A Mish-Mash of Thoughts on the New Who

[earlgreytea68]

Because I am home at the moment, I don't have a ton of time to do my nice, organized Doctor Who reaction posts like I usually do. However, I do have thoughts! They are as follows:

• As I very briefly noted, I enjoyed The Bells of St. John, not as much as The Snowmen but more than Asylum of the Daleks. I thought it had its clever moments and its fantastic lines, which is good because that is what I expect from a Moffat episode. I loved what the bells of St. John turned out to be, and I loved the Doctor's line about "I can't predict the future, I just work there," or whatever it was. I actually liked the recurrence of "run you clever boy" in the mnemonic. It didn't even occur to me that the episode resembled The Idiot's Lantern until I read other people's reactions, although I do see that now. I will say I thought it could have been a lot creepier. There were some ideas I liked, but others that completely perplexed me. I loved the lady reverting back to a little girl at the end (*that* was creepy) and I loved that it was use of social media that brought the whole thing down, because, honestly, I keep trying to warn my students not to have so much information on social media. CAUTIONARY TALE.




• I thought The Rings of Whatever was basically a mess. I have no idea what the plot of that episode was even supposed to be. That solar system's sun was...a sentient being? Who ate souls once every thousand years? I just had no idea what was happening in that episode, and I thought that it was kind of terrible, honestly. They completely wasted the Vigil, which I found totally freaky and something should have been done with them beyond whatever that nonsense was. And I will forgive a lot of plot mess if the dialogue amuses me, but even the dialogue was terrible in that episode (aside from quoting Lewis Carroll). I will say that the one thing I liked was the Doctor saying that, when you have something precious with you, you run. Given the meaning of the word "run" in the Doctor Who universe, I really liked that line. I liked the idea that the Doctor has been running so hard to try to protect precious things. (Actually there was a lot of stuff about the value of things, like memories and the people we meet and the lives we lead and the stories we tell, and it all felt like set-up for the larger and somewhat meta story of the 50th anniversary.)




• I know there has been a lot of discussion about the TARDIS not translating things, but I feel like TARDIS translation has always been inconsistently written (the Doctor spoke Martian and Judoon and those fish things Martha encountered in "The Doctor's Daughter" weren't translated), so I'm not sure it's really meant to be meaningful. But who knows, maybe it is.




• I. Love. Clara. I can't quite explain what it is about her, but I love her. She won me over completely by the end of the first episode, and she was the thing that made the second episode as bearable as I found it. I love how adventurous she is, I love how she seems to be pretty fearless, I love how she jumped in with both feet. And I *like* her. She just seems nice to me, somehow. I don't know, I want to be her friend, or something. Probably a lot of credit goes to the actress, I think she just comes across on the screen as very charming and warm. Whatever it is, she's completely drawn me in. Her clinging to her cup of tea throughout the first piece of the wi-fi adventure was probably what sealed the deal for me, let's be honest.

Comments

[glorious-clio.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find the plot in the second one, either. And then their sun died? So presumably, all the planets would then die, without their light/heat source.

So problem NOT SOLVED AT ALL. NEW PROBLEM.

I took astronomy my first year in college. I remember *some* things....

But I agree with you about Clara. I like her, too.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand: it was a sun AND some kind of vampire being that ate souls? Are all suns also vampires? Or just that sun? WHAT WAS HAPPENING THERE?

But yay for Clara. :-)

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

If suns were vampires, wouldn't they turn themselves to dust?

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Excellent point!

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

I agree on RoA: it started out well, and then it became melodramatic and silly.

As a Doctor Who fan, I am used to dealing with some non-sensical elements, but...I feel like my trust is being abused here. Yes, I appreciate a romance that skips over logic, but even the romance must follow its own logic.

Compare this episode to The Beast Below: in that one, the Doctor was actually about to sacrifice the Star Whale and the speech he gave "I won't be the Doctor anymore!" was dramatic. His speech here about "we don't walk away", etc., was just melodramatic.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't watched The Beast Below in a while, but I remember it as being very effective and well-done.

And I agree, I was actually really, really enjoying RoA until about halfway through, when its plot completely dissolved into ???? for me.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

Much like "The Angels Take Manhattan", this episode felt a little cramped. I think it had a lot going on in it, but it felt rushed.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I liked Rings more than you did - I thought there was some lovely writing in there, and Matt came over as really quite Shakespearian and grandstanding in the Satan Pit mode. Interesting, that I like him much more now he's got rid of les Ponds. And Clara is gorgeous.

I'm not going to try and analyse the plot. That way madness lies. Suffice it to say I'm enjoying Who more than I have for quite some time.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Hmm. What's interesting is I don't really care for that part of Satan Pit, either, so maybe it's just that things in that vein don't appeal to me. I do think both Eleven and Clara shone in the episode, it just felt to me like they were rising above sub-par material. But it could be it just wasn't my type of thing.

I'm glad you're enjoying Who more!

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

For me, the best part of Rings is the music. Gorgeous, gorgeous music.

And I agree with you on Clara.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

I thought the singing was good at first...and then it kind of...kept happening.

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

I wasn't arguing ;)

I did find the episode as a whole a bit disjointed and itty-bitty, though.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Well, it was The Long Song. ;-)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

The music was pretty.

[develish1]

I'm liking Clara too, but I've totally given up on even expecting a coherent plot some time ago, lol

as for the TARDIS not translating, I agree with you, this isn't the first time, and I doubt it will be the last, and no I don't think it's even remotely significant, I think they just do that now and then to show us another language in it's normal form

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the plot of this one was extra-bad to me, though, because I never even grasped there being any danger. Like, they told me there was danger, but I didn't feel it at all.

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

I have been wondering randomly if Clara may be a descendant of Jack's. The TARDIS likes neither of them, and there's a reason it didn't like Jack, but maybe his fixed pointedness could be diluted over several generations?

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that could be interesting...