![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Doctor Who Catch-Up, Part One
Sep. 10th, 2012 08:12 pmSo, new Who episodes are coming over, which means it's time for me to go through my DVR and watch the back half of season 6.
I point out: except for "The Doctor's Wife" and the story with the remote-control goop, I hated the first half of season 6 with a burning passion. As a general rule I've hated almost everything about the Moffat era of Who, including all the episodes he wrote during the RTD years. That's the main reason I've put off watching these episodes, even after I got "Let's Kill Hitler," which the DVR missed the first time round.
So, starting with "Let's Kill Hitler"...
... HATE HATE HATE.
This story has about twenty-five minutes of actual plot, character development and emoting. The rest of it is arbitrary garbage- either exposition to advance the season arc or (this is most of it) overwrought, pointless, self-indulgent emoting. The whole scene with the Doctor and the TARDIS voice-interface, for instance, was useless, pointless, and disgusting- it added nothing and, quite frankly, grated on the nerves.
Also, the plot itself is both indulgent as hell AND shot through with holes. HOW THE HELL LONG can Hitler be left alone in his office after some unknown SOMETHING smashes through the side of the building- never mind gunshots fired with guards filling the building? What kind of future technology can manage matter compression, time travel, and totally adaptive robotics, but NOT an AI smart enough to IFF without a damn big bracelet on each and every occupant of the vessel?
And finally: HATED Amy and Rory in this. They've pretty much reverted to classic-Who Companions- THIS IS NOT A COMPLIMENT. Alex Kingston did an excellent job of portraying River in a formative moment, and Matt Smith acted out a role written for Tom Baker if Mr. Baker had ever cast all his dignity to the winds... but they could have done an equally superb job with one-fifth the whiny angsty emo-torture-porn Moffat wrote. Gillian and Darvill, on the other hand, were OH SO VERY forgettable, except for, "Doctor, save us, PLEASE!"
Argh, argh, argh.
Tomorrow, "Night Terrors." For now I'm dropping in the first part of the E-Space Trilogy to remind me of why I like Doctor Who...
... yes, I'm watching a JNT-era ep, and not one of the better ones, to clear the palate. I'm watching Adric's first appearance. This should tell you how very much I hated "Let's Kill Hitler."
(And the fact that I'm watching the other episodes, knowing I'm almost certainly going to hate ALL of them, should tell you how unreasonable my love is for the series as a whole...)
I point out: except for "The Doctor's Wife" and the story with the remote-control goop, I hated the first half of season 6 with a burning passion. As a general rule I've hated almost everything about the Moffat era of Who, including all the episodes he wrote during the RTD years. That's the main reason I've put off watching these episodes, even after I got "Let's Kill Hitler," which the DVR missed the first time round.
So, starting with "Let's Kill Hitler"...
... HATE HATE HATE.
This story has about twenty-five minutes of actual plot, character development and emoting. The rest of it is arbitrary garbage- either exposition to advance the season arc or (this is most of it) overwrought, pointless, self-indulgent emoting. The whole scene with the Doctor and the TARDIS voice-interface, for instance, was useless, pointless, and disgusting- it added nothing and, quite frankly, grated on the nerves.
Also, the plot itself is both indulgent as hell AND shot through with holes. HOW THE HELL LONG can Hitler be left alone in his office after some unknown SOMETHING smashes through the side of the building- never mind gunshots fired with guards filling the building? What kind of future technology can manage matter compression, time travel, and totally adaptive robotics, but NOT an AI smart enough to IFF without a damn big bracelet on each and every occupant of the vessel?
And finally: HATED Amy and Rory in this. They've pretty much reverted to classic-Who Companions- THIS IS NOT A COMPLIMENT. Alex Kingston did an excellent job of portraying River in a formative moment, and Matt Smith acted out a role written for Tom Baker if Mr. Baker had ever cast all his dignity to the winds... but they could have done an equally superb job with one-fifth the whiny angsty emo-torture-porn Moffat wrote. Gillian and Darvill, on the other hand, were OH SO VERY forgettable, except for, "Doctor, save us, PLEASE!"
Argh, argh, argh.
Tomorrow, "Night Terrors." For now I'm dropping in the first part of the E-Space Trilogy to remind me of why I like Doctor Who...
... yes, I'm watching a JNT-era ep, and not one of the better ones, to clear the palate. I'm watching Adric's first appearance. This should tell you how very much I hated "Let's Kill Hitler."
(And the fact that I'm watching the other episodes, knowing I'm almost certainly going to hate ALL of them, should tell you how unreasonable my love is for the series as a whole...)
