I like the basic idea of the space ship/France juxtaposition and I think it does look pretty neat. This episode is super gorgeous visually -- the sets, the costumes, David Tennant and Sophia Myles, etc. The clockwork drones are okay but I don't really find them intimidating and I don't get how they have a reputation for being frightening. They're clockwork! Just stick a pebble in there! Or like... shove them over. They have like a 3 inch blade and they're pretty slow and not very sturdy. IDK, I don't get it.
Anyway it's all for nought for me anyway because I don't think anyone in this episode is in character. I mean, I guess Reinette, who has no pre-established character she has to fit in, but Ten, Rose and Mickey? Ehhhh. We go from Rose being reluctant to even have Mickey on board to the to the two of them being best buds in this ep which immediately follows. And Ten... Ten's desire in this episode to go exploring on his own just doesn't work for me, at all. That's not really the Ten we've seen before or after. Ten LOVES people. He'd want his companions to be there exploring with them, not telling them to go wait in the corner.
Ten/Reinette is meh to me. It's very Steven Moffat IMO, in that he tries to skip the "getting to know you, getting to know all abouuuut youuu" phase and go right to true luv 4eva. In this episode, it's through mind reading. Which... um... okay. But they spend about literally a few hours together total, so I'm not buying them as this epic romance. And it seems a bit... suspect to me that Reinette apparently spends her entire life fixated on this man she knows for a couple hours. Girl you're the mistress of the King of France! You have bigger fish to ...fry and dance with! And with most of s2 all about how much the Doctor loves Rose, it just doesn't fit. Also, it skeeves me out big time that the Doctor meets little Reinette and then snogs adult Reinette five minutes later. SHE WAS A LITTLE GIRL FIVE MINUTES AGO. That freaks you out with Amelia, why doesn't it freak you out with Reinette?
Which leads me to:
When I rewatched this last summer, after having seen s5 and s6, I suddenly realized everything in this episode works better if I mentally substitute Eleven, Amy and Rory for Ten, Rose and Mickey. So... I think if the episode was transplanted into s5 or beyond, I might like it okay. But where it is, I find it much too out of character to enjoy. Add in the fandom fuckery that goes with it (Reinette is a better match for the Doctor because she's EDUCATED and PROPER) and all the weird wife/mistress stuff this episode sets up, just, ehhhhhhh, no thanks.
It really is a shame because while i doubt GITF would ever be a favourite, I think it would work a lot better. Rose spends most of this episode being left out of the adventure and waiting around for the Doctor to come back -- not very Rose IMO, but certainly fits with "the girl who waited". And Mickey is such a non-entity and mostly spends time paling around with and/or teasing Rose, he might as well be Rory.
And while I would still find Eleven/Reinette hastily developed, it would at least make sense to me that Eleven might be open for that kind of connection. I don't really think Ten in s2 would consider himself, like, on the market, so to speak, which is part of why Ten/Reinette just seems like a clusterfuck to me. It's hard for me to imagine that an hour with Reinette suddenly trumps the year+ he's spent falling in love with Rose. But Eleven is more or less unattached, so at least there'd be that. It would still be squicky of him to go around making little girls infatuated with him and then snogging and possibly having sex with them, but.... well. At least there might be more interesting parallels to be drawn between Reinette and Amy than there are between Reinette and Rose.
This is actually a really good point. It would have been thematically appropriate with Eleven who has this sort of relationship with several people (if we pretend it's a theme and not just lazy repetitive writing), and it would have offered some interesting opportunities for Amy to be on the other side of events (...and Rory to just be there). It could have even been used to counterpoint Amy's arc both in her eyes and Eleven's, for them to accept the ways he'd kind of screwed with her childhood but they still had a chance to make it right.
But then let's not really pretend Moff would have taken the time to craft a character relevant story like that. This story works better with his characters, not because it's more relevant to their stories, but because his favorite one trick pony of timey whimey relationships is by extension more fitting in his storylines.
(But by gods would I love to see RTD write an Eleven, Amy, and Rory story. The one time RTD wrote Eleven for TSJA was like the one time Eleven really felt like a character and not just a collection of quirks and I'd love to see his approach to Moff's companions too; I'm sure they would suddenly but 1000% more complex and dynamic people.
