io9
Here's the moment where I decided I was actually getting to like brassy comedian Catherine Tate as the new traveling companion for Doctor Who's quirky time-traveler. Yes, she's not nearly as clever as Martha Jones, my number one hero, but that makes her heroics, when they happen, more exciting and suspenseful. I actually felt a bit of tension in this sequence, which almost never happens on the new Who. In general, part two of our Sontaran storyline was just as muddled as part one, but at least it was fun this time around.
Here's the moment where I decided I was actually getting to like brassy comedian Catherine Tate as the new traveling companion for Doctor Who's quirky time-traveler. Yes, she's not nearly as clever as Martha Jones, my number one hero, but that makes her heroics, when they happen, more exciting and suspenseful. I actually felt a bit of tension in this sequence, which almost never happens on the new Who. In general, part two of our Sontaran storyline was just as muddled as part one, but at least it was fun this time around.
I wasn't sure at first why I liked "The Poison Sky" better than "The Sontaran Strategem." I think it's just because last week's installment was just lots of nonsensical investigation. And this week's was lots of nonsensical battles, which are just inherently more fun to watch. There were just more fun moments this week, which is all you can really ask for a lot of the time. (Sorry this is late, by the way — partly I wanted to ponder it a bit more, but mostly I just got swamped thinking of ways to obliterate campiness. This episode provided a few hints in that department, of course.)
I liked almost everything about Donna in this episode, which surprised me — except for some of the interactions with her family. Donna's mother is still not working for me as a character, and even though I love Bernard Cribbins, I'm getting tired of the way the schmaltzy music comes on whenever she has a heart-to-heart with her grandfather Wilf. The thing of the companion staying in touch with her Earthbound family worked pretty well when it was Jackie and Mickey (as annoying as they sometimes got) but it just doesn't seem to have that much life left in it now.
Besides Donna getting to be a hero and take on a Sontaran single-handed, the much-maligned paramilitary organization UNIT finally got to kick some ass as well. The first half of the story had me wondering why UNIT had even been included, and I was ready for part two to be just a litany of scenes where the Doctor tells the toy soldiers not to engage the aliens — along with the occasional moment of UNIT disregarding the Doctor and learning the folly of violence. So I was stoked when UNIT actually turned out to be competent — and I liked Colonel Mace's rousing little speech about showing the aliens how advanced humans can be in the killing department.
So, yes. Fun shooty action and nice use of the SHIELD helicarrier UNIT airship in the giant battle. Although, the final bit where the soldiers all cheer and the hawt female science-nerd/soldier smooches Col. Mace — maybe a little too much. But it's Doctor Who, so "too much" is always on the menu.
And yet. All the things that didn't make sense in part one still didn't make sense in part two. The Sontaran scheme still seemed way too fancy for the galaxy's most unstoppable warriors. Why not just swoop down, have a fun afternoon killing all the humans, and then transform the planet into a clone farm? It's better strategy, plus it's the warrior way. The Sontarans must have done this to planets a thousand times before, so why would they need to use cars to convert the atmosphere to clone feed? They should have a "Sontara-forming" device on their ship to do that for them.
I was also sad about Martha — when she turned up on Torchwood, that show suddenly became twice as watchable, and the Torchwood team started being good at their jobs. But Doctor Who reaped no Martha boost, mostly because she was sidelined in the random clone plot. I sort of got that the Sontarans needed the Martha-clone to infiltrate UNIT and stop the nuclear launch. But did they really need her to keep pressing a button on her iPhone every few minutes after that? Couldn't they have just rigged a little button-pressing machine? Mostly, it just seemed like a waste of the amazing powers of Freema Agyeman.
And then the scene where Martha talks to her dying clone literally made no sense to me. Why were we supposed to be sad that her (apparently) smelly clone was dying? Was Martha confronting her own mortality through her clone's death? No clue, sadly.
Actually, now that I think of it, I know why I liked part two of the Sontaran storyline better than part one: there was a lot less of Sergey Brin, or whatever his real name was. His character continued not making much sense to me. He was like like stock character #27: the misunderstood genius who teams up with the bad guys because he believes their empty promises. And then they suddenly but inevitably betray him. (He had maybe just a dash of Adam from season one.) Even the wacky "breeding program" scene felt like a random stereotype. ("I'm cleverer than you! I'm cleverer than EVERYONE!!!") Plus did I miss a scene that explained about this new planet the Sontarans were going to give him and his ten other breeding partners? It was mentioned, like, twice.
