Some TV thoughts.
Nov. 17th, 2009 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Let's start with the biggest, most recent (except Heroes which has gone dumb again)...
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars.
It was... okay. Started out a little lame (the monsters were not terribly entertaining, but then they didn't have to be, they were just a sideline to the main thrust of the plot). Started to get good towards the end. And then, RTD drops the ball again. (Spoilery thoughts ahoy)
I sort of saw Adelaide's suicide coming. I mean, it was pretty obvious. But I don't like it. I could have liked it in other circumstances, if they set it up in a proper way. But they didn't.
Here's why: She either killed herself to correct the timeline, or she did it to prove a point to the Doctor about how he can't control everything. (Or some mixture of both).
The problem is, that leaves me with two options for her character: She's insane, or she's colossally stupid. These are not pleasant options to have for a character I was rooting for, for a character set up to be a genius and a hero.
Let's start with insanity. You have to be really, really crazy to off yourself to TRY to prove some abstract point to an alien you just met who could be pretty crazy. You have no idea if he'll take it to heart. It's not like you've prevented him from having an effect, because he still saved the other two (who were nearly as famous as her). Sorry, I just don't buy it. She killed herself in order to make him appreciate that an act that he pulled off and assumed would be completely impossible, was slightly less impressive of an impossible feat than it was when he did it, because he didn't save who he thought he did. Some of you can buy that, but I can't.
So let's move on to the other motive, the one that requires her to be stupid. That she killed herself to preserve the timeline and the great history of the future. Noble, but very very stupid. History's already changed. The two survivors, for one. The fact that she died on Earth, of a suicide, another. The fact that instead of the death of the Mars base being a great mystery, that instead everybody knew what happened.
Maybe the granddaughter thinks: "My grandmother committed suicide. What a cowardly way out. I don't want to emulate her anymore." Maybe she thinks "Weird. Alien creatures living inside water that take over your body and give you bad skin. I so don't want to deal with that. I'm going into Computer Programming instead of the Space Program." Maybe because of her death people suspect that she was somehow responsible for the accident, the shame causes her descendants to act differently. Maybe everyone thinks the whole Mars Base was a hoax, because one of the people died on Earth and the other arrived back the same moment it blew up. You can't know.
History should have been borked by those just as much as by the mere fact of her living or dying. The only way you MIGHT be able to influence it back on course if it got off course is if you stuck around to tell your granddaughter why she had to go into space.
These were all things I thought up in the few seconds after the episode aired. And I'm not a world famous scientist astronaut. For her to think she could restore the Timeline just by killing herself means Stupid.
And as this was the lynch-pin of the whole episode, the episode itself fails for me because RTD couldn't spend the time to make sure his nifty shiny emotional idea actually worked when you thought it through. He's a hack writer.
The main problem is that it COULD have worked. If she killed herself on Mars, to try and prevent the Doctor from saving her and altering history, would have been great. If she was the only survivor, and it was established that her gun disintegrated whatever it shot, it could have been great (she'd have been assumed dead on Mars). But a half-assed happy ending/"you can't tamper" message just doesn't work. One or the other. That's one of the reasons I'm so hard on him. He's ALMOST good. And ALMOST good is sometimes a worse sin than being bad, when the only reason you don't quite get to good is laziness and the unwillingness to think things through.
It also could have been done with a much better ending (one I was hoping was coming, in fact, but sadly, no). This is a SPECIAL. A big story we've been waiting months for. Leading into a big finale. LET THE DOCTOR CHANGE HISTORY. ACCIDENTALLY. ON A MASSIVE SCALE. Wipe out the future history he knew, no Time Lords to correct it and it being impossible to do it himself without facing Reapers for intersecting his own timeline (not to mention deliberately killing a bunch of people). The new history can be not necessarily better or worse than the old one, just DIFFERENT. THAT would have justified his "oh, crap, I went too far" worries. (I never got that. "Oh, crap, I went too far. I saved two people, and a third, who were supposed to die. But one of them went and killed themselves. And history changed hardly at all. Damnit. How could I? I must be about to die now for my transgression." It wasn't like he was just depressed that he couldn't save her or that she chose to react like she did, but that he actually felt he'd "gone too far" from that alone). THAT would have been an event, instead of practically a throw-away episode that just tries to teach the Doctor a lesson and hints to the audience that he's going to die soon. It would also have nice side-effects, like making the Doctor have to look at the universe with new eyes again, not knowing everything about everything, having to rediscover how history turns out (I'm not a big fan of the all-knowing Doctor, and the scene at the end of the web-sites changing gave the impression that he instantly knows the changed history of events, which is not a development I'm fond of).
