Reviewing Dr Who

[andrewducker]

The bestest thing about the internet is that I don't actually have to review Doctor Who, because better writers have already done it for me.

So I can simply point you at the Millenium Elephant's review of Let's Kill Hitler and Night Terrors, and strange_complex's review of The Girl Who Waited.

My summary reviews of which would be: "Great fun, and finally got some bloody explanations in place", "Some nice atmosphere wasted on a complete mess of a story" and "Gosh that was a lot of fun, but the middle sagged a lot."

(Spoilers in the comments, I'd imagine)

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Heh - thanks for the props! :-)

[andrewducker]

Thanks for writing an awesome review!

[andrewducker]

My main problem with The Girl Who Waited was how incredibly uber-competent Amy seemed to have become. Fair enough that she'd picked up a sword and some armour from the museum artefacts littered around the place, but someone seemed to have taught her some leet skillz to go with them.

Plus learning to hack the main computer. And, of all things, building her own sonic screwdriver. WTF?

Also, it looked very much like her hatred of The Doctor was based on the original conversation with her future self (in which her future self refused to help her and told her that they'd abandoned her), but it would have been nice to have had a tiny amount of confirmation of that.

However, big bonus points for telling the kind of story that can only really be told in a show about a time-traveller couple.

[chrisvenus]

Yeah, with respect to the how competent Amy became it is possible that her hacking of the interface was just done verbally (she demonstrated how she was exploring differet ways of asking questions to get what she wanted) - she may have just worked out how to effectively persuade it to just do what she wanted and it might then also be that which taught her how to make her sonic probe. Or there might have been a big library somewhere that she could just learn from. 36 years is a long time and when there is no company you have plenty of time for study. :)

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

The big thing that bugged me about 'The Girl Who Waited' was the lack of a callback to Rory waiting two millennia for Amy outside the Pandorica, or waiting one hundred years for her in the halls of the House-Tardis, or even Young Amy waiting ten years for the Doctor. Especially in relation to Rory's waits, I had a bit of a hard time caring about Amy losing a mere 36 years.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

yes - that really bugged me too, otherwise I liked it the most since the Doctor's Wife but I'm not massively impressed with this series.

[camies.livejournal.com]

me too ("36 years? Rory waited 2000 years!"). Weirdly I had a dream last night about someone building a small brick tower around themselves - I'm sure it was related to the episode. Although w/r/t Young Amy she wasn't only waiting presumably, she was having a proper growing up as well.

[andrewducker]

I do think there's a difference between waiting while not aging, and waiting for half of your lifespan. And also between the places they aged in.

But a mention would have been nice.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Aye 2,000 in a safe dark place with a good book is my idea of heaven.

36 years being chased by handbots in mortal fear for my life and running through lots of really, really nice places - less good for me.

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

Also, were those the Tennant glasses he turned into the Rory-cam?

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I am in no way claiming to be a better writer than you, but in case you're interested, since you posted this I've also put up a review of The Girl Who Waited, with a very different take than strange_complex.

[andrewducker]

I linked particularly to those ones because they matched how I felt about the episodes. Not that your post wasn't interesting or well written, it just doesn't match what I would have written.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't suggesting you should link to it! Just thought you might be interested and wasn't sure how likely you were to come across it if I didn't mention it, since I know you're pretty busy.

[andrewducker]

Aah! Sorry, misunderstood! Yes, I read it. I read everything on my friends list, particularly interesting posts on Doctor Who:-)

[lizw.livejournal.com]

:-)

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this episode more than I’ve enjoyed any other episode since the summer break. Much more. Much much more.

I’m willing to believe that in 36 years Older Amy became pretty competent. Given that the alternative to competence would be (possibly) death.

There are a couple of “But if you think about it” moments such as; if Amy can hack the interface why can’t she persuade it that she is not a native and that they need to be a little more cautious in their medical care of her so that she can live there in comfort?

I’m not too hung up on the gender issues. I think, if you are going to accept that this Amy and Rory are a love story of cosmic significance then you have to accept that they will both do crazy things for Lurve that betray their gender warrior role. Also, it’s okay for Rory to wait for 2,000 years because men always turn up early for a date and expect to be kept waiting.

My only significant complaint about the episode is the handwavium reason for not taking Older Amy.

Can you save Older Amy?

No - Having both Amys on the TARDIS creates a PARADOX.

Yeah, but paradoxes happen all the time here.

No, you misunderstand, this isn’t a paradox, it’s a PARADOX – we got it from Marks and Spencers.

Okay – fine but you guy are re-writing the history of the universe every second season finale. In which case, can we have both Amys on the TARDIS for a little?

NO! You just can’t because it’s a more emotional ending if Older Amy dies and, besides, Karen Gillan refused to dress up in rubber for the rest of the series. Please stop asking me questions now. Sit down and feel the cool like a good boy. I will tell you when you may applaud.


I’m sure that there are plenty of reasons why this paradox is so much worse than any of the other paradoxes that are kicking about but that’s not the real reason why this paradox sticks and other paradoxes don’t.

The emotion and the practicalities of production are subservient to the story and the story is subservient to the science / magic. That’s fine but I continue to struggle with the lack of continuity & causality / sonic screwdriver beats Paper & Scissors & Rock / Deus ex machine aspects of the plotting.