can't sleep, angels will eat me
May. 3rd, 2010 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadydaveSo I liked the two-parter! Nevertheless, this is mostly complaining, hah.
-- So, I was hoping that there was a reason the Angels had started killing people (like, they needed the bodies to make more Angels, or something sufficiently handwavey). But there wasn't, so that was pretty disappointing, and comes off like major motive decay. One of the cool things about "Blink" is that the Weeping Angels were utterly terrifying, even though they didn't kill you -- having them go around snapping necks didn't make them more scary, it just made them more generic bad guy. If they wanted to crank up the tension (and kill off the characters), all they needed to do was suggest that everyone was getting displaced back to whatever disaster killed off the planet's original inhabitants.
-- Also, the Angels moving breaks their own rules: it's not that they're really shy or something, they are physically unable to move when you're looking at them, which includes the TV AUDIENCE (seriously, there are a bunch of times in "Blink" where Sally Sparrow totally would have been Angel foodcake had we not been watching :D) and EACH OTHER. That's how they get rid of them in "Blink", for goodness' sake! And in any case, they're supposed to be really fast. LAME.
-- Angel Bob was pretty pointless. It would have been much scarier if we DIDN'T know the Angels' plans, and the Doctor had to figure it out (which probably would have given us slightly more graceful exposition AND wouldn't have been ripping off "Forest of the Dead").
-- No follow-up on the last week's red-shirt squad, which pretty much puts this at SPooN levels of fail.
-- Aaaaaaaand that scene at the end. It was definitely well done and funny (the Doctor clutching at his suspenders like a 50s matron clutching at her pearls will never not be hilarious :D) but I am SO TIRED of companion shipping and thus annoyed at this plot development, because I would much rather just watch The Adventures of Amy and the Doctor, BFFs in SPACE! And it ESPECIALLY rankled because I didn't think there was much in the way of set-up for it, which leads to two unpleasant options: 1) the Moff felt we didn't need a proper build-up, which COME ON, or 2) it's supposed to indicate that SOMETHING is WRONG with AMY, which leads to unfortunate implications re: women acting on their sexuality is abnormal. PLUS, I haaaaaaate love triangles and have NO desire to watch Rory get shafted like Mickey did, because that sucked and made Rose and the Doctor suck too.
STUFF I LIKED:
-- Even though it's a cop-out not to show the resolution of a cliffhanger, that was a pretty awesome zoom-out, and probably better than anything the Mill could have come up with :D
-- Father Octavian was totally cool! I wish they had done more with him.
-- PROPER PLOT ARC SET-UP! In addition to getting some information about the Crack (has there ever been a more appropriate feature on Doctor Who? Heeeeeee) I think there were some definite timey-wimey shenanigans going on!
In conclusion: despite the Doctor/Amy nonsense, next week's episode looks pretty awesome.
-- So, I was hoping that there was a reason the Angels had started killing people (like, they needed the bodies to make more Angels, or something sufficiently handwavey). But there wasn't, so that was pretty disappointing, and comes off like major motive decay. One of the cool things about "Blink" is that the Weeping Angels were utterly terrifying, even though they didn't kill you -- having them go around snapping necks didn't make them more scary, it just made them more generic bad guy. If they wanted to crank up the tension (and kill off the characters), all they needed to do was suggest that everyone was getting displaced back to whatever disaster killed off the planet's original inhabitants.
-- Also, the Angels moving breaks their own rules: it's not that they're really shy or something, they are physically unable to move when you're looking at them, which includes the TV AUDIENCE (seriously, there are a bunch of times in "Blink" where Sally Sparrow totally would have been Angel food
-- Angel Bob was pretty pointless. It would have been much scarier if we DIDN'T know the Angels' plans, and the Doctor had to figure it out (which probably would have given us slightly more graceful exposition AND wouldn't have been ripping off "Forest of the Dead").
-- No follow-up on the last week's red-shirt squad, which pretty much puts this at SPooN levels of fail.
-- Aaaaaaaand that scene at the end. It was definitely well done and funny (the Doctor clutching at his suspenders like a 50s matron clutching at her pearls will never not be hilarious :D) but I am SO TIRED of companion shipping and thus annoyed at this plot development, because I would much rather just watch The Adventures of Amy and the Doctor, BFFs in SPACE! And it ESPECIALLY rankled because I didn't think there was much in the way of set-up for it, which leads to two unpleasant options: 1) the Moff felt we didn't need a proper build-up, which COME ON, or 2) it's supposed to indicate that SOMETHING is WRONG with AMY, which leads to unfortunate implications re: women acting on their sexuality is abnormal. PLUS, I haaaaaaate love triangles and have NO desire to watch Rory get shafted like Mickey did, because that sucked and made Rose and the Doctor suck too.
STUFF I LIKED:
-- Even though it's a cop-out not to show the resolution of a cliffhanger, that was a pretty awesome zoom-out, and probably better than anything the Mill could have come up with :D
-- Father Octavian was totally cool! I wish they had done more with him.
-- PROPER PLOT ARC SET-UP! In addition to getting some information about the Crack (has there ever been a more appropriate feature on Doctor Who? Heeeeeee) I think there were some definite timey-wimey shenanigans going on!