The only way Sergey Brin could have surprised me is if he hadn't sacrificed himself at the end. The misguided geniuses in league with monsters always sacrifice themselves, either to redeem themselves or to punish their former allies, or just because there's five minutes left.
Another thing that bugged me, of course, was the deus ex machina device, the fancy atmosphere-fixing machine that we'd seen for a split second in the first episode, which miraculously turned out to be the key to solving the killer-smog problem in the second episode. Of course, the new Who is known for its deus ex machinas, so it's par for the course. And the alternative, to have the Doctor MacGyver a new atmosphere neutralization whatsit out of spare parts, wouldn't really have been much less cheap. Just slightly less cheap.
Oh, and the Doctor being willing to sacrifice himself, just so he can offer the Sontarans one last chance to quit? Sort of great, I guess — except he knows what the Sontarans will choose. Is it really worth giving up his life — all his remaining lives? — just to offer them a last chance that he knows they won't take? And then it turns out the Doctor is bluffing anyway. So he's throwing away his life on a bluff that he knows won't work. (Or, more cynically, he's manipulating Sergey Brin into committing suicide on his behalf.) It felt like it happened not because it made sense, but because the story needed one last tense climax.
So in short, I liked part two better than part one, mostly because I'd already swallowed the ridiculous set-up and the ridiculous resolution was more fun. Looking at the two parts as a whole... it was a forgettable but sort of entertaining romp. Better than the Daleks/pigs/Depression/New York storyline by the same author last year, but still a bit scattershot. If I had to explain to someone how the ruthless warriors, the killer car fumes, the global military organization, the geek wunderkind, the mind controlled soldiers, the cloned companion and the aborted nuclear launch all fit together, I think I'd have a brain embolism. Better to think of it as a collection of cool moments (Donna alone on the Sontaran ship) and blah ones (Martha watching her clone die, Sergey Brin describing his breeding program) than try to view it as a story.
Comments
I agree that the plot was a little convoluted. A straight up Sontaran invasion because-we-need-a-clone-making- factory would have been better, if only because it would have had a nice topical Iraq war subtext to it.
You left out an important bit.
The Brigadier is still alive, still working for UNIT, and happened to be doing something in Peru.
I for one, look forward to the episode where the Doctor and the Brigadier meet up again and tackle the Andean Yeti in a tribute to their first meeting, in which they tackle a Himalayan Yeti.
*tongue slightly in cheek* and of course critis of New Who are known for mentioning deus ex machina without understanding what it really means.
(Mind you, if Rose is a deus ex machina... and I don't agree she is... it is at least literally a god decending from the heavens to make everything alright. It's a very good gag on RTS's part)
As an average american viewer, I have only seen the episodes aired so far on Sci Fi, so I didn't read much of the above article. I will say, that although I liked Catherine in the Runaway Bride ep, she is wearing thin on me so far in the two newer episodes I've seen so far. I loved the scene where she and the Doctor reconnected, but since then I've found her shrill and, dare I say, matronly. She projects as much older than she (probably) is. I also find her acting a bit confusing. To wit, at the end of the Pompeii episode, I was sure (having avoided all spoilers), based on the way she was presenting herself, that she would not be traveling further with the Doctor, and was disappointed to see I was wrong. Maybe the Ood will snap some life into her.
I liked Martha fine, but count me in the Rose camp, and I'm eagerly awaiting her (expected) return.
I chuckled a bit at the fact that Donna had to, umm, "Live Long and Prosper" in order to open the door.
And yes, the scene with the kissing at the end was way out of line.
My only other big beef with the whole Sontaran thing is that, well, they didn't seem like warriors to me. Soldiers yes, but warriors no. Perhaps this is just to my American eyes, but they just reminded me of the British during the American Revolution. All march-y, and formation-y. That's not "warrior" to me. Warrior is Klingon, or Ronon on Atlantis-- can follow orders and be regimented but you get a sense of the restraint that that is taking because they really just want to bust out a sword and hack things to bits. I don't think it helped that the lasers killed without seeming to damage even the fabric of the now-corpses' shirts.
I instantly hated it more than I hate Dr. Who. Or perhaps it's not hate, but almost complete disinterest based on my opinion that the acting is of a poor quality, as are most of the effects.
