The Doctor's Wife, Finally
A little bit sad forever, everyone seemed to love the last episode and I ... thought it was ok?
It was a very Gaimany ep wasn't it? From the very first line it was Gaiman, and it was Gaiman right through to the end. It was hands down the best episode of this season, I don't think it's really possible to argue that (is it possible to argue that?) And there were things I liked. Like how I actually gave a damn about the characters. And they felt like people with personalities. And how there was actually allowed to be some kind of story, slightly messy though it was, with actions and consequences that were allowed to stand. I liked that.
I liked 'doesn't everyone' in relation to being forgiven because I like it when Matt Smith acts and it was a bit sad and reminded us how even though he's moved on a lot from being Ten and Nine he still has to carry this with him forever.
I liked 'another Ood I failed to save' for entirely the wrong reasons, because it was grim and a bit flippant and not emo and in my head I categorised it in the same place I put 'I don't have an aunt either', which is my 'yay he's finally not crying' place. But actually it was a bit awful I guess.
I think the episode suffered a lot from being a good episode in a shit season, because I can't watch these things without context and so a lot of awesomeness suffered. The 'Kill Amy' bit, for example, was wonderfully creepy and gorgeously done, but frankly I just laughed and laughed and laughed because they haven't given us an episode yet where they've not tried to riff off the 'oh noes RELATIONSHIPZ IN TROUBLEZ' angle (generally pretty badly) so I think it's sort of impossible at this point for me to suspend my disbelief enough not to go 'but when Rory dies it will carving 'I love Amy Pond' into his veeeeiiiins'. I kind of think that maaaybe if they'd left it alone until now it could have been good though, because it's something worth touching on and looking at, but they haven't really been doing that? Until this point the Amy/Rory dynamic hasn't been about them as characters it's been about playing with the audience's emotions, and so standing on the back of those midgets the scene fell flat.
bagheera_san made an excellent point, actually, that that scene was about Amy's fears, about what Rory does/would (should?) think about her, and not really about Rory at all. Which is an excellent idea and probably the intention but again, an episode with great characterisation in isolation suffers. I look to prior episodes to support its representations and see nothing, and I'm very afraid that what its given us isn't going to be carried over past this point either. Which is sad, because I liked fantasy nerd!Rory (he knows the House wants entertainment BECAUSE HE'S READ THIS BOOK BEFORE) and ... OK Amy is always pretty inconsistent. That's part of the problem.
As for Idris. Oh, Idris. lindest made a point that made me pretty uncomfortable, but I waassn't .... impressed. Or excited I guess? Whatever. Even before that. I suppose for me it's a lot like the drums and the Master, in that I'm very glad they decided to bring the idea up but I wish they hadn't had to stand on so much old canon to do it. I don't feel entirely comfortable saying I didn't like the way they did her because intelligent people don't just say 'I didn't like it' they have reasons and though I have sort of reasons they just seem to sort of boil down to 'it wasn't right' which is ... a very personal interpretation. I don't like sexualising their relationship (maybe I wouldn't have midned if the TARDIS was in a guy's body), or this weird idea that they're only equal or able to communicate now that they're both bipeds. I guess ... I liked it subtle. It shouldn't be shocking that she's alive because she's been alive this entire time, and I guess I just think it's sad that he's the first incarnation that gets to have this because I sort of thought that they all had this to a certain degree before now. Making the presence explicit implies a prior absence (that I don't think is supported by canon, btw).
I kind of wish it'd just been a bottle ep, because that was pretty cool. And I loved loved loved the psychic distress signals. I wanted more things about Time Lords and I wanted to know more about House. Actually I feel a lot of the raggedyness of the episode came from not knowing that much about House, and from all we did know being recieved wisdom. There was no joy of joint discovery and investigation, which was a pity because a creature that lures and traps TARDISes is interesting, it bears investigating. Same way that Auntie and Uncle were wasted by just dying, they were wonderfully drawn characters, I wanted more of them.
And having rewatched it I do think Matt Smith acted excellently.
Also I only just noticed that both House and the Doctor say 'Run.'in the same way.
Perhaps Eleven sort of lost his confidence/faith in the TARDIS. Maybe he really hasn't spoken to her in a while. But, much like both of them trading their '700 years together' is ignored for the sake of my brain not twitching, I think I can only enjoy this if I ignore the bits that imply that it took ten regenerations for them to ever have this. Which is terribly personal and terrible and now I feel like a bad fan, but so it goes.
Maybe the fluctuations from the Time War reset the Doctor's age or rewrote his past or stripped time off him? Maybe that's the disparity? Or maybe he's just been having a midlife crisis for three regenerations. I think I'll stick with that one actually.
