New Who 6.7: A Good Man Goes To War
I think my overall reaction to that was that I really enjoyed almost every individual bit of it, but found the whole slightly underwhelming nonetheless. I think that's basically for the same reasons as after The End of Time part 1, when I felt much the same - too many characters, many of them new, competing for attention, and too much emphasis on driving plots forward rather than giving the characters space to develop and interact.
I also don't really feel as thought I have just witnessed revelations so awesome and game-changing that they require a mid-season hiatus while we jump up and down madly waiting for the pay-off. But perhaps that part is my fault for following too many fan communities, full of people who worked out well in advance who River was and why. There are still unanswered questions, to be sure - like who will she kill, and why, and how that links in with the events we've already seen in the opening two-parter. But I don't feel we've really been given anything more to go on there, so (as I've just said on andrewducker's journal), there doesn't seem much point in speculating madly for the next three months. Rather than being in a fever of anticipation, I feel more like someone who's got rather sick of playing a guessing game, and is at the "Oh for gods' sake, just TELL me!" stage.
Anyway! Let's talk about those individual bits.
So lizbee was absolutely right that the best thing about this week's episode would be Jenny - the awesomely sexy waist-coated mildly cockney Victorian maid-servant-slash-swordswoman. How even better still that she was quite clearly in a clandestine lesbian relationship with her extraordinarily sexy samurai Silurian mistress, Madame Vastra. The look on her face after Vastra comments, "I don't know why you put up with me" - and then whips a prisoner sitting on the floor several metres away with her enormous long tongue... woof!
A close second in the awesomeness stakes was Lorna Bucket - also very cute in her own right, plus I felt there was quite a lesbotic vibe going on between her and Amy, too, when they were bonding over their shared childhood encounters with the Doctor. Rather a pity she had to die, in that case.
Also rather a pity that one half of the Thin / Fat gay married Anglican marines had to die (or at least be transformed into a headless monk, which is more or less the same thing), too. If either Jenny or Madame Vastra die in the second half of this story, I shall start to feel a persecution complex coming on.
Also quite awesome was Commander Strax, the Sontaran nurse. He was definitely the funniest thing in the story, especially when he boasting about what "magnificent quantities of lactic fluid" he could produce! But he was also good value for casting further light on Rory, too. As he was dying, and Rory tried to comfort him by saying that he was a warrior, his reply, "No - I'm a nurse" had definite resonances for Rory himself.
After all, how has Rory ended up in a place where he is marching around the universe in a centurion's uniform, delivering 'messages' from the Doctor like blowing up a whole Cyberlegion just to make a point? Is he really a warrior? Or is he still a nurse? Which is of course also the same question we're being asked to explore here for the Doctor, too - is he a healer or a warrior?
But honestly, I think that's all I have to say about any of it.
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.
I also don't really feel as thought I have just witnessed revelations so awesome and game-changing that they require a mid-season hiatus while we jump up and down madly waiting for the pay-off. But perhaps that part is my fault for following too many fan communities, full of people who worked out well in advance who River was and why. There are still unanswered questions, to be sure - like who will she kill, and why, and how that links in with the events we've already seen in the opening two-parter. But I don't feel we've really been given anything more to go on there, so (as I've just said on andrewducker's journal), there doesn't seem much point in speculating madly for the next three months. Rather than being in a fever of anticipation, I feel more like someone who's got rather sick of playing a guessing game, and is at the "Oh for gods' sake, just TELL me!" stage.
Anyway! Let's talk about those individual bits.
So lizbee was absolutely right that the best thing about this week's episode would be Jenny - the awesomely sexy waist-coated mildly cockney Victorian maid-servant-slash-swordswoman. How even better still that she was quite clearly in a clandestine lesbian relationship with her extraordinarily sexy samurai Silurian mistress, Madame Vastra. The look on her face after Vastra comments, "I don't know why you put up with me" - and then whips a prisoner sitting on the floor several metres away with her enormous long tongue... woof!
A close second in the awesomeness stakes was Lorna Bucket - also very cute in her own right, plus I felt there was quite a lesbotic vibe going on between her and Amy, too, when they were bonding over their shared childhood encounters with the Doctor. Rather a pity she had to die, in that case.
Also rather a pity that one half of the Thin / Fat gay married Anglican marines had to die (or at least be transformed into a headless monk, which is more or less the same thing), too. If either Jenny or Madame Vastra die in the second half of this story, I shall start to feel a persecution complex coming on.
Also quite awesome was Commander Strax, the Sontaran nurse. He was definitely the funniest thing in the story, especially when he boasting about what "magnificent quantities of lactic fluid" he could produce! But he was also good value for casting further light on Rory, too. As he was dying, and Rory tried to comfort him by saying that he was a warrior, his reply, "No - I'm a nurse" had definite resonances for Rory himself.
After all, how has Rory ended up in a place where he is marching around the universe in a centurion's uniform, delivering 'messages' from the Doctor like blowing up a whole Cyberlegion just to make a point? Is he really a warrior? Or is he still a nurse? Which is of course also the same question we're being asked to explore here for the Doctor, too - is he a healer or a warrior?
But honestly, I think that's all I have to say about any of it.
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.