A more considered response (SPOILERS)
Nov. 24th, 2013 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerI still think it's rather good.
There are, of course, still bits of nuWhoiness about it that bug me. The whole marrying Queen Elizabeth thing, for one, as yet another instance of The Doctor The Unstoppable Sex Machine snogging, marrying and by implication fornicating his way across the space-time continuum. I never got on with Tennant or Smith (or Eccleston, for that matter) as Doctors, though as actors I think they're good.
But on the whole, I see a promise there.
John Hurt's Doctor is a big part of what makes it work for me, deftly undercutting so much of the nonsense that put me off nuWho ("Am I having a mid-life crisis?" he demands, seeing his two younger/older selves, and I think he might be right). He embodies so much of what made the Doctor lovable for me--the age, the gravitas, the authority and the essential kindness--and he gives me hope that the next incarnation might capture some of that as well. The writing of his part shows that Moffat hasn't after all been deaf to those who have sought in vain in these new incarnations for some hint of the character they knew and loved, the Doctor who didn't have to be young and sexy and manic to catch the hearts of children, teenagers and adults everywhere, and who doesn't have to be any more, please gods.
But the best part of all is that this story undoes the ineffable stupidity of the Time War and what the Doctor was supposed to have done. It was never a solution, as witness the fact that the Daleks were back within three weeks of the new series beginning and as big a threat as they had ever been by series end. This story closes off, finally, the flawed and broken story that RTD bequeathed us, and good riddance. The previous Doctors may not remember that their plan worked, that Gallifrey stands, but the one going forward does, the wound is at last healed. The excesses and imbalances of the past eight years might--I say might--be consigned at last to history, a brief interruption.
All will depend on what happens next; the Christmas special, the next series. It could still lapse into more of the same. But for the first time in a long time, I feel that it doesn't have to.
There are, of course, still bits of nuWhoiness about it that bug me. The whole marrying Queen Elizabeth thing, for one, as yet another instance of The Doctor The Unstoppable Sex Machine snogging, marrying and by implication fornicating his way across the space-time continuum. I never got on with Tennant or Smith (or Eccleston, for that matter) as Doctors, though as actors I think they're good.
But on the whole, I see a promise there.
John Hurt's Doctor is a big part of what makes it work for me, deftly undercutting so much of the nonsense that put me off nuWho ("Am I having a mid-life crisis?" he demands, seeing his two younger/older selves, and I think he might be right). He embodies so much of what made the Doctor lovable for me--the age, the gravitas, the authority and the essential kindness--and he gives me hope that the next incarnation might capture some of that as well. The writing of his part shows that Moffat hasn't after all been deaf to those who have sought in vain in these new incarnations for some hint of the character they knew and loved, the Doctor who didn't have to be young and sexy and manic to catch the hearts of children, teenagers and adults everywhere, and who doesn't have to be any more, please gods.
But the best part of all is that this story undoes the ineffable stupidity of the Time War and what the Doctor was supposed to have done. It was never a solution, as witness the fact that the Daleks were back within three weeks of the new series beginning and as big a threat as they had ever been by series end. This story closes off, finally, the flawed and broken story that RTD bequeathed us, and good riddance. The previous Doctors may not remember that their plan worked, that Gallifrey stands, but the one going forward does, the wound is at last healed. The excesses and imbalances of the past eight years might--I say might--be consigned at last to history, a brief interruption.
All will depend on what happens next; the Christmas special, the next series. It could still lapse into more of the same. But for the first time in a long time, I feel that it doesn't have to.
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no subject
Date: 2013-11-24 03:43 am (UTC)There was quite a lot to like, from the Brig's daughter to the homages to the original Doctors. Not perfect, but what is?
One note: the thing about marrying Queen Elizabeth was actually a reference to a bit in ohheckIforgetwhichep in which Tennant mentioned it in passing. So while it was not strictly necessary, at least it was already canon. Such as it is.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-24 10:03 am (UTC)I'm less happy with the cop out about the Doctor not having done what we thought he did, as I liked the whole death by darkness bit. But I think it was, as you say, a good way to start off again from a better place. Doing something dark, that you felt pushed into, isn't the same as genocide, after all.
On that... the other bit for me that gives hope, is that by not blowing up the children of Gallifrey, we redeem the obscenity that was the end of The Children of Earth. _That's_ the unforgivable Russel T moment in the Who universe. (Given that the destruction of one actual child, has more impact that the anonymous destruction of a billion anonymous ones.)
But the concept that the Doctor (or anyone 'heroic' in the Who worlds') _cannot_ kill a child in order to make it all work out properly, is the real Who 'mark'. Not the Russel T ego madness.
All the wanking around Elizabeth was annoying. But that flash of Capaldi made it worth while... the promise that we might get 'him' back, was worth it.
I do think the story required the Eccleston Doctor, as his rage and bitterness over what Hurt did, would have been a powerful element in the decision. But I do wonder if they'd have managed to make it work, if he'd been there properly, so perhaps best. I can't see the actor just doing what he was told, even if it contradicted how he'd played the character.
Tennent did well, stayed away from the ham and cheese.
The Fivish Doctors was a masterpiece!
no subject
Date: 2013-11-26 05:51 pm (UTC)"Is there a lot of that in the future?"
"It does start to....happen....a bit."
"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers? What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?"
"Oh, for god's sake!"
What I like about the resolution of the Time War, at long last, was that it allows the writers to set aside what has been a defineing driver of the character since the relaunch. At this point, they couldn't just set it aside. 'Oh, well, I guess it's time to get over that thing I did and move on.' It needed to somehow be addressed INSIDE the narrative, and they did that, without completely undoing it. It was a needed step.
I am absolutely adoring that they at least gave a nod to the canon status of McGann's audio adventures in the web minisode "The Night Of The Doctor." I've always considered those "lost seasons" of the show, and it was nice to see them acknowledged as things that happened in continuity.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-25 07:24 am (UTC)