Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut
Apr. 23rd, 2011 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethEmotional whiplash much?
And now the Sarah Jane tribute is on and actual real Sad is trying to happen and it's all sort of crunching up and not having room to react.
... okay, "Goodbye, my Sarah Jane", and the sad wins. crying again now. :-(
(The Sarah Jane tribute is up on the iPlayer now.)
*pause*
Also I have a horrible stabbing headache that I only really noticed when I laughed and now the story has stopped.
So, that's a gripping story.
and SPOILERS under the cut that you don't want to read before watching
And OMG I am so glad nobody did spoilers. Of the things you don't expect in a first episode, or indeed any episode, the Doctor ACTUALLY dying dead stopped no regeneration OMG!!!
And we're just like Amy and the others cause we have no time to react and there's this adventure and it would be really cool but there's this HUGE THING and everything is wonky, because now there's a thing the Doctor doesn't know and the others do, which feels weird all round.
And the writing and the acting is all reacting beautiful to that.
Also it refocuses the story in interesting ways. There's a danger with old Doctor Who that it's THE DOCTOR (and some people who follow him around adoringly) or like he said in this episode stand there watching him do cool things and like River said do what he tells them to. Only now everyone has an agenda that they can't ask him about, he's not the only one driving, and it makes it all more dangerous and more thrilling and gives everyone loads more to do.
I'm loving this creepy alien that you only remember when you're looking at it. It's like the Blink trick but enough different. And it gives these great acting moments where they just have to chop between reactions.
Also it means the audience knows more than the characters, and will continue to know more, and you want to yell 'look behind you!' a lot, and it's not the thing where they're not figuring out the obvious, it's the delicious tension danger thing.
Rory gets some nice solid things to do. And so does Amy. And so does River.
And I wasn't much worried, but there's books that really don't get the balance right with even Amy+Rory.
Rory is being the solid dependable one, doing caring about how people feel, with just a hint of Doctor Issues still there.
I like the burning boat.
I can't react to the burning boat until we see the whole story yet I still like it. It's a fascinating hold your breath suspended reaction feeling.
River not being afraid of her death or the Doctor's, just the day he won't know her any more... makes it a lot easier to like River, and I liked her rather a lot to start with.
About the advertising and hints before the episode: I love that they told us what was going to happen and I still had no idea what was going to happen. That's playing fair, that is.
*stabbing headache of doom*
I need to curl up in teh dark so more nuanced discussion will have to wait.
What else needs saying... fired for wanting to get married, interesting layers. Want to see.
The Doctor gleeful about how many guys fancied him, yaays.
All that with the Doctor writing himself into as much ridiculous and visible history as possible: LOVE IT... and wonder if there's a purpose or if it's just running like he said.
Oh, the bit where they were talking about how he's interacted with his history and that can destroy everything, and Amy said he did it before and Rory said to be fair the universe did end, that was good :-)
The more the Doctor interacts with River and the more he thinks it's a romance the more it would be really bad if it turned out to be some of the other options. I can think of many that would become much creepy. So I hope they are in fact married in his future because otherwise it's weird.
Yet if it is that simple then... what? It could still be very interesting yet I worry it's not writer tricksy enough.
The conversation with Rory and River was excellent. River as a grown up Amy is fascinating.
And then Amy's big revelation... you know I bet she's told the Doctor *first*. I mean if she'd told Rory he'd be massively more anxious and hovering and all that, yesno?
And THEN Amy tries to solve things with a gun and I bet that's what makes it all go Horribly Wrong because guns are bad.
There's so much awesome about this episode. Top of the rollercoaster time and no idea how it's going to fall out. Excellent.
and now I really really need to go take a painkiller. Doctor Who actually beat the headache for a whole episode though. good trick.
And now the Sarah Jane tribute is on and actual real Sad is trying to happen and it's all sort of crunching up and not having room to react.
... okay, "Goodbye, my Sarah Jane", and the sad wins. crying again now. :-(
(The Sarah Jane tribute is up on the iPlayer now.)
*pause*
Also I have a horrible stabbing headache that I only really noticed when I laughed and now the story has stopped.
So, that's a gripping story.
and SPOILERS under the cut that you don't want to read before watching
And OMG I am so glad nobody did spoilers. Of the things you don't expect in a first episode, or indeed any episode, the Doctor ACTUALLY dying dead stopped no regeneration OMG!!!
And we're just like Amy and the others cause we have no time to react and there's this adventure and it would be really cool but there's this HUGE THING and everything is wonky, because now there's a thing the Doctor doesn't know and the others do, which feels weird all round.
And the writing and the acting is all reacting beautiful to that.
Also it refocuses the story in interesting ways. There's a danger with old Doctor Who that it's THE DOCTOR (and some people who follow him around adoringly) or like he said in this episode stand there watching him do cool things and like River said do what he tells them to. Only now everyone has an agenda that they can't ask him about, he's not the only one driving, and it makes it all more dangerous and more thrilling and gives everyone loads more to do.
I'm loving this creepy alien that you only remember when you're looking at it. It's like the Blink trick but enough different. And it gives these great acting moments where they just have to chop between reactions.
Also it means the audience knows more than the characters, and will continue to know more, and you want to yell 'look behind you!' a lot, and it's not the thing where they're not figuring out the obvious, it's the delicious tension danger thing.
Rory gets some nice solid things to do. And so does Amy. And so does River.
And I wasn't much worried, but there's books that really don't get the balance right with even Amy+Rory.
Rory is being the solid dependable one, doing caring about how people feel, with just a hint of Doctor Issues still there.
I like the burning boat.
I can't react to the burning boat until we see the whole story yet I still like it. It's a fascinating hold your breath suspended reaction feeling.
River not being afraid of her death or the Doctor's, just the day he won't know her any more... makes it a lot easier to like River, and I liked her rather a lot to start with.
About the advertising and hints before the episode: I love that they told us what was going to happen and I still had no idea what was going to happen. That's playing fair, that is.
*stabbing headache of doom*
I need to curl up in teh dark so more nuanced discussion will have to wait.
What else needs saying... fired for wanting to get married, interesting layers. Want to see.
The Doctor gleeful about how many guys fancied him, yaays.
All that with the Doctor writing himself into as much ridiculous and visible history as possible: LOVE IT... and wonder if there's a purpose or if it's just running like he said.
Oh, the bit where they were talking about how he's interacted with his history and that can destroy everything, and Amy said he did it before and Rory said to be fair the universe did end, that was good :-)
The more the Doctor interacts with River and the more he thinks it's a romance the more it would be really bad if it turned out to be some of the other options. I can think of many that would become much creepy. So I hope they are in fact married in his future because otherwise it's weird.
Yet if it is that simple then... what? It could still be very interesting yet I worry it's not writer tricksy enough.
The conversation with Rory and River was excellent. River as a grown up Amy is fascinating.
And then Amy's big revelation... you know I bet she's told the Doctor *first*. I mean if she'd told Rory he'd be massively more anxious and hovering and all that, yesno?
And THEN Amy tries to solve things with a gun and I bet that's what makes it all go Horribly Wrong because guns are bad.
There's so much awesome about this episode. Top of the rollercoaster time and no idea how it's going to fall out. Excellent.
and now I really really need to go take a painkiller. Doctor Who actually beat the headache for a whole episode though. good trick.