Doctor Who - first thoughts on Season 6 premier
Ok, let me just say this I was not overly amused. It had good parts, don't get me wrong, it was entertaining enough. But I have to admit no matter WHO is writing, I'm always a bit pissed when people do stupid things cause they think it'll be cool in a script and don't do much research.
For one - tunnels? In Florida? Where the land is basically floating on water? A state known for it's swamps? I'd love to see dry as a bone tunnels in Florida, that's definitely fantastical. Two minutes of research (like, say, checking sea level of said state) would have solved this issue.
For two - Amy and Rory arriving in Utah in...a school bus? WTF? Yeah I get a school bus is a novelty to the Brits, but just cause it's cool doesn't mean it makes sense. School buses don't drop off random travelers off the side of the road, that's not how the system works. School buses are NOT public transport and don't transport anyone except kids to and from school/school trips. A big yellow bus does not a Greyhound make.
For three - the diner was so...British. More Americana than actually a dive in the middle of the desert. I can't be overly mad about it, but if you are going to shoot in America, especially the southwest, perhaps swing by a REAL diner and see what they look like, trust me I KNOW you'll find one down that area.
I know, they aren't American so I should give them slack, but I disagree. I don't like when many places are misrepresented due to a lack of 10 minutes of research. All these things are easily fixable but were placed in cause it's cool...and American.
Only it wasn't.
Anyways, putting my disgruntled American aside, on to the show. I think that Matt Smith is definitely coming in to being the Doctor. He knocked it out of the park this episode, even in a couple scenes seeming to be as old as he really is and not just giddy and playful. Alex Kingston was also in fine form tonight, but then again I think she always is. Karen Gillan though...still not sold on her. And I still don't care about Amy.
So knowing that, I was seething with absolute rage that burned with the fire of a thousand suns when right before the title theme they had a bumper of Amy talking about the Doctor.
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon.
I seriously wanted to punch something after that. It turns a show told about a spaceman who occasionally travelled with a companion as a stand in for the audience, into a show about a girl who bumped into a spaceman and now she travels with him.
Ick.
So moving on, fortunately most of all the rage inducing stuff happened within the first 15 minutes.
The bad part? Since Moffat killed the Doctor two episodes ago, I was pretty desensitized to him getting killed within the first 20 minutes. It didn't matter to me. I'm not concerned with his death. And since Moffat now sits back on the "Timey-wimey" aspect of Doctor Who I'm sure he'll come up with some bullshit reason why the 1100 year old Doctor that was shot will survive by the end of the season (yes, the Doctor that was killed was 200 years older than "our" Doctor). It all calls back to the Series 5 finale and how they handwaved all that paradoxical crap away without a second word.
As infuriating as RTD was with his magical button that can save the world, I fucking HATE bringing up paradox after paradox and then just handwaving it away with "It's a show about time travel". Yes, it IS a show about time travel, but the conventions of time travel within the show MUST make sense for the bigger picture. You can't just do something that seems super cool and super awesome and super shocking but...oops wrote ourselves in a corner, that's ok we'll have a later Doctor swoop in to save his younger self. I hate that. It's lazy and honestly isn't very intuitive writing.
Doctor Who should not be on par with "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures" with it's time travel rules. Those rules make no logical sense, and JUST because something is SciFi/Fantasy doesn't automatically throw all logic out the window. Moffat is writing himself into huge corners, making his writing style on par with Russell T. Davies. I preferred Davies, because no matter how infuriating his resolutions were, his characters had depth. Moffat, most of his characters are pretty two dimensional with the occasional peek of depth.
It doesn't help that Moffat has seriously about three themes that he uses for writing. Scary cloaked monsters that you can/can't see if you don't look/blink and can kill you, creepy children, timey-wimeyness that solves all problems no matter what.
And to be honest? The monsters of the episode are a less creepy version of The Gentlemen from "Buffy".
