Doctor Who 7.03
No bashing, please!
In many ways, this was an examination of the Time War’s effect on the Doctor as it was about the specific situation in the episode (and I’m deliberately ignoring the parallels and questions it brings up concerning real-world wars because it does, oh it does). Because the Doctor didn’t consider killing Jex until he flat-out said, “Looking at you, Doctor, is like looking into a mirror-- almost. There’s rage there, like me. Guilt like me. Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the gods my people weren’t relying on you to save them.” The Doctor was flat-out triggered. Because he did know, he couldn’t say anything about it because only Amy and Rory would know or care, and he couldn’t react any other way because to not react would have invalidated everything he went through.
(Side note: the Doctor carrying and threatening to use a gun did not bother me. In a town like that, facing an enemy like that, it was the only way he could get instant respect. Refusing to carry would have made him suspect. [And he’s used them throughout Classic and New Who, so yes, it is in character, Ten’s hypocrisy notwithstanding.) Amy, on the other hand, should have known how to better handle a gun, given the amount of time she’s spent on the TARDIS and her competence with dinosaurs. Bad writing there, and my first quibble.)
Amy calling the Doctor out was one of the best parts of the episode.
I occasionally feel that the writer fell down just short of actively comparing them, chiefly in the “we carry our prisons with us” scene. I mean, “we don’t get to determine how to pay off our debts?” That’s exactly what the Doctor did, by carrying on trying to help people, because who else would have been able to sentence him? I don’t know whether the writer was afraid to carry the comparisons too far (the Doctor, after all, is the hero) or whether it was toned down or no one noticed it not working quite as well as it could have. That’s my second quibble.
Shades of gray-- how everyone was both good and bad, had motivations, and reactions. It was realistic, because no one was two-dimensional.
Little things:
~ The Doctor’s 1200 years old!
~ Susan the horse!
~ Third quibble: the unstated implication that Amy cares so much because she’s a mother. Basically saying only mothers can care so much, which is insulting. (At least they aren’t ignoring that facet of her life, though.)
~ Amy and Rory are definitely ready to leave. Not entirely, but they do have their own lives and they like them. And the Doctor, I think, doesn’t want to admit it, or even acknowledge that. It hurts too much.
~ So the cyborg is basically immortal? Interesting, in a good way. (The voiceover woman at the beginning and end said “When I was a child” and “my great-grandmother must have been a little girl.” So she spoke about this legend at least a century later, and probably longer.)
Overall:
This is my favorite episode of the season so far, and fairly high on my list of overall good. It was a lot deeper than I expected (I expected a flat-out cheesy Western), and one I’ll definitely be rewatching. There was meat here, something I’d been missing this season and hadn’t even realized.
In many ways, this was an examination of the Time War’s effect on the Doctor as it was about the specific situation in the episode (and I’m deliberately ignoring the parallels and questions it brings up concerning real-world wars because it does, oh it does). Because the Doctor didn’t consider killing Jex until he flat-out said, “Looking at you, Doctor, is like looking into a mirror-- almost. There’s rage there, like me. Guilt like me. Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the gods my people weren’t relying on you to save them.” The Doctor was flat-out triggered. Because he did know, he couldn’t say anything about it because only Amy and Rory would know or care, and he couldn’t react any other way because to not react would have invalidated everything he went through.
(Side note: the Doctor carrying and threatening to use a gun did not bother me. In a town like that, facing an enemy like that, it was the only way he could get instant respect. Refusing to carry would have made him suspect. [And he’s used them throughout Classic and New Who, so yes, it is in character, Ten’s hypocrisy notwithstanding.) Amy, on the other hand, should have known how to better handle a gun, given the amount of time she’s spent on the TARDIS and her competence with dinosaurs. Bad writing there, and my first quibble.)
Amy calling the Doctor out was one of the best parts of the episode.
I occasionally feel that the writer fell down just short of actively comparing them, chiefly in the “we carry our prisons with us” scene. I mean, “we don’t get to determine how to pay off our debts?” That’s exactly what the Doctor did, by carrying on trying to help people, because who else would have been able to sentence him? I don’t know whether the writer was afraid to carry the comparisons too far (the Doctor, after all, is the hero) or whether it was toned down or no one noticed it not working quite as well as it could have. That’s my second quibble.
Shades of gray-- how everyone was both good and bad, had motivations, and reactions. It was realistic, because no one was two-dimensional.
Little things:
~ The Doctor’s 1200 years old!
~ Susan the horse!
~ Third quibble: the unstated implication that Amy cares so much because she’s a mother. Basically saying only mothers can care so much, which is insulting. (At least they aren’t ignoring that facet of her life, though.)
~ Amy and Rory are definitely ready to leave. Not entirely, but they do have their own lives and they like them. And the Doctor, I think, doesn’t want to admit it, or even acknowledge that. It hurts too much.
~ So the cyborg is basically immortal? Interesting, in a good way. (The voiceover woman at the beginning and end said “When I was a child” and “my great-grandmother must have been a little girl.” So she spoke about this legend at least a century later, and probably longer.)
Overall:
This is my favorite episode of the season so far, and fairly high on my list of overall good. It was a lot deeper than I expected (I expected a flat-out cheesy Western), and one I’ll definitely be rewatching. There was meat here, something I’d been missing this season and hadn’t even realized.