DW: A Good Man Goes to War
So, I wish I had something really cool and interesting to say about "A Good Man Goes to War"...but I don't. My feelings on it were simply lackluster. I had been looking forward to seeing this episode, I had been properly surprised by last weeks reveal that Amy had been a ganger the whole series, but by halfway through I found myself going, "So uh, are they going to get to the plot anytime soon?"
Yes, it was cool seeing Rory being badass and threatening Cybermen. It was oddly amusing seeing a Sontaran nurse. And the 19th century lizard chick and her servant/sidekick/girlfriend were my favorite (She WAS the one who "killed" Rory, right? edit: She's not, apparently, thanks to eviltigerlily for pointing that out. How did she wind up in the 1800's? When did she and the Doctor go from enemies from friends? And how did she become some type of lizard girl Sherlock? THAT's an episode I'd like to see.) Callbacks are fun, I love them, but not when they take up half a damn episode.
Now, let's take a look at the soldiers keeping Amy and Melody hostage. Specifically the Fat One and the Thin One who I think we're supposed to care about or something? One of the things I really love about RTD's writing is that he has this knack for taking small characters who maybe only have a scene or two and actually making them interesting. The crew of Sanctuary Base 6 in "The Impossible Planet"/"Satan's Pit". Stacy in "Partners in Crime". The doomed crew in "Waters of Mars." I can think of tons more, but I think you get my point.
The thing is, I see SM trying to do this. I see that we're supposed to like these guys, even though they're technically on the wrong side of the Doctor's fight. But I just couldn't seem to give a damn. With RTD it always seemed he'd thought up secret backstories for these supporting players in order to turn them into actual characters. We'd get hints of their pasts and personalities, but never the whole story, and that was wonderful because it made you WANT to know them more. It made you care. And I see SM trying to give this a go, but he's done it so lazily he can't even be bothered to give these guys NAMES. They're the Fat One and the Thin One. We get a bit of silly exposition to explain that they're gay, married soldiers (which I guess is SM trying to bring back my beloved gay agenda from the RTD days, but again - when RTD did it, he had ACTUAL CHARACTERS who happened to be gay, not just guys who's sexuality is apparently one of their few defining characteristics), and therefore have no need for actual identities, and then one of them gets his head cut off. And I couldn't care less.
Then there's the fact that we're AGAIN meant to question the paternity of Amy's baby. Like, MULTIPLE TIMES. Did Amy just tell Melody that the Doctor is her father? Oh, no, she's talking about Rory. Is Melody part Time Lord because she's secretly the Doctor and Amy's love child? No, she was simply conceived while in the vortex. Have I MENTIONED how obnoxious I find the baby daddy drama? Let's save it for Maury Povich and write an actual story, please?
And then, of course, the big reveal: River Song is actually Melody Pond aka Amy and Rory's time head baby. What?! I don't...I can't even...I know people have been speculating on this all season, but seriously, that just feels like the worlds biggest ass pull. Considering how many times we've now seen Amy, Rory, and River interact, it's just NOW that River gives any indication that these are important people in her life? Was this plot line planned all along? I can't tell you how much I hate when writers plug a giant mystery into a plot without actually planning the outcome first. It creates continuity errors and crushes interesting plot arcs and I HATE IT SO MUCH.
"River Song is Amy's daughter. Oh! I found a gun back there, too!"
Not to mention we now have yet ANOTHER woman who's met the Doctor as a child (a freaking infant, really) and winds up in a strange sexual type relationship with him (not to mention Lorna, who apparently is Amy's could-have-been, another little girl pining over a man who saved her as a child). Once or twice, it's an interesting time travel romance. Four times and I'm starting to wonder if someone has a very strange and specific fetish.
To wrap up, I was pretty damn disappointed with this episode, particularly as a finale. Too much running about looking cool and soap opera gimmicks than any actual storytelling. We didn't get much in the way of answers, we sort of know who River is, but not any ACTUAL important information - like who she killed, why she's in prison, what is her actual relationship with the Doctor, etc. Plus now apparently we know she's kind of Time Lordy, so can she regenerate? Will she? Has she before? Where is Melody/Baby!River and why is she a weapon? We have no new info on space suit girl, other than we're supposed to assume it's River, but if you think about it, she's probably NOT the little girl running around in the space suit, because if she were she would already KNOW who the space suit girl is and most likely wouldn't have gotten involved at all in order to maintain the timelines properly.
I can't help but think the fact that the series has been split in half has contributed to this episodes problems. Everything was far too rushed, which made the answers we were given feel far too unsatisfying.
