New Who 5.9: Cold Blood

[strange_complex]

I couldn't post this last night, because I just could not get onto LJ at any point after Doctor Who ended. So what follows was actually written in Yahoo! Notepad yesterday evening, and lightly edited this morning in order to get the tenses right.

Gosh, well. I think I can only possibly start writing about this

Comments

[rhube]

I sort of disagree about the thought of Rory coming back for the same reasons. My reaction to his death was muted because we have already been made aware of the possibility of people coming back who've gone through the crack by the fact that, clearly, the Doctor is going to have to undo it. It also felt dramatically wrong, to me, for Rory to die at this point, so I felt that he had to come back, but there's no guarrantee that he will, so I couldn't properly engage with emotions about his death. I agree that Amy's reaction to it was powerful, though

[strange_complex]

I felt that he had to come back, but there's no guarantee that he will, so I couldn't properly engage with emotions about his death

It sounds to me more like we agree, there. That is a big part of my complaint about creating an paradigm in which death appears negotiable. I can't engage properly with Rory's death, because this is a programme in which people who appeared to be dead have turned out not really to be (e.g. Jack in Bad Wolf, or indeed Rory himself in the Upper Leadworth scenario in Amy's Choice). I'd rather that that wasn't the case, and that death was kept as a real an irreversible thing. If Rory is going to come back later, I'd prefer him just not to be killed off in the first place.

[strange_complex]

The fact that she doesn't mean to kill Alaya is, I think, an important distinction from the "hysterical mother" trope.

Actually, I'd say it plays right into the trope by showing her as both a) wildly emotional and b) incompetent on top of c) dangerous. I think killing Alaya with conscious intent would qualify as a less hysterical action than killing Alaya accidentally because she doesn't really know what she is doing and isn't in control of her own actions or emotions.

[hollyione]

I didn't like the way in which Ambrose was treated either, but I don't think it was all one sided and misogynistic. The Doctor (Matt Smith Doctor) is not perfect and he judged Ambrose for her actions. A different, softer incarnation of the Doctor may have treated her differently and appreciated her motives. I actually thought it was quite an interesting sub plot.

[myfirstkitchen]

I've seen (blurry, rubbish) photos that indicate you'll probably be disappointed re: Rory, but then all the crack arc stuff and time will be re-written and Amy's boys stuff also point towards his return and the return of everything else that has been "forgotten".

Chibbers is just rubbish, I'm afraid, I only liked the Moffaty bits and the cast, especially the kid.

[surliminal]

I'm afraid i just caught this ep and despite vaguely liking Rory for the last two eps, at least significantly more than Amy, was absolutely unmoved by his death. And really, I will cry at the opening of an envelope as they say. School level acting by both Rory and Amy I thought , to go with an ep where acting, setting and staging generally looked like something from the 70s. (yes I know it was meant to be an homage to Pertwee - but did that have to include the production values of that era??) And then the Doctor SMILES about two minutes later. Really quite a lot. When he has (a) been reponsible for Rory's death by messing around delaying getting them into the TRADIS and (b) is left with the sole burden of remebreing Rory (and doesnlt that in itself neage this posited targedy of never-having-been? why is it AMY who has to remeber him??) I assume the reaction is being softened pending a timey wimey revival of Rory but really, that isn;t a good enough excuse for this

[strange_complex]

I haven't found it shoddy-looking myself, though I do agree with the many people out there who are saying that this particular two-parter would have benefited enormously from the presence of a few more extras on the drilling facility. I guess a lot of the budget this season has gone on overseas location filming, anyway, so we have seen it already in The Vampires of Venice and will see it again next week in Vincent and the Doctor.