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the_deep_magicRemember when I said I was gonna watch Doctor Who? And then I watched Doctor Who, and then I said I was going to write about watching Doctor Who? Well, this is that.
So, I am all up to date on nu!Who (including this current season, because the intertubez are amazing). I shall divide my commentary up by Doctor to attempt to force some kind of rudimentary structure on my thoughts. Also, I should have been writing this as I went along, because I started watching in... May? And finished season six at the beginning of August? And a shit-ton of Life Stuff has happened since then, so don't expect, like, scholarly analysis. Spoilers for each, obviously.
Nine
They say your first Doctor is your Doctor, but the internet had already primed me with so much Tennant love that Christopher Eccleston didn't quite win me over. Odds are good that, if he'd stayed on for more than one season, I would have gotten a better feel for his Doctor (er, innuendo unintentional) and thus warmed up to him. I did, however, buy the relationship that developed between him and Rose, much more so than I thought I would. Poor Mickey, though. He gets treated so badly by everyone and, especially in this season, doesn't seem to have any self-esteem whatsoever.
As I believe I said before, I initially regretted watching Torchwood before Doctor Who, since it made what was cheesy in the first place seem pay-extra-for-a-double-topping of cheesy. I almost didn't make it through the Slitheen two-parter because the rubber suits were just so, so awful, and I can certainly appreciate a bit of sophmoric humor from time to time, but the constant fart jokes were making me cringe with second-hand embarrassment. However, I quickly got used to it (and I think they must've upped the show's budget) to the point that, when I went back to watch season one of Torchwood to see how it fit back in the Who!verse, I thought Torchwood seemed to take itself way too seriously (evil fairies? bitch, please!).
Anywho (hurrr, I'll only use that once), as dramatic as this season finale was... I didn't quite get the Bad Wolf thing. I get that it's an ontological paradox -- Rose sending a message to herself so she can go back and send the message -- but where did the phrase originally come from? Did it just happen to be the name of the station? What's the significance of that particular phrase? Was I just not paying close enough attention, because I'll allow for that.
Ten
So, yeah, Ten is my Doctor. Due in a large part to my preconceptions of the show, yes, but also because I think David Tennant got the balance right (though I think Matt Smith is growing into it more and more). You have to believe this guy has seen so much that he has trouble taking most things seriously, but also that he can be very, very dangerous -- to the point of coming unhinged -- when pushed. With Christopher Eccleston I only got the latter and Matt Smith I initially only got the former (though, like I said, I think that's changing), but I felt like Tennant nailed it pretty much from the first episode. (Though I suppose you could make the argument that Rose humanized Nine, who had been traveling alone for a long time [??? not familiar with old!Who] so by the time he regenerated he had an easier sense of humor.)
I feel like the season two episodes were really hit (The Girl in the Fireplace, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit) or miss (School Reunion, The Idiot's Lantern), with little in between. I don't find the Cybermen particularly compelling villains, though of course I found Rose's (initial) departure from the show perfectly heartbreaking.
HATED Donna Noble in "The Runaway Bride," but I think I was supposed to, so it worked.
Season three had by far the best stand-alone episodes (The Shakespeare Code, 42, Blink), and Human Nature/The Family of Blood is quite simply one of the best things I've ever seen on television. Except for the stupid fucking scarecrow henchmen that I guess were supposed to scare the kiddies, ugh. Oh, and it took me forever to realize that Jessica Hynes is actually Jessica Stevenson from Spaced, despite the existence of IMDb. The whole Martha-pining-for-the-Doctor subplot throughout the season felt completely tacked on, since I thought David Tennant and Freema Agyeman had excellent platonic chemistry.
Thought the season-ender was great, though the deus ex machina this-literally-never-happened deal was a cop out. C'mon, guys, you were so tapped out you had to steal the ending from the first Superman movie? Really? Really? Jack Harkness for the motherfucking win, though. Why isn't he in all the things? (Innuendo intentional.)
On to season four --ended up loving Donna Noble, as her character was actually given room to grow and change, like one would imagine would happen if one were taken on crazy time-and-space travel adventures. I also liked the progression of the companions as getting older and more mature, instead of "we've got to have a younger, hotter girl every season!" Bless you, non-American TV. The season itself was uneven, but Donna had the biggest impact on the Doctor out of all the companions, and her fate in "Journey's End" was shockingly tragic. It wasn't even bittersweet like "Doomsday," which you pretty much expected -- it was just bitter, but necessary, and I think it was a really ballsy move by the writers even though it hurt.
