Planet of the Ood
Squeeful, mildly spoilery, and not exhaustive. Also, I shall spare you my apprehension about what they're going to do with [SPOILER] next time, 'cause yeah.
My concerns about how they'd handle a revisit to the Ood, I take them back. Mostly. I've got a couple quibbles, but it still remains that this is the first episode of Doctor Who in a long time that had me punching the air in the first scene.
Succinct, non-spoilery reaction: Fuck yeah.
First of all, must dwell a bit on how thoroughly lovely Ten and Donna are together. Donna's a grown-up and no mistaking, but she can bounce and squee like a kid. She can be awed by the universe without being over-awed by the Doctor.
She's also fairly observant, but more on that later.
And this Tennant guy? He feels like the Doctor. I'm not even talking about the fact that the Doctor was more compassionate and tuned into his own values in this episode, though he was; I just mean that in some intangible way that he's only occasionally done before, he just felt to me like he could be the Doctor. And I liked that. I liked it lots. I liked this character-not a question of liking him from moment to moment, but like, at bottom, I really like this guy, and I care about any failings he may have.
Donna just keeps getting filled out better and better. Her reaction to the first Ood she meets is compassionate, certainly, but not perfect: She's taken aback and she calls him an "it," earning some asperity from the Doctor-which is true to them both. See above request for Donna to bear my children. Also, it's bringing out a fuller sense of the Doctor, whether in Tennant's performance or the writing or what. Who cares? They're awesome, I'm happy to stop there.
A quick aside: This is a violent episode. Radically violent. Not more so than Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords if you break it down by numbers, I suppose, but it sure as hell felt more violent. Probably because it wasn't metal balls from the future doing the violence. It's really hard to watch, but I'm okay with that, because it should be. Kudos.
OMG BEES.
I could have done with a shade less cackling from the villains; the situation's not cartoonish, so cartoonish villains could only detract. But there was enough outstanding character stuff going on to compensate. Our focus here is mostly on Doctor/Donna, who deliver all you could want; plus we get Wosname PR Lady, who I thought was handled pretty well, especially in her own critical moment.
Doctor/Donna. Doctor-Donna. Whatever. I am shipping you two rather hard. I am also adoring your friendship in a way that makes me wish they sold it in teddy bear form so I could buy it and have it to hug. There's a marvelous bit in this, you see, where the Doctor gets a dig in at Donna, and Donna gets one in at him back, and they're both right to a point. This isn't even the first time they've done this, I think it will be a trend. It is a trend I really fucking like.
Also, Donna taking Main Villain down a peg or six when she delivers the explanation for the Ood's initial lack of resistance was just plain brilliant. Fantastic moment for the character, fantastic moment in general. And then they follow it up with fantastic Doc/Donna interplay. THERE IS A LOT TO LIKE HERE, YES.
Alsoalso. That Vulcan Mind-Meld Scene. I did not expect to like it (yes, I had been spoiled, shh), because I hate the sudden introduction of mind-melds into Who in general, but it was well done. Further, the whole scene is well done: Including the Doctor's angst. I BUY it this time. I don't know exactly why or what's been missing on some other occasions before, but it was lovely and when he said "All the time," I wanted to fucking hug him. Tightly. I think because it was subtler here, perhaps?
Whatever it was, keep it up. T'was excellent.
I did balk a bit at a couple ending points: When Ood ∑ tells the Doctor, "[spoiler] is yours," and when they do the ending "we shall sing of your visit around the campfire forever zomg." The former struck me as incongruous in both the Doctor's request and the Ood's response, given that he's a newcomer on the scene and their involvement hasn't been that monumental in the full scope of the thing (something I really liked about this story, by the way). The latter I could mostly just wince and deal with as standard Who, because it is, but I did think it was a poor decision given the content of the story. For the most part, they'd done well with staying away from "Aren't these poor oppressed masses so lucky to have our wonderful big-time human-looking hero with great hair swooping in to save them?" stuff. Really, it was good that way. So, I could have lived without it getting tacked on at the end, but as it was pretty much absent from the actual story, it didn't dent my squee too much.
Only after I'd finished the episode did I notice why it was so satisfying: I watched it without my beta-brain on full-tilt. I watched it that way because it made me. And what could be better than that?
