Time of Angels Review/Picspam - Doctor Who
Since watching Time of Angels I've been a bit torn between writing up a review of this episode alone or waiting until this weekend when I've seen both. A two-parter is going to necessarily be incomplete and what we think we know at part 1 may be overturned in part 2. However, after mulling it over and thinking about the episode, I've decided that I do want to put out at least a short review/picspam as there are things to point out in this episode that I may entirely forget to mention if I don't do it now.
I'm going to start with River Song just as the episode starts with her. As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's annoying but not a bad kind of annoying if that makes any sense. *g* She is trying her damndest to be annoying, superior, and get under the Doctor's skin. She knows exactly what bugs him. In fact I would not be surprised if she has made a special study of the Doctor's buttons and pushes them with full knowledge of their effect.
If she is not meant to annoy me (and I do think that she is - at least in part), she is certainly meant to be divisive. Moffat must have been laughing to himself as he wrote her thinking of all the fanwank she was going to cause. Even putting aside the 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink, spoilers' bit, we have a situation where we're learning her story all out of order and she's more of a mystery than a character. Add on that what we think we know of her may all be heavily embroidered and that she may not be a particular good person, and we have a bit of a puzzle.
I will note that I certainly didn't spend the whole episode going 'Oh god, River is annoying.' It was more annoying, interesting, smart, ooooh I like her chats with Amy, good she should be nervous here, huh I guess she's at least a little bit bad (what with the thing she's done that would have the Doctor leaving if he knew), great entrance, damn those are FIERCE shoes. :D
And they were fierce. I see why Alex Kingston wanted a pair.
Onto Amy. Even though I still don't have a good read on who she is and what she wants in life (besides the Doctor), I thought she had some interesting scenes in this episode. I enjoyed the mystery of what was happening to her and jumped a bit when it seemed as though she was turning to stone. The sand running down when she rubbed her face was creepy. I also loved that she figured out how to stop the video Angel but freaked out and couldn't deal when she saw her hand turned to stone. It was a good balance between saving herself and needing help. (However I could have done without the clingy line. The meta made it drop like a weight into the scene. Similarly, I'm happy that River only said spoilers once. Once had me gritting my teeth. Twice and I would have been throwing things.)
Oh, and Doctor? Stop trying to send Amy away to safety or telling her that it's too dangerous and she can't come. I know that she was only 7 when you met her, but she's a big girl now and doesn't need to be sent away with a pat on the head and a cookie.
As for the Angels, still scary! The image of an Angel becoming an Angel was an excellent addition to their mythos. Now you can't even draw a picture of one without being in danger. *shudder* And the realization that the whole cave was Angels. Eek! It was just as I was asking myself why the statues had one head if the inhabitants had two that the Doctor realized as well. I'm not sure how I feel about the neck snapping though. If it has a reason, that's fine (just because they usually send their victims back in time doesn't mean they have to), but it makes them straight up murderers which is rather dull in the bad guy scheme of things. Also, DON'T BLINK was such an excellent line that they really should have kept it instead of diluting it. Don't look in the eyes is just not as awesome. However, the Angel will get into your head and make you think you're turning to stone is pretty darn awesome!
And, lastly the Doctor. As with Amy, I'm still getting a handle on Eleven but I do think that he has the essential Doctorness down. Being rude to the Bishop, snarking at River, biting Amy's hand to prove that she wasn't stone, figuring out the extent of the trap. He was in full Doctorish mode. My favorite expression of his Doctorness is definitely the speech at the end. I love a good badass speech and this one worked for me. Yay! (Being manipulated by the Angels doesn't reduce it's awesome for me at all.)
I'm going to start with River Song just as the episode starts with her. As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's annoying but not a bad kind of annoying if that makes any sense. *g* She is trying her damndest to be annoying, superior, and get under the Doctor's skin. She knows exactly what bugs him. In fact I would not be surprised if she has made a special study of the Doctor's buttons and pushes them with full knowledge of their effect.
If she is not meant to annoy me (and I do think that she is - at least in part), she is certainly meant to be divisive. Moffat must have been laughing to himself as he wrote her thinking of all the fanwank she was going to cause. Even putting aside the 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink, spoilers' bit, we have a situation where we're learning her story all out of order and she's more of a mystery than a character. Add on that what we think we know of her may all be heavily embroidered and that she may not be a particular good person, and we have a bit of a puzzle.
I will note that I certainly didn't spend the whole episode going 'Oh god, River is annoying.' It was more annoying, interesting, smart, ooooh I like her chats with Amy, good she should be nervous here, huh I guess she's at least a little bit bad (what with the thing she's done that would have the Doctor leaving if he knew), great entrance, damn those are FIERCE shoes. :D
And they were fierce. I see why Alex Kingston wanted a pair.
Onto Amy. Even though I still don't have a good read on who she is and what she wants in life (besides the Doctor), I thought she had some interesting scenes in this episode. I enjoyed the mystery of what was happening to her and jumped a bit when it seemed as though she was turning to stone. The sand running down when she rubbed her face was creepy. I also loved that she figured out how to stop the video Angel but freaked out and couldn't deal when she saw her hand turned to stone. It was a good balance between saving herself and needing help. (However I could have done without the clingy line. The meta made it drop like a weight into the scene. Similarly, I'm happy that River only said spoilers once. Once had me gritting my teeth. Twice and I would have been throwing things.)
Oh, and Doctor? Stop trying to send Amy away to safety or telling her that it's too dangerous and she can't come. I know that she was only 7 when you met her, but she's a big girl now and doesn't need to be sent away with a pat on the head and a cookie.
As for the Angels, still scary! The image of an Angel becoming an Angel was an excellent addition to their mythos. Now you can't even draw a picture of one without being in danger. *shudder* And the realization that the whole cave was Angels. Eek! It was just as I was asking myself why the statues had one head if the inhabitants had two that the Doctor realized as well. I'm not sure how I feel about the neck snapping though. If it has a reason, that's fine (just because they usually send their victims back in time doesn't mean they have to), but it makes them straight up murderers which is rather dull in the bad guy scheme of things. Also, DON'T BLINK was such an excellent line that they really should have kept it instead of diluting it. Don't look in the eyes is just not as awesome. However, the Angel will get into your head and make you think you're turning to stone is pretty darn awesome!
And, lastly the Doctor. As with Amy, I'm still getting a handle on Eleven but I do think that he has the essential Doctorness down. Being rude to the Bishop, snarking at River, biting Amy's hand to prove that she wasn't stone, figuring out the extent of the trap. He was in full Doctorish mode. My favorite expression of his Doctorness is definitely the speech at the end. I love a good badass speech and this one worked for me. Yay! (Being manipulated by the Angels doesn't reduce it's awesome for me at all.)