Flailing like Kermit on Crack
Jun. 23rd, 2007 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yes, this is definitely time to open up that can of industrial-strength squee!
So, does anyone need me to explain grits? Or at least describe them, because I can't really figure out why you'd do that to good corn. "Hey, let's take this foodstuff that dries quite nicely and soak it in LYE instead! That sounds nummy!"
The Irish are not allowed to gag. Corned beef is equally gross. Delicious, but gross.
*ahem* I'm babbling about grits because when I think about the ep I get totally incoherent. OMG, so much WIN! I adore how Rusty references old school, then polishes it up and adds that little extra bit of shine - not only did he finally make the Doctor outright admit that there should have been an L plate* on the TARDIS all along, we finally, finally get an explanation of why the Doctor picked that moniker, and it's so, so characteristic! Yes, he's the man who wants to make people better. He always has been. He wanted to make his people better (mostly by being a gadfly, but still); he makes his companions better, stronger, fasteror dead; he made the universe better through the ultimate sacrifice and exile.
And the Master! I've been moaning all along that I didn't want to see the Master back because he's such a two-dimensional villain. Well, he's two-dimensional no longer! (Or at least he has a better backstory than "I am determined to prove a villain.") Words fail me at that slasheriffic phone call. In the immortal words of Rupert Giles, "The sub is rapidly becoming text." Oh yeah, they were at it like bunnies. But then, they always have. Which is why this macro made me laugh like a hyena when I saw it.
Okay, the imperial attitudes of the current actual President give me the wiggins, but the "I'm taking charge here, bitch" scene (complete with the terrific UNIT theme) was 100% win. ETA: As a comment on
violetisblue's LJ reminded me, there is one big flub. Nevermind that the BBC grasp of the typical American is about as accurate as the Big Finish grasp of American accents. We wouldn't be fully dressed or staring in silent shock at the screen. All this is happening at the crack of "my God, why am I awake?" for just about all of our time zones (except for Hawaii, who's still staggering in drunk from the night before), so anyone who's bothering to be awake would probably be in their PJs. And our reaction to seeing the President toasted on TV (aside from the cheers of the hard fringes of the opposite party) would be about 10 seconds of silent shock and then everyone would look at their watch and say "nuclear warhead impact in 5... 4... 3..."
And while I'm kind of sorry to see that it was a false spoiler that Sarah Jane Smith was already in the van they were dragging the Jones family off in, it's such a relief that the spoiler that they would reference Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's death was also bogus.
Come to think of it, the whole set of spoilers I linked to pretty much got blown away. Heh.
The language geek in me is thrilled to the tips of my gerunds to see someone who actually knows what "decimate" means! But the music geek is confused. That song they played? I went to iTunes and checked out songs called "Voodoo Child" but couldn't find anything that sounded like it. Don't see a music credit in the end scroll either, which I thought would be illegal. Who did it, what was it called, and am I going to have to go to amazon.co.uk or Waterstones to get the CD?
The only thing I'm left wondering (aside from "Holy Decimation, Batman! How are we gonna get out of this?") is how long it's going to take for the wank that Martha "ran away" hits the net.
I was never a patient woman. Waiting for next Saturday is going to kill me. (But at least it's not up against the Shore Leave masq. again this year. That would seriously slay me dead!)
Ye gods, I really do turn 14 again in this fandom.
And then there's this episode's deep thought, now that my brain is coming back online from the squee. "You looked into the Time Vortex, Rose. No one's meant to see that." Except that *everyone* who's a Time Lord has to see it. As a child. Is some of the Doctor's inability to master some basic Time Lord skills, like piloting the TARDIS and controlling the end result of regenerations due to his fear of the vortex? He ran away. Obviously, that didn't disqualify him for the Academy; he (eventually) scraped through, but is that childhood terror the reason why he freaks out at the idea of anyone seeing the vortex? Especially since it might have started to blow out a non-Gallifreyan's brain, but he admits that it "inspired" others of his people instead of turning them all into pint-sized nutters with a Zeus complex?
