Sinewhales France · they/them Followers 3 Following 3 Following Follow Follows you Overview Badges Statistics Reviews My Stories My Completed Stories My Favourite Stories ♥ My Rated Stories 1 ★ 2 ★ 3 ★ 4 ★ 5 ★ Stories I have reviewed Stories I own My Saved Stories My Completed, Unrated Stories My Skipped Stories My Next Story My Uncompleted Stories My Unreviewed Stories Stories I do not own My Collectables My Owned Collectables My Unowned Collectables My Saved Collectables (Wishlist) My Quotes My Favourite Quotes My Submitted Quotes Sinewhales has submitted 5 reviews and received 8 likes Sort: Newest First Oldest First Most Likes Highest Rating Lowest Rating Spoilers First Spoilers Last 5 reviews 14 September 2024 · 492 words Doctor Who S1 • Episode 5World War Three Sinewhales Spoilers 1 Review of World War Three by Sinewhales 14 September 2024 This review contains spoilers! I liked it less than the previous part. Doctor Who has a whole bunch of less serious episodes like this one and it is executed more or less correctly, playing between the immediate threat of a nuclear attack and the incompetence of the Slitheens, it makes for a decent comedy with even more political commentary than the previous part. I think that the FX are a bit uglier than in the previous episode. The transition Slitheen in a costume and Slitheen running in 3D is a bit too jarring but I think they just did what they could and running around in those costumes must not have been easy. I still don't like Mickey. They just made him a nerd who is now capable of hacking and it's pretty bad. He's still a comedic relief but this time the main source of comedy is either him getting bullied by the Doctor or his incompetence and it doesn't works at all. The episode is even more on the nose regarding it's political commentary. It has a strong message about war only serving financial interests, all the comedy about the government incompetence and the fact that it's that easy to get access to the nuclear bomb by creating false threats and that it is that easy to launch a missile works great and is surprisingly still never corny. I really liked all the scenes that are more character centric as it helps developing a lot more the characters and giving hints on their personality, such as when they are sheltered waiting for Downing Street to be bombed, it's great seeing The Doctor not wanting to cause any more casualties than he already has, Rose blase attitude regarding her death, Jackie's concerns regarding her own daughter and Mickey willing to risk it all are just hints of character traits we'll see more of in the future. But I think the character that takes all the spotlight is Hariet Jones. She is just magnificient here, taking decisions as the only democratically elected person in the room. It's just really fun to see all her genius moments and her facial expressions are just really fun. The ending is a bit too rushed, The Slitheen all being in the same room, naked without their costumes feels a bit too easy and forced and it was a bit too disapointing. The tone of the episode changes for the ending, Rose assuring her mother she will be back within 10 seconds and Jackie counting to 10 knowing well she won't is a great moment and ends the episode on a more somber and melancholic tone, putting a focus on the feeling of being abandoned. I think overall it's a less interesting episode than the previous part. It was a good standard Doctor Who adventure, the focus put on the characters is all great but I'm a bit disapointed all the highlights are put in the last part of the episode. Like Liked 1 12 September 2024 · 649 words Doctor Who S1 • Episode 4Aliens of London Sinewhales Spoilers 2 Review of Aliens of London by Sinewhales 12 September 2024 This review contains spoilers! And then an episode than is better than what I remembered. I really like everything it does. Sure it has some flaws, we could have done without that much fart jokes, Mickey isn't a really good character and is written pretty poorly here and there is a lot of things introduced that are barely exploited but overall it still is an excellent political thriller. I really like the first scenes of the episode. They are all strongly emotional and develop a lot more the relationship between The Doctor, Rose and her family and how the Doctor's world feels alien to them. Jackie also is written in a way that put an emphasis on his protective mother side, a side we didn't see of her before and while she still has a lot of comedic bits, it's nice to see her being developed in a way where she isn't reduced to that role. The episode is surprisingly "normal" and "human" in it's writing. There is a lot of small trivial scenes that just follows the daily life of all the characters. Such as Harriet Jones that keeps talking about her hospital project during a national crisis, all of Rose's family that are gathered to celebrate her coming back only to end up watching the TV for instance are all moments I enjoyed a lot and helped a lot developing these characters and their traits. The fact that everyone is watching the invasion on the TV helps giving this episode a more grounded approach, it's something that would likely happens in case of an alien invasion. This episode is also the come back of UNIT and while I don't care much about them (haven't watched the classics yet, sorry), they still have some good and funny scenes (like when the Doctor is held at gunpoint and when they all follow him without even knowing who is him simply because he knows what a delta formation is). The pig scene show that they still are pretty trigger happy but I like that it helps putting a stronger emphasis on the Doctor's empathic side and illustrate how him and UNIT still are different despite all this time. The