"The Angels Take Manhattan" -- My Thoughts

[earlgreytea68]

I loved this, you guys. I loved basically everything about it. I thought it was brilliant, in all ways. Clever, first of all. Clever and witty and mind-bendingly confusing, which is all the things I love about a Moffat episode. And creepy. Terrifying. The scariest I've found the angels to be in a while. And, when it needed to be, lovely. Lovely, and sweet, and quite a beautiful send-off for Amelia Pond. I thought it was a perfect ending for Amy and Rory, frankly. It was happy in the tradition of happy Doctor Who endings, with that edge of bittersweetness that makes you remember what show you are watching. 

What I Liked: (Well, it turned out I didn't have any other categories, so the "What I Liked" is unnecessary as a heading, but there you go.)

• I liked the over-the-top homage to noir films. I feel like this entire season, if you think about it hard enough, could just be considered over-the-top homages to other genres. Certainly the Western episode was that way, and I feel like there were bits and pieces of scattered references throughout the rest, too. Anyway, A Town Called Mercy felt like a tribute to a very American form of story-telling, but The Angels Take Manhattan took another very American form of story-telling and completely coopted it as Doctor Who's own. I feel like River was absolutely made for the time period. Look at her in her fabulous hat and trenchcoat. 



• I was lucky enough to be home this weekend, which meant I watched this episode with the same group of friends that I watched the premiere with. And I commented at one point, "It's never not creepy to meet yourself on your deathbed." I feel this is the essential TRUTH to come out of this episode. That opening was shuddering to me, with the clacking of the typewriter putting the words down on paper. I loved it. And I thought the Statue of Liberty was a bit silly, but I also thought that, once they'd decided to do Manhattan, they had to do it, so I was willing to indulge them. I feel like an entire generation of British children is going to grow up terrified of New York City because of this episode. (Although, you can't think too hard about the actual geography of New York while watching this episode.)



• Melody Malone. I totally should have made the connection to Melody Pond, and yet totally did not. I don't think hard enough when I'm watching DW. But River has always been about the spoilers she writes down, hasn't she? I genuinely loved the whole thing with the book, I thought it was fabulous and a great way to ratchet up the dread of the episode. 



• Awww, is Eleven going to start wearing glasses now? 



• Look at this furious explanation for why the TARDIS can't be more helpful with this situation. It was complete and utter hand-waving, and I was okay with it, because at least they bothered to try to wave the hand. 



• "And if you read ahead and find that Rory dies?" Oh, Doctor, read far enough ahead, and everybody dies, everybody has the same ending. And doesn't he just hate that? 



• "Once you know it's coming, it's written in stone." Cut to Rory's gravestone. Okay, I loved that. I'm so easy, seriously. 



• Rory and his reaction shots. Oh, God, I'm going to miss Rory's reaction shots so much. I love how his reaction of "what the hell, why do these people want me dead?" was mirroring our reactions as we watched. 



• 221 B........C. Oh, Moffat. I kind of couldn't love you any more than I do at this moment. 



