Doctor Who: Father's Day
May. 14th, 2005 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethHow much do I not like this episode?
When it finished my mum, who has no particular investment in Doctor Who, isn't a fan, and probably hadn't thought of it since it went off air the first time unless we brought it up, said "The Rose Tyler show should not have been allowed to take over Doctor Who."
I could not agree more. This show is not Doctor Who. And I don't say that just because I dislike Rose (though I do, quite intensely), I say that because this week managed to ignore a quarter century of canon and most importantly run contrary to the basic ethos of the show.
This week we learned that you can't make a difference, that predestination rules over free will, and that the best thing you can do for the world is jump under a car.
Have the writers really missed the point so very deeply? The point of Doctor Who is that no matter how far you travel in space or time you *can* and indeed *must* make a difference. The heroes of the show risk their lives to make the universe better, save lives, stop terrible things happening. This is what it is *about*, that we *can make things better* no matter how terrible the enemy is. The basic values of decency and compassion, backed up with judicious use of defensive force and a lot of ingenuity, will save the universe every time. And sometimes people die. But they go down fighting.
This week? You try and make a difference, great big scary dragons kill everyone.
Fuck that.
Additionally I would like to point out that in the arc 'Mawdryn Undead' when the Brigadier met himself there was a huge great explosion and his mind got messed up. This week? Big scary dragon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/mawdrynundead/continuity.shtml
When people from two different time zones touch there is a large explosion of energy as the time differential is 'shorted', known as the Blinovitch limitation effect (see also Day of the Daleks, where it is described in different terms).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/dayofdaleks/continuity.shtml
Blinovitch's Limitation Effect prevents the guerillas making multiple attempts to kill Styles.
(and probably mentioned on a bunch of other sites, but I'm not in the mood to chase references)
The Doctor taking Rose back twice risks blowing up a large chunk of London. Why the hell would he do that?
Okay, now they've established that Gallifrey is gone, the Laws of Time as enforced by Gallifrey are gone too. So I guess the writers felt the need to establish that there were still Rules. I don't see why, but they seem to feel the need. But why, precisely, did they contradict prior canon in order to do it?
And I'm still asking why the *hell* they felt the need to blow up Gallifrey in the first place!
Also, and fairly importantly, the father's death didn't actually resolve the paradox. There were still differences, which would have had a knock on effect. And Rose had still buggered her own timeline, seeing as she took away her reason for turning up in the first place. If Rose's memories were altered to fit the new timeline, that is. We're told that everyone would forget the big sky dragons, idiotic tho that is, and we weren't told if Rose kept her original memories (as she did after saving her dad, which makes no sense if memories were going to get altered) or if she will remember the story always having been about the version that ended up happening (as we the viewers saw). Either way has massive problems. I mean if her memories are on the original timeline then is she in fact from an alternate universe? Not on this show, I'd have thought. If her memories are on the new timeline, does the Doctor also not remember what a mess she made? Pretty significant information to be lacking. And the why-go-there paradox remains. And paradox, in the books, is what destroyed Gallifrey eventually, so should be considered a Very Bad Thing. And even without paradox altering one's own timeline is just not supposed to be allowed. Never was before. Shouldn't have been now.
Doctor Who shouldn't be messing with the logical implications of time travel. It screws too much with the adventures.
Good things for the week - '1987 is the Isle of wight'. The Doctor figuring out fast that it now looked dodgy that it was the time machine part of the pitch that got her attention. Scythe tailed dragons as some kind of time enforcement dudes (as long as I ignore the context and plot, the creature design was fun).
possibly interesting bit of continuity - The Doctor mentions his family died on Gallifrey. Family? Susan called him Grandfather, but Gallifreyans came from a genetic loom. Is the Cousins style family from Lungbarrow canon now? Or are they simply retconning the looms?
further irritations - what was all that with the TARDIS key? I don't remember it doing anything like that before. As usual, I haven't watched every episode ever, so I'm willing to be corrected, but that seemed exceedingly lame to me.
It was however quite shocking when he opened up the police box and found a lack of TARDIS inside. That was kind of cool.
