Doctor Who 04x09 DO NOT WANT!
Jun. 8th, 2008 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karenorYep, a bit late to the party with this one. Hope it isn't TOO repetitive for y'all. Certainly, I imagine, a lot of us have similar issues with this ep. *sigh*
I should state that, for the record, I was not a Moffat hater before this. He’s been getting on my nerves for a while, yeah, but I thought he was not without skill. I’m one of those out there who actually LIKED GitF, and while its biggest fail issues are character continuity, it does make for an interesting moment to try to make sense of and apply to the bigger picture. So, given that I don’t think I was already predisposed to disliking his stuff automatically (c’mon TEC/TDD was all SORTS of awesome), well… you know I’m for serious about my disappointment here.
Putting aside the shoddy, lazy, needlessly self-referrential writing, the telling not showing, the obvious gleeful ship squashing, the sexism stuff, which we’ll get to in a minute, let’s just focus on why this episode was immensely unsatisfying.
As far as being a two-parter? Pretty much fail. It didn’t need to be except for adding in the parts what sucked the most. But that’s whatever. What made me get stabby in my knee-jerk reaction? We never get a decent answer on who River was, really. Yeah, so we know that, apparently, she’s telling the truth (and btw, the fact that it seemed impossible for it to be true last week doesn’t make it GOOD writing, it makes it lame and not well-realized). With that whole whispered word to convince him thing at the beginning? I was flailing in annoyance right then. A LOT. It tainted my viewing of the whole rest of the ep. Because I assumed we wouldn’t know WHAT the word is or what it means. So we got the latter of the two. It’s a very special thing he would only tell under one single circumstance. LAME! Which all points to the very questionable paradox that Moffat has created, but I’ll get to that in a minute too.
Basically we didn’t find out anything we didn’t know (if we took River at her word) from the first episode. Still nothing to indicate she actually was being completely truthful. Anyway.
2nd point of dissatisfaction. The whole ripping off everything that ever was ever? Only vaguely half explained. I had really high hopes for this last week (call me an optimist… a former optimist). While CAL had every story ever created at her disposal to create HER universe, it doesn’t explain the tropes and *coughyeahrightcough* homages in the episode itself.
3rd point. Predictable like WOAH. Who didn’t call River was going to die last week? Anyone? Anyone? What about the little girl or her mind being the/part of the computer? The 4022 people saved stored to it somehow? Anyone bat an eyelash except to roll an eye or two?
Which I think can lead us well into the particulars of the ep which made it pretty well awful and makes me fear for the future of this show:
Um… given that WE all had it figured out last week, pretty much… why is the Doctor a moron? W. T. F. That whole light bulb safe/saved moment? DUH. Books are made of trees? DUH. ugh. The Doctor is effing better than this. Is THIS the kind of Doctor we have to look forward to in the future? *cries*
Next. Moffat’s chick issues. Where does Donna go after she’s ‘saved’? To an idyllic world where she finds the perfect man who adores her but says nothing, which is clearly what all women want. She gets to stay home and be a perfect mum to perfect kids (boy and girl twins? what is she 11?), because, THAT, my friends, is what happiness is, for a woman: being a wife and mother, and wait for hubby and his briefcase to come home. I mean, SM rips off The Matrix, didn’t he WATCH it? Perfection doesn’t make you happy, it makes you question reality.
Not to mention Donna is, by all accounts, completely uninterested in a life like that. Her last attempt at marriage ended pretty awfully, and she’s stated she’s going to travel with the Doctor forever, despite having NO intentions on him (a fact that SM didn’t seem content with for some reason).
And poor Miss effed-up-face Evangelista. Pretty and dumb as a post in RL, but saved into a computer and voila, glitch makes her ugly, unloved, and therefore BRILLIANT! Able to see all. Pretty women aren’t smart, right? They don’t have to be! They don’t need brains to get a man! WTF! Is this 1952??? And only being unloved leads you to seeing the truth? I’m sorry, but WHAT? Srsly? Srsly????
And River, who gave no indication (she’s a time travelling archeologist, yo!) that a world like Donna’s CAL-induced one is something that would make her happy, gets stuck there for all time! Because the Moffat knows. That’s what women really want. Motherhood and pretty white dresses. OMG FAIL!
