We're Done Here.
Finally! No more Ponds!
Now. Let me start by saying that I like them well enough. I really do. I have such a soft spot for Rory. But. I'm tired of "Amy and Rory are the most specialest companions EVAR!!!1!" that keeps happening on the show.
Here’s the thing.
Rose - Stuck in an impossible-to-reach alternate dimension with a man who is sort of but not really the man she loves.
Martha - Made a mature decision to leave; the Doctor never bothers to visit or call.
Donna - Had her memory wiped; if the Doctor visits her, and sparks her memory, she dies.
(Mickey is with Martha, so that covers that, and Jack is Jack, and I get why the Doctor wouldn’t visit him, so…I’ll just leave that as it is.)
But OH NO. Amy and Rory go back in time, when they were waffling about whether or not to stay with the Doctor, anyway, and live out their lives together, at least with relative happiness. And the Doctor is devastated.
I know it’s cumulative emotion. I get that. But…it just feels so forced. Because it’s like, in these recent seasons, the Doctor doesn’t even remember his past companions. And I feel that, in the RTD verse, there was carryover.
(But if he really cared so much about losing his companions, why DOESN’T he visit Martha and Mickey? He can. It’s possible. It’s like friends who complain to each other about not calling. It’s annoying.)
(That’s one thing I liked about RTD over Moffat - people had devastating endings, and the Doctor carried that with him, quite visibly.)
When they jumped from the roof (MOFFAT!), I was very hopeful that it wouldn’t work - that they’d die. RTD, apparently, has me trained to hope for and/or expect death once in a while. Real death.
A companion needs to die.
I’m just putting that out there. Because I really have no emotional strings tied to “popped back in time, still lived happily.” Oswin’s tale was far more heart-wrenching and done in a single episode.
“Take death for example. A great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it. We make extraordinary efforts to delay it and often consider its intrusion a tragic event. Yet we'd find it hard to live without it. Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it. If death were indefinitely put off, the human psyche would end up, well, like the gambler in the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.” - Raymond Kurzweil
Death would give meaning to this show. If the worst peril, now, is getting sent back in time with the person you love, well - sign me up! (Yes, yes, I’d sign up even if death were inevitable. Time and space, you guys! But that’s not the point.)
Now, the episode itself was good. I really liked the cinematography, and the film noir aspect. It was well done. The angels have gotten back, a bit, to Sally Sparrow era (god, I miss her, too), which were the best and scariest version.
(But really, I mean, it sucks getting sent back in time, I’m sure - but no one we’ve seen or heard from seems to have been that bad off. Maybe the angels should take volunteers, to feed? I’m sure people would sign up. People with nowhere to go, or a sense of adventure, or a love for the past. I’d probably do it.)
I especially enjoyed China, 221BC and the rooftop scene. And I realized, “God, no wonder Sherlock told John to stay where he was. There would be no paradox to save them!”
I do NOT get the Angels’ NY. There were no people on the streets. Are they all gone? If so, that would explain how no one noticed the Statue of Liberty walking down the street. Because I know New Yorkers are pretty unfazed by strange occurrences, but that should probably strike them as a bit odd. (I mean, obviously, no one could be looking at the SoL or else it couldn’t move, but…no one looked up when they saw looming shadows? And no one was looking at it at exactly the time it needed to appear to send someone else back? I find that hard to believe.)
Just like how I find it hard to believe that a piece of paper was still where the Doctor left it in Central Park. Along with all of their personal effects. So. Yeah.
I do feel bad for Brian, and for the friends Amy and Rory left behind. And that made me tear up a bit, more than the Doctor’s anguish. I miss Ten. And Nine. They held their pain in more devastating ways. And I appreciated that.
(Take Jack. Jack seems to, unfortunately, remember everything. His character, like Nine and Ten, manages to balance that sorrow with his otherwise easygoing personality. You see both. Eleven - well, Eleven’s personality seems to overshadow anything else, so Oncoming Storm or The Doctor Grieves doesn’t really sit well on him. Matt Smith doesn’t own those bits of the Doctor, and I don’t know if it’s part of Moffat’s direction or not.)
My favorite episodes this season were, by far, Asylum and Dinosaurs. Asylum because it was devastating and clever, Dinosaurs because it was so much fun (and still a little devastating, and clever). So far, I liked last season best of this Moffat-era Who, but that still may change. Especially as next companion looks to be from the past (and oh, how I’ve been waiting for a far past-or-future companion).
(I also hope we get to see the Doctor traveling with Riddell more. For multiple reasons - one, Rupert Graves. Two, I need more male companion action, because this Pretty Females thing is getting on my last nerve. Three, RUPERT GRAVES. Also, let’s visit Craig again, shall we? And Liz X. And Vastra and Jenny.)
Wait. That’s it. I seem to like Moffat’s side characters more than his real ones. Because they’re brilliant. Oswin. Vastra and Jenny. Riddell. Liz X. Craig. Canton. They’re all brilliant, and he seems to accomplish so much more with them than with Amy and Rory. Because Amy and Rory, they grew stale after a time. But I could watch whole spinoffs about any of his supporting characters.
And this is a very long not-review of things as they stand. In short, I miss Donna and Ten STILL, okay?