• I love the way the Doctor and River communicate through space and time. I have to admit that I can't get over how much River has grown on me from her first episodes. I just find the River trajectory so well done. And the fact that she's a professor who's been pardoned now means we know that River is reaching the end of her time with the Doctor, and I am so sad, knowing that, because does that mean *we're* reaching the end of our time with River? I mean, surely Alex Kingston isn't going to go on doing this forever, and I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss River when she stops popping up every so often. As much, I suppose, as the Doctor is, and the fact that Moffat managed to do that, managed to make River so insidiously part of my Doctor Who landscape, is amazing to me. (And River also seems to suspect she's reaching the end, and I admit I'm glad that we know River got a happy ending, too. Or, I choose to interpret it as a happy ending, I know it's controversial). And, of course, the Doctor knows River's nearing her end, too, which adds such a nice layer to all his desperation about re-writing the future. And I like that this episode, to me, illustrated what River has brought to the Doctor. "It would be almost impossible," says the Doctor, and River replies, "Loving the almost." The Doctor has always been too inclined to believe things impossible, to seem to give up, to teeter on the edge of losing faith, at the most critical of moments. I love that River never lets him, and I love that River knows that's the point of him having a companion, needing a companion. Sometimes, the Doctor's head is a dark, dangerous trap of a place for him, and River knows it. (And I really like that River has been pardoned because the Doctor has been deleted from all databases. Is that because of Oswin? Or what? It seems to me it's because of Oswin, or at least I think it is based on my recollection of the Doctor's timeline, and I find that a bit brilliant, that we've linked back up to the pardoned River Song in SitL because of Oswin Oswald, a character Moffat wouldn't write until years later. Was he planning this the whole time???) (Although, wait, the Doctor wasn't deleted in SitL, was he? Because he sends the Vashta Nerada to look him up, and they appear to. So, never mind, now I have no idea. Whatever. I still like River, and I still like this episode, even with the ridiculous "fix her wrist with regeneration power" thing.)



• Soooooo sometimes they can't blink at the statues, and other times it doesn't matter? I admit that's the one point in the episode when I was like, "Um?" But I enjoyed the rest of it so much that I'm letting it go. 



• "Doctor who?" I should be getting tired of that, shouldn't I? 



• DON'T GO IN THE CREEPY ELEVATOR IN THE CREEPY BUILDING, RORY. WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP GOING IN THERE? 



• I found the bonneted woman and her little boy (what were they? Puritan monuments? Memorials to famine victims?) the creepiest of all. Possibly because Cambridge Common has a memorial in honor of the Irish potato famine and it has these heartwrenching waif children statues on it and now I'm imagining them coming alive and taking vengeance on all the sleek, well-fed Canterbridgians. 



• "I'm sorry, Rory, but you just died." Great line. Excellent line. Foreboding, terrifying line. Loved it. I loved the entire premise of this episode. I loved the pacing of it, I loved the plot of it, I loved the scale of it. I've had a couple of Moffat episodes in a row on this show that fell short for me. I was so relieved to feel like I had him back for this. 



• "You think you're just going to die and come back?" "When don't I?" Ha! Perfect. 



• WHAT IS WITH THE JUMPING OFF OF BUILDINGS THIS YEAR? THAT WAS TOO SOON, MR. MOFFAT. IT WAS TOO. SOON. MARTIN FREEMAN'S FACE IS CRUMPLING SOMEWHERE WITH SADNESS. (Although, I think Sherlock did the jump better. Certainly showier. Sherlock's jump makes for gorgeous, dramatic fanvids. That sort of running in the air he does on the way down, with his coat billowing all around him, is one of my favorite camera shots of all time. I couldn't help but compare Rory and Amy's slow-motion overwroughtness with Sherlock's effortless elegance. Which might neatly capture the difference between the two shows.) (Also, DW doesn't have Martin Freeman's face. And that, you know, means a lot.) (And I wonder if Moffat really was sad he didn't get to write "Reichenbach" and was like, "Whatever, I'll do my own jump off a roof." I never thought I'd say this but Steve Thompson did it better, sir.)



• "Are there video games there? I love video games." All I keep thinking of is Pretty Princess Perils. 



