Liveblogging The Dr. Who Finale
May. 18th, 2013 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsZOMG, it's not even the opening credits and I'm squeeing fit to knock bats out of the sky. *gives big squishy hugs to all the Doctors*
Strax likes boozing and beating up people Glasgow. I'm amused as heck, but at the same time, I wonder how many people are going to be yelling online that Moffat is racist against Scots.
This conference call fascinates me. Oh, hello, River, it's so... conflicting... to see you. I adore you, but your story's over.
Do these villains make anyone else think of Buffy and "Hush"? Although the poetry is going to be stuck in my head forever (right next to "Find the key that fits the door/that leads out to the dancing floor/then escape the dancing beat/or you'll forever tap your feet")
If Jenny stays permanently dead, I'm going to be furious! How can there be the Vashtra and Jenny show if Jenny's dead?
Wait, the Doctor knows how he's going to die? Bwa? Doesn't that make everything else that happens to him moot because his death is a fixed point in time?
Good. Strax was, after all, a nurse at one point.
The slaughterer of the 10 Billion? Well, point there. The Doctor has killed a hella lot of people.
Well, for all the people who were upset that River was left in the Library, she doesn't seem to upset about it. Or stuck in it, for that matter.
Valeyard? AAAAARRRRGH, now the old guard is going to be going on and on about how the new show has to be limited to the old plot points. Again.
What idiot at BBCA thought that airing an interview segment with a plot spoiler before it happened in the show was a good idea?
I so love Strax. Pretty please, can the actor come to ChicagoTARDIS?
So... River shows up to give away the name so that the name isn't given away? It seems a major waste of both her and the Big Eponymous Plot Point.
The Doctor's scar tissue in the Universe should be a LOT bigger. A WHOLE LOT bigger.
And the Whispers just... go? That's it? What a lame waste of a potentially interesting villain.
Why is Vashtra not reverting to anything?
So this is the secret behind Clara. I'm kind of "meh" about it, to be honest. I'd rather the reason she be scattered in time be a little less Mary Sue-ish.
Oh, heck. Look, I really like River Song, but I AM SO OVER THE DOCTOR BEING IN LOVE WITH COMPANIONS! It was a bad idea with Rose, and it was a worse idea to make River the new Rose in terms of boomeranging back and The One He Wuvs The Very Mostest Of Them All. (Even if Alex's smutty way of saying "Spoilers!" can still make me smile.)
Dafuq? That damned leaf. Should she also click her heels together and say "There's no place like home"?
OH, FUCKING VALEYARD! Why didn't that dumbass concept die back in the rest of old Sixie's failed era?
To be continued in November? FAIL!
What a waste of an interesting but ultimately not convincingly connected series of concepts.
Oh, buggery fuck. He's not the valeyard, the Internet tells me, he's Nine. Which is going to poison my looking back at my favorite Doctor, it really is. I get that Eccleston has only bad memories of the show, but why do such a clunky recast? You like a writing challenge, Moffat, work around it, don't screw it up!
Strax likes boozing and beating up people Glasgow. I'm amused as heck, but at the same time, I wonder how many people are going to be yelling online that Moffat is racist against Scots.
This conference call fascinates me. Oh, hello, River, it's so... conflicting... to see you. I adore you, but your story's over.
Do these villains make anyone else think of Buffy and "Hush"? Although the poetry is going to be stuck in my head forever (right next to "Find the key that fits the door/that leads out to the dancing floor/then escape the dancing beat/or you'll forever tap your feet")
If Jenny stays permanently dead, I'm going to be furious! How can there be the Vashtra and Jenny show if Jenny's dead?
Wait, the Doctor knows how he's going to die? Bwa? Doesn't that make everything else that happens to him moot because his death is a fixed point in time?
Good. Strax was, after all, a nurse at one point.
The slaughterer of the 10 Billion? Well, point there. The Doctor has killed a hella lot of people.
Well, for all the people who were upset that River was left in the Library, she doesn't seem to upset about it. Or stuck in it, for that matter.
Valeyard? AAAAARRRRGH, now the old guard is going to be going on and on about how the new show has to be limited to the old plot points. Again.
What idiot at BBCA thought that airing an interview segment with a plot spoiler before it happened in the show was a good idea?
I so love Strax. Pretty please, can the actor come to ChicagoTARDIS?
So... River shows up to give away the name so that the name isn't given away? It seems a major waste of both her and the Big Eponymous Plot Point.
The Doctor's scar tissue in the Universe should be a LOT bigger. A WHOLE LOT bigger.
