Actually, Despite What That Icon Says, I Think My Head Might Be Surprisingly OK
It's Doctor Who day again!
Yet another episode that was complicated and weird and demanding of patience, but mostly, I think, in a way that was intriguing and cool. My final feelings about everything in this multi-part story is, of course, going to depend very, very much on how it comes out -- and I'm still more than a little trepidatious about that -- but for the moment, I'm enjoying it well enough.
I am wondering, though, whether all this stuff about the planet Time and the Mouri and what is actually happening with time in the Flux and so on is going to be explained in a way that makes something approaching coherent sense, or if I'm meant to just nod my head, think "Right, mystical time weirdness, got it" and just sort of go with it. Because I probably can do that second thing if I need to -- hell, I watched all of Sapphire & Steel, I have practice -- but it would be really, really nice to know what parts of my brain I should or should not be employing here.
That aside, though... OK, look. I still hate the whole Timeless Child thing with a passion, for a host of reasons (many of which, I admit, are down to my own personal issues). But I will at least say that if we have to have it as a given, the stuff in this episode, with the intriguing interactive memories and little glimpses of Jo Martin, is at least a cool thing to do with it. So far, anyway. I can at least acknowledge that much. (And will refrain from going into a tedious rant now about how, dammit, we probably could have actually had this forgotten-past-Doctors stuff, which I feel weird about but could certainly accept if the show does interesting things with it, without all the Doctor-isn't-actually-a-Time-Lord stuff that I irredeemably hate. Well, any more of a tedious rant than that.)
Anyway. There was some nice character stuff in this one. More background on Vinder, which makes him even more interesting and likeable, and the introduction of yet another character in the form of Bel, who also seems very cool. I'll admit, by the way, that one of my first reactions to her was "Really, yet another character who doesn't have any obvious connection to things yet?" But, in retrospect, I think I like that she got to have her own story before we found out who she was to Vinder, rather than being defined by her relationship to him from the beginning.
And then there's the Doctor. With the exception of maybe one or two moments in there where her expositing to herself about what she was about to do got a little clunky, I thought the various instances of her talking to herself -- in the usual way, in the mirror, as a voiceover -- worked pretty well. The Doctor continues to be very Doctorish here, which I do love, although I think I may be wanting just a little more intensity from Whittaker's performance. But maybe she's saving it up. I imagine things are only going to escalate from here, and an actor's gotta leave herself somewhere to go.
Also, wow, this really is continuing to look amazing, visually. Seriously, no matter what I think of the plot as a whole when this is all over, nothing is ever going to stop it from being impressive on that level.
So, do we have any nutty speculations yet about who the mysterious old lady is? My first thought was the White or the Black Guardian, but she seemed a little too keen on universal destruction for the former and a little too free of black clothing and birds on her head for the latter, so probably not.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/1016663.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.
Yet another episode that was complicated and weird and demanding of patience, but mostly, I think, in a way that was intriguing and cool. My final feelings about everything in this multi-part story is, of course, going to depend very, very much on how it comes out -- and I'm still more than a little trepidatious about that -- but for the moment, I'm enjoying it well enough.
I am wondering, though, whether all this stuff about the planet Time and the Mouri and what is actually happening with time in the Flux and so on is going to be explained in a way that makes something approaching coherent sense, or if I'm meant to just nod my head, think "Right, mystical time weirdness, got it" and just sort of go with it. Because I probably can do that second thing if I need to -- hell, I watched all of Sapphire & Steel, I have practice -- but it would be really, really nice to know what parts of my brain I should or should not be employing here.
That aside, though... OK, look. I still hate the whole Timeless Child thing with a passion, for a host of reasons (many of which, I admit, are down to my own personal issues). But I will at least say that if we have to have it as a given, the stuff in this episode, with the intriguing interactive memories and little glimpses of Jo Martin, is at least a cool thing to do with it. So far, anyway. I can at least acknowledge that much. (And will refrain from going into a tedious rant now about how, dammit, we probably could have actually had this forgotten-past-Doctors stuff, which I feel weird about but could certainly accept if the show does interesting things with it, without all the Doctor-isn't-actually-a-Time-Lord stuff that I irredeemably hate. Well, any more of a tedious rant than that.)
Anyway. There was some nice character stuff in this one. More background on Vinder, which makes him even more interesting and likeable, and the introduction of yet another character in the form of Bel, who also seems very cool. I'll admit, by the way, that one of my first reactions to her was "Really, yet another character who doesn't have any obvious connection to things yet?" But, in retrospect, I think I like that she got to have her own story before we found out who she was to Vinder, rather than being defined by her relationship to him from the beginning.
And then there's the Doctor. With the exception of maybe one or two moments in there where her expositing to herself about what she was about to do got a little clunky, I thought the various instances of her talking to herself -- in the usual way, in the mirror, as a voiceover -- worked pretty well. The Doctor continues to be very Doctorish here, which I do love, although I think I may be wanting just a little more intensity from Whittaker's performance. But maybe she's saving it up. I imagine things are only going to escalate from here, and an actor's gotta leave herself somewhere to go.
Also, wow, this really is continuing to look amazing, visually. Seriously, no matter what I think of the plot as a whole when this is all over, nothing is ever going to stop it from being impressive on that level.
So, do we have any nutty speculations yet about who the mysterious old lady is? My first thought was the White or the Black Guardian, but she seemed a little too keen on universal destruction for the former and a little too free of black clothing and birds on her head for the latter, so probably not.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/1016663.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.