Doctor Who: Let's Kill Hitler
Sep. 17th, 2011 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stI must say that I did enjoy this episode except for a few things...which are under the cut...
First, I liked Melody, because the actress sold her as a child who is obsessed and that's how I always have seen River. Also, kudos to Alex Kingston who did a marvelous job pretending to be Melody. How great would it have been if we had introduced her in a few episodes and let her take hold as more than a cartoon figure of a hell-raiser?
But, I don't know if I can be annoyed that Melody does exactly what River and Amy did from previous stories. Or what I assumed River did. Actually, I don't know that we had direct canon evidence that the little girl in the space suit WAS River or that she was Amy Pond's daughter (I mean before the previous episode) and had known the Doctor since she was a child. I just assumed all of that so that we would once again go to the very sick part of Moff's mind and have the Doctor involved with a little girl! Talk about a Peter Pan syndrome sufferer.
So, seeing that particular pathology play out with Melody is just proof of what I have to think is a mental illness in Moff rather than repetition of his themes. Treating River as a "daughter of the TARDIS" adds an extra dimension of interest and incest to this tale, though. If the TARDIS is the Doctor's one true love, as is insinuated in The Doctor's Wife, then River is her daughter and the daughter of Amy and the Doctor has known of her since she was a baby. We have loads of reason to believe that he could never truly love such a person, except as a father might (not a sick Moff type father, but a mature one).
Second, I found myself really regretting that we didn't have much of a real relationship to draw on with River and Eleven during the protracted death sequence. If only I could have felt something for either of them as he hammed it up, but I knew there would be no permanent loss here for the show. The Doctor "dies" again later and River is back dancing around and we just found out she could regenerate and already it is gone. I suppose I did feel a little sorry for her getting the diary in exchange for her further lives, but she didn't exactly win me over as a person with her psychopathic behavior. I also turned out to be right when I said that the TARDIS taught her how to fly. A lot of this ground work is done in the RTD days of establishing the healing power of regeneration and that the Schism exposure happens to young Time Lords. Fans of the older show will know that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords.
Third, I am happy to see the Silence back and the idea of the question only slightly reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Is the question Doctor who? I wonder. Anyway, I have my own question in Wild Geese, but now I think I must start getting that story published or Moff will be trampling all over the fragments of a good idea. He's in some ways more infuriating than RTD because Moff throws everything he can think of at the screen without measuring it out. He's using every fanfiction idea up at a rate of 100 ideas an episode it seems. But he never fully explores the ideas. Take River, she could have been so very interesting if he had developed her properly. Melody coming in like this with a bang, really just scratches the surface of her personality and she's gone. Except we had to put up with another gushing about how wonderful the Doctor is from her child mind. Perhaps Moff isn't so much sexually interest in little girls as he is allergic to anything like criticism from fully functional women. Maybe his illness is one of extreme sensitivity or lack of real identity himself, to the point where he can only imagine women as self-involved brats who he sees as charming because they worship some male figure as ideal.
Fourth, well, Hitler in a cupboard was priceless. Rory was great. Rory is always great. And I liked the trying to outsmart the Doctor with the gun business, even the use of the banana trick was good. But, it would have been better if there was some new idea there. I think the idea of a religious war against the Doctor at some future time is one that has some merit. And the Time Agency, which we already know of from Jack, must do something. So running into Time Agents trying to punish bad guys through time makes for a good angle. But is it one we will explore, further, or will it be lost in grandiose nonsense?
The Doctor as enemy is really a nice concept, which Moff has made his own. River makes it palatable because we never see bad things happen, we only hear about them in broad insinuations. Actually, a Time Lord can be a terrible thing, unless the whole concept gets diluted by comic intent as Moff and Matt have been doing. Case in point, I had a very hard time taking the death scene at all seriously. Not only because it went on and on and I knew it wasn't a death scene, but also because Matt played it as a clown. This is the problem with going too comic with Doctor Who, you lose any sense of impending doom. You already have a problem having an undying character in the lead. When you make everything into a broad gag, each moment of peril begins to have less and less impact.
First, I liked Melody, because the actress sold her as a child who is obsessed and that's how I always have seen River. Also, kudos to Alex Kingston who did a marvelous job pretending to be Melody. How great would it have been if we had introduced her in a few episodes and let her take hold as more than a cartoon figure of a hell-raiser?
But, I don't know if I can be annoyed that Melody does exactly what River and Amy did from previous stories. Or what I assumed River did. Actually, I don't know that we had direct canon evidence that the little girl in the space suit WAS River or that she was Amy Pond's daughter (I mean before the previous episode) and had known the Doctor since she was a child. I just assumed all of that so that we would once again go to the very sick part of Moff's mind and have the Doctor involved with a little girl! Talk about a Peter Pan syndrome sufferer.
