The Name's Morbius, James Morbius...
Dec. 26th, 2009 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jjporRight, so its midnight on Xmas day, and I'm sitting up writing reaction posts about Doctor Who - isn't life marvellous? ;D
Okay, so you may have heard of this thing called The End of Time? Yeah, it was on before, it has some fella called Tennant in it. Yeah, I think he might be leaving the series or something. Nah, nothing exciting... What was it like, you say? Well...
Perhaps a bit over the top as spoiler warnings go, but well, quite a lot of people have been waiting for this one for a while now, so I thought it was appropriate. Well, okay, so that's a bit of a spoilery title on the post, but it amused me, and that's the main thing. Can't claim to offer any constructive criticism or anything, just some random thoughts as they occur to me:
Rusty, Rusty, Rusty...whatever are we going to do with you? I can't honestly say I loved this one to bits or was utterly repelled by it. Like the proverbial curate's egg, it had good bits and not so good bits. I did find myself carried along by the train of events though (couldn't really go as far as to call it a plot) and the cliffhanger was one of those big, 2x4-upside-the-head RTD mid-season-finale cliffhangers that almost compels you to see how things are going to turn out next week (even though you strongly suspect it will all fall apart in the end).
First thought; it's nice to see attempts at political engagement in popular television, and it's...soothing when those attempts vaguely agree with my own naive, entitled lefty-educated-white-guy well-meaningness. Having said all of that, I cringe whenever Rusty attempts to inject what he perhaps imagines to be blistering political commentary into NuWho. The massive weapons of destruction thing was good for a giggle, but stupid stuff involving US Presidents and British Prime Ministers just undermines my WSOD, I'm afraid. So, Obama's just going to solve the world economic crisis on Xmas day, right? O-kaaayyyy...and I've got a trillion-dollar stimulus package for sale over here, guv'nor... Just don't, Rusty - people don't thank you for it, and in 10-20 years time mentioning Barack Obama and the world recession is just going to date this story as badly as Jo Grant's miniskirts (or Yatesy's very non-soldierly hairdo) undermine any UNIT dating hypothesis that doesn't place the stories in the early-Seventies. Except in the UNIT stories, they always kept the political stuff suitably vague and handwavy. Yes.
And, it's a point raised by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizbee in her reaction post, but bears repeating - what's with the stuff about Donna and her fiance's low income and the idea that Ten could somehow magically rescue her from all of this? I mean...the implication is that if she got her memories back she could just ditch the loser and his poxy minimum wage job and take off around the galaxy again?? You know, literally come to her senses, kind of thing?? Er... Okay... Of course, if she really did do that, she wouldn't deserve the fella anyway. And to be honest, Donna has a fairly comfortable suburban sort of existence compared to a lot of people in the bottom wage bracket in the UK. I mean, I don't normally give houseroom to people who go around trying to suggest that Who is elitist/whatever (because it really, really isn't). but in this particular instance...
Okay, you could make the argument that it's natural for someone like Wilf to want better for his beloved granddaughter, but if it really is just the character's assumption, there's nothing to suggest it isn't shared by the script.
Anyway, I said random thoughts and that I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, and then I go spewing this spleen all over the place...
Things I liked... Simm!Master was great. About as subtle as RTD-penned political satire, mind you, and as hammy as all get-out, but sometimes you want that kind of thing in a villain, and I like they way he drops in the little moments of quiet menace, and indeed loud menace, almost at random in among all of the craziness. I loved his little grin as he told the guy Naismith "my name...is the Master..." which was the point at which anyone who wasn't an insanely arrogant billionaire would be going ohshitohshitohshitohshithe'sgoingtokillme and fleeing, in vain, for their lives. As it happens, he didn''t kill him - he did worse than that...
Which leads neatly into the observation that while RTD isn't exactly the most incisive political satirist of his generation, he does a bloody good cliffhanger. The only thing that put me off slightly about the sight of six billion Masters waving at each other and generally just enjoying being evil scum was that it reminded me disturbingly of the awful Matrix Revolutions. Then again,. Agent Smith(s) was the only halfway good thing about the Matrix sequels, so I'll let them off with that.