In conclusion, OOD JUICE ZOMG.
That is all. Have a nice day.
My concerns about how they'd handle a revisit to the Ood, I take them back. Mostly. I've got a couple quibbles, but it still remains that this is the first episode of Doctor Who in a long time that had me punching the air in the first scene.
Succinct, non-spoilery reaction: Fuck yeah.
First of all, must dwell a bit on how thoroughly lovely Ten and Donna are together. Donna's a grown-up and no mistaking, but she can bounce and squee like a kid. She can be awed by the universe without being over-awed by the Doctor.
She's also fairly observant, but more on that later.
And this Tennant guy? He feels like the Doctor. I'm not even talking about the fact that the Doctor was more compassionate and tuned into his own values in this episode, though he was; I just mean that in some intangible way that he's only occasionally done before, he just felt to me like he could be the Doctor. And I liked that. I liked it lots. I liked this character-not a question of liking him from moment to moment, but like, at bottom, I really like this guy, and I care about any failings he may have.
Donna just keeps getting filled out better and better. Her reaction to the first Ood she meets is compassionate, certainly, but not perfect: She's taken aback and she calls him an "it," earning some asperity from the Doctor-which is true to them both. See above request for Donna to bear my children. Also, it's bringing out a fuller sense of the Doctor, whether in Tennant's performance or the writing or what. Who cares? They're awesome, I'm happy to stop there.
A quick aside: This is a violent episode. Radically violent. Not more so than Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords if you break it down by numbers, I suppose, but it sure as hell felt more violent. Probably because it wasn't metal balls from the future doing the violence. It's really hard to watch, but I'm okay with that, because it should be. Kudos.
OMG BEES.
I could have done with a shade less cackling from the villains; the situation's not cartoonish, so cartoonish villains could only detract. But there was enough outstanding character stuff going on to compensate. Our focus here is mostly on Doctor/Donna, who deliver all you could want; plus we get Wosname PR Lady, who I thought was handled pretty well, especially in her own critical moment.
Doctor/Donna. Doctor-Donna. Whatever. I am shipping you two rather hard. I am also adoring your friendship in a way that makes me wish they sold it in teddy bear form so I could buy it and have it to hug. There's a marvelous bit in this, you see, where the Doctor gets a dig in at Donna, and Donna gets one in at him back, and they're both right to a point. This isn't even the first time they've done this, I think it will be a trend. It is a trend I really fucking like.
Also, Donna taking Main Villain down a peg or six when she delivers the explanation for the Ood's initial lack of resistance was just plain brilliant. Fantastic moment for the character, fantastic moment in general. And then they follow it up with fantastic Doc/Donna interplay. THERE IS A LOT TO LIKE HERE, YES.
Alsoalso. That Vulcan Mind-Meld Scene. I did not expect to like it (yes, I had been spoiled, shh), because I hate the sudden introduction of mind-melds into Who in general, but it was well done. Further, the whole scene is well done: Including the Doctor's angst. I BUY it this time. I don't know exactly why or what's been missing on some other occasions before, but it was lovely and when he said "All the time," I wanted to fucking hug him. Tightly. I think because it was subtler here, perhaps?
Whatever it was, keep it up. T'was excellent.
I did balk a bit at a couple ending points: When Ood ∑ tells the Doctor, "[spoiler] is yours," and when they do the ending "we shall sing of your visit around the campfire forever zomg." The former struck me as incongruous in both the Doctor's request and the Ood's response, given that he's a newcomer on the scene and their involvement hasn't been that monumental in the full scope of the thing (something I really liked about this story, by the way). The latter I could mostly just wince and deal with as standard Who, because it is, but I did think it was a poor decision given the content of the story. For the most part, they'd done well with staying away from "Aren't these poor oppressed masses so lucky to have our wonderful big-time human-looking hero with great hair swooping in to save them?" stuff. Really, it was good that way. So, I could have lived without it getting tacked on at the end, but as it was pretty much absent from the actual story, it didn't dent my squee too much.
Only after I'd finished the episode did I notice why it was so satisfying: I watched it without my beta-brain on full-tilt. I watched it that way because it made me. And what could be better than that?
In conclusion, OOD JUICE ZOMG.
That is all. Have a nice day.