Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes to War
I'm over a week late with this (and I haven't rewatched it, so things are most likely fading from my memory), but I figured I should write up a few of my (predictably mixed) feelings about "A Good Man Goes to War."
I was not particularly impressed with it as an episode; it seemed fairly uneven, and it never acquired the emotional heft I would have expected from the Big Mid-Season Finale With All The Hype.
But then again, emotional heft is not the only thing that suffered from all the hype.
Big episodes, especially big episodes that are meant to reveal big mysteries, are nearly always a disappointment, precisely because they get built up beyond all reasonable expectations. Every once in a while a show can pull it off, but usually only if they haven't raised the stakes too high (the latest season finale of Castle comes to mind, in which the hype was kept relatively neutral and full of the usual tropes--"nothing will be the same again!" etc.--and then, lo and behold, it actually was exceptionally good). Whereas "who is River Song?" had become a question so loaded that no answer was going to suffice. Hence the inevitable disappointment (especially post-spoilers and post-hints dropped in the earlier episodes).
Part one of the reveal--River Song is Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory--was the less interesting part, to me. It certainly doesn't tell us much of anything about River herself, which I actually find reassures me: I suppose the biggest take-away for me, as someone who is primarily a River fan, is that I see no reason at all that River won't continue to be her awesome self, just as she always has been. Her parentage is scarcely relevant to her awesomeness, one way or the other.
Nevertheless, everything in that episode (and indeed the season) about Amy and pregnancy pushed all of my ACK! NO! PREGNANCY, UR DOING IT WRONG!!!! buttons. Amy gets pregnant because, well, last season she got married, and this is what comes next, right? And because it's sci fi, someone kidnaps her and threatens her life and the life of her unborn child, who is, of course, not just a regular baby but a Super Time Baby (more on that in a moment). And I would probably be angrier about all this if I cared more about Amy, but as it is, I'll just be sitting here rolling my eyes that Stephen Moffat, for all his creativity, can't do any better than this same, old, tired, insulting baby plot.
The thing I did like about this reveal, though, is that it makes River's identity relevant not so much to the Doctor, but to Amy and Rory. As much as I'm not thrilled with it as a thing, overall, I do rather love how un-Doctor-centric it is. (Also, I can't decide whether it's creepy or hilarious that Amy and Rory are essentially revealed to be the Doctor's in-laws.) Unfortunately, the way things look at the moment, I don't see how this doesn't end badly for Amy and Rory. Some care has been taken to ensure that River's past doesn't get changed (or at least she makes the Doctor promise, the first time he meets her, not to change a word of what's in the diary), and it also seems evident that River did not grow up with her parents. So does this mean Amy and Rory are going to miss their daughter's entire childhood and young adulthood, only to meet her again when she's a middle-aged woman? But we'll see how this all plays out.
Part two of the reveal--River Song is also a Super Time Baby--actually works better for me, on balance. I don't love it, mainly because babies with superpowers is a tired sci fi trope, and I'm not sure how I feel about the idea that River is only awesome because she has superpowers, and not because she's just an awesome human. But on the other hand, I've been much more invested in the idea that she's not just any companion--that her relationship with the Doctor is unique--than I have been in the idea that she's fully human, and whatever timey-wimey qualities she apparently has from being conceived in the TARDIS do set her apart. (I'm vaguely curious what the Classic and RTD Who fans think about what this means for Amy and Rory's status as Special Companions, but not enough to actually go look for it; I've never actually cared that much about the mytharc of the show as a whole.)
Anyway, I was underwhelmed by the reveal(s)--probably inevitably so--but on balance I don't mind it. I see no reason that any of this will diminish River's awesomeness, necessarily, and since my carefully lowered expectations for the whole thing have served me well so far, I will carry them with me into the hiatus and second half of the series. Maybe the whole thing will be redeemed splendidly and all our minds will be blown. Maybe it will crash and burn, and River will join the List of Beloved Female Characters who got Screwed in the End. But I'm fairly sure, given the way Moffat tells his stories, that it's far too early to pass judgment.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.
