(no subject)
"Gridlock" comments. Why, even so late? Possibly just to use this cut-tag, because if I told you how long I'd planned it, you would laugh.
On the whole, this episode didn't bother me much. I blame the kittens. It was nice to see something cute on this show for a change. ^~
The whole pharmaceutical thing-- maybe it was the editing, but it seemed pretty throwaway to me. I suppose it was the "bliss" stuff that was supposed to have distracted them from the plague, or something? Except with how rapid they said the onset was, it would hardly have made any difference. All in all, it just didn't seem that important to the story.
Speaking of which-- I know it's a family show and all, and evidently kids like monsters, but I think the episode would've been better off without the giant crabs. Who also seemed throwaway. I couldn't figure it out-- was the roadway *created* for them, like I'd thought (why else an enclosed motorway, somewhere ignorable, with all those gases...?), or did they somehow just stumble into it in an insane display of luck? If the latter, as it seems, then they're just there to provide a couple of chase scenes and a false sense of urgency.
I blame this on all the Marxist law tropes I've had to read the semester, but I think maybe it would've been better if there *had* been a fast lane, for once, that wasn't just a trap to get you eaten by the evil aliens. If the ramps had been open, and the two cars a year that get through come to a beautiful city. Martha tries to tell them something should be done about all those people trapped in the motorway, because there's so much room out here and clearly they could share it; but everyone refuses, saying all the people here might ruin it. Which leaves the Doctor to break open the highway and set everyone free. And the city gets to shut up and cope. Fills all the traditional formulas.
What is this show's knack for turning me into a political radical? Around Ten, I start favoring the death penalty; around the show at large, I turn into a Communist. Not even a socialist. A radical *feminist* liberal commie, too. Ay.
I sort of liked the car scenes-- it was quite nice: for a minute there, just for a minute, Ten showed faint signs of a trait I've searched in vain in him from day one: self-awareness. I lied, he admitted. I lied because I liked it. What spell could have come over him, to turn him so suddenly reflective? Kittens. It had to be the kittens. (Of course, even there, he's exaggerating his actions for every ounce of emo he can get, but you take what you're given.)
And the end-- somehow, I've always wanted the Doctor to show just a *little* bit of ambivalence toward the fate of Gallifrey. Yes, of course he's shocked and devastated and guilty! But guilty partly because he'd probably dreamed of it once or twice. If not its destruction, something to wake them up to the realities of the outside world. I'm not an expert on classic Who, but they evinced a certain tendency to shoot at him. And make him President. On the same trip. Occasionally simultaneously. When they weren't kidnapping him, executing him, or sending him on top-secret missions. And I'm pretty sure the Doctor preferred the prospect of being shot. There is not a simple relationship, there. And Ten, who ought to have gained a little more distance, just puts it up on a pedestal, like everything else he's lost. And that's just... it's not right, it's a bad idea. It's a natural tendency, but it bothers me: if you can't love anything that has faults, nothing in the universe will ever know love. Miss Rose, yes; don't always say "she'd know this" or "if she were here..."
Still, there were a surprising number of things about this episode I liked. Maybe it was the kittens. Or the lesbians. (Who were actual female people instead of evil aliens! Both of them! What idiot says Torchwood's the adult, progressive one?) Ten seemed wonderfully ignorable, probably because he was depressed and angsty. Like James Taylor, I can tolerate Ten's existence when he's depressed and angsty. When he gets happy, we get trouble. And he's always happy.
Next episode: Sweet god, what's next, Daleks go to Disneyland? Didn't they used to occasionally have whole seasons go by *without* Daleks? Are you sure that wasn't a good idea? *headdesk*
Next Torchwood rambling: Why I hate Gwen Cooper and I always will. I am sorry. But I still hate her as a human being. A commercial today quoted someone as saying TW was "smart, sexy, and something or other". I laughed. My favorite summation of TW has always been the Dateline summary I saw once that said "Minimally conscious people; high-tech spying; the Eagles". Till I remembered "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Victim of Love", I thought it was only two out of three...
Next fic: He does *not* get a reset button, damn it. That year will NOT be dismissed so easily. Martha *will* get the hell over you. And Harriet Jones WILL be PM again if it's the last thing I and Eleven do. You heard me, Ten! YOU HEARD ME! ;) (Like that, except all subtle-like.)
