DW 6x01 - The Impossible Astronaut

[caz963]

That was a great season opener - I just hope that part two lives up to expectations. The trailer certainly looked damn awesome.

I'm still feeling a bit :( after watching My Sarah-Jane afterwards, so I think I'm just going to go with a list.

• I sincerely hope there aren't lots more nude portraits of the Doctor hanging around the galaxy; well, certainly not of any pre-Eight! *g*
  
  
• How the hell did they get away with having a naked (well, by implication) man hiding under a woman's skirt at 6pm?! And the screamer line?! One of the things I've always liked about SM is his way with the double entendre ;-) The good lines came thick and fast in this one.
  
  
• The Doctor appears to have part-time companions now. WTF?
  
  
• Very appropriate use of Laurel and Hardy
  
  
• Loved the way it was Rory who suggested they use the boat for the pyre.
  
  
• "Get me... coffee, twelve Jammie Dodgers and a fez." Cue me and the kids howling with laughter!
  
  
• That scene between River and Rory was fab.
  
  
• "One day I'll look into his eyes and he won't know me... I think it'll kill me." Oh River - how prophetic.
  
  
• Amy's pregnant? I admit I suspected there might be something like that coming along, but not so soon. Mind you, pretty much nothing is as it seems, so who knows? River also felt sick after seeing the aliens, so I reckon it's the aliens messing with Amy's head or something along those lines.
  
  
• Sterling! After all the DW references in Leverage, I suppose it's only fitting :-)
  
  
• IT'S THE TARDIS FROM "THE LODGER"!!! asdfhjdkghldfgjkag!
  
  
• Time can be rewritten. *rolls eyes* Is this a drinking game now?
  
  
• Spooky aliens that you forget immediately you're not looking at them. Thinking about it, they're a bit like angels in reverse.
  
  
• You can't tell me there's not been some nookie in the TARDIS with River after that!
  

Matt Smith was excellent and Karen Gillan hasn't started to annoy me yet, which is a good sign.

We were watching TBB the other day and even Mr Caz, who doesn't normally comment much on such things said that she's got two expressions - wide eyed amazement and sulky pout. "Oh, look - she's even pouting when she's supposed to be unconscious." That's bitchy, comning from him!

I'm sure I'll have more to say at a later date - perhaps after I've seen it again and/or seen the second part of the story.

Comments

[seri-scribble.livejournal.com]

I laughed really hard at the, "They're American!" "DON'T SHOOT!". XD

And River. I wasn't under the impression that she was meeting the Doctor in exactly reverse order. I thought she was more timey-whimey about it. I guess this makes it more tragic for her, which is always fun. BRB rewatching all the River episodes in reverse order JUST BECAUSE.

I hate two parters. I do not have the patience for them. RAWR.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

Just now got around to watching it. I'll probably have more to say after I've seen it again, but right now the primary thing I can think of is, "whuh?"

I do think it would have "sold" the American angle a bit more if after the Doctor said to get him some Jammie Dodgers, the Americans had asked, "What are those?" (We don't have them, y'see.) But the accents weren't too bad, except for the lady in the restroom, who was pretty awful.

Oh, and the Americans calling it a restroom was a nice touch. Because to us "toilet" means just the thing you poo/pee in, not the entire room. So, good for Moffat on that. (It was Moffat, right?)

I too loved the scene between River and Rory. And Amy didn't grate on me *too* much. Wonder if she really is pregnant, and if so, why was it so important to tell the Doctor just then? (Unless the child in the spacesuit is hers, from the future? That was the first thing I thought of.)

Oh well, intriguing start to the season.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Moffat, yep.

I liked it, but there had damn well better be some answers next week, or I'll be throwing things at the telly!

I think having more people around means that Amy has less screentime and therefore grates less - always a good thing.
I really like the way Rory is the grounding influence, Sometimes, I think Moff writes him as being a bit whiny and/or dumb (like when they all arrived in the Oval) but he has a kind of quiet authority - he picks his battles carefully, methinks.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I always thought that the Doctor/River meetings were more random than that - their meeting in reverse order does seem rather too contrived, doesn't it? Which is now making me wonder if there's someone else engineering them...

That means that there MUST be a point at which they "meet in the middle" in the same place in both their timelines, right?

[hooloovoo_42]

I think the "meet in reverse order" thing is a new, retro-fitted explanation. When we first met her in the library, we seemed to get the impression that it was more "Time traveller's wife-like", in that their meetings would not happen in any kind of order, reverse or any other. Otherwise, why would they have to synch diaries?

Also, as she seems to have no problem whatsoever in getting out of jail at any point she feels like it, in order to pop back to wherever the Doctor is at the time, it's all getting very silly to have her locked up in the first place.

What originally seems like a good explanation for a character - any character - in an original episode, can get rather stretched if you keep re-using them in different circumstances. The Angels started off with one very specific modus operandi and ended up being far more evil than they were originally made out to be.

Such inconsistencies are not particularly endearing. They screw with canon and mean that the writers really can just make it up as they go along, with the excuse that they never gave the full explanation first time round.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's the good - and/or bad, depending on your viewpoint - thing about DW; unlike other shows it doesn't have a "bible" and there's no universally agreed canon. Most people tend to say that "what's on telly is canon" and the books, audios etc. are non-canonical spin offs. Others argue that canon in DW is whatever you want it to be, so you can keep the stuff you like and jettison the stuff you don't. It's frustrating when you're used to shows that DO have an established canon in the way that DW doesn't.

That doesn't mean I can excuse some of these inconsistencies though. To have the Doctor and River meeting strictly in reverse order seems far too contrived (I'd made the same assumption as you) - which is why I'm now wondering if it's because there's someone/something else dictating the course of events which could certainly tie in with the fact that we already know that River isn't all she seems to be.

ITA about the prison though. You'd have thought they'd have found a way to keep her locked up by now!