Comments | mr_orgue: That Gaiman Who Ep

mr_orgue

That Gaiman Who Ep

May 15, 2011 23:36

Again - a bit bemused by the gushing I'm seeing all over. I've seen more than one person say "best episode of Who evar" and "make Neil write every episode!" But huh?

( (mild spoilers behind cut) )

Comments 16

broin May 15 2011, 14:09:39 UTC

Agreed. :)

I thought the final showdown was lacking - some CGI sparkles fight other CGI sparkles and that's it?

Likewise, Amy+Rory mucking about in bits of the TARDIS we've not seen before could have been astounding. Instead, we get a generic corridor pit straight out of Cleopatra 2525. I was kinda hoping House really _was_ messing with time, and instead it was just an illusion.

mr_orgue May 15 2011, 19:57:46 UTC

We are in full agreement sir.

jarratt_gray May 16 2011, 05:22:04 UTC

What they really needed was Amy and Rory mucking around in bits of the Tardis *they* haven't seen but we have. That would have been amazing. When they first hit that corridor that was what I was expecting. Imagine them walking into Tom Baker's control room.

broin May 17 2011, 18:27:17 UTC

Yeah. I *really* expected a callback beyond, er, 2 years ago.

marrog May 15 2011, 14:22:42 UTC

I wonder if it was partly just because it was so much better than the pirates ep.

Besides, the important thing this episode did was canonise gender-swapping Time Lords. Now there's no excuse.

bartok May 15 2011, 18:30:23 UTC

I'll be more impressed if they're ever able to make Dimensions in Time canon.

mr_orgue May 15 2011, 19:59:08 UTC

The bounce-back effect from Pirateland is probably part of it, but I don't think it's all. The response to the episode really has been strong.

Agree about the gender-swapping, btw. Awesome.

bartok May 15 2011, 18:29:57 UTC

Welcome to the club. I've been now going through 4 weeks (well 3 really, poor Black Spot isn't getting a lot of love) of being confused by how much everybody seems to be LOVING this year.

Perhaps I'm just not one for the big story-arcs.

mr_orgue May 15 2011, 20:02:55 UTC

Yeah, man. I don't think it's the arcs, exactly. The storytelling execution has just seemed consistently off. Like in the first two eps - breathtaking ambition and deft management of narrative, but completely forgot to show us any evidence that its bad guys are bad - except an absurdly unmotivated, and consequence-free, assassination in a bathroom. Which undermined *everything*.

Get it together Moff!

bartok May 15 2011, 20:47:56 UTC

Yes, well put. I realised that *without* that scene there's actually no evidence of The Silence actually being malevolent. Now *perhaps* this will change by the end of the year, but it's a bit silly to have to wait 13 episodes for motivation.

I mean even the flipping Queen of the Racnoss had more purpose.

I have my suspicions that what we're seeing is evidence of Moffat perhaps suffering from pressure of being show-runner. The care that I felt was taken last year was probably down to the increased time allowed for pre-production due to the 2009 hiatus. So far we've had 4 weeks of somewhat rushed-feeling television. It's reminding me a bit of 2006.

And the more I think about it the less I like having Schrödinger's Baby as a plot-device.

china_shop May 15 2011, 20:38:46 UTC

Maybe people aren't watching for the plot? And it was light years better than the pirate episode of appalling CPR.

FWIW, I heard a rumour that Gaiman wanted Amy and Rory to be running through lots of interesting and weird bits of the TARDIS, but there wasn't the budget for it, so he got stuck with generic corridors. Similarly, he wanted a new alien rather than an Ood, but ditto.

mr_orgue May 16 2011, 05:43:08 UTC

Yeah, I heard that budget hit it too - but that still doesn't forgive the fact that Amy and Rory didn't *do* anything. They ran, they got separated, they got united, they wept and moaned, - but none of it counted for anything, none of it was emotional action, none of it revealed anything about their characters. Seriously, if every scene they were in (after House asks them why it shouldn't kill them, through to the Doctor arriving back) was cut, the episode wouldn't change in the slightest and in fact would improve I reckon. Empty action.

Still better than pirate CPR nonsense. I have read detailed theories about how that rubbish CPR scene was another Moffatt fakeout that will be explained in episode 13! But no, no, no, it was just a rubbish CPR scene.

craigoxbrow May 16 2011, 00:12:45 UTC

It was a lot of fun but it was no The Girl In The Fireplace or Blink or Midnight or Vincent And The Doctor. I suspect expectation overdose may not have helped in my case.

On the other hand, the bits in Doctor Who Confidential where he read the script aloud were lovely.

Next week, clone two-parter, and then cliffhanger. So that's four and a half stories in this block of seven episodes. Hrm.

mr_orgue May 16 2011, 05:44:23 UTC

Yeah, totally. A lot of fun but not up there with those ones. And yet I keep seeing "Eleven out of Ten!" and "Best episode I've ever seen!" comments from fans both old (old old old) and new. And I don't get that at all.

craigoxbrow May 16 2011, 12:17:44 UTC

I suppose it's buying in to the premise, and the little details like apparently the thing from The War Games was the mail box, which was interesting but not compared to someone knocking on the TARDIS door in deep space. Lots of nice little details (the Blue Peter TARDIS, turns of phrase, running up and down corridors being the companions' job) but a big-only-in-show-terms idea.

Very much an episode about Who myth, rather than a story that could go somewhere else.

broin May 17 2011, 18:29:11 UTC

'Eleven Out Of Ten' sounds like slash.