Which in turn leads neatly into - THE F--ING TIME LORDS!! LED BY JAMES F--ING BOND his own self??!! And the really amazing thing is that I knew this was going to happen for at least a couple of months, or that it was strongly rumoured, but I still went AAAAHHHH - GREATEST CLIFFHANGER EVER! (Even though it really, really isn't the greatest cliffhanger ever - I am a fickle sort of person). Loved the oldschool Gallifreyan ceremonial headgear and all of that stuff, and nice to see the Time Lords set up as apparent baddies, because I've always thought they kind of were, on the quiet. Oh and Lord President Commander Bond spits when he speechifies much like Nine spits when he's telling Daleks to just die... ;D
Which means...that a) all of that lovely fic I wrote about President Romana in the Time War is instantly invalidated - merry f--ing Xmas to you too Rusty! - but b) that RTD et al can now no longer blame her for the whole Time War thing (although it's clear to anyone that Four and the Daleks and them alone were really to blame) - any blame now attaches to Bond, who incidentally comes across here and in the next week trailer like a right megalomaniacal barsteward! This makes me warm and fuzzy and ready to write fic about how Romana is still out there in E-Space being awesome with K9 instead...
And it also proves the Bond-as-Time Lord theory to my satisfaction, thus beating out the Bond-as-name-MI6's-top-hitter-just-happens-to-use theory that I was previously entertaining. ;D
Last thoughts:
Who is that mysterious woman-in-white? I reckon she's Romana, who was busy winning the Time War that was not of her making when Bond and cronies ousted her in some Capitol coup and proceeded to f-things up. And now she's some sort of strange time ghost or summat. Or summat. I've invented this theory solely because I don't want her to be the Doctor's mum as fan-theory has it.
What's the deal with WIlf? You know, with all of the foreshadowing and the stuff Ten was saying in the cafe, I was half-expecting him to pull a fobwatch out of that old suitcase instead of Captain Jack's revolver. I mean, I really was... And if the woman does turn out to be the Doctor's mum, could Wilf be...nah...
What's the deal with Naismith and his daughter, for that matter? Eww...
Is Donna's head going to explode? If it does, RTD only _thought_ he cheesed off some fans with Children of Earth... ;D
And as a parting shot, I hate it when RTD proves me right, but... My main concern with the ending of Waters of Mars was that he was going to take a step back from the IMHO quite startling and refreshing godlike hubris demonstrated by Ten there and instead use it merely as an excuse for more patented Ten-angst in the next story. As I say, I hate to be proved right about stuff like that. At least it gave Tennant an opportunity to do a bit of very nice character-acting with the whole Ten-trying-not-to-cry thing in the cafe. I liked the acting there even if I didn't like the storytelling choice. Then again, I could say that about a lot of the Ten era - at least Tennant can go on to pastures new with his head held high even if the scripts have sometimes dealt him a bit of a bum hand.
Not it those pastures new are stuff like St Trinian's 2, mind you... ;D
Ah well - let's see what happens in Pt 2, eh?
Okay, so you may have heard of this thing called The End of Time? Yeah, it was on before, it has some fella called Tennant in it. Yeah, I think he might be leaving the series or something. Nah, nothing exciting... What was it like, you say? Well...
Perhaps a bit over the top as spoiler warnings go, but well, quite a lot of people have been waiting for this one for a while now, so I thought it was appropriate. Well, okay, so that's a bit of a spoilery title on the post, but it amused me, and that's the main thing. Can't claim to offer any constructive criticism or anything, just some random thoughts as they occur to me:
Rusty, Rusty, Rusty...whatever are we going to do with you? I can't honestly say I loved this one to bits or was utterly repelled by it. Like the proverbial curate's egg, it had good bits and not so good bits. I did find myself carried along by the train of events though (couldn't really go as far as to call it a plot) and the cliffhanger was one of those big, 2x4-upside-the-head RTD mid-season-finale cliffhangers that almost compels you to see how things are going to turn out next week (even though you strongly suspect it will all fall apart in the end).
First thought; it's nice to see attempts at political engagement in popular television, and it's...soothing when those attempts vaguely agree with my own naive, entitled lefty-educated-white-guy well-meaningness. Having said all of that, I cringe whenever Rusty attempts to inject what he perhaps imagines to be blistering political commentary into NuWho. The massive weapons of destruction thing was good for a giggle, but stupid stuff involving US Presidents and British Prime Ministers just undermines my WSOD, I'm afraid. So, Obama's just going to solve the world economic crisis on Xmas day, right? O-kaaayyyy...and I've got a trillion-dollar stimulus package for sale over here, guv'nor... Just don't, Rusty - people don't thank you for it, and in 10-20 years time mentioning Barack Obama and the world recession is just going to date this story as badly as Jo Grant's miniskirts (or Yatesy's very non-soldierly hairdo) undermine any UNIT dating hypothesis that doesn't place the stories in the early-Seventies. Except in the UNIT stories, they always kept the political stuff suitably vague and handwavy. Yes.