*L plates = "STUDENT DRIVER" signs.
So, does anyone need me to explain grits? Or at least describe them, because I can't really figure out why you'd do that to good corn. "Hey, let's take this foodstuff that dries quite nicely and soak it in LYE instead! That sounds nummy!"
The Irish are not allowed to gag. Corned beef is equally gross. Delicious, but gross.
*ahem* I'm babbling about grits because when I think about the ep I get totally incoherent. OMG, so much WIN! I adore how Rusty references old school, then polishes it up and adds that little extra bit of shine - not only did he finally make the Doctor outright admit that there should have been an L plate* on the TARDIS all along, we finally, finally get an explanation of why the Doctor picked that moniker, and it's so, so characteristic! Yes, he's the man who wants to make people better. He always has been. He wanted to make his people better (mostly by being a gadfly, but still); he makes his companions better, stronger, faster
And the Master! I've been moaning all along that I didn't want to see the Master back because he's such a two-dimensional villain. Well, he's two-dimensional no longer! (Or at least he has a better backstory than "I am determined to prove a villain.") Words fail me at that slasheriffic phone call. In the immortal words of Rupert Giles, "The sub is rapidly becoming text." Oh yeah, they were at it like bunnies. But then, they always have. Which is why this macro made me laugh like a hyena when I saw it.
Okay, the imperial attitudes of the current actual President give me the wiggins, but the "I'm taking charge here, bitch" scene (complete with the terrific UNIT theme) was 100% win. ETA: As a comment on
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And while I'm kind of sorry to see that it was a false spoiler that Sarah Jane Smith was already in the van they were dragging the Jones family off in, it's such a relief that the spoiler that they would reference Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's death was also bogus.
Come to think of it, the whole set of spoilers I linked to pretty much got blown away. Heh.
The language geek in me is thrilled to the tips of my gerunds to see someone who actually knows what "decimate" means! But the music geek is confused. That song they played? I went to iTunes and checked out songs called "Voodoo Child" but couldn't find anything that sounded like it. Don't see a music credit in the end scroll either, which I thought would be illegal. Who did it, what was it called, and am I going to have to go to amazon.co.uk or Waterstones to get the CD?
The only thing I'm left wondering (aside from "Holy Decimation, Batman! How are we gonna get out of this?") is how long it's going to take for the wank that Martha "ran away" hits the net.
I was never a patient woman. Waiting for next Saturday is going to kill me. (But at least it's not up against the Shore Leave masq. again this year. That would seriously slay me dead!)
Ye gods, I really do turn 14 again in this fandom.
And then there's this episode's deep thought, now that my brain is coming back online from the squee. "You looked into the Time Vortex, Rose. No one's meant to see that." Except that *everyone* who's a Time Lord has to see it. As a child. Is some of the Doctor's inability to master some basic Time Lord skills, like piloting the TARDIS and controlling the end result of regenerations due to his fear of the vortex? He ran away. Obviously, that didn't disqualify him for the Academy; he (eventually) scraped through, but is that childhood terror the reason why he freaks out at the idea of anyone seeing the vortex? Especially since it might have started to blow out a non-Gallifreyan's brain, but he admits that it "inspired" others of his people instead of turning them all into pint-sized nutters with a Zeus complex?
*L plates = "STUDENT DRIVER" signs.
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Date: 2007-06-24 12:05 am (UTC)UNIT love! Yay!
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Date: 2007-06-24 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 01:03 am (UTC)Alas, iTunes has copies of "Voodoo Child" and songs by Rogue Traders, but it looks like I'm on the wrong side of the pond to be able to download Voodoo Child *by* the Rogue Traders, damnit!
I hope the CD it's on is good.
