I LOVE Sherlock. If it weren't for Sherlock, I'd probably be burning effigies of Steven Moffat (not really, I'm just being dramatic).
I also LOVE the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.
And, I do not like the new Doctor Who (you may have noticed).
Put all those together, and what do you have? The funniest 4:55 I have seen in a long time. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt, and I had to keep rewinding the video (rewinding? WTF, Lynette, is this 1985?) to catch bits that I'd missed.
If you like it, PLEASE go to their YouTube channel and follow them.
Showing posts with label eleventh doctor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eleventh doctor. Show all posts
Friday, February 3, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
2011 Christmas Special: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
We start out in space - and apparently, there is sound in space. Take a lesson from Joss Whedon, Mr. Moffat. There is no sound in space! Okay, the Doctor runs through the exploding spaceship - very exciting! I do love this music. But wait! He's now hanging off of the spaceship, breathing, groaning, talking, yelling. Why does he need the space suit? I guess for reentry? Are spacesuits built for reentry?
But I'm deviating away from my normal "let's save the nasty comments for the Dislikes section". Maybe I should start over.
So the Doctor is on this exploding spaceship. He ends up on the outside, and as he lets go of the ship, he spies a space suit. He and the suit both hurtle through space, and he crash lands somewhere in England. Madge, a housewife, finds him, but because he put the helmet on backwards and now it's stuck, she doesn't see his face. She helps him get to the TARDIS. Back home, she discusses the impending war with her husband. A few years later, he is a pilot in World War II, and he disappears over the English Channel.
Madge receives the news at Christmas, but she promises Cyril and Lily, her children, that their father will be coming home. They all go to their uncle's mansion in the country, apparently to escape the bombing. They are greeted by the Doctor, who calls himself the Caretaker. He has specially prepared the house for themin a ridiculous display in an attempt to cheer them up (though we don't know yet that he knows about their father's death). Madge sends the kids out of the room and tells the Doctor that their father is dead.
The children find a giant Christmas tree downstairs and equally giant present, which glows eerily like the TARDIS. That night, Lily wakes up and starts to sneak downstairs to look at the present, but instead, she wanders into the Doctor's room. She startsflirting with talking to the Doctor about the TARDIS, which he calls a wardrobe. Meanwhile, Cyril does go downstairs and open the present, which is really a doorway to Narnia a mystical wood. Of course, he enters the wood. Lily, however, tells the Doctor that her brother is in bed asleep. This eases the Doctor's mind, because now he can get some alone time with Lily he can continue to work on rewiring his wardrobe. But then an alarm goes off, and he knows that Cyril has gone into the wardrobe present. He then pulls Lily into the magical wood as well, and tells her that it's a dimensional portal thingie. She smiles alluringly innocently at him. They start following Cyril's footprints; Cyril, in the meantime, is following ever-growing footprints.
Cyril ends up atthe witch's castle a tall tower which has a lion's face in the door handle. He goes inside, where a statue of a treeman sits in a throne. He decides then to climb up the tower, and as he does so, the statue blinks (I actually was typing that as a joke, and then the statue blinked). As Cyril climbs the tower, there are flashing lights in the sky, and some kind of transport vessel lands in front of Madge, who'd been following all the footprints. Some entirely irrelevant soldiers climb out to provide some comic relief.
Back at theranch tower, Cyril finds a room with a treegirl standing over a throne, holding a crown. The Doctor and Lily enter the tower and he tells her that the entire building is a group of trees disguised as a building. Lily holds the Doctor's hand (for the second time, I might add). Bow chick a wow wow.
Back to the soldiers for some more comedy. They aren't going to shoot Madge for trespassing, and they lower their guns. But Madge pulls one out and tells them she's looking for her children.
In the tower, the treegirl is trying to put the crown on Cyril's head, and the Doctor and Lily try to get into the room. Lily notices that their are stars coming out of the forest, and the Doctor says it's life. The treegirl places the crown on Cyril's head, and the king statue starts climbing the tower.
Madge is in the transport ship - the soldiers tell her that the entire forest is about to be burned with acid rain to make battery fluid. The soldiers evacuate the ship.
Cyril tells the Doctor that the trees are evacuating. Lily goes to the window and the Doctor explains that the life forces are trying to evacuate to leave the planet. He holds her shoulder. How creepy is this? The crown is a relay, it's an escape plan for the trees. The treepeople tell the Doctor that Cyril is weak, and the Doctor is weak, but Lily is strong.
The acid rain starts, and the Doctor tells them they have to go. But then Cyril throws a temper tantrum and says he has to wait for his mummy. She then comes crashing through the forest in an AT-AT. She enters the tower, and the treegirl puts the crown on Madge. The life forces start pouring into her brain until she has the entire forest in her head. Turns out that Madge is strong because she's a woman andall she's good for is popping out kids she's a vessel for life.
The top of the tower takes off because it's a spaceship, and they enter the time vortex. They have to go home, and the only way for that to happen is for Madge to think of home. She thenclimaxes pictures home and her husband, but then says she doesn't want to see him die. We then cut back to the plane, but then Reg sees a brilliant light and decides to follow it. How he can follow that blinding light is beyond me, but whatever.
The ship lands back home at the mansion in the country. The children are very upset, though, about Madge saying that she didn't want to watch him die. She decides she has to tell the children the truth. The Doctor leaves to give them privacy, but as she starts to tell the children about her father, the Doctor starts calling to them very excitedly. They run outside and their father's plane is parked outside the mansion as well. Apparently, Madge's having a tree inside her head led her husband home. It's so very heartwarming.
Madge visits the Doctor up in the attic and says that she knew it was her spaceman. She convinces him to go home to see his friends and tell them that he's still alive. He goes to see Amy and Rory. Amy shoots him with a water pistol. They hug. It's incredibly charming. The Doctor wipes the water from the water pistol - or is that a tear? - from his cheek. Hang on, I have to go barf.
Narnian references:
What do they teach you in schools these days?
Time moves differently across dimensions.
World War II/going to a mansion in the country to escape the bombing in London
Magical wood
Calling the TARDIS a wardrobe
The trees are talking to each other (even some of the trees are on her side)
Trying to crown the children
Likes:
1) Madge takes him to an actual call box.
2) Madge asks if he's the new caretaker, and he says, "Usually called the Doctor, or the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet, though strictly speaking, that probably isn't a name."
3) Madge really is strong. She doesn't freak out about the whole affair.
Dislikes:
1) How is he talking and shouting in space? IN SPACE!
2) How did falling from space NOT kill him? Apparently that's an "impact suit". But from SPACE?!
3) Haha, Madge keeps hitting things with her car. Women can't drive.
4) The back of the Doctor's space helmet has breathing holes. Are space helmets supposed to have
holes in the back of them?
5) The "repairs" to the house are ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous.
6) He's being over the top again.
7) When the Doctorrushes around like a deranged clown shows the children their bedroom, I feel very much like Madge - just STOP TALKING!
8) Relationship between Lily and the Doctor = CREEEEPPPY!
9) Too many Narnia references
10) These kids are STUPID.
11) "Mummy, is Daddy dead?"
12) What the hell was the Christmas present for? He's just going to take them into this other dimension, la dee da?
13) Did they have to putthe loudmouth red head Amy back in?
14) Humany-wumany. It works with timey-wimey. It doesn't work when he does it with other things, and this is the second time in this episode he's said something like "timey-wimey" that wasn't timey-wimey!
15) If she saved her husband, why did she still have the telegram?
16) Seriously, I think Lily was trying to get in the Doctor's pants.
17) I just realized - the Doctor showed up because Madge made a wish. A WISH! Since when does the Doctor hear and respond to wishes?!?
I dislike Moffat's tenure so much. He has completely crushed me, he's destroyed this show that I so completely embraced. I feel cheated now that I came to it so late, that I only had one real season to watch in real time. So quickly did Doctor Who enter my life, make it a bit more enjoyable, and then exit. Thankfully, I have a few dozen seasons of the classic series to watch, because god knows, I'd rather watch the most horrible reconstruction than Matt Smith.
I so wish David Morrissey had really been the next Doctor.
But I'm deviating away from my normal "let's save the nasty comments for the Dislikes section". Maybe I should start over.
So the Doctor is on this exploding spaceship. He ends up on the outside, and as he lets go of the ship, he spies a space suit. He and the suit both hurtle through space, and he crash lands somewhere in England. Madge, a housewife, finds him, but because he put the helmet on backwards and now it's stuck, she doesn't see his face. She helps him get to the TARDIS. Back home, she discusses the impending war with her husband. A few years later, he is a pilot in World War II, and he disappears over the English Channel.
Madge receives the news at Christmas, but she promises Cyril and Lily, her children, that their father will be coming home. They all go to their uncle's mansion in the country, apparently to escape the bombing. They are greeted by the Doctor, who calls himself the Caretaker. He has specially prepared the house for them
The children find a giant Christmas tree downstairs and equally giant present, which glows eerily like the TARDIS. That night, Lily wakes up and starts to sneak downstairs to look at the present, but instead, she wanders into the Doctor's room. She starts
Cyril ends up at
Back at the
Back to the soldiers for some more comedy. They aren't going to shoot Madge for trespassing, and they lower their guns. But Madge pulls one out and tells them she's looking for her children.
In the tower, the treegirl is trying to put the crown on Cyril's head, and the Doctor and Lily try to get into the room. Lily notices that their are stars coming out of the forest, and the Doctor says it's life. The treegirl places the crown on Cyril's head, and the king statue starts climbing the tower.
Madge is in the transport ship - the soldiers tell her that the entire forest is about to be burned with acid rain to make battery fluid. The soldiers evacuate the ship.
Cyril tells the Doctor that the trees are evacuating. Lily goes to the window and the Doctor explains that the life forces are trying to evacuate to leave the planet. He holds her shoulder. How creepy is this? The crown is a relay, it's an escape plan for the trees. The treepeople tell the Doctor that Cyril is weak, and the Doctor is weak, but Lily is strong.
The acid rain starts, and the Doctor tells them they have to go. But then Cyril throws a temper tantrum and says he has to wait for his mummy. She then comes crashing through the forest in an AT-AT. She enters the tower, and the treegirl puts the crown on Madge. The life forces start pouring into her brain until she has the entire forest in her head. Turns out that Madge is strong because she's a woman and
The top of the tower takes off because it's a spaceship, and they enter the time vortex. They have to go home, and the only way for that to happen is for Madge to think of home. She then
The ship lands back home at the mansion in the country. The children are very upset, though, about Madge saying that she didn't want to watch him die. She decides she has to tell the children the truth. The Doctor leaves to give them privacy, but as she starts to tell the children about her father, the Doctor starts calling to them very excitedly. They run outside and their father's plane is parked outside the mansion as well. Apparently, Madge's having a tree inside her head led her husband home. It's so very heartwarming.
Madge visits the Doctor up in the attic and says that she knew it was her spaceman. She convinces him to go home to see his friends and tell them that he's still alive. He goes to see Amy and Rory. Amy shoots him with a water pistol. They hug. It's incredibly charming. The Doctor wipes the water from the water pistol - or is that a tear? - from his cheek. Hang on, I have to go barf.
Narnian references:
What do they teach you in schools these days?
Time moves differently across dimensions.
World War II/going to a mansion in the country to escape the bombing in London
Magical wood
Calling the TARDIS a wardrobe
The trees are talking to each other (even some of the trees are on her side)
Trying to crown the children
Likes:
1) Madge takes him to an actual call box.
2) Madge asks if he's the new caretaker, and he says, "Usually called the Doctor, or the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet, though strictly speaking, that probably isn't a name."
3) Madge really is strong. She doesn't freak out about the whole affair.
Dislikes:
1) How is he talking and shouting in space? IN SPACE!
2) How did falling from space NOT kill him? Apparently that's an "impact suit". But from SPACE?!
3) Haha, Madge keeps hitting things with her car. Women can't drive.
4) The back of the Doctor's space helmet has breathing holes. Are space helmets supposed to have
holes in the back of them?
5) The "repairs" to the house are ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous.
6) He's being over the top again.
7) When the Doctor
8) Relationship between Lily and the Doctor = CREEEEPPPY!
9) Too many Narnia references
10) These kids are STUPID.
11) "Mummy, is Daddy dead?"
12) What the hell was the Christmas present for? He's just going to take them into this other dimension, la dee da?
13) Did they have to put
14) Humany-wumany. It works with timey-wimey. It doesn't work when he does it with other things, and this is the second time in this episode he's said something like "timey-wimey" that wasn't timey-wimey!