@Jack: I don't think the kissing was out of line, per se, but it was out of nowhere. The characters involved were pretty much cardboard cut outs and had about that much depth.
@lovelight: A deus ex machina (literally "god out of a machine") is an improbable contrivance in a story. The phrase describes an artificial, or improbable, character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot (such as an angel suddenly appearing to solve problems). The term is a negative one, and it often implies a lack of skill on the part of the writer.
Wikipedia thinks we're using the term correctly. This is the generally accepted definition of the term. I think it's a pretty accurate description of some of the sloppier episodes, especially RTD's big ones. Every season finale, for example. The holiday specials.
Basically, RTD can't resolve a conflict without resorting to handwaving. It's sloppy. Too many of the other writers on the show are just as sloppy. The magic air-fixer device was far too convenient.
The problems with this/these episodes all come back to one unfortunate source.
The writer just isn't very good. She doesn't have the chops to write large scale science fiction. Great at character scenes but can't keep track of the plot implications.
The two Torchwood episodes she wrote were both rather good. They worked because they were small scale self contained stories. All characters bouncing off one another to the eventual conclusion.
But when she tries to write an large scale like this one or the Dalek story from last season it all falls apart. Still lots of good character moments but she can't keep track of the variables and the plot gets subverted to hit the character beats she wants. No plot, just scenes to lead from one preplanned character set piece to another.
So we get silly scenes like the 'cliffhanger' where it doesn't occur to anyone to break the car window. Everything is deadlocked because she can't think of a more interesting way to prevent the Doctor from figuring out what is going on. We never do get an explanation of why the Sontarans are acting sneaky instead of honorable. The real reason is that the writer needed sneaky villains and couldn't be bothered to find a set that fit. Or more likely the original plan was a Sontaran story and the plot just got built up on top without a whole lot of consideration about how the different parts fit together. And last, but certainly not least, we got the magic escape of an ending. In some ways there was no other way for it to end. These episodes never had a real plot to start with, so there was nothing for a proper ending to logically proceed from.
All that said, I enjoyed watching these episodes. Fine television. Decent escapism. My biggest disappointment isn't that it was bad, but that it could have (and often is) so much better.
Oh and the Rose moment? Fantastic.
I, for one, was downright startled when it turned out that Earth guns could harm the Sontarans. I presumed that their gun-nullifier field was just to save them the noisy nuisance of harmless bullets bouncing off their impregnable armour.
I mean, NUKING them is supposed to be pointless; what possible value could firearms have? There the Doctor was telling the soldiers to not even try to take the Sontarans on... and it turns out that this was only because he'd never heard of caseless ammunition?!
@Ryan H: Sometimes I feel like the only person that hates Rose. She's annoying, useless, and reeks of Marysue. More so second-series Rose versus first-series Rose.
There are people that just adore her, and I can't understand why.
Of course, there are also people who think she's hot, which I also fail to understand.
//Martha's hotter. But Zoe was the hottest.
Oddly, I liked the first part and loathed this conclusion. No matter what some pedants might argue, the fix was a deus ex machina, almost a textbook example. Also, the campy child genius/Christian Soriano from Project Runway character gave the worst performance in New Who history. I felt genuinely embarrassed to be watching the "I'm clever" scene. Still, as with any episode of Doctor Who, there is something for the nerd in me to savor. Loved the namedrops of the Brig and the Rutans. I still thought Christopher Ryan was great, and I loved the new Sontarans. Hopefully they will be put to better use in their inevitable return.
you're getting hung up on things that you KNOW Doctor Who does that bother you. If you know the show does them, why continue to let it bother you?
I know this will anger folks: but Doctor Who is, at its core, a children's/"family" program. It isn't a hard core SciFi program no matter how much we watch and wish it was. Accept it for what it is and either enjoy (when it isn't brutally awful) or don't watch/torrent it.
That said the dynamic between Donna & the Doctor continues to grow on me, especially when contrasted with his relationship with Martha. When she smacked him... priceless.
That said, I will always miss Martha.
@t3knomanser: Can't say I hated Rose, but she bugged big time. Wasn't all that sorry when she left.
@t3knomanser: Both Rose and Martha annoy me to no end. Zoe was BY FAR the hottest, though I always had a crush on Victoria as a nerdy adolescent. Out of all the women the Doc has known throughout the aeons, he falls desperately in love with... Billie Piper? Uhhh... ok? What about, oh I dunno, Romana? This is why I like Donna. No pandering romantic subplots, and she yells at the Doctor, which he needs every now and then.
