Comments | sensiblecat: The Rebel Flesh - contains spoilers

sensiblecat

The Rebel Flesh - contains spoilers - my review and a lot of questions

May 23, 2011 10:22

The artistic challenge that this series has faced, more than any other in New Who, is the tension between producing strong stand-alone narratives and building on the themes that will feed into the narrative arc as a whole.

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doctor who, eleventh doctor

Comments 8

topaz_eyes May 23 2011, 18:06:11 UTC

Time Lords stuck in little boxes - what a metaphor Gaiman came up with there!

It's not just the Time Lords though; Abigail was the woman in the freezer, and River is imprisoned in the Storm Cage between adventures with the Doctor. Most of the action in "The Doctor's Wife" took place in a bubble universe. Yet Abigail, River and Idris!TARDIS all managed to keep their souls.

So, once again, an apparently straightforward and rather dull story has layers or meaning when it's viewed in context - but I do have some overall concerns, and one is that SM is too much the big-sweep showrunner, content to wave through substandard work as long as his entire series, in retrospect, is recongised as an integrated work of art.One could say the exact same thing about RTD. In retrospect, the substandard episodes in his run (e.g. "The Doctor's Daughter", "Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks") were the most important to the seasonal arc plot. However, this is rather off-topic ( ... )

sensiblecat May 23 2011, 18:56:19 UTC

How very Jungian! But I wonder, wouldn't Idris/the TARDIS recognise him as a clone because the link between them is so close?

I think we're saying similar things about weak episodes important to the season arc. (42 was another one - remember Francine on the telephone with Saxon's minions listening in?)

It occurs to me that River is in a trapped situation too, far more than she was when the character was introduced. I think that living through her meetings with the Doctor in exactly reverse order is a pathological situation - it can't be anything else because they clearly have done things together that they discuss when they meet. I hope that she'll eventually be freed from her reverse-linear time travel dilemma. Until that point, she's in a box as well, no matter how kick-ass she appears to be.

topaz_eyes May 24 2011, 21:20:11 UTC

wouldn't Idris/the TARDIS recognise him as a clone because the link between them is so close?

One would think so, but "The Rebel Flesh" seems to suggest clones are the same as the originals in every way, down to hearts, thoughts, memories and feelings. I think we would need to accept that premise if the Doctor who died in TIA was the real Doctor. For the show to continue, it would have to be via a clone.

caz963 May 23 2011, 19:35:11 UTC

I did enjoy TRF even though it wasn't the greatest episode. I thought it was a bit slow at the outset and thinking about it, you're completely right about the lack of explanation of the set up. In fact, at one point, I paused it so that I could make sure the kids understood what "gangers" were and why they were necessary; and I'm also sure that Rusty would have tightened that up. You've only got to look at the rewrite of that scene of Fires of Pompeii in The Writer's Tale to see just how bloody good he is at tightening up a wishy-washy script and bringing the characters into focus ( ... )

sensiblecat May 24 2011, 08:14:02 UTC

yes, it's a bit like the Emperor's New Clothes. Nobody wants to admit that they neither understand nor care what Moffat is up to because then you risk being branded as a soapy, RTD-loving moron.

caz963 May 24 2011, 13:46:33 UTC

Yep - the whole Emperor's New Clothes thing is something I've been saying since early in S5, because there were times when I'd read a terribly well put together post about an episode or something and still think - huh? - and wonder what I'd missed!

I've noticed that the dissenting voice has been a little quieter of late. I don't know if it's because people were so disappointed with S5 that they stopped watching or because they've opted to stay quiet for fear of being branded an RTD loving-moron or demented DT-fangirl.

sensiblecat May 24 2011, 19:17:39 UTC

I think everybody knows SM is playing a long game and they're holding off until he completes the series. It'll be a long wait.

surliminal May 23 2011, 21:30:55 UTC

I think, sadly, your review is much more interesting than the actual episode was...