Oh, I really loved that quite a lot.
Not a full recap this week, because last week's was just absurd, and I'm sure I don't have much to say other people haven't already said several times and better.
I love Eleven. I mean, I really, really love him. I really quite loved him in "11th Hour" and on, but after this two-parter I just flat completely love him. Like, he's totally kind of my Doctor right now. And Matt Smith was so The Doctor in this, I've gone all wibbly over him.
This episode was not as scary as last week, but it was quite a lot of 'go go go' from the start. Loved that. Thrown right back into it, not a chance to breath, just a wall of Angels after you, the lights are going out, and run like hell.
"Artificial gravity. One good jump, and up we fell." Amy's having trouble with this concept. A bit.
And now, the Angels are looking less melty and more Angely and ugh.
"This whole place is a death trap."
"No it's a time bomb. Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb and now it's a dead end. Nobody panic. Oh, just me, then?" Oh Doctor, ILU
"What if the gravity fails?"
"I've thought about that."
"And?"
"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See, I've thought about it." Lolz. And also, hey look, that's kind of the key.
The Angels appearing in the door at every flash, is actually still pretty creepy. When I said it wasn't as creepy as last week's, I meant, you know, at least they're not climbing out of the telly to eat me. It's subtle difference, but still. Actually actually, I appreciate that last week was all about the scary Angels to establish the rules about the Angels, and we go from one Angel to an army of them, but, instead of completely retreading, they move on, and face a bigger universe ending sort of problem. The immediate threat is established and acknowledged, now let's try to keep the lights on and not die. Speaking of ...
"I'll need to turn out the lights."
"How long for?"
"Fraction of a second, maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer."
"Maybe?"
"Well, I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship, there isn't a manual for this."
"You trust this man?"
"I absolutely trust him."
"He's not some kind of madman, then?"
" ... ... I absolutely trust him." LOLZ And then the Doctor sort of pats her on the shoulder.
I love River and the Doctor so very much.
More threats from the Bishop to expose River if she tries anything funny, because she's the only one who can control the lunatic in the bow tie, and she's all, whateves, yo, statues trying to kill us, the Doctor's the only one who can save us, I don't plan on getting dead now, I'll do what I have to, kthx.
Amy's countdown was, I think, the creepiest thing about this. The randomness of her number spouting, and her delivery, were unsettling.
Treeborgs. Hee.
"A forest in a bottle in a spaceship in a maze. Have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?" Oh Doctor. Poor guy, it's been a while since he's had somebody around to impress.
And more creepy counting down from Amy.
Oh, it's Angel Bob.
"Ah, there you Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry, bad subject." HA and ouch.
"Achieve? We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging. It's nice in here. Consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?" I love the way he's just sort of sprawled in his comfy chair.
"The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon we'll be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the stars and worlds beyond." Why, though? I was a little disappointed the Doctor didn't ask that. I mean, once you've consumed everything, what is there to do? And why the drive to consume everything? Though, I guess after the 300th "we're gonna take over the universe" nutjob, the question of 'why' is really beside the point. The Doctor's heard it all, and it doesn't really matter.
"Well, we've got comfy chairs. Did I mention?"
"We have no need of comfy chairs."
To Amy "I made him say comfy chairs." So many lolz.
"There's something in her eye."
"What's in her eye?"
"We are." Gahh!
"We shall take her. We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space." i guess that's sort of a reason. I guess. I suppose if you turn to stone every time something living gets a look at you, you might be pretty tired of living things.
"Get a life, Bob. Oops, sorry again." ahahahaha
Speaking of oops, there's a crack in the wall. I'm glad they didn't string the crack mystery along forever. Well, okay, we don't know exactly why, but I mean, I'm glad it wasn't something that was never addressed until the end.
"Oh, that's bad. That's extremely very not good." And, speaking of very not good, he's so distracted by the crack, he lets himself get surrounded, and ultimately grabbed, by Angels. Doctor, Doctor, Doctor.
I like how concerned River is with Amy. From the start she was keeping an eye out for Amy, sort of taking her under her wing, I guess, knowing from experience that the Doctor can get really distracted by things. Not that he doesn't care, and isn't mindful about his companions, but the little things can sometimes escape him. Though, thinking about it now, I suppose River might know Amy from the Pandoracamajig.
