(no subject)
Doctor Who spoilerpost, I-finally-got-this-written edition: Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.
I was really looking forward to this one. Been wanting to see more of her rooms and corridors since Nine's era, with only brief glimpses due to budget constraints in The Doctor's Wife. But the past few episodes had so many staging and editing problems that I didn't want to get my hopes up for it, and that may have worked in my favor, because I almost entirely enjoyed it.
What I didn't enjoy was how the three black dudes -- the first major-character black men we've seen in this half of the season -- were such completely nasty stereotypes. The previous episode's WoC time traveler was cool (at least what we saw of her) that I did not expect the next couple of minority characters to be intergalactic lowlives who'd literally dehumanized their kid brother. And with no foreshadowing of the big secret they were keeping from their "android", the reveal did catch me completely by surprise, but it also felt pasted on. There's a deep vein of malice and motive (and perhaps also loss -- was the accident that took Tricky's memory connected to the absence of the father who'd wanted to leave him in charge? Were both older brothers invested in the "joke", or was Gregor the mastermind, as he seemed to be in other things? Did it matter to Gregor when Bram's death robbed him of the only brother who remembered him? Etc....) that never got tapped because Gregor and Bram were written as entirely one-dimensional all the way up till then. And yet it was a gutpunch, because as ugly as it may seem, siblings trapped for years in a dead-end life can be exactly that cruel to one another. And now, with the three restored to their salvage ship (and Tricky robbed of his humanity again), I really wish we didn't have to leave them behind right when they have a chance to break the cycle. Somebody had better fix this with fic.
And speaking of memory.
*headdesk*
The Doctor and Clara were FINALLY getting somewhere, and what happens? "I don't want to forget." "Welp, too bad." *repeated headdesk* It was as unsatisfying as the Doctor's lack of memory loss in Akheten, though not up to the sheer WHUT NO of what happened to Donna.
But OTHER than that.
What I did like was what I'd been waiting for forever: ROOMS! AND CORRIDORS! AND MORE ROOMS FULL OF WEIRD AND INTRIGUING STUFF! And the swimming pool! And an observatory! And the library<3333! And the Encyclopedia of Gallifrey being liquid and kept in jars! And Jeffries tubes and hatches and living metal and the TARDIS having a tantrum! Less than impressed with the Eye of Harmony, because I'd always felt that was one of the things better hinted at than shown (like, ahem, the Doctor's name), but the heart of the TARDIS and the Doctor's broken face at the thought of actually losing her completely made up for it. It was about time we got a good tour through the old girl, and the episode gave us just enough to delight us and keep us wanting more, so good going there.<3
The episode kept me guessing, too. Now, to be fair, so did Hide; unlike the two previous ones, where the villain was established pretty quickly and that was that, this time there was (literlly, heh) a surprise in the box. Tricky wasn't what he seemed to be, but neither were the monsters or, frequently, the TARDIS. Halfway through, the entire tone of the story changed as we realized none of the characters really knew what was going on; it deftly reframed all the problems and hit just the right note. It was a running episode, it was a corridor-chase episode, it was visually beautiful and intriguing (the Doctor has Amy's paper-mache TARDIS!!!), and I liked it a whole lot and we get Jenny and Vastra next and after that Neil Gaiman, so I'm almost ready to forgive the show for being so shaky this half-season.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.
I was really looking forward to this one. Been wanting to see more of her rooms and corridors since Nine's era, with only brief glimpses due to budget constraints in The Doctor's Wife. But the past few episodes had so many staging and editing problems that I didn't want to get my hopes up for it, and that may have worked in my favor, because I almost entirely enjoyed it.
What I didn't enjoy was how the three black dudes -- the first major-character black men we've seen in this half of the season -- were such completely nasty stereotypes. The previous episode's WoC time traveler was cool (at least what we saw of her) that I did not expect the next couple of minority characters to be intergalactic lowlives who'd literally dehumanized their kid brother. And with no foreshadowing of the big secret they were keeping from their "android", the reveal did catch me completely by surprise, but it also felt pasted on. There's a deep vein of malice and motive (and perhaps also loss -- was the accident that took Tricky's memory connected to the absence of the father who'd wanted to leave him in charge? Were both older brothers invested in the "joke", or was Gregor the mastermind, as he seemed to be in other things? Did it matter to Gregor when Bram's death robbed him of the only brother who remembered him? Etc....) that never got tapped because Gregor and Bram were written as entirely one-dimensional all the way up till then. And yet it was a gutpunch, because as ugly as it may seem, siblings trapped for years in a dead-end life can be exactly that cruel to one another. And now, with the three restored to their salvage ship (and Tricky robbed of his humanity again), I really wish we didn't have to leave them behind right when they have a chance to break the cycle. Somebody had better fix this with fic.
And speaking of memory.
*headdesk*
The Doctor and Clara were FINALLY getting somewhere, and what happens? "I don't want to forget." "Welp, too bad." *repeated headdesk* It was as unsatisfying as the Doctor's lack of memory loss in Akheten, though not up to the sheer WHUT NO of what happened to Donna.
But OTHER than that.
What I did like was what I'd been waiting for forever: ROOMS! AND CORRIDORS! AND MORE ROOMS FULL OF WEIRD AND INTRIGUING STUFF! And the swimming pool! And an observatory! And the library<3333! And the Encyclopedia of Gallifrey being liquid and kept in jars! And Jeffries tubes and hatches and living metal and the TARDIS having a tantrum! Less than impressed with the Eye of Harmony, because I'd always felt that was one of the things better hinted at than shown (like, ahem, the Doctor's name), but the heart of the TARDIS and the Doctor's broken face at the thought of actually losing her completely made up for it. It was about time we got a good tour through the old girl, and the episode gave us just enough to delight us and keep us wanting more, so good going there.<3
The episode kept me guessing, too. Now, to be fair, so did Hide; unlike the two previous ones, where the villain was established pretty quickly and that was that, this time there was (literlly, heh) a surprise in the box. Tricky wasn't what he seemed to be, but neither were the monsters or, frequently, the TARDIS. Halfway through, the entire tone of the story changed as we realized none of the characters really knew what was going on; it deftly reframed all the problems and hit just the right note. It was a running episode, it was a corridor-chase episode, it was visually beautiful and intriguing (the Doctor has Amy's paper-mache TARDIS!!!), and I liked it a whole lot and we get Jenny and Vastra next and after that Neil Gaiman, so I'm almost ready to forgive the show for being so shaky this half-season.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.