Doctor Who 5/31.09 Cold Blood
May. 30th, 2010 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFirst of, and unrelated with Doctor Who: it was really weird to return from the evening PEN meeting last night and find out Germany had won the Eurovision Song Contest. This just doesn't happen, except once in the entire history of said contest and like Monanotlisa said, for good reason. The world is upside down!
Meanwhile, in Wales.
As is my habit, the complaints before the praise. Chris Chibnall has, shall we say, a checkered track record in the Whoverse, and this episode doesn't change that. While I appreciate that there was more than one Silurian willing to negotiate this time, was it necessary to make all the relentlessly aggressive ones female and all the rational, reconciliatory ones male? The reverse would also have ticked me off, gender-wise, and the solution is obvious - mix and mingle. Why not make the general male and the wise leader female, for example? But no. On the bright side, there was no such clear-cut gender issue with the humans, but more about that in the praise section of this review.
Secondly, a complaint to Moffat, not to Chibnall: make up your mind about the importance of the crack. My problem with the season arc is that at the end of Flesh and Stone, the Doctor is all "must investigate this dangerous crack at once!". Then we hear nothing more about it for three episodes while our trio is gallivanting about in time and space, and now it's back and all important again, but I bet next episode will be about the monster of the week and Van Gogh and the Doctor won't mention going after the crack again until the episode before the season finale.
Thirdly, the outback and the Sahara aren't really empty, you know. I mean, I appreciate the idea of coexistence, but also kept having unfortunate flashbacks, all the way to the slogan "a country without people for people without a country" and the bloodshed it led to this day.
No, Rory's death isn't among the complaints, in case you're wondering, partly because I suspect he's only temporarily dead and erased (presumably the explosion in time that causes the cracks will be reversed in the finale, bringing back Rory, a bunch of Angels and the clerics of Father Octavian plus alloted other victims) and partly because to grant him his due, Chibnall can do moving death scenes. Tosh's and Owen's deaths were easily the best scenes in Exit Wounds (the otherwise not exactly stellar s2 Torchwood finale).
Now, on to what I liked about the episode: a genuine twist to the traditional tragic Silurian ending without going all the way and unrealistically in the opposite direction. Not only were there hotheads and peace-willing people among both Silurians and humans in equal measure, but the Silurians escaped a fourth genocide, and by going with them in hibernation, Nasreen and Tony embody hope for a peaceful human/Silurian future in a show, not tell way. Speaking of, hooray for Nasreen surviving the episode and indeed the millennium! Phew. She was the character I had been most afraid for. She also balanced Ambrose, and while Ambrose responding to the situations as she did was psychologically sound, I do which the Moff had edited her and the Doctor's lines because that was Chibmall at his "this is the moral of the story" clumsiest (I had flashbacks to Countrycide ). (Oh, and Elliot backing away apalled when his mother killing Aleya was revealed in moral horror? THAT wasn't just clumsy but unrealistic. I do not think a child would respond this way.)
Amy saving herself was fantastic and exactly what I'd hoped for, and her investigating the hibernating soldiers emphasizes her curiosity. Indeed Amy throughout had enough to do to make reconcile me to her lack of presence and activity in the last episode. Her reaction to Rory getting shot and then erased was devastating, especially the way you knew at once she had forgotten despite all efforts. (With the ongoing presence of the ring in the TARDIS a huge hint that this will be reversed.) And then waving at herself - alone. BTW, I had the impression the Doctor's memories of Rory are intact, and wonder whether we'll get some technobabble about this being due to his being a Time Lord and thus aware of changed timelines, or whether it'll have another reason.
The Doctor's glee about finally having managed to get humans and Silurians at the negotiating table was great with the past Silurian episodes in mind, but other than his attempt to help Amy keep her memories of Rory, my favourite Doctor scene was his quiet apology to Elliot. An unexpected moment and yet another example of one of the virtues of this season, the way it takes children very seriously indeed.
Lastly: alas, poor Rory, though I'm not mourning yet due to the above mentioned suspicions about the temporariness of his death. Moreover, alas, current Team TARDIS, because I really found it refreshing to have more than two people there, but the fact that this doesn't happen for longer than three episodes in New Who is still unchanged (and Old Who of course stopped group TARDIS teams after Five as well). And I really liked the dynamic between the Doctor, Rory and Amy; it felt more real to me than just the Doctor and Amy, if that's the right term.