15) If she saved her husband, why did she still have the telegram?
16) Seriously, I think Lily was trying to get in the Doctor's pants.
17) I just realized - the Doctor showed up because Madge made a wish. A WISH! Since when does the Doctor hear and respond to wishes?!?
I dislike Moffat's tenure so much. He has completely crushed me, he's destroyed this show that I so completely embraced. I feel cheated now that I came to it so late, that I only had one real season to watch in real time. So quickly did Doctor Who enter my life, make it a bit more enjoyable, and then exit. Thankfully, I have a few dozen seasons of the classic series to watch, because god knows, I'd rather watch the most horrible reconstruction than Matt Smith.
I so wish David Morrissey had really been the next Doctor.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
S6 Episode 9: Night Terrors
Overall, I did not like this episode. Yes, I know that you're shocked.
The Doctor gets a message on the psychic paper, and he and his Companions show up at the estate where the message is coming from. They split up to search for the sender, and the Doctor meets Georgie, a little boy who is terrified of everything. When something scares Georgie, he puts it in the cupboard.
While Amy and Rory are searching, they get into a lift which seemingly falls out of control. When they land, they find that they are in a house, and no one else is around.
Meanwhile, an old lady on the estate as well as the landlord disappear; the old lady gets sucked into a pile of garbage bags, and the landlord gets sucked into the floor. They both also end up in this house. Some terrifying, nightmare-inducing life-sized dolls grab the landlord, and he turns into a doll as well. And then, guess what? Amy gets turned into a doll, too!
Back at the ranch, the Doctor is working with Georgie's father to try to figure out what's going on. Suddenly, both the Doctor and Georgie's dad get sucked into the cupboard and also end up in the house. Because it's actually the dollhouse that's inside the cupboard! But Georgie faces his fears and everything turns out okay. Except for Georgie, who is really an alien who got himself adopted by his Earth parents and changed their memories slightly so that they thought he was really theirs. And he doesn't know it. I dunno.
Repeat Ideas:
1) Really? The Doctor saves another child from a scary monster? I suppose this isn't a shock, as Doctor Who is (supposedly) a children's show, but haven't we had enough of this from Moffat for a while?
2) I'm not really sure why I'm putting this next item here, but instinct says it goes here: Amy and Rory are miniaturized and put into the dollhouse. So weird ... why would I think this is a repeat? That time when they got miniaturized and transferred into the head of that robot thing was like forever ago - what? OH MY GOD! THAT WAS ONLY THE LAST EPISODE?!?!
3) The idea of planted memories of children has been done before - anyone remember Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? Seriously, does Moffat just have a list of plots that he goes over every time he gets a story pitched to him and says, "that's great, but instead of an original idea, why don't we use this one? We haven't used that storyline in four episodes. Let's just change one or two things and people will think it's totally original". (And yes, he absolutely says that just like a Valley Girl.) Look, I understand that there are what, two or three basic plots in the world that just keep getting used over and over and over, but those are simple ideas. Moffat keeps reusing very specific plot devices. Oh, and also, this reeked of Dawn.
Dislikes:
1) I didn't like Georgie. To be specific, I didn't like the actor. And I feel bad about that, because he's just a kid. I think I've been spoiled by Amelia Pond.
2) Wow, they could have really done a fantastic job with the dollhouse idea. I LOVE the concept, but it was so half-assed. With the exception of the doll's eye and the copper pot, everything else was scaled to Amy and Rory's size, NOT to dollhouse size. Have the set designers ever seen a dollhouse? Unless it's Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle (the weeping willow cries real tears!) or the Thorne Miniature Rooms, most dollhouse furniture is NOT to scale, especially a cheap dollhouse like Georgie would have. Yeah, that dollhouse as a whole was way too elaborate. I love the idea, and I'd love to see it done well, but then it would have to move to the top section of the blog ...
3) Since when does the Doctor knock on doors? Something about that really irritated me. I supposed it shouldn't, but it did.
4) The second hand of the clock in the kitchen doesn't move. Normally this stuff doesn't bother me, but that's because it's not noticeable. During the entire scene in the kitchen, I was staring at the clock and actually had to rewind to see what had happened.
Likes:
1) Psychic paper! I love the psychic paper. I can't remember where I read this, but apparently Russell T. Davies invented the psychic paper to cut out all the explaining that the Doctor has to do so often. Just - here ya go, this is who I am, doesn't it look official? Also, I cannot stress enough how happy I am that Georgie didn't call the Doctor. I love it when psychic paper is used as a message board.
2) I loved the Doctor in this episode - more proof that I like him when he's not with Amy. I love the exchange he has with Georgie's dad about opening and not opening the cupboard.
3) When Rory and Amy tumble out of the lift, Rory says something like, "we're dead - again!" I love that he hasn't actually died for a while.
Here ya go:
The Doctor gets a message on the psychic paper, and he and his Companions show up at the estate where the message is coming from. They split up to search for the sender, and the Doctor meets Georgie, a little boy who is terrified of everything. When something scares Georgie, he puts it in the cupboard.
While Amy and Rory are searching, they get into a lift which seemingly falls out of control. When they land, they find that they are in a house, and no one else is around.
Meanwhile, an old lady on the estate as well as the landlord disappear; the old lady gets sucked into a pile of garbage bags, and the landlord gets sucked into the floor. They both also end up in this house. Some terrifying, nightmare-inducing life-sized dolls grab the landlord, and he turns into a doll as well. And then, guess what? Amy gets turned into a doll, too!
Back at the ranch, the Doctor is working with Georgie's father to try to figure out what's going on. Suddenly, both the Doctor and Georgie's dad get sucked into the cupboard and also end up in the house. Because it's actually the dollhouse that's inside the cupboard! But Georgie faces his fears and everything turns out okay. Except for Georgie, who is really an alien who got himself adopted by his Earth parents and changed their memories slightly so that they thought he was really theirs. And he doesn't know it. I dunno.
Repeat Ideas:
1) Really? The Doctor saves another child from a scary monster? I suppose this isn't a shock, as Doctor Who is (supposedly) a children's show, but haven't we had enough of this from Moffat for a while?
2) I'm not really sure why I'm putting this next item here, but instinct says it goes here: Amy and Rory are miniaturized and put into the dollhouse. So weird ... why would I think this is a repeat? That time when they got miniaturized and transferred into the head of that robot thing was like forever ago - what? OH MY GOD! THAT WAS ONLY THE LAST EPISODE?!?!
3) The idea of planted memories of children has been done before - anyone remember Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? Seriously, does Moffat just have a list of plots that he goes over every time he gets a story pitched to him and says, "that's great, but instead of an original idea, why don't we use this one? We haven't used that storyline in four episodes. Let's just change one or two things and people will think it's totally original". (And yes, he absolutely says that just like a Valley Girl.) Look, I understand that there are what, two or three basic plots in the world that just keep getting used over and over and over, but those are simple ideas. Moffat keeps reusing very specific plot devices. Oh, and also, this reeked of Dawn.
Dislikes:
1) I didn't like Georgie. To be specific, I didn't like the actor. And I feel bad about that, because he's just a kid. I think I've been spoiled by Amelia Pond.
2) Wow, they could have really done a fantastic job with the dollhouse idea. I LOVE the concept, but it was so half-assed. With the exception of the doll's eye and the copper pot, everything else was scaled to Amy and Rory's size, NOT to dollhouse size. Have the set designers ever seen a dollhouse? Unless it's Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle (the weeping willow cries real tears!) or the Thorne Miniature Rooms, most dollhouse furniture is NOT to scale, especially a cheap dollhouse like Georgie would have. Yeah, that dollhouse as a whole was way too elaborate. I love the idea, and I'd love to see it done well, but then it would have to move to the top section of the blog ...
3) Since when does the Doctor knock on doors? Something about that really irritated me. I supposed it shouldn't, but it did.
4) The second hand of the clock in the kitchen doesn't move. Normally this stuff doesn't bother me, but that's because it's not noticeable. During the entire scene in the kitchen, I was staring at the clock and actually had to rewind to see what had happened.
Likes:
1) Psychic paper! I love the psychic paper. I can't remember where I read this, but apparently Russell T. Davies invented the psychic paper to cut out all the explaining that the Doctor has to do so often. Just - here ya go, this is who I am, doesn't it look official? Also, I cannot stress enough how happy I am that Georgie didn't call the Doctor. I love it when psychic paper is used as a message board.
2) I loved the Doctor in this episode - more proof that I like him when he's not with Amy. I love the exchange he has with Georgie's dad about opening and not opening the cupboard.
3) When Rory and Amy tumble out of the lift, Rory says something like, "we're dead - again!" I love that he hasn't actually died for a while.
Here ya go:
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
S6 Episode 8: Let's Kill Hitler
I don't know why I do this to myself. I am really not enjoying the new series at all. I suppose there are tons of fans who suffered through Doctors that they didn't like. There's a ton of people who absolutely hate Russell T. Davies, his stories, and his Doctors. So maybe if I just keep suffering through all this bullshit I'll be rewarded with a new Doctor and better companions.
The episode begins with Rory and Amy driving through a cornfield - the TARDIS appears in the center of the field, and the Doctor is standing there holding a newspaper that shows a crop circle with the word DOCTOR. There's a line through the center of the word, and Amy and Rory tell the Doctor that they didn't do that part. Suddenly, a car comes plowing through and a black girl jumps out and points a gun at the Doctor.
It turns out that she is Mels, who has been a friend of Amy and Rory since they were small children. Of course, we'd never heard of her before now, so they had to go and show us a montage of Mels interacting with Amy and Rory. Seems Mels is a bit of a trouble maker, and she's on the run from the police, so she makes the Doctor take her into the TARDIS. She fires her gun at some point and sends the TARDIS out of control. It happens to land in Hitler's office. Surprise!
In the meantime, there are little miniaturized people inside of a robot thing that can assume the shape of anyone. They are there to kill Hitler, but realize that they're not at the end of his timeline yet. Well, Hitler attempts to shoot the robot, but hits Mels instead. And you'll never guess what happens? She regenerates! Into River Song! Holy crap!
Yes, it turns out that Mels is Melody Pond (which I'm sure no one saw coming a mile away). Amy explains that she had named Melody after her good friend Mels (whom we'd never heard of before, remember?) She attempts to kill the Doctor several times, but each time, he outsmarts her. Oh, except for the whole poisoned lipstick thing. So he's poisoned, River/Mels gets away, and Rory and Amy leave the Doctor to apparently die on the floor and go after her, and the robot with the tiny people goes after them. After all, River Song is wanted for killing the Doctor.
Meanwhile, the Doctor lays dying inside of the TARDIS and attempts to activate the voice interface. It first flashes to an image of him, but he says, "show me someone I like!" We then see Rose, followed by Martha and Donna, and the Doctor keeps saying that he feels guilty. He says that there must be someone he hasn't messed up, and Amelia appears. She tells him that he has 32 minutes to live.
River/Mels crashes a party and steals everyone's clothes. Amy and Rory find her, and so does the robot, who now looks like Amy (and is actually called a Teselecta). It miniaturizes them, they almost die, and then I'm not really sure what happens next. The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS, now dressed in a tuxedo, and Amy prevents the Teselecta from killing River. However, they are still determined to kill her, so Amy turns the robot against itself. All of the tiny people dematerialize, and the Doctor convinces River to fly the TARDIS into the Teselecta and rescue Amy and Rory. The TARDIS tells her what to do - it teaches her in a millisecond because she is "the child of the TARDIS".
The Doctor whispers something into River's ear and then apparently dies. River asks Rory and Amy why they keep calling her River. The Teselecta then takes on the physical appearance of River, and she is so moved that she saves the Doctor by pouring the rest of her regenerations into him. They take her to a hospital and leave her there. Back in the TARDIS, we see that the Doctor has downloaded all of the information from the Teselecta and has learned the date of his death. The last scene is River declaring that she wants to be an archaeologist.
Curiouser and Curiouser:
1) Why doesn't the Doctor just regenerate?
2) In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that she and the Doctor are living their time lines in reverse order - her past is his future. I can't remember which episode it is, but at one point she also says that when she first met the Doctor, she was a little girl and he knew everything about her. Also, if her past is his future, then we shouldn't be seeing any more of River Song, we should be seeing more of Mels, and that doesn't make sense. So make up your mind, Moffat - I don't care if they're going in opposite directions or if they can pop up all over the place in different orders, but be consistent.
