The Wedding of River Song
After watching "the Impossible Astronaut", we had this conversation:
Him: It's okay because that's not really the Doctor. It's a robot. The Doctor was killed in "The Caves of Androzani" when he was shot with 31 bullets.
Me: ... the Doctor is not a robot.
Him: Totally a robot.
...yeah, guess who was really smug last night.
So...I actually liked this episode quite a bit more than I expected to. Perhaps because it was just so silly. But - Live Chess - what a cool idea! The chattering skulls were completely ridiculous, but in a fun way. And very Indiana Jones.
...okay, really, I think what made this episode work was that he was wearing a Stetson for most of it. Hear me out, this isn't just my normal hat-obsession talking. The Stetson effectively genre-shifted the whole thing, so it was okay to pull out all the cowboy tropes. Westerns are inherently ridiculous, so it made it all work. Also, the fact that most of that was also in flashback, being narrated by the Doctor...which means you don't have to take any of it as being strictly true. But the hat really made this episode work.
"No, seriously, my name is actually By The Way I'm A Killer Robot - my parents were nuts! Why do you think I've gone by an alias my entire life?. But that's nothing - you should hear what they named the Master!"
*ahem* Anyway. Frannie, I like your theory about Mme Kowarian. Because, if I understand what's going on correctly, what we just saw was a manufactured fixed point. That requires someone with an extraordinary understanding of the Web of Time. And that means a 4th dimensional being or up. And I don't think she's Sapphire.
I really really hope we see either Omega or the BG for the 50th.
Okay, so, I love the Tessellecta to pieces. I really do. But we have reached the point in the conversation at which I complain about things that fail to add up. To whit: HOW DID THE ROBOT REGENERATE? IT'S A ROBOT! (For that matter, how did the robot...grow a beard? I would say that while he was The Soothsayer he wasn't the robot...but he was definitely the robot in the wedding scene so that doesn't fly. Although it could explain how he shaved so quickly and without any sort of tools. But surely he wouldn't do robot-flippy-face in front of Amy and blow his entire cover. And who here actually believes she turned around while he was changing? Yeah, not me.) ...aaaaand I just realized I ran into the exact same problem I had with the Ganger clothing. But whatever. The big thing is, we see him start to go into a regeneration cycle - that's our "proof" that it's actually him. And I just know one of you is going to offer me an explanation like "well, he had this planned from the start, so he just brought a bottle of spare Artron Energy with him so that he could effectively fake this bit." Fine. I give up.
In less complainy news, the role of Rory will be played by Sgt. Benton - or possibly the other way around. Hard to say. (Am I allowed to be mildly disappointed that he was a Captain instead of a Sergeant? On the other hand, he's also Captain Carrot, so it works out.) ...
Okay, an aside right here. Carrot is clearly their second kid. That's the only explanation. ...which means they don't get to keep that one either. :/ But still. This is going into my headcanon. And, of course, whereas River got his hair and her psychopathy, Carrot got her hair and his levelheadedness. And yeah, I know Melody started out as a readhead, shut up. I like my way better. And Rory's hair has been getting darker and darker. What's up with that?
ahem ANYWAY. Gosh, I do keep distracting myself. Where was I? Oh yes, Captain Williams. OMG Captain Williams. I did not expect him to live. And the bit with the eyepatch and clenching his fist in silent agony gave me the stomach wibbles in a big way. I think this may have been his most moving death scene yet. AND THEN SHE CAME BACK FOR HIM!
Speaking of which...you know, Rory hasn't died in a while. I don't think he's died at all since "The Doctor's Wife." Which means all that whinging about it coming out of the fandom was entirely based on "Curse of the Black Spot." If I remember Frannie's count, as of the end of this season I think Rory has died the least often of the three of them (but certainly the most severely, if that makes sense). But that doesn't matter, the universe has pegged Rory as "the one who dies a lot." Even the Silents are talking about it! Man, they're such bastards. It's nice to have really genuinely evil monsters for once.
Talking about the awesome gents of Doctor Who: the Brigadier D: That was perfectly played, team. I can forgive you a lot for that one scene.
Including perhaps the following:
Dear Grand Moff,
1. You know, it's really not okay to pan all religion in one episode and build over-the-top christian imagery into the next. I mean, neither would be optimal, but both is utterly unacceptable.
