"I'll just be a story in your head...and that's okay. We're all stories in the end."
I'm sure everyone who believes that Moffat is the WORST THING EVER to happen to Doctor Who will be picking things apart soon enough, but I'm going the route of ignoring them (aside from wondering why they're still watching the series if they've come to hate it so very much. Turning it off worked wonderfully for me with the X-Files, Stargate Universe, AND the entire SyFy Channel.) and reminding myself that different people view things in different ways.
Suffice to say, yeah, I CRIED ALL THE TEARS at Eleven's regeneration, despite the fact that I'm sure I'll enjoy every bit of Twelve's tenure, given that I have a certain amount of affection for every incarnation of the Doctor.
None so much as Four, though. Four is always going to be special.
But Matt Smith is a phenomenal actor, and I'll genuinely miss his high adorkablity, oddly gentle gallantry, and amazing chemistry with Jenna Coleman.
Also, wow, way to wrap up every single dangling story thread in one go, Moffat! The man really loves him some predestination paradox, doesn't he? And that was like the storyline of THE PREDESTINATION PARADOX RULES ALL!!! going on.
Admittedly, on reflection, I'm a tad annoyed at Eleven NOW taking into account that this is effectively his last incarnation, but that's mostly because I'd have been really okay with the Beeb just quietly dropping something I've always considered a pretty damn arbitrary plot point in the first place, and it's not like Eleven himself seemed to be taking that into account whilst having the Tessalecta put on a regeneration light show or healing River's wrist with regeneration energy.
But, meh, minor quibble, and there are some seriously die-hard fans that will argue regeneration limits to the last. I don't really wanna get into it with them, and it's sure not like Doctor Who has been THAT stringent about following it's own internal continuity over fifty years. (Genetic looms, anyone? Hey, what about the Doctor being half-human? Or Peri's god-awful attempt at an American accent?) Anyway, between the Master and the Valeyard, it seems to have been established that the Time Lords CAN grant unlimited regenerations, so there ya go. Hand-wavey, timey-wimey justification to keep the story going in all the best traditions of Doctor Who.
All hail the Almighty Plot Hole of Gallifrey! Fifty years and still going strong!
I love that it ultimately WASN'T the Doctor who spoke to the Time Lords, but Clara, and that she's the one who convinced them, despite thier massive xenophobia about humans that, yeah, they really needed to help him out this time. One, he's really thier only chance of getting back into this universe, and two, how many times does the man have to save thier collective asses before they finally acknowledge that, yeah, they might just happen to care about him a bit?
I also like Clara pointing out that the name that the Doctor was born with doesn't matter. It's the name that he chose that's become who he IS, and it sums up everything that you really need to know about him. It also fits in with an idea that goes all the way back to Eleven's first adventures, that it's really the stories that permeate the universe that keeps it going, and the Doctor has become a rather epic and hopeful example of one of those stories, something further enforced as Eleven tells us himself that it's fine to change as long as you never forget the people you were before and the lessons you learned from them and that he will never forget a single line of Eleven's story, no matter who he becomes from there.
Also, the Time Lords granting more life to Eleven immediately brought to mind River's line from The Wedding of River Song. "You've saved so many lives...touched so many people. When your own time came, did you really think you'd have to do more than just ask? You've decided the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree."
And in so many ways, especially since the outcome of the Time War, that's been a central theme in the Doctor's life. His complete self-loathing and his total inability to see himself as someone that people can admire and even love deeply and I see this as the response to that. Maybe the ENTIRE UNIVERSE can't get through his thick head that he's far too hard on himself, but finally getting the forgiveness from his people that he's been seeking for centuries? That might just do it.
So, Eleven gets his goodbyes to Clara, becomes a hero to the people of Christmas, gains his people's forgiveness, gets a goodbye from both little Amelia and Amy, and is allowed to keep going? Yeah, I'm a quietly weeping mess by this point.
At first, I felt a wee bit bad, because I'm over here in a sobbing huddle over Eleven, but Ten's regeneration had me going, "oh, for god's sake, just GO ALREADY!"
But, then again, Moffat wasn't going the route of beating me over the head with "OMG, this is SAD! Look at how SAD it all is! The Bestest Doctor EVAR is regenerating and it's SAD! And we're going to sing a WHOLE SONG about it because he's REGENERATING and it's SAD! And he doesn't want to go and it's SAD!"
And in the meantime, I'm over here wondering how the hell I'm going to clean all the wangst off my couch, cause damn.
Eleven, on the other hand, went out as the gentle, kind hero he's always been, at peace with what he's done and knowing that, whatever comes next, it's gonna be okay. He'll miss us, we'll miss him, and it's still going to be okay.
And then Twelve has apparently forgotten how to pilot the Tardis.
The Brigadeer: ....well, here we go again.
So, that's my fabulously rambling thoughts on The Time of the Doctor.
