You've got a time machine, I've got a gun. What the hell, let's kill Hitler.
It is late at night and I have a lot of things on my mind and I need to go to bed but FUCK.
This is hardly going to be my complete, coherent thoughts on the episode or anything, but I have some stuff to say anyway.
I feel like the progression from the general story of the fifth series to that of the sixth makes a lot of sense. At its most basic, the fifth series was about the Doctor and a girl, and the sixth series is about the Doctor and a family. The fifth series was about the Doctor's impact on the life of one girl (and that one girl's impact on the universe), and the sixth series is about his impact on her entire family. The fifth series was all about Amy's life being messed around with, and the sixth series is about the Pond family being messed around with.
I've really wanted to cuddle the dynamic of the sixth series and its four main characters since the beginning; I loved it before I took the theories that River was the Ponds' daughter seriously, and I've come to love it more since that wound up being true. It just feels so right, to me, and the fact that this family is being put through a lot of pain is pretty much why I think it's a good story. Because this is how it goes with the Doctor: he's brilliant, and so full of love, and he saves entire worlds on a regular basis. But he does take new friend after new friend with him on his adventures, despite knowing how it's turned out before and knowing he's putting them in harm's way. I think it's reasonable to call him selfish in this respect, and I think that's okay. I'm starting to love this kind of moral complexity in characters.
Inevitably, the Doctor's companions are hurt in many ways, and even he is aware of this. I think of him telling Donna that he "destroyed half [of Martha's] life," and once again, tonight, he expressed guilt over his impact on the lives of his most recent past companions. My heart breaks for the Ponds thinking Amy and Rory will apparently never get to properly raise their child, and River won't have had anything resembling a normal childhood. And this family is in this insane position because of their relationships with the Doctor. But even so, my heart also breaks for the Doctor at "Come on, there must be someone left in the universe I haven't screwed up yet!"
The sixth series is a lot darker and more continuity-based than the fifth, and I can see why people would be disappointed that it's different, since the fifth series was ridiculously amazing. But I also think that the sixth series makes a lot of sense, and that it's good. And exciting, and entertaining. So me, I'm having fun.
And some brief yelling about things: TWO DOCTOR/RIVER KISSES AND THE AMOUNT OF HIS KISSING BACK PLEASED ME VERY MUCH, River's always so confident in herself and knowledgeable but she's suddenly just a girl asking what it means that she's a "child of the TARDIS" and she's another fairy tale Pond girl and I love it, RORY POND IS THE HUGEST BADASS IN THE WORLD AND HE PUT HITLER IN A CUPBOARD, AND ROSE TYLER MARTHA JONES DONNA NOBLE TARDIS.
This is hardly going to be my complete, coherent thoughts on the episode or anything, but I have some stuff to say anyway.
I feel like the progression from the general story of the fifth series to that of the sixth makes a lot of sense. At its most basic, the fifth series was about the Doctor and a girl, and the sixth series is about the Doctor and a family. The fifth series was about the Doctor's impact on the life of one girl (and that one girl's impact on the universe), and the sixth series is about his impact on her entire family. The fifth series was all about Amy's life being messed around with, and the sixth series is about the Pond family being messed around with.
I've really wanted to cuddle the dynamic of the sixth series and its four main characters since the beginning; I loved it before I took the theories that River was the Ponds' daughter seriously, and I've come to love it more since that wound up being true. It just feels so right, to me, and the fact that this family is being put through a lot of pain is pretty much why I think it's a good story. Because this is how it goes with the Doctor: he's brilliant, and so full of love, and he saves entire worlds on a regular basis. But he does take new friend after new friend with him on his adventures, despite knowing how it's turned out before and knowing he's putting them in harm's way. I think it's reasonable to call him selfish in this respect, and I think that's okay. I'm starting to love this kind of moral complexity in characters.
Inevitably, the Doctor's companions are hurt in many ways, and even he is aware of this. I think of him telling Donna that he "destroyed half [of Martha's] life," and once again, tonight, he expressed guilt over his impact on the lives of his most recent past companions. My heart breaks for the Ponds thinking Amy and Rory will apparently never get to properly raise their child, and River won't have had anything resembling a normal childhood. And this family is in this insane position because of their relationships with the Doctor. But even so, my heart also breaks for the Doctor at "Come on, there must be someone left in the universe I haven't screwed up yet!"
The sixth series is a lot darker and more continuity-based than the fifth, and I can see why people would be disappointed that it's different, since the fifth series was ridiculously amazing. But I also think that the sixth series makes a lot of sense, and that it's good. And exciting, and entertaining. So me, I'm having fun.
And some brief yelling about things: TWO DOCTOR/RIVER KISSES AND THE AMOUNT OF HIS KISSING BACK PLEASED ME VERY MUCH, River's always so confident in herself and knowledgeable but she's suddenly just a girl asking what it means that she's a "child of the TARDIS" and she's another fairy tale Pond girl and I love it, RORY POND IS THE HUGEST BADASS IN THE WORLD AND HE PUT HITLER IN A CUPBOARD, AND ROSE TYLER MARTHA JONES DONNA NOBLE TARDIS.