Last night was the premiere of Season 6 of Doctor Who. I watched it and had a blast but one of my Twitter friends, @shadowmaat, didn't have the same response I did. She posted about it on her blog ( here's the link http://shadowmaat.livejournal.com/220810.html) and apparently caught some flack for not "seeing the light" like most did. I read her post and while I felt differently about the episode then she did, I could see her point and where she was coming from. Not everyone is going to feel the same way about everything, even something as beloved as Doctor Who. I decided that I wanted to compare notes with @shadowmaat and offer my feelings on the things that she didn't like about it, not quite a review but just offering another viewpoint.
"One of the worst offences in the entire history of the ENTIRE SERIES comes right after the teaser scene and right before the opening credits: it's a Complete Moron's Cliff Notes of Doctor Who narrated by Amy Pond. It is... beyond awful. It is REPREHENSIBLE. Even overlooking the fact that it hinges everything onto a Companion instead of the Doctor WHERE IT BELONGS there's the whole idea that audiences are too fucking stupid to figure this stuff out on their own and need to have it spoon fed to them, presumably at the beginning of every episode. BY A COMPANION. While Companions are the gateway to the show and our link to the Wacky World of the Time Lord(s) there is no way in the nine hells that any one of them should be getting so much individual attention. It makes the show about Amy and the show is NOT called Amy Pond's Adventures in Time & Space it's called DOCTOR Who. DOCTOR! Amy is transient and one day soon she will be gone, too, but the Doctor will still be there and they had better not do another fucking Companion's Guide thing. It was absolutely the wrong way to start off the ep especially when so much else was only mediocre at best. Awful. Just AWFUL. I never want to see that offensive bit of tripe again. EVER."
Okay. this I tend to agree with. Yes, the way the show operates is by seeing the world of the Doctor through the eyes of the companion but this is a little much. I know that this is for the new viewers and maybe it just feels pointless because I know the concept of the show. Apparently only the American audience gets to see the intro so maybe it's for the best.
"But I digress. Long story short, everyone shows up in the middle of the American desert (I want to say Nevada) just in time for an astronaut to pop out of the lake and kill the Doctor. No, like, REALLY dead. As in killed-during-his-regeneration-and-not-c
Now I dealt with this same kind of situation with the 2 part Season 5 finale and posted my feelings in my last blog post. We all understand how tv works and we all know that the main character doesn't die, that's just the way it works. Every time we watch a show we enter a contract in which we have to agree to suspend our disbelief in order for us to enjoy the show. That is one of the key ingredients to enjoy a program, especially in this genre. If we can't get past that then there is no point of even turning on the tv.
" Along the way Amy lets slip the second stupidest thing about this episode and one that I know- KNOW- I am going to loathe about this season: Amy is pregnant. Part of me hopes it's just a misunderstanding, but if it's true then pardon me while I vomit. I hate pregnancy storylines and I hate them even more in the context of scifi shows and I especially hate them when they have to do with Amy Pond. Ugh. I'm sorry. She's an OK character, but her obsession with the Doctor is SO TEDIOUS. And pregnancy is stupid. You just KNOW they're going to do something weird with it and the weirdness better not involve the baby growing up to be the mysterious little girl, but the timing is suspicious."
While I can't comment on @shadowmaat's feelings on pregnancy storylines (as if this is the worst thing she should be judged on, haha) if you watch the previews for the rest of the season you hear Rory mention that the Silence can influence people. This leads me to believe that Amy isn't really pregnant but for some reason they want the Doctor to think that she is. She doesn't seem to show any indication that she was pregnant before her encounter with the Silence and I'm pretty sure she would have mentioned it earlier to the Doctor and River if she was. Why would they make her say that she is pregnant is beyond me at this point.
