Thoughts so far on 7b, but particularly The Crimson Horror, maybe, I guess
So I've been hankering like mad for some proper Doctor Who talk, and at ridiculously long last it's finally occurred to me that if I want to get any back I really ought to put some out, so here goes, really.
I think it says a lot about just how strong this half-season has been that my reaction after the utterly disappointing ending of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS wasn't "well, it was good while it lasted, guess it'll go back to sucking now" but instead a hopeful, confident "that was a serious stumble, but it'll probably get good again next week. It'll maybe probably stay good."
And you know what? It did!
For the first ten minutes of The Crimson Horror I was sure I would hate it, because it looked like it was guaranteed to not only be a Doctor-lite and Companion-lite episode (which: the two Craig episodes were both Pond-lite, but was the last Doctor-lite episode really Turn Left? Wow.) but one centered utterly around Vastra, Jenny and Strax, which...
Well I really like Strax?
I don't know. This episode-- and The Snowmen before it-- did make great strides in showing Vastra/Jenny less as weirdly exploitative on-the-nose fan service, but I think I'll always prefer Strax, of the bunch. I know it's lowbrow humor, but, like. Whatever. He's my farting Slitheen. Sometimes you just have to embrace the silly shit, and the Vastra/Jenny stuff always seems taken a bit too seriously.
God I've become so bad at this HOW DO YOU STAY ON TOPIC?
Okay, so. At first I was doing all this mad phone googling to figure out where on the timeline this fell, before or after The Snowmen, and then Jenny was all "Clara's dead" and I was filled with feelings because it's... I don't know. There are witnesses. It's not that I gave credence to the "Clara is a hallucination" set's theories, but this whole storyline has so much more emotional weight when it's populated, if that makes sense. When the Doctor has people he needs to answer to-- if not for explanations, then to catch him when he falls. I'm torn about a lot of the ~Clara's a mystery~ stuff, but I liked that Eleven didn't try to explain anything to them, when they asked. Not because he doesn't know what to say, but because he doesn't want to know. That kind of denial/lying to himself to stay happy is so fucking selfish and Ten-esque and I love my crabby, human, fallible Doctor. I do.
The pacing of The Crimson Horror got weird, especially in the middle-- I feel like there should have been a lot more set-up and exploration of Clara's being, y'know, kidnapped and brainwashed and whatnot, and they just had to cut it for time and hope for the best? But what we got of her was just... brilliant and lovely, even if it was a bit out of the blue. So referential to (and reverential of?) New Earth, and Idiot's Lantern, with the relationship dynamics, and I really can't stop myself from loving Clara as much as I do and screaming "make out" at my TV when Jenna and Matty get too close.
She's the boss. And she has a chair.
I think it says a lot about just how strong this half-season has been that my reaction after the utterly disappointing ending of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS wasn't "well, it was good while it lasted, guess it'll go back to sucking now" but instead a hopeful, confident "that was a serious stumble, but it'll probably get good again next week. It'll maybe probably stay good."
And you know what? It did!
For the first ten minutes of The Crimson Horror I was sure I would hate it, because it looked like it was guaranteed to not only be a Doctor-lite and Companion-lite episode (which: the two Craig episodes were both Pond-lite, but was the last Doctor-lite episode really Turn Left? Wow.) but one centered utterly around Vastra, Jenny and Strax, which...
Well I really like Strax?
I don't know. This episode-- and The Snowmen before it-- did make great strides in showing Vastra/Jenny less as weirdly exploitative on-the-nose fan service, but I think I'll always prefer Strax, of the bunch. I know it's lowbrow humor, but, like. Whatever. He's my farting Slitheen. Sometimes you just have to embrace the silly shit, and the Vastra/Jenny stuff always seems taken a bit too seriously.
God I've become so bad at this HOW DO YOU STAY ON TOPIC?
Okay, so. At first I was doing all this mad phone googling to figure out where on the timeline this fell, before or after The Snowmen, and then Jenny was all "Clara's dead" and I was filled with feelings because it's... I don't know. There are witnesses. It's not that I gave credence to the "Clara is a hallucination" set's theories, but this whole storyline has so much more emotional weight when it's populated, if that makes sense. When the Doctor has people he needs to answer to-- if not for explanations, then to catch him when he falls. I'm torn about a lot of the ~Clara's a mystery~ stuff, but I liked that Eleven didn't try to explain anything to them, when they asked. Not because he doesn't know what to say, but because he doesn't want to know. That kind of denial/lying to himself to stay happy is so fucking selfish and Ten-esque and I love my crabby, human, fallible Doctor. I do.
The pacing of The Crimson Horror got weird, especially in the middle-- I feel like there should have been a lot more set-up and exploration of Clara's being, y'know, kidnapped and brainwashed and whatnot, and they just had to cut it for time and hope for the best? But what we got of her was just... brilliant and lovely, even if it was a bit out of the blue. So referential to (and reverential of?) New Earth, and Idiot's Lantern, with the relationship dynamics, and I really can't stop myself from loving Clara as much as I do and screaming "make out" at my TV when Jenna and Matty get too close.
She's the boss. And she has a chair.