Let's Kill Hitler
TV: Doctor Who: 8: Let's Kill Hitler (spoilers)
I liked the Mel character; just a shame that she came out of no where. It would have been nice to have her appear in the background somewhere at some point just to establish the character. As it is, it feels like Moffat made this up at the last moment (which is a shame because well-planned plot lines are what I generally hope for in Moffat's Doctor Who... given the finale of last season maybe I should stop getting my hopes up...)
"Let's Kill Hitler"
I can definitely see how a young person with this sort of rebellious streak could grow up into River Song.
It's interesting that they choose a black actress to play the younger, more wild and more morally problematic 'problem child' version of River Song. I wonder how much of that draws on problematic archetypes.
That being said, the fact that Time Lord characters can regenerate between ethnicities without changing their identity is pretty nice.
"Who steals a bus?"
Well, the Doctor 'commandeered' one. I wonder if that's intended as a similarity between River and the Doctor. Neither of them are really 'rules persons', even if the Doctor is more well-directed in his intentions.
"But he's gay"
Heh, how do you know someone that long and maintain that sort of assumption? :oP It's especially odd to continue maintaining it when the other person denies it (and lack of attention to girls is different from being interested in boys)
Poor Rory getting mistreated all through childhood. Doesn't really help combat the feeling that Amy doesn't really respect Rory vey much (although that's really just a carry-over from last season now, not really seen much to bother me apart from this now)
I think what I'd really like to see is why Rory likes Amy that much anyway. We've not really got much of a backstory on that.
"We need to go later in his time stream" "We give them hell"
Although it raises all sorts of headachy issues, I can understand the desire to undo horrific historical events like the Holocaust.
Going back not to change things but to torture people who did bad things? What does that achieve?
I guess it depends on your moral perspective... I consider punishment as something unpleasant but useful as a means to an end; punishment can deter others from similar crimes and/or act as part of rehabilitation. I don't like the idea of punishment just for the sake of vengeance.
It's similar to how I find the idea of hell as a place of eternal agony to be problematic. Hell as a place where bad people go to cease existing or exist in oblivion, sure, I can understand that perhaps. Hell as a place to torture people for eternity to no greater purpose? Just strikes me as evil and vile.
If hurting someone can't be justified in how it creates a better world overall then I don't approve.
The Doctor seems to not be keen on this idea either mind. I'm pleased that it's recognised that going back in time solely to torture people like Hitler serves no good purpose.
"Shut up Hitler" "Rory, take Hitler and put him in that cupboard"
Those lines do sound pretty funny and I suppose it was inevitable that they had to get rid of Hitler somehow.
I like it when Doctor Who plays with serious issues and we had the whole issue of 'how far can we go in changing time to make the world a better place?' make in Fires of Pompei and it kind of worked there. The problem is that Doctor Who is a fairly comedic show and, whilst that might work for ancient calamaties like Pompei, having a comedic show about Hitler (along with the Halocaust) would be rather horrific. The only way this show could have sensibly dealt with Hitler was in this way.
"You got to raise me after all"
Nicely sidestepped a lot of fan worries there (I'm thinking of previous comparisons to Time Traveller's Wife and similar). The idea of the Doctor being actively involved in River Song's childhood made a lot of people uncomfortable with them having a romance. Not a problem now it seems.
I'm not a big fan of how they skipped straight to older River Song though. I'd have liked to see a younger River Song that grows into the current one. The whole 'I'm going to make myself age in reverse' thing is clearly a nod to the fact that we've got an actress that's getting older playing a character that's getting younger but it doesn't work for me, although I'm not sure what else could be suggested other than using a different actress for young River Song.
"I'm focusing on a dress size" "I need to weigh myself"
For some reason the latter comment bothers me more than the former.
She can see herself in the mirror, she knows how attractive she looks. What does putting a number on a weight have to do with it? If it's a higher number than she expected does that make her appearance less attractive? :o/
It's all playing into the 'Moffat is a sexist' type stuff again.
"Who's River Song?"
I guessed wrong on that one. Given that she adopts this as her name, I assumed it meant she'd spend at least some of her childhood being raised in the Gammu Forests (where the name comes from).
I'm still expecting to see those Forests though as the dead soldier in Demon's Run said she'd met the Doctor and he didn't remember. It might be that he just forgot but I suspect that it might just be that it hasn't happened yet.
"I'm going to wear lots of jumpers"
I had to spend some time on google to work this line out and it seems a lot of other people heard 'jumpers', which I couldn't make any sense of.
Some people have suggested that she meant 'Jodhpurs', which makes a lot more sense.
"The first question. The oldest question. Hidden in plain sight"
Well, that's ambiguous to the point of meaninglessness. I guess that'll be one for the finale.
"I'm the child of the Tardis"
Well, okay, that makes her ability to fly the Tardis so well a bit more acceptable, although I'm still not sure she really ought to be better than The Doctor.
