Doctor Who - God Complex
Sep. 17th, 2011 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethMy recorder box worked :-)
The subtitles were really intermittent :-(
So I suspect I missed some subtleties ie entire sentences until it could be bothered to use them again.
So the whole thing was showing what people fear and what people have faith in. Okay. So, did we learn what the Doctor fears or has faith in? Only sort of sideways. We get clues and we can guess. But it still feels like a cheat.
I liked Phobos better. Fear in layers.
And then it was very Fenric, but since I loved it when it was Ace I still love it when it's Amy.
It works because it's true, it's just only one side of the true.
Amy Williams? ... only if she wants to be.
And he is a mad man in a box... and he rebooted the universe while knowing he probably wouldn't be part of it. Mad brilliant.
Half a true isn't true at all.
... which is also true when ignoring the Williams and the general fallibility of him.
Rory spoke with the knowings. He notices how many people die before it gets sorted out.
Also I like him saying about not all the wins being save the universe. Rory nurse.
I'm not a big fan of heroic sacrifice, I don't much like when people get killed all in a row. But they did interesting things with the idea of faith getting hollowed out. She wanted to be remembered the other way. What got stolen was important. It's currently an unusual thing to say.
Since the way to break the cycle was to break someone's faith it is interesting that faith in the Doctor is the breakable one. Well, also inevitable, given that it's not going to piss anyone off.
I think the one with the locking scary things in the cupboard was a bit close to this one.
The setting in the awful hotel was kind of awesome. Cheap, yet effective. And you get to do the Shining thing with the camera zoom and pull.
... I've had real hotel corridors do that to me when I've been awake long enough. Also develop too many corners and not enough rooms.
So it's a proper scary setting. With rooms full of hells like in Bill and Ted, but always a good writer trick that because you can show people's insides and connect up to common fears and then go specific.
Definitely proper creepy.
the surrender guy was boring and stupid. The 'maybe he'll eat him first' guy has a point (second lion joke goes here) but why make him an alien from a whole planet that do that? Also, just boring in the doing.
I like that the Doctor gets to frown at him. I don't like that there's no punchline, sort of thing. No lion joke or equivalent. Boring.
So, weird mix of creepy and boring, did a good bit like Ace and 7, skipped out of showing us about the Doctor...
Except, all that with the time to die bit, hello Doctor.
Except I was really hoping he'd got over being suicidal, both Doyle and Watson levels. It's a very bad eater, that one is. Takes everything. Don't want it in my TVs. Want my TVs to beat it.
There should be the Doctor in some of those rooms. Possibly lots of those rooms. Lots of Doctors. Given how many are afraid of him. Including the Doctor.
So the Doctor dumps the Ponds and gives them shiny presents. Er, didn't they have a place to live? Now they have a blue house. Okay. But, still, what? No choosing for you, Amy! No words for you, Rory, just zoom off like Rory was never his friend... someone needs a slap.
But after that it probably goes all back to the start of the season, leaving funnies in history and waving out of films. And however he's going to get out of it at the end.
On the plus side, not as ugly as with Donna. And no Tegan and Martha leaving because it's no fun. And no Rose being stuck with second best in a universe she broke out of once already. And, also, quite possibly no lasting very long. *shrugs* But on the minus side, Doctor doing all the deciding and not treating Rory like a person of equal worth.
Zoe and Jamie managed to both be important to him. Can we go back to that?
He seems so selfish and weird this other way.
Okay, so, I seem to be in a grump now.
There were proper creepy bits, good tricks I've liked both times they've been used, lots of running through corridors. Proper episode.
... and yet I'm in a grump.
*Shrugs*
I'm getting the urge to go rewatch different seasons. Not so much to rewatch this one right away again. I hope they fix that soon.
The subtitles were really intermittent :-(
So I suspect I missed some subtleties ie entire sentences until it could be bothered to use them again.
So the whole thing was showing what people fear and what people have faith in. Okay. So, did we learn what the Doctor fears or has faith in? Only sort of sideways. We get clues and we can guess. But it still feels like a cheat.
I liked Phobos better. Fear in layers.
And then it was very Fenric, but since I loved it when it was Ace I still love it when it's Amy.
It works because it's true, it's just only one side of the true.
Amy Williams? ... only if she wants to be.
And he is a mad man in a box... and he rebooted the universe while knowing he probably wouldn't be part of it. Mad brilliant.
Half a true isn't true at all.
... which is also true when ignoring the Williams and the general fallibility of him.
Rory spoke with the knowings. He notices how many people die before it gets sorted out.
Also I like him saying about not all the wins being save the universe. Rory nurse.
I'm not a big fan of heroic sacrifice, I don't much like when people get killed all in a row. But they did interesting things with the idea of faith getting hollowed out. She wanted to be remembered the other way. What got stolen was important. It's currently an unusual thing to say.