What's more, the Doctor really didn't HAVE to change history at any point. He could have taken them to a distant planet to live out a normal life, and still been very pleased with himself. I suppose part of the point would be the ego boost of taking charge of time and making everything work out for the best, but given how worried he was it just seems dumb of him, and rings a little false.
Leaving that aside, there were nice moments... I particularly liked Ten wanting to leave, but being drawn back in by his curiosity, and the moment he decided "Damn the timeline, I'm a Time Lord, I'll do what I want" (even if it was a bad decision). Well acted, well executed. Most of the guest cast were fairly enjoyable, if forgettable in most instances.
On random, isolated notes, some not directly connected to this particular special:
1) I'm really, really, sick of RTD's sledgehammer foreshadowing. Badwolf was good because it was unexpected. But having everyone and their brother being able to sense the future about the Doctor (even when the future is the past for them) and give him cryptic but especially meaningful-sounding clues about it, or mysterious Ood visions showing up to hint that the end is near. I kind of think it's a lazy trick, setting up these things so that we can speculate on them and he can get us with "a-ha, see, I told you he would Knock Four Times" (or whatever), instead of actually being exciting on its own. Because knocking four times isn't exciting, unless you presuppose to the audience that it must be. (I'm sort of reminded how with the Master reveal, how RTD sledgehammered "YANA = YOU ARE NOT ALONE" in scenes to that effect... I could almost hear him shouting, "Did you get it? Did you see what I did there? You Are Not Alone, the hint about other timelords out there, is hidding in Yana's name!". Lazy. Let the writing speak for itself).
2) Speaking of lazy tricks, man, is "remembering a website with details of the characters" the laziest exposition device EVER or what? I mean, I suppose it does the job, but most of the time it wasn't needed. It also left me with some confusion, because when they showed Adelaide still died, they focused in on "Died on Mars", and I didn't notice that it CHANGED to Earth at the last second, so I thought that it was implying some sort of coverup. Poor directing moment, I think).
3) I like robots, but "Gadget Gadget" was annoying.
4) More sonic sledgehammer abuse. Not only unlocks a door from long distance, but actually opens it, too. Is there anything it can't do? Well, when RTD's writing, the answer is "no, unless I need there to be something it can't do for some reason, then it can't do that."
Only two more specials to go and RTD's gone, at least.
What else? Heroes? Not the greatest, more "out of nowhere" stuff in the last episode, but I've lost interest. Most of the time I half watch while reading on the net, now.
V, I should apologize for: After making my post about how it seemed "too" like the original, I went and looked up a plot outline of the original, and it seemed that my memories were a little muddled, and they have made some substantial changes, probably about the same amount as BSG did. I still wish they'd gone FARTHER, but I can't fault them for not changing it up at all. It's mildly enjoyable, but still falls a little short of where it should be.
Stargate Universe had a little milestone in its last episode (spoilers): Its first time travel episode! And a fairly good one, too, if a little predictable at points. I did think the second timeline would be the 'permanent one', at least until Chloe died again, so good on them for surprising me. And I liked how they ended it without us actually seeing the 'real' timeline, because at the point they left it, it was only a matter of crossing the t's and dotting the i's to fix the situation.
Some nice character moments, even if wiped out from the real history.
Incidentally, I have my own time travel ep idea for the show, and had it since I first learned the concept. It doesn't involve the Stargate. I wonder if they'll ever get around to using the same/similar idea.
My other shows I'm still watching, but don't really feel the need to comment on.
Edit: oh, and the "First Lines" meme in one of my last entries is feeling neglected. Of the 10 books who's first line I posted, only one was guessed. Come on, I know some of them are pretty obscure, but I know there are some SF readers on my list and some of them should be pretty easy to guess for them (and one or two, even for non-SF readers)!
