DW 6x02 - Day of the Moon

[caz963]

Initial - jumbled up - thoughts (before I've read anyone else's.)



We're left with even more questions than we were left with last week - and right now, I confess I'm feeling a bit cheated. Maybe that'll go away once I've calmed down, but I'll be very surprised if we get any major answers before Ep 7, or even the end of the series, which, due to the split season, is almost six months away, given that the team seems to have opted for adventuring.

Not that I'm all that surprised. I'm sure I used to be able to watch TV shows that had regular cliffhangers or overarching plot elements without getting so frustrated. I don't have a short attention span, I'm reasonably intelligent and I like puzzles. So why do I feel so ... deflated about it?

We found out who the Silence are, how long they've been here and what they've been doing... the Doctor told them to bugger off or else in no uncertain terms, so are we to assume that they do, in fact cut and run? Or is there more to come from them?

We still don't know:

• Who caused the TARDIS to explode at the end of S5
  
• Who shot and killed the 1100 year-old Doctor
  
• Why he was so resigned to his fate
  
• WTF that photo?
  
• Who the little girl is
  
• Amy - pregnant or not, and why it matters

I've probably missed something, so feel free to prod me!

And we've had... nasty things you can only see out of the corner of your eye; creepy phone calls; a creepy space-suit (seriously, I was waiting for "Are you my Mummy? - Who turned out the lights?" and a really dodgy bit of CGI in which the TARDIS catches River before she plummets to her death.

The ending. Is the girl meant to be one of Ten's by-blows or something?! He got stuck in 1969, so perhaps that was one of the ways he found to pass the time!

I dunno - I remember when I first saw the trailer for The Doctor's Daughter that I had a smiliar reaction - DNW!

I have no idea why that is.

I wish Moffat would just STOP with the -Let's make it look like Amy's in love with the Doctor and Rory thinks he's second best- thing.

(I thought the bit after Amy's disappeared when Rory is saying that she knows he'll always come for her was really sweet... until Moffat ruined it by having her calling out for the Doctor and not even mentioning her husband's name.)

Something like that might work on Torchwood, but DW isn't really the place for it, IMO. Amy and Rory are married, and I don't think a show aimed at a family audience should be trying to make us wonder if a major character could be thinking about cheating on her husband. (Or if she has already!)

Reading that back, I realise it sounds a bit harsh, but I can't think of another way to put it right now. I'm not a prude and I'm not averse to seeing those sorts of dilemmas on TV - I just don't think this is the right place for it.

Also - it's confusing my kids who, at those points, have no idea what anyone is talking about!

Things I liked:

• The "three months later" opening and reveal were well done
  
  
• The Eleven/River flirting was fun and sweet; and yay! for teh snogtiemz, but... oh, so sad when River realises that's the last time. Another first and last for them both at the same time :(
  
  
• Badass River in the shoot-out.
  
  
• That whole section in the children's home was really creepy

You know, the episode finished almost an hour ago now, and I'm having trouble remembering much else about it. Does that mean the Silence^* are eating my brain?

* Assuming it's Silence rather than Silents

So to sum up... I sort of liked it, but the suspense is going to kill me.

Comments

[thornyrose42.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. I'm just not used to watching Doctor Who as this sort of on going questions type drama.

Also yeah, have to agree with you about the Amy/Rory/Doctor stuff. It just felt very artificial. But then it did kind of wrap up well at the end. I just hope that this isn't a running theme. Cause ugh.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I'm just not used to watching Doctor Who as this sort of on going questions type drama.

Neither am I - and to be fair, it wasn't really conceived as one when RTD brought it back. Sure, he had his recurring themes, but they weren't quite so complicated.

Also, I've watched other "continuing" dramas, although I suppose none of them were constructed quite like DW is these days. I was a massive fan of Babylon 5 which had some fantastically conceived plot arcs, but I don't remember finding them as frustrating as this!

[hooloovoo_42]

But in the "old days", the stories were 4 or 6 parters and shorter eps. They were written that way, rather than as a season of single stories with an arc. There was continuity, but not arcs as such.

I'm beginning to think the old way was better. Not that I've watched this week's yet, and all the reaction to it is putting me off. Whereas I used to be a fan, I've dropped down the list to below "casual viewer" to "really couldn't care less if it's going to be this much of a hassle".

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I've been watching some old (Troughton & Pertwee) DW lately and while they ended on a cliffhanger each week (many of which turned into total fake-outs!) the stories mostly progressed linearly and what you learned one week was relevant the next and so on.

Things are certainly different now, and I don't object to the format of "let's do this and then leave it to stew for a few weeks before we pick it up again" - Fringe is doing that brilliantly as have other shows. Fringe is also quite complex in its overall storyling and has been developing its own mythology for the last three seasons, and that hasn't put me off.
So I can't work out what it is about DW as it is now that means that it's harder for me to swallow.
Unless its that Fringe manages to make sense (within its own premise) and doesn't dick around with the viewers to quite the same extent.

[hooloovoo_42]

Unless its that Fringe manages to make sense (within its own premise) and doesn't dick around with the viewers to quite the same extent.

This!

Once we'd found out about Peter, the storyline isn't actually all that difficult. It's complex, but explained and as logical as it can be, given it defies logic. And I *care* about the characters and what happens to all of them, which I no longer do with DW.

What bugs me with DW now is that it's neither complex nor explained. It's complicated and leaves us hanging until some final unforeseen twist that explains everything that happened. Very much along the lines of "with a single bound he was free" without any proper framework for it to happen. Yes, Rusty did it a bit, but not as much as this. It's getting tedious, which is enough to make me not bothered.

Both Ugly Betty and Glee were like that for me. After starting well, they didn't continue to bring enough of what I liked to keep me interested. Same with Flashforward - after the mid season break, I just lost interest.

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

I was a massive fan of Babylon 5 which had some fantastically conceived plot arcs, but I don't remember finding them as frustrating as this!

Same here. I also thought about the comparison to B5 yesterday (especially with the Doctor/River first kiss and the mysterious person in a spacesuit thing), and while my memories of actually watching the show on TV rather than on DVD are a bit fuzzy except for the Z'ha'dum cliffhanger ending, I agree that the balance between the overreaching arcs and the pay off of the episodes themselves was much better there.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Strangely, when I was thinking about cliffhangers, the Z'ha'dum was at the forefront of my mind. Classic Who ones had to be weekly, because of the show's format, and often tended to be complete-fake outs the next week, because of course, in the days before videos and lots of repeats, one didn't always remember the previous week's climax exactly and they could get away with it!

But with B5 things seemed less contrived. Okay, so I know that whole bit with Sheridan after he's fallen into the pit was a bit daft, but it did make sense in the context of the show, and there was a price to be paid. Moffat has said that DW is going darker this series - which I hope means we'll get to see consequences and get explanations for things that actually makes sense!

[hooloovoo_42]

It's a kids' show, FFS! What's the reasoning behind making it darker? I don't think Cazlet Minor will be over the moon about the darkness of it all. She wants to see things she's going to understand, or else she's going to do something else instead. Unless it makes sense to kids, it's a complete waste of time.