(no subject)
To provide an update on yesterday's flocked entry: my allowance came through today so my bank account is now back in positive figures. \o/ This is pleasing for me.
So! Now some thoughts on Doctor Who:
I loved like 90% of The Wedding of River Song. Unfortunately the 10% of it that I didn't like, well... a) I really didn't like it and b) it was an important 10%.
I loved the visuals, especially all the trains (oh god, the steampunk, so much steampunky joy) and the trains going into the pyramids and Amy's office on the train and askfjfdmfgl so much gorgeous CGI. I'm actually fascinated by the broken time version of earth - is there Amy/Captain Williams fic yet? Because I would read the hell out of that.
Yeah. Loved Charles Dickens's cameo, loved seeing Winston Churchill again, loved the Roman stuff. Loved seeing more of the Silence (though I wish they'd explain more about the species, seeing as they are apparently part of the Silence, and how they came to have the weird memory thing), and I really liked the way they were brought in. I like the way Moffat uses editing to his advantage - like, taking the editing conventions you're used to and subverting them. I thought it was particularly good in this episode - it took me quite a while to realise that Winston and the Doctor leaving his office wasn't just a regular cut, and then I thought it was just down to time being broken, and then somehow I was surprised by the Silence being on the ceiling even though it's not like it's the first time they've done that. >_>
I'm pretty pleased that people were right about the eye patches being a way to remember the silence, and I'm very glad they finally had Amy actually talk about losing Melody (wtf, I know you're going for monster-of-the-week and all but you can't just ignore something like that) and that knowing that she grows up into River doesn't make it all okay. I was kind of hoping they'd manage to reset things so Amy and Rory caught to keep her after all, though. ;_;
So yeah. Things I didn't like: first is a minor quibble. The Doctor has a time machine, he does not experience time in a linear fashion, and the writers sometimes tend to forget this. If he needs to talk to Dorium, he can go back to a time when Dorium is still alive and talk to him then. If Moffat really didn't want him to do that, it would just have taken a little technobabble about crossing timelines or some shit like that.
Similarly: if the Doctor wants to go visit the Brigadier, he can go visit the Brigadier. Obviously this can't ever happen in the show any more, but the knowledge that the Brigadier dies at some point in history really shouldn't upset him that much. I mean, getting that phone call would be very sad for him, and I liked that it was what finally convinced him to go through with dying and all, but still. The Brigadier having died in 2011 (presumably) doesn't mean the Doctor can't pop back to the 80s or whenever for a cup of tea. He probably can't visit the Brig in the nursing home now because that nurse said he didn't but still.
The other thing that bothered me: the ending. I was srsly hoping Moffat would come up with a way to explain the Doctor dying which wasn't a massive cop-out. He did not. I wish he had gone with flesh!Doctor dying instead, because that would make a whole lot more sense. A flesh!Doctor would actually be the Doctor in pretty much all respects and would be able to die to keep the timeline intact. A robot that looks exactly like the Doctor is not the Doctor and cannot die. Plus the reveal that he'd known he wouldn't die ever since he spoke to the Tesselecta people kind of ruins the drama in the rest of the episode. :/ Apparently the whole time Tesselecta!Doctor was facing his death with dignity, the real Doctor was in there dancing and being all LOL TROLL.
So yeah. Basically, the ending kind of ruined it for me, which is a pity cause the rest was awesome. :(
I don't really have much to say on the subject of Merlin 4x01 other than what I already said in my BFI post, I guess. I'd seen it once before and I was watching it with a bunch of people from sci fi society who weren't interested and talked over it (srsly, someone arrived towards the beginning, sat down, and immediately asked if we were about to put something else on, because obv. we weren't actually watching Merlin. Lol?).
I shall say this instead: I am about seven thousand words into a Freya/Elena prequel to Vampires and Werewolves and Flatshares, Oh My!. \o/ So that fic has had to sprout actual backstory and worldbuilding. Huh. :P I should probably write Arthur's prequel/perspective flip as well, for the sake of completeness.
