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Entry tags:
- doctor who,
- dw s5,
- meta,
- review,
- telly
DW 5x07 - Amy's Choice
I didn’t get to watch yesterday because I was out, so I’ve done my best to avoid reading too much about the episode.
I think that was the best episode of the new series so far – and Simon Nye needs to write more Doctor Who.
It’s no secret that while I can enjoy the silly and the daft and the monster/alien-of-the-week stuff in DW, the thing that really hooks me is the more character driven element. That was one of the things that Rusty brought to the show and that he did very, very well – the bits “in between”, if you will. Ten talking to Donna on the rooftop in The Runaway Bride, telling Martha about Gallifrey in Gridlock,telling Adelaide about her granddaughter in Waters of Mars - to name but a few.
And I’ve been missing it, big-time. I’m watching and enjoying S5, but it’s not been hitting the spot for me in the way it used to. So – thank you Simon Nye for bringing back my squee, even if it’s only for one episode.
What’s the betting the Daily Fail will be full of complaints from Help the Aged next week? *g*
I liked the way the episode was constructed and paced, with the sharp cuts between the two worlds, and as you’d expect from someone primarily known as a writer of comedy, there were some fabulous lines and comedic moments. “You’ve swallowed a planet”; the thing about the Doctor’s outfit being designed by a first-year fashion student (although to be honest, I can’t see a first-year fashion student being caught dead designing something incorporating a tweed jacket and bow tie!), the moment on the bench, that image of the Doctor cupping his hands underneath Amy as she pretends to go into labour; Amy's getting pregnant so she didn't have to watch the local Amateur Operatic Society doing Oklahoma!...
And whatever the reason, Moff and team have clearly adopted the view that Ten deflowered the Virgin Queen – we’ve had two references to it this season! Also – mention of his penchant for redheads (there’s only been one in nu-Who though) and the fact that Elizabeth the First er… wasn’t. Wasn’t his first what? Queen? Elizabeth? Or redhead? Oh, the possiblilities for fanwank are endless. I shall choose the latter because clearly Ten and Donna were going at like bunnies and the only reason he married Liz I was because she reminded him of Donna. *wink!*
And then there were the darker moments. About what happens when the Doctor leaves and/or discards his companions, his selfishness in his need for them. YES! And at the end, the Doctor himself acknowledges that after 907 years, he’s bound to have a lot of inner demons for someone like the ‘Dream Lord’ to prey on. I loved the “there’s only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do” line – which was when I got a clue. Because yes, the Doctor is that person – there were times when the depth of self-loathing that Nine and Ten carried seemed like it would burn them up. Eleven is suppressing all that so far – and I still can’t work out if it’s deliberate or simply inexperience and/or poor direction, because even here, when you could see that the barbs the Dream Lord was throwing at the Doctor were affecting him, it didn’t seem like they affected him enough.
I also liked the scene between the Dream Lord and Amy - it points up one of the reasons I've found it so hard to like her - which is her very propietary attitude towards the Doctor. She thinks he's the girl to whom he tells everything. Why the hell does she think that? She knows he's "very, very old" and I presume realises she's not the only person he's travelled with - so how can she possibly think he's told her everything? Why does she think she's so special? And more to the point - WE HAVEN'T BEEN GIVEN ANY REASON TO THINK HE THINKS SHE WOULD 'DESERVE' THAT EITHER! I really hope that this is all deliberate and there will be some big reveal later, but this arrogance is one of the things I really dislike about Amy.
Thing is – does anyone else feel like that whole alien-pollen thing wasn’t the truth? It felt a bit too - I dunno - convenient? to me. I can’t help thinking of the Doctor clapping his hands and rubbing them together with glee when he sees that Amy has indeed made her choice. He didn’t say “sorted!” but it was hanging in the air. And what did he say at the end of Flesh and Stone? That he needed to get her sorted out. So for some reason, it’s important that Amy chooses Rory – OR, could it be not so much that she chooses Rory but that she chooses someone who isn’t the Doctor? And if that’s the case, while on one level, I can understand him wanting that for her because he’s lost so many who’ve loved him, but I imagine it’s important in terms of the bigger picture, too. So were the dream worlds somehow engineered by the Doctor to further his matchmaking designs? We know he can be a manipulative bastard - and he's admitted it - although I don't think we saw so much of that side of him during Rusty's tenure.
I'm still really liking Rory and hope he'll stay on board the TARDIS for the foreseeable future. He makes Amy bearable for me, but he's also a good character in his own right. He's not 'Rory the Idiot' - last week, we saw that he was able to sum up the Doctor and the effect he has on people with rather a lot of insight, and that he wasn't going to be easily overawed, despite the fact that he's up against the most amazing man in the universe(!) He's an ordinary guy showing that it's okay to be ordinary - and that an ordinary guy can be extraordinary nonetheless. He appears to be in the two-parter coming up; is he around for the rest of the series?
And we've passed the halfway point of S5.
I think that was the best episode of the new series so far – and Simon Nye needs to write more Doctor Who.
It’s no secret that while I can enjoy the silly and the daft and the monster/alien-of-the-week stuff in DW, the thing that really hooks me is the more character driven element. That was one of the things that Rusty brought to the show and that he did very, very well – the bits “in between”, if you will. Ten talking to Donna on the rooftop in The Runaway Bride, telling Martha about Gallifrey in Gridlock,telling Adelaide about her granddaughter in Waters of Mars - to name but a few.
