Evolution of the Daleks Thoughts: Redux
I can't believe I haven't finished Harry Potter yet. I'm okay with that, though! It just means my thoughts will be THAT much better when I'm finally done, AM I RIGHT?! Entire planets will probably realign.
It probably did NOT help that instead of being able to READ at work today, my boss made me clean. And stuff. I was not happy. I don't like touching dirty things.
I later released pent-up aggression by yelling at a five-year-old who found greater amusement in splashing around underwater than listening to my superior instructions. I am probably headed for hell.
I should probably be studying for my LSATs (OMG! I'VE ONLY GOT TWO MONTHS LEFT TO PREPARE!!!), but instead I passed the time watching this week's episode of Doctor Who on CBC.
Which, aside from some exceptionally lovely close-ups on David Tennant, is not really one of those episodes of DW that improve with multiple viewings. Helen Raynor's dialogue made things in my stomach shrivel up and die. I understand that a good chunk of Doctor Who's appeal is all the cheese, but "if you choose death and destruction, death and destruction will choose you" is NOT deep, it's stupid. I'm just so JOYOUS Helen Raynor is writing another two-parter next year! /sarcasm
-Even though Rose isn't in this episode, I feel like her shadow is hanging all over it. And that's NOT just my own bias. Rose is present in a lot of S3, but I think her loss is most apparent here. First, there's Martha admitting that the Doctor isn't "seeing" her, he's only remembering Rose. It's so sad, for both of them. Martha is so caught up in someone who's grieving for someone he can't ever get back, but someone he can't properly move on from either. After all, Rose isn't dead. He has to live knowing she's out there somewhere, but there's no way for him to even catch a GLIMPSE of her. If she died in her parallel world, he wouldn't know.
-And though the Doctor never mentions Rose directly, I think she's VERY present in his mind. There's the whole "you can fall in love to music" thing at the beginning, moving to his sympathy for Tallulah and Lazslo (he won't let the Daleks split up *another* couple), to the way he looks sadly at the horizon when Martha says there's someone out there for everyone. He's suicidal here to the point of being plain selfish - "kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people." So he can what? Leave those people COMPLETELY vulnerable to the Daleks? He's reckless again when he takes the lightening strike and when he stands up in the theatre. Without Rose, there's nothing to believe in, no incentive to survive through the latest threat and go on. It's a nice lead-in to 42 and the HN/FoB arc, which also touch on the Doctor's crumbling emotional state.
-When I first saw this episode, I was a little baffled by the Doctor's decision to show compassion to the Dalek at the end. To what end? Give it a chance to escape? (APPARENTLY!) But it fits in so well with The Last of the Time Lords. Ten really does have this scary dark core - his "no second chances" thing. But there are different rules for the survivors of the Time War, even when it's his own worst enemies. The Doctor is SO desperate for *something* besides himself to come out of the Time War alive.
-Did I mention how pretty David Tennant is in this episode? I think it's the only time I didn't want to go on set and burn the blue suit. Here's some caps from my original episode post:
I swear, only David Tennant could go THAT emo and still make it look good. This probably makes me easy to satisfy in some way. I do not care.
It probably did NOT help that instead of being able to READ at work today, my boss made me clean. And stuff. I was not happy. I don't like touching dirty things.
I later released pent-up aggression by yelling at a five-year-old who found greater amusement in splashing around underwater than listening to my superior instructions. I am probably headed for hell.
I should probably be studying for my LSATs (OMG! I'VE ONLY GOT TWO MONTHS LEFT TO PREPARE!!!), but instead I passed the time watching this week's episode of Doctor Who on CBC.
Which, aside from some exceptionally lovely close-ups on David Tennant, is not really one of those episodes of DW that improve with multiple viewings. Helen Raynor's dialogue made things in my stomach shrivel up and die. I understand that a good chunk of Doctor Who's appeal is all the cheese, but "if you choose death and destruction, death and destruction will choose you" is NOT deep, it's stupid. I'm just so JOYOUS Helen Raynor is writing another two-parter next year! /sarcasm
-Even though Rose isn't in this episode, I feel like her shadow is hanging all over it. And that's NOT just my own bias. Rose is present in a lot of S3, but I think her loss is most apparent here. First, there's Martha admitting that the Doctor isn't "seeing" her, he's only remembering Rose. It's so sad, for both of them. Martha is so caught up in someone who's grieving for someone he can't ever get back, but someone he can't properly move on from either. After all, Rose isn't dead. He has to live knowing she's out there somewhere, but there's no way for him to even catch a GLIMPSE of her. If she died in her parallel world, he wouldn't know.
-And though the Doctor never mentions Rose directly, I think she's VERY present in his mind. There's the whole "you can fall in love to music" thing at the beginning, moving to his sympathy for Tallulah and Lazslo (he won't let the Daleks split up *another* couple), to the way he looks sadly at the horizon when Martha says there's someone out there for everyone. He's suicidal here to the point of being plain selfish - "kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people." So he can what? Leave those people COMPLETELY vulnerable to the Daleks? He's reckless again when he takes the lightening strike and when he stands up in the theatre. Without Rose, there's nothing to believe in, no incentive to survive through the latest threat and go on. It's a nice lead-in to 42 and the HN/FoB arc, which also touch on the Doctor's crumbling emotional state.
-When I first saw this episode, I was a little baffled by the Doctor's decision to show compassion to the Dalek at the end. To what end? Give it a chance to escape? (APPARENTLY!) But it fits in so well with The Last of the Time Lords. Ten really does have this scary dark core - his "no second chances" thing. But there are different rules for the survivors of the Time War, even when it's his own worst enemies. The Doctor is SO desperate for *something* besides himself to come out of the Time War alive.
-Did I mention how pretty David Tennant is in this episode? I think it's the only time I didn't want to go on set and burn the blue suit. Here's some caps from my original episode post:
I swear, only David Tennant could go THAT emo and still make it look good. This probably makes me easy to satisfy in some way. I do not care.