The Awesome Sky
A much, much more satisfying two-parter from Helen Raynor than the New York episodes that she wrote last year.
Go Doctor, cottoning on to clone!Martha right away. I wasn't sure what they were going to do with that--interesting approach to give her access to all of real!Martha's memories but for her to be incapable of empathizing with them. squareorange (I think?) suggested last week that clone!Martha might use the memories of the Year against the Doctor, as a way to make him hesitate or surrender, which I thought sounded like a good theory (and would have played out with more than interesting results). But on second thought, it makes sense that that wouldn't even occur to the Sontarans. If I might continue on my gender theory trope from last week...there's already an explicit valuation of masculine ideals over feminine in Sontaran culture--crystallized in war and violence versus language and word play, in these episodes--and the use of memory and emotion as a weapon against the Doctor falls squarely in the latter category. A warrior wouldn't waste his time talking, General Stahl tells the Doctor. The Sontarans are an enemy without imagination; they can't imagine something that would be more important or powerful than combat. Consequently they focus solely on their more technical "stratagem."
My love for Donna, which already knew no bounds, has become positively infinite this week. There were a few really interesting parallels with her and Rose and Martha in this episode--literal ones, like the TARDIS being taken somewhere with her inside, leaving her on her own to help the Doctor (The Christmas Invasion, the Army of Ghosts), and the phone call home paralleled neatly with Martha's phone call in "42," as did the need for Donna to go off alone on the spaceship. And of course a companion always, at some point, must be on her own and help the Doctor, but seemed to really set Donna apart for me. Lots of folks, myself included, have commented on Donna's sense of self--she's an adult in ways that Rose and Martha weren't. But though she was confident enough to go looking for the Doctor, taking her out of her comfort zone the way she was in this ep revealed some deep insecurity. We catch a glimpse of its source in her interactions with her mother ("Because you're so clever")--and you can tell, when the Doctor asks her to go fix the teleports, that she's absolutely terrified. Where in one context she went off and went through the personnel files and came up with something, here she's being asked to do something she doesn't think she can do--that felt very right to me, her reaction. And I loved the Doctor's response. "Stop talking about yourself that way." He's not falsely encouraging, or patronizing (not that he necessarily as been in the past)--he believes absolutely that she can do this, and he communicates that.
I really liked the evolution of Luke's character, too. I said in my review of the Sontaran Stratagem that I thought the Doctor saw some part of himself in Luke, and I think this played that out. Not in a huge way; we understand from last week that the Doctor understand his loneliness, and the way that his cleverness sets him apart (as, I think, the Doctor must have experienced as a child--clever even for a Time Lord); but Luke's decision to sacrifice himself at the end makes me think the Doctor saw something more there--though I emphatically do not believe that the Doctor expected him to do what he did.
Other things:
Zomg Rose!
Donna's mom broke the window! Go Donna's mom! (Even though I don't like her very much.)
"Are you my mummy?" If I had been drinking something, I would have spit it all over my laptop. Which would have been unfortunate, as it probably would have caused it to break and I'd have missed the rest of the episode. I was quite disappointed about DT's pretty face being hidden by a gas mask, but that made it all better. (That and the fact that he wasn't wearing it for long. And when he took it off he mussed his hair up! Love.)
A moment for Wilf love. That scene at the end--when he tells Donna to go with "that wonderful Doctor" and see the stars, and "bring some of them back for your old gramps"--I almost wept. I just love him, and I love their relationship, and how he lets Donna's mom think she's bossing everyone around but in the end he was the one reassuring and protecting her. Love.
Doctor/companion cuddle also made me teary. So perfect--Donna's smacking his arm and then just holding on, and Martha (still in his coat!) cuddling his arm. Beautiful.
Lastly, the only negative thing I really have to say--did anyone else notice that exceptionally clumsy musical transition during the scene with the two Marthas, when real!Martha gets her engagement ring back from clone!Martha?
And the last thing for real now: I liked Martha's line at the end, that she was better for having been away, and that quick cut to the Doctor's face, almost like he was a little surprised he hadn't ruined her life after all.