On the whole, this episode didn't bother me much. I blame the kittens. It was nice to see something cute on this show for a change. ^~
The whole pharmaceutical thing-- maybe it was the editing, but it seemed pretty throwaway to me. I suppose it was the "bliss" stuff that was supposed to have distracted them from the plague, or something? Except with how rapid they said the onset was, it would hardly have made any difference. All in all, it just didn't seem that important to the story.
Speaking of which-- I know it's a family show and all, and evidently kids like monsters, but I think the episode would've been better off without the giant crabs. Who also seemed throwaway. I couldn't figure it out-- was the roadway *created* for them, like I'd thought (why else an enclosed motorway, somewhere ignorable, with all those gases...?), or did they somehow just stumble into it in an insane display of luck? If the latter, as it seems, then they're just there to provide a couple of chase scenes and a false sense of urgency.
I blame this on all the Marxist law tropes I've had to read the semester, but I think maybe it would've been better if there *had* been a fast lane, for once, that wasn't just a trap to get you eaten by the evil aliens. If the ramps had been open, and the two cars a year that get through come to a beautiful city. Martha tries to tell them something should be done about all those people trapped in the motorway, because there's so much room out here and clearly they could share it; but everyone refuses, saying all the people here might ruin it. Which leaves the Doctor to break open the highway and set everyone free. And the city gets to shut up and cope. Fills all the traditional formulas.
What is this show's knack for turning me into a political radical? Around Ten, I start favoring the death penalty; around the show at large, I turn into a Communist. Not even a socialist. A radical *feminist* liberal commie, too. Ay.
I sort of liked the car scenes-- it was quite nice: for a minute there, just for a minute, Ten showed faint signs of a trait I've searched in vain in him from day one: self-awareness. I lied, he admitted. I lied because I liked it. What spell could have come over him, to turn him so suddenly reflective? Kittens. It had to be the kittens. (Of course, even there, he's exaggerating his actions for every ounce of emo he can get, but you take what you're given.)
And the end-- somehow, I've always wanted the Doctor to show just a *little* bit of ambivalence toward the fate of Gallifrey. Yes, of course he's shocked and devastated and guilty! But guilty partly because he'd probably dreamed of it once or twice. If not its destruction, something to wake them up to the realities of the outside world. I'm not an expert on classic Who, but they evinced a certain tendency to shoot at him. And make him President. On the same trip. Occasionally simultaneously. When they weren't kidnapping him, executing him, or sending him on top-secret missions. And I'm pretty sure the Doctor preferred the prospect of being shot. There is not a simple relationship, there. And Ten, who ought to have gained a little more distance, just puts it up on a pedestal, like everything else he's lost. And that's just... it's not right, it's a bad idea. It's a natural tendency, but it bothers me: if you can't love anything that has faults, nothing in the universe will ever know love. Miss Rose, yes; don't always say "she'd know this" or "if she were here..."
Still, there were a surprising number of things about this episode I liked. Maybe it was the kittens. Or the lesbians. (Who were actual female people instead of evil aliens! Both of them! What idiot says Torchwood's the adult, progressive one?) Ten seemed wonderfully ignorable, probably because he was depressed and angsty. Like James Taylor, I can tolerate Ten's existence when he's depressed and angsty. When he gets happy, we get trouble. And he's always happy.
Next episode: Sweet god, what's next, Daleks go to Disneyland? Didn't they used to occasionally have whole seasons go by *without* Daleks? Are you sure that wasn't a good idea? *headdesk*
Next Torchwood rambling: Why I hate Gwen Cooper and I always will. I am sorry. But I still hate her as a human being. A commercial today quoted someone as saying TW was "smart, sexy, and something or other". I laughed. My favorite summation of TW has always been the Dateline summary I saw once that said "Minimally conscious people; high-tech spying; the Eagles". Till I remembered "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Victim of Love", I thought it was only two out of three...
Next fic: He does *not* get a reset button, damn it. That year will NOT be dismissed so easily. Martha *will* get the hell over you. And Harriet Jones WILL be PM again if it's the last thing I and Eleven do. You heard me, Ten! YOU HEARD ME! ;) (Like that, except all subtle-like.)