2. If you want people to stop comparing Doctor Who and Sherlock, you could try not writing the same plots into both of them. It's just an idea, you know?
...seriously, I'm so glad I didn't see this before "The Reichenbach Fall" the way it was originally aired. It would have significantly soured the latter, and I freakin loved that episode. Doctor Who can take it, Sherlock would have suffered. So, skipping S.6 turned out to be very much the right call. On the other hand, does this mean that Sherlock is actually a Killer Robot? Because...I could live with that.
At this point the careful reader will have noticed that I use the term "Killer Robot" rather broadly, including things that (a) aren't killers or (b) aren't robots, occasionally at the same time. For instance, I think I would be willing to call the Gangers Killer Robots just so that I could say things like "Amy spent the first half of the season as a Killer Robot." I mean, it's close enough. I think the pattern is all robots are killer robots, and all artificial beings are robots. Which I think means that Cybermen count as killer robots but Daleks don't. But Dalek agents might. And it depends on context for the RoboMen. (Question: under this approach, is Lytton a killer robot? Discuss.)
Um, right, "the Wedding of River Song." Is a stupid title, just gonna say it. But I actually enjoyed the wedding scene itself. The bow-tie! Brilliant. And he asks their permission, which was mildly adorable. And I actually kind of liked the feeling of "Okay, tit for tat: if I marry you then will you murder me? Please?" Or, alternatively, "Wow, psychosis runs in this family doesn't it? I have to tell her, or she'll never go through with it. Which means I'll have to marry her to keep her quiet about it." Heh: "Contralto's silence bought with marriage." River is totally the Contralto (she has to be - she married the Comic Baritone). So, we were talking once about a possible interpretation of The Mikado where Katisha was frightening not because she was old and ugly but because she was waaaaay oversexualized. I think River fulfills that vision splendidly. But if Amy and Rory are the Soprano and the Tenor, where are the Bass and the Straight Baritone? (Mme Kowarian would also make a brilliant Contralto). THERE WAS EVEN BABY-SWAPPING! (I suppose you could make the Doctor and River the Tenor and the Soprano, and have Amy and Rory be the Subrette and the Straight Baritone, with Mme Kowarian as the Contralto...but no, you've gotta have a Comic Baritone and it's gotta be the Doctor. And we're still missing the Bass).
....okay, I think this Gilbert & Sullivan digression has gone on long enough. No, wait. I've got it. The blue dude is the Bass, and Canton is the Straight Baritone (get it, get it?). Rory is the tenor, but we've pulled a Ruddigore and so he gets the Subrette while the CB get's the Soprano. ...which means they were competing over the Subrette rather than the Soprano which seems kind of backwards. *sigh* I need to find people who are as in to G&S as I am.
Oh, but yeah, I'm really amused by the idea (totally unjustified, but still), that he marries her in order to invoke the Married Woman's Privilege, and obscure footnote of American Jurisprudence that says that a married woman cannot be compelled to testify against her husband - conversations between husband and wife are Privileged in the same way as conversations between attorneys and clients, doctors and patients, priests and penitents. And they were married in the US. ON THE OTHER HAND American Jurisprudence also holds that is a patient refuses treatment a doctor is bound by that so long as the patient is conscious, and gassing him back into unconsciousness is not an appropriate response! *ahem.* Sorry, that scene in the 8th Doctor episode still gets me.
I really liked that Amy is finally able to acknowledge the fact that she's a psychopath. And River was really just lying in that scene. "It happened in an aborted timeline so it doesn't count" applies to your marriage as well, missy. Which is clearly not how you're treating it. But good job trying to comfort your mum. Very filial of you. Also, Rory's role in this relationship now seems to be to fetch the alcohol. This...is not a bad thing.
Also, Frannie, you seem to have been completely spot on about River's "Don't you dare; not one single line."
Anyway, this episode was a ton of fun, and I think I liked it better than either LKH or IA/DotM. And who else was super duper sad when they realized that fixing time would mean poor old Molakai (sp?) would go back to being dead? BY FAR the most enjoyable and least forced-seeming cast round up yet. Now with extra Charles Dickens! (I think my reaction was actually "okay, this is the coolest parallel universe yet").
Okay, guys, quiz time. In the history of the show, how many times (and on what occasions) has the role of the Doctor been played by a Killer Robot? And I'm not counting the two or three times when the role of the Killer Robot was played by the Doctor.
