I...what?
...In the immortal words of nowgoesquickly, "What the holly-jolly fuck."
Um, sorry to say, but in my opinion that may have been one of the worst Doctor Who episodes ever penned. Seriously. Like, I legitimately do not have half a clue what the hell just happened.
SO APPARENTLY THE MASTER IS VOLDEMORT OR SOMETHING NOW. FLYING VOLDEMORT. COMPLETE WITH A HORCRUX. LIKE SERIOUSLY?
RTD, this is an intervention: Stop. Stop everything. Leave the show now -- oh, you actually are leaving? Good, because you are apparently all out of ideas. I have come to expect utter Science and General Logic Fail from each and every one of your episodes, but you have completely gone off the deep end with this one, and it was painful. I get that you were going for "dark and disturbing" here -- it's understandable, this is a pivotal arc, David is leaving, it has to be dark. But you tried so damn hard and you pushed the show so far that it went right back around the bend to "UTTERLY RI-FUCKING-DICULOUS."
The resurrection scene was by far the worst part. I was in physical pain watching that crap. First of all, way to explain ANYTHING AT ALL about these "books of Saxon" and the cult. That was a nice little cop-out there. Second -- ok, I am reasonably sure that the woman who plays Lucy Saxon is a good actress. I know she didn't have much to do during the season 3 finale arc, but what she did, she did well. So I have to assume that the complete rubbish that was the dialogue during that scene is therefore the fault of the writer and not the actors.
Also, and this is something I never would have noticed on my own, but Jonas pointed it out -- the whole "alien medical device that heals whole races by using one template"? Hey, that sounds oddly familiar. Hmm, now where have we seen th -- oh. Yes. Season 1. "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances," where Steven Moffat did it about ten thousand times better than you. I reiterate: you are out of ideas.
Redeeming points:
I at least got some serious lulz out of the whole thing, obviously.
All the main actors did a wonderful job with what they were given. Obviously I adore David, and Wilf was adorable, but John Simm especially really blew me away. Proving that he does "calm, collected, sociopath" just as well as he does "holy hell back away slowly this is textbook psychosis right here."
I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry every time Donna was on the screen :(
I don't know. Maybe on New Year's they'll wrap stuff up, explain it all away, and mollify me a little. But very little can redeem this episode.
Also, on a related note, I get so angry every time I see RTD or even hear him speak. I get that you have to have confidence to become as successful as he is, but man, there is a fine fine line between "having confidence" and "honest-to-God believing you are the best damn thing to ever happen to television." Especially when it's not true.
Ugh. I'm so angry. I'm going to go watch some "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" (lskdj;alr Corynn got me season 2 on DVD for Christmas. My friends know what I like, and what I like is naked Billie Piper) so I don't get angry. ("Piderman, why did you get green?" "AAAH! ...I don't like cereal anymore.")
So uh, in other news, I did actually ask out the cute guy at work. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he thought I was joking. It's hard to explain since the whole thing was based on an inside joke that we have going on, but we were talking on Christmas Eve and he goes "Man, you're always breaking up with me!" So I was like "Aw, ok, I'm sorry. Would you...like to maybe go out sometime?" And he said "Haha, yeah," and then it was awkward for a while and we went back to talking. Ahahahaha I clearly win at everything. Not sure where to go from here -- I want to get him alone and be like "So, I was actually serious about maybe going out sometime," but with my luck he doesn't remember me saying that and the whole thing will get ten times more awkward. I DON'T KNOOOOW.
And in other OTHER news, I got a camera today. YAAAAAAY. I've only needed a new one for a million years now. It is a Canon Powershot and so far it seems lovely, though it still doesn't take pictures as quickly as I'd like. I have no life, so so far all I've photographed is my cat, but nevertheless enjoy his prettiness:
SNUGGLES.