Doctor Who season ender.

[amanuensis1]

Thoughts on the Doctor Who season finale, "The Big Bang."



Thought when the title said, "1,894 years later...": But I don't want the Doctor to be 2700 years old now, you can't mess with him like that! (Later thought: Oh, good, he's not.)

Thought on Amy's tutor/guardians being upset over her drawing stars: Are today's parents upset when their kids draw mermaids and dragons?

Thought on Amy finding her older self in the Pandorica, and the line, "Okay, now this is where it gets complicated," as the last line before the credits: Now I know why I love both Moffat and Whedon when they're having good days--they write just like each other.

Thought on the change in tone from the shockingly grim conclusion of the last episode to levity and hijinks: Why did this work so well but the same tactic in Deathly Hallows was utter crud?

Thought on Dalek firepower: That is one tough satellite dish.

Thought on seeing this is threatening to turn into a mindwipe finale: I hate mindwipes like I cannot even express. They are my phobia. Pull this one out of the fire, Moffat.

Random "Why am I thinking about this now?" thought: Who brushes their teeth with their tie on? You'll get little white flecks all over it!

Thought on the tear splashing on the book: You can call it "Tinkerbell magic" all you want, haters--I love this kind of thing.

Thought on Amy crawling over the table to get to the TARDIS: The TARDIS manifesting was a great moment, but still not as great as that.

Nearly last thought: So is the book full of spoilers again OH YES THEY DIDN'T FORGET TO ANSWER THAT!

Final thought regarding all the fans who actually 'ship the Doctor with his companions, unlike me, who am old school and still think of the Doctor as asexual: ...Okay, you got me there. They are definitely in a threesome.

What a lovely season arc and arc-ender. Truth? While I still think of all the Doctor incarnations as the same character and dislike fights over that issue, I find I liked Eccleston's and Tennant's Doctors better than Smith's, but that's because I have a thing for the deep-drama-with-panic moments that Nine and Ten could manifest. Eleven just refuses to seriously panic, ever, and it makes him less vulnerable for me. I need a little vulnerable once in a while. But he's the Doctor all the same.

Also, MARRIED COUPLE IN THE TARDIS FOR ONCE! WOO!

Comments

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Also, Nine, Ten and Eleven have all given me those fan responses of "You gonna get it now, suckahs!" during their moments of awesome, but I admit I like the fire that Nine and Ten would show during those moments. Eleven's fire burns quieter.

[w-wylfing.livejournal.com]

I'm so excited about a married couple in the TARDIS! This is the first one, right? Have we ever known that someone was married while they were traveling in the TARDIS? (River Song might be, but we don't know.) This whole "adventures while in a committed relationship" thing might be a new deal!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, no, I'm not sure that anyone of married status was a bona fide traveling companion! How odd is that?

[w-wylfing.livejournal.com]

It's weird, right? I mean, he's traveled with dogs and Highlanders and school teachers and his granddaughter--but they're always single.

PS I love your icon!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That was the spoilery one I couldn't use outside the cut! :D

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

I find I liked Eccleston's and Tennant's Doctors better than Smith's, but that's because I have a thing for the deep-drama-with-panic moments that Nine and Ten could manifest.

I wouldn't say he doesn't panic, just that he's very quiet and understated about it. Which I love.

And, how much am I looking forward to a married Team TARDIS?!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And I understand that there are people who prefer the quiet and understated to the loud drama, which is fine with me! I just want a little loud drama every so often. Eccleston used it rarely but to great effect; Tennant used it often but he never overused it for me.

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

re: the married couples thing...almost all the common plots in sff are stories of adolescents--much harder to go out and have Adventures! once you've accumulated a certain amount of community responsibility, whether it's by marrying, having children, investing in a settled group of friends.... That sort of thing is the reward at the end of the story (or the thing that is deliberately ruled out or attenuated by your experiences on the journey, hi Frodo!). Ursula K. Le Guin has an essay called "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown" which is kind of a rant against this, although...possibly not entirely, I haven't read it in years. Anyway, yes, we tend to tell Grand Stories in the genre and I am so excited to see something a little different next season, as well as, like, WHY DID THE TARDIS EXPLODE (thank goodness they mentioned that they hadn't solved that yet). :D :D :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

There are LOTS of little things that either I think are explained at this point (so the crack in the universe STARTED in the TARDIS, not in Amy's wall, right?) or aren't really but my brain is trying to fill in the spaces, so, when I hit a moment that's really still unexplained I'm not recognizing it as such! --I just read what I wrote there and I don't think it makes any sense. See what I mean? Brain working overtime to make everything come together!

I think I've read that essay! Must hunt down and see if I can find again...

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Eleven just refuses to seriously panic, ever, and it makes him less vulnerable for me. I need a little vulnerable once in a while.