I was not particularly impressed with it as an episode; it seemed fairly uneven, and it never acquired the emotional heft I would have expected from the Big Mid-Season Finale With All The Hype.
But then again, emotional heft is not the only thing that suffered from all the hype.
Big episodes, especially big episodes that are meant to reveal big mysteries, are nearly always a disappointment, precisely because they get built up beyond all reasonable expectations. Every once in a while a show can pull it off, but usually only if they haven't raised the stakes too high (the latest season finale of Castle comes to mind, in which the hype was kept relatively neutral and full of the usual tropes--"nothing will be the same again!" etc.--and then, lo and behold, it actually was exceptionally good). Whereas "who is River Song?" had become a question so loaded that no answer was going to suffice. Hence the inevitable disappointment (especially post-spoilers and post-hints dropped in the earlier episodes).
Part one of the reveal--River Song is Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory--was the less interesting part, to me. It certainly doesn't tell us much of anything about River herself, which I actually find reassures me: I suppose the biggest take-away for me, as someone who is primarily a River fan, is that I see no reason at all that River won't continue to be her awesome self, just as she always has been. Her parentage is scarcely relevant to her awesomeness, one way or the other.
Nevertheless, everything in that episode (and indeed the season) about Amy and pregnancy pushed all of my ACK! NO! PREGNANCY, UR DOING IT WRONG!!!! buttons. Amy gets pregnant because, well, last season she got married, and this is what comes next, right? And because it's sci fi, someone kidnaps her and threatens her life and the life of her unborn child, who is, of course, not just a regular baby but a Super Time Baby (more on that in a moment). And I would probably be angrier about all this if I cared more about Amy, but as it is, I'll just be sitting here rolling my eyes that Stephen Moffat, for all his creativity, can't do any better than this same, old, tired, insulting baby plot.
The thing I did like about this reveal, though, is that it makes River's identity relevant not so much to the Doctor, but to Amy and Rory. As much as I'm not thrilled with it as a thing, overall, I do rather love how un-Doctor-centric it is. (Also, I can't decide whether it's creepy or hilarious that Amy and Rory are essentially revealed to be the Doctor's in-laws.) Unfortunately, the way things look at the moment, I don't see how this doesn't end badly for Amy and Rory. Some care has been taken to ensure that River's past doesn't get changed (or at least she makes the Doctor promise, the first time he meets her, not to change a word of what's in the diary), and it also seems evident that River did not grow up with her parents. So does this mean Amy and Rory are going to miss their daughter's entire childhood and young adulthood, only to meet her again when she's a middle-aged woman? But we'll see how this all plays out.
Part two of the reveal--River Song is also a Super Time Baby--actually works better for me, on balance. I don't love it, mainly because babies with superpowers is a tired sci fi trope, and I'm not sure how I feel about the idea that River is only awesome because she has superpowers, and not because she's just an awesome human. But on the other hand, I've been much more invested in the idea that she's not just any companion--that her relationship with the Doctor is unique--than I have been in the idea that she's fully human, and whatever timey-wimey qualities she apparently has from being conceived in the TARDIS do set her apart. (I'm vaguely curious what the Classic and RTD Who fans think about what this means for Amy and Rory's status as Special Companions, but not enough to actually go look for it; I've never actually cared that much about the mytharc of the show as a whole.)
Anyway, I was underwhelmed by the reveal(s)--probably inevitably so--but on balance I don't mind it. I see no reason that any of this will diminish River's awesomeness, necessarily, and since my carefully lowered expectations for the whole thing have served me well so far, I will carry them with me into the hiatus and second half of the series. Maybe the whole thing will be redeemed splendidly and all our minds will be blown. Maybe it will crash and burn, and River will join the List of Beloved Female Characters who got Screwed in the End. But I'm fairly sure, given the way Moffat tells his stories, that it's far too early to pass judgment.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.