"Good and not so good. Oh, this isn't even a little bit good. I mean, is that it? Is that the power that brought you here? That's pure time energy, you can't feed on that. That's not power. That's the fire at the end of the universe. And, I'll tell you something else ... never let me talk." Heh.
"Our mission is to make this wreckage safe, and neutralize the Angels. Until that is achieved ..."
"Father Octavian, when the Doctor's in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me, it's not easy. Now if he's dead back there, I'll never forgive myself. And if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"I hate you."
"You don't."
"How'd you get past them."
"Found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe."
"What was it?"
"The end of the universe. AND NOW LET ME CHANGE THE SUBJECT" Heh.
"What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing, you're fine."
"Everything, you're dying."
"Doctor!"
"Yes, you're right, if we lie to her, she'll get all better." I just really love these two. More please, Moff! That was a bit mum and dad.
"Doctor?"
"Busy."
"I'm scared."
"Of course you're scared, you're dying, shut up." Oh, Doctor. Like I said, he can be so rubbish at the little things.
"There's an angel in her mind." And he claps his hands over his mouth. Oh, man, adorkable.
"Bob, why are they making her count?"
"To make her afraid, sir."
"Okay, but why? What for?"
"For fun, sir." Wow, Angels are stupid. Why do they insist on continuing to taunt the Doctor? On the list of things extremely very not good, an angry Doctor would have to be right near the top. Unsurprisingly, he loses his temper here a bit, and flings the radio. Doctor Smash!
I love River putting her arm around Amy, comforting her, while the Doctor tells her she's got to keep her eyes shut or DIE.
"We're too exposed everywhere, and Amy can't move. And anyway, that's not the plan."
"There's a plan?"
"I don't know yet, I haven't finished talking."
"River, you and me, we're going to go and find the primary flight deck, which is ... a quarter of a mile straight ahead. And from there we're going to stabilize the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Amy."
"How?"
"I'll do a thing."
"What thing?"
"I don't know, it's a thing in progress. Respect the thing."
"I don't need you."
"I don't care. Where Dr. Song goes, I go."
"What? You two engaged or something?"
"Yes, in a manner of speaking." The Doctor goes a little jealous there.
Okay, so when he comes back and grabs Amy's hands, telling her she has to start trusting him, and he's wearing his jacket, and he's got his sleeves rolled well up, as opposed to not ten seconds earlier in screen time when he had his sleeves down and jacket was in the hands of the Angels -- that's sort of a big continuity oops, if it was a mistake. Granted they've cropped it in close enough to make it hard to tell. But, they make a point of the Doctor leaving, and then there he is again only totally not the same.
Oh, Doctor, did you go about trying to rewrite time? What did you rewrite here?
"Doctor, the crack in my wall, how can it be here?"
"I don't know yet, but I'm working it out." And then he looks over his shoulder like he's looking for somebody -- not the angels, I don't think. himself maybe, or River who'd shout at him for messing up time.
"Now listen, remember what I told you when you were seven."
"What did you tell me?"
"No." He's very big on the forehead to forehead thing. It's rather sweet. "That's the whole point. You have to remember." Then the kiss on the forehead and he's gone again.
eta: do you know what? Now I'm wondering if this isn't the first time he's done this. I always sort of assumed that the scene in "The Eleventh Hour" with little Amelia sitting, waiting for the Doctor and then looking up at the sound of the TARDIS was just a dream, because we cut straight away to Amy waking up to the sound of the TARDIS, but was it? I don't watch the Confidentials or anything so I don't actually know if that sort of thing got mentioned.
"How could a crack in the wall be the end of the universe?"
"Dunno, but here's what I think, one day there's going to be a very big bang, so big every moment in history, past and future, will crack."
"Is that possible? How?"
"How can you be engaged in a manner of speaking?" Yeah, a bit jealous. Well, maybe not jealous, so much as sort of expecting one thing and then thinking it turned into something else, which would sort of mess up that expectation, regardless of whether you wanted what you were expecting or not. That part's irrelevant. It's like taking a sip of orange juice and expecting water.
The Bishop isn't really keen on the game, and decides to inform the Doctor how he removed River from prison four days ago and he's legally responsible for her until the mission's over and she's earned her pardon.
Then the Doctor sort of smirks at her. Jerk. "You were in storm cage." You're one to talk, Doctor. Fortunately, something beeps and River gets to not hear the Doctor's taunting.
