I can’t believe it took me this long to realize: the Doctor has his own leitmotif! And I don’t just mean the “woosh! woosh!” of the TARDIS, I mean the non-worldly sort of angelic voice singing when the TARDIS is there or is near. I rarely encounter leitmotifs in show or films (or maybe I’m just too dense to notice it) so it’s pretty cool that I know this piece of information. The only other use of leitmotif that I know and that I could think of right now is Pokemon’s Team Rocket.

 

Moving on to the actual episode, I’ve got to say, this is one of the best Doctor Who openings yet; a close second to “Tooth and Claw”, I think. It’s quite different from the others. Actually, the whole episode was quite different from most of the episodes because it’s not Doctor-centric per se. I’m thinking it serves as a relief from the usual routine of The Doctor and Rose Saves the Universe.

 

I really like the beginning where he tells the story of his different encounters with alien life forms. It’s like watching the Doctor’s adventures from an ordinary citizen’s point of view. It’s quite interesting to think of the conclusions these ordinary citizens must have without really knowing the story. I personally, knowing what I know by watching the events through Rose’s eyes, think it’s frustrating. I guess this is what Rose must feel when she imagines the day she has to part with the Doctor because she’s already got a taste of the bigger picture, she is removed from blissful ignorance and once you’re out of there, you can never really get back.

 

Another thing I really like about this episode is its format. It’s so weird. During some parts of the whole episode, it’s in some sort of video blog format yet it’s definitely in a TV show. It’s like I’m watching some sort of hybrid of the two! Very interesting. Reminds me of Nickelodeon’s show “iCarly”, where this girl, along with her friends, runs an online web show but the show also orbits around their lives outside it.

 

The main characters in the story, Elton and the rest of LINDA, were quite fun to watch. At first, they were like some sort of Doctor Who class but then it became a little breakfast club of their own. Thankfully, before it became too cheesy, Victor Kennedy stepped into the scene and resumed the progress of the plot into full throttle. To be honest, I didn’t even consider Kennedy to be the alien (and even until the end, it wasn’t explained how his kind can take human form or why they absorb people) and when eventually he was revealed to be the alien of the day, borrowing the words of Queen Victoria, I wasn’t amused. It was so disgusting. He looked like a fat college dude that had too much to drink. The whole alien thing wasn’t a big deal to the story and so I wasn’t surprised to find his death to be kind of corny.

 

Overall, I liked the episode for its lightness, some sort of break from the heavy story that was “Satan’s Pit”. I especially liked the part where Cougar-Jackie doing the moves on Elton (and with Il Divo in the background to boost!). Their “break-up” scene just got me crying my eyes out in a very not sad way. The lines are so cliché that someone who just turned on the telly at that part would get a totally wrong idea of the whole thing.

 

I thought it was going to be just a really nice, non-Doctor who centered episode but then the ending came and it creeped me out. I don’t even know why they put it there.