I also still really dislike the idea that the Tardis noise is the brakes not being turned off.
I liked the Mel character; just a shame that she came out of no where. It would have been nice to have her appear in the background somewhere at some point just to establish the character. As it is, it feels like Moffat made this up at the last moment (which is a shame because well-planned plot lines are what I generally hope for in Moffat's Doctor Who... given the finale of last season maybe I should stop getting my hopes up...)
"Let's Kill Hitler"
I can definitely see how a young person with this sort of rebellious streak could grow up into River Song.
It's interesting that they choose a black actress to play the younger, more wild and more morally problematic 'problem child' version of River Song. I wonder how much of that draws on problematic archetypes.
That being said, the fact that Time Lord characters can regenerate between ethnicities without changing their identity is pretty nice.
"Who steals a bus?"
Well, the Doctor 'commandeered' one. I wonder if that's intended as a similarity between River and the Doctor. Neither of them are really 'rules persons', even if the Doctor is more well-directed in his intentions.
"But he's gay"
Heh, how do you know someone that long and maintain that sort of assumption? :oP It's especially odd to continue maintaining it when the other person denies it (and lack of attention to girls is different from being interested in boys)
Poor Rory getting mistreated all through childhood. Doesn't really help combat the feeling that Amy doesn't really respect Rory vey much (although that's really just a carry-over from last season now, not really seen much to bother me apart from this now)
I think what I'd really like to see is why Rory likes Amy that much anyway. We've not really got much of a backstory on that.
"We need to go later in his time stream" "We give them hell"
Although it raises all sorts of headachy issues, I can understand the desire to undo horrific historical events like the Holocaust.
Going back not to change things but to torture people who did bad things? What does that achieve?
I guess it depends on your moral perspective... I consider punishment as something unpleasant but useful as a means to an end; punishment can deter others from similar crimes and/or act as part of rehabilitation. I don't like the idea of punishment just for the sake of vengeance.
It's similar to how I find the idea of hell as a place of eternal agony to be problematic. Hell as a place where bad people go to cease existing or exist in oblivion, sure, I can understand that perhaps. Hell as a place to torture people for eternity to no greater purpose? Just strikes me as evil and vile.
If hurting someone can't be justified in how it creates a better world overall then I don't approve.
The Doctor seems to not be keen on this idea either mind. I'm pleased that it's recognised that going back in time solely to torture people like Hitler serves no good purpose.
"Shut up Hitler" "Rory, take Hitler and put him in that cupboard"
Those lines do sound pretty funny and I suppose it was inevitable that they had to get rid of Hitler somehow.
I like it when Doctor Who plays with serious issues and we had the whole issue of 'how far can we go in changing time to make the world a better place?' make in Fires of Pompei and it kind of worked there. The problem is that Doctor Who is a fairly comedic show and, whilst that might work for ancient calamaties like Pompei, having a comedic show about Hitler (along with the Halocaust) would be rather horrific. The only way this show could have sensibly dealt with Hitler was in this way.
"You got to raise me after all"
Nicely sidestepped a lot of fan worries there (I'm thinking of previous comparisons to Time Traveller's Wife and similar). The idea of the Doctor being actively involved in River Song's childhood made a lot of people uncomfortable with them having a romance. Not a problem now it seems.
I'm not a big fan of how they skipped straight to older River Song though. I'd have liked to see a younger River Song that grows into the current one. The whole 'I'm going to make myself age in reverse' thing is clearly a nod to the fact that we've got an actress that's getting older playing a character that's getting younger but it doesn't work for me, although I'm not sure what else could be suggested other than using a different actress for young River Song.
"I'm focusing on a dress size" "I need to weigh myself"
For some reason the latter comment bothers me more than the former.
She can see herself in the mirror, she knows how attractive she looks. What does putting a number on a weight have to do with it? If it's a higher number than she expected does that make her appearance less attractive? :o/
It's all playing into the 'Moffat is a sexist' type stuff again.
"Who's River Song?"
I guessed wrong on that one. Given that she adopts this as her name, I assumed it meant she'd spend at least some of her childhood being raised in the Gammu Forests (where the name comes from).
I'm still expecting to see those Forests though as the dead soldier in Demon's Run said she'd met the Doctor and he didn't remember. It might be that he just forgot but I suspect that it might just be that it hasn't happened yet.
"I'm going to wear lots of jumpers"
I had to spend some time on google to work this line out and it seems a lot of other people heard 'jumpers', which I couldn't make any sense of.
Some people have suggested that she meant 'Jodhpurs', which makes a lot more sense.
"The first question. The oldest question. Hidden in plain sight"
Well, that's ambiguous to the point of meaninglessness. I guess that'll be one for the finale.
"I'm the child of the Tardis"
Well, okay, that makes her ability to fly the Tardis so well a bit more acceptable, although I'm still not sure she really ought to be better than The Doctor.
I also still really dislike the idea that the Tardis noise is the brakes not being turned off.