3) How did Mels get from 1969 to the 1990's? How did she find a family to adopt her? Because she tore herself out of that suit and was wandering around by herself, remember? I have a hard time thinking that the Silence or Eyepatch Lady came back to get her and deposit her in bonny ol' England.
Dislikes:
1) First of all, when Amy and Rory were carving out the name "Doctor" in the cornfield, they made too many turns. Also, what the heck was written all over that paper that Amy was looking off of?
2) When the Doctor is dying, he gives Amy his sonic screwdriver. She uses it in the Teselecta, and it really looks like Amy is holding a glowing green penis. Seriously, I hate this new screwdriver.
3) Could they smack us in the face with River Song any more? Moffat spends so much time not telling us anything, and then he gives us almost her entire backstory in about 10 minutes. It seems so forced. It is time for River to go away. This soap-opery story is just getting ridiculous. It's now the Amy and River Show! I bet Moffat is kicking himself for killing River off in Forest of the Dead - he could have made her regenerate into Amy! TIMEY-WIMEY!!
4) Mels should have existed before now. Moffat had no idea that there was going to be a Mels, did he? To work her into the story now like this is insulting. Also, did anyone else notice that the first time Moffat introduces an important black character, she gets killed off almost immediately?
5) When the Teselecta replicates the German, he is able to replicate everything except the guy's glasses? What sense does that make?
6) I hated seeing Rose, Martha, and Donna. First of all, their appearances were simply publicity shots - they couldn't find any live footage? Second, this is the first time that Eleven has ever acknowledged their existence - he's constantly throwing around photos of himself as the First Doctor, but he never shows any of his previous companions. Was this really the time? I feel like this was just another slap in the face by Moffat - he wants to shut up the people who don't like Amy. Well, I will tell you something. There are a lot of people on fan boards who say that people who don't like Matt Smith or Karen Gillan need to get over David Tennant and Billie Piper. I'm sorry, but it IS possible to not like a character without being upset that another character is gone. I'm over it. I bet most fans are over it. It is highly insulting to suggest that I don't like an actor because he's not an actor that I DO like. It's not impossible to simply just NOT LIKE that person/character. The fact that Matt Smith isn't David Tennant has nothing to do with my dislike for him. The fact that Amy isn't Rose has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like her.
7) Moffat loves fucking with our minds about "is [x character] dead?" This is the third time that we think that the Doctor is dead. Enough already.
Likes:
1) Wow, Rory has balls!
2) No surprise here - I loved Amelia. The lines that she had in the TARDIS were fantastic - "for 31 minutes you will be fine. In 32 minutes you will be dead".
Since Moffat smacked us in the face with Rose, Martha, and Donna, here is a fantastic fan video I found on YouTube.
The episode begins with Rory and Amy driving through a cornfield - the TARDIS appears in the center of the field, and the Doctor is standing there holding a newspaper that shows a crop circle with the word DOCTOR. There's a line through the center of the word, and Amy and Rory tell the Doctor that they didn't do that part. Suddenly, a car comes plowing through and a black girl jumps out and points a gun at the Doctor.
It turns out that she is Mels, who has been a friend of Amy and Rory since they were small children. Of course, we'd never heard of her before now, so they had to go and show us a montage of Mels interacting with Amy and Rory. Seems Mels is a bit of a trouble maker, and she's on the run from the police, so she makes the Doctor take her into the TARDIS. She fires her gun at some point and sends the TARDIS out of control. It happens to land in Hitler's office. Surprise!
In the meantime, there are little miniaturized people inside of a robot thing that can assume the shape of anyone. They are there to kill Hitler, but realize that they're not at the end of his timeline yet. Well, Hitler attempts to shoot the robot, but hits Mels instead. And you'll never guess what happens? She regenerates! Into River Song! Holy crap!
Yes, it turns out that Mels is Melody Pond (which I'm sure no one saw coming a mile away). Amy explains that she had named Melody after her good friend Mels (whom we'd never heard of before, remember?) She attempts to kill the Doctor several times, but each time, he outsmarts her. Oh, except for the whole poisoned lipstick thing. So he's poisoned, River/Mels gets away, and Rory and Amy leave the Doctor to apparently die on the floor and go after her, and the robot with the tiny people goes after them. After all, River Song is wanted for killing the Doctor.
Meanwhile, the Doctor lays dying inside of the TARDIS and attempts to activate the voice interface. It first flashes to an image of him, but he says, "show me someone I like!" We then see Rose, followed by Martha and Donna, and the Doctor keeps saying that he feels guilty. He says that there must be someone he hasn't messed up, and Amelia appears. She tells him that he has 32 minutes to live.
River/Mels crashes a party and steals everyone's clothes. Amy and Rory find her, and so does the robot, who now looks like Amy (and is actually called a Teselecta). It miniaturizes them, they almost die, and then I'm not really sure what happens next. The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS, now dressed in a tuxedo, and Amy prevents the Teselecta from killing River. However, they are still determined to kill her, so Amy turns the robot against itself. All of the tiny people dematerialize, and the Doctor convinces River to fly the TARDIS into the Teselecta and rescue Amy and Rory. The TARDIS tells her what to do - it teaches her in a millisecond because she is "the child of the TARDIS".
The Doctor whispers something into River's ear and then apparently dies. River asks Rory and Amy why they keep calling her River. The Teselecta then takes on the physical appearance of River, and she is so moved that she saves the Doctor by pouring the rest of her regenerations into him. They take her to a hospital and leave her there. Back in the TARDIS, we see that the Doctor has downloaded all of the information from the Teselecta and has learned the date of his death. The last scene is River declaring that she wants to be an archaeologist.
Curiouser and Curiouser:
1) Why doesn't the Doctor just regenerate?
2) In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that she and the Doctor are living their time lines in reverse order - her past is his future. I can't remember which episode it is, but at one point she also says that when she first met the Doctor, she was a little girl and he knew everything about her. Also, if her past is his future, then we shouldn't be seeing any more of River Song, we should be seeing more of Mels, and that doesn't make sense. So make up your mind, Moffat - I don't care if they're going in opposite directions or if they can pop up all over the place in different orders, but be consistent.
3) How did Mels get from 1969 to the 1990's? How did she find a family to adopt her? Because she tore herself out of that suit and was wandering around by herself, remember? I have a hard time thinking that the Silence or Eyepatch Lady came back to get her and deposit her in bonny ol' England.
Dislikes:
1) First of all, when Amy and Rory were carving out the name "Doctor" in the cornfield, they made too many turns. Also, what the heck was written all over that paper that Amy was looking off of?
2) When the Doctor is dying, he gives Amy his sonic screwdriver. She uses it in the Teselecta, and it really looks like Amy is holding a glowing green penis. Seriously, I hate this new screwdriver.
3) Could they smack us in the face with River Song any more? Moffat spends so much time not telling us anything, and then he gives us almost her entire backstory in about 10 minutes. It seems so forced. It is time for River to go away. This soap-opery story is just getting ridiculous. It's now the Amy and River Show! I bet Moffat is kicking himself for killing River off in Forest of the Dead - he could have made her regenerate into Amy! TIMEY-WIMEY!!
4) Mels should have existed before now. Moffat had no idea that there was going to be a Mels, did he? To work her into the story now like this is insulting. Also, did anyone else notice that the first time Moffat introduces an important black character, she gets killed off almost immediately?
5) When the Teselecta replicates the German, he is able to replicate everything except the guy's glasses? What sense does that make?
6) I hated seeing Rose, Martha, and Donna. First of all, their appearances were simply publicity shots - they couldn't find any live footage? Second, this is the first time that Eleven has ever acknowledged their existence - he's constantly throwing around photos of himself as the First Doctor, but he never shows any of his previous companions. Was this really the time? I feel like this was just another slap in the face by Moffat - he wants to shut up the people who don't like Amy. Well, I will tell you something. There are a lot of people on fan boards who say that people who don't like Matt Smith or Karen Gillan need to get over David Tennant and Billie Piper. I'm sorry, but it IS possible to not like a character without being upset that another character is gone. I'm over it. I bet most fans are over it. It is highly insulting to suggest that I don't like an actor because he's not an actor that I DO like. It's not impossible to simply just NOT LIKE that person/character. The fact that Matt Smith isn't David Tennant has nothing to do with my dislike for him. The fact that Amy isn't Rose has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like her.
7) Moffat loves fucking with our minds about "is [x character] dead?" This is the third time that we think that the Doctor is dead. Enough already.
Likes:
1) Wow, Rory has balls!
2) No surprise here - I loved Amelia. The lines that she had in the TARDIS were fantastic - "for 31 minutes you will be fine. In 32 minutes you will be dead".
Since Moffat smacked us in the face with Rose, Martha, and Donna, here is a fantastic fan video I found on YouTube.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
S6 Episode 4: The Doctor's Wife
Well, this was the first decent episode since Vincent and the Doctor. Let's get to it, shall we? Short and sweet.
The Doctor receives a distress signal from a Time Lord, they arrive somewhere outside of the universe and find Auntie, Uncle, Nephew, and Idris living on House, some kind of asteroid thing (I never really figured out what House was). The soul of the TARDIS is stolen and transferred into Idris. When she meets the Doctor, she starts talking apparent nonsense, kisses him, etc. The Doctor finds out that House has been killing Time Lords and cutting them up to remake Auntie and Uncle, Dr. Frankenstein-style. And, he eats TARDISes.
Amy and Rory get trapped inside the TARDIS, because being in life-and-death situations is what they do best. House messes with them, the Doctor and Idris, or "Sexy", as she says he calls her ("only when we're alone") build a TARDIS console from dead TARDISes and save the day. Well, Sexy saves the day because she is ANGRY.
Repeat Idea:
This is the fifth time that Rory dies.
Episodes in which Rory has died in some manner:
1) Amy's Choice: Rory dies in the dream, so he's not actually dead
2) Cold Blood: Rory actually dies
3) Day of the Moon: Rory doesn't actually die, but we think he does
4) Curse of the Black Pearl: Rory temporarily dies, but is brought back to life by Amy
5) The Doctor's Wife: Rory appears to have died after waiting for Amy for thousands of years, but it's just House messing with her mind
Likes:
1) For an episode with very little plot, there were tons of fantastic lines.
2) For as much as I hate Moffatt messing with time, I loved how Sexy (yes, I'm going to call her that because I think it's hilarious) had trouble with tenses and talking about things that hadn't happened yet. Because it's different when it's the TARDIS talking about it versus the Doctor doing whatever the frak he pleases - plus, she says that she exists in ALL of time and space simultaneously.
3) I don't know if this is a like, but there was something about Sexy's facial expression that reminded me of someone the first time through. Now I know who it is - she keeps doing Hermione Granger's "worried" face!
4) Suranne Jones was brilliant as Sexy. I LOVED her. It was so nice to see a character with real depth and emotion. We have not had a character like that since Vincent.
5) When Nephew gets atomized (or "displaced", as the Doctor says), the Doctor wryly observes, "another Ood I've failed to save". I literally laughed out loud. Every once in a while, Matt Smith just pulls out a perfect delivery.
6) Uncle was another great character - he is creepy, yet funny, and he is played to perfection by Adrian Schiller.
Dislikes:
1) There is no real point to this episode, other than the Doctor meeting the TARDIS. I guess that's okay, because it's about time we have a real character story. Vincent and the Doctor was a character story, and so was The Lodger, and I really liked them both. So maybe this shouldn't be a dislike. Hmm.
2) Captain Jack is bisexual, Eleventh Doctor is bipolar (I know, I know, Jack is actually omnisexual, but it didn't flow as nicely). Angry Doctor again. He gets mad at Auntie and Uncle and says, "You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it'll do to me". He looks like he's about to lose it. I know some people go on about David Tennant's angst, but holy crap. This guy needs to go to Anger Management or something. He's got two emotions: super-happy-monkey and pissed off.
3) I thought the entire concept of Amy and Rory being locked in the TARDIS was ridiculous. They just keep running down the same corridor over and over. What a brilliant opportunity to show us other rooms in the TARDIS, and it was totally wasted. I really Do. Not. Care. about the relationship between Amy and Rory's anymore. Why, oh why do they keep hitting us over the head with it? And while I normally love Arthur Darvill, he does NOT look like he's running for his life when the doors slam shut. Both times that he gets separated from Amy, he looks like he's out for a casual jog.
4) The first time I watched the episode and Amy and Rory stepped into the Ninth and Tenth Doctor console, I felt violated. Watching it the second time through a few months later, I still feel violated. I literally have a visceral reaction to it, like someone has punched me in the stomach. It's just wrong, wrong, wrong.
