Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone

[newnumber6]

An improvement over last week's episode certainly, although it didn't address my big flaws, and made some negative progress in a few areas.

So we're replacing the mystery of Who River Song is with Who Did She Kill. The odds on favorite is probably the Doctor but... I can't help but think that they did it a bit cheaply,w ith the guy who knew refusing to tell him. But, anyway, time can be changed, and I hope they're setting it up to do so.

I'm also not thrilled with the developments of the Weeping Angels, and one in particular... the reason they're called the WEEPING Angels is that they can't look at each other without risking permanent stonification. So they cover their faces. There was no evidence of here. Statues are going about willy-nilly, looking all over the place. They could have suggested that their eyes were still degenerating (which might also explain why they assume Amy could see and instinctively react by turning to stone), but it just feels like they did a mistake. I guess Amy's hypnotism workswith the 'whatever holds the image of an angel becomes an angel' theory, although I don't like that addition to their canon.

Another point in the minus column is, thanks to this episode, I officially dislike Amy Pond. It's a personaly squick, but I cannot like or respect characters who cheat. It might have been one thing if she decided, "Hey, I'm going to break off the wedding", but it really didn't seem like that to me, it seemed like "Hey, I'm getting married tomorrow, and I really fancy you, so I want you to do me right now and then I'll probably go marry this other guy even after completely betraying him." And that's a dealbreaker for me. Sorry Amy, you're pretty, but you're dead to me. Sometimes a character I've come to already love can get away with it. Rarely, a character I see right away can redeem themselves, eventually. But I don't see it happening here. Bring on the next companion. (Or, come up with some Whonobabble explanation for why she's acting that way).

All that aside, and those were big minuses... I actually liked it. They kept up the tension very nicely, and mostly the plot moved around. I like Eleven, he's starting to develop his own character traits. I can't picture Ten snapping so much at a person who's not being helpful... sure, he's got righteous anger at somebody doing wrong, but snapping at people in a crisis doesn't seem like him, but Eleven seems to do it.


And, last time I said I had a theory of where they might be going withthe Weeping Angels... and, well, they didn't. Although I still suspect they might down the line. So I'll cut it just in case.

Anyway, the new rules on the Angels sort of takes away from the 'they could be anywhere, but they don't move when you're looking at them.' fear. I thought they were going to replace it with another... there was a line in part one about "what if our ideas could have thoughts of their own?". I thought for sure they were going to try to tie the origin of the angels to FICTION about the Angels - that they're an idea that was so vivid, that it became real, because the image of an angel becomes an angel, and tease the audience with the idea, the scare, that if they watch too many of the Weeping Angel stories that they'll have enough of an image of the angels in their minds to produce a real one. A little like what they did with Freddy Kreuger in New Nightmare (where they suggested that the movies created a real Freddy). Sort of give it a metafictional scare to the audience, and even an excuse to use the angels sparingly (if we use them too much, we might make them real)... That could be cheesy, but if pulled off well, it could have worked spectacularly.

I'm actually kind of surprised we didn't get something like this, it seems too obvious to me to not makie it in at some point. Maybe they're saving it... Moffat strikes me as someone who thinks long term, as opposed to RTD who just comes up with whatever.

If they didn't think of it that way and stumble upon this, they're welcome to steal it.

Edit: The Angels being a fictional construct that became real would also help alleviate some of my problems with them in this outing - it would not just not be unusual, it would practically be NATURAL for a race of fictional beings that had pervaded mass consciousness to have inconsistencies in how they work.
I should totally write for Doctor Who! ;)

And speaking of things I should totally write for, Stargate Universe is still pretty enjoyable. I'm surprised at how often they're willing to do things like (spoilers for the episode titled Lost) leave people completely in the lurch at the end of an episode. First Rush, then the Away Team, and then the other half of the away team. I know they'll all get back together eventually, but it is nice to not be able to figure out they're going to at the end of the episode.

Although Eli was stupendously stupid there in some of his ideas. "Yes, we know they're going to try to come back for us so let's go running off to a random world and hope we run into them or find Destiny instead of staying put"

Comments

[fiddlersgreen.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely convinced Amy was in her right mind in that last scene. I'm also becoming less and less convinced that she's human at all. If, er, that helps :)

I like the idea of the Angels being fiction that somehow became reality. It would fit with the idea that, in their natural state, they're practically omnipotent but that the simple act of observation locks them down to a single possibility.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

The human thing doesn't make a difference to me, really (except if it's something where she's specifically designed to be overwhelmingly attracted to the Doctor, but I don't think the evidence supports that), but yeah, if there is some 'not in her right mind' excuse going on, that would be one of those things that would mitigate it... but, unfortunately, although there are possibilities of that, there's nothing in the scene itself that struck me as a cue that Amy wasn't herself. Sure, it happened all of a sudden, but there've been a couple of hints before that she fancied the Doctor, and I can also totally believe her, after a traumatic situation where her own life was in danger, deciding to go ahead and make a play... I just don't like it. Still, we'll see.

[harbone.livejournal.com]

Amy fills me with the kind of squick I get listening to demented fangirls. The character's rather like a stalker, which is sad, because the actress is so pretty.

On the other hand, the fact that the actress is a pretty red-head is often the only defense I hear. But I think Gillan's misplaced in this role. She'd be brilliant in something like East Enders or a gritty spy story. Heck, she'd be a great Maid Marian. But this whole season seems kind of thrown together, cobbled from the wrong parts. For me, the poor thing's quickly becoming a figurehead for many of the negative changes the show underwent. I was hoping for... something interesting. Not a rabid fangirl with a candy coating.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Well, opinions differ. I think on the whole the series is far better now than many of the seasons under RTD. Amy's the one big disappointment (I wish they wouldn't be so hung up on the idea that "the companion must be an average person the audience can identify with" though. That's a problem with most of the seasons of the New Who though.