Doctor Who: The Big Bang
Jun. 26th, 2010 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth:-) :-) :-)
I want to watch that again! Right now!
*happy dance happy dance happy dance*
There was not one aspect of that that wasn't proper brilliant.
Now that is a season finale!
That made so many more stories. So. Many. More!
And it made me proper worried in the middle. And a little worried at the start that it was going to go a bit wrong, because I was all puzzled and, well, things have worked out poorly before. But then it made it all make sense!
And talk about god complex... We complained when RTD did all that bit with the angels and all, but this? The Doctor was the big bang! Let there be light! Ooooh but that's *fun*.
And this is a rather more fun way to get parents back than the magic remarriage between universes. Still slightly a bit worrying though, with the remember-them-better approach to death, but... I think I like it. What's loved lives. What we remember is never lost. Omnia Mutantur Nihil Interit.
Speaking of roman, Centurion!Rory!!! Who is a legend in his own right!!! In his own universe, of course. But of course he would be, given those givens. He just stayed with her, refused to leave her. And he had training and all. It's not a flashy kind of save the universe, he doesn't get mary-sued in the process, he's just *devoted*. Like Sam and Frodo, he won't leave.
I liked Rory, enough I did that illogical thing and blamed the bits I didn't like on writers (like it really should *worry* a guy when someone will kill themselves from thinking you dead). But Auton!Rory fighting to be human when he knew what he was made from, that's right up there with Soulful!Spike and other favourites. That's the pull between nature and choice, the fight against your worse side. Great story. And then the Doctor tested him, and *pow*, got the right answer. For what he was looking for - is girlfriend>universe the right answer in general? Hrm. The Doctor Who answer is that kind of love pays off - Rory saved Amy so Amy could save the world.
(Save the Cheerleader Save the World - that was the answer I was looking for and why I gave up on the series when it didn't come)
The story made me love him a lot and worry about him a lot very quickly though. When it said he maybe burned in the bombing :-( :-(
And then the security guy with the face we can't see - do we know him? Maybe? We think? *hand gun* Yaaaay! :-)
Two thousand years though. Two. Thousand! And all he did was wait for Amy?
... I'm going to call that a monogamist's dream and leave it there.
... okay, no, I'm going to call that a freaky tragedy if we actually follow it through. You're supposed to *live* all those years, not just wait.
Maybe he did live. Maybe Amy's his best choice from a rather wider range now. That's a story too. I'd like that one because then they've both seen time and space and everything and chosen each other.
And that ending: They both go with him! *happy dance happy dance happy dance* YAAAAAYS!
And not just because we get more Amy&Rory, though yaay, we get more Amy&Rory.
For so so long a girl's story ends with growing up and getting married. You know the sort, you can think of dozens without trying. The wedding is the final scene, and They Live Happily Ever After. The Doctor's companions grow up and get married even, that's what they do, leave him and the adventure life to go get married. It's like women stop when they get married.
Amy doesn't stop.
For Amy, *both lives are real*.
I yell at the screen, This is Amy's Choice! Both real!
And it changes everything, in ways that should have been obvious long since but that are much harder to think of examples for. Grow up, get married, keep having adventures.
... I'm possibly too excited about this. I can think of a couple like this. But still, you know? Better! No ending! Still working on it and having adventures and everything!
So, there was the Doctor's bit of the story.
... I'll be honest, there were bits where I had to do the meta level version of hiding behind the sofa, I had to remind me this was a story in the middle of a lot of stories and he couldn't wouldn't never could just get forgotten. Because that would be *wrong*. There should be a Doctor. There always should.
That bit was brilliant though. All the people watching can know that remembering him is the way to keep him real - it's like an 'I do believe in fairies' Tinkerbell moment but better, because it's really how it works, we all remember him so he keeps on being in his universe.
... it was just scary in the middle when he was maybe going to go boom and get forgot.
The best bit about this episode is how the whole season led up to it. Every part was complete in itself *and* leading up to that. Even Van Gogh being someone who expected to be forgotten, it was solid in its own story and thematic with that ending. And treating someone like they're crazy because they see/remember what you don't. That's the slightly problem bit of course, because usually crazy people is crazy, but 'my imaginary friend the Doctor is real' is, er, a statement I can get behind, so I'm skating right over that one right now. But stuff like Rory being forgot and us seeing how terrible sad that was and Amy remembering him again, that leads up to giving us the solution in the final episode *and* was a complete and satisfying arc of itself. I love how this season was structured. It fits together all lots of places.
