Doctor Who, "Gridlock" (and a brief note about my shoes)

Jul 23, 2007 22:48

We all got an e-mail at work today announcing a building-wide fire drill tomorrow, which we of course have to participate in, and since the timing is meant to be a surprise, they also can't tell us exactly when it's going to happen. The e-mail also specifies that women should wear flat shoes.

...Well, dammit, that means I've had to rethink my entire outfit for tomorrow. If I'm going to wear flats, my jeans don't work, so I need to wear the kimono-cut t-shirt dress (the dress I originally bought the flats to go with in the first place), because that does work. Which I had no intention of wearing tomorrow.

On the other hand, if it's as muggy tomorrow as it was today, and our air-conditioning still isn't quite working, this may not entirely be a bad thing.

Plus, the flats in question are very cute. (Black ballet flats with tiny white polka dots and red leather edging, red leather bow at the vamp.)

I watched "Gridlock" on Sunday. Martha love continues to grow exponentially. Also,



I don't find the idea of gridlock so bad that it takes six years to go ten miles to be all that far-fetched, actually.

And Doctor with kittens FTW!

For all that this was a pretty goofball episode for the most part, there were also some moments that were truly wrenching. Specifically, the moment when the Doctor finally admits the truth to Martha about the Time War and the fate of his planet is something that could have easily been hokey or slid into morbid sentimentality, but it was handled in a nice low-key way, with a fair degree of subtlety. Tennant was also very good at conveying a sense of...the easy descriptor of it is "loneliness," but it goes beyond that, I think. The Doctor is lonely, but that's a little too facile -- a little too human, maybe. That loneliness springs from a well of true desolation and true loss.

What's gone, what's been lost in the Time War, can never be recovered. Gallifrey isn't just devastated by war or not the same as it used to be: it's gone. The orange sky and the silver-leafed trees aren't there anymore. They aren't anywhere anymore.

And the emptiness that leaves behind feels like it's key to all of this.

...Oh, hell, it's the concept of negative space again. Why do I keep returning to this theme over and over again? Or why do I keep being drawn to canon in which I can reasonably suggest that it is a theme?

Anyway, the final scene, with the Doctor and Martha sitting in the alley as he told her about Gallifrey, was a really lovely, quiet, sad little moment.

Still writing. Slowly.

episode reviews, fashion, doctor who

Previous post Next post
Up