Doctor Who: The God Complex
Sep. 17th, 2011 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI wish that had been a two-parter so I could enjoy it longer. In lieu of that, I'm rewatching it.
Okay, it wasn't perfect. Perfect would have involvedtwo little girls in the hallway saying "Play with us." none of those random laughing/screaming flash cuts. But it was pretty darned close; the one real flaw was that the minute the Doctor started flirting with Rita as a new companion we all knew she was doomed. I always think that Who is at its best when it's doing gothic horror, and a hotel filled with custom-tailored horror is pretty gothic.
And then the little details! The Doctor's room being 11. And the lines! "We're three buses, a long walk, and 8 quid of a taxi from good." "I think of my old school motto: Resistance is exhausting." "It's amazing that you've come up with a theory that's even more ridiculous than what's happening." (Again, Rory gets to be the voice of sanity!) "All I want to do is go home and be conquered and oppressed! Is that too much to ask?" "You've forgotten that not all victories aren't about saving the universe" (I LOVE YOU RORY!) "I wasn't talking about myself." (You keep telling yourself that, Doctor. We all knew who you were talking about, even if you didn't.) "He's saving us."
Especially, "he's saving us." I *love* that the point was to shove a spoke in the wheels of Amy's adoration of the Doctor. Had she had more conversations with old!Amy it may have helped, but young!Amy is, as was made so clear, is still mostly little Amelia. (I wish they'd given her some lines. She's always fun.) Maybe I'm stillbitchy touchy over RTD's era, especially the treatment of Rose and Donna. Rose who went from feisty and full of agency to worshiping the Doctor to the point of considering herself "dead" without him. Donna who had her personality literally rolled back to a pre-Doctor era, losing even what she'd taught herself after her first adventure. Even Jamie and Zoe were allowed to keep the memory of their first adventures! But Donna doesn't, doesn't keep her agency, *and* has her nearest and dearest apparently ordered to never let her do anything to regain it lest her head explode.
But it's Rose that I'm thinking most of, because in the end, the Doctor tried to provide Rose with everything she ever wanted. Her mother, safe. Her father restored. Memories of adventure. And *still* it's not enough, to the point that she's willing to endanger the universe by ripping open dimensions to get back to the Doctor, until she's left with a duplicate... which frankly is even freakier and more patronizing. Is she so shallow that she just needs a Doctor-shaped binkie? Or does the Doctor feel a need to strand a part of himself to keep her in place and stop endangering all of reality? Either way, it's a hell of a terrible exit for the girl who started out saving the Doctor's bacon by pointing him at the London Eye and swinging in on a chain to rescue him.
Once again the Doctor is providing what he could to his companion - having previously returned Amy's parents and not being able to provide her baby, he's gone for material goods - a nicer house, Rory's dream car. Rory and Amy already have had the perspective of moving in and out of the TARDIS; we've seen them back in Leadworth obviously comfortable going on with their lives back on Earth (something that was never possible for either Rose or Donna). And now, when it looks like the Doctor's going for good, Amy has the sense to look at it from *his* perspective instead of throwing herself into her own emotional reaction.
I'm sure Amy and Rory will be back on the TARDIS eventually... but as a "the Doctor's leaving" scene, I think "He's saving us" is right up there for a broken-hearted but dignified exit as Sarah Jane got.
And the Doctor's showing a better grasp of the potential for damaging his companions, physically and psychically, than he has for at least two regenerations.
Next week looks interesting.
Okay, it wasn't perfect. Perfect would have involved
And then the little details! The Doctor's room being 11. And the lines! "We're three buses, a long walk, and 8 quid of a taxi from good." "I think of my old school motto: Resistance is exhausting." "It's amazing that you've come up with a theory that's even more ridiculous than what's happening." (Again, Rory gets to be the voice of sanity!) "All I want to do is go home and be conquered and oppressed! Is that too much to ask?" "You've forgotten that not all victories aren't about saving the universe" (I LOVE YOU RORY!) "I wasn't talking about myself." (You keep telling yourself that, Doctor. We all knew who you were talking about, even if you didn't.) "He's saving us."
Especially, "he's saving us." I *love* that the point was to shove a spoke in the wheels of Amy's adoration of the Doctor. Had she had more conversations with old!Amy it may have helped, but young!Amy is, as was made so clear, is still mostly little Amelia. (I wish they'd given her some lines. She's always fun.) Maybe I'm still
But it's Rose that I'm thinking most of, because in the end, the Doctor tried to provide Rose with everything she ever wanted. Her mother, safe. Her father restored. Memories of adventure. And *still* it's not enough, to the point that she's willing to endanger the universe by ripping open dimensions to get back to the Doctor, until she's left with a duplicate... which frankly is even freakier and more patronizing. Is she so shallow that she just needs a Doctor-shaped binkie? Or does the Doctor feel a need to strand a part of himself to keep her in place and stop endangering all of reality? Either way, it's a hell of a terrible exit for the girl who started out saving the Doctor's bacon by pointing him at the London Eye and swinging in on a chain to rescue him.
Once again the Doctor is providing what he could to his companion - having previously returned Amy's parents and not being able to provide her baby, he's gone for material goods - a nicer house, Rory's dream car. Rory and Amy already have had the perspective of moving in and out of the TARDIS; we've seen them back in Leadworth obviously comfortable going on with their lives back on Earth (something that was never possible for either Rose or Donna). And now, when it looks like the Doctor's going for good, Amy has the sense to look at it from *his* perspective instead of throwing herself into her own emotional reaction.
I'm sure Amy and Rory will be back on the TARDIS eventually... but as a "the Doctor's leaving" scene, I think "He's saving us" is right up there for a broken-hearted but dignified exit as Sarah Jane got.
And the Doctor's showing a better grasp of the potential for damaging his companions, physically and psychically, than he has for at least two regenerations.
Next week looks interesting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 12:12 pm (UTC)This was his apology for that immaturity, IMO.
Even after two watchings I'm not sure the Doctor was just translating. Why translate that for the others to hear? He spoke to the Nimon in English, so I still think he was speaking directly to it and uncomfortable about what it was correcting him over.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-19 07:25 pm (UTC)*shrug* All of his other communication with the creature was done face-to-face; why would he speak to it with his back turned at the very end? It only makes sense to me if he's translating that last line, but YMMV.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-20 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 09:51 pm (UTC)