Who we were to kill again?
The Doctor Who came back. Yesterday after I watched it for the first time I wasn't sure I liked it. It explained a lot and resolved many plot points but it felt rushed and half-assed. Like mesh of funny lines and info dumps. I had to remind myself this is a very DW way of doing things. A too fast, too easy solutions that one should not think too much about. It's the emotional impact that matters. And after rematching today I liked the emotional impact much better.
The episode title was a big fake out. A feint. It's just something said by one of the characters. Even the robot operators weren't there to kill him. And they admitted to getting their dates wrong. The one getting killed is the Doctor. But the episode is really about Melody Pond and who she becomes River Song.
I think it showed that the alliance against the Doctor isn't against him changing history per se but they seem to be pissed by the randomness of it. Chase away or exterminate some alien race is fine but stopping disasters and atrocities is not. It's probably also connected to something that's been rubbing me wrong for a while now. It seems that it's much more important for the Doctor if it's personal. He was willing to destroy and humiliate countless lives for Amy but all those who suffered much greater perils through out history are just left dead. On the other hand they are dead people why would he do anything about them?
Although I'm not very fond of the Tesselact mission either. Revenge and torture seems like a pointless waste of time and time travel. It's better to use resources for the future and it's not justice.
I think it's time for Doctor to admit he isn't always right and the solutions to the problems he finds are just him taking side with who he likes best. The side he picks instantly gains unfair advantage. They win because he is with them and he decided they are right. If you disagree you perish (or run away). If you look at this this way it's not hard to understand why someone would be against the Doctor and whatever cause he picks.
This is the way Melody was raised but it's a shortsighted as what the Doctor does. It's so juvenile - being contrary just for the sake of being contrary. Of course, that's exactly how Melody is. Juvenile.
I got it almost from the start. I read spoilers that contained speculation about it but it was the performance that convinced me the speculation was right. Mels - Amy and Rory's childhood friend - was really their daughter River Song. The actress playing adult Mels did a great job at acting just like River - from doing whatever she wanted and total indifference to being punished to just pointing the gun and shooting. And never doing or believing what she is told. The way she talked like nothing matters and everyone is just too slow and stupid. And River we know would be able to get free of the robot.
At the same time she was so childish and annoying and bratty. I felt annoyed by Mels and I loved River from the beginning. It's not the actress as the feeling didn't change when Alex Kingston took over. Somehow she still managed to feel so much younger then the River we know. Somehow the same tone and behaviour was grating when she played Mels. It's probably because you can feel that River is older, wiser and there is actual knowledge of both events and consequences behind that act. And both we and the Doctor know that she actually cares and what she does she does because she cares. The Doctor is the same and that's what is part of the attraction I think. Mels doesn't have that yet. She is just all show and sparkle but empty inside. Quick thinking but never stopping to think things through and not caring about anything, even her parents/best friends. Even the mission is just a way to prove she can not a real conviction. She doesn't care about people and consequences. Until she is made to.
I was bit annoyed by how fast she changed from 'kill the Doctor' to 'save the Doctor' mode but now I think it's part of how she is. Quick decisions. Total conviction that she is right and can do it. And the going all the way even sacrificing herself to get things done. As we know this will never change and she's like that to the very end. Just like the Doctor. Can't stop being the hero.
All the things that I love about River are there and obviously Doctor thinks so too. He fights for her even though she killed him. And he shows her who she will be by what he does rather then telling her. He defends her and forces both her and her parents to save each other. He forces her to care.
After their first, disastrous meeting when he destroyed her life and her mother shot her when she asked for help this was big improvement. Both times she was forced to regenerate so neither was very safe for her. Still this time they all actually stand up for her. Protect her. And the way she seems to be bewildered by the fact that Doctor cares about others even when he's dying she didn't experience care too often. And when her voice is so small when she tells her parents how she learned to drive TARDIS or how she looks at River Song when she understands who she will become. It really shows how much younger and how much starved for affection she is. And for someone to believe in her.
This is what I still mind - growing up along Amy and Rory is not being raised by them. She was much older and on a mission so she only observed how they grow up to care about each other. I don't think she ever believed they care for her. Not until they saved her (even though this once again come with endangering so many people - that noone died was just a good safety system). I wish she was with them longer. With them as her parents and without ulterior motive. Just as family.
So in the end I liked:
Doctor and Mels outsmarting each other. And flirting even when dying. And the first signs that he likes her. Really, really likes her.
Here is a little bit of speculation. Someone wrote that maybe that summer Amy and Rory spent waiting for the news was a longer then a summer for the Doctor. that for him it's 200 years later. And I remembered River said she met him as a girl and he new everything about her. It might be true about the Doctor already - he knew how she was born and how she dies and is aware of what they have together. However if he has 200 years more of meetings and experiences then he really knows. And then him calling River and acting like he loves her makes much more sense.
I love that we've already seen his first kiss. Now we have seen hers. First a peck to kill him then a more proper one to resurrect him. No wonder they felt pretty special.