So, seeing that particular pathology play out with Melody is just proof of what I have to think is a mental illness in Moff rather than repetition of his themes. Treating River as a "daughter of the TARDIS" adds an extra dimension of interest and incest to this tale, though. If the TARDIS is the Doctor's one true love, as is insinuated in The Doctor's Wife, then River is her daughter and the daughter of Amy and the Doctor has known of her since she was a baby. We have loads of reason to believe that he could never truly love such a person, except as a father might (not a sick Moff type father, but a mature one).
Second, I found myself really regretting that we didn't have much of a real relationship to draw on with River and Eleven during the protracted death sequence. If only I could have felt something for either of them as he hammed it up, but I knew there would be no permanent loss here for the show. The Doctor "dies" again later and River is back dancing around and we just found out she could regenerate and already it is gone. I suppose I did feel a little sorry for her getting the diary in exchange for her further lives, but she didn't exactly win me over as a person with her psychopathic behavior. I also turned out to be right when I said that the TARDIS taught her how to fly. A lot of this ground work is done in the RTD days of establishing the healing power of regeneration and that the Schism exposure happens to young Time Lords. Fans of the older show will know that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords.
Third, I am happy to see the Silence back and the idea of the question only slightly reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Is the question Doctor who? I wonder. Anyway, I have my own question in Wild Geese, but now I think I must start getting that story published or Moff will be trampling all over the fragments of a good idea. He's in some ways more infuriating than RTD because Moff throws everything he can think of at the screen without measuring it out. He's using every fanfiction idea up at a rate of 100 ideas an episode it seems. But he never fully explores the ideas. Take River, she could have been so very interesting if he had developed her properly. Melody coming in like this with a bang, really just scratches the surface of her personality and she's gone. Except we had to put up with another gushing about how wonderful the Doctor is from her child mind. Perhaps Moff isn't so much sexually interest in little girls as he is allergic to anything like criticism from fully functional women. Maybe his illness is one of extreme sensitivity or lack of real identity himself, to the point where he can only imagine women as self-involved brats who he sees as charming because they worship some male figure as ideal.
Fourth, well, Hitler in a cupboard was priceless. Rory was great. Rory is always great. And I liked the trying to outsmart the Doctor with the gun business, even the use of the banana trick was good. But, it would have been better if there was some new idea there. I think the idea of a religious war against the Doctor at some future time is one that has some merit. And the Time Agency, which we already know of from Jack, must do something. So running into Time Agents trying to punish bad guys through time makes for a good angle. But is it one we will explore, further, or will it be lost in grandiose nonsense?
The Doctor as enemy is really a nice concept, which Moff has made his own. River makes it palatable because we never see bad things happen, we only hear about them in broad insinuations. Actually, a Time Lord can be a terrible thing, unless the whole concept gets diluted by comic intent as Moff and Matt have been doing. Case in point, I had a very hard time taking the death scene at all seriously. Not only because it went on and on and I knew it wasn't a death scene, but also because Matt played it as a clown. This is the problem with going too comic with Doctor Who, you lose any sense of impending doom. You already have a problem having an undying character in the lead. When you make everything into a broad gag, each moment of peril begins to have less and less impact.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-17 11:56 pm (UTC)Yeah, this is why I don't really trust that Moff can pull off this whole wibley-wobley, timey-wimey thing he's going with.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 12:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 03:46 am (UTC)I actually think it's this, with lots of other women-related neuroses thrown in, and I've been pondering this for some time. Have you read this post (not mine)? : http://mindingandmattering.blogspot.com/2011/05/doctor-who-and-its-discontents-part-i.html
Hell, there's another one (apologies if you've read either of these before): http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/05/03/is-doctor-who-bad-for-women/
I think Let's Kill Hitler has the "All women are shrews" theme rearing its head again, to be honest.
And much as Moffat has said this is a kid's show, his writing on the whole hasn't felt like it--too many scary episodes, complicated arcs, adult references (I sincerely doubt RTD would have tried, or gotten away with, the Red Nose Day glass-floor-Amy's-skirt-trouble-ensues! nonsense bit).
Moffat further killed emotional involvement (as you said, any feeling of peril) with the Doctor's brushes with death because now we've been given to know the Utah death is a fixed point in time. The hammy cheerful tux stuff was intellectually/visually "clever" but didn't connect for me--I had a hard time believing the Doctor could change clothes what with all the writhing in pain.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 05:38 am (UTC)The second link I meant to post was this one: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/12/fixing-doctor-who-season-five-edition/
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 06:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 01:23 pm (UTC)I'd watch a show about Rory too. Although he kind of reminds me of Reese from Torchwood. They would be pals.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 04:50 pm (UTC)It was a joy in this episode to see Alex K. have a little fun being another person for a bit. I think she is a competent actor but is getting very little but scene chewing material out of Moff and Co. I mean, even regenerated Melody was scenery chewing, but at least it was new teeth she was using. And speaking of, notice how NOT CLEVER that new teeth line is the second time around. It worked the first time, because we had never heard it before that moment. It was TEN! But it isn't RIVER! With RIVER it is, again, something she already saw or was told or some writer who is not very clever himself put in her mind.