to call the Doctor to wherever. Boy, if Jack could have managed THAT little trick he'd have saved himself a lot of time and effort.

Of course, I also don't think she's a "true" daughter, so I'm not sure what other options there are unless someone used a genetic sample from the Doctor and combined it with a genetic sample from someone else. Or it's something really out there. LOL!

"Are you my mummy?" Hee! That never gets old...

My take on the trailer for next week is that

Spoiler:

it's related to the hand being a Doctor detector - hence the shots that kept focusing on it bubbling (as it did when it detected the Doctor for Jack). I wondered if the hand suddenly detected the Doctor's Daughter (cos really, a major question that needs to be answered is how come she's alive, another Time Lord/Lady, and the Doctor didn't know it/couldn't sense it?) and the TARDIS took matters into its own "hands" and headed for the signal - the Doctor does have a somewhat symbiotic relationship with the TARDIS and maybe it acted on his loneliness and upon detecting his daughter headed there post haste?

No? Anyone? Bueller?

(Next week on... spoilers)

Spoiler:

My theory is that the Master cloned her from the Doctor's hand. It didn't look like present day Earth, and the far future is the only other time the hand has been (I may have said that much already). He cloned her and trained her to use her Time Lord instincts (perfect timing and manifold, super-acute senses) to be a perfect warrior. He was probably waiting to bring her out as the leader of his armies as a final kick in the, um, teeth to the defeated Doctor. She may or may not have been the one taking the ring at the end.

I think (hope? pray?) that the blonde is less because she's Rose's daughter than because she's Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson's.

Of course, blonde kung-fu chick vs pointy-teethed people-eaters may seem a little bit familiar...

I don't think

Spoiler:

the episode is set that far into the future though - at the end of the universe. At that time humans are struggling to survive or are turning each other into Toclafane on Utopia. They're not running about fighting wars with fish-people.

[Mr Prophet]

I just thought. Did the Doctor say that a nuclear missile would 'hardly scratch' the Sontaran ship? Because if so, may I offer a retroactive squee, please?

[wise one]

donna: back of the neck!!!

doctor: are you my mummy

LOL

Spoiler:

i had a theory that the doctors daughter would be some what of the masters creation since he had his hand for a while now and created the doctors daughter or s0mething,

[Alipeeps]

Spoiler:

i had a theory that the doctors daughter would be some what of the masters creation since he had his hand for a while now and created the doctors daughter or s0mething,

I dunno. In the preview,

Spoiler:

Donna asks the Doctor where his daughter came from and he kinda shrugs a little and says, "Well.." in a tone of voice that suggests, to me, a kind of "I'm not going to go into the mechanics of how babies are made..." prevarication.

[Jonzey]

Spoilers from preview

Spoiler:

Personally, I hope it is his actual daughter, it would be much more interesting and make for a better story- a clone would be really cliched, especially since we just had clones in this last episode. Then she could be a recurring character/occasional companion too. I mean, a clone they could kill off and it would be no big deal.

Oh, and on this episode, I liked it. The trapped in the car cliffhanger & resolution was rubbish though.

[MechaThor]

Great Episode!

Yes the Burning of the sky was abit silly, But it looked great and it was an Alien based Atmosphere converter, so who knows maybe the Fire was a kind of energy but not real fire or something? Who knows? and Who Cares? It looked amazing! I would say that Doctor Whos CGI is getting equal to even Stargates! Also the ship explosion at the end looked great, one of the best ship explosions I have seen.

I loved the 1 sec shot of Rose, it was a nice little hint towards whats to come.
I also loved "Are you my Mummy?", I was not expecting that at all and burst out laughing, classic moment.

I did not care much for the Martha clone story, However what did the Dr say to Martha about Jack? I missed all that sentence apart from the word Jack!

[Alipeeps]

Also - there must be a heck of a lot of debris floating around the Earth these days from the amount of ships that have been blown apart up there - the Sycorax ship, the Rachnos ship, the Sontaran ship....

[ShadowMaat]

Maybe UNIT has a ship or something for collecting debris. Would make sense, in a way, and would definitely help them reverse engineer more defences.

As for the preview...

Spoiler:

I know the whole "the Master had a hand in things" theory is a popular one (pardon the pun), but it looked to me as if the Doctor knew who she was. So does that negate the possibility of "OMG, he cloned me!" or is it another of those misleading nonsequential bits?"

Also, what's up with all the Doctor's, "Oh, woe is I, last of the Time Lords" shtick? Life just seems to love proving him wrong on that score, although if she is a "real" daughter I guess that only makes her half Time Lord. Mr. Nitpicky.

[wise one]

why didnt they just use the jaffa sun glider laser thing that torchwood used to blow up the sacorkrax or wasnt the igniting the atmosphere thing so they couldnt use it??