5) Amy says, "you can't say it, you have to think it" and then proceeds to put her hands up to her temples as if she's trying to read a mind and SAYS, "crimson, eleven, delight, the smell of dust after rain". It would have been sufficient for her to make that ridiculous mime and then have the montage of thoughts, she didn't have to verbalize it, especially since she just said that you can't say it!
Here's a little bit about another of the Doctor's wives ...
The Doctor receives a distress signal from a Time Lord, they arrive somewhere outside of the universe and find Auntie, Uncle, Nephew, and Idris living on House, some kind of asteroid thing (I never really figured out what House was). The soul of the TARDIS is stolen and transferred into Idris. When she meets the Doctor, she starts talking apparent nonsense, kisses him, etc. The Doctor finds out that House has been killing Time Lords and cutting them up to remake Auntie and Uncle, Dr. Frankenstein-style. And, he eats TARDISes.
Amy and Rory get trapped inside the TARDIS, because being in life-and-death situations is what they do best. House messes with them, the Doctor and Idris, or "Sexy", as she says he calls her ("only when we're alone") build a TARDIS console from dead TARDISes and save the day. Well, Sexy saves the day because she is ANGRY.
Repeat Idea:
This is the fifth time that Rory dies.
Episodes in which Rory has died in some manner:
1) Amy's Choice: Rory dies in the dream, so he's not actually dead
2) Cold Blood: Rory actually dies
3) Day of the Moon: Rory doesn't actually die, but we think he does
4) Curse of the Black Pearl: Rory temporarily dies, but is brought back to life by Amy
5) The Doctor's Wife: Rory appears to have died after waiting for Amy for thousands of years, but it's just House messing with her mind
Likes:
1) For an episode with very little plot, there were tons of fantastic lines.
2) For as much as I hate Moffatt messing with time, I loved how Sexy (yes, I'm going to call her that because I think it's hilarious) had trouble with tenses and talking about things that hadn't happened yet. Because it's different when it's the TARDIS talking about it versus the Doctor doing whatever the frak he pleases - plus, she says that she exists in ALL of time and space simultaneously.
3) I don't know if this is a like, but there was something about Sexy's facial expression that reminded me of someone the first time through. Now I know who it is - she keeps doing Hermione Granger's "worried" face!
4) Suranne Jones was brilliant as Sexy. I LOVED her. It was so nice to see a character with real depth and emotion. We have not had a character like that since Vincent.
5) When Nephew gets atomized (or "displaced", as the Doctor says), the Doctor wryly observes, "another Ood I've failed to save". I literally laughed out loud. Every once in a while, Matt Smith just pulls out a perfect delivery.
6) Uncle was another great character - he is creepy, yet funny, and he is played to perfection by Adrian Schiller.
Dislikes:
1) There is no real point to this episode, other than the Doctor meeting the TARDIS. I guess that's okay, because it's about time we have a real character story. Vincent and the Doctor was a character story, and so was The Lodger, and I really liked them both. So maybe this shouldn't be a dislike. Hmm.
2) Captain Jack is bisexual, Eleventh Doctor is bipolar (I know, I know, Jack is actually omnisexual, but it didn't flow as nicely). Angry Doctor again. He gets mad at Auntie and Uncle and says, "You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it'll do to me". He looks like he's about to lose it. I know some people go on about David Tennant's angst, but holy crap. This guy needs to go to Anger Management or something. He's got two emotions: super-happy-monkey and pissed off.
3) I thought the entire concept of Amy and Rory being locked in the TARDIS was ridiculous. They just keep running down the same corridor over and over. What a brilliant opportunity to show us other rooms in the TARDIS, and it was totally wasted. I really Do. Not. Care. about the relationship between Amy and Rory's anymore. Why, oh why do they keep hitting us over the head with it? And while I normally love Arthur Darvill, he does NOT look like he's running for his life when the doors slam shut. Both times that he gets separated from Amy, he looks like he's out for a casual jog.
4) The first time I watched the episode and Amy and Rory stepped into the Ninth and Tenth Doctor console, I felt violated. Watching it the second time through a few months later, I still feel violated. I literally have a visceral reaction to it, like someone has punched me in the stomach. It's just wrong, wrong, wrong.
5) Amy says, "you can't say it, you have to think it" and then proceeds to put her hands up to her temples as if she's trying to read a mind and SAYS, "crimson, eleven, delight, the smell of dust after rain". It would have been sufficient for her to make that ridiculous mime and then have the montage of thoughts, she didn't have to verbalize it, especially since she just said that you can't say it!
Here's a little bit about another of the Doctor's wives ...
Sunday, August 7, 2011
S6 Episode 3: Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Curse of the Black Spot
Surprisingly, I don't have too many issues with this episode. I should rephrase that: I have less issues that I expected I'd have, considering I LOATHE Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon. A lot of reviews that I've read or listened to heavily criticized the graphics. I had zero problems with the graphics - that's about the only thing I had zero problems with.
The Doctor and his Companions are off on a storyarc-less adventure on the high seas! They arrive on board a pirate ship whose crew is slowly being taken by a Siren-like creature. Once they are injured, even in the slightest way, they are marked with the black spot; she appears (I almost wrote "Apparates") and sings to the sailors, enchanting them. At her touch, they apparently explode. The crew get picked off rather quickly, despite having been becalmed for eight days. At one point, Rory gets a superficial cut, but Amy and the Doctor prevent him from being taken by the Siren. Pretty soon it's just the Captain, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, Toby (the Captain's stowaway son) and two other pirates. After discovering that the Siren can get in through water, they barricade themselves inside the armory.
The Doctor and the Captain make their way to the TARDIS, who is also becalmed, and disappears (or "Disapparates", if you prefer) as they watch. One of the crew members leaves the armory to pilfer the loot, and he is taken by the Siren. It is then that the Doctor then realizes that it's not water that calls the Siren, but reflections. And, OH NO! The Captain's pendant is gone! They rush back to the armory just as Toby starts to polish the pendant. The Doctor starts breaking out all the windows and throwing all the treasure overboard, but the Captain secrets a crown inside his coat. He LOVES treasure!
Well, then a huge storm whips up, and as Toby brings his father his coat, the crown rolls out and Toby is taken by the Siren. Then Rory gets knocked overboard. The Doctor, Captain, and Amy all cut their hands so that the Siren will come take them. She arrives, and they all reach out to her.
They all wake up on the floor of a space ship. All of the crew members are lying on beds, hooked up to machines. The Doctor figures out that the Siren is really some kind of hologram, and the space ship had been becalmed just like the pirate ship. And reflections were a way for the hologram to get through. She was rescuing all of the people who were injured, even if it was minor. However, she doesn't know how humans work, so she can't actually heal them, just keep them in stasis. Amy wants to take Rory back to the TARDIS, so she gives her consent to the hologram. Before unhooking Rory, he wakes up and tells her that she'll have to do CPR, which Amy says she doesn't know. But he trusts her. So she unhooks him, they get back to the TARDIS, and Amy performs CPR. After a minute, though, she gives up. And then, miraculously, Rory spits out water and is okay.
Before they leave, the Captain says he's not leaving his son. So, he decides to fly the space ship away (a ship is a ship, after all). All the crew members (that we'd met) and Toby all stand around his chair.
Repeat Ideas:
Hmm. I couldn't come up with any repeat ideas, as this is the first time we've seen a watery tart charming things with her singing ... hang on a minute ...
1) A watery tart charming things with her singing. We JUST watched Abigail charm the shark and control the fog with her singing. Yes, it was a few months prior to this episode, but it was only FOUR episodes ago!
2) A medical specialist who didn't know how to heal its patients? I have four words for you - ARE YOU MY MUMMY?
3) When they find the aliens in the space ship, the Doctor makes a comment along the lines of, "have you ever looked in a mirror and thought you were seeing a different world?" This is a bit too similar to the line in Family of Blood, "He trapped her inside a mirror ... If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you just for a second, that's her. That's always her.
4) In case you haven't been keeping count, this is the third time that Rory dies. Fourth, if you count his fake death in Day of the Moon.
Dislikes:
1) The crew gets picked off so fast. Seriously, are there THAT many injuries on a ship? At the rate that everyone is getting injured, the whole crew should have been gone days ago.
2) The Siren doesn't come for Rory until he realizes that he's been cut. That's convenient.
3) The original concept, that the Siren could travel through water, was a MUCH better concept than traveling through reflections.
4) How does the Captain knows that Toby is his son? He's clearly never met him, as Toby says, "[Mother] told me all about you, I should be proud to know you".
5) When the Doctor and the Captain leave the armory to go to the TARDIS, the Captain slips and almost cuts his hand. I have a hard time believing that a man who spends his whole life at sea could be that clumsy.
6) When they first enter the armory, there are two crew members besides Amy, Rory, and Toby. But, a few minutes later, there is only one. Where did the other crew member go?
7) Why did the Siren take the TARDIS? I understand that the TARDIS is alive, unlike the ship, but is there something wrong with the TARDIS besides being becalmed? I doubt it. They only made the TARDIS disappear so that they could get Rory onboard. If it was going to disappear, it should have happened before this.
8) If there are all these pieces of reflective treasure laying around, she would have total access to the ship. But, because you have to see a REFLECTION, then the treasure would have been fine being kept locked up somewhere. There was no need to throw it all overboard.
9) The Doctor calls the Siren to them by opening up the barrel of fresh water during the storm. DURING. THE. STORM. I've never been on a ship during a storm, but I'm guessing that the water isn't exactly reflection-friendly when the ship is being tossed about and there is no moon.
10) When the Siren takes the Doctor, Amy, and the Captain, they wake up on the floor of the space ship. Why aren't they in a bed like everyone else?
11) They find the aliens, and the Doctor touches them, then exclaims, "ew, alien bogies!" Wait a minute ... if the ship was becalmed for eight days, then the alien space ship must have been there for at least eight days, too. The aliens must have died pretty soon after landing there, since they're all still strapped in to their seats, and, if the Captain was able to fly the ship away, it wasn't becalmed. So why are their bogies still fresh?
12) How did the Doctor get consent from the Siren to take the TARDIS away? And how was Toby sitting up with the Captain when he flew the ship away? And all the other crew members? Did he give his consent? Is there some kind of long extension cord stretched between the bridge and the sick bay that's keeping Toby alive? I'm so confused.
Likes:
1) I did like how the Captain kept saying, "a ship's a ship". I love it when people from the past are able to grasp modern concepts. After all, they weren't stupid, just had no exposure to modern technology. It drives me crazy in books and movies when someone time travels to the past and everyone is terrified of technology. Overall, the Captain was a really good character.
Bottom line: most of this story didn't make sense, but it was kind of fun.
And now, Davy Jones has a question for Rory:
The Doctor and his Companions are off on a storyarc-less adventure on the high seas! They arrive on board a pirate ship whose crew is slowly being taken by a Siren-like creature. Once they are injured, even in the slightest way, they are marked with the black spot; she appears (I almost wrote "Apparates") and sings to the sailors, enchanting them. At her touch, they apparently explode. The crew get picked off rather quickly, despite having been becalmed for eight days. At one point, Rory gets a superficial cut, but Amy and the Doctor prevent him from being taken by the Siren. Pretty soon it's just the Captain, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, Toby (the Captain's stowaway son) and two other pirates. After discovering that the Siren can get in through water, they barricade themselves inside the armory.
The Doctor and the Captain make their way to the TARDIS, who is also becalmed, and disappears (or "Disapparates", if you prefer) as they watch. One of the crew members leaves the armory to pilfer the loot, and he is taken by the Siren. It is then that the Doctor then realizes that it's not water that calls the Siren, but reflections. And, OH NO! The Captain's pendant is gone! They rush back to the armory just as Toby starts to polish the pendant. The Doctor starts breaking out all the windows and throwing all the treasure overboard, but the Captain secrets a crown inside his coat. He LOVES treasure!
Well, then a huge storm whips up, and as Toby brings his father his coat, the crown rolls out and Toby is taken by the Siren. Then Rory gets knocked overboard. The Doctor, Captain, and Amy all cut their hands so that the Siren will come take them. She arrives, and they all reach out to her.
They all wake up on the floor of a space ship. All of the crew members are lying on beds, hooked up to machines. The Doctor figures out that the Siren is really some kind of hologram, and the space ship had been becalmed just like the pirate ship. And reflections were a way for the hologram to get through. She was rescuing all of the people who were injured, even if it was minor. However, she doesn't know how humans work, so she can't actually heal them, just keep them in stasis. Amy wants to take Rory back to the TARDIS, so she gives her consent to the hologram. Before unhooking Rory, he wakes up and tells her that she'll have to do CPR, which Amy says she doesn't know. But he trusts her. So she unhooks him, they get back to the TARDIS, and Amy performs CPR. After a minute, though, she gives up. And then, miraculously, Rory spits out water and is okay.
