First Ever LIVE Doctor Who Viewing!
So tonight was the first time I've actually been in the UK during a Doctor Who transmission so as you can imagine I was SUPER excited!!!
I headed down to south London to ladyvivien's house for the occassion and after walking through the rain to get to her house (thank you for that Steven Moffat!***) we made a quick dinner and some tea and settled down to watch the show.
Okay, some quick background first. So last season I was up and down on the show. Partly it was that I was grieving the loss of DT and not quite ready for a new Doctor and partly I just liked some things and didn't like others. At first I loved Amy... and then I didn't. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who Eleven was and I think I fixated on that. I enjoyed him most of the time though, but I wasn't loving the show in the same way that I had, nor was I as excited about it as I'd been. By the time the final two episodes aired I was mostly won over. I loved Rory, and Little Amelia and timey wimey and even River Song. The Proms this summer further solidified my acceptance of this whole new version of my show and Eleven as the Doctor. (Matt Smith was adorable live, that helped). I quite enjoyed the Christmas special as well so overall my outlook on DW was shifting. Anyway, all this to say that I've been anticipating S6 with a lot more enthusiasm that S5, and since I've managed to stay pretty much spoiler free, I was looking forward to this event, a LOT.
Fast-forward to tonight. And I can honestly say that I LOVED this episode. It had so many things in it that I loved. Loads of timey wimey stuff, lots of little things to squee about, brilliant writing, beautiful music and several things that made my head explode!!!!
Random thoughts in no particular order:
- LOVED the way Matt Smith played himself 200 years older. Also loved the Stetson. And River shooting the hat off his head in a reminiscence of the Fez at the end of last season. I feel like this is her new bit. And if it is, I'm okay with that.
- Awww enjoyed seeing Amy and Rory in domestic life with the Doctor infiltrating himself in not so subtle ways.
- I did not find Amy annoying once in the whole episode! Trust me, this is a huge feat!
- I love the setting for this. 1969 US was a brilliant idea. I loved everything about the west wing scenes. Particularly the way Eleven is all non challant about his presence there while the President is basically freaking out! Very funny and well played. Also all the stuff with River was fun. I love the way she kept subverting him and the whole "I hate you." "No you don't" thing that kept happening was quite perfect and amusing!
-"The Scream" aliens were freaky and gross... (I call them that because their faces totally look like Munch's "The Scream" don't they?) Nice twist with people forgetting them as soon as they don't see them anymore.
-My first thought when Amy said she wasn't feeling well in the Oval Office was "OMG she's pregnant isn't she". Apparently I was right. And, according to Moffat in the Confidential episode, this is a "Key thing in the series". Which means Amy's baby must be important. The question is how?... More on this later.
- The invitations were clever. I love that Amy knew it was from him because they were "Tardis Blue"
-Amy shooting "the Astronaut" at the end was chilling! I suspect it's not going to be a simple as it appears though.
-Rory was wonderful and adorable throughout the episode. I enjoyed the way he was filling their "guest" in on how things were!
-Now for the biggie - ELEVEN'S APPARENT DEATH!!! First of all OMG WTF HUH!?!?!?! There was flailing and possibly squeaking while this was occurring. And yes some brain exploding. I just... what? Why? How? Soooo many questions... which I'm certain is the point. Anyway, it's a rather brilliant plot twist and I have some theories on this (see below) but man, it's definitely thrown me. I did not see that coming.
-I like the timey wimeyness of a younger version of Eleven being the first invitee... it adds to the brilliance of the plot twist.
Theories:
Okay so based on a few of the big things in this episode I have some theories.
- First Amy's pregnancy. Steven Moffat alluded that it's important. I'm thinking there could be a few reasons for it, and the biggest of which that occurred to me was that perhaps she could be River's mother? That would be bizzare but also kind of brilliant... My other thought is that the kid in the space suit is somehow her child. I don't really know if that works though...
-The Doctor and dying. OMG still make my head explode! Anyway I have many thoughts about this.
First of all, I think that it has to be River that was in the space suit - I'm thinking this is the death she's in prison for. Also, the suit we see is not so different from the one she's wearing when she meets Ten in "Silence in the Library." Could it be that if it is her she goes from there to the Library?!?!? Oh wait, that doesn't work does it? Not if she's in prison for it. *sigh* never mind. Still I think it has to be her.
