Been a while since I've talked about Doctor Who here (spoilers cut)

[neadods]

It's been a while since I've talked about Doctor Who on LJ...

I've enjoyed this season much more than last, for many reasons. I think the two-parter format has been a wise one; it allows for stories to take their time to resolve without sudden handwaving in the last 10 minutes without dragging on forever and ever amen with filler scenes and recaps. Speaking of filler scenes, the season arc was not hammered in with zero subtlety and random scenes that made no sense on the rest of the context of the plot just in case we spent more than 10 minutes forgetting that There Is An Arc This Season, Have You Noticed?

But most of all, while I was always mildly fond of Capaldi and have been rooting for him, and in the last few weeks he's been nailing scenes that called for the kind of earthshattering fury that Eccleston and Tennant could provide. (Smith never made "Oncoming Storm" in my mind. At best, he was the Oncoming Strop.) Three weeks ago when he first truly cut loose I thought "at last. He's not the guy playing the Doctor, he's The Doctor."

More than that, he's been given those scenes. Doctor Who has been playing it safe for several seasons, IMO, twiddling around in its own universe and dealing with its own internal fictional politicians. Nice to see Moffat remember that the original Time Machine was first and foremost politi-social commentary.

That said, I am surprised that Moffat went there. Actually offing a companion is pretty rare in the Whoniverse, and Moffat has been dodging mortality madly, to the point of making it a cliche how often Rory bounced between the land of the living and the dead. Perhaps I should have seen this coming - what with the Doctor rattling on about how he loves Clara the bestest and the brightest and can't bear to see her hurt or threatened, but let's face it: the Doctor says that to all the girls.

And I've been saying for a while that I'm over Clara and am anxious to meet the new companion.

But even so, I'm pretty darn staggered that Moffat actually had Clara make one wild rash decision too far.

Comments

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Nice to see Moffat remember that the original Time Machine was first and foremost politi-social commentary.

Given the rampant anti-refugee, Islamophobic and transphobic subtexts of the last few weeks, I'd just as soon he quickly forgot again.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I saw the Zygon story as extremely pro-refugee. The entire text was about how the vast majority of people were trying to live in peace, with a splinter fraction deliberately trying to stir up a race war. The scenes with the Zygon who was "outed" by the rebel leader in particular, with him pointing out over and over that he was just trying to quietly live his life and not be sucked into someone else's war.

That and Osgood's deliberately refusing to make an "us or them" statement about her own person was as pointed a comment that "we're all equal people" that could be made.

The "sooner or later you HAVE TO TALK" scene was brilliant and a lovely change from the presidential candidates here vying to out-do each other in pointless chestthumping and blatant fearmongering.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Sure, but then there's the bit where the "good" refugees are the ones who abandon their culture and even their own natural appearance, and the ones who want to maintain their culture and live in their own bodies are demonised. In the context of Europe's strong pro-assimilation attitude towards refugees, the subtext is disgusting.