This ties in to lame story AND stupid Doctor too. He thought THIS was what she wanted? That’s VERY unDoctory to me. To deny her whatever comes after life to eternal digitalization in a mock world? (*flail* Does Moffat watch ANY eps but his own???) And this is GOOD? A happy ending? Everybody lives? His future self being BRILLIANT????????? He wasn’t there, doesn’t know it’s “better” and even so I think that would pretty much be counterintuitive to the Doctor. Against ALL his instincts for what’s RIGHT for souls. God this makes me angry.
(Gah, there is too much, I wanted to be organized and I’m all over the place. I’m also only half awake…Sorry!)
Anyway. River and her end and what she means to the Doctor etc. We’ve already covered that this wasn’t explained sufficiently. But as we’re meant to take her at her word, and the Doctor at his? WTF? I mean, what of the ginormous paradox here? The Doctor KNOWS the apparent extent of their relationship, down to exactly how it ends. How’s he going to feel when he first meets her? Is he going to fall for her because it’s right for him or because he’s SUPPOSED to get that close to her to preserve the time line? (Or is this a Moffat version of a perfect relationship, ultimately no commitment? Intergalactic bootie calls? No nagging wifey to be there all the damn time, just whenever she’s needed?) He gives her the screwdriver because he knows he has to, knows she’s going to die otherwise. Oh wait, she DOES die. Know she’s not going to be saved to computer heaven otherwise. Knows he has to tell her his name. And so DOES he tell her in that ONE MAGICAL CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS INTIMACY, (Moffat: *cackles at D/R OTPers*), or does he tell because she needs to know? (Doctor: Hey River, what’s up? If you wanna not totally die in the future, tell me this, I’ll totally freak out! Won’t that be awesome!) … Ok, maybe he wouldn’t be so flippant about his all important name, but still, we don’t know that it actually means what he thinks it means. Given that he HAD to tell her to preserve the time line.
And speaking of. River is stupid. She didn’t behave like ‘the best companion evar’ should! (Not to mention the UnbeLIEVable lack of chemistry there. I mean, honestly, Doctor/TARDIS console or Doctor/Door is a more crackling match, and I like Alex Kingston and think she’s a fine actress. But I digress…) All this crap about spoilers. Didn’t she tell the Doctor WAY TOO FREAKIN much about his future? Wouldn’t he have to like, erase his memory so he doesn’t fuck up everything and asplode the universe? Except wait, he can’t, not if he wants to magic the future!sonic to save her! Also, the Doctor not being HER Doctor? She’s encountered him all throughout space and time, apparently. She’d be used to him in different stages of ‘development’. The Doctor HAS had the effect she describes (more or less [better for the less]) before, and is THAT what he turns into? A glaring all powerful being who can (omg *flails at the LAME*) open the TARDIS with a snap of his fingers. Because keys are obviously a waste of time. Cool people don’t need keys. (I envision DT rolling his eyes up into his head and counting the days till he leaves when he read that… Karen: *stabby stabby*) The Doctor already is the coolest guy EVER. Does he need the TARDIS obeying his snaps to prove it? Apparently River thinks so and so does Moffat. Again, not the Doctor I look forward to watching.
Ok, even my ire is running out of review steam. I’m worn out and fuzzy headed at the mo’ so forgive any incoherency on the part of my ranting. So… final thoughts…
In my opinion, probably the worst episodes in New Who history, and I don’t say that lightly, because there have been some very questionable eps in there. I think Moffat felt like he was making his mark on the history of the show by creating a huge important character. But I really imagine it will instead be going down as the episode(s) us crazy fans either point out as possibly the worst EVAR (in a great show and what has been so far a damn good series), and I say possibly only because I imagine there is quite a bit of badness to come… or simply, the beginning of the end.
Unless you liked it and think Moffat is awesome. That’s your right. I just don’t get it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. That ability makes us (reasonable people) great. And fandom (and RL) would be kinda boring if we all agreed on everything all the time, wouldn't it? ;)
*takes deep breath*
I’m going to do my best to ignore the implications of this ep and hope that it doesn’t lock the Doctor into becoming a tard. I’m going to try very, very hard to look forward to the next four weeks and hope that RTD, as crazy as he is (was already and now he’s handed the reins over to this guy? *cries moar*), has a plan for us that doesn’t involve epic fail and/or soul crushing.