Next week: I anticipate squee.
Go Doctor, cottoning on to clone!Martha right away. I wasn't sure what they were going to do with that--interesting approach to give her access to all of real!Martha's memories but for her to be incapable of empathizing with them. squareorange (I think?) suggested last week that clone!Martha might use the memories of the Year against the Doctor, as a way to make him hesitate or surrender, which I thought sounded like a good theory (and would have played out with more than interesting results). But on second thought, it makes sense that that wouldn't even occur to the Sontarans. If I might continue on my gender theory trope from last week...there's already an explicit valuation of masculine ideals over feminine in Sontaran culture--crystallized in war and violence versus language and word play, in these episodes--and the use of memory and emotion as a weapon against the Doctor falls squarely in the latter category. A warrior wouldn't waste his time talking, General Stahl tells the Doctor. The Sontarans are an enemy without imagination; they can't imagine something that would be more important or powerful than combat. Consequently they focus solely on their more technical "stratagem."
My love for Donna, which already knew no bounds, has become positively infinite this week. There were a few really interesting parallels with her and Rose and Martha in this episode--literal ones, like the TARDIS being taken somewhere with her inside, leaving her on her own to help the Doctor (The Christmas Invasion, the Army of Ghosts), and the phone call home paralleled neatly with Martha's phone call in "42," as did the need for Donna to go off alone on the spaceship. And of course a companion always, at some point, must be on her own and help the Doctor, but seemed to really set Donna apart for me. Lots of folks, myself included, have commented on Donna's sense of self--she's an adult in ways that Rose and Martha weren't. But though she was confident enough to go looking for the Doctor, taking her out of her comfort zone the way she was in this ep revealed some deep insecurity. We catch a glimpse of its source in her interactions with her mother ("Because you're so clever")--and you can tell, when the Doctor asks her to go fix the teleports, that she's absolutely terrified. Where in one context she went off and went through the personnel files and came up with something, here she's being asked to do something she doesn't think she can do--that felt very right to me, her reaction. And I loved the Doctor's response. "Stop talking about yourself that way." He's not falsely encouraging, or patronizing (not that he necessarily as been in the past)--he believes absolutely that she can do this, and he communicates that.
I really liked the evolution of Luke's character, too. I said in my review of the Sontaran Stratagem that I thought the Doctor saw some part of himself in Luke, and I think this played that out. Not in a huge way; we understand from last week that the Doctor understand his loneliness, and the way that his cleverness sets him apart (as, I think, the Doctor must have experienced as a child--clever even for a Time Lord); but Luke's decision to sacrifice himself at the end makes me think the Doctor saw something more there--though I emphatically do not believe that the Doctor expected him to do what he did.
Other things:
Zomg Rose!
Donna's mom broke the window! Go Donna's mom! (Even though I don't like her very much.)
"Are you my mummy?" If I had been drinking something, I would have spit it all over my laptop. Which would have been unfortunate, as it probably would have caused it to break and I'd have missed the rest of the episode. I was quite disappointed about DT's pretty face being hidden by a gas mask, but that made it all better. (That and the fact that he wasn't wearing it for long. And when he took it off he mussed his hair up! Love.)
A moment for Wilf love. That scene at the end--when he tells Donna to go with "that wonderful Doctor" and see the stars, and "bring some of them back for your old gramps"--I almost wept. I just love him, and I love their relationship, and how he lets Donna's mom think she's bossing everyone around but in the end he was the one reassuring and protecting her. Love.
Doctor/companion cuddle also made me teary. So perfect--Donna's smacking his arm and then just holding on, and Martha (still in his coat!) cuddling his arm. Beautiful.
Lastly, the only negative thing I really have to say--did anyone else notice that exceptionally clumsy musical transition during the scene with the two Marthas, when real!Martha gets her engagement ring back from clone!Martha?
And the last thing for real now: I liked Martha's line at the end, that she was better for having been away, and that quick cut to the Doctor's face, almost like he was a little surprised he hadn't ruined her life after all.
Next week: I anticipate squee.