More Than This

I was disappointed that the Tardisodes weren’t included on the Doctor Who series 2 dvd – until I watched them on YouTube.

These aren’t like the webisodes whose partial absence from the “complete” Battlestar: Galactica dvd set is a disgrace. The Tardisodes are just dreadful. They’re so short as to be incoherent; they’re badly written and badly acted; they give away spoilers for the episodes they introduce; and they’re frequently inconsistent with the episodes they introduce.

Consider, for example, this Tardisode for “The Impossible Planet,” which is guilty of all four offenses. Why does she reassure him not to be afraid of the myths when she hasn’t told him anything about the contents of the myths? Why does the scene appear to be taking place in the present day? Why is the behaviour of the Ood being revealed ahead of time, thus spoiling the surprise? And why is the Ood already being affected by the Beast before it has been exposed to its influence? Obviously if the Ood had started “malfunctioning” before the mission even started, someone would have noticed it.

For sheer boringness, the Tardisode for “School Reunion” probably takes the cake; for sheer painfulness, probably the Tardisode for “Fear Her”; but the worst offender as far as spoilage goes is the Tardisode for “Girl in the Fireplace,” which gives away one of the central mysteries in the story. There wouldn’t be much point in devoting an episode to an investigation of the Mary Celeste mystery if it were preceded by a depiction of the fate of the crew.

I still think the Tardisodes should have been included as an extra, just for completeness’ sake. But I no longer miss them.