Doctor Who 7x03 knee-jerk reaction post...

[karenor]

Yes, sometimes things happen in my life that aren't me watching Doctor Who. One day, I may even write about them. For now, let's discuss Who. As we do.

Okay. I liked this episode. Quite a lot. It was... hmm, fairly bog standard, but I'm cool with that. I actually am appreciating the more formulaic, not HEY LOOK AT ME I'M AN ARC arcyness thing that's been done before. The sleepy old west town (nice to see America represented, even if stereotypically), the fun set. I liked all the characters, for the most part. The terribly accented voice-over was even okay with me.

What's my beef? Two major characterization points.

1. Rory. What am I missing? WHY would he be one of the ones to be on the side of sending the alien doc to his death? I loved that Amy was the one to stop the madness (and a very nice Donna nod there as well)... but Rory's actions don't ring true to character to me. At ALL. Which brings me to 2.

2. Sigh. Okay. You know when the Doctor's actions would have made a lot more sense? If the Doctor hadn't cheerfully sent a criminal to his death to save a whole bunch of others LAST WEEK. I loved every moment of the Doctor's struggle. It was perfect. Would have been perfect. I would have bought his anger, completely, and maybe even cried when he was remembering his losses, what's been taken from him, what HE's had to do to save people, IF not for the end of last week's episode. It undid it all for me. And that's a shame, because it was really, really well done. But it made no sense, in continuity of character.

And speaking of continuity, last week Amy was like, Y U LEAVE DOCTA???, and now she's like nah, take us home, I don't wanna look old. Huh?

That's it. Otherwise, really liked the ep. Especially Isaac. Especially for the one dig at Americans that was actually funny ("Everyone who's not an American...").


P.S.G. (Post Script Gripe) Doctor, make up your mind about guns, plz. Kthnxbye.

Comments

[moonphased.livejournal.com]

*waves* Hello! I think I first found you on Teaspoon... ^^ Hope ya don't mind a random drive-by friending... ^^;;

I just finished watching this episode earlier and had a hard time putting my finger on what wasn't working for me with this episode. I think you nailed one regarding the Doctor's actions. Last week surprised me with his "Oh, by the way, Solomon... your ship is going boom. Bye now!" and this week he did it all over again with Jex. I guess Amy does have a point in saying that him traveling alone for so long is making him that much darker -- we saw it in his previous incarnation so maybe it's starting to happen again. I wonder if it'll be something that will actually play more into this year or if I'm just reading too much into it (...probably the latter).

And yes, the gun thing... that is bugging me a LOT about Eleven. Probably more than it should, but that's just me... ^^

Anyhow, just wanted to finally say hello to ya. Sorry for the ramble! ^^

[karenor.livejournal.com]

Hello! :)

Yeah, I buy the darker getting darker, and having less mercy, when he's alone. There's certainly precedent for that. But I just don't like the way it's being handled, episode to episode, I guess...

[lifefailsme.livejournal.com]

1: I have to agree with you, there was a tinge of... Huh? Nahh!

2: I dunno, I like the evolution of this Doctor and 7 was very ruthless in the way 11 is, maybe more acted ruthlessly too actually. I like he is willing to kill or the gun thing. Sometimes I will do something out of character for me, then I do it again and soon it becomes what I do if that makes sense and I kind of get that about 11 too. I've said I would never blaspheme and yet I do it all the time now, all it took was once, then twice then it became a habit for me. I imagine he is the same that way.

3: It's a very strange going on with Amy and Rory as Companions. They mention the time between adventures and The Doctor said he was 1200 years old, so he has gonna back and forward for them for 200 years and she has known him since a little girl yet they never travel with him for very prolonged periods, I like that dynamic and I think Moff pulled a great trick in having that with these Companions. Both have a life outside of travelling together, I really like it.

[karenor.livejournal.com]

2: My problem isn't his ruthlessness. It's the evolution that you mention. Because there is none, IMO. If he angsted at killing Solomon last week, then maybe. But he didn't. He had no compunction about it whatsoever. And okay, Solomon was evil, and this guy wasn't totally so, but that doesn't really make a difference. Or it shouldn't. I would totally believe his snapping this time if the Dinosaurs ep had ended differently.

3. Well, the Doctor has been 1200 since the beginning/end of series 6. And presumably he was without them for the bulk of those 300 years, and all his time with Amy and Rory NOW takes place after all that. But we do know from Pond Life that he's definitely having adventures without them. I appreciate that they have lives outside of travelling with the Doctor, but I don't think it works very well for the dynamic of the show. Especially when Amy herself keeps changing her mind about it.

[lifefailsme.livejournal.com]

2: I dunno, I can buy it, this Doctor is manic for sure and I think it manifests in a more complex pattern of behaviours for him. To me, anyway, he seems to be judging on a case by case now, he's not as blanket decision maker any more, not that either is a bad thing to me. Eleven seems to like his grey and leaves the black and white aside. RTD liked to create absolutists, be they evil or good guys, Moff clearly doesn't and I like his alternative, cos it's different to the last Doctors and that's how it should be.

3: I actually like the dynamic, this Doctor seems to have not gotten into the patterns Nine and Ten had with Companions. Plus it's very clear he has great chemistry with Amy and Rory, just cos it's not on a one on one I can tell The Doctor loves them in his way and thinks well of them. Sure he seems to be more connected to Amy but I guess that's just how the whole dynamic is. The 9th and 10th Doctors basically did the same thing with all their Companions, met them, they moved in intending it to be forever. It was a formula that was terrific and they used it for 5 years [ignoring the part time ones, but recognising the idea with them was to be the same formula] so I think it was time for a change and I like the change.


I do have some issues to high heck with Moffs vision of the show, but those things I do like.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I think Amy also requested to go home at the end of last episode, too, right?

[karenor.livejournal.com]

Did she? I guess I remember her complaining about how long it'd been more...

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

It feels like they're no longer bothering to check characterization and continuity between episodes. It's very weird. You'd think there'd be someone whose job it is to go, "Uh, guys? We did this in episode 2, so it doesn't make sense to do that in episode 3? Guys???"

I did enjoy this episode, though, as long as I don't think about it too hard. :-)

[karenor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. I did enjoy it quite a bit. But continuity of character is kinda all you HAVE when you've a show with like, no other continuity because it's all timey-whimey. It's the MOST important part of thee show and it's suffering right now.