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tencrushbefore you all get me totally wrong here, I didn't hate The End of Time, far from it. I didn't LOVE it either.
The interaction between Ten and Wilf was MAGIC. It was wonderfully written, heartwarming, tragic, etc etc, I loved every minute of it, including the end, the knocking, the regeneration, all of it. Kudos, Russell, that was beautiful stuff. The scene between the Doctor and the Master, again, great things going on there (if a little OTT homoerotic, no, I'm not a huge Doctor/Master fan, guys, sorry) but Simm especially put in a stellar performance (certainly given his cringeworthy madness in part one) The problem I have with Russell as a sci-fi writer is the fact that he does this sort of drama quite well, but he forsakes everything sci-fi for the sake of playing it out. The actual plot gets handwaved or downright forgotten about in favour of some superbly written dramatic scenes. I STILL don't quite know what happened to the Master. He served his dramatic purpose and poof, he was gone. His plot to change everyone into himself, poof, literally handwaved better by the shouty Timothy Dalton. Donna's head exploding, being pursued by many Masters, POOF, all better, fixed that for you. MAGIC! It's ALL setup and there's NEVER any payoff, plotwise. For me, it all smacks too much of string-pulling, and I find Rusty's Hand Of God incredibly EVIDENT when watching, I find it hard to be ENGROSSED, because of the reduction of the characters to plot puppets when it suits, when it's convenient. Pick them up, drop them into this scene, as great as this scene may be, it bugs me when the mechanics of writing are on display to this extent. Don't need that anymore, screw it up, bin it, Naismith (and that incestuous weirdness with his daughter?? Never mind, let's just drop it), the Master, the aliens, done with them, let them fall by the wayside. It's sloppy, nothing ever goes anywhere. But then that scene with Wilf in the radiation box (What was the radiation story again? Where did it come from and why? Doesn't matter, handwave, it's just a convenient writing tool, again, to drive us towards the dramatic event. Don't let that bug you, let it lie.) it was beautiful, it was a great, pointless way to regenerate, yes, it even makes the Doctor jumping from a spaceship, through a roof and living fall into place, because in the end, it's this one little silly, stupid thing that makes him have to leave. Beautiful.
And then we get to the self-indulgent end. AWWWFUCK RUSSELL. WHY?? ("I don't want to go," Rusty? Really? Way to make him A DICK again in every sense. FAIL.) Why does Ten deserve rewards? Why does Ten deserve a bigger, better, more sickly sentimental sendoff than any other Doctor? Oh, that's right, Rusty, because in your mind, and, crucially, in Ten's mind, Ten is a MORE AWESOME AND SPECIALER DOCTOR than any Doctor that has come before or will come after. And, of course, the problem there arises if you're the sort of person who desn't share that opinion of Ten. If you think he's, say, a bit of a dick. Because when you think that, you think Ten's special goodbyes are just self-congratulatory wank on Russell's part. Which is where the episode fell down for me. The whole premise of these goodbye scenes existing was, for me, a step too far in the backslapping department. For a moment, I thought Who had suddenly segued into Who Confidential and we were watching a montage of Ten set to, I don't know, a Coldplay song. Or James Blunt, or something. And then, of course, there was the actual content of the scenes. The Rose one, funnily enough, was fine, and actually kind of sweet. The Sarah Jane one was okay too. The rest? Nah. Jack gets a new piece of ass to make him forget about THE KILLING HIS OWN GRANDSON WITH THE BLOOD POURING OUT OF HIM AND SHIT. Yeah... tasteful. Martha and Mickey get married. Yeah, because they're both black and stuff, right? She was happily engaged, but let's handwave that for a moment and set them up for no reason. Because otherwise we'd be leaving Mickey UNATTACHED. And, of course, the lesson in all of this, yes we'll get to Donna in a minute, is that UNATTACHED IS THE MOST PATHETIC AND WORTHLESS THING TO BE IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Sorry, single peeps out there, you're not really happy until you're married (if you're straight). Or fucking a guy in uniform (if you're gay, because let's face it, Captain Jack is mostly gay and not particularly omnisexual at all. Except when he's marrying wimmins because wimmins need COMMITMENT, not like sailors, sailors don't need that girly shit.) So, anyway, yeah, Donna gets a happy end, not by getting back her mind or her agency or by being allowed to be her awesome self, but by being married off and being given moneys. In the end, that's the happiest end anybody could ever want.
Hmmmm. Up to the faily goodbyes I was quite liking The End of Time. Then those things happened and I hated it. But the Eleven came and I LOVE HIM SO MUCH ALREADY. Dudes... he has legs! Excellent.
Okay, so my verdict's a bit incoherent, but no more incoherent than the episodes, surely.