Meanwhile, in Wales.
As is my habit, the complaints before the praise. Chris Chibnall has, shall we say, a checkered track record in the Whoverse, and this episode doesn't change that. While I appreciate that there was more than one Silurian willing to negotiate this time, was it necessary to make all the relentlessly aggressive ones female and all the rational, reconciliatory ones male? The reverse would also have ticked me off, gender-wise, and the solution is obvious - mix and mingle. Why not make the general male and the wise leader female, for example? But no. On the bright side, there was no such clear-cut gender issue with the humans, but more about that in the praise section of this review.
Secondly, a complaint to Moffat, not to Chibnall: make up your mind about the importance of the crack. My problem with the season arc is that at the end of Flesh and Stone, the Doctor is all "must investigate this dangerous crack at once!". Then we hear nothing more about it for three episodes while our trio is gallivanting about in time and space, and now it's back and all important again, but I bet next episode will be about the monster of the week and Van Gogh and the Doctor won't mention going after the crack again until the episode before the season finale.
Thirdly, the outback and the Sahara aren't really empty, you know. I mean, I appreciate the idea of coexistence, but also kept having unfortunate flashbacks, all the way to the slogan "a country without people for people without a country" and the bloodshed it led to this day.
No, Rory's death isn't among the complaints, in case you're wondering, partly because I suspect he's only temporarily dead and erased (presumably the explosion in time that causes the cracks will be reversed in the finale, bringing back Rory, a bunch of Angels and the clerics of Father Octavian plus alloted other victims) and partly because to grant him his due, Chibnall can do moving death scenes. Tosh's and Owen's deaths were easily the best scenes in Exit Wounds (the otherwise not exactly stellar s2 Torchwood finale).
Now, on to what I liked about the episode: a genuine twist to the traditional tragic Silurian ending without going all the way and unrealistically in the opposite direction. Not only were there hotheads and peace-willing people among both Silurians and humans in equal measure, but the Silurians escaped a fourth genocide, and by going with them in hibernation, Nasreen and Tony embody hope for a peaceful human/Silurian future in a show, not tell way. Speaking of, hooray for Nasreen surviving the episode and indeed the millennium! Phew. She was the character I had been most afraid for. She also balanced Ambrose, and while Ambrose responding to the situations as she did was psychologically sound, I do which the Moff had edited her and the Doctor's lines because that was Chibmall at his "this is the moral of the story" clumsiest (I had flashbacks to Countrycide ). (Oh, and Elliot backing away apalled when his mother killing Aleya was revealed in moral horror? THAT wasn't just clumsy but unrealistic. I do not think a child would respond this way.)
Amy saving herself was fantastic and exactly what I'd hoped for, and her investigating the hibernating soldiers emphasizes her curiosity. Indeed Amy throughout had enough to do to make reconcile me to her lack of presence and activity in the last episode. Her reaction to Rory getting shot and then erased was devastating, especially the way you knew at once she had forgotten despite all efforts. (With the ongoing presence of the ring in the TARDIS a huge hint that this will be reversed.) And then waving at herself - alone. BTW, I had the impression the Doctor's memories of Rory are intact, and wonder whether we'll get some technobabble about this being due to his being a Time Lord and thus aware of changed timelines, or whether it'll have another reason.
The Doctor's glee about finally having managed to get humans and Silurians at the negotiating table was great with the past Silurian episodes in mind, but other than his attempt to help Amy keep her memories of Rory, my favourite Doctor scene was his quiet apology to Elliot. An unexpected moment and yet another example of one of the virtues of this season, the way it takes children very seriously indeed.
Lastly: alas, poor Rory, though I'm not mourning yet due to the above mentioned suspicions about the temporariness of his death. Moreover, alas, current Team TARDIS, because I really found it refreshing to have more than two people there, but the fact that this doesn't happen for longer than three episodes in New Who is still unchanged (and Old Who of course stopped group TARDIS teams after Five as well). And I really liked the dynamic between the Doctor, Rory and Amy; it felt more real to me than just the Doctor and Amy, if that's the right term.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 12:56 pm (UTC)(More generally I have complex ideas about Eleven, Ten and class that boil down to liking Eleven more because he presents himself in a way that signals to the humans around him that he's born to incredible privilege, but in his deeds signals that he trusts most people and wants them to fulfil their potential, whereas Ten rather deceptively did the reverse.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 04:20 am (UTC)