I guess I am just posting to myself...since Charmane still won't give the show a chance and this is all OOOOLD news for our few WHO fan members, but I thought I might chime in whith my impressions of season 3. I'm seeing them for my first time via CBC and Sci-Fi Channel via my sister and her cable and VCR.

I had some major post ROSE withdrawl that tainted SMITH AND JONES for me.... but I've began to warm up to Martha Jones in following episodes. Actually so far I've seen only THE SHAKESPEAR CODE (awful title! Maybe the worst episode title in all 4o plus history of DR WHO!) and GRIDLOCK. Due to the quirks of fate I watched GRIDLOCK first actually. My sister, who actually has to occasionaly deal with rush hour traffic, was much more amused by the premise of the episode than I. I don't doubt i would really warm up to it on repeated viewings, but on intial viewing so far I was terribly distracted pondering just how much the new series often echos the controversial last three seasons of the original shows script edited by Andrew Cartmell. The quirky notion of a whole society literally stuck in traffic would have fit right into season 24, if only they had the means and budget back then to depict thousands and thousands of flying hippy vans in a state of gridlock.

I was really reminded of PARADISE TOWERS... a small segment of a larger population is all that remains of a depopulated planet. and under very bizarre circumstances... but I will probrably need to see it again to determine if the chronology leading up to the circumstance is as flimsy to close scrutiny as the world of PARADISE TOWERS. But on the other hand maybe it does not matter when the show is in "Thoughtful British Comic Book" mode. GRIDLOCK was more so a reminder to me of how so much of new DR WHO vindicates the last three seasons of classic WHO. Even though the McCoy years are passionately hated by a very vocal segment of fans, more and more the evidence mounts that Andrew Cartmell was totally on track on how to re-invent WHO for the 21st centery.

Still I spent a lot of GRIDLOCK pondering just how it could be that NEW EARTH was wiped out 25 or so years earlier and yet the people stuck in the underground traffic jam have only been in their situation for 6 years or are far to young. But all is made right by the bold, relevant, old school Ray Bradbury-esque concept. And of course it was neat to see the CGI return of an obscure to all but fans 60's monster from a lost Patrick Troughton episode. But I was even more thilled to see the gratiudous use of kittens! Besides mewing and filling the screen with un-adulterated 100% cute, they scored another mark notch on RTD's admirable subtext in much of the television he writes to move gay and lesbian couples into the mainstream of the public consciense.

THE SHAKESPEAR CODE (gods I hate that title.) was a much more solid, standard... and less ambitious outing that i thoughrally enjoyed. I few of the reiterations of the running gag about Shakespear cribbing lines could have been cut... but over all it was a kick to see flying on broom stick-green skinned-long nosed witches added into the lexicon of Daleks and Cybermen. Daleks at least have become almost international icons of childhood horror... and it's neat to see them joined by classic Wicked Witch of the West in the WHO pantheon of monsters!
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