Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes to War
Jun. 5th, 2011 06:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Okay, the teaser for this week's Doctor Who may have been the greatest opening in the history of Who. I say that even remembering the opening to The Big Bang last season. (And yes, I note both are Moffat episodes. My bias shows not at all, I'm sure.) Rory. Rory, Rory, Rory. I was waiting for that without having any idea that I've been waiting for that until I got it. Man, that kind of surprise is the best.
Speaking of which, the BIG REVEAL.
I've seen some discussion that the reveal is less powerful because fandom guessed it, which makes for interesting observation about the effect of fandom on a serialized piece of fiction, one in which we have time for mass speculation. It wasn't so much that fandom guessed it as much as it was in our list of possibilities, and got more and more probable with each new episode this season, which started narrowing things down. River Song's around a lot! And Amy's pregnant-not-pregnant! And there's a little girl! Who's in a spacesuit! That was put there by enemy aliens! Who may have shot the Doctor! Hang on, isn't River in prison for having killed a man? And her timeline's all wonky to ours? And Amy just had a baby girl! So if River had turned out to be something completely unrelated to this storyline, would it have been more or less satisfying? I can't blame Moffat for properly laying down his material so that everything fits. I do think that the swift among us might have seen "Melody Pond" at the very start of this episode and got their confirmation as early as that moment (I am not among the swift, I admit), or put together that River couldn't be there because she had to avoid time paradoxing herself (I'm not that swift either, that just came to me while typing). But those are intraepisode anvils. Which I still didn't see until the time came to see them.
From the first appearance of River we've had speculation on who she is. If she'd turned out to be the Doctor's mother or Romana or Leela or any of the other speculations, would we say that we had guessed it? I suspect we would have, the same way that (Harry Potter semi-spoiler) "Snape was in love with a particular character" was on our list of possibilities even though we had nothing to confirm it until we were told it, and it felt less powerful as a result. We like it when even the hivemind of fandom can't go where the authors are going, don't we, but we don't want things to come at us from so far out of left field that we call it a cheat. Kuroshitsuji II episode 8 is my go-to example of "We've laid the groundwork with this character but haven't given you enough to guess; now here's almost everything in one episode, prepare to gasp" in serialized fiction. I think, with River Song's Big Reveal, I am too pleased that this was no cheat to be disappointed that the answer actually was in the list of guesses. I look how far back the groundwork has been laid and am too impressed to be disappointed.
Other small notes:
-CHAMPION LA LECHE LEAGUE MACHO LACTATING SONTARAN. To the end of my days I will cherish that. It's like the joke about how if men had periods they'd brag about how heavy their flow was.
-Also to be cherished to the end of days: "Whyever do you put up with me?" *thirty-foot lizard tongue sleepy-stinger dart* *shared naughty look* MOFFAT DIDN'T HAVE TO GIVE US THAT NAUGHTY LOOK. HE COULD HAVE PRETENDED THE SEQUENCE OF SPOKEN LINE AND TONGUE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER. BUT HE GAVE US THAT LOOK OMIGOD.
-I do want to see the moment when Lorna the soldier meets the Doctor when she's a child. I suspect we'll be given it by season's end.
And so it shouldn't be lost in all this: did anyone else fall out of their chair laughing at the sheer balls of the next episode title? I really can't emphasize SHEER BALLS enough. I mean, you couldn't name a South Park episode that and not call it sheer balls.
Speaking of which, the BIG REVEAL.
I've seen some discussion that the reveal is less powerful because fandom guessed it, which makes for interesting observation about the effect of fandom on a serialized piece of fiction, one in which we have time for mass speculation. It wasn't so much that fandom guessed it as much as it was in our list of possibilities, and got more and more probable with each new episode this season, which started narrowing things down. River Song's around a lot! And Amy's pregnant-not-pregnant! And there's a little girl! Who's in a spacesuit! That was put there by enemy aliens! Who may have shot the Doctor! Hang on, isn't River in prison for having killed a man? And her timeline's all wonky to ours? And Amy just had a baby girl! So if River had turned out to be something completely unrelated to this storyline, would it have been more or less satisfying? I can't blame Moffat for properly laying down his material so that everything fits. I do think that the swift among us might have seen "Melody Pond" at the very start of this episode and got their confirmation as early as that moment (I am not among the swift, I admit), or put together that River couldn't be there because she had to avoid time paradoxing herself (I'm not that swift either, that just came to me while typing). But those are intraepisode anvils. Which I still didn't see until the time came to see them.