political satire is also on point. The whole episode is a satire on how the government handled the Iraq's war and it adds a lot to the comedy of the episode. Despite the fact that they are alien, the politicians are pretty realist and their handling of the crisis is pretty fun. I really enjoyed how the episode shamelessly mocks the government (like how there is a major political crisis and nobody is reacting) and even though it's not a central point of the episode, it was really fun and on the nose yet never corny. I really liked the cliffhanger too, every character now facing a Slitheen each and then, the sequence alternating between the Doctor slowly figuring out their plan and realizing it's too late, Harriet and Rose being in danger in the meeting room and Jackie being corned in her own kitchen, it was a pretty effective scene and very well realized. Aesthetically, the episode is great too with a strong focus on flashy colors and blue lights and other than 2 or 3 weird FXs, I really liked how it looked. I just find it disappointing that Mickey's character is so poorly written and only relayed to the role of an unfunny comic relief, even though his scenes helps develop a new aspect of Rose personality, her egoistical side, Mickey ends up still being poorly written and straight up annoying at times. Overall, it's an episode I liked a lot and that ended up being better than what I remembered. The episode helps a lot developing the main cast's personality while also adding a whole political comedy side to the script. It ends up being a pretty unique episode I loved rewatching. Like Liked 2 8 September 2024 · 253 words Doctor Who S1 • Episode 3The Unquiet Dead Sinewhales Spoilers 2 Review of The Unquiet Dead by Sinewhales 8 September 2024 This review contains spoilers! Again, an episode which is worse than I remembered even though it is the only Mark Gatiss episode which is not a "one off" adventure and that follow the continuity and the arc of the season. The Unquiet Dead was eh, boring at its worse and at least a bit goofy at its best. It's very uninspired. The characters are pretty flat and uninteresting, Dickens isn't even the central point of his own story and the Doctor is written pretty weirdly (It makes no sense that he got convinced that easily by the Gelth and it's weird that he gave the impression that he was that weak to the point where he felt threatened to the point where he felt like he would die by a foe that basic). The Gelths aren't pretty interesting ennemis either. Their plan is pretty uninteresting and even though I kind of get the point Gatiss wanted to make, it's only ruined by their plot twist revealing they were in fact evil and wanted to invade Earth for seemingly no reason, which itself is pretty unmemorable and resolves itself within 2 minutes. Overall it was pretty empty on the writing side, there wasn't really any moment that felt emotionally impacting or memorable even though I kind of like the interactions between Gwyneth and Rose and that the Doctor appears to be even more impacted by the Time War than during the previous episodes but other than this it was pretty mediocre and it isn't an episode I would recommend. Like Liked 2 8 September 2024 · 201 words Doctor Who S1 • Episode 2The End of the World Sinewhales Spoilers 2 Review of The End of the World by Sinewhales 8 September 2024 This review contains spoilers! This is a very similar episode to the first one and is worth being binged right after it as it follows the previous attempt at reintroducing to a new audience what Doctor Who is and especially here, the "standard" formula of the Doctor's adventures as well as giving us more information on his backstory. Overall I think I liked it less than the previous one. There was a lot of good and engaging ideas (I really like the gimmick of reusing Tainted Love and Toxic for comedy bits) and there was a lot of emotional writing about Doctor's backstory and him being the last Time Lord. But I think overall it was just a bit forgettable. Cassandra is not an engaging enough villain to carry a whole episode like that and while I respect a lot its attempt to blow your mind with crazy visuals and being over the top, I think it just ends up being a pretty standard, although pretty good Doctor Who story (and Eccleston is just that great of an actor as always). I think I liked it less upon rewatching and it might just be more effective if it's your first time watching it. Like Liked 2 7 September 2024 · 200 words Doctor Who S1 • Episode 1Rose Sinewhales 1 Review of Rose by Sinewhales 7 September 2024 This is probably the nu-who episode I re-watched the most and I realize how much it successfully pulled off everything it attempted. The episode works perfectly as a re-introduction of the Doctor as a character while also introducing his character arc of a Doctor traumatized by the time war and trying to come to terms with himself and in only a handful of really well written interactions we instantly get the stakes of the character, his mysterious lore and heavier backstory with a lot of emotional impact (I especially really like Eccleston's monologue comparing himself to how the earth is spinning). What I think is great is also how everything is balanced with a lot of comedic bits to avoid making an episode who is too heavy or too dark emotionally (I really like all the Jackie bits) and while I think some moments are definitely too cheesy for their own good (The plastic mickey bit especially) or that the pacing is a bit weird at times, I still think it's overally well executed and that the highlights overshadow easily those flaws. Overall a great introduction and a stellar first episode for one of the best new who seasons. Like Liked 1 Sorting, filtering, and pagination, coming soon!