Mum particularly objected to how the Christian symbols were used in the episode, hiding in church and all. She said (with heavy sarcasm) 'Good thing Rose wasn't a muslim or sikh' because she'd have been dead by then. If all they needed was an old building there shouldn't be any shortage of purely civic monuments. Using the church that way sets up unpleasant weight and resonance. Biased, of course, and also... borrowing religious symbols to lend weight or something to the Doctor. Mum reckoned the TARDIS being a ghost in front of the Altar was a bit Not Right, Not On. Out of order. I think I agree. There's arguments to be made, but I'd rather the issue hadn't been an issue.
Mum also didn't like it because this was basically soap opera with random dragon. So very much agreeing. They could even have left out the dragons. I mean it got *less* scary once there were dragons, because they could be shut out. When it was just red eyes and people dissappearing around that poor little kid, that was *scary*. Dragons are just another alien. And it felt like bad continuity to have the switch happen anyway.
Baby Rose had different color eyes to Big Rose. Blue eye baby, brown eye girl. Seems a bit of a sloppy mistake. Mum said it wasn't a new enough baby to be still blue. I wouldn't know enough to tell.
I am likely to finish watching the season. But by now it isn't because I like or expect to like or seriously hope to like the new episodes, it is just because once I'm in a habit it is hard to quit.
I don't count this new show as being in the same universe as my Doctor, let alone the same character.
Just call me a cranky old fan.
Okay, a cranky 27 year old fan, but you get what I mean.
*sigh*
Actually most of my f-list doesn't seem to. I mean y'all like this season. Often for the exact reasons I dislike it.
And my mum agrees with me about it. Yet is willing to watch it with me anyway.
Is interesting what brings a family together :)
When it finished my mum, who has no particular investment in Doctor Who, isn't a fan, and probably hadn't thought of it since it went off air the first time unless we brought it up, said "The Rose Tyler show should not have been allowed to take over Doctor Who."
I could not agree more. This show is not Doctor Who. And I don't say that just because I dislike Rose (though I do, quite intensely), I say that because this week managed to ignore a quarter century of canon and most importantly run contrary to the basic ethos of the show.
This week we learned that you can't make a difference, that predestination rules over free will, and that the best thing you can do for the world is jump under a car.
Have the writers really missed the point so very deeply? The point of Doctor Who is that no matter how far you travel in space or time you *can* and indeed *must* make a difference. The heroes of the show risk their lives to make the universe better, save lives, stop terrible things happening. This is what it is *about*, that we *can make things better* no matter how terrible the enemy is. The basic values of decency and compassion, backed up with judicious use of defensive force and a lot of ingenuity, will save the universe every time. And sometimes people die. But they go down fighting.
This week? You try and make a difference, great big scary dragons kill everyone.
Fuck that.
Additionally I would like to point out that in the arc 'Mawdryn Undead' when the Brigadier met himself there was a huge great explosion and his mind got messed up. This week? Big scary dragon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/mawdrynundead/continuity.shtml
When people from two different time zones touch there is a large explosion of energy as the time differential is 'shorted', known as the Blinovitch limitation effect (see also Day of the Daleks, where it is described in different terms).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/dayofdaleks/continuity.shtml
Blinovitch's Limitation Effect prevents the guerillas making multiple attempts to kill Styles.
(and probably mentioned on a bunch of other sites, but I'm not in the mood to chase references)
The Doctor taking Rose back twice risks blowing up a large chunk of London. Why the hell would he do that?
Okay, now they've established that Gallifrey is gone, the Laws of Time as enforced by Gallifrey are gone too. So I guess the writers felt the need to establish that there were still Rules. I don't see why, but they seem to feel the need. But why, precisely, did they contradict prior canon in order to do it?
And I'm still asking why the *hell* they felt the need to blow up Gallifrey in the first place!