The very big bang comes from Amy's time. i've thought all along that the crack was Amy. But, I'm always wrong, so I wasn't planning to put money on it or anything.
"It's the trees, ma'am. The trees are going out." That's both a funny statement and a creepy one. Why you gotta attack the Treeborgs, Angels? tsk
You know, River can't be all that bad if the untrusting Bishop actually gives her a gun to hold off advancing Angels. And turns his back on her. And doesn't really pay her any mind as far as the convict-holding-a-weapon situation goes.
"Hurry up and open it. Time's running out."
The sort of incredulous look on the Doctor's face at that -- lol. "What? What did you say? Time's running out? Is that what you said?"
"Yeah, I just meant--"
"I know what you meant. Hush." Hee.
A creepy light in the forest out-creepys the Angels and they run. I'm not sure if I'd run towards something that made the Angels run away. I'm just saying. I mean, I'd be all "yay! something scaring off the angels. hooray and all." But, then I'd be wondering if it was going to eat me next.
"Cracks, cracks in time. Time running out. No couldn't be, couldn't be. But, how is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? And she didn't recognize the Daleks." River's staring at him like he's nuts, which he is, but it's still just a funny look. "Okay, time can shift. Time can change. Time can be rewritten ... Ah! Oh!"
And Amy looks into the light, and the Clerics start to disappear one by one, Cleric-in-charge forgetting each of them as they disappear. This actually reminded me of one of the audios, but I'm damned if I can remember which one right now.
Why do the Doctor's hand gestures have sound effects? It was just ... odd. And sort of noisy. Like the torches last week with their strange swooshing.
"Time can be unwritten." Hmm.
"Never mind the Angels, there's worse here than Angels."
"I beg to differ, sir."
The Doctor's distracted and now the Bishop will be captured by Angels while trying to get the Doctor's attention. The Doctor chooses really, really inopportune moments to be distracted. Or have revelations about giant Cybermen stomping all over Victorian London and people forgetting.
"Just tell me why she was in storm cage."
"She killed a man. A good man. A hero to many."
"Who?"
"You don't want to know, sir, you really don't."
Bye Bishop. Ah, the Doctor's gone all misty. :(
"I wish I'd known you better."
"I think, sir, you know me at my best." :(
He reminded me of Mr. Jefferson.
I love that River never stops trying to get the teleporters to work, even after he tells her it's a waste of time. She just keeps plugging away at them. Which is just as well, because his "walk like you can see" plan is right up there with "if you can't see them, they can't see you", and "blankets are totally monster proof". He knows it's a bit rubbish, at least, and scrunches up his face and looks like he wishes he had just about anything else he could say.
"That time energy; what's it going to do?"
"Ah, keep eating."
"How do we stop it?"
"Feed it."
"Feed it what?" She's got a bad feeling about where this conversation is going, I think.
"A big, complicated, space-time event should shut it up for a while."
"Like what, for instance?" And she asks, but she totally already knows the answer and hates it and probably hates him a little bit here, because she knows him and she knows he'd do it.
"LIKE ME FOR INSTANCE! I AM HAVING A VERY BAD DAY! I JUST HAD TO TELL AMY TO WALK LIKE SHE CAN SEE! THAT IS A RUBBISH PLAN, BUT IT'S ALL I'VE GOT AND RARRRRR!"
"What's that?"
"It's a warning. There are Angels round you now." If I may just say, GAH!
"All you've got to do is just walk like you can see." And he's totally scrunching up his face again at the absurdity of this plan and his frustration at not really being able to do anything else. Then pounds on a console a bit when she doesn't start moving. Cranky pants. Still.
AND THE STATUES MOVE AND ... GAH!
River teleports her. Because she's awesome.
"See? Told you I could get it working."
"River Song, I could bloody kiss you."
"Oh, well, maybe when you're older." Heh.
The Angels really sort of are very stupid. I mean, they chase the Doctor, taunt the Doctor, taunt the Doctor some more, and mess with his companion, and then they ask him to sacrifice himself into the time crack thingy so they'll be saved. Upside, he saves his friends, too; downside, what's to stop the Angels and their taking over the universe plan and then, you know, killing his friends?
"I've traveled in time. I'm a complicated space-time event, too. Throw me in."