And I’ve been missing it, big-time. I’m watching and enjoying S5, but it’s not been hitting the spot for me in the way it used to. So – thank you Simon Nye for bringing back my squee, even if it’s only for one episode.
What’s the betting the Daily Fail will be full of complaints from Help the Aged next week? *g*
I liked the way the episode was constructed and paced, with the sharp cuts between the two worlds, and as you’d expect from someone primarily known as a writer of comedy, there were some fabulous lines and comedic moments. “You’ve swallowed a planet”; the thing about the Doctor’s outfit being designed by a first-year fashion student (although to be honest, I can’t see a first-year fashion student being caught dead designing something incorporating a tweed jacket and bow tie!), the moment on the bench, that image of the Doctor cupping his hands underneath Amy as she pretends to go into labour; Amy's getting pregnant so she didn't have to watch the local Amateur Operatic Society doing Oklahoma!...
And whatever the reason, Moff and team have clearly adopted the view that Ten deflowered the Virgin Queen – we’ve had two references to it this season! Also – mention of his penchant for redheads (there’s only been one in nu-Who though) and the fact that Elizabeth the First er… wasn’t. Wasn’t his first what? Queen? Elizabeth? Or redhead? Oh, the possiblilities for fanwank are endless. I shall choose the latter because clearly Ten and Donna were going at like bunnies and the only reason he married Liz I was because she reminded him of Donna. *wink!*
And then there were the darker moments. About what happens when the Doctor leaves and/or discards his companions, his selfishness in his need for them. YES! And at the end, the Doctor himself acknowledges that after 907 years, he’s bound to have a lot of inner demons for someone like the ‘Dream Lord’ to prey on. I loved the “there’s only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do” line – which was when I got a clue. Because yes, the Doctor is that person – there were times when the depth of self-loathing that Nine and Ten carried seemed like it would burn them up. Eleven is suppressing all that so far – and I still can’t work out if it’s deliberate or simply inexperience and/or poor direction, because even here, when you could see that the barbs the Dream Lord was throwing at the Doctor were affecting him, it didn’t seem like they affected him enough.
I also liked the scene between the Dream Lord and Amy - it points up one of the reasons I've found it so hard to like her - which is her very propietary attitude towards the Doctor. She thinks he's the girl to whom he tells everything. Why the hell does she think that? She knows he's "very, very old" and I presume realises she's not the only person he's travelled with - so how can she possibly think he's told her everything? Why does she think she's so special? And more to the point - WE HAVEN'T BEEN GIVEN ANY REASON TO THINK HE THINKS SHE WOULD 'DESERVE' THAT EITHER! I really hope that this is all deliberate and there will be some big reveal later, but this arrogance is one of the things I really dislike about Amy.
Thing is – does anyone else feel like that whole alien-pollen thing wasn’t the truth? It felt a bit too - I dunno - convenient? to me. I can’t help thinking of the Doctor clapping his hands and rubbing them together with glee when he sees that Amy has indeed made her choice. He didn’t say “sorted!” but it was hanging in the air. And what did he say at the end of Flesh and Stone? That he needed to get her sorted out. So for some reason, it’s important that Amy chooses Rory – OR, could it be not so much that she chooses Rory but that she chooses someone who isn’t the Doctor? And if that’s the case, while on one level, I can understand him wanting that for her because he’s lost so many who’ve loved him, but I imagine it’s important in terms of the bigger picture, too. So were the dream worlds somehow engineered by the Doctor to further his matchmaking designs? We know he can be a manipulative bastard - and he's admitted it - although I don't think we saw so much of that side of him during Rusty's tenure.
I'm still really liking Rory and hope he'll stay on board the TARDIS for the foreseeable future. He makes Amy bearable for me, but he's also a good character in his own right. He's not 'Rory the Idiot' - last week, we saw that he was able to sum up the Doctor and the effect he has on people with rather a lot of insight, and that he wasn't going to be easily overawed, despite the fact that he's up against the most amazing man in the universe(!) He's an ordinary guy showing that it's okay to be ordinary - and that an ordinary guy can be extraordinary nonetheless. He appears to be in the two-parter coming up; is he around for the rest of the series?
And we've passed the halfway point of S5.
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Though, I suppose it could stem from the fact that she's been thinking about him her whole life. She made Rory dress up as the Doctor. She probably invented stories about him, gave him a history, and started mixing her dreams with reality.
And they sort of touched on that with this episode and the Dreamlord going, "umm... no." But it would be nice to see a bit more smackdown, especially if Amy will continue to assume things about him.
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A lot of people have been justifying Amy's purported knowledge of the Doctor that way - but wtf? He's been in her head for that time, she's imagined him - and that isn't the same as knowing him!
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It still doesn't explain why she thinks he tells her everything though.
no subject
And I'm trying to remember - has the Doctor mentioned other companions before? I mean, other than when saying he can't be alone for too long because he starts talking to himself? I can visualise him saying something like 'I have people who travel with me' but I'm not sure if he actually did or I invented it. (Ha, I'm getting as bad as Amy!)
no subject
I'd agree with that assessment. Which also makes the line about four psychiatrists even more relevant, because really, how unbalanced must a person be to think they know someone because they've been dreaming about them for years??
As far as I remember, Eleven hasn't mentioned any other companion by name, although I'm sure we were all meant to think of Donna with the line about redheads.