And the Whispers just... go? That's it? What a lame waste of a potentially interesting villain.
Why is Vashtra not reverting to anything?
So this is the secret behind Clara. I'm kind of "meh" about it, to be honest. I'd rather the reason she be scattered in time be a little less Mary Sue-ish.
Oh, heck. Look, I really like River Song, but I AM SO OVER THE DOCTOR BEING IN LOVE WITH COMPANIONS! It was a bad idea with Rose, and it was a worse idea to make River the new Rose in terms of boomeranging back and The One He Wuvs The Very Mostest Of Them All. (Even if Alex's smutty way of saying "Spoilers!" can still make me smile.)
Dafuq? That damned leaf. Should she also click her heels together and say "There's no place like home"?
OH, FUCKING VALEYARD! Why didn't that dumbass concept die back in the rest of old Sixie's failed era?
To be continued in November? FAIL!
What a waste of an interesting but ultimately not convincingly connected series of concepts.
Oh, buggery fuck. He's not the valeyard, the Internet tells me, he's Nine. Which is going to poison my looking back at my favorite Doctor, it really is. I get that Eccleston has only bad memories of the show, but why do such a clunky recast? You like a writing challenge, Moffat, work around it, don't screw it up!
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 01:04 am (UTC)I see no reason not to accept the existence of and the direction toward the Valeyard. In fact, I've been thinking that's what Moffatt was aiming at for a while (and RTD before him), with the Doctor's darkness coming out.
Madame Vastra spin-off, pretty please with Strax on top?
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 01:13 am (UTC)In fact, I've been thinking that's what Moffatt was aiming at for a while (and RTD before him), with the Doctor's darkness coming out
Then I just lot a crapload of respect for both of them (and RTD couldn't stand to lose much more of mine.)
It makes no sense to limit a show in the 2000s to plot points created decades ago! None whatsoever. I've also seen people touting "well, if there's someone between 8 and 9, that makes Matt 12 and thus there are no more regenerations! Because the BBC is totes going to to fold their tentpole show because the writers want to respect a limit created 30 years ago.
Gaahhhh... I'm dumping on you because I haven't gotten the outrage all out yet. Sorry. But it really does boil down to already having had a bellyful since 2005 of old school fans insisting that it makes creative and business sense to stick to every single detail from the entire run of the show.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 01:36 am (UTC)If in fact The Trickster, or The Fear Lord, or whatever, is an aspect of The Doctor, this episode sets THAT up nicely, by having him be a portion of The Doctor not cleaned by Clara, who possesses one of the bodies of the Toothy Guys.
At least this episode continues the last several eps' gang of terrific guest stars (Diana Rigg, Warwick Davis, and now John Hurt - okay, he's more of a future guest).
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 02:11 am (UTC)I know, I know, sorry. I'm still... processing.
The Valeyard and Trial of a Timelord were major plot points...
... of the Doctor so unpopular he got fired and the Cartmel Masterplan that was so confusing and unpopular the show got canceled. I just can't see dusting off the Valeyard as a winning move. BBC has to make this show for the masses now, not the fans who fell in love with the show in the early 80s.
I will admit that guest stars/recurring characters are Moffat's strongest suit. He's excellent at creating powerful impressions in a short time.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 02:43 am (UTC)That doesn't make the Valeyard necessarily a bad thing or impossible to work with; we've certainly seen reboots of key plot points before (Rassilon, for example). It does need to be handled with care, but I think it can be made into both a hook for Old Who fans and a swing point for New Who, as The Doctor gets past this (inevitable) episode of internal darkness and heads out, stronger than ever.
Though Moffatt, or whomever is running the show by then, would do well to read Charlie Jane Anders at io9 (http://io9.com/the-central-problem-with-steven-moffats-doctor-who-507670201).
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 02:51 am (UTC)Yes, Six was awful, and Five not much better. They, plus the shenanigans at the Beeb with who ran the show at the time, were key reasons it was canceled. (Imagine if Sylvester McCoy had directly followed Tom Baker, and had had more than a couple of decent scripts...)
I disagree with you about the Valeyard: I think, handled well (won't give good odds on that, to be sure), it would be a hook for Old Who fans, as well as giving New Who an opportunity for a healthy catharsis. It will be tricky, but I think it could be done; maybe they can get Gatiss to write it. Or Moffatt -- if there's a strict editor who can rein him in.
Whoever's running the show by then, I do hope they read Charlie Jane Anders on io9 (http://io9.com/the-central-problem-with-steven-moffats-doctor-who-507670201), though.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 02:15 pm (UTC)