Doctor Who: The Power of Three

[calapine]

Right, so this is my theory: aliens have kidnapped Chris Chibnall and replaced him with some alien clone-like thing who's been made to write Doctor Who stories that pander to me. Because omg. This season has been great. One I've enjoyed, one I've thought smashing and now two Chibnalls (Chibnalls ffs - everyone remembers Cyberwoman, right?) to which my reaction is of the OMG TELLY HOW SO PERFECT AND WONDERFUL?! variety.

So, yeah, liked it.

• I knew nothing at all about this apart from last week's trailer. I didn't even know the name until it popped up onscreen and THANK GOODNESS. Of all the amazing things in the ep, my favourite? Kate Stewart. When she said her name I was "omg, that is so the Brig's daughter, OMG" (Downtime can be blamed for that) and then the scene where the Doctor admits he knows who she is, I cried. I MEAN THEY KILLED THE BRIG. But I sort of feel like it's okay now, cause possibly you *can't* keep almost fifty year old non-regenerating telly characters alive forever and maybe it's okay if their AMAZING DAUGHTER turns up instead and, oh, she was WONDERFUL and I will be SO SAD if we never see her again, but that entire subplot was BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT. And fandom had better not let me down re fic.
  
  
• Also, to add to the list of Stuff Mofftiem Has Fixed that was Well-Fucked Up: UNIT are no longer villains of a sort. Thank fuck for that. They're back to being shown as essentially on the side of good and saving the Earth, and no twit of a Doctor was whinging about the military having guns. And having Mr Weasley send them reports was quite lovely.
  
  
• I DON'T WANT THE PONDS TO LEAVE. They are making the run-up to their departure just...everything that I could possibly want from a beloved companion's departure with the character development and moments and joy and showing off their awesomeness, but it's also emphasising Kind Of A Lot everything I love about the Ponds and, oh, Eleventy, he is going to be SO SAD. And I'm glad River's in it next week cause presumably that will make it less awful for him but OH.
  
  
• All the scenes of the Ponds talking about their lives kind of highlights how scary and isolating it must be a solo companion returned home with no-one who really understands. :(
  
  
• ALL THE ELEVEN AND AMY. And the talking and the loveliness and the holding hands to leap through the looking glass and her eye-rolling at his insulting humanity and SHE WAS THE STORYTELER THIS WEEK. That made me happy. I've very much liked the Women As Storytellers thing going on this series.
  
  
• And Rory kisses the Doctor now too.
  
  
• I am SO SAD WE MISSED THE ZYGON INVASION OF THE SAVOY EPISODE. FFS. ZYGONS!
  
  
• Always approve of stuff like wee black cubes as scary alien invaders. Cause it's a wee black cubes. As in Cheap British Sci-fi, yay. Even though clearly not that cheap since they turn into wee flying cubes (oh, the K-9 shout-out!) with lasers, but still. I feel the sentiment is there.
  
  
• Sudden and unexpected location change to Cool Alien Ship! With a cool alien! Also very nice.
  
  
• Oh, and just the general domesticness and the banter and the camaraderie and the self-awareness of what's going on as they grow older and their lives change and talking and thinking about it...all that stuff. But especially the camaraderie. I don't want it go, and there's almost none of it left. And with the off-screen adventures and adventure snippets it's just emphasising how they're trying to squeeze in as much as possible before OMG THE END. And the Ponds have known the Doctor for over ten years now, and Amy even longer, and the Doctor's known them for something like 200 and, oh, show. He's had his family for CENTURIES NOW. DON'T HURT ME TOO MUCH NEXT WEEK. I'M V DELICATE.
  
  
• So Chibnall. Last year he wrote New Skool Doctor Who and the Silurians, and I liked it, yeah, but there're plenty of fair crits made of it as "not being v good" and such. And it's not. But this year, he's gone for New Skool Hartnell and New Skool Season Eight (this was pretty much a cosy UNIT adventure minus the Master) and they've worked. They've worked ridiculously well for me. I don't know what the lesson is, but I'm glad he's got better.
  
  
• Amy's a travel writer now! Maybe this week fandom won't judge her for her job! Cause I love it when fandom passes judgement on what's a suitable job for a woman to have.
  
  
• I notice they were really not giving anything away in the trailer for next week re plot. I am determined to avoid spoilers. I expect it will be horrid and I will cry.
  
  
• In conclusion, I want to take this episode and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and draw little hearts around them both.