She learned to drive the TARDIS from the best.
Young Amy and Rory. And Amy is one of the boys.
Amy and Rory making crop circles. Rory punching Hitler. Rory puting Hitler in the closet. Amy with sonic screwdriver. Amy saving Melody. And Amy/Rory in general.
I didn't like the whole sexy posing and weighting thing until I realised it was all a ploy to get weapons to kill the Doctor. Then I though it was hilarious. The weighting in the other room was just to apply the lipstick (BTW Judas Tree is not poisonous to humans - this may explain why Mels didn't poison herself - she is probably still human enough)
Spoilers. Banana. And blue diary. The rules. And Doctor/River in general.
River manic shopping spree. And "I was on my way to gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah the disabled when I suddenly thought, gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish, I think I kill the Führer." Regeneration.
The robot special effects (I even liked the animation for the bike ride). And I found interesting that they know the fixed point in time and what has been changed. But the idea was so pulp sci-fi.
The voice interface - Rose, Martha and Donna. Most awesome - Amelia Pond. Funny how he used the same obtuseness and begging with Mels later - calling her someone else she wasn't. With voice interface it might've been his imagination - the voice was different but then the way she bit her lips suggested it was her. But
I didn't liked:
That Amy and Rory didn't get to rise her at all. Even worse they had to leave her again.
The whole "And she's a woman" was unnecessary. I'm considering the "good man" thing a joke. She was looking for adventure and he is a best adventure in town.
Spending all the regenerations to save the Doctor. The machine that kills her would kill her even if she had some left and it seemed like a such a cop out way of erasing the Time Lady part of her.
I liked the idea of the people inside the robot and the antibodies but their objective was pretty repulsive. How can you even try moral superiority when your job is torturing people? You are not saving anyone. I'm against Hell in any form. So much anger. Which reminds me I need to read Surface Detail.
Continuity
Melody becoming River and becoming archeologist in 52nd century. It seems that 50-somthing centuries are River's base. She travels in time too - it's also the time of Time Agents. However, she seems to have an academic career there - becomes a professor eventually - backwards. She goes to Luna University in 52nd century and dies a professor in 51st.
Silence is not the species. It was the whole order - the movement - that kidnapped River. Well they destroyed the universe without Silence falling anyway. Sometimes solutions are worse then the problems.
PROMO SPOILER (highlight to see)
There is still eye-patch River to come according to the some of the trailers. And she is still to kill the Doctor. So why didn't River remember the suit or killing the Doctor even when she was looking at the aliens? Or was she just pretending not to remember? Or is she serving the sentence for somebody else?
END SPOILER
So what is the question? Is the answer 42?
The episode title was a big fake out. A feint. It's just something said by one of the characters. Even the robot operators weren't there to kill him. And they admitted to getting their dates wrong. The one getting killed is the Doctor. But the episode is really about Melody Pond and who she becomes River Song.
I think it showed that the alliance against the Doctor isn't against him changing history per se but they seem to be pissed by the randomness of it. Chase away or exterminate some alien race is fine but stopping disasters and atrocities is not. It's probably also connected to something that's been rubbing me wrong for a while now. It seems that it's much more important for the Doctor if it's personal. He was willing to destroy and humiliate countless lives for Amy but all those who suffered much greater perils through out history are just left dead. On the other hand they are dead people why would he do anything about them?
Although I'm not very fond of the Tesselact mission either. Revenge and torture seems like a pointless waste of time and time travel. It's better to use resources for the future and it's not justice.
I think it's time for Doctor to admit he isn't always right and the solutions to the problems he finds are just him taking side with who he likes best. The side he picks instantly gains unfair advantage. They win because he is with them and he decided they are right. If you disagree you perish (or run away). If you look at this this way it's not hard to understand why someone would be against the Doctor and whatever cause he picks.
This is the way Melody was raised but it's a shortsighted as what the Doctor does. It's so juvenile - being contrary just for the sake of being contrary. Of course, that's exactly how Melody is. Juvenile.
I got it almost from the start. I read spoilers that contained speculation about it but it was the performance that convinced me the speculation was right. Mels - Amy and Rory's childhood friend - was really their daughter River Song. The actress playing adult Mels did a great job at acting just like River - from doing whatever she wanted and total indifference to being punished to just pointing the gun and shooting. And never doing or believing what she is told. The way she talked like nothing matters and everyone is just too slow and stupid. And River we know would be able to get free of the robot.
At the same time she was so childish and annoying and bratty. I felt annoyed by Mels and I loved River from the beginning. It's not the actress as the feeling didn't change when Alex Kingston took over. Somehow she still managed to feel so much younger then the River we know. Somehow the same tone and behaviour was grating when she played Mels. It's probably because you can feel that River is older, wiser and there is actual knowledge of both events and consequences behind that act. And both we and the Doctor know that she actually cares and what she does she does because she cares. The Doctor is the same and that's what is part of the attraction I think. Mels doesn't have that yet. She is just all show and sparkle but empty inside. Quick thinking but never stopping to think things through and not caring about anything, even her parents/best friends. Even the mission is just a way to prove she can not a real conviction. She doesn't care about people and consequences. Until she is made to.
