Doctor Who-y thoughts and a vid rec
First a very nice Amy vid : Half Life
Which leads into my thinky thoughts but they are spoilery up to "Amy's Choice", so, beware the crack cut...(Summary: not TOTALLY in love with current show direction but overall am finding it quite interesting)
On the whole, while I like a little Dr/companion subtext I'd prefer none if it's going to make the Dr seem too human or take over the show, and it was going that way a bit for me. I sat there thinking "Really? Some random villain cares who Amy cares about? And is being vaguely flirtatious with her? This is just silly." and was also annoyed that the show was making Rory (who I quite like) have such an incredibly boring dream.
But when I found out that it was all in the Doctor's head I was much happier, and have been mulling over it ever since. For a start, while Rory was happy with the boring village scenario, from the looks of things he'd be happy with any place where he was with Amy and it's plausibly not his ideal. Which makes me a more happy Amy/Rory shipper again(*).
Anyway, while I do have a mildly shippery heart, I don't watch Dr Who for the romance, and on the whole judge relationships by how interesting they are. I much prefer my sf-with-sex-or-relationships-in to actually use the sf potential of those relationships rather than just being romance etc with a sf veneer (See: the time-wimeyness of River).
So. It's always been clear that the Dr has a thing against doing anything romantic/sexual with his companions, and on the whole doesn't seem to engage comfortably with human sexuality. One entirely valid interpretation(**) is that he's asexual. But I saw someone say during Season 3 that he reacted to the Master having a human wife like he was married to a pet (both gross and really messed up with regards to power relationships) and I decided that's how he sees human/Time Lord relationships because it creates such an interestingly fraught creepywrongness around the fact that he does have feelings/attraction in some cases.
And I felt "Amy's Choice" and the episodes leading up to it fitted that interpretation really well (they probably fit others too, but that's the lens I was using) Because his conscious reaction to Amy's interest is to try and push her towards Rory, and subconsciously he kind of wants that as well, but part of him doesn't and that horrifies him. Which creates delicious angst :)
I need to watch the episode again, but overall I liked that rather going for the over-the-top Romantic Twilight-ish angst of Ten (I am so OLD and ALONE and only SHE understands me blahblahblah) his angst was understated but did good job of hinting at the messed up very old alien core underneath the doctor's human-like exterior.
All that said, I could do with less angst and more scifi next episode. I was going to say "I didn't like the old-people-are-scary-subtext" but it just occurred to me: that's the doctor's self hatred again. I see what you did there! (Eventually :))
(*)Alas for my half finished Amy/River fic, I am a leaf in the wind of canon. But let's face it, while they had a fun dynamic it was never really going to happen.
(**)As much as you can interpret the sprawling canon in any consistent way!
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/327357.html. There are
comments.
Which leads into my thinky thoughts but they are spoilery up to "Amy's Choice", so, beware the crack cut...(Summary: not TOTALLY in love with current show direction but overall am finding it quite interesting)
On the whole, while I like a little Dr/companion subtext I'd prefer none if it's going to make the Dr seem too human or take over the show, and it was going that way a bit for me. I sat there thinking "Really? Some random villain cares who Amy cares about? And is being vaguely flirtatious with her? This is just silly." and was also annoyed that the show was making Rory (who I quite like) have such an incredibly boring dream.
But when I found out that it was all in the Doctor's head I was much happier, and have been mulling over it ever since. For a start, while Rory was happy with the boring village scenario, from the looks of things he'd be happy with any place where he was with Amy and it's plausibly not his ideal. Which makes me a more happy Amy/Rory shipper again(*).
Anyway, while I do have a mildly shippery heart, I don't watch Dr Who for the romance, and on the whole judge relationships by how interesting they are. I much prefer my sf-with-sex-or-relationships-in to actually use the sf potential of those relationships rather than just being romance etc with a sf veneer (See: the time-wimeyness of River).
So. It's always been clear that the Dr has a thing against doing anything romantic/sexual with his companions, and on the whole doesn't seem to engage comfortably with human sexuality. One entirely valid interpretation(**) is that he's asexual. But I saw someone say during Season 3 that he reacted to the Master having a human wife like he was married to a pet (both gross and really messed up with regards to power relationships) and I decided that's how he sees human/Time Lord relationships because it creates such an interestingly fraught creepywrongness around the fact that he does have feelings/attraction in some cases.
And I felt "Amy's Choice" and the episodes leading up to it fitted that interpretation really well (they probably fit others too, but that's the lens I was using) Because his conscious reaction to Amy's interest is to try and push her towards Rory, and subconsciously he kind of wants that as well, but part of him doesn't and that horrifies him. Which creates delicious angst :)
I need to watch the episode again, but overall I liked that rather going for the over-the-top Romantic Twilight-ish angst of Ten (I am so OLD and ALONE and only SHE understands me blahblahblah) his angst was understated but did good job of hinting at the messed up very old alien core underneath the doctor's human-like exterior.
All that said, I could do with less angst and more scifi next episode. I was going to say "I didn't like the old-people-are-scary-subtext" but it just occurred to me: that's the doctor's self hatred again. I see what you did there! (Eventually :))
(*)Alas for my half finished Amy/River fic, I am a leaf in the wind of canon. But let's face it, while they had a fun dynamic it was never really going to happen.
(**)As much as you can interpret the sprawling canon in any consistent way!
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/327357.html. There are
comments.