I should state that, for the record, I was not a Moffat hater before this. He’s been getting on my nerves for a while, yeah, but I thought he was not without skill. I’m one of those out there who actually LIKED GitF, and while its biggest fail issues are character continuity, it does make for an interesting moment to try to make sense of and apply to the bigger picture. So, given that I don’t think I was already predisposed to disliking his stuff automatically (c’mon TEC/TDD was all SORTS of awesome), well… you know I’m for serious about my disappointment here.
Putting aside the shoddy, lazy, needlessly self-referrential writing, the telling not showing, the obvious gleeful ship squashing, the sexism stuff, which we’ll get to in a minute, let’s just focus on why this episode was immensely unsatisfying.
As far as being a two-parter? Pretty much fail. It didn’t need to be except for adding in the parts what sucked the most. But that’s whatever. What made me get stabby in my knee-jerk reaction? We never get a decent answer on who River was, really. Yeah, so we know that, apparently, she’s telling the truth (and btw, the fact that it seemed impossible for it to be true last week doesn’t make it GOOD writing, it makes it lame and not well-realized). With that whole whispered word to convince him thing at the beginning? I was flailing in annoyance right then. A LOT. It tainted my viewing of the whole rest of the ep. Because I assumed we wouldn’t know WHAT the word is or what it means. So we got the latter of the two. It’s a very special thing he would only tell under one single circumstance. LAME! Which all points to the very questionable paradox that Moffat has created, but I’ll get to that in a minute too.
Basically we didn’t find out anything we didn’t know (if we took River at her word) from the first episode. Still nothing to indicate she actually was being completely truthful. Anyway.
2nd point of dissatisfaction. The whole ripping off everything that ever was ever? Only vaguely half explained. I had really high hopes for this last week (call me an optimist… a former optimist). While CAL had every story ever created at her disposal to create HER universe, it doesn’t explain the tropes and *coughyeahrightcough* homages in the episode itself.
3rd point. Predictable like WOAH. Who didn’t call River was going to die last week? Anyone? Anyone? What about the little girl or her mind being the/part of the computer? The 4022 people saved stored to it somehow? Anyone bat an eyelash except to roll an eye or two?
Which I think can lead us well into the particulars of the ep which made it pretty well awful and makes me fear for the future of this show:
Um… given that WE all had it figured out last week, pretty much… why is the Doctor a moron? W. T. F. That whole light bulb safe/saved moment? DUH. Books are made of trees? DUH. ugh. The Doctor is effing better than this. Is THIS the kind of Doctor we have to look forward to in the future? *cries*
Next. Moffat’s chick issues. Where does Donna go after she’s ‘saved’? To an idyllic world where she finds the perfect man who adores her but says nothing, which is clearly what all women want. She gets to stay home and be a perfect mum to perfect kids (boy and girl twins? what is she 11?), because, THAT, my friends, is what happiness is, for a woman: being a wife and mother, and wait for hubby and his briefcase to come home. I mean, SM rips off The Matrix, didn’t he WATCH it? Perfection doesn’t make you happy, it makes you question reality.
Not to mention Donna is, by all accounts, completely uninterested in a life like that. Her last attempt at marriage ended pretty awfully, and she’s stated she’s going to travel with the Doctor forever, despite having NO intentions on him (a fact that SM didn’t seem content with for some reason).
And poor Miss effed-up-face Evangelista. Pretty and dumb as a post in RL, but saved into a computer and voila, glitch makes her ugly, unloved, and therefore BRILLIANT! Able to see all. Pretty women aren’t smart, right? They don’t have to be! They don’t need brains to get a man! WTF! Is this 1952??? And only being unloved leads you to seeing the truth? I’m sorry, but WHAT? Srsly? Srsly????
And River, who gave no indication (she’s a time travelling archeologist, yo!) that a world like Donna’s CAL-induced one is something that would make her happy, gets stuck there for all time! Because the Moffat knows. That’s what women really want. Motherhood and pretty white dresses. OMG FAIL!
