can't sleep, angels will eat me
So I liked the two-parter! Nevertheless, this is mostly complaining, hah.
-- So, I was hoping that there was a reason the Angels had started killing people (like, they needed the bodies to make more Angels, or something sufficiently handwavey). But there wasn't, so that was pretty disappointing, and comes off like major motive decay. One of the cool things about "Blink" is that the Weeping Angels were utterly terrifying, even though they didn't kill you -- having them go around snapping necks didn't make them more scary, it just made them more generic bad guy. If they wanted to crank up the tension (and kill off the characters), all they needed to do was suggest that everyone was getting displaced back to whatever disaster killed off the planet's original inhabitants.
-- Also, the Angels moving breaks their own rules: it's not that they're really shy or something, they are physically unable to move when you're looking at them, which includes the TV AUDIENCE (seriously, there are a bunch of times in "Blink" where Sally Sparrow totally would have been Angel food cake had we not been watching :D) and EACH OTHER. That's how they get rid of them in "Blink", for goodness' sake! And in any case, they're supposed to be really fast. LAME.
-- Angel Bob was pretty pointless. It would have been much scarier if we DIDN'T know the Angels' plans, and the Doctor had to figure it out (which probably would have given us slightly more graceful exposition AND wouldn't have been ripping off "Forest of the Dead").
-- No follow-up on the last week's red-shirt squad, which pretty much puts this at SPooN levels of fail.
-- Aaaaaaaand that scene at the end. It was definitely well done and funny (the Doctor clutching at his suspenders like a 50s matron clutching at her pearls will never not be hilarious :D) but I am SO TIRED of companion shipping and thus annoyed at this plot development, because I would much rather just watch The Adventures of Amy and the Doctor, BFFs in SPACE! And it ESPECIALLY rankled because I didn't think there was much in the way of set-up for it, which leads to two unpleasant options: 1) the Moff felt we didn't need a proper build-up, which COME ON, or 2) it's supposed to indicate that SOMETHING is WRONG with AMY, which leads to unfortunate implications re: women acting on their sexuality is abnormal. PLUS, I haaaaaaate love triangles and have NO desire to watch Rory get shafted like Mickey did, because that sucked and made Rose and the Doctor suck too.
STUFF I LIKED:
-- Even though it's a cop-out not to show the resolution of a cliffhanger, that was a pretty awesome zoom-out, and probably better than anything the Mill could have come up with :D
-- Father Octavian was totally cool! I wish they had done more with him.
-- PROPER PLOT ARC SET-UP! In addition to getting some information about the Crack (has there ever been a more appropriate feature on Doctor Who? Heeeeeee) I think there were some definite timey-wimey shenanigans going on!
- Either there was a MASSIVE costuming continuity error, or a different version of Eleven shows up to comfort Amy when they leave her with the guards: his sleeves are rolled up AND he's wearing a jacket, which isn't even the same as the one he left with the Angels. Plus he's WAY more emotional than 2 seconds previously, and tells her to remember stuff that has no bearing on her situation (remembering what he said when she was 7). Finale set-up? I THINK SO.
- When the Doctor and River are in the command center of the Byzantium, the Big Eyeball from the first episode is on her screen!
- I think there might have been an anvil or two dropped that it's the Doctor River kills. During the finale.
- So the mysterious numbers the Doctor pulls up? Totally the date of Amy's wedding (AND the broadcast date of the finale)!
In conclusion: despite the Doctor/Amy nonsense, next week's episode looks pretty awesome.
-- So, I was hoping that there was a reason the Angels had started killing people (like, they needed the bodies to make more Angels, or something sufficiently handwavey). But there wasn't, so that was pretty disappointing, and comes off like major motive decay. One of the cool things about "Blink" is that the Weeping Angels were utterly terrifying, even though they didn't kill you -- having them go around snapping necks didn't make them more scary, it just made them more generic bad guy. If they wanted to crank up the tension (and kill off the characters), all they needed to do was suggest that everyone was getting displaced back to whatever disaster killed off the planet's original inhabitants.
-- Also, the Angels moving breaks their own rules: it's not that they're really shy or something, they are physically unable to move when you're looking at them, which includes the TV AUDIENCE (seriously, there are a bunch of times in "Blink" where Sally Sparrow totally would have been Angel food cake had we not been watching :D) and EACH OTHER. That's how they get rid of them in "Blink", for goodness' sake! And in any case, they're supposed to be really fast. LAME.
-- Angel Bob was pretty pointless. It would have been much scarier if we DIDN'T know the Angels' plans, and the Doctor had to figure it out (which probably would have given us slightly more graceful exposition AND wouldn't have been ripping off "Forest of the Dead").
-- No follow-up on the last week's red-shirt squad, which pretty much puts this at SPooN levels of fail.
-- Aaaaaaaand that scene at the end. It was definitely well done and funny (the Doctor clutching at his suspenders like a 50s matron clutching at her pearls will never not be hilarious :D) but I am SO TIRED of companion shipping and thus annoyed at this plot development, because I would much rather just watch The Adventures of Amy and the Doctor, BFFs in SPACE! And it ESPECIALLY rankled because I didn't think there was much in the way of set-up for it, which leads to two unpleasant options: 1) the Moff felt we didn't need a proper build-up, which COME ON, or 2) it's supposed to indicate that SOMETHING is WRONG with AMY, which leads to unfortunate implications re: women acting on their sexuality is abnormal. PLUS, I haaaaaaate love triangles and have NO desire to watch Rory get shafted like Mickey did, because that sucked and made Rose and the Doctor suck too.
STUFF I LIKED:
-- Even though it's a cop-out not to show the resolution of a cliffhanger, that was a pretty awesome zoom-out, and probably better than anything the Mill could have come up with :D
-- Father Octavian was totally cool! I wish they had done more with him.
-- PROPER PLOT ARC SET-UP! In addition to getting some information about the Crack (has there ever been a more appropriate feature on Doctor Who? Heeeeeee) I think there were some definite timey-wimey shenanigans going on!
- Either there was a MASSIVE costuming continuity error, or a different version of Eleven shows up to comfort Amy when they leave her with the guards: his sleeves are rolled up AND he's wearing a jacket, which isn't even the same as the one he left with the Angels. Plus he's WAY more emotional than 2 seconds previously, and tells her to remember stuff that has no bearing on her situation (remembering what he said when she was 7). Finale set-up? I THINK SO.
- When the Doctor and River are in the command center of the Byzantium, the Big Eyeball from the first episode is on her screen!
- I think there might have been an anvil or two dropped that it's the Doctor River kills. During the finale.
- So the mysterious numbers the Doctor pulls up? Totally the date of Amy's wedding (AND the broadcast date of the finale)!
In conclusion: despite the Doctor/Amy nonsense, next week's episode looks pretty awesome.