beccaelizabeth | Doctor Who 7-02 Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (Reply)

Grumpy again.

Okay, so, on the whole, that was a lot of running around in space, and the companions got sidekicks, and there were indeed dinosaurs on a spaceship, and what's not to like?

There's even presence of people of color who survive the whole episode. That's an improvement.

Of course the ones on the planet exist to be unreasonable and violent, and the one on the ship ...

I'm kind of pissed off about Nefertiti, really. I mean, she's a queen. Does that mean her whole story is about her husband, or running away with a man more interesting than her husband? The random temporary slavery she rescues herself from seems like a reasonable story. The creepy sexual overtones of it were not necessary. Treating people as things to be bought and sold is creepy in and of itself. But then instead of having even implied adventures in space and time she goes off with the shooting things guy. Colonialist connotations sexist big game hunter for the win? Really? He gets the cookies? Shooting things even with stun guns wasn't especially heroic on the Doctor's standards. On a reasonable spaceship they could have just closed the door.

Also, presence of stun guns make it pretty damn clear that what the Doctor did to the trader was murder.

When he talked about saving everyone I really thought he meant the bastard of the week too. Because the Doctor is the man who never would. But only sometimes. Pretty damn often he's judge, jury and executioner. And while the man was condemned out of his own mouth - genocide is evil - that doesn't make killing him not be evil. There was no need. Stun the guy if you're worried what he'll say to the computer, but there was no need to kill him. He was stopped already. That was just the Doctor being a vicious bastard.

Also, how is it that we only get disability when there is evil? I keep wanting to write a companion with a prosthetic leg, because there's a whole bunch of bastards associated with mobility aids as it is.

I'm not expecting the Doctor to be a pacifist. I'm just not thinking his actions there live up to his own patchy multi authored moral standards even. He just taunted the guy and killed him, after he'd lost.

And there's another system that doesn't know who he his. I can't help but connect the two. His reputation deleted, his accountability goes with it. The galaxy was in fear of the Doctor and associated his name with destruction. The Doctor's solution is to make them forget it? Not actually fixing the problem.

So I'm just annoyed. Again. With my happy favourite TV.

... I know I'm a fan of 7 and he's not exactly short on blowing people up, but I can't think of an exact match for this. A defeated enemy who can't run away, left to get blown up. It's wrong.

(I know the Doctor blows people up a hell of a lot more than he offers a Dalek a second chance. But I like the latter story. We need more stories about forgiveness; no more vengeance, it's poisonous.)

Things that didn't suck: Rory and his dad. Though it does add to the tally of fathers-and-sons which greatly exceeds any mothers-and-daughters despite the thematic resonance with the core companions being in the latter. Rory and his dad bonding over nursing and spaceships, fair enough.

... everything else makes me grumpy.

(ETA: Rory got a kiss and made funny faces. That made me :-) Though obviously less than if he got a kiss and made happy faces. Nice to see the Doctor be equal opportunity though.)

The Doctor making upset faces behind the Ponds is supposed to be all ominous and dooooooooom-y. I do not wish for ominous doom.

Rory being 31 now, and Amy presumably too because they were at school together, that's interesting. Lots of time happening.

Which Amy does nothing with because the girl who can remember the whole universe is apparently just the girl who is still waiting. Even if she's also the girl who keeps going home.
I miss Sarah Jane. She was a journalist. Or Martha, a doctor. People can have plans and lives and stuff.
... Rory gets plans and life and stuff, Amy... waits.

I don't know, maybe I'm just in a particularly sulky mood today. Or this month. Or indeed this year.
Okay, I'm in a particularly sulky mood this year, so possibly I would find more to like and much less to complain about if I had a different brain on.
:-p anyway.