random Doctor Who thoughts, because my brain is good for little else today
1. I have spent entirely too much time wondering what they double-filmed "The Lodger" with (I'm assuming this is part of why the episode is set up the way it is): was it "Amy's Choice," or "The Hungry Earth," or does it mean there are a bunch of Amy-centric scenes coming up in the last two episodes?
2. Can anyone explain to me how the memes of "Moffat is sooooo much more sexist than RTD" and "Moffat is sooooo much worse at character development than RTD" got started? Because they both have their issues, and they have both made failtastic media statements, but I feel like there are all of these people freaking out about how we haven't been told why Amy does what she does for a living and how her skills are pasted-on (which proves that Moffat just makes his women blank but "feisty"), or about how Amy's whole arc (which is unfinished, so maybe it's a bit premature to make this assessment?) is to be The Girlfriend or The Sidekick (which...it's Doctor Who, not Amy Pond; the adventures she's having right now are pretty much guaranteed to be *his* adventures too). And I just feel like you could have this exact same conversation, if you wanted to, about how we were never told why Rose wanted to travel with the Doctor, or why she decided to drop out of school for some dude, and hey, that bit where she saves the day through gymnastics is totally pasted-on, and you could totally cast her as The Girlfriend or The Sidekick. If you were inclined to look at her that way. (Which is, and I'm hoping this is obvious, totally reductive. Funnily enough, someone can be a girlfriend and her own person, especially when she's had way more screentime than the boyfriend! I know, it's shocking, but true.)
I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't call Moffat out on stuff he does wrong, but so much of the discussion seems to be premised on the fact that we already somehow collectively know Moffat is sexist, so clearly all the stuff he writes is sexist, too.
Also, for the love of all that's holy, girls in short skirts are not, in fact, automatically sexist. (I feel as though, with a lot of the Amy-hate, there's this oddly retrograde notion that a woman's sexuality is always and automatically for other people, either to approve of or to police, not for herself--so Amy's daring to wear short skirts is offensive because she must be doing it to "use" her sexuality in some way or "get by on her looks," as opposed to the possibility that she's thinking, "Hey, that skirt looks good on me; I'm going to wear it now.")
3. Rory thoughts:
--I was thinking about his remarks to the Doctor in "Vampires of Venice": that the Doctor makes people take risks, to want to impress him, to become dangerous to themselves. He was talking about Amy, but I feel like the end of "Cold Blood" shows how much that was true of him, too.
--I like Rory quite a lot: he's awkward and a little reserved, but not afraid to be sarcastic and call it like it is. (This is a type I like.) He's caring and he does research. And I like that he and Eleven actually seem to get on, even without Amy there (as in "The Hungry Earth"). Plus I have the same personal canon that many people seem to have about Amy and Rory growing up together in Leadworth, and how he's pretty much the only stable, supportive person in her life--which is also a type that I usually like. (Also, I think Arthur Darvill is darling. Why is everyone in this season so darling?)
But I don't know what the show is going to do with him, and I can't settle on a possibility that would seem satisfying to me. Amy and Rory simply breaking up seems anticlimactic after the events of "Amy's Choice" (to say nothing of "Cold Blood," because it's not clear yet what's going to happen with that): Amy may not want Rory's life, but she does seem to love and want Rory, so I'm not sure how they'd get around that without being all "just kidding!" On the other hand, Rory definitely wants Amy but seems to be going along with the adventuring because it's what she wants, not because he does. I suppose the easiest way out of the conundrum would have been to get Rory wholeheartedly in on the adventuring action--and there are hints of that in "Vampires," though in "Amy's Choice" he's the representative for "growing up"--but getting killed may put a damper on that.
They could mutually choose to reevaluate their relationship, which would be mature and potentially interesting, but harder to pull off, possibly. Or they could just get married, which would be really unsatisfying at this juncture because they're *so* not there yet, and the show is still in a place, with their story, where their marriage has been presented as "growing up" and therefore the opposite of traveling with the Doctor, which is...not great.
This show is reducing me to thinking things like, "Oh, I hope those two crazy kids can work it out!" This is what I have become, Doctor Who. I BLAME YOU. Though really, in my heart of hearts, I just want all three of them to go around being Team TARDIS for a couple more seasons, but I don't know how likely that is. :(
(Hey, did I ever mention that I had a dream about Gilmore Girls once in which I invented an episode in my sleep where Rory ran away to a convent/Catholic school? It's the only dream I've ever had that came with its own title: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Rory." It was weird.)