And, it's a point raised by
lizbee in her reaction post, but bears repeating - what's with the stuff about Donna and her fiance's low income and the idea that Ten could somehow magically rescue her from all of this? I mean...the implication is that if she got her memories back she could just ditch the loser and his poxy minimum wage job and take off around the galaxy again?? You know, literally come to her senses, kind of thing?? Er... Okay... Of course, if she really did do that, she wouldn't deserve the fella anyway. And to be honest, Donna has a fairly comfortable suburban sort of existence compared to a lot of people in the bottom wage bracket in the UK. I mean, I don't normally give houseroom to people who go around trying to suggest that Who is elitist/whatever (because it really, really isn't). but in this particular instance...Okay, you could make the argument that it's natural for someone like Wilf to want better for his beloved granddaughter, but if it really is just the character's assumption, there's nothing to suggest it isn't shared by the script.
Anyway, I said random thoughts and that I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, and then I go spewing this spleen all over the place...
Things I liked... Simm!Master was great. About as subtle as RTD-penned political satire, mind you, and as hammy as all get-out, but sometimes you want that kind of thing in a villain, and I like they way he drops in the little moments of quiet menace, and indeed loud menace, almost at random in among all of the craziness. I loved his little grin as he told the guy Naismith "my name...is the Master..." which was the point at which anyone who wasn't an insanely arrogant billionaire would be going ohshitohshitohshitohshithe'sgoingtokillme and fleeing, in vain, for their lives. As it happens, he didn''t kill him - he did worse than that...
Which leads neatly into the observation that while RTD isn't exactly the most incisive political satirist of his generation, he does a bloody good cliffhanger. The only thing that put me off slightly about the sight of six billion Masters waving at each other and generally just enjoying being evil scum was that it reminded me disturbingly of the awful Matrix Revolutions. Then again,. Agent Smith(s) was the only halfway good thing about the Matrix sequels, so I'll let them off with that.
Which in turn leads neatly into - THE F--ING TIME LORDS!! LED BY JAMES F--ING BOND his own self??!! And the really amazing thing is that I knew this was going to happen for at least a couple of months, or that it was strongly rumoured, but I still went AAAAHHHH - GREATEST CLIFFHANGER EVER! (Even though it really, really isn't the greatest cliffhanger ever - I am a fickle sort of person). Loved the oldschool Gallifreyan ceremonial headgear and all of that stuff, and nice to see the Time Lords set up as apparent baddies, because I've always thought they kind of were, on the quiet. Oh and Lord President Commander Bond spits when he speechifies much like Nine spits when he's telling Daleks to just die... ;D
Which means...that a) all of that lovely fic I wrote about President Romana in the Time War is instantly invalidated - merry f--ing Xmas to you too Rusty! - but b) that RTD et al can now no longer blame her for the whole Time War thing (although it's clear to anyone that Four and the Daleks and them alone were really to blame) - any blame now attaches to Bond, who incidentally comes across here and in the next week trailer like a right megalomaniacal barsteward! This makes me warm and fuzzy and ready to write fic about how Romana is still out there in E-Space being awesome with K9 instead...
And it also proves the Bond-as-Time Lord theory to my satisfaction, thus beating out the Bond-as-name-MI6's-top-hitter-just-happens-to-use theory that I was previously entertaining. ;D
Last thoughts:
Who is that mysterious woman-in-white? I reckon she's Romana, who was busy winning the Time War that was not of her making when Bond and cronies ousted her in some Capitol coup and proceeded to f-things up. And now she's some sort of strange time ghost or summat. Or summat. I've invented this theory solely because I don't want her to be the Doctor's mum as fan-theory has it.
What's the deal with WIlf? You know, with all of the foreshadowing and the stuff Ten was saying in the cafe, I was half-expecting him to pull a fobwatch out of that old suitcase instead of Captain Jack's revolver. I mean, I really was... And if the woman does turn out to be the Doctor's mum, could Wilf be...nah...
What's the deal with Naismith and his daughter, for that matter? Eww...
Is Donna's head going to explode? If it does, RTD only _thought_ he cheesed off some fans with Children of Earth... ;D
And as a parting shot, I hate it when RTD proves me right, but... My main concern with the ending of Waters of Mars was that he was going to take a step back from the IMHO quite startling and refreshing godlike hubris demonstrated by Ten there and instead use it merely as an excuse for more patented Ten-angst in the next story. As I say, I hate to be proved right about stuff like that. At least it gave Tennant an opportunity to do a bit of very nice character-acting with the whole Ten-trying-not-to-cry thing in the cafe. I liked the acting there even if I didn't like the storytelling choice. Then again, I could say that about a lot of the Ten era - at least Tennant can go on to pastures new with his head held high even if the scripts have sometimes dealt him a bit of a bum hand.
Not it those pastures new are stuff like St Trinian's 2, mind you... ;D
Ah well - let's see what happens in Pt 2, eh?