Here's hoping "Let's Kill Hitler" starts us off on a stronger second half of the season.
Edited because Captain Jack wanted to get in on the action.
Yes, it was cool seeing Rory being badass and threatening Cybermen. It was oddly amusing seeing a Sontaran nurse. And the 19th century lizard chick and her servant/sidekick/girlfriend were my favorite (She WAS the one who "killed" Rory, right? edit: She's not, apparently, thanks to eviltigerlily for pointing that out. How did she wind up in the 1800's? When did she and the Doctor go from enemies from friends? And how did she become some type of lizard girl Sherlock? THAT's an episode I'd like to see.) Callbacks are fun, I love them, but not when they take up half a damn episode.
Now, let's take a look at the soldiers keeping Amy and Melody hostage. Specifically the Fat One and the Thin One who I think we're supposed to care about or something? One of the things I really love about RTD's writing is that he has this knack for taking small characters who maybe only have a scene or two and actually making them interesting. The crew of Sanctuary Base 6 in "The Impossible Planet"/"Satan's Pit". Stacy in "Partners in Crime". The doomed crew in "Waters of Mars." I can think of tons more, but I think you get my point.
The thing is, I see SM trying to do this. I see that we're supposed to like these guys, even though they're technically on the wrong side of the Doctor's fight. But I just couldn't seem to give a damn. With RTD it always seemed he'd thought up secret backstories for these supporting players in order to turn them into actual characters. We'd get hints of their pasts and personalities, but never the whole story, and that was wonderful because it made you WANT to know them more. It made you care. And I see SM trying to give this a go, but he's done it so lazily he can't even be bothered to give these guys NAMES. They're the Fat One and the Thin One. We get a bit of silly exposition to explain that they're gay, married soldiers (which I guess is SM trying to bring back my beloved gay agenda from the RTD days, but again - when RTD did it, he had ACTUAL CHARACTERS who happened to be gay, not just guys who's sexuality is apparently one of their few defining characteristics), and therefore have no need for actual identities, and then one of them gets his head cut off. And I couldn't care less.
Then there's the fact that we're AGAIN meant to question the paternity of Amy's baby. Like, MULTIPLE TIMES. Did Amy just tell Melody that the Doctor is her father? Oh, no, she's talking about Rory. Is Melody part Time Lord because she's secretly the Doctor and Amy's love child? No, she was simply conceived while in the vortex. Have I MENTIONED how obnoxious I find the baby daddy drama? Let's save it for Maury Povich and write an actual story, please?
And then, of course, the big reveal: River Song is actually Melody Pond aka Amy and Rory's time head baby. What?! I don't...I can't even...I know people have been speculating on this all season, but seriously, that just feels like the worlds biggest ass pull. Considering how many times we've now seen Amy, Rory, and River interact, it's just NOW that River gives any indication that these are important people in her life? Was this plot line planned all along? I can't tell you how much I hate when writers plug a giant mystery into a plot without actually planning the outcome first. It creates continuity errors and crushes interesting plot arcs and I HATE IT SO MUCH.
"River Song is Amy's daughter. Oh! I found a gun back there, too!"
Not to mention we now have yet ANOTHER woman who's met the Doctor as a child (a freaking infant, really) and winds up in a strange sexual type relationship with him (not to mention Lorna, who apparently is Amy's could-have-been, another little girl pining over a man who saved her as a child). Once or twice, it's an interesting time travel romance. Four times and I'm starting to wonder if someone has a very strange and specific fetish.
To wrap up, I was pretty damn disappointed with this episode, particularly as a finale. Too much running about looking cool and soap opera gimmicks than any actual storytelling. We didn't get much in the way of answers, we sort of know who River is, but not any ACTUAL important information - like who she killed, why she's in prison, what is her actual relationship with the Doctor, etc. Plus now apparently we know she's kind of Time Lordy, so can she regenerate? Will she? Has she before? Where is Melody/Baby!River and why is she a weapon? We have no new info on space suit girl, other than we're supposed to assume it's River, but if you think about it, she's probably NOT the little girl running around in the space suit, because if she were she would already KNOW who the space suit girl is and most likely wouldn't have gotten involved at all in order to maintain the timelines properly.
I can't help but think the fact that the series has been split in half has contributed to this episodes problems. Everything was far too rushed, which made the answers we were given feel far too unsatisfying.
Here's hoping "Let's Kill Hitler" starts us off on a stronger second half of the season.
Edited because Captain Jack wanted to get in on the action.