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some_stars) wrote2011-06-04 06:46 pm
some_stars) wrote2011-06-04 06:46 pm
Doctor Who 6x07
squee this week, I promise!
first the not-squee. But not at full length because, you know, whatever. After last week I dialed all my expectations way down, so I'm no longer in "SHOW I LOVE FOREVER AND WANT TO MARRY OMG" mode but just "show I watch that often has fun parts" mode. So, attempting to be brief:
0. I'd just like to note that I don't think anyone was vindicated by the baby being Amy and Rory's, and apparently wanted. People were upset at the pregnancy last week, not because it had the potential to go horribly misogynistically wrong the way it has on dozens and dozens of other sci-fi shows and movies--that's why I was apprehensive at the beginning of the season. Last week I was angry because it had already started to go wrong. Hooray, it was less horrible than usual! It was still pretty awful, especially combined with the preview for this week and then what she did/didn't do this week. I wasn't pissed off because of (not at all unfounded) fear, I was pissed off because of WHAT THEY JUST DID, and no longer able to maintain optimism about what was coming. People being really smug about all the ~hysteria~ and paranoia over the pregnancy apparently see nothing whatsoever that a reasonable person could be upset about in last week's story or this week's or the whole pregnancy arc. Which is the kind of opinion I like to know when people have, so keep it up I guess.
1. I am now FULLY creeped out by Moffat's fetish for very young girls meeting the Doctor and having the course of their lives forever changed and usually at some point kissing him. That's four now, as far as I can remember, and three of them are/were explicitly sexual. It's gross, I think I need to make a vid about it, it's GROSS. And not even in the "I actually think Moffat is a pedophile" way because of course I don't. It's what the childhood meeting-and-obsession does to the adult relationships, and how it's ALWAYS GIRLS, and the way they devote their lives or at least their emotional lives to him and become His.
2. I'm not hugely upset by River's amazing revelation, but I just...why does Moffat think that's what matters, that's the question we should be wondering? I mean, it's okay, there'll be some exciting stuff most likely, but all that buildup about the Doctor finding out, about why she was in prison and who she killed (although okay, that was pretty much guaranteed to be the Doctor somehow), I had hoped and actually expected it would be something about her, her actual self and personality and things she'd DONE. Also I disapprove of killing the OT4 but that's not a central reason. (Actually I'm so out of touch with spoilers and which ones are considered likely that I'd forgotten about the whole "she's Amy's kid!" thing and for almost all of that last scene, right up until Amy asked River what she'd told him and it clicked--up to that point I was racking my brain for a way that the scene might NOT imply she was the Doctor's mother or daughter or even sister, since obviously it didn't because there were SEX JOKES, but I just couldn't think what else they could possibly mean. I was seriously wondering if we were about to learn that Gallifreyans don't have an incest taboo. My brain sometimes fails me when TV is on.)
2a. Also I had sort of hoped she'd just be a person, you know? A really amazing brilliant person. With her own life outside of the Doctor--the line about how he comes every time she calls him actually threw me out somewhat, because since SitL/FotD we've only seen her in prison and/or coming when he calls. (Does she ever break out of prison to do something that's not him taking her on a date?) Obviously she's only going to show up when she's involved in his story, but it's like they've gone out of their way to remove all hints of anything in her life that's not about him.
3. Some gross gender stuff that was mostly gross because it was so superfluous and apparently thrown in just to keep all the non-queer characters appropriately heteronormative. Mollified somewhat by some stuff mentioned below in the squee list, but not entirely. Especially the Doctor asking Rory's permission to hug Amy and then Rory telling him to back off, what the fuck even was that?
3a. My reaction post last week, about the obvious and unpleasant reasons Moffat et al can't seem to deal with writing an actual relationship of any kind between Rory and the Doctor besides "uneasy, sometimes wavering resentment" (aside from that one wonderful, short scene in DotM which starts out being about jealousy but is so much more) is so sadly applicable this week too. There was really nothing interesting at all happening with them between the end of 6x06 and the scene where the Doctor walks in on Amy and Rory kissing? NOTHING? No important conversations, no intense fights, no learning to work together as they develop and carry out this plan, nothing at all? I mean, they're both guys and they're not in love so I guess there wouldn't be, straight men don't have emotions involving other men after all. How would they be straight then?
