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Apr. 14th, 2019 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSince we won't get any new Doctor Who this year (whyyyy?), I've been randomly rewatching parts of the Moffat era as well Thirteen's first season. This didn't cause me to come to any new conclusions (the Twelfth Doctor seasons are my favourite of Moffat's reign, Chibnall's first season is enjoyable without being spectacular), but it reminded me of a great many things I love about the show. (And also made me re-listen to some Big Finish stuff for good measure.)
Another old conclusion that got revived by rewatching: other than The Doctor's Wife (because Doctor/TARDIS OTP, of course) and big anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, my not so secret favourite episode of the Eleventh Doctor part of Moffat Who might be Amy's Choice, and I maintain it's one of the most underestimated ones, possibly because Simon Nye, who wrote it, was neither the show runner nor a famous guest writer like Neil Gaiman.
To re-capitulate: Amy's Choice has a deceptively simple premise: seemigly two realities with our heroes having to figure out which one is the true one. Since one of them has Amy and Rory living in their hometown years post Doctor, and Amy's pregnant, and the other has Amy and Rory plus the Doctor in the TARDIS where last we saw them, this at first seems very obvious. But wait! There are increasing hints that the "meanwhile, on the TARDIS" reality is not quite right, either. Also, there's an entity calling himself the Dreamlord around, viciously played by Toby Jones, goading our heroes in both realiities, with special venom reserved for the Doctor. (Who figures out who the Dreamlord must be quite early on, not least because "there's no one else who hates me that much".) (No, not the Master or Davros.)
The episode works for me on various levels; on a technical level - both realities are increasingly weirder, and the stakes feel ever more threatening, plus the only way out is a threat in itself - dying in one reality, which, if it is the "false" one, means you wake up in the real one, but if you choose wrongly, you're dead . But even more so on a content level, and as a character piece. This was the first episode where I felt I had a grip on who Amy was as a character, and to me, it's hands down one of the best investigations into the darker, murkier sides of the Doctor's personality and consciousness the show ever did. This despite the fact this isn't one of those episodes where we get presented with an "evil" Doctor a la the Valyard in Old Who or "Mr. Clever" in the New Who episode Nightmare in Silver, or an opponent designed to mirror the Doctor's darker impulses without the positive ones (with the orignal conception of the Master but the the most prominent but by no means the only one of such examples), or even the Doctor in a mixture of hubris and nervous breakdown (The Waters of Mars comes to mind). No, in Amy's Choice, the Doctor tries to save the day, as he always does (and eventually succeeds in that), and doesn't commit any ethical violatations while doing so, and no one but our three main characters is threatened, the stakes aren't a planet, let alone the universe.
And we're still treated to that ruthless look at his subconcious for the entire episode. That it's not the Doctor in extremis but the Doctor on a regular day is fundamental to its success as such a look, imo. And now I have to get spoilery. It's not just that the Dreamlord turns out to be the embodiment of the Doctor's subconscious, created via the Macguffin of the episode, making all those vicious one liners self accusations, but that both "realities" mirror the those fears and loathings as well. it's not just that the dream version of Ledworth, Amy's and Rory's hometown, is deadly dull, but that the old people in it literally consume and destroy their young in order to continue. (Complete with the Dreamlord telling the Doctor about himself that he's not anyone's friend, because friends keeps in touch, while he moves on to the next companion(s) to rejuvinate himself - "The old man prefers the company of the young". This, btw, would have worked with any incarnation of the Doctor, but is especially effective with the youngest actor to play the Doctor until that point, Matt Smith in his first season.) The TARDIS, otoh, literally becomes a big frost zone, turning everyone in it to unchanging ice. "You can't really believe that", Amy says in the last scene about the Dreamlord's accusations after the Doctor revealed the Dreamlord's true identity to her. The Doctor doesn't reply, just smiles and changes the subject. Because of course he does believe it.
That this particular episode is such a favourite for me probably also explains why I didn't fall in love with the Moffat era until Capaldi's Doctor came along, because in general it's rather atypical for the Eleventh Doctor seasons. These were themselves a counterpoint to the previous melodrama-heavy end of the RTD years, and thus the Eleventh Doctor in general definitely counts as one of the "lighter" Doctors. (I don't mean that as a criticism; it really was necessary at the time.) But while I don't want grimdark Who, I do like a certain sharpness in my Doctor characterisation along with the whimsy, some capacity for disturbing mixed in with the capacity for kindness. And Capaldi's Doctor was ideal for in this regard. He wasn't one note about it and developed in his three seasons; the Twelfth Doctor as he was with Bill in his last season was a great deal kinder to most people he encountered than the Twelfth Doctor in his first season with Clara, when she as well as he were wondering whether or not he was a good man, for example. But both Twelve in his early episodes and in his last ones just before regenerating felt like a version of the Doctor capable of being both, the "idiot in the box" and the "oncoming storm". Which is what makes the character so interesting to me.