Maybe it'd be even better suited to an s5 episode without Rory at all. It's not like the Mickey figure does anything really in the episode, so Rory wouldn't really need to be there. I do think it could potentially be an interesting exploration of the whole thing for both Eleven and Amy (though I also agree that this seems more likely to be coincidental than anything explored too purposefully). Hmmm. If I cared enough I would write an AU.
I do wish RTD would come back for an episode or two, I'd be very curious to see his take on the new companions. I really liked what he did with Eleven in SJA as well.
Yeah, Matt Smith in particular's dedication to imagining the Doctor as this Captain Kirk figure both baffles and deeply irritates me. At any rate it might actually seem true if he'd been in episodes like Girl in the Fireplace.
Anyway it's all for nought for me anyway because I don't think anyone in this episode is in character. I mean, I guess Reinette, who has no pre-established character she has to fit in, but Ten, Rose and Mickey? Ehhhh. We go from Rose being reluctant to even have Mickey on board to the to the two of them being best buds in this ep which immediately follows. And Ten... Ten's desire in this episode to go exploring on his own just doesn't work for me, at all. That's not really the Ten we've seen before or after. Ten LOVES people. He'd want his companions to be there exploring with them, not telling them to go wait in the corner.
Ten/Reinette is meh to me. It's very Steven Moffat IMO, in that he tries to skip the "getting to know you, getting to know all abouuuut youuu" phase and go right to true luv 4eva. In this episode, it's through mind reading. Which... um... okay. But they spend about literally a few hours together total, so I'm not buying them as this epic romance. And it seems a bit... suspect to me that Reinette apparently spends her entire life fixated on this man she knows for a couple hours. Girl you're the mistress of the King of France! You have bigger fish to ...fry and dance with! And with most of s2 all about how much the Doctor loves Rose, it just doesn't fit. Also, it skeeves me out big time that the Doctor meets little Reinette and then snogs adult Reinette five minutes later. SHE WAS A LITTLE GIRL FIVE MINUTES AGO. That freaks you out with Amelia, why doesn't it freak you out with Reinette?
Which leads me to:
When I rewatched this last summer, after having seen s5 and s6, I suddenly realized everything in this episode works better if I mentally substitute Eleven, Amy and Rory for Ten, Rose and Mickey. So... I think if the episode was transplanted into s5 or beyond, I might like it okay. But where it is, I find it much too out of character to enjoy. Add in the fandom fuckery that goes with it (Reinette is a better match for the Doctor because she's EDUCATED and PROPER) and all the weird wife/mistress stuff this episode sets up, just, ehhhhhhh, no thanks.
The kiss is pretty hot though.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
And while I would still find Eleven/Reinette hastily developed, it would at least make sense to me that Eleven might be open for that kind of connection. I don't really think Ten in s2 would consider himself, like, on the market, so to speak, which is part of why Ten/Reinette just seems like a clusterfuck to me. It's hard for me to imagine that an hour with Reinette suddenly trumps the year+ he's spent falling in love with Rose. But Eleven is more or less unattached, so at least there'd be that. It would still be squicky of him to go around making little girls infatuated with him and then snogging and possibly having sex with them, but.... well. At least there might be more interesting parallels to be drawn between Reinette and Amy than there are between Reinette and Rose.
Reply
But then let's not really pretend Moff would have taken the time to craft a character relevant story like that. This story works better with his characters, not because it's more relevant to their stories, but because his favorite one trick pony of timey whimey relationships is by extension more fitting in his storylines.
(But by gods would I love to see RTD write an Eleven, Amy, and Rory story. The one time RTD wrote Eleven for TSJA was like the one time Eleven really felt like a character and not just a collection of quirks and I'd love to see his approach to Moff's companions too; I'm sure they would suddenly but 1000% more complex and dynamic people.
Reply
I do wish RTD would come back for an episode or two, I'd be very curious to see his take on the new companions. I really liked what he did with Eleven in SJA as well.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Leave a comment