The solution though. Something old, something new, something borrowed... I didn't see it in advance, I understood only while she was saying it, and yet, and yet, it's totally inevitable and a wedding thing and in exactly the right place. It's a totally fair play payoff and I didn't see it coming.
And the best bit is: it wasn't Hubris!Doctor talking himself up. He accepted the possibility that he would be forgotten, that the universe would be remade without him, that he would have never been. He tried to save the TARDIS. He made the words that would get her to remember the TARDIS. That she remembered him in it was bonus.
Watching the Doctor just... accept that ending... he doesn't do it for the glory, he doesn't do it for the museum stuff or where he can keep score, he doesn't do it to be remembered. He does it because it needs doing. And he has such joy in the process. A whole heap of good things he finds along the way. But if it all has to unhappen, he can just let it go. More complete than death... and a kind of leap of faith.
In Curse of Fenric when they have to have faith to keep the monsters away they all find their symbols, religion or politics or The Doctor. But what he believes in is a list of names. His friends. We believe in him, and he believes in us.
We all save each other.
:-) :-) :-)
I keep wanting to do a sort of happy dance that involves pointing at this story a lot and going 'this is how you do it!'
Show not tell? Much much show.
I like this show.
I hasn't even mentioned River yet.
The Dalek asked for mercy!!!
We don't know her story yet, but she says he'll find out soon, and everything changes.
And all the possibilities we speculated about are back up for grabs. Anything is possible.
Anything is possible, anything at all - the universe got ate by cracks and rebooted from parts, from what was left in the Pandorica, from the Doctor, from an exploding TARDIS that has seen and done so much, and from the memory of one Amy Pond. So what was true and what is remembered remains... but continuity glitches? Let's say there's a lot of room to play with now...
And we're going to get to see it :-)
I have happy. I have looking forward to the next bit. I have in fact no bits I want to complain about. That's kind of rare.
... yes I'm pretty sure I can find bits to complain about if I go looking. Shhh. Squee time now.
:-) :-) :-)
I want to watch it again, and hey, I recorded it, so woohoo, I can!
I want to watch that again! Right now!
*happy dance happy dance happy dance*
There was not one aspect of that that wasn't proper brilliant.
Now that is a season finale!
That made so many more stories. So. Many. More!
And it made me proper worried in the middle. And a little worried at the start that it was going to go a bit wrong, because I was all puzzled and, well, things have worked out poorly before. But then it made it all make sense!
And talk about god complex... We complained when RTD did all that bit with the angels and all, but this? The Doctor was the big bang! Let there be light! Ooooh but that's *fun*.
And this is a rather more fun way to get parents back than the magic remarriage between universes. Still slightly a bit worrying though, with the remember-them-better approach to death, but... I think I like it. What's loved lives. What we remember is never lost. Omnia Mutantur Nihil Interit.
Speaking of roman, Centurion!Rory!!! Who is a legend in his own right!!! In his own universe, of course. But of course he would be, given those givens. He just stayed with her, refused to leave her. And he had training and all. It's not a flashy kind of save the universe, he doesn't get mary-sued in the process, he's just *devoted*. Like Sam and Frodo, he won't leave.
I liked Rory, enough I did that illogical thing and blamed the bits I didn't like on writers (like it really should *worry* a guy when someone will kill themselves from thinking you dead). But Auton!Rory fighting to be human when he knew what he was made from, that's right up there with Soulful!Spike and other favourites. That's the pull between nature and choice, the fight against your worse side. Great story. And then the Doctor tested him, and *pow*, got the right answer. For what he was looking for - is girlfriend>universe the right answer in general? Hrm. The Doctor Who answer is that kind of love pays off - Rory saved Amy so Amy could save the world.
(Save the Cheerleader Save the World - that was the answer I was looking for and why I gave up on the series when it didn't come)
The story made me love him a lot and worry about him a lot very quickly though. When it said he maybe burned in the bombing :-( :-(
And then the security guy with the face we can't see - do we know him? Maybe? We think? *hand gun* Yaaaay! :-)
Two thousand years though. Two. Thousand! And all he did was wait for Amy?
... I'm going to call that a monogamist's dream and leave it there.
... okay, no, I'm going to call that a freaky tragedy if we actually follow it through. You're supposed to *live* all those years, not just wait.
