Doctor Who 6.11. The God Complex
Sep. 26th, 2011 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe God Complex: Aaand it's Toby Whithouse, whom I currently feel very benevolently about due to the third season of Being Human, one of the most amazing examples of growing the beard I know. Back on DW with a locked house meta episode which borrows one of the central plot points from the Seven and Ace classic Curse of Fenric, which I don't mean as a criticism - it does so in an inventive way.
Early on I wasn't sure whether or not this episode shouldn't have been broadcast before The Girl Who Waited, but of course the end settled that.
Now: for those of you unfamiliar with Curse of Fenric: the plot point I talked about is that faith, any kind of faith (this btw includes several Russians' devotion to communism, bless the 80s BBC; in case you're wondering, what the Doctor has faith in is his companions, all of his companions - there is this delightful scene in which he murmurs all of their names until this point of the show), is what seems to keep the characters safe from the monsters du jour, but in the climactic scene the Doctor has to break his companion Ace's faith in him completely in order to defeat the villain. It's an emotionally devastating scene despite the audience knowing why he does it - he's Seven and so very very good at manipulation, after all. The aftermath also showcases the co-dependent Seven and Ace dynamic at its hurt/comfort finest. Add the layer that Ace is the one case where her change-via-travel-with-the-Doctor isn't random and the inevitable by product of life on the TARDIS but the Doctor doing it deliberately because the original plan for Ace's story arc was for the Doctor to basically make her into a Time Lord/his successor.
Comparing the Seven and Ace scenes with the Eleven and Amy ones is fascinating, because Eleven is as sure as Seven of what he's doing and which buttons to push with his companion, but he's far gentler doing it, and he's doing it not just to defeat the monster du jour and definitely not in order to make Amy into the carrier of the torch, he's doing it to let her go for good. The affection for the companion in both cases is very real, and so is the need of the Doctor to have that companion still love him despite of what he's just done, but Eleven is willing to let her go as well.
I dimly recall from Toby Whithouse's School Reunion interviews that he admitted not having watched a lot of Old Who before getting hired (at which point he did it for research), but if he claims not being familiar with Fenric I won't believe him. I mean, he even let the Doctor repeatedly point out the 80s era set decoration. And that Minotaur was looking every bit as fake as the old monsters ever did.
Howie the nerd was a bit of a cliché, but Rita was not, and being a doctor, a Muslim and a Brit reminded me of Paul Cornell's character Faisa from Marvel comics a bit. She was a great character in her own right, and it really hurt when she died. Plus her scenes with the Doctor were great, as he went seamlessly from telling her why he shouldn't have companions (and his m.o. for getting them) to asking her. (And Rita being bright, curious and brave, it was inevitable that he would. But she's also complete in her life and hence not willing to run off.)
Not showing us what the Doctor sees in room 11 (btw the whole thing with the hotel rooms is why I suspect Toby W. of really liking King's The Shining, though he gets in a dig at It as well with the unimpressive clown) was the right choice. We had already had the Dream Lord last season, after all, plus various episodes in which the current Doctor, whichever regeneration he was, was his own worst fear.
Question: where were Amy and Rory staying during those times they weren't in the TARDIS (i.e. between seasons 5 and 6, and during the half season break of 6) if the Doctor gave them the house and the car only now? Not with Amy's parents (back in reality once more post s5) - Rory's place? Anyway, sending them off to their life on earth was the logical conclusion, and after her experiences in the previous episode and this one and, well, the entire season, Amy is willing to go as well; she accepts the fond farewell and doesn't run after the TARDIS anymore. Because she's aware, as is Rory, that if you stay with the Doctor for too long, you're living on borrowed time, they already paid a price for this in the form of their daughter, and it's only by the skin of their teeth that neither of them isn't dead or locked away for decades right now.
The Minotaur-Doctor parallels were a bit anvilly, but worked far better for me than the Doctor-Starwhale comparisons last season. Go you, Whithouse.
Early on I wasn't sure whether or not this episode shouldn't have been broadcast before The Girl Who Waited, but of course the end settled that.
Now: for those of you unfamiliar with Curse of Fenric: the plot point I talked about is that faith, any kind of faith (this btw includes several Russians' devotion to communism, bless the 80s BBC; in case you're wondering, what the Doctor has faith in is his companions, all of his companions - there is this delightful scene in which he murmurs all of their names until this point of the show), is what seems to keep the characters safe from the monsters du jour, but in the climactic scene the Doctor has to break his companion Ace's faith in him completely in order to defeat the villain. It's an emotionally devastating scene despite the audience knowing why he does it - he's Seven and so very very good at manipulation, after all. The aftermath also showcases the co-dependent Seven and Ace dynamic at its hurt/comfort finest. Add the layer that Ace is the one case where her change-via-travel-with-the-Doctor isn't random and the inevitable by product of life on the TARDIS but the Doctor doing it deliberately because the original plan for Ace's story arc was for the Doctor to basically make her into a Time Lord/his successor.
Comparing the Seven and Ace scenes with the Eleven and Amy ones is fascinating, because Eleven is as sure as Seven of what he's doing and which buttons to push with his companion, but he's far gentler doing it, and he's doing it not just to defeat the monster du jour and definitely not in order to make Amy into the carrier of the torch, he's doing it to let her go for good. The affection for the companion in both cases is very real, and so is the need of the Doctor to have that companion still love him despite of what he's just done, but Eleven is willing to let her go as well.
I dimly recall from Toby Whithouse's School Reunion interviews that he admitted not having watched a lot of Old Who before getting hired (at which point he did it for research), but if he claims not being familiar with Fenric I won't believe him. I mean, he even let the Doctor repeatedly point out the 80s era set decoration. And that Minotaur was looking every bit as fake as the old monsters ever did.
Howie the nerd was a bit of a cliché, but Rita was not, and being a doctor, a Muslim and a Brit reminded me of Paul Cornell's character Faisa from Marvel comics a bit. She was a great character in her own right, and it really hurt when she died. Plus her scenes with the Doctor were great, as he went seamlessly from telling her why he shouldn't have companions (and his m.o. for getting them) to asking her. (And Rita being bright, curious and brave, it was inevitable that he would. But she's also complete in her life and hence not willing to run off.)
Not showing us what the Doctor sees in room 11 (btw the whole thing with the hotel rooms is why I suspect Toby W. of really liking King's The Shining, though he gets in a dig at It as well with the unimpressive clown) was the right choice. We had already had the Dream Lord last season, after all, plus various episodes in which the current Doctor, whichever regeneration he was, was his own worst fear.
Question: where were Amy and Rory staying during those times they weren't in the TARDIS (i.e. between seasons 5 and 6, and during the half season break of 6) if the Doctor gave them the house and the car only now? Not with Amy's parents (back in reality once more post s5) - Rory's place? Anyway, sending them off to their life on earth was the logical conclusion, and after her experiences in the previous episode and this one and, well, the entire season, Amy is willing to go as well; she accepts the fond farewell and doesn't run after the TARDIS anymore. Because she's aware, as is Rory, that if you stay with the Doctor for too long, you're living on borrowed time, they already paid a price for this in the form of their daughter, and it's only by the skin of their teeth that neither of them isn't dead or locked away for decades right now.
The Minotaur-Doctor parallels were a bit anvilly, but worked far better for me than the Doctor-Starwhale comparisons last season. Go you, Whithouse.
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Date: 2011-09-30 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 08:18 am (UTC)