• I love that it looked like we were going to get a happy ending, or at least not the ending we thought we were heading for, and I love that the Doctor thought the same thing, and then bam. And that was...fantastic. I'm pretty sure I gasped. But I gasped several times during the episode. I'm easy. And, actually, that might be the thing I like best about Moffat's era of Who, how very much in the Doctor's head I feel. It's almost like, if this were a written book, it would be first-person narration. I mean, it isn't, not quite, not technically, but the viewer is so often in the Doctor's emotions, so often in the Doctor's experience of things. It's odd, but I literally feel like we're supposed to identify more with the Doctor than the companion, and it's a switch from RTD era, and I don't know if one is better than the other, but I'm enjoying the difference. The Doctor is my doorway to this world, the Doctor's opinions of characters are the opinions I have, the Doctor's fondness for Amelia Pond (and increasing fondness for River Song) leaked over to me. I haven't been overly fond of Amy for a very long time now, but the Doctor's soft spot for her made me sad to see her go. This entire episode wasn't really a love letter to Amy Pond, it was a love letter to the Doctor she knew, and I thought it was gorgeous, a lovely closing of an era, a lovely send-off. And it was wise of Moffat, so very wise, to end Amy at her beginning, with little Amelia Pond, waiting for her Doctor, because it made me so nostalgic, for that time so long ago when Eleven was a brand new adventure waiting to happen, and that was how the Doctor was feeling, too, and we are all caught up together, he and I, for the next few months, thinking of that little girl and the things she ended up doing in time and space. 



• And now I am ready for Christmas.

Comments

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

I think River hiding all the damage from her relationship with the Doctor is both lovely and heartbreaking at the same time. Just the amount of pain she keeps hiding all the damn time. Especially at the end when she tries to say "it doesn't matter" when you can look at her face and know that it does. But, she's the strong one, and she has to keep it together and does it time and time and time again.

[jenrose]

I'm going to bawl like a baby when she casually mentions some rejuvenation treatment...

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Oh, God...

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

River is *so* strong. So strong and so heartbreaking. She gives the impression of her life being one big lark, and it so isn't. (Much like the Doctor.)

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

Yes: I do wonder what she does, the rest of the time. She's an archaeologist, we know that. (Someone ought to look into the implications of that: she has the ability to visit the original time period, answer any question she likes, and yet spends time trying to piece things together by what has survived. A very odd choice when one thinks about it. I may write about this a little).

Anyway, yes, she presents her life as a lark, talks about beings she's allegedly dated, is as low-maintenance and no-strings as it is possible for a mortal and corporeal person to be.

It's a pity we can't see her talking with Nine (who I'm not sure would take to her) or Jack (some jealousy on both sides, I think) or Reinette. I would like to see a story where River is the source of the idea of moving the fireplace from Reinette's childhood home to the palace....

I suspect that, if examined, the story of River Song as presented on the show won't 100% hold water: that she'll say things that can't be true (can she really be living her life backwards from the Doctor's timeline?) and that there'll be too many plotholes. Which is a pity: maybe it's just Alex Kingston's immense charisma and *heart*, but I can't help but love her.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

You have so many fic ideas here! I expect you to be writing lots of Riverfic!!

I think azriona tried to watch the episodes in River's order, or something. I don't remember what the outcome was. And I have always thought she meant the "living backward" thing mostly metaphorically, like, for the most part, she's moving backward in his time line. But you're right, Alex Kingston's casting was just genius, because she's AMAZING.

[lorelaisquared.livejournal.com]

I share so many of your thoughts. I really loved this episode in a way I haven't loved an episode in a long time. I had to handwave some stuff but that doesn't matter to me because the heart of this episode, the emotion of the episode pulled me and it was brilliant and I bought Amy jumping with Rory, I bought her choosing to go with him when the Angels got him in the end and I felt the Doctor's pain as he watched her go. This was an emotional episode, a raw episode and it was filled with so much greatness.

I'm sad to see Amy and Rory go but I liked their send off. I thought it suited them and I can imagine them rebuilding a life together there and being happy and for me, that is what I want in a companion's goodbye. I liked too that it wasn't overdone and over the top.

I too am ready for Christmas. Looking forward to how Oswin comes into all of this! :)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, I felt the emotion of the episode rang so true to me that I didn't mind the plot hand-waving that I had to do.

And I completely agree that it was a wonderful good-bye for a companion: a happy life, forever.

[beatlejessie.livejournal.com]

I watched this last night and I loved it, too- even though now I'm not sure I'll ever want to visit the Statue of Liberty again!!