Another old conclusion that got revived by rewatching: other than The Doctor's Wife (because Doctor/TARDIS OTP, of course) and big anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, my not so secret favourite episode of the Eleventh Doctor part of Moffat Who might be Amy's Choice, and I maintain it's one of the most underestimated ones, possibly because Simon Nye, who wrote it, was neither the show runner nor a famous guest writer like Neil Gaiman.
To re-capitulate: Amy's Choice has a deceptively simple premise: seemigly two realities with our heroes having to figure out which one is the true one. Since one of them has Amy and Rory living in their hometown years post Doctor, and Amy's pregnant, and the other has Amy and Rory plus the Doctor in the TARDIS where last we saw them, this at first seems very obvious. But wait! There are increasing hints that the "meanwhile, on the TARDIS" reality is not quite right, either. Also, there's an entity calling himself the Dreamlord around, viciously played by Toby Jones, goading our heroes in both realiities, with special venom reserved for the Doctor. (Who figures out who the Dreamlord must be quite early on, not least because "there's no one else who hates me that much".) (No, not the Master or Davros.)
The episode works for me on various levels; on a technical level - both realities are increasingly weirder, and the stakes feel ever more threatening, plus the only way out is a threat in itself - dying in one reality, which, if it is the "false" one, means you wake up in the real one, but if you choose wrongly, you're dead . But even more so on a content level, and as a character piece. This was the first episode where I felt I had a grip on who Amy was as a character, and to me, it's hands down one of the best investigations into the darker, murkier sides of the Doctor's personality and consciousness the show ever did. This despite the fact this isn't one of those episodes where we get presented with an "evil" Doctor a la the Valyard in Old Who or "Mr. Clever" in the New Who episode Nightmare in Silver, or an opponent designed to mirror the Doctor's darker impulses without the positive ones (with the orignal conception of the Master but the the most prominent but by no means the only one of such examples), or even the Doctor in a mixture of hubris and nervous breakdown (The Waters of Mars comes to mind). No, in Amy's Choice, the Doctor tries to save the day, as he always does (and eventually succeeds in that), and doesn't commit any ethical violatations while doing so, and no one but our three main characters is threatened, the stakes aren't a planet, let alone the universe.
And we're still treated to that ruthless look at his subconcious for the entire episode. That it's not the Doctor in extremis but the Doctor on a regular day is fundamental to its success as such a look, imo. And now I have to get spoilery. It's not just that the Dreamlord turns out to be the embodiment of the Doctor's subconscious, created via the Macguffin of the episode, making all those vicious one liners self accusations, but that both "realities" mirror the those fears and loathings as well. it's not just that the dream version of Ledworth, Amy's and Rory's hometown, is deadly dull, but that the old people in it literally consume and destroy their young in order to continue. (Complete with the Dreamlord telling the Doctor about himself that he's not anyone's friend, because friends keeps in touch, while he moves on to the next companion(s) to rejuvinate himself - "The old man prefers the company of the young". This, btw, would have worked with any incarnation of the Doctor, but is especially effective with the youngest actor to play the Doctor until that point, Matt Smith in his first season.) The TARDIS, otoh, literally becomes a big frost zone, turning everyone in it to unchanging ice. "You can't really believe that", Amy says in the last scene about the Dreamlord's accusations after the Doctor revealed the Dreamlord's true identity to her. The Doctor doesn't reply, just smiles and changes the subject. Because of course he does believe it.
That this particular episode is such a favourite for me probably also explains why I didn't fall in love with the Moffat era until Capaldi's Doctor came along, because in general it's rather atypical for the Eleventh Doctor seasons. These were themselves a counterpoint to the previous melodrama-heavy end of the RTD years, and thus the Eleventh Doctor in general definitely counts as one of the "lighter" Doctors. (I don't mean that as a criticism; it really was necessary at the time.) But while I don't want grimdark Who, I do like a certain sharpness in my Doctor characterisation along with the whimsy, some capacity for disturbing mixed in with the capacity for kindness. And Capaldi's Doctor was ideal for in this regard. He wasn't one note about it and developed in his three seasons; the Twelfth Doctor as he was with Bill in his last season was a great deal kinder to most people he encountered than the Twelfth Doctor in his first season with Clara, when she as well as he were wondering whether or not he was a good man, for example. But both Twelve in his early episodes and in his last ones just before regenerating felt like a version of the Doctor capable of being both, the "idiot in the box" and the "oncoming storm". Which is what makes the character so interesting to me.