3b. Amy, as usual this season, doesn't get much to do or choose. I may be pronouncing too early, but it feels like the stories are just much less companion-centered, in terms of plot. Like coming up with roles for them to play in the story is an afterthought and a chore and not really essential and you certainly don't need to find roles for both.
END UNSQUEE. Yes, that was me being brief. Now squee!
1. More queer! Four, three human, one dead. You know how to make people stop complaining when plot-necessary bad things happen to your queer characters? HAVE MORE THAN ONE AT A TIME. Like so. Good work, Moffat.
1a. And two of them were VICTORIAN INTER-SPECIES LESBIAN CRIMEFIGHTERS. So that was amazing. If they never come back I will be SO sad, especially Jenny.
2. The whole gathering-allies thing was cheesy, but in a fun way, and the ones we got to spend time with were all pretty awesome. They all would have made good companions, and they CHALLENGED the Doctor and even mocked him a little bit.
3. Some actual payoff and thoughtfulness about how we began and (almost) ended last season with the Doctor trading on and building up his reputation for being fucking terrifying, and how that's actually kind of awful. It's like the end of season 3 all over again except WITHOUT the horrible letdown and screw-you from the writer. This was so great, because of my previously-discussed trust issues about this show building up to something for a whole season or more, something where it's clearly going to involve the Doctor realizing the terrible effects of what he's been doing, and then suddenly informing us that he wasn't doing anything wrong after all, none of this is his fault, actually it's the people who dared to question him who are wrong and deserved what they got, etc. So River tearing him a new one was BEAUTIFUL. Even if the etymology part of her speech was ridiculous, but Moffat's preferred metaphorical devices have always had a fairly loose relationship with plausibility and logic.
4. Relatedly, the whole "good man goes to war" thing, the "Rory must dress up asa real man a soldier with a weapon to save Amy" thing, the "men going to ~war~ to fight their way to their helpless wom[a/e]n" thing, all of that: it was for nothing, it was a brutal waste, and it was wrong. And the show CALLED it wrong. There was a healthy measure of eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too in there for sure, but basically it was a beautiful and satisfying surprise. Especially the Sontaran nurse and his dying exchange with Rory, that moment salves SO much of what made me ill about the rest of the episode up to then. (I...am really not sure if the bit about the Sontaran nurse having been modified to lactate is a pointed jab at all the glorifying of manhood as defined by violence and fighting, or an example of same. I sort of feel like this episode attacked and rejected the notion of violent masculinity as superior to peace/compassion/nurturing/nonviolent problem solving, but not really the notion of all those things as not-masculine. But positive on the whole, I think, because, masculinity aside, Rory holding a baby and crying and the Sontaran healing and caring for people were BETTER than they were as warriors, and being a warrior turned out to be bullshit and not at all glorious.)
4a. Actually I'm falling more and more in love with this episode for puncturing that grossly over-inflated balloon of OMG THE ONCOMING STORM. Sexy exciting wrath! Demons run when a good man goes to war, how thrilling to watch, isn't it delicious and attractive when the Doctor gets angry and warns people that he's not a good man! ...well, no, actually, it's horrible. It's frightening and people die, for no good reason, and being a force of dread and destruction isn't sexy and exciting at all. God, if Moffat can make himself follow through on this it will heal SO MANY WOUNDS from Rusty's tenure. I love how the Doctor making Rory put on the soldier uniform and weapons again turns out to be, implicitly, part of what he's doing wrong. "The Doctor's Army": not a glorious thing! Actually kind of a monstrous tragedy!
5. Upside of #2 above is that River apparently has SUPERPOWERS. Hopefully this will be exactly as fantastic as it should be.
5a. Another upside: the Doctor's totally inappropriate and weird and adorable amused delight at realizing he's made out with Amy's kid. WHAT. Doctor, you are so weird. And adorable.
5b. Another upside: at least Moffat seems to be planning to explore River's relationship to Amy, especially, and Rory. This reveal works perfectly with TToA/FaS. I mean, it works by defusing the femslashiness of their sudden, unexplained, intense and physical connection, but ultimately that's not my main priority. (Really, it isn't. Really! As long as my own OT3 remains non-incestuous, I'm up for whatever, plus there are always AUs, plus let's be honest, this is fandom and Amy didn't even raise her. The fic will keep coming. I'll probably read it. ...actually, this might lead to MORE Amy/River fic. A fourth upside!)
