The Big Bang
Ok, so last week I was worried that Doctor Who will be shit from here on out simply because if the finale answered everything, how're you gonna top this?
Turns out he bluffed us all and had embarked on a multi-season arc. Curse my RTD-trained expectations! Once I realised that, I started clapping in glee at the sheer cheek. And for now, I can't help but think of this as a good thing - better to escalate a single major plot (and all its attendant threads) rather than having to escalate subsequent seasons with a Bigger, Badder Threat(tm) that risks the issue of Ridiculousness (RTD-era) or unending Apocalypses (later era Buffy). I can't help but speculate if this will take exactly the length of Matt Smith's present contract (3 years).
So, thing one, The Very Obvious: Man, Steven Moffat does like his predestination paradoxes. (see: Blink as the clearest older example, though his other episodes, like Girl in the Fireplace and Silence in the Library/Forests of the Dead, are examples of his other thing about couples being out-of-sync with time and each other) This is a man who is probably a fan of Bill & Ted - it didn't help that upon subsequent rewatchings, it did feel like the Doctor's on his own Excellent Adventure. (I find I'm not the only one to make this observation apparently).
Auton!Rory aka The Lone Centurion: WALL-E FLASHBACK OMG. xD Though considering his throwaway line in the end ("I was plastic!"), am I supposed to assume that Amy's proximity to the Crack and thus her Special Power in augmenting the Pandorica's restoration field + exploding TARDIS combo shall be the answer to everything? Or specifically, the question, "so it's not that she brought back people and things based in her memory, but the stuff she willed to life has always been imbued with their own soul and character as how they were always were, plus some extra memories/knowledge?" Okay, wow, that's a looong question. Basically as how I see it, there's two ways of approaching this, to use another example: Watari from Yami no Matsuei's ability to bring to life his drawings, EVEN THOUGH his drawing skills are canonically shit (ie one step up from stick figures). But even with stick figures, what comes to life are legitimate things and people which/who are fully functional and with their own internal spark. Hell that was one of the plot resolution to the arc when Tsuzuki was trapped in a fairy tale (ha!) book. The Twilight Zone approach would be that his drawings would result in grotesque misshapen beings, but obviously Matsushita and Moffat has decided to take the tack that it's sufficient to have the wielder of the power portray or believe only a representation or suggestion of the thing itself for the thing to come to life. YMMV in how far you're willing to go along with this of course.
(This still doesn't explain River at the wedding.... unless she's a 20th/21st century person who got displaced into the 51st kinda like Ace? Basically... WHY IS SHE THERE?? She's badass and I love her, but goddammit, she blinked out after her convo with the Doctor with the vortex manipulator he handed her JUST BEFORE that convo. So how was she there in the first place?)
Re: Amy in general - I like this fanwank the most. :D
You know what else is awesome? Despite the depth of sacrifice exhibited by the characters, there's no pointless tragedy. I repeat: NO POINTLESS TRAGEDY. I wanted to throw things because there are still unresolved threads (i.e. NOW I HAVE TO WAIT SOME MORE OMG), but not because the plotting is so inherently rage-making it's either that or commit to having an ulcer. RORY LIVES. EVERYBODY LIVES!!11 /Ninth Doctor AND THE COMPANION WAS HAPPILY MARRIED, AND IS NOT A LESSER PERSON FOR IT. AND SHE AND HUBBY ARE STILL GOING TO BE HAVING ADVENTURES. whups my capslock done got broke.
Back to Amy - the end with The Girl Who Waited, at her wedding to The Boy Who Waited, summoning the Raggedy Man back into existence... I've got chills man. Yet, how does this work in a non-hokey way compared to the climax of Tinkerbell Jesus Doctor? (and I can't help but recall that series for the surface similarity in solution) IMO it's simply because it didn't feel cheap. I still love Martha for her epic John-the-Baptist trek across the world spreading the Gospel of the Doctor, but ultimately the ending made me go :/ because I'm too cynical perhaps. Then why did Amy's work? Though mind you, the thematic arc of Martha's season and Amy's first season aren't the same - Martha's is definitely predicated more on faith and belief (substantiated somewhat in her case, but definitely blind in the case of everyone else in the world) while Amy's is more on the power of memory, with both utilising the power of the narrative to state their case. I think Amy's worked for me because I didn't need to suspend my disbelief over the fact the whole world believed in the Doctor (and also because it was a Year That Never Was, it ended up being conveniently forgotten anyway), and because hey, I'm a child of the 80s and if that denouement not an echo of every single 80s coming of age fairytale movie evar.... :D And it didn't feel cheap! And part of the reason why it didn't feel cheap is because it was foreshadowed repeatedly that memory is a powerful force in its self, that for as long as you remember something, the crack doesn't win. The crack itself is shown to be an imperfect eraser anyway - it's not just people who can hold on to shadows of things that never existed, material things can hold on memories as well, eg the pond with no ducks, photos of Rory, meals uneaten.