@Ryan H: Several comments and the first who's mentioned Rose appearing briefly on the monitor while Donna was "tuning in" the doctor.
She looked like she was shouting. Desperately trying to get in touch? What is this? They can make a cell phone work across space and time but she can't send an intra-dimensional email?
I like Donna more and more - despite the quality of the plot. (Tate's a good actress.) Her character realizes survival depends on doing something brave and outside her comfort zone. (Compare to the first time Sarah Connor picks up a gun in "The Terminator.") There was no hesitation as she walked over to get the hammer - it was a fait accompli.
@t3knomanser: Exactly... it was out of line for a subordinate/superior relationship, and certain never hinted at at any point in the story. It was like a little bit of Carter/O'Neill (sub)text just slipped across a wormhole to the Who-niverse.
Best moment in the episode for me, by FAR, was when the Doctor was pissed at UNIT and was wearing a gas mask, the commander asked him his opinion, and he retorted with "are you my mummy?" I couldn't STOP laughing at that combination of glib and reference. I know, I'm easily pleased.
Come on now, where does this impression of Sontarans as unstoppable warriors come from? I mean, besides from the Sontarans themselves? If you look at it, they've got a terrible track record. Their idea of intelligence gathering was to send a single soldier to conduct Mengele-esque experiments on a few captured humans, and call off their entire invasion of the galaxy when he gets killed. They invaded Gallifrey, but only by throwing another species at the planet first to clear the way through. Stike talks a lot of smack about joining his squadron in the Madillon Cluster, but he's just being used as disposable labour by Chessene; all we ever see him do is stomp around the hacienda yelling, "Are you done the sciencing yet? Science faster!", planning to stab his allies in the back, and getting blown up by the self-destruct system he himself had ordered activated.
The Sontarans aren't warriors; they're shouty, blustering bullies. And the two-parter was completely true to this image of the species. It kind of makes thematic sense of Luke Rattigan, too; just listen to Christopher Ryan's line delivery when he complains that the Sontarans weren't invited to participate in the greatest war in history. He actually sounds hurt. The cool kids got to fight a Time War, but all the Sontarans got was this lousy T-shirt.
@IntoAshes: Seriously. Let's see... I'm an incredibly powerful alien that crosses vast distances of time and space with little more than a thought. Aaaand... I'm going to get all bonery over a horse-toothed blonde chav that lives with her mother and has a dead-end part time job.
@ComicDork: Doctor Who occasionally does some awful stuff. Remember when Sylvester McCoy glued the Candyman in place several times to make his escape? Kinda ruins the menace of your villain when the heroes can cross him with impunity merely by spritzing his feet with some lemon juice.
That was crap. We expect the occasional bout of crap. Not everything can be "Genesis of the Daleks" or "The War Planet". But those episodes, and things like "Human Nature/Family of Blood", "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "Blink" all stand as proof that Doctor Who doesn't have to be bad. It can be... not just good, but incredible.
"Well, it's just a family/kid-friendly" show" is not an excuse for bad storytelling.
Oh lord, I'm not going to rerun the sort of arguments you find on Outpost Gallifrey about this... well not until I've had another go at it!
t3knomanser, Deus ex Machina would be if the Doctor grabbed that atmosphere device and used it when it hadn't been seen or discussed before. But it's set up in the earlier episode. It's discussed. Even the appearance of Goddess Rose is quite clearly flagged up a few eps earlier.
I'm unclear what people who point and shout "Deus Ex Machina!" so loudly actually want?
"Better plotting" you say?
Hmmmm, I think that's shorthand for pages of script devoted to the sort of technobabble that Star Trek excells at.
Fine in Voyager but not in Doctor Who.
And you have to admit it is funny that someone should accuse Doctor Who of being lazily plotted by resorting to a cliche themselves.
(And in the final irony, not understand what they are saying anyway!)
Is it me or has Brit Sci-Fi gone to the dogs? I harken back to the days of Quatermass and old Dr. Who. This new stuff is garbage compared to that.
I liked it as much as I liked the last episode: Good fun, decent pacing, great character stuff. Donna with the phone was particularly great, and I thought the scene where she had to go out into the Sontaran vessel was pretty darn suspenseful. Here, I found myself really appreciating Catherine Tate's acting chops, as well as Douglas McKinnon's direction. All in all, I thought the direction was pretty decent considering Helen Raynor's script, which I certainly agree was pretty weak. Luckily, the combo of the actors, the director, and the make-up and effects departments more than made up for it, for me.
