I Am Never Going To Think of The Phrase "Putting Your Fingers In Your Ears" The Same Way Again
Just got the chance to watch yesterday's Who!
And I mostly quite liked that one. It takes some familiar tropes -- godlike aliens, creatures that feed on human fear, the manipulation of nightmares -- and does something reasonably interesting and nicely creepy with them. In the end, I don't know how genuinely substantial the plot was, but it was mostly fun. Certainly it didn't bore me, which puts it light years ahead of the last ep.
I also rather like the way the bad guy was able to manipulate the Doctor in ways that take advantage of her nature. She can't resist poking at things can she? Or solving puzzles or opening boxes. And she's very, very good at it. Somewhere in there, I was thinking, "Yes, but is this an innocent prisoner who needs to be freed, or an evil that was locked up for a good reason?" It's nice to know I was asking the right question, but I do believe it's not exactly out of character for the Doctor to charge ahead without doing so.
The climax, admittedly, did have some of the usual Chibnall "Eh, then the Doctor just claims to have solved things somehow, the end" quality to it, but works better than those endings usually do just by virtue of some great stuff from the Doctor, including a classically Doctorish speech about human strengths followed by a really terrible pun.
I could, however, have done without the Very Serious PSA About Talking to Someone about Your Mental Health Issues. Once again, good message, terrible, terrible delivery. (Still better than "The Forest of the Night"'s take on mental health. But that's about all I can say for it.) What's especially sad is that I think they could have made the point in a more subtle and effective way within the episode, with a defter touch. Sigh. Well, I did at least enjoy the Doctor's super-awkward responses to Graham.
I'm also glad to see Ryan thinking a bit about the consequences of traveling with the Doctor and wondering when he's going to be ready to stop. One of my big complaints about New Who thus far is the apparent assumption that nobody is ever going to be willing to stop traveling with the Doctor unless brutally forced to, or (in the case of Martha) just pushed way, way too far. I'm still very much waiting to see someone just decide they've had their fill of running and being menaced by aliens and they have a different life to go and live now. Whether that's where we're going to go with the current group, I don't know, but I can be hopeful.
Other random thoughts:
Oh, look, it's another cryptic reference to this Timeless Child thing. I will attempt to wait patiently for followup on this and hope it doesn't end up being disappointing.
That was a bunch of name-checking of Whoniverse godlike aliens there! And reminded me that I'd kind of like to see the Eternals again sometime.
I also have John Crichton from Farscape in my head now: "Godlike aliens. Boy, do I hate godlike aliens. I'll take a critter over a godlike alien any time." Good old Crichton. The man definitely knew his way around this kind of thing. Come to that, the whole WTFish finger-detaching thing wouldn't have felt out of place on Farscape, either.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/973020.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.
And I mostly quite liked that one. It takes some familiar tropes -- godlike aliens, creatures that feed on human fear, the manipulation of nightmares -- and does something reasonably interesting and nicely creepy with them. In the end, I don't know how genuinely substantial the plot was, but it was mostly fun. Certainly it didn't bore me, which puts it light years ahead of the last ep.
I also rather like the way the bad guy was able to manipulate the Doctor in ways that take advantage of her nature. She can't resist poking at things can she? Or solving puzzles or opening boxes. And she's very, very good at it. Somewhere in there, I was thinking, "Yes, but is this an innocent prisoner who needs to be freed, or an evil that was locked up for a good reason?" It's nice to know I was asking the right question, but I do believe it's not exactly out of character for the Doctor to charge ahead without doing so.
The climax, admittedly, did have some of the usual Chibnall "Eh, then the Doctor just claims to have solved things somehow, the end" quality to it, but works better than those endings usually do just by virtue of some great stuff from the Doctor, including a classically Doctorish speech about human strengths followed by a really terrible pun.
I could, however, have done without the Very Serious PSA About Talking to Someone about Your Mental Health Issues. Once again, good message, terrible, terrible delivery. (Still better than "The Forest of the Night"'s take on mental health. But that's about all I can say for it.) What's especially sad is that I think they could have made the point in a more subtle and effective way within the episode, with a defter touch. Sigh. Well, I did at least enjoy the Doctor's super-awkward responses to Graham.
I'm also glad to see Ryan thinking a bit about the consequences of traveling with the Doctor and wondering when he's going to be ready to stop. One of my big complaints about New Who thus far is the apparent assumption that nobody is ever going to be willing to stop traveling with the Doctor unless brutally forced to, or (in the case of Martha) just pushed way, way too far. I'm still very much waiting to see someone just decide they've had their fill of running and being menaced by aliens and they have a different life to go and live now. Whether that's where we're going to go with the current group, I don't know, but I can be hopeful.
Other random thoughts:
Oh, look, it's another cryptic reference to this Timeless Child thing. I will attempt to wait patiently for followup on this and hope it doesn't end up being disappointing.
That was a bunch of name-checking of Whoniverse godlike aliens there! And reminded me that I'd kind of like to see the Eternals again sometime.
I also have John Crichton from Farscape in my head now: "Godlike aliens. Boy, do I hate godlike aliens. I'll take a critter over a godlike alien any time." Good old Crichton. The man definitely knew his way around this kind of thing. Come to that, the whole WTFish finger-detaching thing wouldn't have felt out of place on Farscape, either.
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/973020.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.