Second of all, I don't think he's actually dead there - there's got to be a loophole somewhere. Partly because that would mean Eleven is the LAST Doctor ever and I'm not okay with that... I feel like the BBC wouldn't be either. So despite Moffat saying in the Confidential that it is a true death I'm 99.9% certain there's going to be some kind of work around. Part of my reasoning for this comes from this episode. I mean, when the final invitee showed up with the gas can it sounded as though the Doctor had somehow told him what was going on - otherwise how would he have known that was needed - and since none of them seem to be telling the younger Doctor what happened, the only way that could occur is if it's an OLDER version of the Doctor that told him.
Anyway, I enjoyed this episode. It made me think, it made me flail, it made me squee. I enjoyed the writing and the characters and it was great to see it on TV again. So yay! Bring on the rest of S6. I'm ready. In fact, can we have Part 2 NOW please?
On a sadder note, I'm so pleased that they dedicated this episode to Elisabeth Sladen. The tribute at the beginning made me sad but in a good way. It felt right. It seems they cut the episode short just to play the 15 minute tribute on Cbbc at the end which I think was sweet. (Although I'm hoping this means longer episode next week).
It was a very nice tribute to her, and definitely very sad. I'm glad they managed to get some of the people who worked with her together so quickly to talk about her. The things that got me the most though were the scenes where they showed the actors who play Clyde and Luke looking at and reading through some of the messages from kids on the CBBC site. I read through those the other day and they made me cry. Seeing two people who clearly knew her so well and admired her made me cry even harder. The montage at the end was the kicker though. I can't think of a more fitting song for Elisabeth Sladen than "She". It worked so well and it was just so, so sad. She was an amazing actress and and amazing person and I'm so very sad she's gone. She'll be very missed."
*** explanation for those who don't follow him on twitter. It's been hot and sunny in London and earlier today, about 3 hours before transmission, he tweeted: "Hmm. Still sunny. Could everyone pop out and do rain dance, please. Back in for Doctor Who at 6pm." It started raining around 4:30 - with thunder and lightening. so yeah, TOTALLY his fault.
I headed down to south London to ladyvivien's house for the occassion and after walking through the rain to get to her house (thank you for that Steven Moffat!***) we made a quick dinner and some tea and settled down to watch the show.
Okay, some quick background first. So last season I was up and down on the show. Partly it was that I was grieving the loss of DT and not quite ready for a new Doctor and partly I just liked some things and didn't like others. At first I loved Amy... and then I didn't. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who Eleven was and I think I fixated on that. I enjoyed him most of the time though, but I wasn't loving the show in the same way that I had, nor was I as excited about it as I'd been. By the time the final two episodes aired I was mostly won over. I loved Rory, and Little Amelia and timey wimey and even River Song. The Proms this summer further solidified my acceptance of this whole new version of my show and Eleven as the Doctor. (Matt Smith was adorable live, that helped). I quite enjoyed the Christmas special as well so overall my outlook on DW was shifting. Anyway, all this to say that I've been anticipating S6 with a lot more enthusiasm that S5, and since I've managed to stay pretty much spoiler free, I was looking forward to this event, a LOT.
Fast-forward to tonight. And I can honestly say that I LOVED this episode. It had so many things in it that I loved. Loads of timey wimey stuff, lots of little things to squee about, brilliant writing, beautiful music and several things that made my head explode!!!!
Random thoughts in no particular order:
- LOVED the way Matt Smith played himself 200 years older. Also loved the Stetson. And River shooting the hat off his head in a reminiscence of the Fez at the end of last season. I feel like this is her new bit. And if it is, I'm okay with that.
- Awww enjoyed seeing Amy and Rory in domestic life with the Doctor infiltrating himself in not so subtle ways.
- I did not find Amy annoying once in the whole episode! Trust me, this is a huge feat!
- I love the setting for this. 1969 US was a brilliant idea. I loved everything about the west wing scenes. Particularly the way Eleven is all non challant about his presence there while the President is basically freaking out! Very funny and well played. Also all the stuff with River was fun. I love the way she kept subverting him and the whole "I hate you." "No you don't" thing that kept happening was quite perfect and amusing!