Maybe he did live. Maybe Amy's his best choice from a rather wider range now. That's a story too. I'd like that one because then they've both seen time and space and everything and chosen each other.
And that ending: They both go with him! *happy dance happy dance happy dance* YAAAAAYS!
And not just because we get more Amy&Rory, though yaay, we get more Amy&Rory.
For so so long a girl's story ends with growing up and getting married. You know the sort, you can think of dozens without trying. The wedding is the final scene, and They Live Happily Ever After. The Doctor's companions grow up and get married even, that's what they do, leave him and the adventure life to go get married. It's like women stop when they get married.
Amy doesn't stop.
For Amy, *both lives are real*.
I yell at the screen, This is Amy's Choice! Both real!
And it changes everything, in ways that should have been obvious long since but that are much harder to think of examples for. Grow up, get married, keep having adventures.
... I'm possibly too excited about this. I can think of a couple like this. But still, you know? Better! No ending! Still working on it and having adventures and everything!
So, there was the Doctor's bit of the story.
... I'll be honest, there were bits where I had to do the meta level version of hiding behind the sofa, I had to remind me this was a story in the middle of a lot of stories and he couldn't wouldn't never could just get forgotten. Because that would be *wrong*. There should be a Doctor. There always should.
That bit was brilliant though. All the people watching can know that remembering him is the way to keep him real - it's like an 'I do believe in fairies' Tinkerbell moment but better, because it's really how it works, we all remember him so he keeps on being in his universe.
... it was just scary in the middle when he was maybe going to go boom and get forgot.
The best bit about this episode is how the whole season led up to it. Every part was complete in itself *and* leading up to that. Even Van Gogh being someone who expected to be forgotten, it was solid in its own story and thematic with that ending. And treating someone like they're crazy because they see/remember what you don't. That's the slightly problem bit of course, because usually crazy people is crazy, but 'my imaginary friend the Doctor is real' is, er, a statement I can get behind, so I'm skating right over that one right now. But stuff like Rory being forgot and us seeing how terrible sad that was and Amy remembering him again, that leads up to giving us the solution in the final episode *and* was a complete and satisfying arc of itself. I love how this season was structured. It fits together all lots of places.
The solution though. Something old, something new, something borrowed... I didn't see it in advance, I understood only while she was saying it, and yet, and yet, it's totally inevitable and a wedding thing and in exactly the right place. It's a totally fair play payoff and I didn't see it coming.
And the best bit is: it wasn't Hubris!Doctor talking himself up. He accepted the possibility that he would be forgotten, that the universe would be remade without him, that he would have never been. He tried to save the TARDIS. He made the words that would get her to remember the TARDIS. That she remembered him in it was bonus.
Watching the Doctor just... accept that ending... he doesn't do it for the glory, he doesn't do it for the museum stuff or where he can keep score, he doesn't do it to be remembered. He does it because it needs doing. And he has such joy in the process. A whole heap of good things he finds along the way. But if it all has to unhappen, he can just let it go. More complete than death... and a kind of leap of faith.
In Curse of Fenric when they have to have faith to keep the monsters away they all find their symbols, religion or politics or The Doctor. But what he believes in is a list of names. His friends. We believe in him, and he believes in us.
We all save each other.
:-) :-) :-)
I keep wanting to do a sort of happy dance that involves pointing at this story a lot and going 'this is how you do it!'
Show not tell? Much much show.
I like this show.
I hasn't even mentioned River yet.
The Dalek asked for mercy!!!
We don't know her story yet, but she says he'll find out soon, and everything changes.
And all the possibilities we speculated about are back up for grabs. Anything is possible.
Anything is possible, anything at all - the universe got ate by cracks and rebooted from parts, from what was left in the Pandorica, from the Doctor, from an exploding TARDIS that has seen and done so much, and from the memory of one Amy Pond. So what was true and what is remembered remains... but continuity glitches? Let's say there's a lot of room to play with now...
And we're going to get to see it :-)
I have happy. I have looking forward to the next bit. I have in fact no bits I want to complain about. That's kind of rare.
... yes I'm pretty sure I can find bits to complain about if I go looking. Shhh. Squee time now.
:-) :-) :-)
I want to watch it again, and hey, I recorded it, so woohoo, I can!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-26 06:58 pm (UTC)Mr Pond!
That's not how it works.
Yes it is :-)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-25 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-25 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-25 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-26 08:54 pm (UTC)