"The HUGE AMAZING SHOCKING GAME CHANGER bit isn't impressive in a show about time travel where we've already had multiple instances of meeting "dead" characters elsewhere along a timeline and all this stuff with the Doctor interfering in his own life just isn't that clever. It gives the appearance of it and can lead to moments that are fun when viewed on their own, but as a whole it's the worst kind of Doctor ex machina and violates some of the canon rules. If it hadn't been for the Pandorica eps I might be able to accept the Doctor's comparatively minor interfering here, but that has soured me on the whole messy strictly-against-canon gimmick."
We know that one of the Doctor's rules is that you don't interfere with your own timeline but what if this wasn't for selfish reasons. The only reason I could think of the Doctor going to this extreme is that he failed to defeat the Silence in some form and this is the only way that he can make it right. We've seen him risk his life time and time again so I really doubt he is trying to save his own butt and I think seeing the Doctor die gives more weight to the season and really shows how intense future events are becoming, what else could set the tone as well as the Doctor being killed. With "Turn Left" we saw what a world without the Doctor would be like and even though the interfering wasn't caused by the Doctor it was changed back to save him. Maybe it is the right course of action this time.
I understand how up in arms people get when other people can't see what they see in something, especially geek. It is ridiculous to be a dick to someone when they disagree, even more so when that person is a fan, and I really wanted to write this to remind others that debating geeky things should be fun and civil. Don't spoil someone else's day because they don't agree with you.
See, this is what I like: a calm, reasonable discussion that doesn't involve explaining why I'm wrong or patting me on the head like some idiot who has never watched TV before.
ReplyDeleteNow, originally I had a huge, long, thoughtful reply to your post here, but since Blogger loathes me it ate my reply when I tried to log in with my LJ account. I know better than to try and I always make sure to save a copy of what I write... except this time. *sigh* So here's the condensed and much less pretty version:
I hadn't considered that Amy wasn't really pregnant. Probably at least in part because that was one of the theories I'd seen bandied about by fans during the hiatus. Funny how a plot that at the time was deemed "too stupid" to be likely is now considered to be thoughtful and "full of interesting possibilities." It's full of something, anyway. I will hold on to the hope that you're right and that Amy will not be giving birth to any babies, Silence spawn or singing kittens any time soon.
I have no doubt that the Doctor's reasons for interfering have to do with some universe-saving plan; it never crossed my mind he might be doing it for selfish reasons. Just because there's something grander design at work, though, doesn't mean mean I have to like it. LOL! I'm sure when all the pieces fall together that I won't be able to come up with a better solution than what the Doctor has done, but I still kinda wish they had gone in a different direction.
I may need to work on my suspension of disbelief. I can accept all kinds of outlandish things, but getting emotionally invested in a stunt death isn't one of them. I was, in fact, a little surprised to read that some people were actually shocked by the Doctor's death and got caught up in the drama of it. I... may have to meditate a bit on that to see if I can evoke a similar feeling in myself because I didn't feel much of anything except maybe a tinge of frustration at the Companions for thinking so linearly.
This post is MUCH clunkier than my first one. Damn you, Blogger.
Anyway, I edited my original review to include more of what I did like (namely the Silence, the little girl and Canton III) since I didn't HATE the episode, I just felt it could have been a lot better.
One of the sniping comments that surprised me the most was from a person who patiently (patronizingly) explained to me that the summation by Amy that I hated so much (hereon referred to as a moronlogue) was, in fact, a ridiculously common device that provided folks with needful information and was, basically, a really good idea so WTF is your problem? As I patiently explained back to her, Doctor Who has never, as far as I know, used such a gimmick before. Not in the five previous seasons and not in the twenty-odd also prior seasons before that. My original gripe about it (this was on a message board, not my blog) was a lot more... reined in. Maybe I should have pointed her to my blog for the full-bore rant on why that moronlogue was so offensive.
I know I had more and better stuff to say, including something about how a lot would hinge on the concluding episode next week, but Blogger ate it and I can't remember now so whatever.
Thanks for the thoughtful post, Joe. And thanks for knowing the right way to disagree. ;)
My pleasure. You made good arguments for what you didn't like and they were perfectly reasonable. I saw exactly where you were coming from and i could have easily felt the same way. I had a great time doing this, we should do it again.
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