Good News for Who
May. 20th, 2008 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6It's official - new showrunner after RTD. Definately good news in my book.
Since I'm here and talking about Who, my thoughts on The Unicorn and the Wasp:
Great beginning, didn't like the finish. Also, I knew it was not going to happen, but I really wanted (spoilers ahoy) Agatha Christie to not lose her memory in that event, but to join the TARDIS crew for an adventure or two and lose her memory after _that_. Because come on, how awesome would having Agatha Christie be an official companion be?
Anyway, my real problem with the episode was the sloppy conclusion, full of what I sometimes call 'just so' writing (that is, plot developments don't have to make any kind of sense, because they're invented on the spot, just so you get the result you want). The priest is the love child of the woman and an alien affair? That's fine, perfectly reasonable Who plot with a mystery kick. The necklace is a magic alien device that transfers knowledge of who he is the first time he shapechanges? I could see that. The necklace also picks up knowledge of Agatha Christie because the lady happened to be reading it while it was being activated for the first time, which not only makes the alien want to set up mysteries much like her books, but also psychically connects him, not to his mom who was actually wearing the necklace, but to Agatha, such that when he dies it creates a psychic backlash that gives her the amnesia you need to tie it up with her historical disappearance? Uhm, yeah, that's just so you give Agatha the amnesia you want, and I call bull$@!+ and lazy writing. (Not to mention the bee _flying into the water_. Great alien instincts there. Even actual wasps aren't that stupid from what I've seen, much less intelligent alien shapeshifting wasps).
Anyway, there's far too much Just So writing in the new Who, and so it always bugs me.
Made more annoying because I was so enjoying the plot up until that big reveal. Why not just say that the alien was murdering people for entirely human reasons and so naturally it would read _something_ like a murder mystery? If it wasn't for that justification crap I might have ranked it among the best of the year so far, but instead it goes down as mixed, like so many other episodes.
Actually, now that I consider it, this is actually the kind of Who story that would work just great without aliens. They were already committed to staying, largely because of Agatha. They could have gotten involved in a perfectly human murder mystery, and, except for a few cool moments of Donna attacking the giant wasp with a magnifying glass, would have worked as well, as a story (maybe better because the necessity for the Just So writing isn't needed).
Also, I wanted to see the episode where Charlemange was kidnapped by an evil computer. Cause that is gold.
BSG was good this week, one of the best of the year. Though oddly enough LOST has once again become the show I'm most excited about.
Of course, this week sucks for TV - not only is LOST on a skip week, so is BSG _and_ Doctor Who. Oh well, at least there's the Supernatural finale (which airs tomorrow for me, so I haven't seen it yet despite it already ending), that's something.
Since I'm here and talking about Who, my thoughts on The Unicorn and the Wasp:
Great beginning, didn't like the finish. Also, I knew it was not going to happen, but I really wanted (spoilers ahoy) Agatha Christie to not lose her memory in that event, but to join the TARDIS crew for an adventure or two and lose her memory after _that_. Because come on, how awesome would having Agatha Christie be an official companion be?
Anyway, my real problem with the episode was the sloppy conclusion, full of what I sometimes call 'just so' writing (that is, plot developments don't have to make any kind of sense, because they're invented on the spot, just so you get the result you want). The priest is the love child of the woman and an alien affair? That's fine, perfectly reasonable Who plot with a mystery kick. The necklace is a magic alien device that transfers knowledge of who he is the first time he shapechanges? I could see that. The necklace also picks up knowledge of Agatha Christie because the lady happened to be reading it while it was being activated for the first time, which not only makes the alien want to set up mysteries much like her books, but also psychically connects him, not to his mom who was actually wearing the necklace, but to Agatha, such that when he dies it creates a psychic backlash that gives her the amnesia you need to tie it up with her historical disappearance? Uhm, yeah, that's just so you give Agatha the amnesia you want, and I call bull$@!+ and lazy writing. (Not to mention the bee _flying into the water_. Great alien instincts there. Even actual wasps aren't that stupid from what I've seen, much less intelligent alien shapeshifting wasps).
Anyway, there's far too much Just So writing in the new Who, and so it always bugs me.
Made more annoying because I was so enjoying the plot up until that big reveal. Why not just say that the alien was murdering people for entirely human reasons and so naturally it would read _something_ like a murder mystery? If it wasn't for that justification crap I might have ranked it among the best of the year so far, but instead it goes down as mixed, like so many other episodes.
Actually, now that I consider it, this is actually the kind of Who story that would work just great without aliens. They were already committed to staying, largely because of Agatha. They could have gotten involved in a perfectly human murder mystery, and, except for a few cool moments of Donna attacking the giant wasp with a magnifying glass, would have worked as well, as a story (maybe better because the necessity for the Just So writing isn't needed).
Also, I wanted to see the episode where Charlemange was kidnapped by an evil computer. Cause that is gold.
BSG was good this week, one of the best of the year. Though oddly enough LOST has once again become the show I'm most excited about.
Of course, this week sucks for TV - not only is LOST on a skip week, so is BSG _and_ Doctor Who. Oh well, at least there's the Supernatural finale (which airs tomorrow for me, so I haven't seen it yet despite it already ending), that's something.