I was bit annoyed by how fast she changed from 'kill the Doctor' to 'save the Doctor' mode but now I think it's part of how she is. Quick decisions. Total conviction that she is right and can do it. And the going all the way even sacrificing herself to get things done. As we know this will never change and she's like that to the very end. Just like the Doctor. Can't stop being the hero.
All the things that I love about River are there and obviously Doctor thinks so too. He fights for her even though she killed him. And he shows her who she will be by what he does rather then telling her. He defends her and forces both her and her parents to save each other. He forces her to care.
After their first, disastrous meeting when he destroyed her life and her mother shot her when she asked for help this was big improvement. Both times she was forced to regenerate so neither was very safe for her. Still this time they all actually stand up for her. Protect her. And the way she seems to be bewildered by the fact that Doctor cares about others even when he's dying she didn't experience care too often. And when her voice is so small when she tells her parents how she learned to drive TARDIS or how she looks at River Song when she understands who she will become. It really shows how much younger and how much starved for affection she is. And for someone to believe in her.
This is what I still mind - growing up along Amy and Rory is not being raised by them. She was much older and on a mission so she only observed how they grow up to care about each other. I don't think she ever believed they care for her. Not until they saved her (even though this once again come with endangering so many people - that noone died was just a good safety system). I wish she was with them longer. With them as her parents and without ulterior motive. Just as family.
So in the end I liked:
Doctor and Mels outsmarting each other. And flirting even when dying. And the first signs that he likes her. Really, really likes her.
Here is a little bit of speculation. Someone wrote that maybe that summer Amy and Rory spent waiting for the news was a longer then a summer for the Doctor. that for him it's 200 years later. And I remembered River said she met him as a girl and he new everything about her. It might be true about the Doctor already - he knew how she was born and how she dies and is aware of what they have together. However if he has 200 years more of meetings and experiences then he really knows. And then him calling River and acting like he loves her makes much more sense.
I love that we've already seen his first kiss. Now we have seen hers. First a peck to kill him then a more proper one to resurrect him. No wonder they felt pretty special.
She learned to drive the TARDIS from the best.
Young Amy and Rory. And Amy is one of the boys.
Amy and Rory making crop circles. Rory punching Hitler. Rory puting Hitler in the closet. Amy with sonic screwdriver. Amy saving Melody. And Amy/Rory in general.
I didn't like the whole sexy posing and weighting thing until I realised it was all a ploy to get weapons to kill the Doctor. Then I though it was hilarious. The weighting in the other room was just to apply the lipstick (BTW Judas Tree is not poisonous to humans - this may explain why Mels didn't poison herself - she is probably still human enough)
Spoilers. Banana. And blue diary. The rules. And Doctor/River in general.
River manic shopping spree. And "I was on my way to gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah the disabled when I suddenly thought, gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish, I think I kill the Führer." Regeneration.
The robot special effects (I even liked the animation for the bike ride). And I found interesting that they know the fixed point in time and what has been changed. But the idea was so pulp sci-fi.
The voice interface - Rose, Martha and Donna. Most awesome - Amelia Pond. Funny how he used the same obtuseness and begging with Mels later - calling her someone else she wasn't. With voice interface it might've been his imagination - the voice was different but then the way she bit her lips suggested it was her. But
I didn't liked:
That Amy and Rory didn't get to rise her at all. Even worse they had to leave her again.
The whole "And she's a woman" was unnecessary. I'm considering the "good man" thing a joke. She was looking for adventure and he is a best adventure in town.
Spending all the regenerations to save the Doctor. The machine that kills her would kill her even if she had some left and it seemed like a such a cop out way of erasing the Time Lady part of her.
I liked the idea of the people inside the robot and the antibodies but their objective was pretty repulsive. How can you even try moral superiority when your job is torturing people? You are not saving anyone. I'm against Hell in any form. So much anger. Which reminds me I need to read Surface Detail.
Continuity
Melody becoming River and becoming archeologist in 52nd century. It seems that 50-somthing centuries are River's base. She travels in time too - it's also the time of Time Agents. However, she seems to have an academic career there - becomes a professor eventually - backwards. She goes to Luna University in 52nd century and dies a professor in 51st.
Silence is not the species. It was the whole order - the movement - that kidnapped River. Well they destroyed the universe without Silence falling anyway. Sometimes solutions are worse then the problems.
PROMO SPOILER (highlight to see)
There is still eye-patch River to come according to the some of the trailers. And she is still to kill the Doctor. So why didn't River remember the suit or killing the Doctor even when she was looking at the aliens? Or was she just pretending not to remember? Or is she serving the sentence for somebody else?
END SPOILER
So what is the question? Is the answer 42?