Doctor Who Books: Nuclear Time
Jul. 10th, 2010 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth11, Amy and Rory.
I was all :-) to see Rory on the cover.
But while I was reading it I had a nagging feeling of Not Proper. It only crystallised once I'd read the whole book:
Needs more Amy.
The parts of the book where Amy even appears are limited, but the Doctor frequently splits up from his companions, that could still be proper.
But I don't think it's ever from Amy's point of view. It alternates between the Doctor and Rory.
I'm not sure Amy ever initiates a plan, she just cooperates with the Doctor's plan or Rory's plan.
Also, she's running around in boots with heels that make her trip over and get in trouble. The only time I noticed Amy's footwear on TV it was converse (though she still managed to trip over and get in trouble, but there was a better than usual plot level cause and effect type reason for it, not just, hey, nothing's happening, they need to be in trouble, I know, Amy trips and falls!). So it bugs me. Not because fashion, but because it's one more way to turn her into The Girl instead of Amy, and to make her more vulnerable for it.
It turned into a book where Boys Have Plans And Save People And Get The Girl.
So as Doctor Who it is not proper.
Also it Bechdel fails pretty badly, there's technically only one woman in the book, Amy, everyone else is men or robots. And the robot woman Amy talks to only talks about her bloke creator. The robot woman breaks her programming but arguably never attains free will, all she decides is to go after her bloke creator, and tell him 'I need you'. It's creepy. And creepy specifically in a way consistent with the reduced initiative Amy takes elsewhere. Blokes do things, blokes save women and each other, women react to them.
The science fiction stuff has lots of running around and messing with time and stuff like on the cover of the book. The cover of the book hits the high points of what's in store inside, even if it's not precisely like any bit of the story, which only bugs me because I'm too precise for my own good. So it's got plot where things happen in genre appropriate ways, though it's a bit... extreme ends of what Doctor Who 'verse time travel does. It can all be filed under The Doctor Is Just That Good, And So Is The TARDIS, so that works out. I like it that the Doctor just basically decides Time can be rewritten and by refusing to play along makes it so. Willpower vs Time and will wins. It's just that's exactly the dodgy bit too. I can go with it for the length of a book, it's got lots of fun bits in it.
The story has Rory making plans and doing things in ways pretty consistent with him on screen. And I like Rory. So that's nice.
But if the story doesn't get Amy right, or more broadly female characters and female companions, then it's not proper Doctor Who.
So even while I kind of liked it, it don't feel proper.
Also, just a note: America again? Really? *raised eyebrow*
I was all :-) to see Rory on the cover.
But while I was reading it I had a nagging feeling of Not Proper. It only crystallised once I'd read the whole book:
Needs more Amy.
The parts of the book where Amy even appears are limited, but the Doctor frequently splits up from his companions, that could still be proper.
But I don't think it's ever from Amy's point of view. It alternates between the Doctor and Rory.
I'm not sure Amy ever initiates a plan, she just cooperates with the Doctor's plan or Rory's plan.
Also, she's running around in boots with heels that make her trip over and get in trouble. The only time I noticed Amy's footwear on TV it was converse (though she still managed to trip over and get in trouble, but there was a better than usual plot level cause and effect type reason for it, not just, hey, nothing's happening, they need to be in trouble, I know, Amy trips and falls!). So it bugs me. Not because fashion, but because it's one more way to turn her into The Girl instead of Amy, and to make her more vulnerable for it.
It turned into a book where Boys Have Plans And Save People And Get The Girl.
So as Doctor Who it is not proper.
Also it Bechdel fails pretty badly, there's technically only one woman in the book, Amy, everyone else is men or robots. And the robot woman Amy talks to only talks about her bloke creator. The robot woman breaks her programming but arguably never attains free will, all she decides is to go after her bloke creator, and tell him 'I need you'. It's creepy. And creepy specifically in a way consistent with the reduced initiative Amy takes elsewhere. Blokes do things, blokes save women and each other, women react to them.
The science fiction stuff has lots of running around and messing with time and stuff like on the cover of the book. The cover of the book hits the high points of what's in store inside, even if it's not precisely like any bit of the story, which only bugs me because I'm too precise for my own good. So it's got plot where things happen in genre appropriate ways, though it's a bit... extreme ends of what Doctor Who 'verse time travel does. It can all be filed under The Doctor Is Just That Good, And So Is The TARDIS, so that works out. I like it that the Doctor just basically decides Time can be rewritten and by refusing to play along makes it so. Willpower vs Time and will wins. It's just that's exactly the dodgy bit too. I can go with it for the length of a book, it's got lots of fun bits in it.
The story has Rory making plans and doing things in ways pretty consistent with him on screen. And I like Rory. So that's nice.
But if the story doesn't get Amy right, or more broadly female characters and female companions, then it's not proper Doctor Who.
So even while I kind of liked it, it don't feel proper.
Also, just a note: America again? Really? *raised eyebrow*