From the first appearance of River we've had speculation on who she is. If she'd turned out to be the Doctor's mother or Romana or Leela or any of the other speculations, would we say that we had guessed it? I suspect we would have, the same way that (Harry Potter semi-spoiler) "Snape was in love with a particular character" was on our list of possibilities even though we had nothing to confirm it until we were told it, and it felt less powerful as a result. We like it when even the hivemind of fandom can't go where the authors are going, don't we, but we don't want things to come at us from so far out of left field that we call it a cheat. Kuroshitsuji II episode 8 is my go-to example of "We've laid the groundwork with this character but haven't given you enough to guess; now here's almost everything in one episode, prepare to gasp" in serialized fiction. I think, with River Song's Big Reveal, I am too pleased that this was no cheat to be disappointed that the answer actually was in the list of guesses. I look how far back the groundwork has been laid and am too impressed to be disappointed.
Other small notes:
-CHAMPION LA LECHE LEAGUE MACHO LACTATING SONTARAN. To the end of my days I will cherish that. It's like the joke about how if men had periods they'd brag about how heavy their flow was.
-Also to be cherished to the end of days: "Whyever do you put up with me?" *thirty-foot lizard tongue sleepy-stinger dart* *shared naughty look* MOFFAT DIDN'T HAVE TO GIVE US THAT NAUGHTY LOOK. HE COULD HAVE PRETENDED THE SEQUENCE OF SPOKEN LINE AND TONGUE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER. BUT HE GAVE US THAT LOOK OMIGOD.
-I do want to see the moment when Lorna the soldier meets the Doctor when she's a child. I suspect we'll be given it by season's end.
And so it shouldn't be lost in all this: did anyone else fall out of their chair laughing at the sheer balls of the next episode title? I really can't emphasize SHEER BALLS enough. I mean, you couldn't name a South Park episode that and not call it sheer balls.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 10:48 am (UTC)And OMG, you saw the LOOK too? I had to explain that sequence to my partner as I was chortling all over. AND the follow up where those two are talking about Lorna and being all 'Oooh, nice, can we keep her' about it.
Lactating Sontarans For.The.Win!
I've twittered at Steve Moffat and told him I'm sending him the bill for cleaning my exploded brain off the living room walls. He is failing to respond. *sigh*
(honestly, fandom - if we're going to be clever and make guesses, then we have to accept that sometimes we're going to be clever in line with the writers and get it right - is that not a reinforcement that the clues were good? and if it was still guesses, that the build up was appropriate? *eye roll*)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:04 pm (UTC)I really don't think I caught that the Silurian and her sidekick had A Thing until that look; I think that's why I lost it so hard over that moment.
I can't help but love fandom analysis. This is why movies, seen in-theatre, are best at being twisty; there's no intermission as a rule where everyone gets up and discusses where it's going to go from here; you have to take it all in as one piece. Assuming you're observing the polite rule of not talking during the film, of course. :D
*loves you right back!*
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Date: 2011-06-05 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:40 pm (UTC)I was kind of guessing the reveal because there was a spoiler that the baby's name was Melody Pond, but by now we should know that Moffat is like the king of trolls and ANYTHING could happen. So I was still not sure until the very end, and for me, it was still pretty surprising.
Agreed though, Moffat did lay down the facts pretty well.
THE LACTATING SONTARAN, YES THAT WAS FABULOUS. I think the fans really enjoyed the Victorian England bit too ^^
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:47 pm (UTC)And yes, I actually did have a brief moment of wishing I wasn't involved in fandom, because then I actually would have been shocked. Oh well. I guess this is what happens when you're involving an active fandom as the show is airing.