Oh, and "Midnight" was perhaps the only Doctor Who episode that I found genuinely frightening. ("Blink" was awesome -- one of the best episodes of the show -- but it didn't quite scare me.) I love the base-under-siege trope when it's done well (see: The X Files' "Ice").
As for the specials, "The Next Doctor" and "The Planet of Dead" were pretty meh (especially the latter), but "The Waters of Mars" was superb (hah, base-under-siege again), with the Doctor finally going too far and realizing it. Really, really excellent performances all around and great character development. "The End of Time" was okay, but the ending was maudlin compared with "Journey's End." Plus, Martha and Mickey getting together? What?
Eleven
I really, really was not expecting to like anything from season five on -- not just because there was a new Doctor, but because I knew the aesthetic of the whole show changed, and I was sure I would be comparing it to seasons two through four-and-a-half and just sighing about the Good Old Days. But even though it took Matt Smith most of the season, I think, to really get into the character's head, I ended up continuing to enjoy the show just as much. I was glad that Rory went from being Mickey-Redux to a real, fleshed-out character who genuinely loves Amy (and who is actually pretty damned attractive in his own, geeky right).
I also thought that Russell T. Davies had started over-relying on the Daleks as villains, so I was glad that they were mostly absent from season five. Didn't like what they did with the Weeping Angels, though -- at first I was excited to see them brought back, but that two-parter kind of ruined their mystique by changing the rules (they're shown moving, they no longer cover their eyes, an image of an Angel is an Angel, etc.). As awesome as they were, they ought to have been left as one-off villains.
As far as Steven Moffat's supposed sexism -- I only heard of that recently, after I'd finished watching through season six. Whatever he's said in interviews (I honestly don't know -- all that I see is wank about it, not whatever it is he actually said), I don't think it comes through on the show, and I'm usually fairly sensitive to these things. This isn't to say that no one is allowed to take issue with Moffat's creative work or that the sexism isn't there, just that I didn't personally see it during a casual watch.
Season six was pretty consistently awesome. The only thing that really, truly never made sense to me was Rory and Amy's reaction to realizing River was their daughter. Perhaps this is a function of the episodes being filmed out of order, but Amy's never really given space to grieve that her child was stolen from her, or that they'll never get to raise her, especially given the later revelation that Amy can't have any more children. It's just "wow, okay, shocking plot twist, now a few more one-shot episodes and let's wrap this season up." Their only daughter was stolen from them and they never really even attempted to get her back.
"The Doctor's Wife" is brilliant, but, well: Neil Gaiman. Not much more to say.
I'm a little unsure of this season so far -- the whole "Rory and Amy broke up over a serious issue, no wait they're back together and it's okay" thing was just bizarre. I guess they're setting up their departure from the show, but it's kind of an ass way to go about it. And everybody seemed kind of OOC in the Wild West episode, but it's very different watching from week to week versus binging on four episodes at a time, so I'm not passing any judgment yet.
Okay, I probably left out about a million things I meant to say, but I've been writing this for too long. One general question I did have: DW (and Torchwood, to some extent) features a lot of interracial romantic relationships. Are they more common in the UK than in the US, or was this a choice on the part of the writers/producers/whoever? (Yes, I do live in the South, but Florida and Georgia actually have the same percentage of interracial marriages as New York, and actually more than a lot of the New England states, so it's not Segregationville.) Anyway, it just jumped out as different to me (in a good way) and I wondered if it was a conscious choice or a reflection of different demographics.
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Out of order comment is out of order *meh*
Date: 2012-09-18 03:48 pm (UTC)I stopped watching for like three years after Tennant's first season. I mean, one good episode that didn't even really interest me was just... not enough... (Girl in the Fireplace, yay Moffat)
I ADORED Donna (outside "Runaway Bride" that is) and FINALLY we can get the hell away from that stupid "Oh, I'm in WUV WIF YEW DOKTOR!" bullshit. Yeah, Tennant's hot (so was Eccleston in a big nose and ear kind of way) but the doctor has ALWAYS been way too flighty for anyone with half a brain to actually want to DATE him (Guess that's why Rose went for it and Martha decided to go off on her own)... Screw senseless that's another matter ENTIRELY
btw, WAS Martha with Mickey? I thought she was just with some faceless guy and Mickey was a colleague who had matured and evolved since the Doctor had last stormed through his life...
