"Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take / No matter where it's going"
Thoughts on Doctor Who 5.01: The Eleventh Hour.
I think - I think - I liked that. I'm going to rewatch it (and watch the Confidential) on iPlayer, so this is all subject to that repeat viewing. But I'm cautiously optimistic.
I will put my hands up to begin with and confess:
a) Nine was my first Doctor. I think I saw the movie, and I've seen some older eps since then, but I still miss Christopher Eccleston's Doctor. I liked that he was sad not angry, broken not cruel, and loved Rose without leaving other people behind.
b) Ten annoyed me more and more throughout the series until it got to the 'throwing things at the screen in utter frustration' stage. (Last of the Time Lords). I do not blame Tennant for this - he's adorable - so much as RTD and a culture in that writing room which allowed a lot of incredibly offensive pieces of ludicrous writing to go unchecked.
c) Steven Moffat wrote a higher proportion of my favourite episodes of the new series than anyone else. I'm still wondering how he'll cope with the responsibility for the entire arc of a series, overseeing every episode. (What he did to Donna in Forest of the Dead was also not his finest hour).
That all said.
+ Matt Smith is very sweet. He doesn't look quite so young on screen (though my father will still think he lacks the gravitas for Doctorhood. Daddy is a Tom Baker fan, though watched from Three on). He's still a little too self-confident for his own good, though some of those may have been regeneration quirks. He's still a genius child, still manic, though perhaps without Ten's sharp edges.
+ Amy is lovely. She's also a beautiful red-head, so I may be biased in my opinions. I loved little!Amelia as well - very no-nonsense. Grown!Amy is also no-nonsense, and possibly a bit messed-up, and I'm waiting for her to have an adequate moment of awesome to make me fall in love with her.
- The kissogram thing might have been a little skeevy. I'm also wondering how she was employed, given the size of her town and her lack of car. Perhaps she gets the bus, but presumably not in costume?
- I'm not at all in favour of the new music.
+ The new logo I'm okay with, and the text was sufficiently old-school to make it qualify as retro.
+/- Not yet sure about nu!TARDIS (and still don't understand how Ten leaving was traumatising enough to break said TARDIS. However bossman (oldschool fan) is in favour as he wants to see more of the TARDIS again, and I agree with him there. Library! Swimming pool! All these would be of the good. And the Doctor calling the TARDIS 'dear' was :D making.
+/- Plot. Nothing much to speak of. This puts it on par with most of the series-starters, however. Voices through cracks in the walls: good. All the zeros: cool-looking. Less sure about giant eyes and spaceships. Lots of stuff we'd seen before. Still not sure why the coma-patients were calling 'Doctor'?
+ I quite liked the 'everyone in the village knowing who the Doctor is' device. It tied us back to the small-town dynamic, and possibly also sets Amy up as the town eccentric. Harmless but did bite four different psychiatrists. Hee.
- Less sure of our gender issues. I called the wedding (small brother also called the wedding) and if Amy falls for the Doctor instead I will be unhappy. Amy's sort-of boyfriend was puzzling. A) We've already done the 'boyfriend more intimidated by aliens than his about-to-leave girlfriend. (ILU Mickey). B) Rory is clearly neither a coward or an idiot. He was trying to bring the strangeness to the attention of a superior who scared him. He was out proactively recording the videos. C) Why doesn't Amy know what Rory's recording, if they're sort-of dating?
- Amy. He was respectively twelve and two years late. What on earth makes you think you're going to see your wedding day?
- And we're back to a woman, waiting. Just once I'd like to see the Doctor actually come back on time. Or him waiting.
? Did he go back to wee!Amy? Does that not mess with the timelines?
+/- For those of us watching for any hint of the 'Doctor as God' agenda. Echoes of 'I'm the Doctor, look me up' after the nice montage. Saving the universe without TARDIS, Sonic screwdriver or advanced tech. The usual 'of course you're coming with me' arrogance. Straight-up admitting he was lonely and talking to himself was nice though. And he totally is a madman with a box. :) Not enough evidence yet to make any stronger call.
So we wait. But with slightly more optimism than before, perhaps.
