I’ve been slow at blogging the more recent episodes, so here’s my chance to catch up. Verdict: generally positive – last week’s episode excellent, this week’s not so sure.
I had no idea that Splott was a real place. Apart from that vital piece of educational knowledge, I liked this a lot – alien technology and time slips meeting gritty social reality (or at least the BBC Wales version thereof).
Thought this was simply superb. The struggle between Lisa’s old personality and the dominant cyber-personality went in parallel with Ianto’s struggle to come to terms with the reality that he had lost his girlfriend for ever. I guess that as the series goes on, Owen and Toshiko will get their “own” episodes as well. This came pretty close to a classic Doctor Who base-under-siege story, and all the better for it.
Looked great, I’ll give it that, and great music. But apart from the little girl’s slightly wobbly acting, I did wonder why the fairies would attack Estelle, and trash Gwen’s flat without in fact attacking her? However, interesting back-story for Jack; I thought this was an interesting rounding out of his character (though will be interested to discover how this gets fitted into continuity).
Anyway, we’ll keep watching.
I confess that I don’t have current information about its avalability in the UK. I don’t think it was easy to get hold of in the 1970s. Probably the publishers considered that deleting the lynching references and whitening up the stereotyped black characters made it All Right Then.