moragmacpherson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moragmacpherson) wrote2010-09-04 04:56 pm
moragmacpherson) wrote2010-09-04 04:56 pm
Catching Up with the Doctor
Spent the last two days catching up on all of Doctor Who since the end of series four. My thoughts below:
So I'd been loathe to finish out the Tennant years because... well, I adore him. Still, I'm not terribly unhappy about the departure of Russell Davies - the last few specials felt like he was almost bitter at the character. Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't mind seeing more exploration of the Doctor's dark side, or potential dark side, but all of the whinging about feeling old and tired sounded more like they were coming from Davies than from the Doctor himself. That being said, I liked David's performances (the Doctor tasting things again!) and his last words were an echo of my own feelings. I still feel cheated that we didn't get a Tennant/Moffat season.
And then there was Matt Smith. And I like him, I do, girly hair and all. He's not quite as harsh a transition as Eccleston to Tennant - he has kept a number of Ten's vocal quirks - the cadence is damn near identical at times. I even like Eleven - he's very Ten-ish but the differences in the details are delightful. He looks back while running more often - I love how he keeps trying to shut people up and owns the fact that he thinks out-loud. He also carries the Doctor's age better - I believe the nine hundred years more for some reason, I'm not quite sure why - and though there are a number of things about the episode "The Lodger" that are still bugging me, I love that when he tries to act normal he just seems that much weirder.
I like Amy and Rory very much (though at times she still strikes me as a Rose-with-upgrades, but that might be helped once we learn more of her real backstory - why does she know how to pick locks so well? Why is she a practiced pickpocket? We still know almost nothing about her, not really) and I remain a fan of River - but this two year arc is killing me a little on the inside, and especially in the last two-parter there was almost too much wibbly-wobbly going on. I'm a bright person and very good at keeping track of storylines and canon even when they're going in a non-strictly-chronological order, but I'm still not entirely sure what the hell was going on. I like the fact that Moffat clearly isn't winging it nearly as much as Davies was in the last two seasons, but my problem with building up this kind of anticipation is that I can't think of a single time that it's ever paid off to my satisfaction. If anyone can do it, it's probably Moffat, but I'm... wary. Still, can't wait to know.
And then there's the issue of the unity of the canon - always a tricky thing in the Who-verse, but the season was damn near schizophrenic about it. The Doctor keeps bringing up the past and the revival of the old baddies continues, but while Eleven shares a lot of behaviors with Ten, other than River he seems to be divorced from most of Ten's issues and relationships - the Time War comes to mind, and the distinct lack of any Captain Jack - a Moffat-created character - irks me. I'm still hoping that the unidentified Time Lady from End of Time - and is there really any question that it was Romana? - gets picked back up. But who knows? I realize Ten made it a point of saying goodbye to all of his companions before regenerating, but just because Eleven is trying (and I think, in large part, succeeding) to revive his old joie de vive, but after 4.5 seasons of continuity, it's a little jarring to lose so much of the Davies-verse - and it's almost sinister, the way that Amy recreated the universe but earlier didn't remember the invasion of the Daleks from Journey's End - just how much has Moffat undone? (And I'm flashing back to an essay that Neil Gaiman once wrote about Doctor Who. In it he wrote, "It’s probably a good thing that I’ve never actually got my hands on the Doctor. I would have unhappened so much," and though I'm excited about the episode he's written for next season I'm suddenly terrified by the extent of the leash that the Amy-reboot might give him)
Oh, and I despised, despised the Van Gogh episode. It got way too many simple facts of Van Gogh's life wrong and other than introducing Van Gogh as an oracle, it contributed nothing to the arc or either character's development. It was nice to see Bill Nighy though.
But otherwise I'm happy. And nervous. And excited. And impatient. And I want more. And I'd really, really, really love to get a "Three Doctors" special sometime soon where Nine makes fun of Eleven's bow tie. Please make this happen.
So I'd been loathe to finish out the Tennant years because... well, I adore him. Still, I'm not terribly unhappy about the departure of Russell Davies - the last few specials felt like he was almost bitter at the character. Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't mind seeing more exploration of the Doctor's dark side, or potential dark side, but all of the whinging about feeling old and tired sounded more like they were coming from Davies than from the Doctor himself. That being said, I liked David's performances (the Doctor tasting things again!) and his last words were an echo of my own feelings. I still feel cheated that we didn't get a Tennant/Moffat season.
And then there was Matt Smith. And I like him, I do, girly hair and all. He's not quite as harsh a transition as Eccleston to Tennant - he has kept a number of Ten's vocal quirks - the cadence is damn near identical at times. I even like Eleven - he's very Ten-ish but the differences in the details are delightful. He looks back while running more often - I love how he keeps trying to shut people up and owns the fact that he thinks out-loud. He also carries the Doctor's age better - I believe the nine hundred years more for some reason, I'm not quite sure why - and though there are a number of things about the episode "The Lodger" that are still bugging me, I love that when he tries to act normal he just seems that much weirder.
I like Amy and Rory very much (though at times she still strikes me as a Rose-with-upgrades, but that might be helped once we learn more of her real backstory - why does she know how to pick locks so well? Why is she a practiced pickpocket? We still know almost nothing about her, not really) and I remain a fan of River - but this two year arc is killing me a little on the inside, and especially in the last two-parter there was almost too much wibbly-wobbly going on. I'm a bright person and very good at keeping track of storylines and canon even when they're going in a non-strictly-chronological order, but I'm still not entirely sure what the hell was going on. I like the fact that Moffat clearly isn't winging it nearly as much as Davies was in the last two seasons, but my problem with building up this kind of anticipation is that I can't think of a single time that it's ever paid off to my satisfaction. If anyone can do it, it's probably Moffat, but I'm... wary. Still, can't wait to know.
And then there's the issue of the unity of the canon - always a tricky thing in the Who-verse, but the season was damn near schizophrenic about it. The Doctor keeps bringing up the past and the revival of the old baddies continues, but while Eleven shares a lot of behaviors with Ten, other than River he seems to be divorced from most of Ten's issues and relationships - the Time War comes to mind, and the distinct lack of any Captain Jack - a Moffat-created character - irks me. I'm still hoping that the unidentified Time Lady from End of Time - and is there really any question that it was Romana? - gets picked back up. But who knows? I realize Ten made it a point of saying goodbye to all of his companions before regenerating, but just because Eleven is trying (and I think, in large part, succeeding) to revive his old joie de vive, but after 4.5 seasons of continuity, it's a little jarring to lose so much of the Davies-verse - and it's almost sinister, the way that Amy recreated the universe but earlier didn't remember the invasion of the Daleks from Journey's End - just how much has Moffat undone? (And I'm flashing back to an essay that Neil Gaiman once wrote about Doctor Who. In it he wrote, "It’s probably a good thing that I’ve never actually got my hands on the Doctor. I would have unhappened so much," and though I'm excited about the episode he's written for next season I'm suddenly terrified by the extent of the leash that the Amy-reboot might give him)
Oh, and I despised, despised the Van Gogh episode. It got way too many simple facts of Van Gogh's life wrong and other than introducing Van Gogh as an oracle, it contributed nothing to the arc or either character's development. It was nice to see Bill Nighy though.
But otherwise I'm happy. And nervous. And excited. And impatient. And I want more. And I'd really, really, really love to get a "Three Doctors" special sometime soon where Nine makes fun of Eleven's bow tie. Please make this happen.