This entry was originally posted at http://blackeyedgirl.dreamwidth.org/130042.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I think - I think - I liked that. I'm going to rewatch it (and watch the Confidential) on iPlayer, so this is all subject to that repeat viewing. But I'm cautiously optimistic.
I will put my hands up to begin with and confess:
a) Nine was my first Doctor. I think I saw the movie, and I've seen some older eps since then, but I still miss Christopher Eccleston's Doctor. I liked that he was sad not angry, broken not cruel, and loved Rose without leaving other people behind.
b) Ten annoyed me more and more throughout the series until it got to the 'throwing things at the screen in utter frustration' stage. (Last of the Time Lords). I do not blame Tennant for this - he's adorable - so much as RTD and a culture in that writing room which allowed a lot of incredibly offensive pieces of ludicrous writing to go unchecked.
c) Steven Moffat wrote a higher proportion of my favourite episodes of the new series than anyone else. I'm still wondering how he'll cope with the responsibility for the entire arc of a series, overseeing every episode. (What he did to Donna in Forest of the Dead was also not his finest hour).
That all said.
+ Matt Smith is very sweet. He doesn't look quite so young on screen (though my father will still think he lacks the gravitas for Doctorhood. Daddy is a Tom Baker fan, though watched from Three on). He's still a little too self-confident for his own good, though some of those may have been regeneration quirks. He's still a genius child, still manic, though perhaps without Ten's sharp edges.
+ Amy is lovely. She's also a beautiful red-head, so I may be biased in my opinions. I loved little!Amelia as well - very no-nonsense. Grown!Amy is also no-nonsense, and possibly a bit messed-up, and I'm waiting for her to have an adequate moment of awesome to make me fall in love with her.
- The kissogram thing might have been a little skeevy. I'm also wondering how she was employed, given the size of her town and her lack of car. Perhaps she gets the bus, but presumably not in costume?
- I'm not at all in favour of the new music.
+ The new logo I'm okay with, and the text was sufficiently old-school to make it qualify as retro.
+/- Not yet sure about nu!TARDIS (and still don't understand how Ten leaving was traumatising enough to break said TARDIS. However bossman (oldschool fan) is in favour as he wants to see more of the TARDIS again, and I agree with him there. Library! Swimming pool! All these would be of the good. And the Doctor calling the TARDIS 'dear' was :D making.
+/- Plot. Nothing much to speak of. This puts it on par with most of the series-starters, however. Voices through cracks in the walls: good. All the zeros: cool-looking. Less sure about giant eyes and spaceships. Lots of stuff we'd seen before. Still not sure why the coma-patients were calling 'Doctor'?
+ I quite liked the 'everyone in the village knowing who the Doctor is' device. It tied us back to the small-town dynamic, and possibly also sets Amy up as the town eccentric. Harmless but did bite four different psychiatrists. Hee.
- Less sure of our gender issues. I called the wedding (small brother also called the wedding) and if Amy falls for the Doctor instead I will be unhappy. Amy's sort-of boyfriend was puzzling. A) We've already done the 'boyfriend more intimidated by aliens than his about-to-leave girlfriend. (ILU Mickey). B) Rory is clearly neither a coward or an idiot. He was trying to bring the strangeness to the attention of a superior who scared him. He was out proactively recording the videos. C) Why doesn't Amy know what Rory's recording, if they're sort-of dating?
- Amy. He was respectively twelve and two years late. What on earth makes you think you're going to see your wedding day?
- And we're back to a woman, waiting. Just once I'd like to see the Doctor actually come back on time. Or him waiting.
? Did he go back to wee!Amy? Does that not mess with the timelines?
+/- For those of us watching for any hint of the 'Doctor as God' agenda. Echoes of 'I'm the Doctor, look me up' after the nice montage. Saving the universe without TARDIS, Sonic screwdriver or advanced tech. The usual 'of course you're coming with me' arrogance. Straight-up admitting he was lonely and talking to himself was nice though. And he totally is a madman with a box. :) Not enough evidence yet to make any stronger call.
So we wait. But with slightly more optimism than before, perhaps.
This entry was originally posted at http://blackeyedgirl.dreamwidth.org/130042.html. Please comment there using OpenID.