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars.
It was... okay. Started out a little lame (the monsters were not terribly entertaining, but then they didn't have to be, they were just a sideline to the main thrust of the plot). Started to get good towards the end. And then, RTD drops the ball again. (Spoilery thoughts ahoy)
I sort of saw Adelaide's suicide coming. I mean, it was pretty obvious. But I don't like it. I could have liked it in other circumstances, if they set it up in a proper way. But they didn't.
Here's why: She either killed herself to correct the timeline, or she did it to prove a point to the Doctor about how he can't control everything. (Or some mixture of both).
The problem is, that leaves me with two options for her character: She's insane, or she's colossally stupid. These are not pleasant options to have for a character I was rooting for, for a character set up to be a genius and a hero.
Let's start with insanity. You have to be really, really crazy to off yourself to TRY to prove some abstract point to an alien you just met who could be pretty crazy. You have no idea if he'll take it to heart. It's not like you've prevented him from having an effect, because he still saved the other two (who were nearly as famous as her). Sorry, I just don't buy it. She killed herself in order to make him appreciate that an act that he pulled off and assumed would be completely impossible, was slightly less impressive of an impossible feat than it was when he did it, because he didn't save who he thought he did. Some of you can buy that, but I can't.
So let's move on to the other motive, the one that requires her to be stupid. That she killed herself to preserve the timeline and the great history of the future. Noble, but very very stupid. History's already changed. The two survivors, for one. The fact that she died on Earth, of a suicide, another. The fact that instead of the death of the Mars base being a great mystery, that instead everybody knew what happened.
Maybe the granddaughter thinks: "My grandmother committed suicide. What a cowardly way out. I don't want to emulate her anymore." Maybe she thinks "Weird. Alien creatures living inside water that take over your body and give you bad skin. I so don't want to deal with that. I'm going into Computer Programming instead of the Space Program." Maybe because of her death people suspect that she was somehow responsible for the accident, the shame causes her descendants to act differently. Maybe everyone thinks the whole Mars Base was a hoax, because one of the people died on Earth and the other arrived back the same moment it blew up. You can't know.
History should have been borked by those just as much as by the mere fact of her living or dying. The only way you MIGHT be able to influence it back on course if it got off course is if you stuck around to tell your granddaughter why she had to go into space.
These were all things I thought up in the few seconds after the episode aired. And I'm not a world famous scientist astronaut. For her to think she could restore the Timeline just by killing herself means Stupid.
And as this was the lynch-pin of the whole episode, the episode itself fails for me because RTD couldn't spend the time to make sure his nifty shiny emotional idea actually worked when you thought it through. He's a hack writer.
The main problem is that it COULD have worked. If she killed herself on Mars, to try and prevent the Doctor from saving her and altering history, would have been great. If she was the only survivor, and it was established that her gun disintegrated whatever it shot, it could have been great (she'd have been assumed dead on Mars). But a half-assed happy ending/"you can't tamper" message just doesn't work. One or the other. That's one of the reasons I'm so hard on him. He's ALMOST good. And ALMOST good is sometimes a worse sin than being bad, when the only reason you don't quite get to good is laziness and the unwillingness to think things through.
It also could have been done with a much better ending (one I was hoping was coming, in fact, but sadly, no). This is a SPECIAL. A big story we've been waiting months for. Leading into a big finale. LET THE DOCTOR CHANGE HISTORY. ACCIDENTALLY. ON A MASSIVE SCALE. Wipe out the future history he knew, no Time Lords to correct it and it being impossible to do it himself without facing Reapers for intersecting his own timeline (not to mention deliberately killing a bunch of people). The new history can be not necessarily better or worse than the old one, just DIFFERENT. THAT would have justified his "oh, crap, I went too far" worries. (I never got that. "Oh, crap, I went too far. I saved two people, and a third, who were supposed to die. But one of them went and killed themselves. And history changed hardly at all. Damnit. How could I? I must be about to die now for my transgression." It wasn't like he was just depressed that he couldn't save her or that she chose to react like she did, but that he actually felt he'd "gone too far" from that alone). THAT would have been an event, instead of practically a throw-away episode that just tries to teach the Doctor a lesson and hints to the audience that he's going to die soon. It would also have nice side-effects, like making the Doctor have to look at the universe with new eyes again, not knowing everything about everything, having to rediscover how history turns out (I'm not a big fan of the all-knowing Doctor, and the scene at the end of the web-sites changing gave the impression that he instantly knows the changed history of events, which is not a development I'm fond of).