Watching this episode's Confidential was also unexpectedly helpful (not to mention Matt and Kaz's shennanigans in New York. XD) in showing the various set pieces that we only saw a glimpse of in the episode that illustrated just how bonkers that reality was now that history's collapsed (penguins in the Nile? Pharaohs in the Himalayas? Dinosaurs on ice? LOLOLOL FOREVER.) Also the fact that Moffat explicitly acknowledged that the Doctor's solution is a big ol' cheat, simply because of the magnitude of the problem, because the Doctor has said previously that he doesn't make a point of crossing his own timeline (except for cheap tricks, like uh, impressing a would-be Companion, ha). In any case, it really helped to assuage my curiosity about the extent post-Pandorica Amelia's world is fucked up (answer: VERY).
Mind you, I'm willing to give Moffat the benefit of the doubt and a reprieve of my expectations. Just don't turn into Chris Carter and/or JJ Abrams&Co is all I'm sayin', guv. (I won't mind another J. Michael Strazynski... except uh, the horrible tendency to have one's characters exposit endlessly in verbal diarrhoea.)
And finally, Links of LOL:
- Amy Pond has a facebook account... so guess what pictures has she posted? (SPOILERS!!!)
- Moffat's son posted another interview with his dad, after watching the finale. Smart kid - especially for that ninja shot at the last seconds (posed or not, still hilarity)
- Orbital performing the Doctor Who theme at Glastonbury 2010. With Matt Smith. Lol cool nerds. <3
This entry was originally posted at http://horusporus.dreamwidth.org/38815.html. (
comments; view comments) Please comment there using OpenID.
Turns out he bluffed us all and had embarked on a multi-season arc. Curse my RTD-trained expectations! Once I realised that, I started clapping in glee at the sheer cheek. And for now, I can't help but think of this as a good thing - better to escalate a single major plot (and all its attendant threads) rather than having to escalate subsequent seasons with a Bigger, Badder Threat(tm) that risks the issue of Ridiculousness (RTD-era) or unending Apocalypses (later era Buffy). I can't help but speculate if this will take exactly the length of Matt Smith's present contract (3 years).
So, thing one, The Very Obvious: Man, Steven Moffat does like his predestination paradoxes. (see: Blink as the clearest older example, though his other episodes, like Girl in the Fireplace and Silence in the Library/Forests of the Dead, are examples of his other thing about couples being out-of-sync with time and each other) This is a man who is probably a fan of Bill & Ted - it didn't help that upon subsequent rewatchings, it did feel like the Doctor's on his own Excellent Adventure. (I find I'm not the only one to make this observation apparently).
Auton!Rory aka The Lone Centurion: WALL-E FLASHBACK OMG. xD Though considering his throwaway line in the end ("I was plastic!"), am I supposed to assume that Amy's proximity to the Crack and thus her Special Power in augmenting the Pandorica's restoration field + exploding TARDIS combo shall be the answer to everything? Or specifically, the question, "so it's not that she brought back people and things based in her memory, but the stuff she willed to life has always been imbued with their own soul and character as how they were always were, plus some extra memories/knowledge?" Okay, wow, that's a looong question. Basically as how I see it, there's two ways of approaching this, to use another example: Watari from Yami no Matsuei's ability to bring to life his drawings, EVEN THOUGH his drawing skills are canonically shit (ie one step up from stick figures). But even with stick figures, what comes to life are legitimate things and people which/who are fully functional and with their own internal spark. Hell that was one of the plot resolution to the arc when Tsuzuki was trapped in a fairy tale (ha!) book. The Twilight Zone approach would be that his drawings would result in grotesque misshapen beings, but obviously Matsushita and Moffat has decided to take the tack that it's sufficient to have the wielder of the power portray or believe only a representation or suggestion of the thing itself for the thing to come to life. YMMV in how far you're willing to go along with this of course.