What about that epic scene in Flesh and Stone, when Amy is in the wood, and he screams at River, and pretty much crumples down over the console, burying his face in his hands (which are already full of radio transmitter and sonic screwdriver)? I would say that was pretty panic-full :) Or when he's being locked into the Pandorica, begging and in tears and breaking down completely? There's vulnerable there, but just not as in your face as Nine and Ten :)

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

Or when he's being locked into the Pandorica, begging and in tears and breaking down completely?

Amen to that!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

But we didn't get "in tears and breaking down completely," and I WANTED that! He was so calm and lost in his shock. I wanted kicking and screaming!

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

He was dragged. Dragging is good. And shock is good; shock not just at what was happening to him, but at the immensity of what he had failed to grasp was happening ... and and and ... resignation!OMG!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I wanted more screaming. I wanted a Big No (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigNo), I don't mind admitting. ^_^

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to go back and watch the Flesh and Stone scene and see, because I can't remember, but the locking-into-the-Pandorica, see, that's a scene where I saw that he DIDN'T panic, and that's the one that stands out for me. He was shutdown-calm in shock and panic, whereas Tennant might have given us a good old Big No (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigNo). I don't mind admitting I was craving a Big No like no one's business at that moment. (And I also recognize that's a reason some people like Smith's Doctor better than Tennant's.)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

*g* I suspect Moffat likes to run counter to the Big No, where he can, just because RTD would have done it :D And I've been rewatching bits and pieces of episodes all week, trying to figure out what was going to happpen - this, I did not see coming at all :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This is totally a "watch it from the beginning" season. I stand by what I said, though-- the Moffat episodes (okay, and VinV) were the only ones that really engaged me.

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

Are today's parents upset when their kids draw mermaids and dragons?

No. But the aunt+shrink discussed something about "star cult" (and Richard Dawkins *lol*), so I think it's more akin to drawing a symbol that might have some odd cultish and/or political attachment than mermaids.

I liked. I want the Doctor to die more often & Rory is my hero!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Is this the indecipherable something they were muttering that I didn't catch? Maybe my not catching it is explained by the reality that I just had to google Richard Dawkins to find out who he is. (Interesting guy; how have I not heard of him?) Your explanation makes much more sense!

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

I forget not everyone is a scientist! I'm so used to reading his work + he's always on tv and radio here, but maybe he's a very British institution.
I think the muttering was something about the "Star Cult of Dawkins" and that's why they were worried about her *thumbs up!*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It was clearly meant for enough people to get it! I'm sure cascades of non-British people will descend to say, "OMG, we know who he is too, how do you not?" :D

[winter]

I think Eleven panics, it's just that he's less of a drama queen than Ten, especially. For me that's a selling point - Ten is so self-centered and flailing all the time that I can't relate to him. You're a nine-hundred-year-old timelord, man, time to pick up some maturity!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And I realize that's exactly why a lot of people love Eleven. Me, I don't mind admitting I miss the drama queen! ^_^ It probably reflects my first and favorite doctor being Four, a/k/a Mr. "What's the point in being grown-up if you can't act childish?"

[winter]

...Vampires in Venice. That thing with shutting people up by hand over mouth? So not mature :D

(And the FEZ. Love the FEZ. Worship the FEZ.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was so glad they shot the fez, thank GOD. XD

[aunty_marion]

Hear hear. Tennant might be older than Smith, but he acted the Doctor as someone *much* younger. Oh, and Time *LORD* - not a yob.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

See, I love a manic Doctor. Not that Smith's isn't manic, but, you've phrased it very well, Eleven just acts "older" than Ten.

(Why have I no Tom Baker icons? That man was the love of my life, once upon.)

[winter]

I do think that each incarnation's an indication of the Doctor's subconscious urge at the point of regeneration. After Gallifrey fell, he wanted to go back to something simpler, hence Nine, then when that "simple happy time-travel" thing didn't work out, he went through his teenage stormy period again with Ten, escaping to his Academy years again. That... wasn't the brightest of ideas. Hence going back to maturity.

Amy's Choice in particular drove home the fact that he's got just as much issues as before. He's just choosing not to make his life 100% about them. Growing up.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Very nice analysis of why he might be like this!

[wivern.livejournal.com]

I find Matt's Dr Who more subtle in his expression of emotion and for me that makes him more vulnerable somehow.

And yes! Amy and Rory in the Tardis!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And I want a bit more posturing and shouting myself, I guess. ^_^ Amy and Rory, YES!

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

I wondered if the stars were upsetting to the adults because there was some timey-wimey stuff where they had the tiniest bit of awareness that something was wrong about their universe, and so the stars made them uncomfortable in a way mermaids or dragons woudln't. (Because we know those never existed ;) )

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I like that explanation! I hadn't gone there in my thoughts!

[jamoche]

That's what I was thinking. I was expecting Vincent to show up, because only mad painters and little kids believe in other stars than the sun.

Imagine everyone else's take on "Starry Night" in that world...

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

*covers eyes*

I wish I had seen it so I could read your post! Still haven't watched a single episode of this season.

Okay, mostly commented to say hi! :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hello! Don't look at this! Take your time and go mainline them sometime. ^_^ *smooches*