DW 6x13 - The Wedding of River Song

[caz963]

I've been away from the computer for a couple of days - the weather has been so bloody good; far too good to waste it sitting inside hunched over a keyboard! But I can't let the weekend pass without some thinky-thoughts on the Doctor Who finale

Comments

[kilodalton]

Why did the Silence go to all the trouble of putting River into a Spacesuit in a lake? (Okay, I get that if she hadn't been in the suit, she'd have drowned!)

Understood --- so why did they put her in the spacesuit??? XD

[hooloovoo_42]

DW jumped the shark for me in S5. I only watched the first half of S6 to check I still thought it wasn't worth it. I just hope that somebody will kick Moffatt enough to fix it sometime soon and I can get back to it again.

The thing that really saddens me is that now it's really big in the US, new viewers will think this is what it's all about and will demand it stay like it.

[nostalgia_lj]

I feel really weird for not seeing much difference between the two "eras" :S

[hooloovoo_42]

I'm taking "new" as being anything post-Paul McGann.

I preferred the Eccleston/Tennant years to Moffatt's reign, but the format is as much of a change as the writers & actors. While Rusty liked his twists, Moffat seems to have taken them too far. Whatever happened to just telling a decent story? Although the Doctor travels in time, he never used to keep crossing his own timeline so much that everything got completely messed up. We had goodies and baddies and a cushion to hide behind.

Jelly baby, anyone?

[nostalgia_lj]

I can see cosmetic differences, but the general ideology/tone is the same to me. Especially compared to the old stuff. (Where you have epic changes like the WIlliams-JNT changeover, or Cartmel arriving, etc.) The timey stuff is rather overdone with Moffat, I think he's too fixated on it and it doesn't always work, plus it's getting obvious just like Rusty's reset button endings were by the end. (In a way it's a shame he's writing arc episodes now, because Moffat's self-contained stuff was beautiful mostly. I like these new ones but they're not quite as refreshing.) And even though I love River I think she's got to the point RTD got to with Rose, though in slightly less annoying (for me) ways. (But then Douglas Adams fixated on Romana and that wasn't a bad thing.)

Omg loads of parenthesis!

[nostalgia_lj]

Why does the Doctor have to marry River in order to set the Universe right? I may have missed that bit - but if all they had to do to push the reset button was touch each other, I'm sure they could have managed a quick snog without that necessity!

I think it's that he just wanted to and so used that as his means of touching her. "WELL IF YOU LOVE ME SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU MARRY ME?" possibly also.

I love the Amy but it's totally time for someone new. Two years feels like forever somehow. (Less forever than when we had Rose though!) Rory I can take or leave, Amy I like, but I'll probably like the new one as well, so. I tend to like most companions, and most of the reasons I don't like some of them probably wouldn't happen these days anyway. I mean can you imagine them doing a deliberately stupid companion? Or one who hated the Doctor? Or one... I was gonna say one played by Bonnie Langford, but then I remembered BARROWMAN, so.

[caz963]

Or one... I was gonna say one played by Bonnie Langford, but then I remembered BARROWMAN, so.

Heh.

But you know, I rather like Mel in the audios. It took me some time to listen to one with her in it, but I've heard a few with her in now (with Six, who I also adore in audio form!) and she's really quite good. But then I suppose in audio, you're able mto get over the fact that it's Bonnie Langford!! because you can't see her :-)

Two years does feel like an awfully long time in DW. I mean, much as I loved Donna and wish we could have had a second series of Tennant 'n' Tate, I think two would have been enough as it gets difficult to find anything new to say about them and anything new for them to see or do, doesn't it?

I wouldn't object if River became the companion for a bit, but I suppose as she's in prison, that's unklikely.

I read that KG had been around on location for the Xmas episode, but not if she'd actually filmed anything!

[nostalgia_lj]

Two years does feel like an awfully long time in DW. I mean, much as I loved Donna and wish we could have had a second series of Tennant 'n' Tate, I think two would have been enough as it gets difficult to find anything new to say about them and anything new for them to see or do, doesn't it?

It might be that the companion's the one who gets backstory and development so after two years theyve been strip-mined bare? I mean Rusty even seemed to run out of stuff to do with Rose in her second year. Compare it to her first and it's astonishing. And Amy did do rather less in those terms this year. After a point they have to go, which is why I'm always saying Ace should have left if they hadn't cancelled her.

[caz963]

It might be that the companion's the one who gets backstory and development so after two years theyve been strip-mined bare? I

Yes, that's what I meant, but you said it right!!

[develish1]

"Why does the Doctor have to marry River in order to set the Universe right? I may have missed that bit - but if all they had to do to push the reset button was touch each other, I'm sure they could have managed a quick snog without that necessity!"

This bit game me my biggest headache, and it's not just me it seems, even hubby turned to me during it and said WTF?

No matter how I try to get my head around it, I keep coming back to two things about that scene;

1. The snog itself makes no sense at all as far as restarted the clock goes, because they didn't actually touch, she kissed the Teselecta, not him, so it shouldn't have done a damned thing.
2. The doctor only married her to get her to agree to do what he wanted her to, go off and kill him.

Or am I missing something? I'd love to know if I am, if only so I can get rid of this headache, and try to explain it to hubby, who is equally bemused.

[caz963]

TBH, as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter WHO she married. The point is WHY did she have to marry either of them? I've just replied to a comment upthread from someone who said that the marriage took place so that River would listen to the Doctor and "allow him to touch her".

Ahem. Apart from it not being the 19th century, what happened to River the BAMF? Did she just turn into a Mills and Boon heroine who goes all mushy at the idea of tying the knot with the man of her dreams? (In fact, I think today's M&B heroines are probably more feisty than that!)

I haven't had a chance to catch up with reviews from other LJ-ers, but I bet there's a fair bit of discussion about that!

[develish1]

agreed on the touching side, neither has ever had an issue with it before, so why start now? makes no sense at all.

most comments I've seen have been of the WTF? variety, and almost everyone has questioned why they got married.

[shadowturquoise]

The way I took it was that the Teselecta is who (what) River was killing on the beach when she stopped and changed time, so the Teselecta is what she had to not touch to preserve the new timeline.