And I didn't even mention Unregenerate until just this sentence I am so proud of myself the end.
It was a very Gaimany ep wasn't it? From the very first line it was Gaiman, and it was Gaiman right through to the end. It was hands down the best episode of this season, I don't think it's really possible to argue that (is it possible to argue that?) And there were things I liked. Like how I actually gave a damn about the characters. And they felt like people with personalities. And how there was actually allowed to be some kind of story, slightly messy though it was, with actions and consequences that were allowed to stand. I liked that.
I liked 'doesn't everyone' in relation to being forgiven because I like it when Matt Smith acts and it was a bit sad and reminded us how even though he's moved on a lot from being Ten and Nine he still has to carry this with him forever.
I liked 'another Ood I failed to save' for entirely the wrong reasons, because it was grim and a bit flippant and not emo and in my head I categorised it in the same place I put 'I don't have an aunt either', which is my 'yay he's finally not crying' place. But actually it was a bit awful I guess.
I think the episode suffered a lot from being a good episode in a shit season, because I can't watch these things without context and so a lot of awesomeness suffered. The 'Kill Amy' bit, for example, was wonderfully creepy and gorgeously done, but frankly I just laughed and laughed and laughed because they haven't given us an episode yet where they've not tried to riff off the 'oh noes RELATIONSHIPZ IN TROUBLEZ' angle (generally pretty badly) so I think it's sort of impossible at this point for me to suspend my disbelief enough not to go 'but when Rory dies it will carving 'I love Amy Pond' into his veeeeiiiins'. I kind of think that maaaybe if they'd left it alone until now it could have been good though, because it's something worth touching on and looking at, but they haven't really been doing that? Until this point the Amy/Rory dynamic hasn't been about them as characters it's been about playing with the audience's emotions, and so standing on the back of those midgets the scene fell flat.
bagheera_san made an excellent point, actually, that that scene was about Amy's fears, about what Rory does/would (should?) think about her, and not really about Rory at all. Which is an excellent idea and probably the intention but again, an episode with great characterisation in isolation suffers. I look to prior episodes to support its representations and see nothing, and I'm very afraid that what its given us isn't going to be carried over past this point either. Which is sad, because I liked fantasy nerd!Rory (he knows the House wants entertainment BECAUSE HE'S READ THIS BOOK BEFORE) and ... OK Amy is always pretty inconsistent. That's part of the problem.
As for Idris. Oh, Idris. lindest made a point that made me pretty uncomfortable, but I waassn't .... impressed. Or excited I guess? Whatever. Even before that. I suppose for me it's a lot like the drums and the Master, in that I'm very glad they decided to bring the idea up but I wish they hadn't had to stand on so much old canon to do it. I don't feel entirely comfortable saying I didn't like the way they did her because intelligent people don't just say 'I didn't like it' they have reasons and though I have sort of reasons they just seem to sort of boil down to 'it wasn't right' which is ... a very personal interpretation. I don't like sexualising their relationship (maybe I wouldn't have midned if the TARDIS was in a guy's body), or this weird idea that they're only equal or able to communicate now that they're both bipeds. I guess ... I liked it subtle. It shouldn't be shocking that she's alive because she's been alive this entire time, and I guess I just think it's sad that he's the first incarnation that gets to have this because I sort of thought that they all had this to a certain degree before now. Making the presence explicit implies a prior absence (that I don't think is supported by canon, btw).
I kind of wish it'd just been a bottle ep, because that was pretty cool. And I loved loved loved the psychic distress signals. I wanted more things about Time Lords and I wanted to know more about House. Actually I feel a lot of the raggedyness of the episode came from not knowing that much about House, and from all we did know being recieved wisdom. There was no joy of joint discovery and investigation, which was a pity because a creature that lures and traps TARDISes is interesting, it bears investigating. Same way that Auntie and Uncle were wasted by just dying, they were wonderfully drawn characters, I wanted more of them.
And having rewatched it I do think Matt Smith acted excellently.
Also I only just noticed that both House and the Doctor say 'Run.'in the same way.
Perhaps Eleven sort of lost his confidence/faith in the TARDIS. Maybe he really hasn't spoken to her in a while. But, much like both of them trading their '700 years together' is ignored for the sake of my brain not twitching, I think I can only enjoy this if I ignore the bits that imply that it took ten regenerations for them to ever have this. Which is terribly personal and terrible and now I feel like a bad fan, but so it goes.
Maybe the fluctuations from the Time War reset the Doctor's age or rewrote his past or stripped time off him? Maybe that's the disparity? Or maybe he's just been having a midlife crisis for three regenerations. I think I'll stick with that one actually.
And I didn't even mention Unregenerate until just this sentence I am so proud of myself the end.