Hello, Sweetie
Hey, check me out! I went three whole posts without talking about Doctor Who! In fact, I wondered whether it was worth posting about "The Time of Angels" at all, given that it's a two-parter, and many people who might read this have already seen Part 2. But I think I need to say a little bit about it because once again, I underestimated Stephen Moffat.
See, I had always figured Moffat for the guy who could write a clever little gem of a story, and then just leave it at that. He wasn't much for world-building or mythology; he takes what the show's mythos offers and makes a perfect little story that ends, a skill that Davies, for all his positives, didn't really have. You don't get a much better ending than "Everybody lives!" or a more poignant one than the end of "Girl in the Fireplace." So frankly, both the Weeping Angels and River Song were things I was perfectly happy never to see again. We know stuff happens in between the episodes that we never see, and I was thought River worked really well right there. Who knows what happened between those specials last year? I thought that worked quite well. And as for the Angels, while I'll never deny that "Blink" is an awesome episodes (and eminently quotable), they do stretch my ability to disbelieve, so I wasn't sure I wanted to see them again.
I also suffered from knowing a bit too much, or guessing too much, about the episode before the season started. "A whole planet of Angels!" was the first guess, and I found that idea kind of disappointing and obvious. "An Angel hiding among ruined statues!" was the second guess, and that sounded much more interesting. So I was really impressed that Moffat pulled off both. There's not a ton more to say about the plot, since there hasn't been a ton of it yet, except that I have almost no idea where it's going, and that's a good thing.
And then there's River. I'm still holding to the belief that the Doctor has met her in between "Silence in the Library" and now, probably several times. The idea of a companion, or perhaps just a friend, who the Doctor keeps meeting out of order because of the vagaries of time travel is a clever one, which could reasonably have been explored before now, but hasn't been because of the annoying tendency of human actors to age in linear time (although the Brigadier is a bit of an exception). She certainly presumes a lot, though, blowing herself out an airlock in the certainty that he'll be there. I'm not certain whether that's annoying, but right now I'm leaning that way.
I have to make a quick note of the "parking brakes" line, which annoyed me -- NOT because it doesn't fit with every other TARDIS seen in the classic series (although it doesn't) -- but because it was a funny throwaway line, clearly intended to be a throwaway line, but now the fanboys are going to obsess about trying to make it fit with every other TARDIS seen in the classic series, and that's annoying, and Moffat could have anticipated that.
Amy held up pretty well, though, considering she didn't have a lot of screen time. Her "Mr. Grumpy-face" line cracked me up, even in the pre-season trailer, and convinced me more than anything that she'll be an OK companion. Moffat seemed to be using her as the voice of the fandom, having her speculate about River, and trying the one-eye-at-a-time trick of watching the Angel, which veered just a bit too close to meta for my liking. But we'll see. I heard she gets more to do in the concluding episode, so I'll look forward to that.
See, I had always figured Moffat for the guy who could write a clever little gem of a story, and then just leave it at that. He wasn't much for world-building or mythology; he takes what the show's mythos offers and makes a perfect little story that ends, a skill that Davies, for all his positives, didn't really have. You don't get a much better ending than "Everybody lives!" or a more poignant one than the end of "Girl in the Fireplace." So frankly, both the Weeping Angels and River Song were things I was perfectly happy never to see again. We know stuff happens in between the episodes that we never see, and I was thought River worked really well right there. Who knows what happened between those specials last year? I thought that worked quite well. And as for the Angels, while I'll never deny that "Blink" is an awesome episodes (and eminently quotable), they do stretch my ability to disbelieve, so I wasn't sure I wanted to see them again.
I also suffered from knowing a bit too much, or guessing too much, about the episode before the season started. "A whole planet of Angels!" was the first guess, and I found that idea kind of disappointing and obvious. "An Angel hiding among ruined statues!" was the second guess, and that sounded much more interesting. So I was really impressed that Moffat pulled off both. There's not a ton more to say about the plot, since there hasn't been a ton of it yet, except that I have almost no idea where it's going, and that's a good thing.
And then there's River. I'm still holding to the belief that the Doctor has met her in between "Silence in the Library" and now, probably several times. The idea of a companion, or perhaps just a friend, who the Doctor keeps meeting out of order because of the vagaries of time travel is a clever one, which could reasonably have been explored before now, but hasn't been because of the annoying tendency of human actors to age in linear time (although the Brigadier is a bit of an exception). She certainly presumes a lot, though, blowing herself out an airlock in the certainty that he'll be there. I'm not certain whether that's annoying, but right now I'm leaning that way.
I have to make a quick note of the "parking brakes" line, which annoyed me -- NOT because it doesn't fit with every other TARDIS seen in the classic series (although it doesn't) -- but because it was a funny throwaway line, clearly intended to be a throwaway line, but now the fanboys are going to obsess about trying to make it fit with every other TARDIS seen in the classic series, and that's annoying, and Moffat could have anticipated that.
Amy held up pretty well, though, considering she didn't have a lot of screen time. Her "Mr. Grumpy-face" line cracked me up, even in the pre-season trailer, and convinced me more than anything that she'll be an OK companion. Moffat seemed to be using her as the voice of the fandom, having her speculate about River, and trying the one-eye-at-a-time trick of watching the Angel, which veered just a bit too close to meta for my liking. But we'll see. I heard she gets more to do in the concluding episode, so I'll look forward to that.