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Date: 2007-06-24 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 01:24 am (UTC)Right now, all I care for the last episode is that Martha saves the day and that the Master gets away. Because we seriously need him next season.
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Date: 2007-06-24 02:20 am (UTC)Of course, then I stop and think, and get happy that it's just Jack and the Doctor
which is exactly how it oughta be, but if Martha's loose and it's up to her to save everyone, then why exactly is Jack there? He didn't get enough screen-time this ep, that's really the only complaint I had about the whole thing.no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 03:18 am (UTC)Wondering about that myself. Especially since by following his order she more or less put herself under his command.
I'm sure Jack will do more than look pretty next ep.
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Date: 2007-06-24 02:55 am (UTC)Good lord, the only way the Doctor and Master exchanges could get any slashier is an on-screen kiss.
Poor Jack and Martha *still* don't know exactly how much bad news the Master is, but I do hope she runs into competent UNIT veterans and finds out. The Doctor so didn't want to talk about the Master, because it meant talking about Gallifrey, and Martha should know by now that's a signal to smack the Doctor upside the head.
Also, Lucy Saxon? Squeeling fan-girl of evil, or brainwashed minion?
PS, You lye corn because it makes the protein and vitamin B in corn change to forms that the human body can digest, and thus prevents pellagra. Why someone *tried* that in the first place is a mystery, but so is the way people figured out how to make tapioca edible, instead of toxic.
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Date: 2007-06-24 03:03 am (UTC)I'm voting brainless minion until corrected. There was something a little bit short bus about all her interactions.
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Date: 2007-06-24 11:40 am (UTC)The poor Doctor forced into the role of the straight man because The Master has decided it is *his* turns to be the funny half of that particular comedy team.
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Date: 2007-06-24 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 03:24 am (UTC)There are several foodstuffs that are either surprisingly low in nutrition if not treated -- like corn -- or outright toxic before processing -- tapioca and soy -- that have managed to become widespread staples. What humans will and do eat is just so bizarre, when you think about it.
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Date: 2007-06-24 03:03 am (UTC)And the Doctor. So much backstory. So much more honesty - and he said it because Jack asked, while he didn't for Martha. Interesting. Martha seemed to know he'd open up for Jack and not for her. And he's still so hopelessly naive in some ways: he really thinks he can reform the Master. :(
Martha... I'm torn in this episode. Yes, she did run away, and I didn't like that, even though I probably would have been so tempted to do the same :( I think I could have forgiven her that, but she was all 'it's all your fault' at the Doctor throughout the episode. Okay, I suppose she doesn't know that her mother was conspiring with Saxon's lot all along, but still. Maybe, too, though, the Doctor's reaping what he sowed? He has treated Martha badly along the way: why should he have all her loyalty? Except that she claims to love him - yet she ran away.
Okay, I'm sure she's going to do something wonderful that will save the day (and I'm still avoiding spoilers for the final ep), but the way they set that up I don't see that she calculated that her best way of helping was to get off the ship. It just didn't look like that, and that hurts. :P
Brilliant episode, though. John Simm rocks as the Master! And for once no Daleks in the season finale :)))
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Date: 2007-06-24 03:15 am (UTC)I don't actually see her as running away, although I knew that could look that way, especially in comparison to Rose, who never, ever budged from the Doctor's side save that syringe to the ass).
I don't see that she calculated that her best way of helping was to get off the ship.
I figure, Jack gave her a direct order. One which the Doctor does not countermand (that's kind of what I saw in her going to him - waiting to hear if he had a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.) The Doctor had no ideas, Martha had none - we can watch her mentally flailing for alternatives - and with those two wells of inspiration dry, she followed Jack's command.
A little fuzzy on why she didn't bring Jack along, especially since he knows how to work the thing and there's nothing *he* can do up there either except re-enact the Gastlycrumb Tinies for the Master's amusement.
And for once no Daleks in the season finale
I do not know any spoilers for the last episode, but I'm still not going to be sure of that until the end credits roll. Rusty may try to milk the contract to the last drop, although I hope not!