I should probably put together a general life update, but I'm thinking I might go find some food first because food is always a win. Also, I've apparently been on a tear of rereading all the Redwall books lately and, wow, but I'd forgotten how much I love them.
Hope everyone had an awesome set of holidays and here's hoping good things keep going and the bad things GO AWAY in 2014!
Suffice to say, yeah, I CRIED ALL THE TEARS at Eleven's regeneration, despite the fact that I'm sure I'll enjoy every bit of Twelve's tenure, given that I have a certain amount of affection for every incarnation of the Doctor.
None so much as Four, though. Four is always going to be special.
But Matt Smith is a phenomenal actor, and I'll genuinely miss his high adorkablity, oddly gentle gallantry, and amazing chemistry with Jenna Coleman.
Also, wow, way to wrap up every single dangling story thread in one go, Moffat! The man really loves him some predestination paradox, doesn't he? And that was like the storyline of THE PREDESTINATION PARADOX RULES ALL!!! going on.
Admittedly, on reflection, I'm a tad annoyed at Eleven NOW taking into account that this is effectively his last incarnation, but that's mostly because I'd have been really okay with the Beeb just quietly dropping something I've always considered a pretty damn arbitrary plot point in the first place, and it's not like Eleven himself seemed to be taking that into account whilst having the Tessalecta put on a regeneration light show or healing River's wrist with regeneration energy.
But, meh, minor quibble, and there are some seriously die-hard fans that will argue regeneration limits to the last. I don't really wanna get into it with them, and it's sure not like Doctor Who has been THAT stringent about following it's own internal continuity over fifty years. (Genetic looms, anyone? Hey, what about the Doctor being half-human? Or Peri's god-awful attempt at an American accent?) Anyway, between the Master and the Valeyard, it seems to have been established that the Time Lords CAN grant unlimited regenerations, so there ya go. Hand-wavey, timey-wimey justification to keep the story going in all the best traditions of Doctor Who.
All hail the Almighty Plot Hole of Gallifrey! Fifty years and still going strong!
I love that it ultimately WASN'T the Doctor who spoke to the Time Lords, but Clara, and that she's the one who convinced them, despite thier massive xenophobia about humans that, yeah, they really needed to help him out this time. One, he's really thier only chance of getting back into this universe, and two, how many times does the man have to save thier collective asses before they finally acknowledge that, yeah, they might just happen to care about him a bit?
I also like Clara pointing out that the name that the Doctor was born with doesn't matter. It's the name that he chose that's become who he IS, and it sums up everything that you really need to know about him. It also fits in with an idea that goes all the way back to Eleven's first adventures, that it's really the stories that permeate the universe that keeps it going, and the Doctor has become a rather epic and hopeful example of one of those stories, something further enforced as Eleven tells us himself that it's fine to change as long as you never forget the people you were before and the lessons you learned from them and that he will never forget a single line of Eleven's story, no matter who he becomes from there.
Also, the Time Lords granting more life to Eleven immediately brought to mind River's line from The Wedding of River Song. "You've saved so many lives...touched so many people. When your own time came, did you really think you'd have to do more than just ask? You've decided the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree."
And in so many ways, especially since the outcome of the Time War, that's been a central theme in the Doctor's life. His complete self-loathing and his total inability to see himself as someone that people can admire and even love deeply and I see this as the response to that. Maybe the ENTIRE UNIVERSE can't get through his thick head that he's far too hard on himself, but finally getting the forgiveness from his people that he's been seeking for centuries? That might just do it.
So, Eleven gets his goodbyes to Clara, becomes a hero to the people of Christmas, gains his people's forgiveness, gets a goodbye from both little Amelia and Amy, and is allowed to keep going? Yeah, I'm a quietly weeping mess by this point.
At first, I felt a wee bit bad, because I'm over here in a sobbing huddle over Eleven, but Ten's regeneration had me going, "oh, for god's sake, just GO ALREADY!"
But, then again, Moffat wasn't going the route of beating me over the head with "OMG, this is SAD! Look at how SAD it all is! The Bestest Doctor EVAR is regenerating and it's SAD! And we're going to sing a WHOLE SONG about it because he's REGENERATING and it's SAD! And he doesn't want to go and it's SAD!"
And in the meantime, I'm over here wondering how the hell I'm going to clean all the wangst off my couch, cause damn.
Eleven, on the other hand, went out as the gentle, kind hero he's always been, at peace with what he's done and knowing that, whatever comes next, it's gonna be okay. He'll miss us, we'll miss him, and it's still going to be okay.
And then Twelve has apparently forgotten how to pilot the Tardis.
The Brigadeer: ....well, here we go again.
So, that's my fabulously rambling thoughts on The Time of the Doctor.
I should probably put together a general life update, but I'm thinking I might go find some food first because food is always a win. Also, I've apparently been on a tear of rereading all the Redwall books lately and, wow, but I'd forgotten how much I love them.
Hope everyone had an awesome set of holidays and here's hoping good things keep going and the bad things GO AWAY in 2014!