Before they leave, the Captain says he's not leaving his son. So, he decides to fly the space ship away (a ship is a ship, after all). All the crew members (that we'd met) and Toby all stand around his chair.
Repeat Ideas:
Hmm. I couldn't come up with any repeat ideas, as this is the first time we've seen a watery tart charming things with her singing ... hang on a minute ...
1) A watery tart charming things with her singing. We JUST watched Abigail charm the shark and control the fog with her singing. Yes, it was a few months prior to this episode, but it was only FOUR episodes ago!
2) A medical specialist who didn't know how to heal its patients? I have four words for you - ARE YOU MY MUMMY?
3) When they find the aliens in the space ship, the Doctor makes a comment along the lines of, "have you ever looked in a mirror and thought you were seeing a different world?" This is a bit too similar to the line in Family of Blood, "He trapped her inside a mirror ... If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you just for a second, that's her. That's always her.
4) In case you haven't been keeping count, this is the third time that Rory dies. Fourth, if you count his fake death in Day of the Moon.
Dislikes:
1) The crew gets picked off so fast. Seriously, are there THAT many injuries on a ship? At the rate that everyone is getting injured, the whole crew should have been gone days ago.
2) The Siren doesn't come for Rory until he realizes that he's been cut. That's convenient.
3) The original concept, that the Siren could travel through water, was a MUCH better concept than traveling through reflections.
4) How does the Captain knows that Toby is his son? He's clearly never met him, as Toby says, "[Mother] told me all about you, I should be proud to know you".
5) When the Doctor and the Captain leave the armory to go to the TARDIS, the Captain slips and almost cuts his hand. I have a hard time believing that a man who spends his whole life at sea could be that clumsy.
6) When they first enter the armory, there are two crew members besides Amy, Rory, and Toby. But, a few minutes later, there is only one. Where did the other crew member go?
7) Why did the Siren take the TARDIS? I understand that the TARDIS is alive, unlike the ship, but is there something wrong with the TARDIS besides being becalmed? I doubt it. They only made the TARDIS disappear so that they could get Rory onboard. If it was going to disappear, it should have happened before this.
8) If there are all these pieces of reflective treasure laying around, she would have total access to the ship. But, because you have to see a REFLECTION, then the treasure would have been fine being kept locked up somewhere. There was no need to throw it all overboard.
9) The Doctor calls the Siren to them by opening up the barrel of fresh water during the storm. DURING. THE. STORM. I've never been on a ship during a storm, but I'm guessing that the water isn't exactly reflection-friendly when the ship is being tossed about and there is no moon.
10) When the Siren takes the Doctor, Amy, and the Captain, they wake up on the floor of the space ship. Why aren't they in a bed like everyone else?
11) They find the aliens, and the Doctor touches them, then exclaims, "ew, alien bogies!" Wait a minute ... if the ship was becalmed for eight days, then the alien space ship must have been there for at least eight days, too. The aliens must have died pretty soon after landing there, since they're all still strapped in to their seats, and, if the Captain was able to fly the ship away, it wasn't becalmed. So why are their bogies still fresh?
12) How did the Doctor get consent from the Siren to take the TARDIS away? And how was Toby sitting up with the Captain when he flew the ship away? And all the other crew members? Did he give his consent? Is there some kind of long extension cord stretched between the bridge and the sick bay that's keeping Toby alive? I'm so confused.
Likes:
1) I did like how the Captain kept saying, "a ship's a ship". I love it when people from the past are able to grasp modern concepts. After all, they weren't stupid, just had no exposure to modern technology. It drives me crazy in books and movies when someone time travels to the past and everyone is terrified of technology. Overall, the Captain was a really good character.
Bottom line: most of this story didn't make sense, but it was kind of fun.
And now, Davy Jones has a question for Rory:
Friday, July 22, 2011
S6 Episode 2: Day of the Moon
Here we are with Part 2 of Moffat's two-part series opener. When last we left our heroes, Amy had just shot at the little girl in the astronaut outfit. But now, surprise! It's three months later and Amy is running through the desert. Canton appears and pulls out a body bag. He apparently shoots Amy, who falls to the ground and we see that her arms are covered in black marks. Canton then corners River, who is writing marks on her skin as she counts the Silence. She then jumps out of a building. He also hunts down marker-covered Rory. Amy and Rory are taken in body bags to the Doctor, who is tied in a straight jacket out in Area 51. Soldiers have built some kind of magic box around him, and as Canton closes the door, Amy and Rory burst out of their body bags. The Doctor leans against the invisible TARDIS, and they rush off to save River, who plunges into the TARDIS's swimming pool as she dives off of the building.
Reunited in the TARDIS, the group discusses the Silence, whom they have discovered have been on Earth for thousands of years - it's not an alien invasion, it's been complete domination and no one knows. Well, except for the Doctor, Rory, Amy, River, and Canton. No one else remembers after seeing them except for these guys. WTF. They've been traveling the US for three months counting how many Silence they see. Also, Amy tells the Doctor that she's not pregnant after all.
Moving on. The Doctor injects a little red light in each of their hands - it's kind of a recorder, in which they can leave themselves messages. If the light is blinking, they've left a message, which is usually "holy crap, the Silence are here!" In X-Files style, Amy and Canton apparently travel from orphanage to orphanage looking for the missing little girl. I'm not really sure how they came to the conclusion that they had to go to orphanages, but there you have it. They find an orphanage that closed down in 1967, but the guy who runs it thinks it's not 1967 yet. He's clearly messed up. Amy explores and finds a bunch of Silence hanging from the ceiling sleeping. She runs out of the room, but forgets right away that there was something there, and she continues to explore. As she approaches a door, a slot opens in it and a lady wearing an eyepatch looks through and says, "I think she's dreaming". Amy enters the room and finds a child's room with lots of pictures of the little girl. She also finds a picture of herself holding a baby. Ooh. The astronaut/little girl enters the room, followed by the Silence, and Amy starts screaming. Canton finds a Silent, too, and when he hears Amy screaming, he shoots it.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has been tinkering in Apollo 11. He is taken into custody, but Rory and Nixon walk out of the TARDIS and convinces the guards to release him.
The Doctor shows up and they find that Amy is missing, and the blinking light is laying on the floor. They can hear Amy through the light, but they don't know where she is. They find the astronaut suit, which is empty - the girl clawed her way out of it, so she must be super strong ("my kind of girl", the Doctor says. ::Shudder::) The Doctor tells them that the Silence are implanting thoughts into people's minds, giving them ideas, advancing the culture (I'm still not seeing the problem with the Silence). The reason that man decided to go to the moon was because the Silence needed a space suit. Apparently the Silence are lazy and didn't feel like building one themselves.
Back in Area 51, Canton and Nixon walk out of the super secure bunker thingie to the surprise of everyone. Inside, Canton uses Amy phone to record the Silent, whom they took hostage, saying "you should kill us all on sight".
The Doctor discovers Amy's location and takes the TARDIS there. Just as Neil Armstrong starts his famous line, "one small step for man - " the Doctor interrupts the live feed with the video of the Silent saying "you should kill us all on sight" over and over and over. He tells the Silence that they just ordered their own demise. The Silence try to give them the Dementor's Kiss, and River opens fire. They all escape, but only after River'scheesy totally awesome gun skills, where she spins around while firing her gun, take out the rest of the Silence.
The Doctor takes River back to her prison, where she snogs him. She's shocked and horrified to discover that it's the first time the Doctor has kissed her. One step closer to death, River dear! The Doctor then runs a full-body scan on Amy to see if she's pregnant, and the scan keeps oscillating between POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
The final scene shows us the little girl six months later as she regenerates. Ta da.
Epic Entrance
At first, you're all like, "whoa! Why is Canton hunting them down?" Amy pleads with him, "don't you remember the warehouse?" River asks him, "why are you doing this?" And the Doctor is all tied up. So wow, what made Canton do this? We don't know! We never find out! There is no point to this entrance, other than to demonstrate how awesome Moffat is. Seriously, there is no reason whatsoever. It's not like anyone really knew that the Doctor and his companions existed. No one else certainly knew about the Silence. Did something happen while they were going all over America looking for the Silence? Is it just a way for them to be reunited? What, they couldn't say, "look mates, we'll all reunite back on this spot on July 15"? I think this is not only an unnecessarily epic entrance, it's STUPID.
Repeat Ideas:
These aren't my typical I-have-beef-with-this repeat ideas. Just something that I've noticed has been mentioned before.
1) River says "There's always a way out" - this is what the Doctor says in The Time of Angels.
2) When Canton is hunting down Rory, he says, "I'm waiting for you to run. It would look better if I shout you while you were running." This is very similar to what is said in The Time of Angels about River Song: "Wait til she runs. Don't make it look like an execution."
Dislikes:
1) The writing all over them. It's creepy, it's shocking, but when you think about it, it's totally unnecessary. They know that there are countless Silence - do they really think they need to keep a tally? What are they going to do, take a census?
2) The flashing red lights in their hands. Umm ... why didn't the Doctor just give them, I don't know, a journal? Really, the only answer is to inject the flashing red light?
3) The Doctor's prison is comprised of zero balance dwarf star alloy. It's completely impenetrable; the blocks fuse together as they're placed on top of each other, and nothing can get in or out. Okay, cool. Wait - WTF? We haven't even been to the MOON yet - where did they get this supers awesome material? Again, it's completely ridiculous and its sole purpose is to add to the EPIC ENTRANCE. I'm more irritated the more I think about it ...
4) Nixon travels in the TARDIS. So, he's a companion now? Just like ALLLLLLL the other characters who have casually traveled in the TARDIS over the last season. It's like some kind of freaking taxicab.
5) The Doctor tells Nixon to tape everything that happens in his office. Sigh.
6) Since when does the Doctor encourage people to kill? And again, what did the Silence really do that was so bad? I feel like we don't have a good reason to get rid of them except they kill people who look at them too long.
7) I really feel like this whole Silence thing was pulled out of Moffat's rear end. The Silence clearly was connected to the Crack. Silence fell. SILENCE FELL. There are flashbacks when the Doctor learns what the Silence are called to people in Series 5 saying "Silence will fall" ... Okay, so are they telling him that the Silence will fall because of the Doctor? But then the Silent says himself, "and the Silence will fall!" Does "fall" have another meaning of which I'm unaware? I feel that the whole concept of the Silence being connected to the Crack is a real stretch. They could have been called something else and still had the same premise.
8) When the Doctor broadcasts the Silent saying, "you should kill us all on sight", it interrupts Neil Armstrong saying, "that's one small step for man -" but then picks up again with, "one small step for mankind". The video of the Silent clearly plays several times (it's not just being repeated for effect, to show that everyone around the world is seeing this). So what was Neil Armstrong saying in the interim? Seriously. It's a LIVE FEED. Also, you'll notice that after the Silent says that line, everyone turns around to see the Silence. Wait ... how did they know that the Silence were standing behind them?
Likes:
::crickets::
Okay, fine. I like Canton. Actually, to be more specific, I like Mark Sheppard.
Repeat Ideas:
1) Amy's ghosting. Yes, that's right, the only purpose for those little red lights are so that Amy can ghost, a la Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Oh, and kind of Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. It just really aggravates me that he can't come up with a new device.
2) River lands in the swimming pool. Just like she flew out of that space ship in Time of Angels and the Doctor caught her. This is aggravating to me because if he can just go back and catch her, then no one can ever truly be in peril. And seriously, is the Doctor going to keep catching her? Yawn.
Curiouser and Curiouser:
1) In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that the Doctor "dropped out of the sky". When Amy is ghosting, she says, "you dropped out of the sky", and "my life was so boring before you". We think she's talking about the Doctor, but it turns out she's talking about Rory. Come on, no she's not. She's totally talking about the Doctor, exactly in the same way that River was talking about the Doctor when he dropped out of the sky for her (when she was a little girl! Fancy that! I'm shocked! The Doctor visiting one of Moffat's characters when she was a little girl? Who'd have guessed? Seriously, though, is Moffat screwed up or what, that this is a running theme in all of his story lines?) Anyway, I'm so glad that the whole Amy/Doctor/Rory thing has been cleared up. Right.