What's more, the Doctor really didn't HAVE to change history at any point. He could have taken them to a distant planet to live out a normal life, and still been very pleased with himself. I suppose part of the point would be the ego boost of taking charge of time and making everything work out for the best, but given how worried he was it just seems dumb of him, and rings a little false.
Leaving that aside, there were nice moments... I particularly liked Ten wanting to leave, but being drawn back in by his curiosity, and the moment he decided "Damn the timeline, I'm a Time Lord, I'll do what I want" (even if it was a bad decision). Well acted, well executed. Most of the guest cast were fairly enjoyable, if forgettable in most instances.
On random, isolated notes, some not directly connected to this particular special:
1) I'm really, really, sick of RTD's sledgehammer foreshadowing. Badwolf was good because it was unexpected. But having everyone and their brother being able to sense the future about the Doctor (even when the future is the past for them) and give him cryptic but especially meaningful-sounding clues about it, or mysterious Ood visions showing up to hint that the end is near. I kind of think it's a lazy trick, setting up these things so that we can speculate on them and he can get us with "a-ha, see, I told you he would Knock Four Times" (or whatever), instead of actually being exciting on its own. Because knocking four times isn't exciting, unless you presuppose to the audience that it must be. (I'm sort of reminded how with the Master reveal, how RTD sledgehammered "YANA = YOU ARE NOT ALONE" in scenes to that effect... I could almost hear him shouting, "Did you get it? Did you see what I did there? You Are Not Alone, the hint about other timelords out there, is hidding in Yana's name!". Lazy. Let the writing speak for itself).
2) Speaking of lazy tricks, man, is "remembering a website with details of the characters" the laziest exposition device EVER or what? I mean, I suppose it does the job, but most of the time it wasn't needed. It also left me with some confusion, because when they showed Adelaide still died, they focused in on "Died on Mars", and I didn't notice that it CHANGED to Earth at the last second, so I thought that it was implying some sort of coverup. Poor directing moment, I think).
3) I like robots, but "Gadget Gadget" was annoying.
4) More sonic sledgehammer abuse. Not only unlocks a door from long distance, but actually opens it, too. Is there anything it can't do? Well, when RTD's writing, the answer is "no, unless I need there to be something it can't do for some reason, then it can't do that."
Only two more specials to go and RTD's gone, at least.
What else? Heroes? Not the greatest, more "out of nowhere" stuff in the last episode, but I've lost interest. Most of the time I half watch while reading on the net, now.
V, I should apologize for: After making my post about how it seemed "too" like the original, I went and looked up a plot outline of the original, and it seemed that my memories were a little muddled, and they have made some substantial changes, probably about the same amount as BSG did. I still wish they'd gone FARTHER, but I can't fault them for not changing it up at all. It's mildly enjoyable, but still falls a little short of where it should be.
Stargate Universe had a little milestone in its last episode (spoilers): Its first time travel episode! And a fairly good one, too, if a little predictable at points. I did think the second timeline would be the 'permanent one', at least until Chloe died again, so good on them for surprising me. And I liked how they ended it without us actually seeing the 'real' timeline, because at the point they left it, it was only a matter of crossing the t's and dotting the i's to fix the situation.
Some nice character moments, even if wiped out from the real history.
Incidentally, I have my own time travel ep idea for the show, and had it since I first learned the concept. It doesn't involve the Stargate. I wonder if they'll ever get around to using the same/similar idea.
My other shows I'm still watching, but don't really feel the need to comment on.
Edit: oh, and the "First Lines" meme in one of my last entries is feeling neglected. Of the 10 books who's first line I posted, only one was guessed. Come on, I know some of them are pretty obscure, but I know there are some SF readers on my list and some of them should be pretty easy to guess for them (and one or two, even for non-SF readers)!