- Either there was a MASSIVE costuming continuity error, or a different version of Eleven shows up to comfort Amy when they leave her with the guards: his sleeves are rolled up AND he's wearing a jacket, which isn't even the same as the one he left with the Angels. Plus he's WAY more emotional than 2 seconds previously, and tells her to remember stuff that has no bearing on her situation (remembering what he said when she was 7). Finale set-up? I THINK SO.
- When the Doctor and River are in the command center of the Byzantium, the Big Eyeball from the first episode is on her screen!
- I think there might have been an anvil or two dropped that it's the Doctor River kills. During the finale.
- So the mysterious numbers the Doctor pulls up? Totally the date of Amy's wedding (AND the broadcast date of the finale)!
In conclusion: despite the Doctor/Amy nonsense, next week's episode looks pretty awesome.
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Date: 2010-05-03 04:57 pm (UTC)Yeah, I didn't like the Forest of the Dead rip-off either. Or the changing of the fact that the angels only freeze during the "act" of looking at them. Ten said it was a "fact of their biology, they don't exist when they're being observed." So for them to freeze when Amy had her eyes closed bothered the crap out of me. As for including the TV audience in the blinkers... I never thought of it that way. I just thought they were being incredibly stupid and lazy by deciding not to kill Sally right away.
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Date: 2010-05-03 05:51 pm (UTC)I don't know what's so important about this episode that would make the Doctor need to revisit it though.
I don't know either -- maybe it's that he knows it's a time where she won't notice he's from a different time zone, and thus won't mess with timey wimeyness so much?
People online have been pointing out other points where a different Doctor might have shown up -- like, in the first episode, someone walks past wee!Amy's window when she's waiting for the TARDIS, and then in "The Beast Below" there's that weird bit where she sees the Doctor talking to the kid on the monitor, and then she goes outside and he's RIGHT THERE, like he teleported... or there's two of him! Nothing solid, but it would be SO COOL if it were true!
As for including the TV audience in the blinkers... I never thought of it that way. I just thought they were being incredibly stupid and lazy by deciding not to kill Sally right away.
Well, Eleven did say they were starving, maybe they had blood sugar problems :D
no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 09:59 pm (UTC)See, I still disagree with this. I think the tension has been there on Amy's part since the very first episode - she keeps pulling her skirt down around the Doctor, but stops caring about it as soon as she's separated from him; she watches VERY APPRECIATIVELY when he strips off and gets changed - and they've hinted at it since then ("ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?"). I still maintain that the gamechanger in this episode was meeting River, who may or may not be the Doctor's future wife, but who definitely suggests she has a non-platonic relationship with him ("I could kiss you"/"Maybe when you're older"). His relationship with River makes the Doctor approachable in a way he wasn't before.
I think the most crucial point is, though, that I don't feel at all like this reduces their relationship in any way, while I used to see red over the way Martha's relationship with the Doctor was often reduced to her pining/his obliviousness. Amy's attracted to the Doctor? Fair enough. Who wouldn't be? But that doesn't make the other parts of their relationship any less real. He's still the Raggedy Doctor of her childhood, who saved her from the crack in her wall, and the adventurer, who gave her the chance to run away from her small life, and the last of his kind, who is old and sad and can't stand to hear children crying. And SHE is still the little girl he saved and the disillusioned child he abandoned, the impulsive girl who ran away with a madman the night before her wedding and the clever girl who saves him from himself. The way I see it, the fact that she would like to shag him doesn't prevent them from being Awesome BFFs IN SPACE! - and I would rather have them deal with it openly than dance around it like it's some dangerous secret that would destroy their relationship if it were ever openly acknowledged.
Anyway. Not much chance of us convincing each other, but I still say let it play out before dismissing it as more of the same kind of companion shipping.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 10:45 pm (UTC)Anyway. Not much chance of us convincing each other, but I still say let it play out before dismissing it as more of the same kind of companion shipping.
But my point is, I don't want ANY companion shipping! I don't care if it's good, I'm annoyed I have to deal with it in the first place.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 01:18 am (UTC)Though I didn't catch the potential timey-wimeyness of the second visit from Eleven! I think you're right - he also said something about Amy having to remember something from her childhood, and that it was important, and then there was no follow-up, so clearly she still needs to remember. *ponders first episode*
The Angels did get totally pwned by the Law of Conservation of Ninjitsu. It's like ... Dalek : Journey's End :: Blink : _________
(hint: it just aired)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 02:01 am (UTC)I knooooooow. I was so confident it wasn't going to be an issue! And then there was unexpected HURTING NOT FLIRTING.
I think you're right - he also said something about Amy having to remember something from her childhood, and that it was important, and then there was no follow-up, so clearly she still needs to remember. *ponders first episode*
A re-watch may be in order! OH, DARN.
The Angels did get totally pwned by the Law of Conservation of Ninjitsu. It's like ... Dalek : Journey's End :: Blink : _________
Seriously. Also, I found it somewhat suspicious that for an entire Maze Of Death!! filled with Angels, we only ever saw 6 of them in pursuit. (I think it would have been creepier if they would just keep turning corners AND THERE WOULD BE ANOTHER ONE.)