Doctor Who 5.09: Cold Blood
I think that I'm recovered enough to discuss this week's episode sensibly. Maybe.
Where to start?
Firstly, I loved that voice-over at the beginning because it made the eventual outcome of the episode a little less predictable. I'm enough of a sci-fi fan to know that Alea would probably be killed, precipitating a war between human and Silurian. I also knew that this usually ends in the massacre of all the Silurians because Humans Must Always Win. It's one of those unwritten sci-fi rules that often drives fans mad.
So for a while there, I didn't know quite how it would go because the voice-over implied that things didn't implode in quite the way I thought they would.
There was even some lovely hopefulness during the negotiations between Nasreen and the head Silurian. Aw.
Then it all went south in the manner that I had rather expected, although I hadn't expected Ambrose to be the one who killed Alea and it was nice to see a resolution that did not involve genocide. The thought occurred to me that Ambrose is going to have a lot of explaining to do. She essentially committed murder, albeit one she'll never go to jail for, with a splash of torture thrown in for good measure. Even though she cannot be officially punished, this has to have some repercussions for her relationship with Mo and Eliot, who know perfectly well what she did and what it means.
The sets for the episode were beautiful. I loved all the living plants and so on (even though the Doctor neatly ignored Nasreen's question about how the heck that's possible) because it gave a feel of being somewhere that people had lived and would live again. The epicness of the parliament-type chamber really fitted and that was probably one of my favourite sets for the entire episode. It really 'felt' like the kind of place where world-changing decisions are made.
One thing that really caught me was the Doctor's reaction to Tony bringing Alea back. He knew what had happened and I think deep down he knew that it would happen, but hoped that this time things would be different and the humans would live up to what he sees in them. It was slightly heartbreaking.
Restek's grief at her sister's death was perfectly played. That sound she made just tore at you, because that's what happens when people lose something that important. The words go away.
Speaking of heartbreaking, I suppose that I'll have to tackle the Rory thing.
Stephen Moffat, I said bad things about you. Used bad words. You are still wonderful, but I'm slightly bitter about Rory right now. Rory was brilliant. I think that I might have liked him slightly more than Amy, even. I shall be holding onto the hope that you'll be undoing this in the season finale. It's a happy fantasy, don't spoil my delusions folks. I've got a month of believing that we'll get Rory back. I'm not ready to let go yet.
Don't get me wrong. If Rory had to go, I'm glad that he died heroically saving someone's life rather than just caught in cross-fire or unable to work out the maths in time that would have stopped the ship crashing into the Earth and wiping out the dinosaurs or...
Er. OK, I might still be a bit resenty about Adric's death.
Anyway. As death's go, it was a good one and Amy's grief over him was painful to watch. I didn't see it coming and yelled "No!" when he got hit because I knew right at that moment that he wasn't going to survive. I'm still a wee bit bitter over it because I adored Rory and Amy doesn't even remember him existing. Nobody does except the Doctor.
Please let this be undone later?
Lastly, colour me not surprised that the TARDIS is part of the whole cracks thing. It seems sort of logical and inevitable.
I'm not going to start wishing that we could find out what's going on, though, because that would be wishing away several more Doctor Who episodes and I'm not finished yet. I've got four episodes left and I'm going to enjoy every single one of them.
Even if Rory isn't in them.
Where to start?
Firstly, I loved that voice-over at the beginning because it made the eventual outcome of the episode a little less predictable. I'm enough of a sci-fi fan to know that Alea would probably be killed, precipitating a war between human and Silurian. I also knew that this usually ends in the massacre of all the Silurians because Humans Must Always Win. It's one of those unwritten sci-fi rules that often drives fans mad.
So for a while there, I didn't know quite how it would go because the voice-over implied that things didn't implode in quite the way I thought they would.
There was even some lovely hopefulness during the negotiations between Nasreen and the head Silurian. Aw.
Then it all went south in the manner that I had rather expected, although I hadn't expected Ambrose to be the one who killed Alea and it was nice to see a resolution that did not involve genocide. The thought occurred to me that Ambrose is going to have a lot of explaining to do. She essentially committed murder, albeit one she'll never go to jail for, with a splash of torture thrown in for good measure. Even though she cannot be officially punished, this has to have some repercussions for her relationship with Mo and Eliot, who know perfectly well what she did and what it means.
The sets for the episode were beautiful. I loved all the living plants and so on (even though the Doctor neatly ignored Nasreen's question about how the heck that's possible) because it gave a feel of being somewhere that people had lived and would live again. The epicness of the parliament-type chamber really fitted and that was probably one of my favourite sets for the entire episode. It really 'felt' like the kind of place where world-changing decisions are made.
One thing that really caught me was the Doctor's reaction to Tony bringing Alea back. He knew what had happened and I think deep down he knew that it would happen, but hoped that this time things would be different and the humans would live up to what he sees in them. It was slightly heartbreaking.
Restek's grief at her sister's death was perfectly played. That sound she made just tore at you, because that's what happens when people lose something that important. The words go away.
Speaking of heartbreaking, I suppose that I'll have to tackle the Rory thing.
Stephen Moffat, I said bad things about you. Used bad words. You are still wonderful, but I'm slightly bitter about Rory right now. Rory was brilliant. I think that I might have liked him slightly more than Amy, even. I shall be holding onto the hope that you'll be undoing this in the season finale. It's a happy fantasy, don't spoil my delusions folks. I've got a month of believing that we'll get Rory back. I'm not ready to let go yet.
Don't get me wrong. If Rory had to go, I'm glad that he died heroically saving someone's life rather than just caught in cross-fire or unable to work out the maths in time that would have stopped the ship crashing into the Earth and wiping out the dinosaurs or...
Er. OK, I might still be a bit resenty about Adric's death.
Anyway. As death's go, it was a good one and Amy's grief over him was painful to watch. I didn't see it coming and yelled "No!" when he got hit because I knew right at that moment that he wasn't going to survive. I'm still a wee bit bitter over it because I adored Rory and Amy doesn't even remember him existing. Nobody does except the Doctor.
Please let this be undone later?
Lastly, colour me not surprised that the TARDIS is part of the whole cracks thing. It seems sort of logical and inevitable.
I'm not going to start wishing that we could find out what's going on, though, because that would be wishing away several more Doctor Who episodes and I'm not finished yet. I've got four episodes left and I'm going to enjoy every single one of them.
Even if Rory isn't in them.