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Date: 2011-06-05 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 03:44 pm (UTC)Also, it was not a theory I was fond of, and I was really hoping he'd do something else. Meh.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 10:01 pm (UTC)I've never seen Dr. Who... And again, a tingling, unnamed dread besets my blackened soul. Surely, this most unpardonable of fangirlish sins will be my undoing... :(
no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 12:51 am (UTC)*has more irreverent Kuroshitsuji icons*
no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 11:15 pm (UTC)Yay Kuroshitsuji icons! <3 Life complete now.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:52 pm (UTC)Fandom being good at dragging out all the possibilities via the hivemind is one thing, and I adored it in Potter fandom, but being able to see the end coming in advance without the hivemind is boring. But then, that's been my issue with Moffat since he took the reins, and I just did a big ranty thing about it on my own journal. IDK, I kinda want RTD back.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:57 pm (UTC)*reads your post* Oh, I think I will comment over there, what you have to say is interesting!
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Date: 2011-06-05 02:22 pm (UTC)Glad you think it's interesting; it was pretty stream-of-consciousness and I wasn't sure how much sense it would make to anyone but me. :)
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Date: 2011-06-05 03:46 pm (UTC)Yes, this. If fandom was able to come up with it and decide that it was 90% likely to happen, that I would argue that this is almost certainly true.
Though I never, ever want RTD back. Moffat on a bad day is still better than RTD on his best, as far as I'm concerned.
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Date: 2011-06-05 04:00 pm (UTC)do you think so? I thought we got far more interesting episodes in the first 4 than the last two.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 04:06 pm (UTC)But obviously YMMV.
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Date: 2011-06-05 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 03:59 pm (UTC)I'M GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT TOO. 8D
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Date: 2011-06-05 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 06:19 pm (UTC)Well, she would know!
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Date: 2011-06-05 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:23 pm (UTC)Loved nurse!Sontaran - and I totally noticed THAT LOOK! :D
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 11:55 pm (UTC)I have always said that as much as I was disappointed with DH, I was thrilled that the seed that JKR had planted with Voldemort using Harry in his resurrection ritual and Dumbledore's brief triumphant look never did get unrooted by fandom completely. I have always bowed down to her for that!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 11:23 pm (UTC)Oh, Moffat. <3
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Date: 2011-06-06 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 12:50 am (UTC)I'm Jewish, and all I could think of when I saw that was "it's Spring time ... for Hitler...in Gerrrrmaaaaany."
no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 02:10 am (UTC)When the Doctor Who will return in September in "Let's Kill Hitler" popped up, I admit, I was like, WHAT? REALLY STEVEN? You're really going with THAT title??
And then I wondered if we were going back to Churchill and WWII again. But then I thought about it, and I think it's not literally about Hitler, but more the idea - going back to Genesis of the Daleks and Tom Baker's dilemma as well as the usual morality play question - if you knew someone was going to grow up to do despicably evil things (like Hitler), if you could, would you go back in time and kill them? That's what I think the title represents.
Gah! I don't want to wait until September! But Torchwood is coming soon! \o/
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Date: 2011-06-12 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 02:21 am (UTC)Lost my shit at the line in the episode, lost my shit all over again reading that. omfg.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 12:16 am (UTC)YES to the Sontaran lactating nurse.
YES to the tall/short/fat/thin gay duo.
YES to the lizard and her little maidy lovergirl with swords and tongue
HMM to the headless monks that felt way Douglas Adamsy
And...well...kinda BUH to the River Song being Amy's baby. I didn't groove on it, or on the Doctor getting all turned on by knowing he boinked Amy's daughter. I dunno. I may be sold on it in future, but right now, it's lowered my River Song adoration considerably.
So cool that you're so into this. Do you love Sherlock too, one hopes?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 10:49 am (UTC)This was a heck of a season-hiatus-y moment upon which to pause. (Oh! As soon as they tried to make excuses about the Headless Monks I was freaking out. "YOUR THEORIES ARE TOO GENTLE TO BE LIKELY.")
no subject
Date: 2011-07-13 04:00 pm (UTC)I do wish I liked the turn of events in the last DW episode. I confess I really don't. But perhaps they'll make me like it later. ^_^
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