"Beautiful word, 'shenanigans.'"
Ahhh! So, I've caught up and my love of current DW has been renewwwed!
I still have so many issues with how Moffat writes female characters and even how he writes the Doctor sometimes, and with his plot holes or just plain ridiculous plot solutions, I can't even get into it right now. BUT! There have always at least been moments that make me laugh or be inordinately fond of one of the characters in each episode (*cough* RORY), even the ones that I really did not like (I'm looking at you, space pirates and color-coded daleks). Still, I lost faith in the new series awhile ago, and kept hoping it'd prove me wrong, and then that WONDERFUL Gaiman-penned TARDIS episode happened, and I thought, "Hmm, maaaybe," but then it seemed like it was returning to mostly blahitude. (Yes, that's as specific as my vocabulary is about it right now. Deal.) NOT SO, AFTER ALL.
That second part of the Flesh episodes felt like it was a return for DW to some of the core things I love about science fiction: no-easy-answer questions of ethics and what it means to be human and alive, and how sci-fi can tell important stories about these things in ways that nothing else can. PLUS WE GOT TWO DOCTORS AGAIN. Who were so amusingly and predictably in love with hanging out with each other and showing off! I wished Jack had been there like the time we got three Doctors (well, one Ten and two Doctor-Donnas).
AND THEN THAT LAST EPISODE. It was EPIC. Okay, full disclosure, I was expecting something really stupid and Moffat-plot-holey behind the lady looking in on Amy these past several episodes, but the reveal that Amy has been a 'ganger for several episodes was MUCH more satisfying plotwise, IMHO.
It's way more than that though, what made the episode great to me. It's Eleven's response to people being brave and fighting for him -- so very much like how Ten would respond, and yet something that's all Eleven's own, even older and more tired and deeply sadder and more furious. It's that lovely Sontaran saying to Rory, "I'm not a warrior; I'm a nurse," because oh, Rory, look how far you've come, for better AND worse. (I must say how much I loved him being all demanding and not at all his awkwardself at the beginning of this episode -- it really showed him as that hundreds-year-old Centurion!Rory, not only the nurse!Rory who grew up loving Amelia Pond.)
And as for the Great River Reveal? IDEK. Oh, River. So maybe those old guesses that you're the one who kills the Doctor aren't so off after all? You can be Amy & Rory's child AND grow up to fall in love with the Doctor AND kill him in the end, right? (Or maybe, if you are going to murder the Doctor, you don't kill the original!Doctor? Maybe the Flesh!Doctor DOES find a way to come back and that's who invites them all to his death? Er, wait-- does that even make sense? Hmm...)
In any case, even with all its flaws, Doctor Who hasn't made me cry like this in a long, long time, and it feels good to love its current season again, instead of mostly just missing earlier ones. Maybe I'm not quite as attached as I was when RTD ran the show around here, and I certainly don't trust it to stay always this good in the hands of Moffat, but. Still. ♥
ETA: I do need to agree, though: I am tired of ladies in sci-fi being used as pregnant plot devices. I mean, I didn't even want to get into that in this entry 'cos it's something I was already so tired of with this season of Who, but it does need to be said.
I still have so many issues with how Moffat writes female characters and even how he writes the Doctor sometimes, and with his plot holes or just plain ridiculous plot solutions, I can't even get into it right now. BUT! There have always at least been moments that make me laugh or be inordinately fond of one of the characters in each episode (*cough* RORY), even the ones that I really did not like (I'm looking at you, space pirates and color-coded daleks). Still, I lost faith in the new series awhile ago, and kept hoping it'd prove me wrong, and then that WONDERFUL Gaiman-penned TARDIS episode happened, and I thought, "Hmm, maaaybe," but then it seemed like it was returning to mostly blahitude. (Yes, that's as specific as my vocabulary is about it right now. Deal.) NOT SO, AFTER ALL.
That second part of the Flesh episodes felt like it was a return for DW to some of the core things I love about science fiction: no-easy-answer questions of ethics and what it means to be human and alive, and how sci-fi can tell important stories about these things in ways that nothing else can. PLUS WE GOT TWO DOCTORS AGAIN. Who were so amusingly and predictably in love with hanging out with each other and showing off! I wished Jack had been there like the time we got three Doctors (well, one Ten and two Doctor-Donnas).
AND THEN THAT LAST EPISODE. It was EPIC. Okay, full disclosure, I was expecting something really stupid and Moffat-plot-holey behind the lady looking in on Amy these past several episodes, but the reveal that Amy has been a 'ganger for several episodes was MUCH more satisfying plotwise, IMHO.
It's way more than that though, what made the episode great to me. It's Eleven's response to people being brave and fighting for him -- so very much like how Ten would respond, and yet something that's all Eleven's own, even older and more tired and deeply sadder and more furious. It's that lovely Sontaran saying to Rory, "I'm not a warrior; I'm a nurse," because oh, Rory, look how far you've come, for better AND worse. (I must say how much I loved him being all demanding and not at all his awkwardself at the beginning of this episode -- it really showed him as that hundreds-year-old Centurion!Rory, not only the nurse!Rory who grew up loving Amelia Pond.)
And as for the Great River Reveal? IDEK. Oh, River. So maybe those old guesses that you're the one who kills the Doctor aren't so off after all? You can be Amy & Rory's child AND grow up to fall in love with the Doctor AND kill him in the end, right? (Or maybe, if you are going to murder the Doctor, you don't kill the original!Doctor? Maybe the Flesh!Doctor DOES find a way to come back and that's who invites them all to his death? Er, wait-- does that even make sense? Hmm...)
In any case, even with all its flaws, Doctor Who hasn't made me cry like this in a long, long time, and it feels good to love its current season again, instead of mostly just missing earlier ones. Maybe I'm not quite as attached as I was when RTD ran the show around here, and I certainly don't trust it to stay always this good in the hands of Moffat, but. Still. ♥
ETA: I do need to agree, though: I am tired of ladies in sci-fi being used as pregnant plot devices. I mean, I didn't even want to get into that in this entry 'cos it's something I was already so tired of with this season of Who, but it does need to be said.