So I’m months behind the rest of the BBC America viewing audience of Doctor Who. I’m not sure why we left the last two eps of the series (really a two-parter) — “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang” — sitting on the DVR for so long. But I finally turned them on last night and watched.
I’ve kvetched a bit about this particular series of the show. It’s been appropriately quirky and dramatic by turns. The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) has had his moments. Amy Pond (and the returning River Song) have been alternately fun and annoying. Rory was an improvement on ol’ Mickey, but not by much.
While the final two eps don’t turn this into THE MOST AWESOME DOCTOR WHO EVAH, they do pay off a lot of the problems. We get a bit of quirky, but a lot more spooky and dramatic. And Smith does his best work of the series, going from antic to tragic smoothly and easily.
I’ve been in discussions about Amy Pond earlier in the series being a “Mary Sue” character. That’s still in effect here a bit — Amy is not as uber-competent a plot-driver as she was earlier on, but everything still circles around How Amazingly Special She Is. Granted, we actually get a justification for it, but that doesn’t help a lot.
That said, Amy is a less annoying (if no less Preciously Beloved by All) than earlier days. Actually, it almost feels like the pendulum has swung too far the other direction — Amy does a lot more standing around and getting saved than actually acting to move the plot forward. Her biggest role seems to be to use her Magical Willpower Memory Crack-Powered Magic to make things All Better. Um …
(If there was any question, btw, that Doctor Who is actually fantasy with a light veneer of science fiction on it, this series (and these episodes) answers the question in a bold affirmative. Things happen, often without even a convenient hand-wave of explanation. It’s the Doctor, so Things Happen! Or it’s Amy, so Things Happen!)
River Song plays her increasingly frequent supporting role here. Her hypercompetence (Nobody else can pilot the TARDIS … except her! Nobody else gets Doctor calls transferred to them … except her! Nobody else casually flits around time … except her!) wears more than a bit. I’m less inclined to call her a second Mary Sue, but there are similarities. I want to like her (and her escape shtick was priceless), but I find I like her more when she’s not the smirking super-woman.
Rory … has grown on me. He’s gone from the Everyman Slacker Dude who is clearly not up to Amy’s standards (which is why the Doctor rather nastily picks on him all the time) to someone worthwhile to have on an adventure. I’m almost sorry that his, um, change of nature was not permanent (as it would give him even more to distinguish himself by), but I’m glad that his relationship with Amy has more or less gelled.
All that said, there’s some triffic stuff in these eps. The whole secret of the Pandorica was nice. The Doctor offering his advice to the various races coming to (it seemed) steal the Pandorica was also nice. The altered Earth was nice. The wedding was nice. Seeing Amelia again was nice (though not as nice as her first appearance). The time loops were nice. The return of most of the key characters of the whole season just to deliver a message to the Doctor was nice. The final wrap-up and “good-bye” were nice.
(Did BBC really get permission to film at Stonehenge? Or was that a standard Stonehenge model they use for various productions?)
And, overall, it felt like a good resolution. The romantic tension, the Mystery of Amy, the cracks in the wall, the various nasties the Doctor has torqued off (this series and previously), odd conversations and events along the way explained — Moffat did a solid job wrapping up the season with a somewhat tidy bow, but with enough dangling bits (the Silence Falls plot, and, of course, River Song) to carry us into the Sixth Series.
Good stuff. Not fabulous, but enough to for me to forgive some missteps earlier in the series. I look forward to what comes next …
DW has always been more fantasy than sci-fi, but this season really moved it further in that direction. That shouldn’t be too big of a surprise considering Moffat said at the start that the season would be exploring Doctor Who as Fairy Tale.
I don’t recall reading that comment, but it’s neither surprising from Moffat nor out of keeping with S.5.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing — “any sufficiently advanced civilization” and all that, plus the Doctor as an archetype/myth (the ties to the “Raggedy Man” were nicely crafted), all works. But folks tend to think of DW as SF (time travel! robots! space ships!), and the new incarnation has shown how that’s not so much the case (esp. this season).
River Song is the highlight of Moffat’s episodes. I love seeing a smirking-superwoman as more than a match for the smirking-Time Lord, but I do hope that Season 6 will feature one of River’s earlier encounters with the Doctor, if only because Alex Kingston the actress is not as timeless as her character.
A little of showing up the Doctor in terms of mystery and ability goes a very long way in my book. It sounds like we’ll get some milestone moments with RS in S.6, which will be just about right to then largely retire the character.
The Fridge logic didn’t hit me till later (well it wouldn’t – other wise it wouldn’t be fridge logic), but I have to ask you does it really matter. I felt it was one of the best bits of TV I’d ever seen* – you didn’t notice the holes at the time, only when analysed later. I’ve seen too much action drama where you shout at the screen “That doesn’t make sense”.
Remember we had to wait a week- Rory’s an Auton, Amy is dead and the Doctor is locked in the box. We were all “We want the finale, and we want it now!”
The bit where Amy falls out the box and says “This is where it gets complicated kid” we were all “WHAT!?”.
Ok so NuWho plays fast and loose with time travel. Is that any worse than when writers try to do it logically, then write themself into a corner so they end up breaking their own rules? I loved the Bill and Ted way they played with time.
I do love those “I’m the Doctor – check your records” moments.
The legend of the Centurion was inspired – that WAS Rory, he just happened to be plastic not flesh. Slacker? He’s a nurse- hardly a slacker!
Also all the little touches – Saharan Penguins, Dawkins and the Star Cult.
I hope the rumours about Smith are wrong, and he stays.
*Obviously Spitfires in Space = Coolest Thing Ever
I’d never heard the phrase Fridge Logic before — thank you, that’s wonderful. A literary version of l’esprit de l’escalier. The logic holes in the plot didn’t bother me so much, to be honest, as that they sort of get hand-waved as “The universe is a funny place, ennit, esp. when the Doctor (or Amy) is around.”
I was quite pleased that we had the final ep to watch after “The Pandorica Opens.”
And Amy-in-a-Box was indeed a fun moment. (I was vaguely annoyed by the “well, she’s only mostly dead” thing — time for Miracle Max!)
The Legend of the Centurion was, indeed, wonderful. And, true, Rory’s a nurse. He just came across as sort of a young doofus early days. He’s grown on my in a way that Mickey/Nickey never did.
I hadn’t heard anything about Smith leaving (not that I haunt the Who boards or anything). The stuff I have seen all talks about him being signed for the Christmas Special and S.6.
Couple of months ago there was a story on a couple of .uk pages – AOL I think- about Smith leaving
Right This is you ONE and ONLY warning.
I am about to link to TVTropes. You may want to ask Margie to come and get you in a couple of hours. I take no responsibility for any loss of hours
http://xkcd.com/609/
You have been warned
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeLogic
Goodbye – its been nice knowing you.
Actually, I looked up Fridge Logic on TV Tropes. And, yes, it’s a wickedly fascinating site.
Rumor back in June/July. The Sun seems to have been the key instigator:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3056595/MATT-SMITH-is-ready-to-quit-as-Doctor-Who-to-crack-Hollywood.html
http://sciencefictionworld.com/tv/science-fiction-tv/556-matt-smith-leaving-doctor-who-already.html
Haven’t found any confirmation one way or the other (and it seems unlikely we would for several months yet).
The Sun – as in the Murdoch Red Top? If they told me Grass was Green I’d look out the window to check.
Yes, that Sun. Which everyone is tending to pooh-pooh, except they apparently had the scoop on Eccleston. (Of course, a broken clock is right twice a day.)