[Doctor Who] 6.12 "Closing Time"

[janeway216]

I am going to try very hard not to crack any Semisonic-related jokes.

Comments

[sache]

I'm a wee bit disappointed Amy's post-Doctor career is as . . . a model. I mean, I get that it's a gag on the fact that Karen Gillan was a model before going into acting, but brave, strong, smart Amy, Amy who built her own sonic screwdriver and reprogrammed robots and survived on her own for thirty-six years, has no further worth to society beyond being decorative?I have been vaguely obsessed with Amy's lack-of a career ever since I realized that she didn't have one. Kiss-o-gram is fine for a 19 year old who wants to have a laugh, but that's not a CAREER. You can't do that forever. And I had all sorts of ideas... usually literary ones since her storyline was so obviously fairytale-based

[janeway216]

And instead we get model. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a model, but it fell kind of flat, considering her personal journey. Now, to be fair, she could just have her own perfume line so if I were being charitable, she could be some other sort of famous. Gillan doesn't have a bad voice. Maybe Amy's a musician who got discovered? Or she went into acting?

I'm also unhappy about it because one of the good things about Doctor Who has been that it's always been pretty good about giving the female companions brainy jobs, for lack of a better term to describe them. Sure, there's been princesses and flight attendants and shopgirls, but there's also been several scientists, two doctors, a computer programmer, an investigative journalist . . . So it just seems weirdly retrograde and out of place to have a character whose career is based entirely on her beauty, not her intellect. I think I may have to take up your suggestion and fanwank that Amy is actually a huge new singer-songwriter who got discovered on YouTube and that is

[sache]

The thing that gives me a headache about all of this is that "Closing Time" actually takes place before "The Impossible Astronaut".

That can't actually be the case. The perfume was named "Petrichor" and Rory and Amy had to be told what that was in "The Doctor's Wife." Now, I know what date it said on that prop newspaper, but the thing is, that date was right around the time Closing Time was filmed, so I'm pretty sure it's just a prop error. (Kinda like how another prop error from the first season thinks that Rory should be about 20 years older than he actually is.) Also, why would The Doctor care that Rory and Amy were doing okay when he's seeing them before he picked them up? Makes no sense.

And Stormy himself, bless his wee blue socks, was not as entertaining a baby actor as the baby they had playing Anwen. Though I don't imagine there could be many baby actors better than that baby.There are no baby actors better than the baby that played Anwen. It wasn't so much that Stormy was awesome as it was that I just really liked the idea

[janeway216]

Also, why would The Doctor care that Rory and Amy were doing okay when he's seeing them before he picked them up? Makes no sense.

See, I thought he was hiding because he didn't expect to run into them (seriously, what were they doing in Essex) and knew from his previous experience that he didn't meet them again until Utah, so he wanted to make sure they didn't see him and contaminate the timeline. Actually aside from the bit about Amy being a model the episode makes a fair bit of sense taking place in April 2011, although it does make the timing on Alfie's conception a bit dodgy.

Moffat's at his best when he's going for tragedy and scariness.

Also I think part of the problem is he likes puzzles, and he really likes puzzles that play with time in unusual ways ("The Girl in the Fireplace", "Blink", "The Big Bang"). Moffat is remarkably good at sustaining his timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly puzzles over a single episode, but he's having a hard time adjusting to playing out his puzzles over the course of an entire season. Last season mostly

[sache]

I guess honestly it encapsulates my biggest complaint about this season: I really wanted less story, more character. This season has been too busy with plot to spend much time with the characters as characters.

Agreed. That said, at the very least, I would've just been happy with some general acknowledgement that whenever something happened, it actually meant something. I mean, they had a lot of really traumatic stuff happen to them this season, but that's okay! They're fine! Stolen baby? What stolen baby? What do you mean Amy was kidnapped and used as an incubator for nine months and woke up in labor in the middle of a sterile tube with no idea how she got there? NONE OF THAT STUFF IS THE SLIGHTEST BIT TRAUMATIC. Have some tea! It's fine! That stuff happens to me all the time! No big! Pfft!

And it's the summer ones too which means there is nothing I am interested in happening. At least the Winter Olympics have figure skating and ice dancing. Lamesauce.I'm going to be a dork and confess that I am a HUGE fan of rhythmic gymnastics -

[janeway216]

That said, at the very least, I would've just been happy with some general acknowledgement that whenever something happened, it actually meant something. I mean, they had a lot of really traumatic stuff happen to them this season, but that's okay! They're fine!

Yeah, I've been banging that drum for a while myself. Like I said last week, I kept hoping for a big dramatic confrontation, or at least some acknowledgement of the enormity of what had happened to Amy and Rory. And it just kept not happening, or we'd get these little half-gestures. Which, I guess it's fine if that's not the story Moffat wanted to tell, but it's the story I wanted to see.

Suppose that means I should start exercising my fic muscles again. Okay. I can do this. Ready . . . now. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while the Doctor pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore . . ."

Hmm. Needs work.

[janeway216]

I thought it might have been the "hey that lady's on the wall!" factor that prompted the little girl to get Amy's autograph, but actress or singer is definitely more palatable than fashion model. Still weirdly out of place for Doctor Who, but at least it doesn't imply that all Amy can do is be pretty.

"And did he drop Amy and Rory off in 2010? The decor made it feel earlier for some reason."

Who knows anymore. Amy and Rory's timeline is pretty much a pretzel at this point. Worse than Rose's and she had that year jump in "Aliens of London" the show kept forgetting about.