6. Unpleasantness aside: PONDS. AND THEIR LOVE. Rory being fierce and then crying and their crying kissing and the way he kissed the baby's head goodbye twice! Amy's speech about Rory's amazingness and Karen's amazing brittle hurt acting in the scene where the woman comes to give her the prayer leaf, god, Amy's FACE there was just brilliant, and actually all her acting this whole episode was wonderful.
7. The Doctor and the Silurian awkwardly discussing companion sex: SO MUCH GOLD. Just the best thing ever, omg.
I am excited for fic! And the next episode, though with a guarded heart. BRING ON THE HIATUS PORN.
first the not-squee. But not at full length because, you know, whatever. After last week I dialed all my expectations way down, so I'm no longer in "SHOW I LOVE FOREVER AND WANT TO MARRY OMG" mode but just "show I watch that often has fun parts" mode. So, attempting to be brief:
0. I'd just like to note that I don't think anyone was vindicated by the baby being Amy and Rory's, and apparently wanted. People were upset at the pregnancy last week, not because it had the potential to go horribly misogynistically wrong the way it has on dozens and dozens of other sci-fi shows and movies--that's why I was apprehensive at the beginning of the season. Last week I was angry because it had already started to go wrong. Hooray, it was less horrible than usual! It was still pretty awful, especially combined with the preview for this week and then what she did/didn't do this week. I wasn't pissed off because of (not at all unfounded) fear, I was pissed off because of WHAT THEY JUST DID, and no longer able to maintain optimism about what was coming. People being really smug about all the ~hysteria~ and paranoia over the pregnancy apparently see nothing whatsoever that a reasonable person could be upset about in last week's story or this week's or the whole pregnancy arc. Which is the kind of opinion I like to know when people have, so keep it up I guess.
1. I am now FULLY creeped out by Moffat's fetish for very young girls meeting the Doctor and having the course of their lives forever changed and usually at some point kissing him. That's four now, as far as I can remember, and three of them are/were explicitly sexual. It's gross, I think I need to make a vid about it, it's GROSS. And not even in the "I actually think Moffat is a pedophile" way because of course I don't. It's what the childhood meeting-and-obsession does to the adult relationships, and how it's ALWAYS GIRLS, and the way they devote their lives or at least their emotional lives to him and become His.
2. I'm not hugely upset by River's amazing revelation, but I just...why does Moffat think that's what matters, that's the question we should be wondering? I mean, it's okay, there'll be some exciting stuff most likely, but all that buildup about the Doctor finding out, about why she was in prison and who she killed (although okay, that was pretty much guaranteed to be the Doctor somehow), I had hoped and actually expected it would be something about her, her actual self and personality and things she'd DONE. Also I disapprove of killing the OT4 but that's not a central reason. (Actually I'm so out of touch with spoilers and which ones are considered likely that I'd forgotten about the whole "she's Amy's kid!" thing and for almost all of that last scene, right up until Amy asked River what she'd told him and it clicked--up to that point I was racking my brain for a way that the scene might NOT imply she was the Doctor's mother or daughter or even sister, since obviously it didn't because there were SEX JOKES, but I just couldn't think what else they could possibly mean. I was seriously wondering if we were about to learn that Gallifreyans don't have an incest taboo. My brain sometimes fails me when TV is on.)
2a. Also I had sort of hoped she'd just be a person, you know? A really amazing brilliant person. With her own life outside of the Doctor--the line about how he comes every time she calls him actually threw me out somewhat, because since SitL/FotD we've only seen her in prison and/or coming when he calls. (Does she ever break out of prison to do something that's not him taking her on a date?) Obviously she's only going to show up when she's involved in his story, but it's like they've gone out of their way to remove all hints of anything in her life that's not about him.
3. Some gross gender stuff that was mostly gross because it was so superfluous and apparently thrown in just to keep all the non-queer characters appropriately heteronormative. Mollified somewhat by some stuff mentioned below in the squee list, but not entirely. Especially the Doctor asking Rory's permission to hug Amy and then Rory telling him to back off, what the fuck even was that?