At this point I kind of wish Moffat and RTD would work together cohesively, I think THEN we could have some awesome writing. Otherwise this season is already starting to feel like a stale retread of last season where I'm sure by the end of the season we'll "revisit" bits of the beginning of the season to put all the puzzle peaces in place.
Colour me bored.
The episode itself wasn't too bad. It was entertaining enough, but I reserve judgement until after next week. I wasn't thrilled with the actor chosen to play Nixon, looked NOTHING like Tricky Dicky, and a little disappointed that they filmed in America but really showed so little OF America while doing so.
There were a couple character moments that really stood out to me. I was sad for River when she was discussing her travels with the Doctor. Her telling Rory that she dreads the day she meets up with the Doctor and he doesn't recognize who she is, it just might kill her. Which as we know, when that happens she martyrs herself to save him and everyone trapped in the library. It was a sad bit of dialogue delivered in such an excellent way. Another sad bit of dialogue is when River is telling Amy and Rory they can NOT tell the Doctor about what they just saw it could rip the time space continuum, then the Doctor comes down and she saidly says "Spoilers, Sweetie." Alex Kingston delivered that bit with such melancholy when normally she delivers it mischievously, it was really sad.
Another good line goes to River where she's going down into a tunnel, Doctor asks if she'll be ok and she off the cuff says "Oh yes, I'm QUITE the screamer. Now there is a spoiler for you."
Yeah I laughed for a good ten minutes after that.
Rory was once again the most awesome companion ever, too bad he isn't actually the companion, Amy is.
As for Amy, how fucking pissed am I that, yet again, on a Sci Fi show, the female lead is written as being pregnant. Not that I didn't see it coming ten minutes into the episode. But I hate this trend.
Dear writers -
Just because a woman has a uterus does not mean it needs to be written into the story.
kthanxbi.
Like I said, it was entertaining enough, Matt Smith is starting to really sell me as the Doctor, but I really, really, REALLY hope this is the last season with Amy. I'm sorry, maybe in other work Karen Gillan is competant enough, but after following Billie Piper, Freeman Agyeman and Catherine Tate, she just pales in comparison to them.
If it wasn't for the awesomeness of River and The Doctor together, I honestly think I would seriously consider checking out of this retread of this season. Oh well.
For one - tunnels? In Florida? Where the land is basically floating on water? A state known for it's swamps? I'd love to see dry as a bone tunnels in Florida, that's definitely fantastical. Two minutes of research (like, say, checking sea level of said state) would have solved this issue.
For two - Amy and Rory arriving in Utah in...a school bus? WTF? Yeah I get a school bus is a novelty to the Brits, but just cause it's cool doesn't mean it makes sense. School buses don't drop off random travelers off the side of the road, that's not how the system works. School buses are NOT public transport and don't transport anyone except kids to and from school/school trips. A big yellow bus does not a Greyhound make.
For three - the diner was so...British. More Americana than actually a dive in the middle of the desert. I can't be overly mad about it, but if you are going to shoot in America, especially the southwest, perhaps swing by a REAL diner and see what they look like, trust me I KNOW you'll find one down that area.
I know, they aren't American so I should give them slack, but I disagree. I don't like when many places are misrepresented due to a lack of 10 minutes of research. All these things are easily fixable but were placed in cause it's cool...and American.
Only it wasn't.
Anyways, putting my disgruntled American aside, on to the show. I think that Matt Smith is definitely coming in to being the Doctor. He knocked it out of the park this episode, even in a couple scenes seeming to be as old as he really is and not just giddy and playful. Alex Kingston was also in fine form tonight, but then again I think she always is. Karen Gillan though...still not sold on her. And I still don't care about Amy.
So knowing that, I was seething with absolute rage that burned with the fire of a thousand suns when right before the title theme they had a bumper of Amy talking about the Doctor.
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon.
I seriously wanted to punch something after that. It turns a show told about a spaceman who occasionally travelled with a companion as a stand in for the audience, into a show about a girl who bumped into a spaceman and now she travels with him.
Ick.
So moving on, fortunately most of all the rage inducing stuff happened within the first 15 minutes.
