Doctor Who Series 6
Jun. 1st, 2024 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereRory is a continuous delight, as is the Amy/Rory relationship. I was super-happy with 'The God Complex.' My first introduction to the Doctor was 'The Curse of Fenric' when I was thirteen, and the closer the Doctor gets to that alien quality - devious, manipulative, cold enough to tear his companion down when necessary and with enough genuine goodness to build her back up again and earn her forgiveness afterward - the happier I am.
Also, 'The Girl Who Waited' was an all-around tragedy which actually followed through on its logic. I was so sure warrior!Amy was going to perish helping the "real" Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, handily solving the problem of having two Amys, but no, they really went there. The Doctor closed the door in her face and it was brutal and amazing. Matt Smith is a pleasure to watch even in the weaker episodes, and is closer to my ideal of the Doctor than Tennant ever was.
I am gonna say that 12 Monkeys has spoiled me for a lot of stuff on this show: Time travel twistiness and heroic sacrifice to restore the timeline? Time travelers discovering they are related to each other and learning to be a family? I found it all more resonant on that show. The entire River Song plotline did not work for me at all. Not her, her relationship and chemistry with the Doctor, and not her backstory and the fallout from it, or her motivations for anything. Really antiquated spoilers to follow.
This is my "only in it for the angst" show, and aside from 'A Good Man Goes to War,' there's no sense of the overpowering loss that really should have been central to such an ambitious narrative. I don't understand why that was skipped over. Between that lack of reaction, the abruptly shoehorned and as quickly discarded Mels (what's the opposite of foreshadowing?), and the Doctor/River relationship being less than convincing, River Song was the weakest part of this entire season. Also, the murder being something she was forced to do by the suit, absolving her of any actual crime, felt like a cheat - I had thought, because of the backwards order, she murdered the Doctor when she met him, started helping him afterward to preserve the timeline, began to regret what she did, fell in love, sacrificed herself to save him, etc. But no, she had a weird lack of agency about the whole thing.
I know she's popular in fandom, and I am left to suspect that I might enjoy fandom's take on her more than the original.
Minus points for throwing in a mystical pregnancy/body hijacking/loss of female bodily autonomy plot. Especially given that this is (or was) considered a family program, and I'm still bitter about that horrific Xena episode I saw at a young age. Ick. Again, 12 Monkeys handled the effects of that on the subjected character so much better than what happened here with Amy.
Otherwise, a solid season for me.
Also, 'The Girl Who Waited' was an all-around tragedy which actually followed through on its logic. I was so sure warrior!Amy was going to perish helping the "real" Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, handily solving the problem of having two Amys, but no, they really went there. The Doctor closed the door in her face and it was brutal and amazing. Matt Smith is a pleasure to watch even in the weaker episodes, and is closer to my ideal of the Doctor than Tennant ever was.
I am gonna say that 12 Monkeys has spoiled me for a lot of stuff on this show: Time travel twistiness and heroic sacrifice to restore the timeline? Time travelers discovering they are related to each other and learning to be a family? I found it all more resonant on that show. The entire River Song plotline did not work for me at all. Not her, her relationship and chemistry with the Doctor, and not her backstory and the fallout from it, or her motivations for anything. Really antiquated spoilers to follow.
This is my "only in it for the angst" show, and aside from 'A Good Man Goes to War,' there's no sense of the overpowering loss that really should have been central to such an ambitious narrative. I don't understand why that was skipped over. Between that lack of reaction, the abruptly shoehorned and as quickly discarded Mels (what's the opposite of foreshadowing?), and the Doctor/River relationship being less than convincing, River Song was the weakest part of this entire season. Also, the murder being something she was forced to do by the suit, absolving her of any actual crime, felt like a cheat - I had thought, because of the backwards order, she murdered the Doctor when she met him, started helping him afterward to preserve the timeline, began to regret what she did, fell in love, sacrificed herself to save him, etc. But no, she had a weird lack of agency about the whole thing.
I know she's popular in fandom, and I am left to suspect that I might enjoy fandom's take on her more than the original.
Minus points for throwing in a mystical pregnancy/body hijacking/loss of female bodily autonomy plot. Especially given that this is (or was) considered a family program, and I'm still bitter about that horrific Xena episode I saw at a young age. Ick. Again, 12 Monkeys handled the effects of that on the subjected character so much better than what happened here with Amy.
Otherwise, a solid season for me.
