BFA 31 Embrace the Darkness
Feb. 28th, 2009 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethStarted very well. Spooky, creepy, and really easy to empathise with. Sitting there listening to audio of characters stuck in the dark, good start.
I'm not sure I followed it around all the corners. I mean, I understood, I'm just left feeling a bit... *shrugs*
It started out monsters, with hints, and then turned into aliens, and then did it again to the people the monsters thought were monsters, and then wandered off leaving everyone to be friends. In theory I have no problem with that plot. In theory I like that plot quite a lot. So why am I left feeling like there's no chocolate in my chocolate chip cookie?
There was a bit that was fairly crucial to the last part that I just don't buy. Healers that are compelled to heal at the cost of their own life? Here, have a fuzzy manga style doll, it's so cute and child like! Cute childlike aliens who turn out to be actually cute and childlike probably do count as a twist at this point, but still. No species could end up that way naturally, surely? Oh, and the setup depends on the entire planet acting the exact same way for the exact same motives, and not having any leftover people who can in fact resist the urge to heal and can, since they're healers, fix others so they can have some self control.
So then I realise the only way it works is if they're *not* naturally evolved. The set of changes that let them adapt to absolute darkness were the second set. The first set made them uber powerful but entirely devoted to healing. That would make them a slave race of a sort, and putting the lights out would be a slave revolt.
That would be interesting. But I don't think it was in the story.
I wasn't going to mention it, because the must-heal plot needed this to happen, but I very much disliked the way the blinding was dealt with. It's set up as a huge problem, a painful disabling that drives them all a bit mad, and then... here, u can has eyes nao, all better. Healers apparently fix minds along with rebuilding eyeballs. Meh.
I have a dislike for things that should be permanent and need dealing with getting magic fixed like that. It happens a lot. And then you end up with, for instance, entire lack of blind people or getting over a disabling injury to save the day anyway. When the computer is *voice controlled*, there should have been substantial possibilities for saving the day anyway. The fix that really needed to happen was the sarcastic pessimistic doomsaying one to just get over it and pull herself together and start giving useful orders that save the day. Well she did get over it, because she got her eyes back, but that's not the same thing.
This is a bit of a 'they're not telling the story I wanted' complaint though, and probably misses the point.
So then the solar sail ships turn up heading towards the light and they were nearby enough they'll get there inside of an hour, even though the point was the lights went out centuries ago and they can't go places without the light. The time pressure was needed to wring any drama out of the last few revelations, where everything gets explained carefully and everyone ends up being friends, except for the AI which malfunctions and gets turned off. Said malfunction cutting off three different plans in a row that would have stopped the all friends now ending from happening. But that's okay, that's what AIs are there for.
I think I liked the setup but the ending felt oddly... plain cookies.
I did definitely like the bit where the Doctor feels so guilty he wanders off to let the locals kill him and/or be killed alongside the locals he's just doomed. And then Charley yells at him about it because he's being doomy and grand gesturey and leaving her behind. I can see all that happening.
The more 8th Doctor adventures I listen to, the more I want to watch him again. The problem with that being I'd have to watch the movie. That's a lot of problem.
I'm not sure I followed it around all the corners. I mean, I understood, I'm just left feeling a bit... *shrugs*
It started out monsters, with hints, and then turned into aliens, and then did it again to the people the monsters thought were monsters, and then wandered off leaving everyone to be friends. In theory I have no problem with that plot. In theory I like that plot quite a lot. So why am I left feeling like there's no chocolate in my chocolate chip cookie?
There was a bit that was fairly crucial to the last part that I just don't buy. Healers that are compelled to heal at the cost of their own life? Here, have a fuzzy manga style doll, it's so cute and child like! Cute childlike aliens who turn out to be actually cute and childlike probably do count as a twist at this point, but still. No species could end up that way naturally, surely? Oh, and the setup depends on the entire planet acting the exact same way for the exact same motives, and not having any leftover people who can in fact resist the urge to heal and can, since they're healers, fix others so they can have some self control.
So then I realise the only way it works is if they're *not* naturally evolved. The set of changes that let them adapt to absolute darkness were the second set. The first set made them uber powerful but entirely devoted to healing. That would make them a slave race of a sort, and putting the lights out would be a slave revolt.
That would be interesting. But I don't think it was in the story.
I wasn't going to mention it, because the must-heal plot needed this to happen, but I very much disliked the way the blinding was dealt with. It's set up as a huge problem, a painful disabling that drives them all a bit mad, and then... here, u can has eyes nao, all better. Healers apparently fix minds along with rebuilding eyeballs. Meh.
I have a dislike for things that should be permanent and need dealing with getting magic fixed like that. It happens a lot. And then you end up with, for instance, entire lack of blind people or getting over a disabling injury to save the day anyway. When the computer is *voice controlled*, there should have been substantial possibilities for saving the day anyway. The fix that really needed to happen was the sarcastic pessimistic doomsaying one to just get over it and pull herself together and start giving useful orders that save the day. Well she did get over it, because she got her eyes back, but that's not the same thing.
This is a bit of a 'they're not telling the story I wanted' complaint though, and probably misses the point.
So then the solar sail ships turn up heading towards the light and they were nearby enough they'll get there inside of an hour, even though the point was the lights went out centuries ago and they can't go places without the light. The time pressure was needed to wring any drama out of the last few revelations, where everything gets explained carefully and everyone ends up being friends, except for the AI which malfunctions and gets turned off. Said malfunction cutting off three different plans in a row that would have stopped the all friends now ending from happening. But that's okay, that's what AIs are there for.
I think I liked the setup but the ending felt oddly... plain cookies.
I did definitely like the bit where the Doctor feels so guilty he wanders off to let the locals kill him and/or be killed alongside the locals he's just doomed. And then Charley yells at him about it because he's being doomy and grand gesturey and leaving her behind. I can see all that happening.
The more 8th Doctor adventures I listen to, the more I want to watch him again. The problem with that being I'd have to watch the movie. That's a lot of problem.