Him: It's okay because that's not really the Doctor. It's a robot. The Doctor was killed in "The Caves of Androzani" when he was shot with 31 bullets.
Me: ... the Doctor is not a robot.
Him: Totally a robot.
...yeah, guess who was really smug last night.
So...I actually liked this episode quite a bit more than I expected to. Perhaps because it was just so silly. But - Live Chess - what a cool idea! The chattering skulls were completely ridiculous, but in a fun way. And very Indiana Jones.
...okay, really, I think what made this episode work was that he was wearing a Stetson for most of it. Hear me out, this isn't just my normal hat-obsession talking. The Stetson effectively genre-shifted the whole thing, so it was okay to pull out all the cowboy tropes. Westerns are inherently ridiculous, so it made it all work. Also, the fact that most of that was also in flashback, being narrated by the Doctor...which means you don't have to take any of it as being strictly true. But the hat really made this episode work.
"No, seriously, my name is actually By The Way I'm A Killer Robot - my parents were nuts! Why do you think I've gone by an alias my entire life?. But that's nothing - you should hear what they named the Master!"
*ahem* Anyway. Frannie, I like your theory about Mme Kowarian. Because, if I understand what's going on correctly, what we just saw was a manufactured fixed point. That requires someone with an extraordinary understanding of the Web of Time. And that means a 4th dimensional being or up. And I don't think she's Sapphire.
I really really hope we see either Omega or the BG for the 50th.
Okay, so, I love the Tessellecta to pieces. I really do. But we have reached the point in the conversation at which I complain about things that fail to add up. To whit: HOW DID THE ROBOT REGENERATE? IT'S A ROBOT! (For that matter, how did the robot...grow a beard? I would say that while he was The Soothsayer he wasn't the robot...but he was definitely the robot in the wedding scene so that doesn't fly. Although it could explain how he shaved so quickly and without any sort of tools. But surely he wouldn't do robot-flippy-face in front of Amy and blow his entire cover. And who here actually believes she turned around while he was changing? Yeah, not me.) ...aaaaand I just realized I ran into the exact same problem I had with the Ganger clothing. But whatever. The big thing is, we see him start to go into a regeneration cycle - that's our "proof" that it's actually him. And I just know one of you is going to offer me an explanation like "well, he had this planned from the start, so he just brought a bottle of spare Artron Energy with him so that he could effectively fake this bit." Fine. I give up.
In less complainy news, the role of Rory will be played by Sgt. Benton - or possibly the other way around. Hard to say. (Am I allowed to be mildly disappointed that he was a Captain instead of a Sergeant? On the other hand, he's also Captain Carrot, so it works out.) ...
Okay, an aside right here. Carrot is clearly their second kid. That's the only explanation. ...which means they don't get to keep that one either. :/ But still. This is going into my headcanon. And, of course, whereas River got his hair and her psychopathy, Carrot got her hair and his levelheadedness. And yeah, I know Melody started out as a readhead, shut up. I like my way better. And Rory's hair has been getting darker and darker. What's up with that?
ahem ANYWAY. Gosh, I do keep distracting myself. Where was I? Oh yes, Captain Williams. OMG Captain Williams. I did not expect him to live. And the bit with the eyepatch and clenching his fist in silent agony gave me the stomach wibbles in a big way. I think this may have been his most moving death scene yet. AND THEN SHE CAME BACK FOR HIM!
Speaking of which...you know, Rory hasn't died in a while. I don't think he's died at all since "The Doctor's Wife." Which means all that whinging about it coming out of the fandom was entirely based on "Curse of the Black Spot." If I remember Frannie's count, as of the end of this season I think Rory has died the least often of the three of them (but certainly the most severely, if that makes sense). But that doesn't matter, the universe has pegged Rory as "the one who dies a lot." Even the Silents are talking about it! Man, they're such bastards. It's nice to have really genuinely evil monsters for once.
Talking about the awesome gents of Doctor Who: the Brigadier D: That was perfectly played, team. I can forgive you a lot for that one scene.
Including perhaps the following:
Dear Grand Moff,
1. You know, it's really not okay to pan all religion in one episode and build over-the-top christian imagery into the next. I mean, neither would be optimal, but both is utterly unacceptable.