River is ever ready to sacrifice herself in place of the Doctor. She's two for two so far on refusing to let him do anything stupid that will get him very seriously dead. And this time she didn't have to knock him unconscious to do it. She just had to let him keep talking, because, hey, there was the thing! Power draining, gravity failing, plunging to your death, only let the Angels do that bit instead.
"You know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation." Oh, Doctor. That was awful. Heh.
"Why do I remember it all? Those guys on the ship didn't remember it."
"You're a time traveler now, Amy. Changes the way you see the universe. Forever. Good, isn't it?" Hee. Bless.
River looks sad and a little resigned.
"You, me, handcuffs -- must it always end this way?" lolz. ILU RIVER. PLEASE COME BACK! Though, also, kinda ouch, because ultimately it does.
"Octavian said you killed a man."
"Yes, I did."
"A good man."
"A very good man. The best man I've ever known."
"Who?"
"It's a long story, Doctor. Can't be told. Has to be lived. No sneak previews. Well, except for this one."
I like him smiling at her here. I like he doesn't get very judgey, either. I'm going to guess manslaughter at worst. And, I'm going to say it's not the Doctor she killed. Largely based on her words here "can't be told, has to be lived" and the Bishop's words "a good man. a hero to many." Not that the Doctor's not a good man, but the Bishop's got some reservations about the Doctor through the whole thing, and whoever she killed was somebody the Bishop was more familiar with. I do not think he was talking about the Doctor. Though, his refusal to say who she killed was interesting.
And also, I'm always wrong.
"You'll see me again quite soon. When the Pandoracamajig opens." YAY MOAR RIVER!
"That's a fairytale."
"Ah, Doctor, aren't we all? I'll see you there."
"I'll look forward to it."
"I remember it well."
"What are you thinking?"
"Time can be rewritten." Oh, dear. The Doctor's thinking dangerous things, I think. The smile on his face, says "TROUBLE".
Aw, I love how quiet and sad he goes when Amy says she wants to go home. Poor Doctor. He let himself get very lonely and very emo for a good long while there.
Amy just wants to show off her wedding dress and then jump him. ... That was weird. I mean, I guess it's sort of a way of running away from Rory or getting married or her abandonment issues or whatever. But, after she was all Doctor/River Forevah, to turn around and snog him. Weird.
But, I should mention, there's an eight-year old in my head who mostly goes "ICKY!" when the Doctor kisses (or is kissed by) anybody. I think I'd be okay with River, she's more like Mum to his Dad. But, anybody else, makes eight-year old me want to hide my eyes. I couldn't even really look at the screen for the end of "The Parting of the Ways". I was sort of hoping that we could get away with a companion not wanting to jump him. I mean, he's sexy and all, but still. Well, we had Donna, I guess, so I shouldn't complain too much.
"Well ..."
"I know."
"Blimey." Heh
And then one of my favorite Doctors shows up -- clueless, relationship idiot Doctor.
"It made me think."
"Well, yes, natural. I think sometimes. Well lots of times." *snort*
"About what I want. About who I want. You know what I mean?"
"... yeah." No. "No."
"About who I want."
"Oh, right, yeah. ... No, still not getting it." LOLZ. I adore the Doctor.
907 ... lying liar pants. I think after the time war, when nobody could correct him, he just picked 900, because it sounded good and old without being so unbearably ancient as 1,000+. I mean, 1,000+ and you're really getting up there, with like ancient monuments and relics and lost civilizations in distant jungles and whatever, and I don't think his ego can quite take that.
"I'm 907 and look at me. I don't get older, I just change." Well, honestly, Doctor, if you really are 907, you're burning through lives at a pretty quick clip. At this rate you won't live to see your 921st birthday, let alone out live any companion you might have. I'm just saying that argument is a little rubbish, though I side with the Doctor here. And I have a personal canon(fanon) theory about his lives, so I almost undermine my own argument that the argument is rubbish and now I'm rambling.
"But you're human! You're Amy! You're getting married in the morning!" He's so adorkable. Oh, but wait, he's figured it out.
"Amy Pond. Mad, impossible Amy Pond. I don't know why, I have no idea, but quite possibly the single most important thing in the history of the universe, is that I get you sorted out right now."
26 06 2010. Oh dear.
Hooray, this was half as long as last week's. Jeebus.