There were quite a few complaints about how the game show aspects really dated the episode. I didn't read any of that until after I'd watched all of S1, but I remember being a bit 'huh?' about that, because it totally worked for me and I don't watch any of the shows. Each of the shows picked works very well thematically with what the episode was showing us about the characters.
As I said above to Wendy, one of the reasons that I'm really glad I did these rewatch-reviews is that I totally and completely get the importance of Jack now. I think if I had liked the actor/character, I wouldn't have been bothered as a casual viewer, but since I was pretty meh on them, his inclusion annoyed me as a casual viewer. But really getting into the nitty-gritty, I completely accept and appreciate the why of him being there and thus am more fond of the character (at least) in turn.
Really, all of the future stuff makes the past Jack stuff make more and more sense. Jack keeps the hand visible and then gets it back to the Doctor and, because of their relationship and the Doctor's abandonment of him, it actually makes sense. Jack's change (caused by Rose) causes the entire Saxon arc. And it only works because of the background and depth that he gets in S1.
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Date: 2008-12-06 12:11 am (UTC)There were quite a few complaints about how the game show aspects really dated the episode. I didn't read any of that until after I'd watched all of S1, but I remember being a bit 'huh?' about that, because it totally worked for me and I don't watch any of the shows. Each of the shows picked works very well thematically with what the episode was showing us about the characters.
As I said above to Wendy, one of the reasons that I'm really glad I did these rewatch-reviews is that I totally and completely get the importance of Jack now. I think if I had liked the actor/character, I wouldn't have been bothered as a casual viewer, but since I was pretty meh on them, his inclusion annoyed me as a casual viewer. But really getting into the nitty-gritty, I completely accept and appreciate the why of him being there and thus am more fond of the character (at least) in turn.
Really, all of the future stuff makes the past Jack stuff make more and more sense. Jack keeps the hand visible and then gets it back to the Doctor and, because of their relationship and the Doctor's abandonment of him, it actually makes sense. Jack's change (caused by Rose) causes the entire Saxon arc. And it only works because of the background and depth that he gets in S1.