3a. My reaction post last week, about the obvious and unpleasant reasons Moffat et al can't seem to deal with writing an actual relationship of any kind between Rory and the Doctor besides "uneasy, sometimes wavering resentment" (aside from that one wonderful, short scene in DotM which starts out being about jealousy but is so much more) is so sadly applicable this week too. There was really nothing interesting at all happening with them between the end of 6x06 and the scene where the Doctor walks in on Amy and Rory kissing? NOTHING? No important conversations, no intense fights, no learning to work together as they develop and carry out this plan, nothing at all? I mean, they're both guys and they're not in love so I guess there wouldn't be, straight men don't have emotions involving other men after all. How would they be straight then?
3b. Amy, as usual this season, doesn't get much to do or choose. I may be pronouncing too early, but it feels like the stories are just much less companion-centered, in terms of plot. Like coming up with roles for them to play in the story is an afterthought and a chore and not really essential and you certainly don't need to find roles for both.
END UNSQUEE. Yes, that was me being brief. Now squee!
1. More queer! Four, three human, one dead. You know how to make people stop complaining when plot-necessary bad things happen to your queer characters? HAVE MORE THAN ONE AT A TIME. Like so. Good work, Moffat.
1a. And two of them were VICTORIAN INTER-SPECIES LESBIAN CRIMEFIGHTERS. So that was amazing. If they never come back I will be SO sad, especially Jenny.
2. The whole gathering-allies thing was cheesy, but in a fun way, and the ones we got to spend time with were all pretty awesome. They all would have made good companions, and they CHALLENGED the Doctor and even mocked him a little bit.
3. Some actual payoff and thoughtfulness about how we began and (almost) ended last season with the Doctor trading on and building up his reputation for being fucking terrifying, and how that's actually kind of awful. It's like the end of season 3 all over again except WITHOUT the horrible letdown and screw-you from the writer. This was so great, because of my previously-discussed trust issues about this show building up to something for a whole season or more, something where it's clearly going to involve the Doctor realizing the terrible effects of what he's been doing, and then suddenly informing us that he wasn't doing anything wrong after all, none of this is his fault, actually it's the people who dared to question him who are wrong and deserved what they got, etc. So River tearing him a new one was BEAUTIFUL. Even if the etymology part of her speech was ridiculous, but Moffat's preferred metaphorical devices have always had a fairly loose relationship with plausibility and logic.
4. Relatedly, the whole "good man goes to war" thing, the "Rory must dress up as
4a. Actually I'm falling more and more in love with this episode for puncturing that grossly over-inflated balloon of OMG THE ONCOMING STORM. Sexy exciting wrath! Demons run when a good man goes to war, how thrilling to watch, isn't it delicious and attractive when the Doctor gets angry and warns people that he's not a good man! ...well, no, actually, it's horrible. It's frightening and people die, for no good reason, and being a force of dread and destruction isn't sexy and exciting at all. God, if Moffat can make himself follow through on this it will heal SO MANY WOUNDS from Rusty's tenure. I love how the Doctor making Rory put on the soldier uniform and weapons again turns out to be, implicitly, part of what he's doing wrong. "The Doctor's Army": not a glorious thing! Actually kind of a monstrous tragedy!
5. Upside of #2 above is that River apparently has SUPERPOWERS. Hopefully this will be exactly as fantastic as it should be.
5a. Another upside: the Doctor's totally inappropriate and weird and adorable amused delight at realizing he's made out with Amy's kid. WHAT. Doctor, you are so weird. And adorable.
5b. Another upside: at least Moffat seems to be planning to explore River's relationship to Amy, especially, and Rory. This reveal works perfectly with TToA/FaS. I mean, it works by defusing the femslashiness of their sudden, unexplained, intense and physical connection, but ultimately that's not my main priority. (Really, it isn't. Really! As long as my own OT3 remains non-incestuous, I'm up for whatever, plus there are always AUs, plus let's be honest, this is fandom and Amy didn't even raise her. The fic will keep coming. I'll probably read it. ...actually, this might lead to MORE Amy/River fic. A fourth upside!)
6. Unpleasantness aside: PONDS. AND THEIR LOVE. Rory being fierce and then crying and their crying kissing and the way he kissed the baby's head goodbye twice! Amy's speech about Rory's amazingness and Karen's amazing brittle hurt acting in the scene where the woman comes to give her the prayer leaf, god, Amy's FACE there was just brilliant, and actually all her acting this whole episode was wonderful.
7. The Doctor and the Silurian awkwardly discussing companion sex: SO MUCH GOLD. Just the best thing ever, omg.
I am excited for fic! And the next episode, though with a guarded heart. BRING ON THE HIATUS PORN.
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