And hotness? I think Ace was way hotter than Zoe, and Romana 1 hotter than her again. But I'll stick to my cup o' Martha, thankyouverymuch (with a side-helping of Sally Sparrows and Madame de Pompadour, who despite not being companions, are both very, very hot).
And apology accepted on the lateness, Charlie. It was worth the wait, as usual :-)
@Maldron: Oh yeah, that was absolutely priceless! Best moment, for sure.
@jbq:
Oh man Sally Sparrow. She can travel in my TARDIS any time.
A great re-cap as always Charlie. I'd rather have it late and well thought out than posted in a rush...
@Daniel Rutter:
By that same token, the Borg can protect themselves from most energy weapons, but a simple projectile takes them down. The Sontarans are used to being attacked by advanced weapons, and as such over look the whole low-tech angle. A common mistake with invading alien hordes.
@Jim (The Canuck One):
Yes! I got far to exited when Rose popped up on the scanner... I believe the term is "squee", and I'm ashamed to say I did. Then I rewound it to see it again.
@jbq: Hurray Sally Sparrow. The first female in New Who that didn't fall in love with The Doctor, and managed to live her own normal life after he buggered out of hers.
Of course that means RTD is going to retcon her into being Romana III in human guise. And I'll be okay with that.
One last note: Lizzie24601 nailed it with the Momma Noble rescuing Wilf. I was expecting Donna to pull her head out, but it's nice to see Ms. Nobel, the Elder, do something worthwhile.
@lovelight: The atmosphere device is not set up in the previous episode. Not, at least, to match up with how it's used. It's established that they have a device for making a breathable atmosphere. That tells us nothing about it. It certainly doesn't imply that it works like a magic wand that purifies an entire planet's atmosphere in a few moments.
Also, it renders the doctor useless. There's no reason genius boy or one of his proteges couldn't have done that. In fact, it renders the whole "Oh, we're going to run off to be with our families in this time of crisis" thing moot. Any one of the brain-trust could have said, "Oh, you know what? I'm just going to cart this atmosphere cleaner device outside and just clean this up. Won't take a moment. Glad we're getting some mileage out of this."
Martha doesn't have much personality. She's attractive and holds herself well, and I like her relationship with her family, but both Rose and Donna have it way over her on personality.
She's better on Torchwood, where it's more about style than personality.
t3knomanser: Well I'd disagree. The Doctor has a nice scene poking about the lab seeing what everything does. He then reuses these bits and bobs for the finale. It's all there. I guess the question is what would you like to see instead?
Given the Sky's been polluted we need a pretty large scale solution, presumeably involving advanced technology. And a lab containing all the equipment needed was set up in the first half. Nicely plotted in my very humble opinion.
I thought it was a proper UNIT romp this week and I really liked it. And it really wasn't a Deus etc ending.
Maybe I'm the wrong sort of sci fi fan for io9... I love a bit of camp and broad brush stories!
But am intregued by next week's Dr Who... and the sort of reception it's going to get...
For a piece of British saturday night prime time family entertainment Doctor Who is king of all. Consider the alternative: The proletariat making fools of themselves on so called 'talent' shows, and celebrities doing the same on so called 'variety' shows.
When the the rest of the schedule is mindless trash, even this level of writing and performance is a godsend considering the alternative. You can't have 13 Blinks in a season, you need trashy sfx laden stories simply for the audience that are eating their take away or chatting on the phone while watching.
Stop being such snobs. A lot of the old serials are lots of waffle and exposition, you can flesh out a story well with the format. In a 45 minute show, you're goiong to have to pull out the DXM to wrap things up in a manner the average viewer can appreciate.
@Fwiffo: Somehow I don't think the new Who thinks of itself as mindless family entertainment. It thinks of itself as something terribly clever and brilliant. I'm trying to judge it on its own terms here. But also, when I do watch a piece of mindless family entertainment (like, say, Transformers or Iron Man) I still expect it to make sense and hold together. That's not asking too much, really.
Great review, Charlie. That's exactly right - lots of great moments strung together by a rubbish plot. It's like a jukebox musical.