-"The Scream" aliens were freaky and gross... (I call them that because their faces totally look like Munch's "The Scream" don't they?) Nice twist with people forgetting them as soon as they don't see them anymore.
-My first thought when Amy said she wasn't feeling well in the Oval Office was "OMG she's pregnant isn't she". Apparently I was right. And, according to Moffat in the Confidential episode, this is a "Key thing in the series". Which means Amy's baby must be important. The question is how?... More on this later.
- The invitations were clever. I love that Amy knew it was from him because they were "Tardis Blue"
-Amy shooting "the Astronaut" at the end was chilling! I suspect it's not going to be a simple as it appears though.
-Rory was wonderful and adorable throughout the episode. I enjoyed the way he was filling their "guest" in on how things were!
-Now for the biggie - ELEVEN'S APPARENT DEATH!!! First of all OMG WTF HUH!?!?!?! There was flailing and possibly squeaking while this was occurring. And yes some brain exploding. I just... what? Why? How? Soooo many questions... which I'm certain is the point. Anyway, it's a rather brilliant plot twist and I have some theories on this (see below) but man, it's definitely thrown me. I did not see that coming.
-I like the timey wimeyness of a younger version of Eleven being the first invitee... it adds to the brilliance of the plot twist.
Theories:
Okay so based on a few of the big things in this episode I have some theories.
- First Amy's pregnancy. Steven Moffat alluded that it's important. I'm thinking there could be a few reasons for it, and the biggest of which that occurred to me was that perhaps she could be River's mother? That would be bizzare but also kind of brilliant... My other thought is that the kid in the space suit is somehow her child. I don't really know if that works though...
-The Doctor and dying. OMG still make my head explode! Anyway I have many thoughts about this.
First of all, I think that it has to be River that was in the space suit - I'm thinking this is the death she's in prison for. Also, the suit we see is not so different from the one she's wearing when she meets Ten in "Silence in the Library." Could it be that if it is her she goes from there to the Library?!?!? Oh wait, that doesn't work does it? Not if she's in prison for it. *sigh* never mind. Still I think it has to be her.
Second of all, I don't think he's actually dead there - there's got to be a loophole somewhere. Partly because that would mean Eleven is the LAST Doctor ever and I'm not okay with that... I feel like the BBC wouldn't be either. So despite Moffat saying in the Confidential that it is a true death I'm 99.9% certain there's going to be some kind of work around. Part of my reasoning for this comes from this episode. I mean, when the final invitee showed up with the gas can it sounded as though the Doctor had somehow told him what was going on - otherwise how would he have known that was needed - and since none of them seem to be telling the younger Doctor what happened, the only way that could occur is if it's an OLDER version of the Doctor that told him.
Anyway, I enjoyed this episode. It made me think, it made me flail, it made me squee. I enjoyed the writing and the characters and it was great to see it on TV again. So yay! Bring on the rest of S6. I'm ready. In fact, can we have Part 2 NOW please?
On a sadder note, I'm so pleased that they dedicated this episode to Elisabeth Sladen. The tribute at the beginning made me sad but in a good way. It felt right. It seems they cut the episode short just to play the 15 minute tribute on Cbbc at the end which I think was sweet. (Although I'm hoping this means longer episode next week).
It was a very nice tribute to her, and definitely very sad. I'm glad they managed to get some of the people who worked with her together so quickly to talk about her. The things that got me the most though were the scenes where they showed the actors who play Clyde and Luke looking at and reading through some of the messages from kids on the CBBC site. I read through those the other day and they made me cry. Seeing two people who clearly knew her so well and admired her made me cry even harder. The montage at the end was the kicker though. I can't think of a more fitting song for Elisabeth Sladen than "She". It worked so well and it was just so, so sad. She was an amazing actress and and amazing person and I'm so very sad she's gone. She'll be very missed."
*** explanation for those who don't follow him on twitter. It's been hot and sunny in London and earlier today, about 3 hours before transmission, he tweeted: "Hmm. Still sunny. Could everyone pop out and do rain dance, please. Back in for Doctor Who at 6pm." It started raining around 4:30 - with thunder and lightening. so yeah, TOTALLY his fault.