Also, and fairly importantly, the father's death didn't actually resolve the paradox. There were still differences, which would have had a knock on effect. And Rose had still buggered her own timeline, seeing as she took away her reason for turning up in the first place. If Rose's memories were altered to fit the new timeline, that is. We're told that everyone would forget the big sky dragons, idiotic tho that is, and we weren't told if Rose kept her original memories (as she did after saving her dad, which makes no sense if memories were going to get altered) or if she will remember the story always having been about the version that ended up happening (as we the viewers saw). Either way has massive problems. I mean if her memories are on the original timeline then is she in fact from an alternate universe? Not on this show, I'd have thought. If her memories are on the new timeline, does the Doctor also not remember what a mess she made? Pretty significant information to be lacking. And the why-go-there paradox remains. And paradox, in the books, is what destroyed Gallifrey eventually, so should be considered a Very Bad Thing. And even without paradox altering one's own timeline is just not supposed to be allowed. Never was before. Shouldn't have been now.
Doctor Who shouldn't be messing with the logical implications of time travel. It screws too much with the adventures.
Good things for the week - '1987 is the Isle of wight'. The Doctor figuring out fast that it now looked dodgy that it was the time machine part of the pitch that got her attention. Scythe tailed dragons as some kind of time enforcement dudes (as long as I ignore the context and plot, the creature design was fun).
possibly interesting bit of continuity - The Doctor mentions his family died on Gallifrey. Family? Susan called him Grandfather, but Gallifreyans came from a genetic loom. Is the Cousins style family from Lungbarrow canon now? Or are they simply retconning the looms?
further irritations - what was all that with the TARDIS key? I don't remember it doing anything like that before. As usual, I haven't watched every episode ever, so I'm willing to be corrected, but that seemed exceedingly lame to me.
It was however quite shocking when he opened up the police box and found a lack of TARDIS inside. That was kind of cool.
Mum particularly objected to how the Christian symbols were used in the episode, hiding in church and all. She said (with heavy sarcasm) 'Good thing Rose wasn't a muslim or sikh' because she'd have been dead by then. If all they needed was an old building there shouldn't be any shortage of purely civic monuments. Using the church that way sets up unpleasant weight and resonance. Biased, of course, and also... borrowing religious symbols to lend weight or something to the Doctor. Mum reckoned the TARDIS being a ghost in front of the Altar was a bit Not Right, Not On. Out of order. I think I agree. There's arguments to be made, but I'd rather the issue hadn't been an issue.
Mum also didn't like it because this was basically soap opera with random dragon. So very much agreeing. They could even have left out the dragons. I mean it got *less* scary once there were dragons, because they could be shut out. When it was just red eyes and people dissappearing around that poor little kid, that was *scary*. Dragons are just another alien. And it felt like bad continuity to have the switch happen anyway.
Baby Rose had different color eyes to Big Rose. Blue eye baby, brown eye girl. Seems a bit of a sloppy mistake. Mum said it wasn't a new enough baby to be still blue. I wouldn't know enough to tell.
I am likely to finish watching the season. But by now it isn't because I like or expect to like or seriously hope to like the new episodes, it is just because once I'm in a habit it is hard to quit.
I don't count this new show as being in the same universe as my Doctor, let alone the same character.
Just call me a cranky old fan.
Okay, a cranky 27 year old fan, but you get what I mean.
*sigh*
Actually most of my f-list doesn't seem to. I mean y'all like this season. Often for the exact reasons I dislike it.
And my mum agrees with me about it. Yet is willing to watch it with me anyway.
Is interesting what brings a family together :)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-15 04:23 am (UTC)I find the whole Time War and Gallifrey and the Time Lords being gone an intriguing background and it gives a new twist to the Doctor's psyche and his reactions.
As for this episode, I loved it. But I've liked to loved every new episode. Enough that I go out of my way to find episodes to dl because I don't want to wait ten days to see them on CBC here. And I still consider myself a fan of the old series (even belonged to a Doctor Who fan club when I was in university).
no subject
Date: 2005-05-15 10:57 am (UTC)Every week I get on LJ and see everyone all yaay and think somehow I must be missing the point, but every week I try and find stuff to like and just find stuff that winds me up. Just me I guess.