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rabid1stThe word for this episode is derivative. But to avoid spoilers...
So, we have seen that crack before in Amy's wall. We have seen the TARDIS explode, too. We have seen these corridors and it is very easy to see that the burned creatures were future versions of the people in the story. Hands are held. Hugs are given. Clara is reassured and we all want to know the Doctor's name. Doctor Who? Only we don't, because that's when the story ends. And it should end just before that name is spoken...because...the Doctor is losing his mystery. He's acting out a dance that is no longer vital or even slightly diverting. We know these steps. And only Jenna adds a little life to them.
My buddy Cat has given me a hint that she wants to discuss the shape of the narrative. And this is, as my loyal readers know, a subject very close to my heart. Stories have a progressive pattern. You can't just throw anything in there and expect your story to work. Writers try to tweak the pattern, change it up, surprise the audience. But, there comes a time when you are just jerking an audience around, if you promise one story and deliver another. You become a player in your own play. Doctor Who worked for decades by keeping true to the idea of a man/being who made things better, couldn't help meddling and loved humanity in a way that was quite pure and profound. Moff has been screwing around with the essentials of premise that doesn't need his input. And you know what, he hasn't added anything of import to the show. RTD added a lot of new twists. Moff just copies stuff. He made the Doctor a different, shallower character, to avoid the idea of character growth that RTD tried to introduce. Moff, to me, is the master of resets. And in Journey we see his true colors on display.
The ship that is crucial to this show can be blown to bits...and, yet, saved, because the last Time Lord can do anything. Ah, but there's the rub. If he can do anything, why not just fix it all with a snap of his fingers? Once we establish those rules for the story, that the fabric of time and space can be bent to give us any eventuality, then, we must ask ourselves if any of the things we have seen and done with Eleven matter. Isn't it just as likely that the Rose we saw return to Ten was an alternative Rose? And somewhere out there she and the Doctor had a long happy life together? Or she and Nine? Perhaps we should go back to where River arrives, knowing his name, because that led us into a preordained reality where the Doctor must marry River and must become a finger-snapping God. But after he's done that...he can reset all of it, right?
He can reach thorough a crack in time and rewrite his own story...and become mysterious again. Only he really can't. Sure, Moff could write that. But you can't regain mystery. The audience would know what it knows. We know that the Doctor isn't brave. He abandoned and betrayed his most loyal companions in JE. We know he doesn't truly admire humans, because he is so capricious and cruel. We know now that he is shallow. We don't believe he can love, in any sense that we recognize.
Or none of this is real. As I've said, if that is the story Moff is telling. If it turns out that Eleven exists only in the moment of many realities colliding as the TARDIS exploded at the start of his run...then...okay...that's a story that is complete. But, if Moff is, as is far more likely, simply manipulating the same tinker toy pieces into something timey-wimey, well, we have seen this all before, right? And it undermines the future of the show. We need to look to a new show-runner to set things right, creating a new set of boundaries for our story. Really, I feel it is time to take Who off the air for a bit. I think it is starting to look like Joan Rivers will all of the plastic surgery that's been going on these last couple of seasons.
On the plus side, I still like the new Matt. And the memory card was played hard in this one, wasn't it? It is possible that wonderful room with the exploding TARDIS means something. And, just for second, I thought Clara might actually be malicious, when she found his name in the book. I thought, oh, she IS a spy. Because what better way to get some secret out of the Doctor than to give him a trusty companion? However, in keeping with the family tree idea, we have another tree symbol as the TARDIS engine. We also have that lovely Time Lord style cradle and puffy TARDIS. Babies on board it seems. And Grandfatherly Eleven continues. So, I'm still thinking Clara is some distant relative. There were shades of The Edge of Destruction in this one, especially Eleven's paranoia just before the leap of faith.
So, we have seen that crack before in Amy's wall. We have seen the TARDIS explode, too. We have seen these corridors and it is very easy to see that the burned creatures were future versions of the people in the story. Hands are held. Hugs are given. Clara is reassured and we all want to know the Doctor's name. Doctor Who? Only we don't, because that's when the story ends. And it should end just before that name is spoken...because...the Doctor is losing his mystery. He's acting out a dance that is no longer vital or even slightly diverting. We know these steps. And only Jenna adds a little life to them.
My buddy Cat has given me a hint that she wants to discuss the shape of the narrative. And this is, as my loyal readers know, a subject very close to my heart. Stories have a progressive pattern. You can't just throw anything in there and expect your story to work. Writers try to tweak the pattern, change it up, surprise the audience. But, there comes a time when you are just jerking an audience around, if you promise one story and deliver another. You become a player in your own play. Doctor Who worked for decades by keeping true to the idea of a man/being who made things better, couldn't help meddling and loved humanity in a way that was quite pure and profound. Moff has been screwing around with the essentials of premise that doesn't need his input. And you know what, he hasn't added anything of import to the show. RTD added a lot of new twists. Moff just copies stuff. He made the Doctor a different, shallower character, to avoid the idea of character growth that RTD tried to introduce. Moff, to me, is the master of resets. And in Journey we see his true colors on display.