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Date: 2019-04-14 03:00 pm (UTC)And the Dream Lord is the best Dark Doctor everrrrrr.
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Date: 2019-04-14 03:07 pm (UTC)True about the Doctor's treatment of boyfriends. (Agreed that it's not necessarily in the shipping sense, and more in the "I want to keep my friend" sense. I mean, he tries to be better about it thereafter with Rory (making sure Rory knows what Amy's choice was at the end of the episode) and comes to care about him in his own right, but poor Danny Pink gets the dastardly treatment again. (Heather melding with an alien before she ever got to the dating stage with BIll probably saved her from that at least.) Incidentally, currently I'm assuming that's one reason why Thirteen, who is so determined to not to give in to her darker impulses, ensured she travelled with three people, not one, and so far did not get closer to any of the three more than the other. Perhaps she knows that if she did get closer to one of them, she might give into the competitive streak again.
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Date: 2019-04-14 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-14 03:18 pm (UTC)I loved the Bill, Nardole, Doctor combination. Nardole going from one note comic relief in The Husbands of River Song to endearing three dimensional character ("with special permission to kick the Doctor's ass") in s10 was such an unexpected delight.
Mind you, the Doctor avoiding uneven relationships in that particular combination might also have had something to do with the fact he was directing his co-dependent tendencies at Missy?
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Date: 2019-04-14 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-14 05:58 pm (UTC)To be fair, he was basically throwing her at Penny later in the season, so maybe he did learn something from the way he treated Danny.
But yeah, he was also directing all his co-dependent tendencies at Missy.
I also think that with Twelve those co-dependence issues manifested differently than with the previous modern Doctors: Nine to Eleven were very domineering, basically expecting their companions to keep up with him, whereas Twelve comes across as more needy and submissive towards his companions (with the obvious exception of Nardole).
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Date: 2019-04-14 07:59 pm (UTC)That's interesting! although it felt like the show kinda kept setting up Yaz and Ryan, and then it kept going nowhere. I did think Yaz was Thirteen's favourite, but it was subtle.
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Date: 2019-04-15 07:00 am (UTC)Mind you, they still might do so in the future. I mean, among the three companions Ryan and Graham had the big emotional arc with each other, - bonding as people while also working through their mutual grief for Grace - , but it's also one that is over and wrapped up (their relationship is now established), so whatever Ryan's future emotional story will be about, it won't be about this. So who knows? And Yaz has yet to get something as narratively dominating as said first season arc for Graham and Ryan, though I'd hope it will be something more/other than "Falling in love" when she does.
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Date: 2019-04-15 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-14 05:29 pm (UTC)I really should rewatch Amy's Choice, it's been a while!
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Date: 2019-04-15 07:10 am (UTC)a) the Fifth Doctor has overtones in his last tv stories, especially the very last one, which is bleak and grimdark as well.
b) The Big Finish audios about the "classic" Doctors occasionally have them exhibit self loathing, usually if they failed to save someone and/or if a Companion calls them out on having messed up. But of course by now many of these audios were created after RTD relaunched the show on tv, so just as several of the early New Who episodes were in fact inspired by some Big Finish audios (famoulsy "Dalek" in s1 by the audio "Jubilee", for example) and some novels created in the years when there was no DW on screen, the new screen issues and characterisation also got mirrored back on some of the later Big Finish stuff.
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Date: 2019-04-21 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-14 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-15 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-14 07:57 pm (UTC)Matt Smith is one of my favourite Doctors, though, I thought he really nailed the not-human and sometimes even inhuman side of the Doctor beautifully. I personally couldn't stand the way Amy and Rory left, though, or Clara and Eleven, and unfortunately Clara and Twelve really did not work for me either. I've heard Bill and Twelve are great together, though.
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Date: 2019-04-15 07:15 am (UTC)Yep. As I said, this was the episode that really clarified Amy for me, and of all her great moments in said episode, that was the one most sticking in my mind.
re: Matt Smith, I thought he was excellent in conveying the "old man in a young body" element, and I like the Eleventh Doctor, I do. I just never loved him, and that happens.
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Date: 2019-04-14 08:27 pm (UTC)I must admit, my main memory of that episode is me going, "That cold star thing is scientifically ridiculous... Oh, wait, this is Doctor Who, so that doesn't actually mean anything," only to be told at the end that, come on, that was scientifically ridiculous so of course it wasn't real. That amuses me far more than it ought to, somehow.
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Date: 2019-04-15 07:16 am (UTC)