2. If you want people to stop comparing Doctor Who and Sherlock, you could try not writing the same plots into both of them. It's just an idea, you know?
...seriously, I'm so glad I didn't see this before "The Reichenbach Fall" the way it was originally aired. It would have significantly soured the latter, and I freakin loved that episode. Doctor Who can take it, Sherlock would have suffered. So, skipping S.6 turned out to be very much the right call. On the other hand, does this mean that Sherlock is actually a Killer Robot? Because...I could live with that.
At this point the careful reader will have noticed that I use the term "Killer Robot" rather broadly, including things that (a) aren't killers or (b) aren't robots, occasionally at the same time. For instance, I think I would be willing to call the Gangers Killer Robots just so that I could say things like "Amy spent the first half of the season as a Killer Robot." I mean, it's close enough. I think the pattern is all robots are killer robots, and all artificial beings are robots. Which I think means that Cybermen count as killer robots but Daleks don't. But Dalek agents might. And it depends on context for the RoboMen. (Question: under this approach, is Lytton a killer robot? Discuss.)
Um, right, "the Wedding of River Song." Is a stupid title, just gonna say it. But I actually enjoyed the wedding scene itself. The bow-tie! Brilliant. And he asks their permission, which was mildly adorable. And I actually kind of liked the feeling of "Okay, tit for tat: if I marry you then will you murder me? Please?" Or, alternatively, "Wow, psychosis runs in this family doesn't it? I have to tell her, or she'll never go through with it. Which means I'll have to marry her to keep her quiet about it." Heh: "Contralto's silence bought with marriage." River is totally the Contralto (she has to be - she married the Comic Baritone). So, we were talking once about a possible interpretation of The Mikado where Katisha was frightening not because she was old and ugly but because she was waaaaay oversexualized. I think River fulfills that vision splendidly. But if Amy and Rory are the Soprano and the Tenor, where are the Bass and the Straight Baritone? (Mme Kowarian would also make a brilliant Contralto). THERE WAS EVEN BABY-SWAPPING! (I suppose you could make the Doctor and River the Tenor and the Soprano, and have Amy and Rory be the Subrette and the Straight Baritone, with Mme Kowarian as the Contralto...but no, you've gotta have a Comic Baritone and it's gotta be the Doctor. And we're still missing the Bass).
....okay, I think this Gilbert & Sullivan digression has gone on long enough. No, wait. I've got it. The blue dude is the Bass, and Canton is the Straight Baritone (get it, get it?). Rory is the tenor, but we've pulled a Ruddigore and so he gets the Subrette while the CB get's the Soprano. ...which means they were competing over the Subrette rather than the Soprano which seems kind of backwards. *sigh* I need to find people who are as in to G&S as I am.
Oh, but yeah, I'm really amused by the idea (totally unjustified, but still), that he marries her in order to invoke the Married Woman's Privilege, and obscure footnote of American Jurisprudence that says that a married woman cannot be compelled to testify against her husband - conversations between husband and wife are Privileged in the same way as conversations between attorneys and clients, doctors and patients, priests and penitents. And they were married in the US. ON THE OTHER HAND American Jurisprudence also holds that is a patient refuses treatment a doctor is bound by that so long as the patient is conscious, and gassing him back into unconsciousness is not an appropriate response! *ahem.* Sorry, that scene in the 8th Doctor episode still gets me.
I really liked that Amy is finally able to acknowledge the fact that she's a psychopath. And River was really just lying in that scene. "It happened in an aborted timeline so it doesn't count" applies to your marriage as well, missy. Which is clearly not how you're treating it. But good job trying to comfort your mum. Very filial of you. Also, Rory's role in this relationship now seems to be to fetch the alcohol. This...is not a bad thing.
Also, Frannie, you seem to have been completely spot on about River's "Don't you dare; not one single line."
Anyway, this episode was a ton of fun, and I think I liked it better than either LKH or IA/DotM. And who else was super duper sad when they realized that fixing time would mean poor old Molakai (sp?) would go back to being dead? BY FAR the most enjoyable and least forced-seeming cast round up yet. Now with extra Charles Dickens! (I think my reaction was actually "okay, this is the coolest parallel universe yet").
Okay, guys, quiz time. In the history of the show, how many times (and on what occasions) has the role of the Doctor been played by a Killer Robot? And I'm not counting the two or three times when the role of the Killer Robot was played by the Doctor.