The bad part? Since Moffat killed the Doctor two episodes ago, I was pretty desensitized to him getting killed within the first 20 minutes. It didn't matter to me. I'm not concerned with his death. And since Moffat now sits back on the "Timey-wimey" aspect of Doctor Who I'm sure he'll come up with some bullshit reason why the 1100 year old Doctor that was shot will survive by the end of the season (yes, the Doctor that was killed was 200 years older than "our" Doctor). It all calls back to the Series 5 finale and how they handwaved all that paradoxical crap away without a second word.
As infuriating as RTD was with his magical button that can save the world, I fucking HATE bringing up paradox after paradox and then just handwaving it away with "It's a show about time travel". Yes, it IS a show about time travel, but the conventions of time travel within the show MUST make sense for the bigger picture. You can't just do something that seems super cool and super awesome and super shocking but...oops wrote ourselves in a corner, that's ok we'll have a later Doctor swoop in to save his younger self. I hate that. It's lazy and honestly isn't very intuitive writing.
Doctor Who should not be on par with "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures" with it's time travel rules. Those rules make no logical sense, and JUST because something is SciFi/Fantasy doesn't automatically throw all logic out the window. Moffat is writing himself into huge corners, making his writing style on par with Russell T. Davies. I preferred Davies, because no matter how infuriating his resolutions were, his characters had depth. Moffat, most of his characters are pretty two dimensional with the occasional peek of depth.
It doesn't help that Moffat has seriously about three themes that he uses for writing. Scary cloaked monsters that you can/can't see if you don't look/blink and can kill you, creepy children, timey-wimeyness that solves all problems no matter what.
And to be honest? The monsters of the episode are a less creepy version of The Gentlemen from "Buffy".
At this point I kind of wish Moffat and RTD would work together cohesively, I think THEN we could have some awesome writing. Otherwise this season is already starting to feel like a stale retread of last season where I'm sure by the end of the season we'll "revisit" bits of the beginning of the season to put all the puzzle peaces in place.
Colour me bored.
The episode itself wasn't too bad. It was entertaining enough, but I reserve judgement until after next week. I wasn't thrilled with the actor chosen to play Nixon, looked NOTHING like Tricky Dicky, and a little disappointed that they filmed in America but really showed so little OF America while doing so.
There were a couple character moments that really stood out to me. I was sad for River when she was discussing her travels with the Doctor. Her telling Rory that she dreads the day she meets up with the Doctor and he doesn't recognize who she is, it just might kill her. Which as we know, when that happens she martyrs herself to save him and everyone trapped in the library. It was a sad bit of dialogue delivered in such an excellent way. Another sad bit of dialogue is when River is telling Amy and Rory they can NOT tell the Doctor about what they just saw it could rip the time space continuum, then the Doctor comes down and she saidly says "Spoilers, Sweetie." Alex Kingston delivered that bit with such melancholy when normally she delivers it mischievously, it was really sad.
Another good line goes to River where she's going down into a tunnel, Doctor asks if she'll be ok and she off the cuff says "Oh yes, I'm QUITE the screamer. Now there is a spoiler for you."
Yeah I laughed for a good ten minutes after that.
Rory was once again the most awesome companion ever, too bad he isn't actually the companion, Amy is.
As for Amy, how fucking pissed am I that, yet again, on a Sci Fi show, the female lead is written as being pregnant. Not that I didn't see it coming ten minutes into the episode. But I hate this trend.
Dear writers -
Just because a woman has a uterus does not mean it needs to be written into the story.
kthanxbi.
Like I said, it was entertaining enough, Matt Smith is starting to really sell me as the Doctor, but I really, really, REALLY hope this is the last season with Amy. I'm sorry, maybe in other work Karen Gillan is competant enough, but after following Billie Piper, Freeman Agyeman and Catherine Tate, she just pales in comparison to them.
If it wasn't for the awesomeness of River and The Doctor together, I honestly think I would seriously consider checking out of this retread of this season. Oh well.