It's now officially canon!
Doctor/Jack - and just about Doctor/Master too - for the win!
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Date: 2007-06-24 03:45 am (UTC)Plus I think her panicky 'I'm going back up there' (or whatever it was she said then) reinforces the running away for me: she realised it was even less safe on Earth, so she decided she'd get back up where she might be safer (or where Jack and the Doctor could protect her).
I'm really trying to cut her some slack, because she's the one most personally and directly affected by all of this - her family's lives in danger, her flat blown up (and, hey, the Doctor's blown up Rose's job, Jack's ship and now Martha's flat!). But I still can't quite get past the whinging and that escape. :(
Ah well. Maybe next week will show me why I should like her again.
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Date: 2007-06-24 10:55 am (UTC)As for "I'm coming back," I'm classing that one along with "I'm coming for you, Rose," and "Someday I shall come back. Yes, I shall return." - less AIIEEE and more "I'm coming to help you."
On her own, what could she do?
And that's the million dollar question that we have to wait a #$()*!! week to get answered!
My fantasy is that she teams up with the underground that Sarah Jane and the Brigadier have already set up and the three of them,
Franklin, Washington, and the horse,kick booty. That isn't going to happen, but that's what keyboards are for...Dang, I've got the chamelion-arched Romana one, and that one, and the "What is Torchwood up to" one - this is going to be the ep that launched a thousand fics!
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Date: 2007-06-25 12:15 am (UTC)(ooooh... that could come out SOOO wrong,.... or so right!)
(I think) He sent Martha away for twofold reasons- if she's on the outside,- there's still hope of getting help. She a smart one. Further- the Doc can take a lot of punishment and survive- even in his advanced years and Jack can just come back from teh dead... Martha? Despite the strength of her heart and courage- she gets dead once- that's IT.
And to top the icing with a dollop- he also knows that they BOTH will be stronger if she isn't there as a hostage. He just removed the cliche "I won't torture you directly- but I WILL torure your female friends!" Which- we KNOW would break Jack and the Doctor both into crawling on hands and knees and licking the Master's boots...
(Not that some people would mind that.... It's just Not my cup of tea- thank you!) :)
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Date: 2007-06-25 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 10:43 pm (UTC)I recall his line in Series one about "I wish I'd never met you- Doc, I was much better off being a coward."
And part of me goes "You were never a coward, Jack."
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Date: 2007-06-25 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-28 03:47 pm (UTC)Brain--- circles,--- circles ---brain
Date: 2007-06-26 12:40 am (UTC)Jo, Sarah, Tegan and Nyssa and More have ALL gotten the drop on him.
(Course- I should know better to ask that question after his comments about being shot by a bug, and a GIRL at that, and how "Inappropriate" it was to die that way...)
So- GIVEN His apparent misogyny, it makes his "Marriage" even MORE suspect...
OK- Brain going in circles now... ACK!!!
Re: Brain--- circles,--- circles ---brain
Date: 2007-06-28 03:51 pm (UTC)Re: Brain--- circles,--- circles ---brain
Date: 2007-06-28 04:18 pm (UTC)However- if you look at the fact that the Master has been called a "Master of Disguise," (though I've never seen it... :P) and Lucy is just part of that disguise... THAT makes a twisted sort of sense, because I don't think he'd have any problem with a human as an "Accessory", like a pair of shoes.
The Doctor could be confused because it would be beyond his comprehension to treat a human that way. (Even if he DOES take Martha for granted...)
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Date: 2007-06-24 11:11 am (UTC)This really is going to be the ep that launched a thousand fics, and they just might all be mine!
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Date: 2007-06-24 10:16 pm (UTC)And, yes, Martha could have got back to Jack. I watched that bit again earlier (mainly for the music at that point, which is just gorgeous and haunting), and she leaves the Doctor, dropping his hand (he looks hurt), and staggers backwards across the room. There seems to be a clear route to Jack, but she doesn't take it; just stands there shaking, looking around her, and then hits the wristcom.
