Steven Moffat, King Perpetuator of Brainhurt
Here lie some very vague, probably poorly explained, thinky thoughts about the midseason finale of Doctor Who. Any responses welcome! (nothing about the teaser for the second half of the series, though, please.)
The Doctor in Midnight, my favourite Ten episode: he tries so very hard to get it right and fails miserably, only surviving thanks to the bravery of a stranger.
The Doctor in A Good Man Goes to War: he barely tries, just assembles his pieces, and succeeds brilliantly, makes an error but knows how to fix it.
Somehow, the first one is better to me; more satisfying. The second one is brilliant, but unfinished…
And that’s why ep7 is such a fantastic cliff-hanger. It’s not a huge cliff-hanger of events: we want to see Amy and Rory’s full reactions to River’s revelation, and we want to see how the Doctor’s going to find baby Melody etc. Those are fairly chilled out ones - our main characters aren’t on the brink of death and destruction.
What it is a cliff-hanger of, though, is characterisation: when season 6B airs I’ll be looking forward to Amy and Rory’s reactions (particularly Rory realising that the Doctor’s been snogging his daughter *snigger*), I’ll be looking forward to finding baby Melody, I’ll be looking forward to the whole spaceman thing getting sorted… but more than anything, I’ll be looking forward to the Doctor. I want to see them take this twisted, screwed up Doctor (River’s description of him cut me to the bone, and him too by the look of it) and have him heal - have him go “okay, I’ve been through this, I’ve done this, and I have learned” - and have him become a better person.
Because, in all honesty, wouldn’t that be glorious? For Doctor Who to teach the Doctor something like that?
I can’t wait until September - and the Doctor’s pain will sit heavily on this fangirl’s mind all summer.
Thoughts?