Dr. Who 2(8).05 review
May. 16th, 2006 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakEn route to Dresden I finally had the chance to watch Rise of the Cybermen.
And now I’m very very afraid indeed for Mickey. Because this was so clearly designed and meant to be his big episode (part I), endearing him even to those who still held out (as a Mickey lover of last season, I feel smug), which makes me fear that in his big episode (part II), he’ll die the heroic death Mr. Whedon has prepared me to expect in this kind of scenario.
Meanwhile, let’s revel in what is there. Squee, sniffle and be ‘shippy for tomorrow Mickey might die. Aside from the “we take Mickey for granted” theme which is spelled out to us in case we miss it by letting Rose say it (thank you, Rose), I find the shifts in Mickey’s relationships with both Rose and the Doctor that are occuring this season fascinating. Last season, with Nine, everything was pretty clear-cut: Mickey loved Rose, disliked and resented the Doctor for taking her away, and the Doctor was pretty much abrasive and dismissive of Mickey, with the exception of offering him to come along and keeping his secret at the end of World War Three, but both gestures came across as being more about Rose than they were about Mickey. In the era of Ten, however, things have changed. By and large. For starters, Mickey is no longer pining after Rose. Obviously, he still cares about her tremondously, and they’re so comfortable and easy with each other when alone that I can see their relationship going either way – staying friends, or eventually becoming a couple again, and by the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still have sex occasionally as it is – but he’s not trying to “win her back” in the traditional sense, he didn’t come on board the TARDIS because of her, and he clearly accepts her relationship with the Doctor. When he teases her about him (as in “…but he called her Cleo”, in the last episode), it comes across as good natured, not as jealous.
Conversely, Mickey has started to become interested in the Doctor (as something other than That Alien Guy Who Took Rose Away And Occasionally Saves The World, I mean), makes friendly overtures and actually seems to be hurt by the clear hierarchy of caring. On the other hand, the Doctor as Ten is no longer as dismissive of Mickey as he was as Nine. He still can be oblivious (see the thing with the button, which btw reminded me of One’s initial attitude towards Ian and Barbara somewhat), but there are no “Ricky” or “Mickey the idiot” taunts, and when things like the TARDIS crash happen, he asks whether Mickey is okay (after Rose, but come on – anything else would be unrealistic, and the other incarnations asked after their companions first, too), which I can’t see Nine doing. I was very amused indeed that the main male bonding of the episode occurred while repairing thecar TARDIS, and liked the give and take there. Mickey’s wry “does that help?” question would have been unthinkable in the Nine era, too; methinks the crucial turning point for Mickey in the way he approaches the Doctor was the “he’s just a bloke” from School Reunion, which also marks the first occasion he teases the Doctor. Afterwards, when they find Rose, she announces her intention to see her father, and Mickey calls the Doctor out on the fact there isn’t really a choice, they all know his priorities, I think you have the turning point for the Doctor re: Mickey, because for Nine, there wouldn’t even have been a moment of hesitation. He’d have gone after Rose right away. Ten still goes after Rose but feels responsible for Mickey, too, and has just realized how the whole being taken for granted thing might Mickey feel. Not coincidentally, the next time we see Ten and Rose, they’re talking about Mickey, with Rose filling in Ten (and the viewer) with a lot of useful background exposition. And yes, he didn’t ask (before).
(Now if next week’s teaser showes the Doctor praising Mickey, and apologizing to him, though, Mickey is toast. Mark my words.)
Ricky (which, okay, is amusing) so far pretty much is Action!Mickey, the badass hero version, and consequently far less interesting a character. Otoh, he has a living grandmother, which provides Mickey with an incredibly sad and angsty scene. Now I shall rewatch Father’s Day with the sole purpose of catching a glimpse of Mickey’s gran. He also provides writer and director with an excuse to let Noel Clarke strip, which is not a bad thing. I predict an explosion of Mickey smut after that one.
Speaking of Father’s Day: personally, I would have found it more interesting if Alt!Pete would not have been such a nice bloke bonding with Rose on the double (again) and Alt!Jackie the dismissive snob, but rather the other way around this time, but okay. Incidentally, given that having an unknown girl tell you all about how you should handle your marriage would put anyone’s back up, it’s possible that Jackie wasn’t meant quite like such a caricature; I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the second part.
Now the true ‘ship of this show, in more than one sense, is clearly Doctor/TARDIS, so I was a happy fan in my masochistic way when we first got to see him angst about her crash – and calling the TARDIS “her” – has he done that before? I’m not sure here – and then donate life energy to revive her. I stand by my claim that the entity calling him “my Doctor” in The Parting of the Ways was the TARDIS, not Rose, and now he reciprocates what she did there. Awwww. Future vid makers, that scene with Ten blowing should be coupled with the one where Nine gives back energy to the TARDIS.
The zeppelins provided an extremely cool visual for Alt!Earth, and the earplugs for the uber-internet were creepy indeed. As far as villains go, John Lumic clearly went to the Davros school of OTT Bad Guyness, but these types tend to show up on this series as regularly as not-so-good special effects, and besides, he actually got a motivation other than I WANNA RULE THE WORLD (i.e. the fact he’s dying). Not having seen Two’s adventures with the Cybermen, I didn’t have any expectations, but they came across as suitably scary and yet pitiable (due to the way they get created).
