Aaaaaand...scene.
Last night, I managed to see the entertainment event that people have been awaiting for months. The buzz has been fantastic, and the waiting was murder. Of course, I'm talking about the season 4 finale of Doctor Who, which I saw courtesy of shiny_bauble and woodwindy. (Batman movie? Is there a Batman movie out?) Yes, I broke my unwritten rule and didn't wait another two weeks to see it on Sci-Fi. I doubted I could avoid the spoilers that long. Speaking of which, if you are going to wait the two weeks, don't look under the fold. Really. It's for your own good.
I've noted in the past that Russell Davies writes excellent emotional scenes, but isn't so hot with the clever plots. And that's OK, because when he's "on," you can get so caught up in the characters that you can ignore the fact that the plot doesn't make much sense. The funny thing about this one was that he was clearly throwing in every single thing he thought fans wanted to see -- sometimes even contradictory things -- and yet it was well-done enough that it didn't bother me. This story had the potential of coming off like fanfic, and yet it is possible for "include every character ever" fanfic to turn out OK, if the characters are written properly.
And I think that's what worked best here...everybody sounded like themselves, behaved in a manner true to their characters, and most of them seemed to get the reward that they deserved. Yes, Rose gets a Doctor of her very own, but only after she spends the entirety of "The Stolen Earth" being ignored and disregarded. I couldn't stop sniggering as she whined at the Nobles' laptop about being left out. And then her dramatic, slo-mo reunion with the Doctor...ends in him getting shot. I don't hate Rose, not really. I think she just suffers by comparison to Martha and Sarah Jane...and even to Mickey and Donna, once they'd done some growing. The way she was written in the first episode seemed to be a gift to the Rose-haters, to make up for the reward she gets in the second.
Martha, of course, continues to be constructed entirely of industrial-grade Awesome. You can say what you will about the Doctor's tendency to turn his companions into warriors; she gets stuff done. Sarah and Jack's plan: "We'll blow up the station you're standing on, and us with it!" Martha's plan: "I'll blow up the ENTIRE EARTH before letting you have it!" Dangerous experimental technology? Martha makes it work. Leading the international taskforce? Martha gets it done. Notice that she's the only one who doesn't get captured by Daleks straight off? After her last two guest stints, I would have settled for her not getting knocked out and strapped to a table in this episode, but she really impressed me. Especially when she offered the Daleks their one last chance, because that's what the Doctor would want. That's the one thing I keep pointing out to Sparky, both in the few episodes I've watched with him, and in the Sarah Jane Adventures...people who are trying to live up to the Doctor's standards always offer the chance. Can we keep Martha? Please? Season 5 is a long way off; there's a way to write her back in. (I notice she never mentioned her fiance; maybe he's out of the picture?)
I will say that I spent most of "The Stolen Earth" wondering where the heck Mickey was, and grumping that he wasn't in the opening credits with the others. Dude never gets a break with regard to his companion status. But he made up for it quickly in "Journey's End," looking much more comfortable with the giant gun than Rose did. The thing that I really like about Mickey is that unlike Rose, Mickey gets more awesome every time he turns up. His greeting of Jack? Excellent. He's clearly over the fact that it's never going to work with Rose, and he's moving on to better things. (Somebody noted that he never speaks to Rose in the entire episode, and certainly doesn't say goodbye to her, although he does to Jackie. I wonder what happened there?)
Both Shiny and I noted independently after the episode that Torchwood conveniently wrote out their medic and their computer expert, and suddenly Martha and Mickey appear to be getting job offers from Jack. Now Martha makes a capable replacement for Owen, but...I'm sorry, much as I like Mickey, his self-taught hacking skills really aren't in Tosh's class. I doubt Mickey could build his own sonic lance, or a time-lock defense system (which seems a bit much even for Tosh). Of course, we haven't the faintest idea who's going to be in the next season of Torchwood, or even when it'll be, but it looks kinda planned there. I hope both Martha and Mickey will be OK with the "sex with random aliens" initiation policy.
And Sarah Jane continues to be manifestly herself, the whole time. I loved that her plan involved getting captured so she could get to the heart of the action. (Of course, her plan makes a bit more sense when you know that she had the sonic lipstick on her the whole time, something she might have mentioned to Mickey and Jackie.) I loved her subtle criticism of Jack, while still offering to work with him. And I really, really loved that Davros recognized her, as well he should -- if the Daleks have legends about the Doctor, she's probably right there too. (And, um, Harry Sullivan, but that's neither here nor there.)
And then there's Donna...the only person in the story who gets manifestly screwed over. Yes, the whole bit of her getting the Doctor's knowledge doesn't really hold up to casual scrutiny. (Would she know what happened in the war? Or his real name?) But that's better than her saving the day with Super Temp Powers, I think. I think Donna's story is a parallel to Mickey's...both start out as people demonstrably unsuitable to being companions, but both go on to be folks who become better just for having met the Doctor -- in a way, a tougher task than becoming better by virtue of being a companion. Both get another shot at it, but Donna's the one who really carries it off, who continues to grow, and she really is a better, more likable person at the end. I suspect she probably would have preferred to die rather than going back to the person she was at the beginning of "The Runaway Bride." In that sense, the Doctor's saving her is the worse outcome; I was surprised that she didn't die.
That seems to be of a piece, though...Davies brought out every one of his characters, but when he was done, he put them all neatly back in the box and closed the lid. He didn't break any of them, and although he might have made a better story if he had, I think he did it intentionally to hand them all over to Moffatt in good condition. Although the specials for next year seem to be planned, absolutely nobody seems to know what's going to happen in season 5; it's a clean slate. Which is nice, but I don't think it was necessary to wrap things up quite so neatly. If the series had ended with this episode, I think Davies would have been satisfied to call it a day.