"Midnight:" Mother FUCK I actually had nightmares for a couple days after that one. "Waters of Mars" got me too.
I cried after "Journey's End." It's just... happy ending, but she remembers NONE of it... all that, together and then... just fuck...
RORY! ^.^ Rory's my favorite ^.^ (helps he's a gangly fucker with a nose like a flugelhorn)
I'm not sure if I loved or hated the second Angels arc... I loved more angels, I HATED that they moved; in fact, my headcannon says they weren't moving, but in sheer terror we THOUGHT they were moving. I mean, the idea that an image of an angel is also an angel means we're watching angels, they can't move if we're watching. So, yeah, that was bullshit.
I'm okay with them not covering their eyes 24-7 in the episode though, because they were established to uncover and look at their prey just before the "kill." (and River started to get just a LITTLE too frequent... She's a fun character, but too much of a good thing n'@)
I'm not deep into Doctor Who fandom, though I'm a die-hard fan, but I've heard about the whole sexism with Amy malarkey, and I gotta just sit scratching my head... Amy's a STRONG female persona... Yeah, she makes changes and sacrifices to accommodate her boyfriend, but isn't that a GOOD thing? At no point does she sacrifice her sense of self. Someone who NEVER compromises isn't empowering, they're just a dick... I find that Amy and Rory would be so poor at communicating as to NEVER have the "I'm sorry I can't have your 'babbys'. *sob*" / "Oh, I wuff oo anyway; we'll adopt." conversation to be unbelievable, but I guess stories are boring without at least a LITTLE drama...
Haven't seen the wild west episode yet, but you've just reminded me I'm behind, so... TONIGHT THERE WILL BE TIMETRAVEL!
God, this rambled all OVER the fucking place XD hope SOME of it made sense...
........... Rory.... *happy-sigh*
Re: Out of order comment is out of order *meh*
Date: 2012-09-19 03:32 am (UTC)Yes, Martha and Mickey were definitely married (ugh, alliteration). I don't know what happened to faceless-doctor-dude.
and River started to get just a LITTLE too frequent... She's a fun character, but too much of a good thing n'@
Agreed. The whole breaking-out-of-prison every week got to be a little too Sideshow Bob.
I find that Amy and Rory would be so poor at communicating as to NEVER have the "I'm sorry I can't have your 'babbys'. *sob*" / "Oh, I wuff oo anyway; we'll adopt." conversation to be unbelievable, but I guess stories are boring without at least a LITTLE drama...
While I CAN see them actually talking about it, the fact that this entire plot point was dealt with in TWO LINES OF DIALOGUE was just fucking nuts. Perhaps they'll actually address it further before they leave the show? I mean, it'll probably be some kind of magical "OK, WE CAN MAGICALLY HAVE BABIES NOW, BYE DOCTOR," but at least they'll have treated it as an actual thing.
Re: Out of order comment is out of order *meh*
Date: 2012-09-19 04:13 am (UTC)Moffat worship boils down to: What's your favorite episode? He wrote it or was a major creative contributor.
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Date: 2012-09-19 06:31 am (UTC)the only thing i like about current!who is rory. davies was madness, but something about the way he wrote characters just worked for me. i did like season 5, but i'm just not really enjoying 6. lol, preferences.
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Date: 2012-09-20 04:28 am (UTC)Glad you take such a positive view of it. I happened to look on the Fandom Wank Wiki (I was actually looking for something else) and one of the main descriptions for Doctor Who was "has been whining for longer than your fandom exists."
Aaaaaand that's why I'm enjoying the show and steering clear of the fandom. Which is a shame, because all kinds of cool people watch it. I feel like I've leveled up in Nerd-dom.
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Date: 2012-09-21 12:16 am (UTC)i have no idea what goes on in internet land. definitely not a fandom participator beyond enjoying the odd gif-set on tumblr. the show is often visually pleasing, even when i'm not necessarily enjoying it that much. BUT i'm excited for the new girl. i think i'm just getting bored with the current state of things.
your should post your thoughts on it more often! :)
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Date: 2012-09-21 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 02:20 am (UTC)