Comments | pncwho: Regarding Journey's End

pncwho

Regarding Journey's End

Jun 11, 2009 19:50

I wrote this essay shortly after seeing Journey's End. I know it's been a while since the episode aired, but I figure I've been sitting on it long enough, I may as well post it.

( My essay regarding Journey's End )

doctor who, season 4

Comments 9

mkejenkins June 12 2009, 02:52:31 UTC

squeee! I'm so glad you posted this....It makes SOOOOO many great points.

pncwho June 12 2009, 02:58:51 UTC

Wow, that was fast! I just posted this mere minutes ago.

Thank you for your response. :)

mkejenkins June 12 2009, 03:00:00 UTC

Love the puppy dog eyes

sensiblecat June 12 2009, 11:28:38 UTC

I'm not sure whether it makes me feel better or worse (and one year on I'm still gutted by JE) - but if you read RTD's own book "The Writer's Tale" you'll discover he agreed with you on the character points 100%. He'd written himself into a corner and did numerous redrafts to try and make the Bad Wolf Bay scene work. He says he was satisfied in the end, but then as Mandy Rice-Davies famously once remarked, "Well he would, wouldn't he?"

(Feel free to take a look at my other journal, catsfiction, for a longer discussion on the subject)

pncwho June 13 2009, 03:18:25 UTC

I've never read the book, though I've read discussions about the book.

The sad thing is, Russell can write. He's written much better stories with much less stuff in them. But when he tries to do too much with too many things (like this one, way too many characters and far too convoluted a plot), it just Does Not Work.

I honestly don't know if he was satisfied, or just said, "Ah, to hell with it, this'll do!" I suspect the latter.

cheers (and a few more nits) mls03j June 12 2009, 15:35:02 UTC

Y’know, if the story as a whole had worked for me, I’m not sure I would’ve noticed the flaws. And the things that threw me out of the story were a lot smaller than the reality bomb, anyway ( ... )

Re: cheers (and a few more nits) pncwho June 13 2009, 03:28:45 UTC

Plus, Rose’s hysteria when she thought the Doctor was going to regenerate seemed out of character. I thought she’d accepted the idea of regeneration back in “The Christmas Invasion.”

It was way out of character. It sounded like she only loved the Doctor if he was the good-looking brown-eyed fellow. I honestly think she loved the Doctor when he was the big-eared, big-nosed, goofy-grinning guy; why else would she risk her life and sanity to go back and rescue him from the Daleks? To have her freak out about a new regeneration made her sound awfully shallow, and the Rose I know is anything but.

maniacalshen June 23 2009, 02:57:45 UTC

Science major here. Yeah, the science broke my brain. You can wave away some of it: Maybe Earth wouldn't have worked in the Dalek's machine without its atmosphere, so that's why they preserved it. The Daleks are probably too focused on annihilating life to think past the point at which they do so. And the Osterhagen key could have been made for the time when the choice was "Earth dies fast" or "humans get tortured to death." Or for this sort of situation, where presumably the Earth is doomed either way, and this way we can save other planets while we go ( ... )

pncwho June 23 2009, 18:48:20 UTC

You are quite welcome. And I agree with your points, too. Thanks for your reply!