OK, enough rambling. I binged on episodes last night, and now I'm compelled to talk about them. I'll probably be fit company in a couple of weeks.
I've noted in the past that Russell Davies writes excellent emotional scenes, but isn't so hot with the clever plots. And that's OK, because when he's "on," you can get so caught up in the characters that you can ignore the fact that the plot doesn't make much sense. The funny thing about this one was that he was clearly throwing in every single thing he thought fans wanted to see -- sometimes even contradictory things -- and yet it was well-done enough that it didn't bother me. This story had the potential of coming off like fanfic, and yet it is possible for "include every character ever" fanfic to turn out OK, if the characters are written properly.
And I think that's what worked best here...everybody sounded like themselves, behaved in a manner true to their characters, and most of them seemed to get the reward that they deserved. Yes, Rose gets a Doctor of her very own, but only after she spends the entirety of "The Stolen Earth" being ignored and disregarded. I couldn't stop sniggering as she whined at the Nobles' laptop about being left out. And then her dramatic, slo-mo reunion with the Doctor...ends in him getting shot. I don't hate Rose, not really. I think she just suffers by comparison to Martha and Sarah Jane...and even to Mickey and Donna, once they'd done some growing. The way she was written in the first episode seemed to be a gift to the Rose-haters, to make up for the reward she gets in the second.
Martha, of course, continues to be constructed entirely of industrial-grade Awesome. You can say what you will about the Doctor's tendency to turn his companions into warriors; she gets stuff done. Sarah and Jack's plan: "We'll blow up the station you're standing on, and us with it!" Martha's plan: "I'll blow up the ENTIRE EARTH before letting you have it!" Dangerous experimental technology? Martha makes it work. Leading the international taskforce? Martha gets it done. Notice that she's the only one who doesn't get captured by Daleks straight off? After her last two guest stints, I would have settled for her not getting knocked out and strapped to a table in this episode, but she really impressed me. Especially when she offered the Daleks their one last chance, because that's what the Doctor would want. That's the one thing I keep pointing out to Sparky, both in the few episodes I've watched with him, and in the Sarah Jane Adventures...people who are trying to live up to the Doctor's standards always offer the chance. Can we keep Martha? Please? Season 5 is a long way off; there's a way to write her back in. (I notice she never mentioned her fiance; maybe he's out of the picture?)
I will say that I spent most of "The Stolen Earth" wondering where the heck Mickey was, and grumping that he wasn't in the opening credits with the others. Dude never gets a break with regard to his companion status. But he made up for it quickly in "Journey's End," looking much more comfortable with the giant gun than Rose did. The thing that I really like about Mickey is that unlike Rose, Mickey gets more awesome every time he turns up. His greeting of Jack? Excellent. He's clearly over the fact that it's never going to work with Rose, and he's moving on to better things. (Somebody noted that he never speaks to Rose in the entire episode, and certainly doesn't say goodbye to her, although he does to Jackie. I wonder what happened there?)
Both Shiny and I noted independently after the episode that Torchwood conveniently wrote out their medic and their computer expert, and suddenly Martha and Mickey appear to be getting job offers from Jack. Now Martha makes a capable replacement for Owen, but...I'm sorry, much as I like Mickey, his self-taught hacking skills really aren't in Tosh's class. I doubt Mickey could build his own sonic lance, or a time-lock defense system (which seems a bit much even for Tosh). Of course, we haven't the faintest idea who's going to be in the next season of Torchwood, or even when it'll be, but it looks kinda planned there. I hope both Martha and Mickey will be OK with the "sex with random aliens" initiation policy.
And Sarah Jane continues to be manifestly herself, the whole time. I loved that her plan involved getting captured so she could get to the heart of the action. (Of course, her plan makes a bit more sense when you know that she had the sonic lipstick on her the whole time, something she might have mentioned to Mickey and Jackie.) I loved her subtle criticism of Jack, while still offering to work with him. And I really, really loved that Davros recognized her, as well he should -- if the Daleks have legends about the Doctor, she's probably right there too. (And, um, Harry Sullivan, but that's neither here nor there.)
And then there's Donna...the only person in the story who gets manifestly screwed over. Yes, the whole bit of her getting the Doctor's knowledge doesn't really hold up to casual scrutiny. (Would she know what happened in the war? Or his real name?) But that's better than her saving the day with Super Temp Powers, I think. I think Donna's story is a parallel to Mickey's...both start out as people demonstrably unsuitable to being companions, but both go on to be folks who become better just for having met the Doctor -- in a way, a tougher task than becoming better by virtue of being a companion. Both get another shot at it, but Donna's the one who really carries it off, who continues to grow, and she really is a better, more likable person at the end. I suspect she probably would have preferred to die rather than going back to the person she was at the beginning of "The Runaway Bride." In that sense, the Doctor's saving her is the worse outcome; I was surprised that she didn't die.
That seems to be of a piece, though...Davies brought out every one of his characters, but when he was done, he put them all neatly back in the box and closed the lid. He didn't break any of them, and although he might have made a better story if he had, I think he did it intentionally to hand them all over to Moffatt in good condition. Although the specials for next year seem to be planned, absolutely nobody seems to know what's going to happen in season 5; it's a clean slate. Which is nice, but I don't think it was necessary to wrap things up quite so neatly. If the series had ended with this episode, I think Davies would have been satisfied to call it a day.
OK, enough rambling. I binged on episodes last night, and now I'm compelled to talk about them. I'll probably be fit company in a couple of weeks.