"Kill the Moon" -- Thoughts

[earlgreytea68]

• I didn't write up anything for last week's episode because it turned out I hated it. I didn't think I hated it when I was watching it, I was just kind of like meh. But then I was talking to friends about it and I realized I hated the Doctor in it and I hated Clara in it and I haaaaaated Danny in it, so yeah, I just hated it and decided not to write up any thoughts.


• I liked this episode much, much, much better. Partly because I think it has a terribly clever plot idea, the moon being an egg, and I like the way they executed it for the most part. Partly because I was super-fond of all the secondary characters here (loved Lundvik, loved her mourning the rest of her crew, loved her calling the Doctor a prat). And partly because I only had to put up with Danny for a very little period of time. Because it turns out that I really hate Danny.


• I loved everything about Courtney. I want Courtney always hanging out on the TARDIS. We need a kid on the TARDIS. I loved her using the psychic paper as a fake ID, because OF COURSE SHE WOULD. And I loved that the Doctor thought she was using the fake ID to get into museums. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I loved all the Courtney/Doctor interaction, I thought they were hilarious together. And when Courtney gets shut in the TARDIS to stay safe and is like, "Do you have any games?" and the Doctor is like, "Don't be stupid," but you just know he has a ton of awesome video games that he's hiding in there, okay? AND A SWIMMING POOL. I wish Courtney had gone exploring, I'd love to have some time to hang out in the TARDIS.


• I still don't know what to think about this Doctor. I like that he is so, so, so exquisitely alien. "What is Courtney?" he asks Clara, totally bewildered. "Are you 35?" he asks Courtney, clearly thinking he's right. But the thing is...he's just mean a lot of the time. I keep waiting for him not to be mean, but he's pretty relentlessly mean. I went to a lecture this week on Doctor Who and religion (it was pretty unremarkable; we all have much deeper thoughts in our initial episode reactions) and they showed some clips from Ten and Eleven and they were both so...*lovely.* They did crazy, crazy, crazy things but there was always some inspirational speech about the universe. The only thing I can assume is that this Doctor is clinically depressed or something? I just don't get *why.* But he seems to have lost all delight, all sense of fun. He's mopey and snappish and just...not fun. I miss when he was fun.


• And I miss when he liked humans. You know how he gave that speech in the very first episode about how everything looks huge when you're down there on Earth? How did we go from that to him seeing nothing special about Courtney and not even being able to lie about it? I kind of get into how we got from *every other Doctor* to this. I mean, I assume that this is part of "this Doctor is different from the other Doctors, he's jaded and cynical." But it makes that speech in the first episode jarring. I feel like they just threw that in there so we'd stick around longer.


• I did like Courtney telling the Doctor that he'd kicked a hole in the side of her life, because we've seen that before, that the Doctor is like a bull in the china shop of everyone's life; he kind of barrels through without realizing all the damage he's causing. He's always been that way, so at least that made sense to me.


• Anyway, I assume that they know this Doctor's pretty unlikeable, because Clara's meltdown at the Doctor was just perfection. I've always been fond of Clara, and I felt like Jenna Coleman rocked that scene. I love that she let him have it, because he deserved it. He has, since his regeneration, done precious little to earn her continued trust. I think he doesn't see it that way, but I got why she would definitely be at the end of her rope with him. It was lovely, her accusations about how poorly he treated her when he was supposed to be her friend. And I thought the Doctor did look surprised by all of this, like he didn't realize she had any reason to be upset, and I guess I'm glad that he's not actually trying to be...vindicitive and vicious and mean. And I assume that they're going to build the Doctor back up, get him back to the Doctor we know? I assume? Because it seems odd to me to think that the Doctor is suddenly the villain in this show? Like, he can't possibly be. Right?


• So I liked a lot of the plot of this episode. I liked the central idea, I liked the creepiness of the things being germs. I liked the idea that we stopped caring about space until there was this turning point. I liked introducing again the idea that there are things the Doctor doesn't know, places where he can't interfere. When he brought up the Hitler point, I was nodding along with him. I actually even liked the Doctor saying he needed to leave the choice up to humanity. And then...Then he didn't leave it up to humanity? He just...freaked everyone out and then swooped in later? What the hell, Doctor? No wonder Clara was furious.