2) The Doctor talks to Rory about when Rory was the Last Centurion. He asks if Rory remembers that. Wait ... how could Rory remember it? The whole universe got rebooted. How would he remember that if he wasn't plastic anymore? Is this a setup for what happens later in the series?
These two episodes have me so mad, I kind of wish that every time I looked away from them I'd forget how much they infuriate me.
Ahhhh ... Ianto ...
Reunited in the TARDIS, the group discusses the Silence, whom they have discovered have been on Earth for thousands of years - it's not an alien invasion, it's been complete domination and no one knows. Well, except for the Doctor, Rory, Amy, River, and Canton. No one else remembers after seeing them except for these guys. WTF. They've been traveling the US for three months counting how many Silence they see. Also, Amy tells the Doctor that she's not pregnant after all.
Moving on. The Doctor injects a little red light in each of their hands - it's kind of a recorder, in which they can leave themselves messages. If the light is blinking, they've left a message, which is usually "holy crap, the Silence are here!" In X-Files style, Amy and Canton apparently travel from orphanage to orphanage looking for the missing little girl. I'm not really sure how they came to the conclusion that they had to go to orphanages, but there you have it. They find an orphanage that closed down in 1967, but the guy who runs it thinks it's not 1967 yet. He's clearly messed up. Amy explores and finds a bunch of Silence hanging from the ceiling sleeping. She runs out of the room, but forgets right away that there was something there, and she continues to explore. As she approaches a door, a slot opens in it and a lady wearing an eyepatch looks through and says, "I think she's dreaming". Amy enters the room and finds a child's room with lots of pictures of the little girl. She also finds a picture of herself holding a baby. Ooh. The astronaut/little girl enters the room, followed by the Silence, and Amy starts screaming. Canton finds a Silent, too, and when he hears Amy screaming, he shoots it.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has been tinkering in Apollo 11. He is taken into custody, but Rory and Nixon walk out of the TARDIS and convinces the guards to release him.
The Doctor shows up and they find that Amy is missing, and the blinking light is laying on the floor. They can hear Amy through the light, but they don't know where she is. They find the astronaut suit, which is empty - the girl clawed her way out of it, so she must be super strong ("my kind of girl", the Doctor says. ::Shudder::) The Doctor tells them that the Silence are implanting thoughts into people's minds, giving them ideas, advancing the culture (I'm still not seeing the problem with the Silence). The reason that man decided to go to the moon was because the Silence needed a space suit. Apparently the Silence are lazy and didn't feel like building one themselves.
Back in Area 51, Canton and Nixon walk out of the super secure bunker thingie to the surprise of everyone. Inside, Canton uses Amy phone to record the Silent, whom they took hostage, saying "you should kill us all on sight".
The Doctor discovers Amy's location and takes the TARDIS there. Just as Neil Armstrong starts his famous line, "one small step for man - " the Doctor interrupts the live feed with the video of the Silent saying "you should kill us all on sight" over and over and over. He tells the Silence that they just ordered their own demise. The Silence try to give them the Dementor's Kiss, and River opens fire. They all escape, but only after River's
The Doctor takes River back to her prison, where she snogs him. She's shocked and horrified to discover that it's the first time the Doctor has kissed her. One step closer to death, River dear! The Doctor then runs a full-body scan on Amy to see if she's pregnant, and the scan keeps oscillating between POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
The final scene shows us the little girl six months later as she regenerates. Ta da.
Epic Entrance
At first, you're all like, "whoa! Why is Canton hunting them down?" Amy pleads with him, "don't you remember the warehouse?" River asks him, "why are you doing this?" And the Doctor is all tied up. So wow, what made Canton do this? We don't know! We never find out! There is no point to this entrance, other than to demonstrate how awesome Moffat is. Seriously, there is no reason whatsoever. It's not like anyone really knew that the Doctor and his companions existed. No one else certainly knew about the Silence. Did something happen while they were going all over America looking for the Silence? Is it just a way for them to be reunited? What, they couldn't say, "look mates, we'll all reunite back on this spot on July 15"? I think this is not only an unnecessarily epic entrance, it's STUPID.
Repeat Ideas:
These aren't my typical I-have-beef-with-this repeat ideas. Just something that I've noticed has been mentioned before.
1) River says "There's always a way out" - this is what the Doctor says in The Time of Angels.
2) When Canton is hunting down Rory, he says, "I'm waiting for you to run. It would look better if I shout you while you were running." This is very similar to what is said in The Time of Angels about River Song: "Wait til she runs. Don't make it look like an execution."
Dislikes:
1) The writing all over them. It's creepy, it's shocking, but when you think about it, it's totally unnecessary. They know that there are countless Silence - do they really think they need to keep a tally? What are they going to do, take a census?
2) The flashing red lights in their hands. Umm ... why didn't the Doctor just give them, I don't know, a journal? Really, the only answer is to inject the flashing red light?
3) The Doctor's prison is comprised of zero balance dwarf star alloy. It's completely impenetrable; the blocks fuse together as they're placed on top of each other, and nothing can get in or out. Okay, cool. Wait - WTF? We haven't even been to the MOON yet - where did they get this supers awesome material? Again, it's completely ridiculous and its sole purpose is to add to the EPIC ENTRANCE. I'm more irritated the more I think about it ...
4) Nixon travels in the TARDIS. So, he's a companion now? Just like ALLLLLLL the other characters who have casually traveled in the TARDIS over the last season. It's like some kind of freaking taxicab.
5) The Doctor tells Nixon to tape everything that happens in his office. Sigh.
6) Since when does the Doctor encourage people to kill? And again, what did the Silence really do that was so bad? I feel like we don't have a good reason to get rid of them except they kill people who look at them too long.
7) I really feel like this whole Silence thing was pulled out of Moffat's rear end. The Silence clearly was connected to the Crack. Silence fell. SILENCE FELL. There are flashbacks when the Doctor learns what the Silence are called to people in Series 5 saying "Silence will fall" ... Okay, so are they telling him that the Silence will fall because of the Doctor? But then the Silent says himself, "and the Silence will fall!" Does "fall" have another meaning of which I'm unaware? I feel that the whole concept of the Silence being connected to the Crack is a real stretch. They could have been called something else and still had the same premise.
8) When the Doctor broadcasts the Silent saying, "you should kill us all on sight", it interrupts Neil Armstrong saying, "that's one small step for man -" but then picks up again with, "one small step for mankind". The video of the Silent clearly plays several times (it's not just being repeated for effect, to show that everyone around the world is seeing this). So what was Neil Armstrong saying in the interim? Seriously. It's a LIVE FEED. Also, you'll notice that after the Silent says that line, everyone turns around to see the Silence. Wait ... how did they know that the Silence were standing behind them?
Likes:
::crickets::
Okay, fine. I like Canton. Actually, to be more specific, I like Mark Sheppard.
Repeat Ideas:
1) Amy's ghosting. Yes, that's right, the only purpose for those little red lights are so that Amy can ghost, a la Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Oh, and kind of Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. It just really aggravates me that he can't come up with a new device.
2) River lands in the swimming pool. Just like she flew out of that space ship in Time of Angels and the Doctor caught her. This is aggravating to me because if he can just go back and catch her, then no one can ever truly be in peril. And seriously, is the Doctor going to keep catching her? Yawn.
Curiouser and Curiouser:
1) In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that the Doctor "dropped out of the sky". When Amy is ghosting, she says, "you dropped out of the sky", and "my life was so boring before you". We think she's talking about the Doctor, but it turns out she's talking about Rory. Come on, no she's not. She's totally talking about the Doctor, exactly in the same way that River was talking about the Doctor when he dropped out of the sky for her (when she was a little girl! Fancy that! I'm shocked! The Doctor visiting one of Moffat's characters when she was a little girl? Who'd have guessed? Seriously, though, is Moffat screwed up or what, that this is a running theme in all of his story lines?) Anyway, I'm so glad that the whole Amy/Doctor/Rory thing has been cleared up. Right.
2) The Doctor talks to Rory about when Rory was the Last Centurion. He asks if Rory remembers that. Wait ... how could Rory remember it? The whole universe got rebooted. How would he remember that if he wasn't plastic anymore? Is this a setup for what happens later in the series?
These two episodes have me so mad, I kind of wish that every time I looked away from them I'd forget how much they infuriate me.
Ahhhh ... Ianto ...
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
S5 Episode 5: Flesh and Stone
Well, this one doesn't start out too poorly. There's a nice bit of gravity manipulation to get the team on the ship, the Angels get in, they find an oxygen forest, and Amy is doing a bit of psychotic giggling counting down.
The Crack plays a large role in this episode, and we learn that it is undoing history. Anyone who gets too near The Crack gets erased from time.
So Amy spends most of the episode with her eyes closed, and that's pretty great, because she's also keeping her mouth shut most of the time, too. There's apparently an Angel trying to get out of her brain - which is a very strange idea, but there you have it.
Of course, the Doctor saves the day, but not before the entire squad of clerics dies. The angels get sucked into The Crack and so cease to have ever existed.
Repeat Ideas:
1) This is the first instance of the threat of a character dying. Amy will die if the Angel inside of her gets out.
2) The Doctor tells Amy that "It's all about you!" This is a little too close to what happened with Donna - everything pointed to Donna, too, remember? She was soooo important. Well, again, all the signs point towards Amy.
Dislikes:
1) For the second time in two episodes, the Doctor puts his head against Amy's. What's up with all this touchy-feely crap? He also kisses her forehead. It's just creepy.
2) The Doctor loses his temper with River Song, but I don't know how much I can blame him. She is really freaking annoying. Which brings me to -
3) River just keeps getting more superior by the minute, doesn't she? The way she's going around smirking all the time, I just want to slap her.
4) When Amy cannot see, but the forest is filling up with Angels, the Doctor tells her that she needs to "walk like [she] can see". See, they'll think that she can see them and react out of instinct. In the words of Grace Adler, "Whoa!" So you're telling me that they freeze just when they think someone is watching? I thought they had no control over this aspect of their being? Okay, so let's pretend that the Angels "think" that Amy can see, and so become stone. Why, then, do they not move once she's passed them? She walks through a whole mess of Angels, and none of them move, even after she's not "looking" at them.
5) Amy trying to rape the Doctor is really horrible. Suddenly she's throwing herself at him, kissing him, groping, very extremely aggressive. It's so clownish. There's been almost no lead-up to this. Martha was classy enough to show some kind of restraint, why can't Amy?
Likes:
1) Amy in the forest is the first time in these two episodes that I've found the Angels scary. The way that they slowly turn their heads after Amy drops the walkie talkie and thrashes about looking for it for for five minutes is so scary.
After watching this, I feel better.
The Crack plays a large role in this episode, and we learn that it is undoing history. Anyone who gets too near The Crack gets erased from time.
So Amy spends most of the episode with her eyes closed, and that's pretty great, because she's also keeping her mouth shut most of the time, too. There's apparently an Angel trying to get out of her brain - which is a very strange idea, but there you have it.
Of course, the Doctor saves the day, but not before the entire squad of clerics dies. The angels get sucked into The Crack and so cease to have ever existed.
Repeat Ideas:
1) This is the first instance of the threat of a character dying. Amy will die if the Angel inside of her gets out.
2) The Doctor tells Amy that "It's all about you!" This is a little too close to what happened with Donna - everything pointed to Donna, too, remember? She was soooo important. Well, again, all the signs point towards Amy.
Dislikes:
1) For the second time in two episodes, the Doctor puts his head against Amy's. What's up with all this touchy-feely crap? He also kisses her forehead. It's just creepy.
2) The Doctor loses his temper with River Song, but I don't know how much I can blame him. She is really freaking annoying. Which brings me to -
3) River just keeps getting more superior by the minute, doesn't she? The way she's going around smirking all the time, I just want to slap her.
4) When Amy cannot see, but the forest is filling up with Angels, the Doctor tells her that she needs to "walk like [she] can see". See, they'll think that she can see them and react out of instinct. In the words of Grace Adler, "Whoa!" So you're telling me that they freeze just when they think someone is watching? I thought they had no control over this aspect of their being? Okay, so let's pretend that the Angels "think" that Amy can see, and so become stone. Why, then, do they not move once she's passed them? She walks through a whole mess of Angels, and none of them move, even after she's not "looking" at them.
5) Amy trying to rape the Doctor is really horrible. Suddenly she's throwing herself at him, kissing him, groping, very extremely aggressive. It's so clownish. There's been almost no lead-up to this. Martha was classy enough to show some kind of restraint, why can't Amy?
Likes:
1) Amy in the forest is the first time in these two episodes that I've found the Angels scary. The way that they slowly turn their heads after Amy drops the walkie talkie and thrashes about looking for it for for five minutes is so scary.