One last thought: so Rose gets her Not!parents and Mickey gets his Not!grandmother. What are the chances the Doctor sooner or later gets his Not!Other Timelords?
In other news, I'm as pleased as punch that my Quark 'n Dax tale of old, Two of Us, got recced at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van. I also used what time I had in between my visit to the APs to write a couple of recs for operation_alias myself, and now have the Alias muse telling me about a longer fanfic I really can't afford to write right now, with two ficathon entries yet to be done and lots of RL stuff as well.
And now I’m very very afraid indeed for Mickey. Because this was so clearly designed and meant to be his big episode (part I), endearing him even to those who still held out (as a Mickey lover of last season, I feel smug), which makes me fear that in his big episode (part II), he’ll die the heroic death Mr. Whedon has prepared me to expect in this kind of scenario.
Meanwhile, let’s revel in what is there. Squee, sniffle and be ‘shippy for tomorrow Mickey might die. Aside from the “we take Mickey for granted” theme which is spelled out to us in case we miss it by letting Rose say it (thank you, Rose), I find the shifts in Mickey’s relationships with both Rose and the Doctor that are occuring this season fascinating. Last season, with Nine, everything was pretty clear-cut: Mickey loved Rose, disliked and resented the Doctor for taking her away, and the Doctor was pretty much abrasive and dismissive of Mickey, with the exception of offering him to come along and keeping his secret at the end of World War Three, but both gestures came across as being more about Rose than they were about Mickey. In the era of Ten, however, things have changed. By and large. For starters, Mickey is no longer pining after Rose. Obviously, he still cares about her tremondously, and they’re so comfortable and easy with each other when alone that I can see their relationship going either way – staying friends, or eventually becoming a couple again, and by the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still have sex occasionally as it is – but he’s not trying to “win her back” in the traditional sense, he didn’t come on board the TARDIS because of her, and he clearly accepts her relationship with the Doctor. When he teases her about him (as in “…but he called her Cleo”, in the last episode), it comes across as good natured, not as jealous.
Conversely, Mickey has started to become interested in the Doctor (as something other than That Alien Guy Who Took Rose Away And Occasionally Saves The World, I mean), makes friendly overtures and actually seems to be hurt by the clear hierarchy of caring. On the other hand, the Doctor as Ten is no longer as dismissive of Mickey as he was as Nine. He still can be oblivious (see the thing with the button, which btw reminded me of One’s initial attitude towards Ian and Barbara somewhat), but there are no “Ricky” or “Mickey the idiot” taunts, and when things like the TARDIS crash happen, he asks whether Mickey is okay (after Rose, but come on – anything else would be unrealistic, and the other incarnations asked after their companions first, too), which I can’t see Nine doing. I was very amused indeed that the main male bonding of the episode occurred while repairing the
(Now if next week’s teaser showes the Doctor praising Mickey, and apologizing to him, though, Mickey is toast. Mark my words.)
Ricky (which, okay, is amusing) so far pretty much is Action!Mickey, the badass hero version, and consequently far less interesting a character. Otoh, he has a living grandmother, which provides Mickey with an incredibly sad and angsty scene. Now I shall rewatch Father’s Day with the sole purpose of catching a glimpse of Mickey’s gran. He also provides writer and director with an excuse to let Noel Clarke strip, which is not a bad thing. I predict an explosion of Mickey smut after that one.
Speaking of Father’s Day: personally, I would have found it more interesting if Alt!Pete would not have been such a nice bloke bonding with Rose on the double (again) and Alt!Jackie the dismissive snob, but rather the other way around this time, but okay. Incidentally, given that having an unknown girl tell you all about how you should handle your marriage would put anyone’s back up, it’s possible that Jackie wasn’t meant quite like such a caricature; I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the second part.
Now the true ‘ship of this show, in more than one sense, is clearly Doctor/TARDIS, so I was a happy fan in my masochistic way when we first got to see him angst about her crash – and calling the TARDIS “her” – has he done that before? I’m not sure here – and then donate life energy to revive her. I stand by my claim that the entity calling him “my Doctor” in The Parting of the Ways was the TARDIS, not Rose, and now he reciprocates what she did there. Awwww. Future vid makers, that scene with Ten blowing should be coupled with the one where Nine gives back energy to the TARDIS.
The zeppelins provided an extremely cool visual for Alt!Earth, and the earplugs for the uber-internet were creepy indeed. As far as villains go, John Lumic clearly went to the Davros school of OTT Bad Guyness, but these types tend to show up on this series as regularly as not-so-good special effects, and besides, he actually got a motivation other than I WANNA RULE THE WORLD (i.e. the fact he’s dying). Not having seen Two’s adventures with the Cybermen, I didn’t have any expectations, but they came across as suitably scary and yet pitiable (due to the way they get created).
One last thought: so Rose gets her Not!parents and Mickey gets his Not!grandmother. What are the chances the Doctor sooner or later gets his Not!Other Timelords?
In other news, I'm as pleased as punch that my Quark 'n Dax tale of old, Two of Us, got recced at
crack_van. I also used what time I had in between my visit to the APs to write a couple of recs for operation_alias myself, and now have the Alias muse telling me about a longer fanfic I really can't afford to write right now, with two ficathon entries yet to be done and lots of RL stuff as well.