The interaction between Ten and Wilf was MAGIC. It was wonderfully written, heartwarming, tragic, etc etc, I loved every minute of it, including the end, the knocking, the regeneration, all of it. Kudos, Russell, that was beautiful stuff. The scene between the Doctor and the Master, again, great things going on there (if a little OTT homoerotic, no, I'm not a huge Doctor/Master fan, guys, sorry) but Simm especially put in a stellar performance (certainly given his cringeworthy madness in part one) The problem I have with Russell as a sci-fi writer is the fact that he does this sort of drama quite well, but he forsakes everything sci-fi for the sake of playing it out. The actual plot gets handwaved or downright forgotten about in favour of some superbly written dramatic scenes. I STILL don't quite know what happened to the Master. He served his dramatic purpose and poof, he was gone. His plot to change everyone into himself, poof, literally handwaved better by the shouty Timothy Dalton. Donna's head exploding, being pursued by many Masters, POOF, all better, fixed that for you. MAGIC! It's ALL setup and there's NEVER any payoff, plotwise. For me, it all smacks too much of string-pulling, and I find Rusty's Hand Of God incredibly EVIDENT when watching, I find it hard to be ENGROSSED, because of the reduction of the characters to plot puppets when it suits, when it's convenient. Pick them up, drop them into this scene, as great as this scene may be, it bugs me when the mechanics of writing are on display to this extent. Don't need that anymore, screw it up, bin it, Naismith (and that incestuous weirdness with his daughter?? Never mind, let's just drop it), the Master, the aliens, done with them, let them fall by the wayside. It's sloppy, nothing ever goes anywhere. But then that scene with Wilf in the radiation box (What was the radiation story again? Where did it come from and why? Doesn't matter, handwave, it's just a convenient writing tool, again, to drive us towards the dramatic event. Don't let that bug you, let it lie.) it was beautiful, it was a great, pointless way to regenerate, yes, it even makes the Doctor jumping from a spaceship, through a roof and living fall into place, because in the end, it's this one little silly, stupid thing that makes him have to leave. Beautiful.
And then we get to the self-indulgent end. AWWWFUCK RUSSELL. WHY?? ("I don't want to go," Rusty? Really? Way to make him A DICK again in every sense. FAIL.) Why does Ten deserve rewards? Why does Ten deserve a bigger, better, more sickly sentimental sendoff than any other Doctor? Oh, that's right, Rusty, because in your mind, and, crucially, in Ten's mind, Ten is a MORE AWESOME AND SPECIALER DOCTOR than any Doctor that has come before or will come after. And, of course, the problem there arises if you're the sort of person who desn't share that opinion of Ten. If you think he's, say, a bit of a dick. Because when you think that, you think Ten's special goodbyes are just self-congratulatory wank on Russell's part. Which is where the episode fell down for me. The whole premise of these goodbye scenes existing was, for me, a step too far in the backslapping department. For a moment, I thought Who had suddenly segued into Who Confidential and we were watching a montage of Ten set to, I don't know, a Coldplay song. Or James Blunt, or something. And then, of course, there was the actual content of the scenes. The Rose one, funnily enough, was fine, and actually kind of sweet. The Sarah Jane one was okay too. The rest? Nah. Jack gets a new piece of ass to make him forget about THE KILLING HIS OWN GRANDSON WITH THE BLOOD POURING OUT OF HIM AND SHIT. Yeah... tasteful. Martha and Mickey get married. Yeah, because they're both black and stuff, right? She was happily engaged, but let's handwave that for a moment and set them up for no reason. Because otherwise we'd be leaving Mickey UNATTACHED. And, of course, the lesson in all of this, yes we'll get to Donna in a minute, is that UNATTACHED IS THE MOST PATHETIC AND WORTHLESS THING TO BE IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Sorry, single peeps out there, you're not really happy until you're married (if you're straight). Or fucking a guy in uniform (if you're gay, because let's face it, Captain Jack is mostly gay and not particularly omnisexual at all. Except when he's marrying wimmins because wimmins need COMMITMENT, not like sailors, sailors don't need that girly shit.) So, anyway, yeah, Donna gets a happy end, not by getting back her mind or her agency or by being allowed to be her awesome self, but by being married off and being given moneys. In the end, that's the happiest end anybody could ever want.
Hmmmm. Up to the faily goodbyes I was quite liking The End of Time. Then those things happened and I hated it. But the Eleven came and I LOVE HIM SO MUCH ALREADY. Dudes... he has legs! Excellent.
Okay, so my verdict's a bit incoherent, but no more incoherent than the episodes, surely.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 01:06 pm (UTC)Not sure what I'm trying to say here, except, well Doctor Who is supposed to be for kids, isn't it? I just was curious to know your thoughts, because I have neither a child nor a much younger sibling to share the experience with.
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Date: 2010-01-02 01:54 pm (UTC)But I think Dr. Who is supposed to be a 'family' show to be enjoyed by kiddies and adults alike anyway, not just a kiddie show. It does seem to fall into that time slot.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 03:13 pm (UTC)I did like the idea that ten would get the chance to say goodbye to everyone, and sort of bring the whole thing to a close, I liked the Rose scene, and Sarah Jane's, but I think the other two (Jack's and Martha's) were in bad taste. For now, I'm sticking with the idea that the doctor went way, way into the future and Jack had SUFFERED. I like Alonso, I really do, but really Russell?? Having read The Writer's Tale, I know just how besotted he is with Tovey, and how much he wanted him in the final episode of series 4. That whole scene just seemed incredibly gratuitous, and didn't make much sense to me.
Maybe, like you say, those last 20 minutes or so would have been more appropriate in a Confidential. They would play their Coldplay song, and then Russell could tell us all these 'wonderful' things about Jack and Martha and Mickey. It sure would make it easier to pretend it never happened.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 12:59 am (UTC)Her dad watched it with her before sending her home with me, and she was uncustomarily whiny and irritable. When I asked her WTF? she said she'd "just watched a really sad movie."
I said, "Doctor Who? Really?"
"Well, he DIED."
"Honey, it's sci fi. He didn't die, he just turns into the new guy."
"But I liked him the way he WAS."
So she was mopey for like an hour. I, meanwhile, still haven't seen it.