This ties in to lame story AND stupid Doctor too. He thought THIS was what she wanted? That’s VERY unDoctory to me. To deny her whatever comes after life to eternal digitalization in a mock world? (*flail* Does Moffat watch ANY eps but his own???) And this is GOOD? A happy ending? Everybody lives? His future self being BRILLIANT????????? He wasn’t there, doesn’t know it’s “better” and even so I think that would pretty much be counterintuitive to the Doctor. Against ALL his instincts for what’s RIGHT for souls. God this makes me angry.
(Gah, there is too much, I wanted to be organized and I’m all over the place. I’m also only half awake…Sorry!)
Anyway. River and her end and what she means to the Doctor etc. We’ve already covered that this wasn’t explained sufficiently. But as we’re meant to take her at her word, and the Doctor at his? WTF? I mean, what of the ginormous paradox here? The Doctor KNOWS the apparent extent of their relationship, down to exactly how it ends. How’s he going to feel when he first meets her? Is he going to fall for her because it’s right for him or because he’s SUPPOSED to get that close to her to preserve the time line? (Or is this a Moffat version of a perfect relationship, ultimately no commitment? Intergalactic bootie calls? No nagging wifey to be there all the damn time, just whenever she’s needed?) He gives her the screwdriver because he knows he has to, knows she’s going to die otherwise. Oh wait, she DOES die. Know she’s not going to be saved to computer heaven otherwise. Knows he has to tell her his name. And so DOES he tell her in that ONE MAGICAL CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS INTIMACY, (Moffat: *cackles at D/R OTPers*), or does he tell because she needs to know? (Doctor: Hey River, what’s up? If you wanna not totally die in the future, tell me this, I’ll totally freak out! Won’t that be awesome!) … Ok, maybe he wouldn’t be so flippant about his all important name, but still, we don’t know that it actually means what he thinks it means. Given that he HAD to tell her to preserve the time line.
And speaking of. River is stupid. She didn’t behave like ‘the best companion evar’ should! (Not to mention the UnbeLIEVable lack of chemistry there. I mean, honestly, Doctor/TARDIS console or Doctor/Door is a more crackling match, and I like Alex Kingston and think she’s a fine actress. But I digress…) All this crap about spoilers. Didn’t she tell the Doctor WAY TOO FREAKIN much about his future? Wouldn’t he have to like, erase his memory so he doesn’t fuck up everything and asplode the universe? Except wait, he can’t, not if he wants to magic the future!sonic to save her! Also, the Doctor not being HER Doctor? She’s encountered him all throughout space and time, apparently. She’d be used to him in different stages of ‘development’. The Doctor HAS had the effect she describes (more or less [better for the less]) before, and is THAT what he turns into? A glaring all powerful being who can (omg *flails at the LAME*) open the TARDIS with a snap of his fingers. Because keys are obviously a waste of time. Cool people don’t need keys. (I envision DT rolling his eyes up into his head and counting the days till he leaves when he read that… Karen: *stabby stabby*) The Doctor already is the coolest guy EVER. Does he need the TARDIS obeying his snaps to prove it? Apparently River thinks so and so does Moffat. Again, not the Doctor I look forward to watching.
Ok, even my ire is running out of review steam. I’m worn out and fuzzy headed at the mo’ so forgive any incoherency on the part of my ranting. So… final thoughts…
In my opinion, probably the worst episodes in New Who history, and I don’t say that lightly, because there have been some very questionable eps in there. I think Moffat felt like he was making his mark on the history of the show by creating a huge important character. But I really imagine it will instead be going down as the episode(s) us crazy fans either point out as possibly the worst EVAR (in a great show and what has been so far a damn good series), and I say possibly only because I imagine there is quite a bit of badness to come… or simply, the beginning of the end.
Unless you liked it and think Moffat is awesome. That’s your right. I just don’t get it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. That ability makes us (reasonable people) great. And fandom (and RL) would be kinda boring if we all agreed on everything all the time, wouldn't it? ;)
*takes deep breath*
I’m going to do my best to ignore the implications of this ep and hope that it doesn’t lock the Doctor into becoming a tard. I’m going to try very, very hard to look forward to the next four weeks and hope that RTD, as crazy as he is (was already and now he’s handed the reins over to this guy? *cries moar*), has a plan for us that doesn’t involve epic fail and/or soul crushing.