• And the worst thing was that Clara wanted to leave and the Doctor wouldn't let her, but that made no sense, because why should Clara, from an earlier time when humanity wasn't struggling for life, get to interfere with the choices of this current beleaguered humanity trying to make a last-ditch effort at survival? Involving Clara in the first place was in itself interference with the whole decision. Which I get the Doctor allowed because he wanted Clara's viewpoint to save the moon, but why didn't the Doctor just stay and do that himself? Or, if he wanted Clara to represent that viewpoint as another part of humanity, was it necessary to freak her out and cut it *that* close? Maybe the issue the Doctor has unwavering faith in Clara, but he does a terrible job of communicating that?


• The other thing I didn't get was: one innocent life vs. all of humanity. I don't know, maybe I'm a terrible person, but that doesn't even seem like a choice they should ever have been debating. Like, Clara asks the planet, "Hey, guys, we can let this one thing live and kill all of ourselves or we can kill that one thing and we all get to live, what do you think?" I know that it was more complex than that: they weren't sure they'd all die if they didn't kill the thing, etc. But yeah, I don't get why Clara was so surprised by Earth's choice.


• And I also don't entirely get why Clara and Courtney were so immediately attached to the moon baby. Like, way more attached to the moon baby than they were to the clearly struggling humanity down on Earth. To their own children and grandchildren down there. Courtney's a kid, she'd still be in the prime of her life in 2049, at least Clara should have been able to grasp that. I was on Lundvik's side the whole time, I thought her arguments were pretty solid. And I was confused that the episode seemed to think I should be on Clara's side of that decision? Again, I guess I'm just a horrible person.


• The beginning of the explorations in the moon colony were so dark I had no idea what was going on and that was actually super-effective in freaking me out.


• I loved the Tumblr shout-out. I laughed so hard. Especially when the Doctor was like, "You can't put pictures of me online!" Ha!


• So do you know who I do not like? I do not like Danny. Like, I actually can't stand him. This is odd, because I really, really liked him in his first episode. But my distaste for him has been growing. I did *not* like him during his date with Clara, I thought he was a judgey jerk, and he's just seemed like a judgey jerk every other subsequent time I see him. I'm trying to be charmed by him, I'm trying to see why Clara loves him, but he seems to just stand around being judgey about Clara and the Doctor all the time. And the Doctor is also a jerk in this incarnation so it's not that I don't see Danny's point, but it's also kind of like, well, Clara's known the Doctor for a while, and Danny met him once, and Danny's kind of like, "Yeah, I know everything about him, way more than you know, because I am so ~~wise~~, because did I mention I was a solider, and I know everything, and you know nothing, and it doesn't matter that you're dealing with a thousand-year-old alien who travels through time and space, it is all exactly like my time in the army and I know everything about it and can judge everything about you." Ugh. He makes me insane. I wish he didn't, because I think he's hot, and I know I'm supposed to be all squeeful over him and Clara, but I'm just like, "DANNY. GO AWAY." And maybe some of that is because I think Clara's chemistry with Twelve is off-the-charts and I love to watch them in a scene together but I don't feel any chemistry between Clara and Danny, they just fall flat for me. To go from Clara railing at the Doctor on the TARDIS to Clara's scene with Danny really drove that home for me.


• But I also think maybe some of my feeling toward Danny is because...I'm Clara, right? Like, I'm miffed at the Doctor but I've been watching this show a long time and I'm giving the Doctor some rope because we have a history together and basically *I am Clara* and I totally resent Danny swanning in to be like, "Hey, lady, why are you watching this show? He's not worth your time. I know all about it and you're just a silly girl who's confused and needs my superior guidance." ...I really don't like Danny, can you tell? He rubs me the wrong way. I must have a projection on him or something.

Comments

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

What a relief it is to read I am not alone in my thoughts on the current doctor and Capaldi. So many people were rhapsodizing about him and I kept thinking, "I don't get it!"

I thought the same think about Danny Pink. Here is Clara, a vivacious, brilliantly-off beautiful woman who radiates life and she picks Danny?

Which actually led me to wonder why she has anything to do with either of them.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I really, really wanted to like Capaldi's Doctor, I was really looking forward to him, and I just haven't gotten there yet.

I like what you say about Clara. She's so awesome, she should just go off and be awesome. :-)