(This still doesn't explain River at the wedding.... unless she's a 20th/21st century person who got displaced into the 51st kinda like Ace? Basically... WHY IS SHE THERE?? She's badass and I love her, but goddammit, she blinked out after her convo with the Doctor with the vortex manipulator he handed her JUST BEFORE that convo. So how was she there in the first place?)
Re: Amy in general - I like this fanwank the most. :D
You know what else is awesome? Despite the depth of sacrifice exhibited by the characters, there's no pointless tragedy. I repeat: NO POINTLESS TRAGEDY. I wanted to throw things because there are still unresolved threads (i.e. NOW I HAVE TO WAIT SOME MORE OMG), but not because the plotting is so inherently rage-making it's either that or commit to having an ulcer. RORY LIVES. EVERYBODY LIVES!!11 /Ninth Doctor AND THE COMPANION WAS HAPPILY MARRIED, AND IS NOT A LESSER PERSON FOR IT. AND SHE AND HUBBY ARE STILL GOING TO BE HAVING ADVENTURES. whups my capslock done got broke.
Back to Amy - the end with The Girl Who Waited, at her wedding to The Boy Who Waited, summoning the Raggedy Man back into existence... I've got chills man. Yet, how does this work in a non-hokey way compared to the climax of Tinkerbell Jesus Doctor? (and I can't help but recall that series for the surface similarity in solution) IMO it's simply because it didn't feel cheap. I still love Martha for her epic John-the-Baptist trek across the world spreading the Gospel of the Doctor, but ultimately the ending made me go :/ because I'm too cynical perhaps. Then why did Amy's work? Though mind you, the thematic arc of Martha's season and Amy's first season aren't the same - Martha's is definitely predicated more on faith and belief (substantiated somewhat in her case, but definitely blind in the case of everyone else in the world) while Amy's is more on the power of memory, with both utilising the power of the narrative to state their case. I think Amy's worked for me because I didn't need to suspend my disbelief over the fact the whole world believed in the Doctor (and also because it was a Year That Never Was, it ended up being conveniently forgotten anyway), and because hey, I'm a child of the 80s and if that denouement not an echo of every single 80s coming of age fairytale movie evar.... :D And it didn't feel cheap! And part of the reason why it didn't feel cheap is because it was foreshadowed repeatedly that memory is a powerful force in its self, that for as long as you remember something, the crack doesn't win. The crack itself is shown to be an imperfect eraser anyway - it's not just people who can hold on to shadows of things that never existed, material things can hold on memories as well, eg the pond with no ducks, photos of Rory, meals uneaten.
Watching this episode's Confidential was also unexpectedly helpful (not to mention Matt and Kaz's shennanigans in New York. XD) in showing the various set pieces that we only saw a glimpse of in the episode that illustrated just how bonkers that reality was now that history's collapsed (penguins in the Nile? Pharaohs in the Himalayas? Dinosaurs on ice? LOLOLOL FOREVER.) Also the fact that Moffat explicitly acknowledged that the Doctor's solution is a big ol' cheat, simply because of the magnitude of the problem, because the Doctor has said previously that he doesn't make a point of crossing his own timeline (except for cheap tricks, like uh, impressing a would-be Companion, ha). In any case, it really helped to assuage my curiosity about the extent post-Pandorica Amelia's world is fucked up (answer: VERY).
Mind you, I'm willing to give Moffat the benefit of the doubt and a reprieve of my expectations. Just don't turn into Chris Carter and/or JJ Abrams&Co is all I'm sayin', guv. (I won't mind another J. Michael Strazynski... except uh, the horrible tendency to have one's characters exposit endlessly in verbal diarrhoea.)
And finally, Links of LOL:
- Amy Pond has a facebook account... so guess what pictures has she posted? (SPOILERS!!!)
- Moffat's son posted another interview with his dad, after watching the finale. Smart kid - especially for that ninja shot at the last seconds (posed or not, still hilarity)
- Orbital performing the Doctor Who theme at Glastonbury 2010. With Matt Smith. Lol cool nerds. <3
This entry was originally posted at http://horusporus.dreamwidth.org/38815.html. (
comments; view comments) Please comment there using OpenID.