I like the idea that these episodes have been homages to other genres. Noir stuff is so fun, and I agree that River was AWESOME as a detective :) I really am enjoying River and Eleven's relationship as well- especially the communication over time- the thing with the vase and the YOWZA was so cool! It is sad that Professor/Archaeologist River is reaching the end of her story, but it just makes me want to watch "Silence in the Library" again.

And I don't think we need to worry so much about that the Vashta Nerada could look up The Doctor- after all, that was Ten- Eleven's timeline hadn't happened yet. And we know that River has a Vortex Manipulator, and that her timeline is all over the place, so it all sort of makes sense. In that wibbly-wobbly kind of way :D

And it was a lovely send-off for Amy and Rory- I think I am going to miss Rory a LOT more than I thought I would.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I've never been to the Statue of Liberty, and now I'm sad that I can never go!

I really should rewatch SitL. I haven't watched it in years, and knowing what I now know about River, I feel like so much could be added to a viewing of it.

Ha! It's the typical timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly explanation for things!

I'm going to miss Rory so much, too. He really did grow a lot in my heart. A lot a lot a lot.

[dominamia.livejournal.com]

I loved Amy's good-bye to River, calling her by her birth name and telling her to be a good girl. That was the sweetest damned thing.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

God, seriously.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

River looked great, entirely in her element, but she was essentially in drag. The P.I. trench coat and fedora are men's clothes. Not that that would stop her, and not that I would want it to. But those aren't 1938 women's clothes.

In that vein, I was sorry that they didn't set this in Los Angeles, home of the P.I. genre. I know that the rampaging Statue of Liberty was irresistible, but I would have liked the Doctor to look solemn and declaim, "Los Angeles ... the City of Angels!"

Fanfic may have to be written.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, she was in drag, you're right! But that's River Song for you! She does as she wishes!

Ooooh, such a missed opportunity there!

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

I should have said: she's dressed as Bogart, not as Bacall. But the image does telegraph "we're in a period detective story" quite economically and effectively.

It must mean something that I am suddenly getting ideas for fanfic. Other than, I have a million other things to do, which has always been a spur to creativity.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yes! Bogart! Absolutely! I mean, you're right, it is part of the noir shorthand, but I also just like that it's *River,* she does what she wants.

And being busy always means you have a million fic ideas!

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

I loved it too. That summary at the end where we hear Amy relate all the wonderful future adventures Little Amelia will have was just wonderful! My feelings for Amy have changed so much during the series and I I like that Moffat gave her and Rory a happy-ever-after even if it meant they have to be there before good antibiotics and dental care.

And I LOVED that Moffat waved at all us crossover Sherlock fans with the 221bC thing. Now I wonder how many other details I may have missed this season and I have to go back and re-watch all of it JUST IN CASE! *sigh* Oh Steven Moffat-how much time you force me to waste!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

God, I loved the summing up of the adventures. That just was so wonderful, to really look back on everything that happened on the TARDIS while Amy was there. It's been kind of an amazing ride, and I didn't think of it until Amy summed it all up for me. And yeah, it is a happy ending, and at least it's in the twentieth century and not, say, the fourteenth!

God, Moffat is definitely having way too much fun with all of this!

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I guess having a couple jump off a tall building is quite heavy stuff for what is still officially a family show. If they glamourized it too much there could be complaints. Hence, the less fan-serving treatment than Sherlock.

I so much want a spin-off where Matt and Alex go noir. Matt has always looked best in period. He wore the little round specs in the Olympic drama he did a few months back "Bert and Dickie" and I'd love to see him adopt them permanently now as a homage to Amy.

But I still think the relationship between him and River is beyond screwed up.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

You have a really good point about the different audiences for the two shows.

God, Matt is built for the time period. I would so watch that spin-off. And I really do hope he adopts the specs, I think that would be awesome.

Oh, the relationship is an absolute mess, it's true.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

But I still think the relationship between him and River is beyond screwed up.

YES. THIS. And I hope (but don't really expect) that at some point somebody will call them both on it.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

Maybe the jumping from buildings is a Tarot reference?