After watching this, I feel better.
Monday, May 23, 2011
S5 Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks
Wow. I don't even know where to start with this one.
At the end of Episode 2, the Doctor gets a call from Winston Churchill, who asks them to come to London.
The Doctor and Amy arrive in the middle of the London Blitz (a month after Churchill calls, surprise, surprise). It turns out that England has a secret weapon against the Nazis, and that secret weapon is DALEKS! Not only are they Daleks, they're painted in Army colors.
Well, it turns out that a scientist invented them and calls the "Ironsides". He has the schematics to prove it. Of course, the Doctor knows better, and he keeps asking the Daleks why they are there, and they just reply with, "I am your soldier!" Finally, the Doctor throws a temper tantrum and proceeds to kick and hit one of the Daleks (with a wrench) while shrieking, "I'm the Doctor! You're the Daleks! You're my worst enemies!" Wow. Of course, all he really needed to do was take the top off and show them the FREAKING DALEK LIVING INSIDE!!
The Daleks proclaim that the Doctor's testimony was accepted. It turns out that was exactly what they needed to hear. Yup, that's right. They came to Earth, built a robot scientist, and pretended to be "Ironsides" for the sole purpose of the Doctor finding them and saying that they're Daleks. It turns out that they're trying to reproduce, and the Progenator that pops out new Daleks didn't recognize them as Daleks because they were made from Davros' cells (thus, not "pure" Daleks).
With the Doctor's testimony, the Daleks are recognized for what they are, and the machine spits out new, pure Daleks - lovely, M&M-colored behemoths. They threaten to expose London during the Blitz using a huge beam of light, the robot scientist (at brilliant Amy's suggestion) makes the fighter jets space-worthy, they destroy the beam on the space ship, and London is saved.
The first time I watched this episode, I actually turned it off before the end. When the M&M Daleks rolled out of the Progenator, I'd had just about all I could take. I rewatched this the other day, and surprisingly, I didn't hate it as much. Of course, I still have some major issues.
Things that I thought were stupid:
1) The entire plot of why the Daleks put this immensely complicated plan into action. Really? All this to have the Doctor recognize them?
2) Again, if the Doctor wanted to expose them as aliens, why didn't he literally expose them? We know it's easy to take the top off a Dalek (and hide inside, and control it, a la Ian Chesteron in the First Doctor story The Daleks). Wouldn't that have been simpler?
3) As I mentioned before, I just started watching the Second Doctor episodes. We happened to watch The Power of the Daleks the other night (which is the first story of the Second Doctor. I should explain that in classic Who, each story was made up of five or six half-hour-long episodes). Well, in Episode 2, the Daleks say, "I am your serrrrrvant!" Sound familiar?
4) According to Wikipedia, there's almost the same exact plot in the classic Who episode The Evil of Daleks. Here is an excerpt: 'In Evil of the Daleks the Daleks lead the Doctor to believe that they are interested in humanising themselves when what they really want is for the Doctor to isolate "the Dalek Factor." Here, they bait the Doctor into thinking they have a sinister plan for Earth when the real plan is to restore the Daleks to what they call their "pure form".'
5) Fighter jets in space. Really? Fighter jets in space?
6) From the beginning of the episode, a pretty girl in the war room is upset because her boyfriend is fighting in the war. At the end, we find out that he was killed. WHAT was the point of this entire B-storyline? Amy looks at her strangely, but that's all there is. I don't understand why it was necessary.
7) The robot scientist kept the bomb built into him from going off simply by feeling human.
8) Amy's brilliant plan to make the fighter jets space-worthy. This is a pet peeve of mine, the girl who knows nothing about the subject making a suggestion, everyone agrees that yes, this is the perfect plan, and she ends up saving the day. Elizabeth Swann did that all the time in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it drove me nuts.
Things I liked:
1) Winston Churchill. Of course, I stood on stage next to him at ChicagoTARDIS when I won my award, and he seemed pretty cool.
2) The Army-colored Daleks. They were awesome.
3) When the new Daleks were created by the Progenator, they destroy the Army Daleks because they are inferior, due to the fact that they're not "pure" Daleks. Seeing as this episode takes place during World War II, there is a very eerie parallel here between the Daleks and the Third Reich (and Harry Potter).
And now for a palette-cleanser: Ian Chesterton hides inside a Dalek. Notice how Ian positions the plunger so it's on his neck, and then when they open the Dalek, see if you can spot the operator hiding inside!
At the end of Episode 2, the Doctor gets a call from Winston Churchill, who asks them to come to London.
The Doctor and Amy arrive in the middle of the London Blitz (a month after Churchill calls, surprise, surprise). It turns out that England has a secret weapon against the Nazis, and that secret weapon is DALEKS! Not only are they Daleks, they're painted in Army colors.
Well, it turns out that a scientist invented them and calls the "Ironsides". He has the schematics to prove it. Of course, the Doctor knows better, and he keeps asking the Daleks why they are there, and they just reply with, "I am your soldier!" Finally, the Doctor throws a temper tantrum and proceeds to kick and hit one of the Daleks (with a wrench) while shrieking, "I'm the Doctor! You're the Daleks! You're my worst enemies!" Wow. Of course, all he really needed to do was take the top off and show them the FREAKING DALEK LIVING INSIDE!!
The Daleks proclaim that the Doctor's testimony was accepted. It turns out that was exactly what they needed to hear. Yup, that's right. They came to Earth, built a robot scientist, and pretended to be "Ironsides" for the sole purpose of the Doctor finding them and saying that they're Daleks. It turns out that they're trying to reproduce, and the Progenator that pops out new Daleks didn't recognize them as Daleks because they were made from Davros' cells (thus, not "pure" Daleks).
With the Doctor's testimony, the Daleks are recognized for what they are, and the machine spits out new, pure Daleks - lovely, M&M-colored behemoths. They threaten to expose London during the Blitz using a huge beam of light, the robot scientist (at brilliant Amy's suggestion) makes the fighter jets space-worthy, they destroy the beam on the space ship, and London is saved.
The first time I watched this episode, I actually turned it off before the end. When the M&M Daleks rolled out of the Progenator, I'd had just about all I could take. I rewatched this the other day, and surprisingly, I didn't hate it as much. Of course, I still have some major issues.
Things that I thought were stupid:
1) The entire plot of why the Daleks put this immensely complicated plan into action. Really? All this to have the Doctor recognize them?
2) Again, if the Doctor wanted to expose them as aliens, why didn't he literally expose them? We know it's easy to take the top off a Dalek (and hide inside, and control it, a la Ian Chesteron in the First Doctor story The Daleks). Wouldn't that have been simpler?
3) As I mentioned before, I just started watching the Second Doctor episodes. We happened to watch The Power of the Daleks the other night (which is the first story of the Second Doctor. I should explain that in classic Who, each story was made up of five or six half-hour-long episodes). Well, in Episode 2, the Daleks say, "I am your serrrrrvant!" Sound familiar?
4) According to Wikipedia, there's almost the same exact plot in the classic Who episode The Evil of Daleks. Here is an excerpt: 'In Evil of the Daleks the Daleks lead the Doctor to believe that they are interested in humanising themselves when what they really want is for the Doctor to isolate "the Dalek Factor." Here, they bait the Doctor into thinking they have a sinister plan for Earth when the real plan is to restore the Daleks to what they call their "pure form".'
5) Fighter jets in space. Really? Fighter jets in space?
6) From the beginning of the episode, a pretty girl in the war room is upset because her boyfriend is fighting in the war. At the end, we find out that he was killed. WHAT was the point of this entire B-storyline? Amy looks at her strangely, but that's all there is. I don't understand why it was necessary.
7) The robot scientist kept the bomb built into him from going off simply by feeling human.
8) Amy's brilliant plan to make the fighter jets space-worthy. This is a pet peeve of mine, the girl who knows nothing about the subject making a suggestion, everyone agrees that yes, this is the perfect plan, and she ends up saving the day. Elizabeth Swann did that all the time in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it drove me nuts.
Things I liked:
1) Winston Churchill. Of course, I stood on stage next to him at ChicagoTARDIS when I won my award, and he seemed pretty cool.
2) The Army-colored Daleks. They were awesome.
3) When the new Daleks were created by the Progenator, they destroy the Army Daleks because they are inferior, due to the fact that they're not "pure" Daleks. Seeing as this episode takes place during World War II, there is a very eerie parallel here between the Daleks and the Third Reich (and Harry Potter).
And now for a palette-cleanser: Ian Chesterton hides inside a Dalek. Notice how Ian positions the plunger so it's on his neck, and then when they open the Dalek, see if you can spot the operator hiding inside!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
S5 Episode 2: The Beast Below
The second episode of Matt Smith's Doctor is The Beast Below. Here's a sixth-grade synopsis of the plot:
The Doctor and Amy arrive on the Starship UK, whose residents have left the uninhabitable Earth to find a new planet. There are scary robot-clown "Smilers" who send children to the beast. Amy follows a little girl and finds a huge tentacle-thing sticking out of one of the streets. She is captured by some monk-looking thugs who take her to a voting booth. She learns "the truth", then is allowed to make a choice - FORGET or PROTEST. She chooses FORGET.
Meanwhile, the Doctor puts a glass of water on the floor and notices that there are no ripples in the water, which means that there are no engines running. He is then taken by monks to meet Liz 10. Her whole chamber is filled with glasses of water.
The Doctor then finds Amy, who had somehow managed to record a video saying to get the Doctor off the ship. The Doctor shows up and sees the video, and he chooses PROTEST. He and Amy land in the throat of a giant animal.
Liz 10 and the little girl rescue the Doctor and Amy. It turns out that Liz 10 is Queen Elizabeth the 10th.
So it turns out that the thing that everyone keeps choosing to forget is that the ship is on the back of a star whale, and they have hooked up electrodes to its brain to make it go faster. The creature is being tortured, but they are are afraid that if they release the whale, the ship will be torn apart and everyone will die.
The reason that Amy chose to forget about the whale was because she didn't want the Doctor to have to choose between the whale and the British people
The Doctor flies into a rage, and he decides to make the whale braindead, so that it will continue on through space but not feel the pain. Just then, Mandy's friend (who earlier in the episode we thought had been eaten by the monster) shows up unharmed, and Mandy affectionately pets one of the giant tentacles. See, it turns out that the star whale doesn't eat children, it only eats adults, and apparently the children are just enslaved or something.
Luckily, Amy brilliantly figures out that the star whale had volunteered because the children were crying (I think Liz 10 meant metaphorically, but whatever), because she sees a similarity between the star whale and the Doctor (both are the last of their kind). To me, this was a huge stretch, but the Doctor frees the whale and they actually speed up!
Things that are ridiculous:
1) Liz 10. Not only was she a boring, classless character, it turns out she was hundreds of years old. No one questioned how that happened? All I have to say is someone who acts as ghetto as Liz 10 acted has no business being Queen. Plus, the fact that she seems extremely stupid is disheartening.
2) About twenty seconds after explaining that the whale volunteered, Amy had to repeat the idea to drive home the fact that she was comparing the star whale to the Doctor. Yeah. We get it.
3) HOW did Amy record the video? How did she figure out how to use the equipment? Why is that feature even possible? (Also, the "forgetting" and "recording" thing is something to remember for Series 6.)
3a) Why did Amy make that decision? We as viewers know it would be a tough decision for him to make, but how would she know that? She knows nothing about him, why would she take matters into her own hands?
4) The Doctor choosing to make the star whale brain dead. I felt he acted so out of character. He didn't even try to find a different solution, he just thought about it for about five seconds, threw a temper tantrum, and then decided to fry the poor thing. What?
5) They never explained why the whale doesn't eat children. How it can tell the difference between child and adult when a hunk of meat is simply dropped into its esophagus is beyond me. And why are the children enslaved then? I assume that the monks are in charge of that, but what happens when they become adults? Do they just get chucked back into the mouth? It's not like they can show up back in the ship. People would ask questions.
6) The water in Liz 10's chamber: she says that it's there to remind her that there is a secret being kept from her. Really? That's ... that's why the water is there? Not because all those people figured out something was wrong and the monks brought those people to her, and now they're her spies/monks/etc? LAME.
Things I liked:
1) I did like Amy at the beginning of this episode, but when she suddenly figured it all out, she became annoying.
2) I loved Liz 10's costume, but she turned out to be so boring that I wouldn't want to cosplay her.
3) Because we've already seen in previous episodes that the Earth becomes inhabitable, it was nice to see humans on their way out to find other planets.