Here's what would have fixed everything for me:
- a moment of crisis/angst for the Doctor when he torched the sky, what with his whole "oops I burned my own planet" ptsd
- some dark acknowledgement that the Doctor pulled the same psychology shtick on Boy Genius as he did on Captain Jack (we already had "are you my mummy?" to set it up!), and fully expected the kid to go all suicide bomber. That would have been a properly dark and creepy note to balance out the rest of the episode
- charcoaled birds falling out of the sky!
So I'm just going to imagine all those things happened, okay? And then the episode plays a lot better in my head.
Also, is NO ONE going to mention that the Doctor is apparently the father of a vampire slayer?!
@ComicDork: Doctor Who is a family program, yes, but not a children's program. It's always had a huge adult audience, and it's always appealed to the smarter kids. It's a family program in the same way that the various Star Treks are. Or the same way that Iron Man is a family movie.
Oh also, what with the headline about giving good phone, I am very surprised that the clip in the post stops before the Doctor makes out with his cell phone!
@Maldron: I found that moment totally gratutious and annoying... but at least it was a throwaway in-joke.
@Lizzie24601: Ah, but you see there were no birds to be roasted - they had already choked on the gas. ;)
I'm waiting 'till next week to make any judgements on Bu- Jenny. Although, if she *is* a Slayer *and* Time Lady, that can me only one thing: Retroactive Musical Episode!
@Charlie Jane Anders: @lovelight:
Hrm. I posted a really nice reply, but it looks like it got eaten by the tubes.
@Charlie Jane Anders: I thought the "mummy" joke was out of place enough that it might have been an ad-lib from Tennant that somehow made it in... It just didn't fit the Doctors hatred of the Col. to suddenly joke with him.
@Dunny0: It was actually pretty disrespectful the way it carried off. Especially for those that saw "The Empty Child".
@t3knomanser: I know... The more I think about it, the more it bugs me. That kind of dark humor just doesn't fit this Doctor well at all. It'd be almost akin to him grabbing a plunger and shouting "EXTERMINATE!" for a bit - just not quite in line with who he is.
Okay, I'm totally over thinking things. That kind of nerd-rage should really be saved for next week.
"Are you my mummy" made me laugh and, moreover, is exactly what I would say if I ever found myself wearing a gas mask, no matter how dire the situation. Like the Doctor has ever *not* cracked jokes in the face of danger, geez.
@ComicDork: Why should it NOT annoy? When did 'family' become a synonym for 'nonsensical'? Or just plain 'bad plotting'?
@Dunny0: Actually, I think that plunger bit would be hilarious, but I seem to like my Who dark.
...and that being said, a musical episode would basically make my life complete. Singing planet, natch!
@Lizzie24601: Hehe... i totally thought that she was all Vampire Slayer-ish. Let's hope that she turns out to be closer to Buffy-level than a similar attempt on Charmed (with the addition of Kaley Cuoco) turned out.
Also, I totally chose to ignore the actual denouement because if one even begins to think about the scientific ramifications (aside from the charcoal birds, what about planes in the air? the complete and utter heat prostration? the at least horrendous air currents that would have been caused?) one's head might explode.
Also also: There are *some* good jukebox musicals... Mamma Mia for instance ;-)
@t3knomanser: HAHA you are so right about the Sontarans. That's one reason why they are great Doctor Who villains. They are dangerous, but faintly ridiculous.
I liked "The Sontaran Stratagem" but disliked "The Poison Sky." The plot was so full of holes you could fly the Valiant through it. Never mind the Doctor lashing up a plot-saving device at the end (what else is new?) but how does burning off the high-altitude fog help people choking on the ground - or conversely, why weren't people on the ground incinerated? The fireball spread all over the glove in 30 seconds, with no fallout or combustion products or even a few roasted birdies and airplanes?
@Dunny0: Actually, I meant that as a good thing. He was needling the UNIT guy. I thought that was actually pretty good.
@SeeingI: @Jack: It's handwaving, pure and simple. It just "works", looks dramatic, and please-don't-stop-to-think.
Again- you can have shlocky, cheesy fun without dotting the landscape with plotholes.
Although note about the "mummy" bit, the Doctor was quite thrilled at the end of that encounter, due to how (to quote) "everyone lives".
At the time it was awfully traumatic, but it was a pretty good case of things just going -right- down the drain and him managing to pull it off and save the day.
Unless poor Ross. We liked Ross! I was hoping he'd be the next Sgt.Benton of nWho.