So! Now some thoughts on Doctor Who:
I loved like 90% of The Wedding of River Song. Unfortunately the 10% of it that I didn't like, well... a) I really didn't like it and b) it was an important 10%.
I loved the visuals, especially all the trains (oh god, the steampunk, so much steampunky joy) and the trains going into the pyramids and Amy's office on the train and askfjfdmfgl so much gorgeous CGI. I'm actually fascinated by the broken time version of earth - is there Amy/Captain Williams fic yet? Because I would read the hell out of that.
Yeah. Loved Charles Dickens's cameo, loved seeing Winston Churchill again, loved the Roman stuff. Loved seeing more of the Silence (though I wish they'd explain more about the species, seeing as they are apparently part of the Silence, and how they came to have the weird memory thing), and I really liked the way they were brought in. I like the way Moffat uses editing to his advantage - like, taking the editing conventions you're used to and subverting them. I thought it was particularly good in this episode - it took me quite a while to realise that Winston and the Doctor leaving his office wasn't just a regular cut, and then I thought it was just down to time being broken, and then somehow I was surprised by the Silence being on the ceiling even though it's not like it's the first time they've done that. >_>
I'm pretty pleased that people were right about the eye patches being a way to remember the silence, and I'm very glad they finally had Amy actually talk about losing Melody (wtf, I know you're going for monster-of-the-week and all but you can't just ignore something like that) and that knowing that she grows up into River doesn't make it all okay. I was kind of hoping they'd manage to reset things so Amy and Rory caught to keep her after all, though. ;_;
So yeah. Things I didn't like: first is a minor quibble. The Doctor has a time machine, he does not experience time in a linear fashion, and the writers sometimes tend to forget this. If he needs to talk to Dorium, he can go back to a time when Dorium is still alive and talk to him then. If Moffat really didn't want him to do that, it would just have taken a little technobabble about crossing timelines or some shit like that.
Similarly: if the Doctor wants to go visit the Brigadier, he can go visit the Brigadier. Obviously this can't ever happen in the show any more, but the knowledge that the Brigadier dies at some point in history really shouldn't upset him that much. I mean, getting that phone call would be very sad for him, and I liked that it was what finally convinced him to go through with dying and all, but still. The Brigadier having died in 2011 (presumably) doesn't mean the Doctor can't pop back to the 80s or whenever for a cup of tea. He probably can't visit the Brig in the nursing home now because that nurse said he didn't but still.
The other thing that bothered me: the ending. I was srsly hoping Moffat would come up with a way to explain the Doctor dying which wasn't a massive cop-out. He did not. I wish he had gone with flesh!Doctor dying instead, because that would make a whole lot more sense. A flesh!Doctor would actually be the Doctor in pretty much all respects and would be able to die to keep the timeline intact. A robot that looks exactly like the Doctor is not the Doctor and cannot die. Plus the reveal that he'd known he wouldn't die ever since he spoke to the Tesselecta people kind of ruins the drama in the rest of the episode. :/ Apparently the whole time Tesselecta!Doctor was facing his death with dignity, the real Doctor was in there dancing and being all LOL TROLL.
So yeah. Basically, the ending kind of ruined it for me, which is a pity cause the rest was awesome. :(
I don't really have much to say on the subject of Merlin 4x01 other than what I already said in my BFI post, I guess. I'd seen it once before and I was watching it with a bunch of people from sci fi society who weren't interested and talked over it (srsly, someone arrived towards the beginning, sat down, and immediately asked if we were about to put something else on, because obv. we weren't actually watching Merlin. Lol?).
I shall say this instead: I am about seven thousand words into a Freya/Elena prequel to Vampires and Werewolves and Flatshares, Oh My!. \o/ So that fic has had to sprout actual backstory and worldbuilding. Huh. :P I should probably write Arthur's prequel/perspective flip as well, for the sake of completeness.