I really, really want to believe her 'I'm getting back there' (or whatever it was) means she's changed her mind and wants to find a way to help. I hope so. Well, I'm sure that's what RTD has in mind. But I wonder if what he's really been trying to show us all along this season with Martha is what happens when a companion is pushed too far: continually slighted and compared unfavourably to her predecessor, her crush pointedly ignored and even slighted (the when you fancy someone and they don't even know you're alive line), dumped in untenable situations without even an apology. Then Jack arrives and suddenly she's relegated to even less importance to the Doctor, because it's clear that Jack is much more knowledgeable - suddenly she finds herself being ordered around by him as well. Plus Jack knew Rose too, so yet more wonderful-past-companion stuff to deal with. And now she's back home, her parents are being arrested, her flat's blown up, she's on the wanted list and she knows none of it would have happened if she'd never met the Doctor.
So... yeah, still trying to cut that slack, but I would find it fascinating if this really is RTD's point: an object lesson for the Doctor in companion relations as well as in not interfering with history (Harriet Jones' downfall, which created the void Saxon/Master was able to fill).
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Date: 2007-06-25 12:22 am (UTC)That would certainly be a new dynamic. Martha's had a more uphill climb than any other companion I can think of, including Turlough - and HE was trying to kill the Doctor and the Doctor knew it! If the theory that "Rose" is this year's "Bad Wolf" then we still need a payoff for that - and if it's not true, then RTD has been pouring gas on a companion war in the fandom for jollies (he's been a fan forever, he cannot possibly have not forseen it) which is unprofessional in the extreme.
an object lesson for the Doctor in companion relations
I've waiting for two seasons now for the Doctor to realize that he is responsible for most of his current problems, including the loss of Rose, and I have yet to see a glimmer of it. That's making me quite frustrated. The Doctor can be clueless, but he's not supposed to be a dick. Yeah, he's backed down from Mr. "No second chances" by giving those chances to the last possible people he should be trying to help - a dalek and the Master - but Ten has yet to acknowledge onscreen that he's screwed up pretty seriously. Even Nine had that gobsmacked moment of "I caused this" on Satellite Five.
But last night I did forgive the Doctor for Harriet Jones. Well, no, forgive is *not* the right word, because Harriet was *right* and he idly changed history because he got his pants in a bunch. But in retrospect, I doubt that even Harriet at full power would have been able to hold off the Master once he decided to move in. The Doctor made it marginally easier, but once the Master appeared, I think things would be about where they are anyway.
I'm still trying to figure out Lucy Saxon. There is something bone-deep wrong in her, and I can't figure out what it is.
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Date: 2007-06-26 12:42 am (UTC)yeah- I don't think she actually exists... I think she's a really good hologram.
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Date: 2007-06-25 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 12:56 am (UTC)Jack sending her away so she can't be used against him and the Doctor... yeah, that makes sense. Still feeling Martha was a bit... well, not very brave, that's all. Not that I can really hold it against her, cos I'm not convinced I'd have done any better!
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Date: 2007-06-26 10:40 am (UTC)There is that drawback in having the audience identify with the companion - somehow the companions are always just that bit smarter and braver and have waaaaaay more endurance than any of us really would! :>
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Date: 2007-06-28 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 12:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 11:13 pm (UTC)I'm afraid that while I didn't hate it, I wasn't really all that keen meself. Don't get me wrong; there's was lots to love, like my ol' dancing partner John Simm proving once and for all that ALL English actors, Gay or Straight (and he most definitely is straight) love nothing more than camping it up something chronic. And the continuing speculation as to just who or what his wife is. And the gassing of the cabinet. And Martha finally getting a bit snippish with the doc.