Since the way to break the cycle was to break someone's faith it is interesting that faith in the Doctor is the breakable one. Well, also inevitable, given that it's not going to piss anyone off.
I think the one with the locking scary things in the cupboard was a bit close to this one.
The setting in the awful hotel was kind of awesome. Cheap, yet effective. And you get to do the Shining thing with the camera zoom and pull.
... I've had real hotel corridors do that to me when I've been awake long enough. Also develop too many corners and not enough rooms.
So it's a proper scary setting. With rooms full of hells like in Bill and Ted, but always a good writer trick that because you can show people's insides and connect up to common fears and then go specific.
Definitely proper creepy.
the surrender guy was boring and stupid. The 'maybe he'll eat him first' guy has a point (second lion joke goes here) but why make him an alien from a whole planet that do that? Also, just boring in the doing.
I like that the Doctor gets to frown at him. I don't like that there's no punchline, sort of thing. No lion joke or equivalent. Boring.
So, weird mix of creepy and boring, did a good bit like Ace and 7, skipped out of showing us about the Doctor...
Except, all that with the time to die bit, hello Doctor.
Except I was really hoping he'd got over being suicidal, both Doyle and Watson levels. It's a very bad eater, that one is. Takes everything. Don't want it in my TVs. Want my TVs to beat it.
There should be the Doctor in some of those rooms. Possibly lots of those rooms. Lots of Doctors. Given how many are afraid of him. Including the Doctor.
So the Doctor dumps the Ponds and gives them shiny presents. Er, didn't they have a place to live? Now they have a blue house. Okay. But, still, what? No choosing for you, Amy! No words for you, Rory, just zoom off like Rory was never his friend... someone needs a slap.
But after that it probably goes all back to the start of the season, leaving funnies in history and waving out of films. And however he's going to get out of it at the end.
On the plus side, not as ugly as with Donna. And no Tegan and Martha leaving because it's no fun. And no Rose being stuck with second best in a universe she broke out of once already. And, also, quite possibly no lasting very long. *shrugs* But on the minus side, Doctor doing all the deciding and not treating Rory like a person of equal worth.
Zoe and Jamie managed to both be important to him. Can we go back to that?
He seems so selfish and weird this other way.
Okay, so, I seem to be in a grump now.
There were proper creepy bits, good tricks I've liked both times they've been used, lots of running through corridors. Proper episode.
... and yet I'm in a grump.
*Shrugs*
I'm getting the urge to go rewatch different seasons. Not so much to rewatch this one right away again. I hope they fix that soon.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 07:27 am (UTC)yes, the treatment of people of color this season is getting ridiculous. too predictable and bad.
Mels getting erased and replaced with a white woman is unfortunate.
Rita getting dead is too pattern.
Faith and the Feeds on Faith Monster: some people are reading it as an atheist parable, like without false faith Rory was immune. But it's more about the perversion of faith through fear. Get someone scared enough and they believe in the monster, their faith perverted. That's a much more subtle statement. Especially since faith in the Doctor is not exactly a minority belief in the people watching. The trouble is the nature of the Doctor feels like it has changed, gone darker and meaner and more about killing armies and scaring things. Because the Doctor got too scared?
Rory talking about the TARDIS in past tense might be the trip that triggered the Doctor's choice.
But he still didn't actually talk with them.
Also: The Doctor has a god complex. Surprise. It's about thinking the whole rest of the universe is children and he's the only one responsible for all everything. It's about making all the decisions for everyone. It's not about needing to grow up and stop endangering people, they choose their own danger, and it's just as dangerous at home. See: Torchwood, UNIT, and the Sarah Jane Adventures. Not to mention every Earth based episode of Doctor Who ever. When he leaves people he doesn't leave them to boring mundanity, he just leaves them to cope with it alone. Stupid Doctor. It's not about woe is me I have power now I must deal with things, it's about everyone dealing with the same things and by the way Doctor you have a lot of power to do it. But everyone has to deal, however much they've got.
His power should be knowledge, but lately it's reputation. That's a problem. It's believing the white coat, not the scientific process.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 04:04 am (UTC)I think she does want to be, we saw that last week. Amy just needed to be reminded of who she really wants to spend her life with.
I think the Doctor needed to cut the connection fast, before he was tempted to keep taking chances with his friends' lives, and he knew it.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 04:25 am (UTC)Why should it be Amy changing her name? No reason.
She's already spending her life with Rory.
But they're having adventures and saving the universe and stuff.
The Doctor is an arrogant ass with a god complex, is the point of the episode. He can leave his friends on Earth but as Torchwood, UNIT and the Sarah Jane Adventures prove that doesn't mean they're safe, ordinary, and boring. Even the Doctor having so many adventures on present day Earth proves that. All the Doctor leaving them does is leave them to sort it out without him.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 12:01 pm (UTC)I love the way that Rory *cares* - that is such a nurse thing and I'm glad it's been threaded through the whole series for him.