nuWho

[avevale_intelligencer]

And just when I thought they couldn't possibly be so crass as to do yet another Big Schmaltzy Pathos-Filled Character Death Scene (having manufactured the pathos in the course of about ten minutes of running down corridors) and then go "nyeh nyeh we take it back"...if I wasn't already so inured that even the death of Pek the Hath raised no more than a yawn (she's with the gurning lightweight who calls himself the Doctor, of course people are going to die because of her, and anyway I thought we weren't supposed to be able to care about aliens from the planet Zog) if, I say, I wasn't already deadened to fake tragedy, I might have felt cheated, but no, I'm past that now, through outrage and laughter and anger and into the pleasant downlands of total apathy.

As I expected, the word "daughter" was completely misapplied for shock value. Cheap and nasty trick. But he's no longer the last of the Time Lords, if indeed he ever was: I see no reason to believe anything they've told us.

Donna has now mellowed to within tolerances, which of course means ("I worked as a temp in a library once") that she has to keep ("I've temped in offices like this") reminding us that she isn't Rose or Martha ("I used to be a temp, you know") just as Martha had to remind us that she was a doctor too (or nearly) every single episode of her first season, and still seems to think we need our memory jogging. Of course, in order to keep the Doctor properly subordinate to New Mellow Donna (because gods forbid he should start acting like the lead character of the series) they've had to make him even more lightweight, which means it jars like hell when he gets passionate at the end: you expect her to thump him in the gut and tell him to stop throwing his weight around and go and do his homework.

Confidential brought us RTD saying that he doesn't think there's any such thing as a pacifist in a real universe. What a limited imagination the man has. And having thus invalidated any claim that he understands the nature of the character he's making telly about, he commissioned this story, in which stopping people fighting becomes, by the magic of sophistry, fighting. Sontar-HA yourself. But then, the Doctor as we knew him would never have been a soldier in a Time War, much less a foot soldier. He'd never have taken to the discipline, he'd never have taken orders, it just wouldn't work.

"Make the foundation of your society a man who never would." Been tried. Didn't work. The point is to be someone who never would yourself, and let the foundation of society sort itself out.

And so we move on.

I really ought to make a nuWho icon, but somehow I just can't be bothered...

EDIT: and lo, now I have.

FURTHER EDIT: a much more positive view of this episode, and indeed of the new series in general, may be found in this post by my friend Mr Bristow. I wish I could enjoy it as much as he does.

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[inamac.livejournal.com]

Word, as they say on the internets. I can't even be bothred to get angry any more.