2. Can anyone explain to me how the memes of "Moffat is sooooo much more sexist than RTD" and "Moffat is sooooo much worse at character development than RTD" got started? Because they both have their issues, and they have both made failtastic media statements, but I feel like there are all of these people freaking out about how we haven't been told why Amy does what she does for a living and how her skills are pasted-on (which proves that Moffat just makes his women blank but "feisty"), or about how Amy's whole arc (which is unfinished, so maybe it's a bit premature to make this assessment?) is to be The Girlfriend or The Sidekick (which...it's Doctor Who, not Amy Pond; the adventures she's having right now are pretty much guaranteed to be *his* adventures too). And I just feel like you could have this exact same conversation, if you wanted to, about how we were never told why Rose wanted to travel with the Doctor, or why she decided to drop out of school for some dude, and hey, that bit where she saves the day through gymnastics is totally pasted-on, and you could totally cast her as The Girlfriend or The Sidekick. If you were inclined to look at her that way. (Which is, and I'm hoping this is obvious, totally reductive. Funnily enough, someone can be a girlfriend and her own person, especially when she's had way more screentime than the boyfriend! I know, it's shocking, but true.)
I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't call Moffat out on stuff he does wrong, but so much of the discussion seems to be premised on the fact that we already somehow collectively know Moffat is sexist, so clearly all the stuff he writes is sexist, too.
Also, for the love of all that's holy, girls in short skirts are not, in fact, automatically sexist. (I feel as though, with a lot of the Amy-hate, there's this oddly retrograde notion that a woman's sexuality is always and automatically for other people, either to approve of or to police, not for herself--so Amy's daring to wear short skirts is offensive because she must be doing it to "use" her sexuality in some way or "get by on her looks," as opposed to the possibility that she's thinking, "Hey, that skirt looks good on me; I'm going to wear it now.")
3. Rory thoughts:
--I was thinking about his remarks to the Doctor in "Vampires of Venice": that the Doctor makes people take risks, to want to impress him, to become dangerous to themselves. He was talking about Amy, but I feel like the end of "Cold Blood" shows how much that was true of him, too.
--I like Rory quite a lot: he's awkward and a little reserved, but not afraid to be sarcastic and call it like it is. (This is a type I like.) He's caring and he does research. And I like that he and Eleven actually seem to get on, even without Amy there (as in "The Hungry Earth"). Plus I have the same personal canon that many people seem to have about Amy and Rory growing up together in Leadworth, and how he's pretty much the only stable, supportive person in her life--which is also a type that I usually like. (Also, I think Arthur Darvill is darling. Why is everyone in this season so darling?)
But I don't know what the show is going to do with him, and I can't settle on a possibility that would seem satisfying to me. Amy and Rory simply breaking up seems anticlimactic after the events of "Amy's Choice" (to say nothing of "Cold Blood," because it's not clear yet what's going to happen with that): Amy may not want Rory's life, but she does seem to love and want Rory, so I'm not sure how they'd get around that without being all "just kidding!" On the other hand, Rory definitely wants Amy but seems to be going along with the adventuring because it's what she wants, not because he does. I suppose the easiest way out of the conundrum would have been to get Rory wholeheartedly in on the adventuring action--and there are hints of that in "Vampires," though in "Amy's Choice" he's the representative for "growing up"--but getting killed may put a damper on that.
They could mutually choose to reevaluate their relationship, which would be mature and potentially interesting, but harder to pull off, possibly. Or they could just get married, which would be really unsatisfying at this juncture because they're *so* not there yet, and the show is still in a place, with their story, where their marriage has been presented as "growing up" and therefore the opposite of traveling with the Doctor, which is...not great.
This show is reducing me to thinking things like, "Oh, I hope those two crazy kids can work it out!" This is what I have become, Doctor Who. I BLAME YOU. Though really, in my heart of hearts, I just want all three of them to go around being Team TARDIS for a couple more seasons, but I don't know how likely that is. :(
(Hey, did I ever mention that I had a dream about Gilmore Girls once in which I invented an episode in my sleep where Rory ran away to a convent/Catholic school? It's the only dream I've ever had that came with its own title: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Rory." It was weird.)