The ship that is crucial to this show can be blown to bits...and, yet, saved, because the last Time Lord can do anything. Ah, but there's the rub. If he can do anything, why not just fix it all with a snap of his fingers? Once we establish those rules for the story, that the fabric of time and space can be bent to give us any eventuality, then, we must ask ourselves if any of the things we have seen and done with Eleven matter. Isn't it just as likely that the Rose we saw return to Ten was an alternative Rose? And somewhere out there she and the Doctor had a long happy life together? Or she and Nine? Perhaps we should go back to where River arrives, knowing his name, because that led us into a preordained reality where the Doctor must marry River and must become a finger-snapping God. But after he's done that...he can reset all of it, right?
He can reach thorough a crack in time and rewrite his own story...and become mysterious again. Only he really can't. Sure, Moff could write that. But you can't regain mystery. The audience would know what it knows. We know that the Doctor isn't brave. He abandoned and betrayed his most loyal companions in JE. We know he doesn't truly admire humans, because he is so capricious and cruel. We know now that he is shallow. We don't believe he can love, in any sense that we recognize.
Or none of this is real. As I've said, if that is the story Moff is telling. If it turns out that Eleven exists only in the moment of many realities colliding as the TARDIS exploded at the start of his run...then...okay...that's a story that is complete. But, if Moff is, as is far more likely, simply manipulating the same tinker toy pieces into something timey-wimey, well, we have seen this all before, right? And it undermines the future of the show. We need to look to a new show-runner to set things right, creating a new set of boundaries for our story. Really, I feel it is time to take Who off the air for a bit. I think it is starting to look like Joan Rivers will all of the plastic surgery that's been going on these last couple of seasons.
On the plus side, I still like the new Matt. And the memory card was played hard in this one, wasn't it? It is possible that wonderful room with the exploding TARDIS means something. And, just for second, I thought Clara might actually be malicious, when she found his name in the book. I thought, oh, she IS a spy. Because what better way to get some secret out of the Doctor than to give him a trusty companion? However, in keeping with the family tree idea, we have another tree symbol as the TARDIS engine. We also have that lovely Time Lord style cradle and puffy TARDIS. Babies on board it seems. And Grandfatherly Eleven continues. So, I'm still thinking Clara is some distant relative. There were shades of The Edge of Destruction in this one, especially Eleven's paranoia just before the leap of faith.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-02 12:53 am (UTC)My hubby showed me another theory on Clara that I found interesting... she is actually a recreation of the Emperor Dalek from Series 1. Odd...I thought, but they broke it down saying Clara was Oswin..Oswin was a Dalek...what if Oswin went insane, became the Dalek Emperor. Then when Rose took in the vortex, seeing all time and space in her fiery brain, she knew Oswin was by nature good and had helped Eleven..so because Rose couldn't be with the Doctor forever when she "bad wolfed the Emperor's ass" (not my wording..theirs..and I think I want it on a Tshirt) she scattered the Emperor/Oswin across the galaxy to help the Doctor when he was in need (aka her different personas). So the reason why we are seeing so many "Rose" references is because Rose isn't her mother...but her creator and why the Tardis is shunning her, because she is "impossible" (per the Doctor) like Jack was.
Probably not true..but interesting all the same...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-02 03:14 am (UTC)To me, this is all about alternative time lines and the Doctor's memory of who he is. The only question I have is why he's forgotten and if we should be urging him to remember. The more I consider it, the more I am pretty sure we won't have Ten/Rose in the Anniversary special, which really, really sucks, but is better than Ten2/Rose in it. I think it is entirely possible to have Rose represent Nine, or another dimension/alternative all together and so have a different story of the Doctor presented to us.
Of course, again, if Moff does something like that, he's playing with a formula that has held up for years. I remember part of the reason I was so very disappointed by JE, was the idea, presented in Turn Left that the Doctor was only one of a several alternative Doctors. And we have seen Moff create a Flesh!Doctor and a Robot!Doctor and now...really...some sort of Sane!Doctor to balance Moff's more childlike one. If we pull Ten in from an alternative dimension, we are really saying that no part of this canon is fixed.
Great! Yes! I know people in the fandom are thinking, this will free us to do anything, now we can have any story we like. But, the source of those stories would become corrupted beyond repair and essentially irrelevant.
It is rather like eating from the tree of knowledge...you'll have too many ideas to have a coherent paradise anymore.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-02 01:34 pm (UTC)It also wouldn't surprise me at all if Tennant popped up in the S7 finale. They could easily film it and pass it off as an Anniversary scene. All that high-profile filming in the castle with the Zygons a few weeks back felt very set up as a diversion to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-02 03:28 pm (UTC)See? That is the sensible thing to do. If they are sensible they will want to address the idea of new regenerations. Of course, they could just hand wave it as something that changed with the Time War. I do not put massive hand waving beyond the scope of this crew.
But, using the great library to archive Eleven makes perfect sense. He would be with River. And, following my example in I&B, they could say that Ten2 was also an archive for the previous Doctors. They wouldn't even have to make it as complicated as I've made it. Again, it could be hand waved and I think the audience would go along with it. If they just say, that meta-crisis regeneration was an archiving of Ten, then they could now archive Eleven to the machine. Or, they can reset it all...with the idea that the Doctor becoming a God isn't a good idea.
I think that one picture of Ten running and the pillows and Queen Elizabeth...is going to reference that part of the story that Ten was romancing Queen Elizabeth. And I feel the Zygons are part of that story, so you could be right about Ten appearing in S7. Certainly, the Zygons have already appeared in S7, though off screen. So, they could be involved in whatever is wrong with Eleven.