Technically the season hasn't ended yet, but I just want to share my thoughts on what I've seen so far in the first episode. How to sum it up in a single word...
Does Almost-Disappointing-But-Not-Quite count if it's hyphenated?
Okay, I speak for many when I say my all time favourite DW villains are the Daleks, but we can admit that they're being a bit overused. And even though the Mighty Morphin' Dalek Rangers were hilarious, but that episode was a massive Missed Oppertunity of Awesome. I suppose I don't mind a single story per season as in season 3, but maybe a whole season break would be nice. You need to make us want to see them again, not make us want to watch Power Rangers.
Back on track, the image of all those DW villains in one room was kind of cool, but in the end it felt much more like they just emptied out the costume shed. I decided upon that the moment I saw the Hoix from Love & Monsters. It also felt so damn simplistic. Why not just call them the Legion of Doom? The whole thing could have simply been solved with an immense group of brand new villains, but no, we had to save us some cash.
The Pandorica twist was pretty clever I'll admit. It hit me that it would open and the Doctor would step out, but the end result was much better. As was the image of thousands of ships hovering above the planet. But then again lets compare this story to the previous season finals. Here we have the Doctor being locked inside Pandora's Box by his greatest enemies to prevent the destruction of the universe, which is apparently going to be ripped apart by the actions of the Doctor.
Season 1 had the Doctor uncover a mass invasion of Daleks in a time where homicide is mere entertainment for the human race, with the only option to save the universe is to destroy the Earth, and his companion briefly becomes a god.
Season 2 saw the new Doctor captured by Torchwood, with Cyber-Men passing through to our side, greeted with open arms, as the Daleks lay in waiting to unleash thousands of their numbers into the fray.
Season 3 saw the Master become the bloody Prime Minister, then SUCCEED in taking over the world and weakening the Doctor using his own TARDIS and a hoard of Galactic Refugees he had recently rescued.
Season 4 had the Daleks steal entire planets to exterminate the entire universe, forcing all the different shows spun off from Doctor Who to team up, and included Daleks speaking German at one point.
Quite frankly I'd have to say that in comparison, this one has much to improve upon. But of course that's simply because of how great the other ones were. Don't get me started on the awesome End of Time, or The Next Doctor. This one would just simply be the weakest out of the bunch.
Also, River Song. Good god. I know she's supposed to be this way because of how the Doctor supposedly interacts with her in the future, but she annoys the hell out of me. She's so full of herself and plays the Magnificent Bastard card to impressive effect, but I'm supposed to be on her side? That's my opinion, and I suppose its a minority, but that's how I feel.
This season on a whole hasn't been the best. It's not a terrible season at all, it just hasn't been as good as others. The Weeping Angels were much scarier before we learnt all that stuff about them. I thought they were much cooler when they killed you in the most polite way possible, sending you back in time, now that they snap your neck they've degraded into a more basic enemy.
Also irritating is the Vincent Van Gogh episode. I don't mind meeting one historical figure each season, but why is it that every companion has a sophisticated side. Keep in mind I missed the Agatha Christy episode. The monster was a bloody giant chicken, how am I supposed to take that seriously, let alone be afraid of it? And not only that but it was invisible. Kind of cool, but it felt like they were just saving money. I guess it would have felt less that way if it didn't look like a goddamn chicken!
Also, I rather liked Rory, so why do you keep killing him? You did it in Amy's Choice, technically twice, and that episode is already strange apart from trying to make old people scary (it didn't work) and having a heavily pregnant woman kill herself (technically dosn't cross the line as it was a dream, and they knew it was a dream, and its not exactly shown, but still). You killed him in the next story, and now that he's an Auton its likley that he'll die again. Running Gags like that only work if they're played for laughs, not tragedy.
I'd hate it if this was the season that killed the show. Matt Smith is rather enjoyable as the Doctor. He's a bit too much like Tennant but he's brought a good dose of his own deleriousness into the character to stand on his own (though you can pretty much give half of his good quotes to Tennant and not notice the difference). He seems much more ditached from humanity than any previous incarnation I've seen as well.
I guess I can't really complain until I've seen the whole thing, but so far the series has been a bit odd, so hears hoping things pick up next time.
One more thing. I understand that the idea is that the universal destruction is so horrifying even they tremble at the thought, but how can the Daleks team up with the others? I don't think this sort of thing has ever bothered them before.
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ReplyDeleteI agree so much, though I didn't mind all the old villains coming back, especially because according to River there were actually a whole host we didn't see that came from the other shows and even one from the expanded universe.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Pandorica twist too but it seemed like the episode was leading up to that but about half way through they realised they didn't have enough material and so they had to stretch it out.
I don't agree that this feels less epic than previous season finales, I mean all the Doctor's enemies are teaming up against him.
i quite like River but I don't regard her as highly as Amy or Donna.
I, and almost every fan of Digimon, can tell you that running gags can be used for tragedy, it's a fact of Digimon that a Leomon will die late in the series and it will be tragic.
The thing about the weeping angels is that were they to have sent the guys back in time then they could have just told their bosses about the place and it would have been blown up, hence they had to kill them in the current time.
I agree completely about the Van Ggh episode, it doesn't help that the moral of it was Van Gogh is awesome and you should worship him, that's not even taking into account the fact that they beat it into head every chance they get.
I highly doubt Doctor Who could be killed by this season even if it hasn't been the best. Oh and you forgot the most annoying episode out of all, The Lodger, who thought it was a good idea to take a break from the all the Sci-fi of Doctor Who to focus on a romantic comedy between two people who we've never seen before and we'll never see again, I want to know so I can break his legs.
You can turn a running gag into something tragic, but the tragedy pretty much IS a running gag. I don't think anyone was laughing any time Rory died, but it just kept happening to him.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the Lodger. This episode actually made me laugh a few times, but I felt that they decided, "I don't feel like writing Doctor Who this week, lets do something else." A good thing about it was furthering Smith's Doctor from Tennants. They still act the same pretty much, but 11 seems much less down to Earth with social interaction.
Also, it took rocket launchrs to kill one Cyber-Man, how does a sword pierce the armour? Eh, maybe that was a clue that they were Autons, I dunno.