Category: Doctor Who

Stated below the fold just to be absolutely non-spoilery.

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Continue reading “A brief Doctor Who Series 6 Premiere Episode comment”

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 …

We wrapped up Game Day yesterday with a group viewing (a few hours timeshifted) of the first episode of the new season (and new ) lead of Doctor Who.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I want to watch it again, as it was late, I was tired, and I’d done plenty of convivial celebrating. That said, I’m pretty pleased by the New Doctor, the Eleventh in that line, as played by Matt Smith.

Smith has, so far, done a good (if frenetic) job of not seeming too young. That was the main critique/concern of him when announced, but with his improbable hair and bowtie, and unflagging self-confidence, Smith “felt” much more mature than the early shots of him gave the appearance of being. It’s a first outing, and those can be a bit odd (consider Eccleston’s first, or Tennant’s for that matter), but Smith does a good job here, with nothing specific to criticize.

The story in “The Eleventh Hour” is a good intro to Steven Moffat’s new tenure as lead storywriter and executive producer. Like most of the first outings, it’s a busy introduction to various folks — and Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond (special nod to Caitlin Blackwood as a fine youngster version of same) introduces well, a classic spunky Companion. There are threats to the world, alien criminals, invasions fended off, and some trademark Moffat creepy-spooky, not to mention a bit of foreshadowing (“the Pandorica will open, silence will fall”). The Doctor comes across as confident and unflagging, and, so far, I’m pretty pleased.

On to next week!