But really, the Earth getting invaded by the SF "Death Star" equivalent of KFC Popcorn Chicken Balls? The "Keys On Strings"? The "secret signal" in the satellites , and NOBODY apparently even once went "hmmm..." at an entire array satellites getting into space in less than eighteen months, regardless of it being called the "Archangel" network? Surely that would have raised more than one eyebrow before they even got to send out that toe-tappin', ya just can't resist it, beat. The Sharon Osbourne and McFly Cameos? The "I've sent your Torchwood mates to the Himalyas" gambit? The aircraft carrier, in the actual air? The American president who struggled to actually sound American? And, as you yourself mentioned, the notable lack of a "Nuclear missiles to go in 5..4.." US response? The Rift in Time and Space looking like it was actually drawn by hand? The Time Lords wearing Lazy Susans round their heads?
I thought a great deal of it was frankly lazy, and, given that the World (or at least the UK) gets invaded every damn Christmas on WHO, a better, more imaginative, series closer could have been written.
Although, on the plus side, shoving David Tennant into old age makeup does mean that he can't bug his eyes or spit quite so much.
I also, for one, truly believe that if WHO is going to last for long, the writers will need to come up with NEW Big Bads, and not rely quite so slavishly on the old ones. It's getting to be a bit like Erica Kane finding yet another long lost child.
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Date: 2007-06-25 12:54 am (UTC)Speaking of nationalism, nobody at Verizon or the other big companies in the US or Japan went "and it's being controlled by who now? I don't think so."
Still, my standards are low, I confess this. If I want thoughtful SF, I'd be watching Alien Nation or Brimstone or Life on Mars. I'm picking holes (see the thread with
Don't love the art as much as some have squeed about but didn't think it was too awful. Better work than Myfanwy vs the Cyberpoledancer!
On the other hand, some of the stuff just flies right over my head, so it's easy for me to ignore - I couldn't pick Sharon Osbourne out of a one-person lineup and never heard of McFly outside of Back to the Future. Presumably they were the persons in the "Vote Saxon" ads? Beats the heck out of giving a famous teen a major acting role when she can't actually act, as happened in Joan of Arcadia. (No idea if that made it anywhere you can see it. There was a lot of meat in that show, so putting in a fluffernutter to raise the ratings just made her look worse.)
The American president who struggled to actually sound American?
Frankly, I'm just thankful that they didn't bring out one of the Big Finish desecrators of Amerlish, or Miss Nicola "I can pick out America on a large, simple map!" Bryant.
if WHO is going to last for long, the writers will need to come up with NEW Big Bads
THERE I am wholly and completely on your side. The Daleks have been used about 5 episodes too often at this point, the cybermen were only really interesting the once, and while the Master has at least gotten more of a personality and backstory than he ever has before, he's still yesterday's news. (I didn't mind the macra. They were so old that only the most trivia-minded oldschoolers remembered them.)
Unfortunately, what we're getting in new villains are Slitheen, who weren't even interesting once. Or the stone angels, which, while appearing in one of the most kick-ass single eps ever, are one of the wierdest and most unworkable concepts in the history of ever. Talk about baddies you can't think too much about! (And yet I adored Blink. It's all in not suspending your disbelief so much as sending it out for chips and locking the door behind it.)
Personally? I like stories where there is no actual Big Bad. Empty Child/Doctor Dances, for example, when you have a misguided con man and technology gone wrong. Or the kind of villain who doesn't *think* they're a villain. Or at least the kind of villain who makes the hero think - all preference for cheese aside, we've very rarely had anything approaching the power of "Do I have the right to cross these wires?"
(If I keep typing long enough, I'm going to end up agreeing with everything you've said while not admitting it!)
However, when some 95% of the storylines in the entire show are based on some sort of invasion, it's hard to figure out what they'd do to round off a season without turning it up to 11 with a Really Big Invasion. I wouldn't mind the change, but I can't think of what it would be.