4) I'm going to assume that the star whale is related to the poor thing in Torchwood that had its meat harvested.
5) The whales "tentacles" were SOOOO the wrong scale. Unless each of those was a hair.
And now, here's a non-Who palette-cleanser:
The Doctor and Amy arrive on the Starship UK, whose residents have left the uninhabitable Earth to find a new planet. There are scary robot-clown "Smilers" who send children to the beast. Amy follows a little girl and finds a huge tentacle-thing sticking out of one of the streets. She is captured by some monk-looking thugs who take her to a voting booth. She learns "the truth", then is allowed to make a choice - FORGET or PROTEST. She chooses FORGET.
Meanwhile, the Doctor puts a glass of water on the floor and notices that there are no ripples in the water, which means that there are no engines running. He is then taken by monks to meet Liz 10. Her whole chamber is filled with glasses of water.
The Doctor then finds Amy, who had somehow managed to record a video saying to get the Doctor off the ship. The Doctor shows up and sees the video, and he chooses PROTEST. He and Amy land in the throat of a giant animal.
Liz 10 and the little girl rescue the Doctor and Amy. It turns out that Liz 10 is Queen Elizabeth the 10th.
So it turns out that the thing that everyone keeps choosing to forget is that the ship is on the back of a star whale, and they have hooked up electrodes to its brain to make it go faster. The creature is being tortured, but they are are afraid that if they release the whale, the ship will be torn apart and everyone will die.
The reason that Amy chose to forget about the whale was because she didn't want the Doctor to have to choose between the whale and the British people
The Doctor flies into a rage, and he decides to make the whale braindead, so that it will continue on through space but not feel the pain. Just then, Mandy's friend (who earlier in the episode we thought had been eaten by the monster) shows up unharmed, and Mandy affectionately pets one of the giant tentacles. See, it turns out that the star whale doesn't eat children, it only eats adults, and apparently the children are just enslaved or something.
Luckily, Amy brilliantly figures out that the star whale had volunteered because the children were crying (I think Liz 10 meant metaphorically, but whatever), because she sees a similarity between the star whale and the Doctor (both are the last of their kind). To me, this was a huge stretch, but the Doctor frees the whale and they actually speed up!
Things that are ridiculous:
1) Liz 10. Not only was she a boring, classless character, it turns out she was hundreds of years old. No one questioned how that happened? All I have to say is someone who acts as ghetto as Liz 10 acted has no business being Queen. Plus, the fact that she seems extremely stupid is disheartening.
2) About twenty seconds after explaining that the whale volunteered, Amy had to repeat the idea to drive home the fact that she was comparing the star whale to the Doctor. Yeah. We get it.
3) HOW did Amy record the video? How did she figure out how to use the equipment? Why is that feature even possible? (Also, the "forgetting" and "recording" thing is something to remember for Series 6.)
3a) Why did Amy make that decision? We as viewers know it would be a tough decision for him to make, but how would she know that? She knows nothing about him, why would she take matters into her own hands?
4) The Doctor choosing to make the star whale brain dead. I felt he acted so out of character. He didn't even try to find a different solution, he just thought about it for about five seconds, threw a temper tantrum, and then decided to fry the poor thing. What?
5) They never explained why the whale doesn't eat children. How it can tell the difference between child and adult when a hunk of meat is simply dropped into its esophagus is beyond me. And why are the children enslaved then? I assume that the monks are in charge of that, but what happens when they become adults? Do they just get chucked back into the mouth? It's not like they can show up back in the ship. People would ask questions.
6) The water in Liz 10's chamber: she says that it's there to remind her that there is a secret being kept from her. Really? That's ... that's why the water is there? Not because all those people figured out something was wrong and the monks brought those people to her, and now they're her spies/monks/etc? LAME.
Things I liked:
1) I did like Amy at the beginning of this episode, but when she suddenly figured it all out, she became annoying.
2) I loved Liz 10's costume, but she turned out to be so boring that I wouldn't want to cosplay her.
3) Because we've already seen in previous episodes that the Earth becomes inhabitable, it was nice to see humans on their way out to find other planets.
4) I'm going to assume that the star whale is related to the poor thing in Torchwood that had its meat harvested.
5) The whales "tentacles" were SOOOO the wrong scale. Unless each of those was a hair.
And now, here's a non-Who palette-cleanser:
Friday, May 20, 2011
S5 Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour
From the minute that Matt Smith was announced as the Eleventh Doctor, I didn't like him. My husband says that I don't like him solely because he's not David Tennant, but that's not true: when the episode The Next Doctor aired, and everyone thought that David Morrissey might be #11, I was really excited. I thought he was fantastic, and though we knew from the beginning of the episode that he couldn't be the next Doctor, I would have been so pleased with him in that role.
When Ten regenerated into Eleven at the end of The End of Time, the first thought that popped into my head was that Matt Smith looked like Lurch. However, my favorite episodes have all been Steven Moffat episodes, so while I went in thinking/knowing I wouldn't like Smith, I thought I'd still enjoy the writing. So, with the assumption that you, dear readers, have watched all of these episodes, let's examine Series 5, Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour.
We start out with little Amelia Pond praying to Santa Claus, which I thought was brilliant. The TARDIS crash-lands in her backyard, and a newly-regenerated Doctor climbs out. So far, so good.
He then proceeds to demand food, but everything that Amelia gives him, he spits out, throws out, or does something equally ridiculous. At this point, I think my husband fell in love with him, but I thought the performance was way over the top. I felt like Smith was trying to emulate Tennant, (which would make sense, since he's still regenerating), but that he went too far.
I'll pause for a moment to say that I think Amelia is amazing in every way. Not only does Caitlin Blackwood do a fantastic job, the character is intriguing and extremely likable.
So then the Doctor rushes back to his TARDIS, promising to return in five minutes, yells "Geronimo!" (yes, you just heard the sound of my teeth grinding) and disappears. He does return - twelve years later - and meets a grown-up Amelia Pond, who now goes by the name of Amy. She's very headstrong, very independent, and she doesn't listen to him. That last trait is eerily similar to Donna, and that was what I disliked most about that character. But still, Amy seems to be a worthy companion. Of course, she's dressed inappropriately, but that's only because she's a "kiss-o-gram", right?
By the way, she dresses up as a sexy cop/sexy French maid, goes to parties and kisses guys. This is her job. The first time I saw the episode I thought the "kiss-o-gram" idea was funny, but now I'm a bit disturbed by it. I don't know how things are like in England, but to me that seems like a very short step away from being a prostitute.
Amy finds Prisoner Zero, which is pretty scary, as he can take different forms and has a hard time "getting the mouths right".
So we meet Prisoner Zero, go to the village, and come to the next really annoying thing: what the Doctor sees. We see the scene in the way that the Doctor sees it - fast motion, 360°, close-ups, etc. I should mention that I would find this a really fantastic device, except that Steven Moffat has already used it - in his Sherlock series! He often shows us in this same manner how Sherlock analyzes a crime scene. I think we can classify this POV device as Moffat's first "repeat" idea of the series, which itself becomes a dominant theme in the Eleventh Doctor episodes.
Actually, I take that back. The first repeat of Moffat's is the Amelia/Amy storyline. He meets Amelia as a young girl and says he'll return in five minutes, but when he returns, she's an adult. In The Girl in the Fireplace, he also first meets Reinette as a young girl, then disappears and returns when she's a young woman. When he tells Amelia he'll be back, she immediately packs so she can travel with him, even though he doesn't invite her along. However, he does invite Madam de Pompadour, says he'll be back in five minutes, then returns in time to see her funeral carriage leaving the palace. In addition, when the Doctor looks at the crack in Amy's wall, he says that she's "got some cowboys in here", which is what he says when he reads Reinette's mind. Oh, Steven.
By this time we've met Rory, and I immediately liked him; he has an air of innocence and, while he seems a bit daft, I think he's smarter than people give him credit for.
After saving the world from both Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, the Doctor runs back to his repaired TARDIS, leaves, and then accidentally comes back two years later. He takes Amy off for an adventure, and we close on a shot of her wedding dress hanging in the wardrobe ... and here we go again, another girl in love with the Doctor.
When Rose was in love with the Doctor, it was okay. She didn't moon over him, and she never made a big deal about it. The only time she was obvious was in Doomsday, when she confessed her love. But, pouting about how the Doctor didn't return her affection was all that Desperate Martha ever did. It was a dominant theme, and extremely tiresome. I really cannot face another character pining after the Doctor.
At the end of The Eleventh Hour, I had mixed feelings. While I loved Amelia and liked Amy, I felt like the Doctor was over-the-top.
Here's a little palette-cleanser:
When Ten regenerated into Eleven at the end of The End of Time, the first thought that popped into my head was that Matt Smith looked like Lurch. However, my favorite episodes have all been Steven Moffat episodes, so while I went in thinking/knowing I wouldn't like Smith, I thought I'd still enjoy the writing. So, with the assumption that you, dear readers, have watched all of these episodes, let's examine Series 5, Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour.
We start out with little Amelia Pond praying to Santa Claus, which I thought was brilliant. The TARDIS crash-lands in her backyard, and a newly-regenerated Doctor climbs out. So far, so good.
He then proceeds to demand food, but everything that Amelia gives him, he spits out, throws out, or does something equally ridiculous. At this point, I think my husband fell in love with him, but I thought the performance was way over the top. I felt like Smith was trying to emulate Tennant, (which would make sense, since he's still regenerating), but that he went too far.
I'll pause for a moment to say that I think Amelia is amazing in every way. Not only does Caitlin Blackwood do a fantastic job, the character is intriguing and extremely likable.
So then the Doctor rushes back to his TARDIS, promising to return in five minutes, yells "Geronimo!" (yes, you just heard the sound of my teeth grinding) and disappears. He does return - twelve years later - and meets a grown-up Amelia Pond, who now goes by the name of Amy. She's very headstrong, very independent, and she doesn't listen to him. That last trait is eerily similar to Donna, and that was what I disliked most about that character. But still, Amy seems to be a worthy companion. Of course, she's dressed inappropriately, but that's only because she's a "kiss-o-gram", right?
By the way, she dresses up as a sexy cop/sexy French maid, goes to parties and kisses guys. This is her job. The first time I saw the episode I thought the "kiss-o-gram" idea was funny, but now I'm a bit disturbed by it. I don't know how things are like in England, but to me that seems like a very short step away from being a prostitute.
Amy finds Prisoner Zero, which is pretty scary, as he can take different forms and has a hard time "getting the mouths right".
So we meet Prisoner Zero, go to the village, and come to the next really annoying thing: what the Doctor sees. We see the scene in the way that the Doctor sees it - fast motion, 360°, close-ups, etc. I should mention that I would find this a really fantastic device, except that Steven Moffat has already used it - in his Sherlock series! He often shows us in this same manner how Sherlock analyzes a crime scene. I think we can classify this POV device as Moffat's first "repeat" idea of the series, which itself becomes a dominant theme in the Eleventh Doctor episodes.
Actually, I take that back. The first repeat of Moffat's is the Amelia/Amy storyline. He meets Amelia as a young girl and says he'll return in five minutes, but when he returns, she's an adult. In The Girl in the Fireplace, he also first meets Reinette as a young girl, then disappears and returns when she's a young woman. When he tells Amelia he'll be back, she immediately packs so she can travel with him, even though he doesn't invite her along. However, he does invite Madam de Pompadour, says he'll be back in five minutes, then returns in time to see her funeral carriage leaving the palace. In addition, when the Doctor looks at the crack in Amy's wall, he says that she's "got some cowboys in here", which is what he says when he reads Reinette's mind. Oh, Steven.
By this time we've met Rory, and I immediately liked him; he has an air of innocence and, while he seems a bit daft, I think he's smarter than people give him credit for.
After saving the world from both Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, the Doctor runs back to his repaired TARDIS, leaves, and then accidentally comes back two years later. He takes Amy off for an adventure, and we close on a shot of her wedding dress hanging in the wardrobe ... and here we go again, another girl in love with the Doctor.
When Rose was in love with the Doctor, it was okay. She didn't moon over him, and she never made a big deal about it. The only time she was obvious was in Doomsday, when she confessed her love. But, pouting about how the Doctor didn't return her affection was all that Desperate Martha ever did. It was a dominant theme, and extremely tiresome. I really cannot face another character pining after the Doctor.
At the end of The Eleventh Hour, I had mixed feelings. While I loved Amelia and liked Amy, I felt like the Doctor was over-the-top.
Here's a little palette-cleanser:
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