Now. Let me start by saying that I like them well enough. I really do. I have such a soft spot for Rory. But. I'm tired of "Amy and Rory are the most specialest companions EVAR!!!1!" that keeps happening on the show.
Here’s the thing.
Rose - Stuck in an impossible-to-reach alternate dimension with a man who is sort of but not really the man she loves.
Martha - Made a mature decision to leave; the Doctor never bothers to visit or call.
Donna - Had her memory wiped; if the Doctor visits her, and sparks her memory, she dies.
(Mickey is with Martha, so that covers that, and Jack is Jack, and I get why the Doctor wouldn’t visit him, so…I’ll just leave that as it is.)
But OH NO. Amy and Rory go back in time, when they were waffling about whether or not to stay with the Doctor, anyway, and live out their lives together, at least with relative happiness. And the Doctor is devastated.
I know it’s cumulative emotion. I get that. But…it just feels so forced. Because it’s like, in these recent seasons, the Doctor doesn’t even remember his past companions. And I feel that, in the RTD verse, there was carryover.
(But if he really cared so much about losing his companions, why DOESN’T he visit Martha and Mickey? He can. It’s possible. It’s like friends who complain to each other about not calling. It’s annoying.)
(That’s one thing I liked about RTD over Moffat - people had devastating endings, and the Doctor carried that with him, quite visibly.)
When they jumped from the roof (MOFFAT!), I was very hopeful that it wouldn’t work - that they’d die. RTD, apparently, has me trained to hope for and/or expect death once in a while. Real death.
A companion needs to die.
I’m just putting that out there. Because I really have no emotional strings tied to “popped back in time, still lived happily.” Oswin’s tale was far more heart-wrenching and done in a single episode.
“Take death for example. A great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it. We make extraordinary efforts to delay it and often consider its intrusion a tragic event. Yet we'd find it hard to live without it. Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it. If death were indefinitely put off, the human psyche would end up, well, like the gambler in the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.” - Raymond Kurzweil
Death would give meaning to this show. If the worst peril, now, is getting sent back in time with the person you love, well - sign me up! (Yes, yes, I’d sign up even if death were inevitable. Time and space, you guys! But that’s not the point.)
Now, the episode itself was good. I really liked the cinematography, and the film noir aspect. It was well done. The angels have gotten back, a bit, to Sally Sparrow era (god, I miss her, too), which were the best and scariest version.
(But really, I mean, it sucks getting sent back in time, I’m sure - but no one we’ve seen or heard from seems to have been that bad off. Maybe the angels should take volunteers, to feed? I’m sure people would sign up. People with nowhere to go, or a sense of adventure, or a love for the past. I’d probably do it.)
I especially enjoyed China, 221BC and the rooftop scene. And I realized, “God, no wonder Sherlock told John to stay where he was. There would be no paradox to save them!”
I do NOT get the Angels’ NY. There were no people on the streets. Are they all gone? If so, that would explain how no one noticed the Statue of Liberty walking down the street. Because I know New Yorkers are pretty unfazed by strange occurrences, but that should probably strike them as a bit odd. (I mean, obviously, no one could be looking at the SoL or else it couldn’t move, but…no one looked up when they saw looming shadows? And no one was looking at it at exactly the time it needed to appear to send someone else back? I find that hard to believe.)
Just like how I find it hard to believe that a piece of paper was still where the Doctor left it in Central Park. Along with all of their personal effects. So. Yeah.
I do feel bad for Brian, and for the friends Amy and Rory left behind. And that made me tear up a bit, more than the Doctor’s anguish. I miss Ten. And Nine. They held their pain in more devastating ways. And I appreciated that.
(Take Jack. Jack seems to, unfortunately, remember everything. His character, like Nine and Ten, manages to balance that sorrow with his otherwise easygoing personality. You see both. Eleven - well, Eleven’s personality seems to overshadow anything else, so Oncoming Storm or The Doctor Grieves doesn’t really sit well on him. Matt Smith doesn’t own those bits of the Doctor, and I don’t know if it’s part of Moffat’s direction or not.)
My favorite episodes this season were, by far, Asylum and Dinosaurs. Asylum because it was devastating and clever, Dinosaurs because it was so much fun (and still a little devastating, and clever). So far, I liked last season best of this Moffat-era Who, but that still may change. Especially as next companion looks to be from the past (and oh, how I’ve been waiting for a far past-or-future companion).
(I also hope we get to see the Doctor traveling with Riddell more. For multiple reasons - one, Rupert Graves. Two, I need more male companion action, because this Pretty Females thing is getting on my last nerve. Three, RUPERT GRAVES. Also, let’s visit Craig again, shall we? And Liz X. And Vastra and Jenny.)
Wait. That’s it. I seem to like Moffat’s side characters more than his real ones. Because they’re brilliant. Oswin. Vastra and Jenny. Riddell. Liz X. Craig. Canton. They’re all brilliant, and he seems to accomplish so much more with them than with Amy and Rory. Because Amy and Rory, they grew stale after a time. But I could watch whole spinoffs about any of his supporting characters.
And this is a very long not-review of things as they stand. In short, I miss Donna and Ten STILL, okay?