Doctor Who: The Doctor Falls
Jul. 1st, 2017 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethWell that ended exactly the way I thought it would
their get out of jail card was exactly what I thought it was
and somehow I'm still angry.
This is the problem with them yanking us around by the feels, feels inertia skids on the turns and the feels don't keep up.
The problem is exactly what spectacle they thought we'd want to see. And from the start they showed us dead women, specifically dead lesbians. And I know they think they've fixed that, because they were not strictly dead, and turn out to have remained themselves even under great pressure, and the lesbians bit was necessary to the happily ever after, since clearly they set up the problem of not having feelings and then had it being fixed by true love, and tada magic lesbian spaceship. I mean the basic concept of magic lesbian spaceship is one I'm going to love later, now it's clear they're a person with opinions and free will. What if the TARDIS fancied you back? It's going to be brilliant.
... and quite substantially like one of my long term daydreams, only wetter.
... so there's that.
But to get there we got all this scary death imagery punching us in the same feels that always get punched, so I just end up angry, instead of all the other things one could reasonably feel about the episode.
And you could get to the same place different ways. It could have been more hopeful for longer. I mean the whole season has a 'change is scary' thread, and there's a lot of transformation being undeath and weirdness and death. And some getting reversed so it's happy life. So lo, Bill is tech, but magic space and time ship tech. And that's not dying, so yaay, they presented us with a problem and fixed it with a solution that gives her more freedom and power than any companion before her.
... and still, I'm pretty much hurt and pissed off, because along the way there was looking dead.
It's the difference between story on its own and story treading on your bruised feels, you know?
Like, they fixed it, but I'm not feeling it, just at the minute.
And then there's the Master.
... I think I saw that coming too. As in, I might have said that exact ending down the pub, and was not the only one. And I think it set up within the episode the out they can use next. If she can Bill and Ted herself a message she surely can't be shot in the back by an earlier self. So sad feels would be kind of a waste. And yet tell that to the feels.
... how cheap is it saying don't bother to regenerate though? maximum angst, and the Doctor gets no payoff despite his faith and hope being right this time, but that means the audience gets minimal payoff too. Unless angst is their thing.
And it doesn't make entire sense. Which the Master doesn't lately. But someone who always went that far to survive, killing himself because he'd rather die than work with the Doctor? Shall we list all the times he *has* worked with the Doctor? They've stood together before. Why the fuss? Because he doesn't like having empathy? Because he thinks it might be permanent this time? And granted he's done the dead bit before, even if it was a cunning plan, and maybe might know as well as we do she'll see it coming, so maybe... but...
I mean you can make it plausible, but why? Why is this the story to tell?
Always with villains, why is this the story to tell? That there's no escaping your old opinions and actions so why bother? The hell kind of story is that?
So Missy isn't likely to be gone long, if the writers don't want, but I hate that ending, even though, no, especially because I could see it coming.
Old self hates new self, new hates old, reinvention as self destruction, they've got a theme they're working, but if there's no way out then what the hell is the point? You'd have to be perfect always. We need the story where there's always a way out.
Nardole: finished the season as he began, as plot function with personality and goals defined sketchily and conveniently. But okay. I guess.
Cybermen: Saying they get invented everywhere does make sense, they're tech with monkey brains minus feelings, thinking they're superior and that mercy is to change everyone else. It is always going to be one way to fall off the tightrope. You will become like us is not a unique thought. It just does fall apart slightly in the design aesthetics. Still, more interesting to make it a more universal threat. Problem in the mirror, when the pain gets so much and the temptation is to stop caring.
... I remain annoyed with the implications for modern cyber tech users, prosthetics and so forth. Bill keeping hold of her feelings was a good. And Bill part upgraded was herself for ten years, so that part was good already. I just feel like it could be clearer.
Having Bill travel with the watery spaceship without leaving her cybernetic parts behind, just because the ship/pilot sees her just as well as the way she sees herself, that would have been good also.
Turning into water that can travel in space and time is interesting, but, does not address the same whatsit.
Of course Class has a regular character with an upgraded bit so taken as a whole the 'verse has covered these points.
Still, leaving her a cybermam would have left her in danger, and this way is really unambiguous on having the happily ever after, so from that angle yaay.
Oh, just read a line in someone else's anticipation for the episode that made me realise another direction it feels unsatisfying - they were wondering how the Doctor would fix it. Well as far as I could see, the Doctor and Bill and Nardole didn't actually fix any of the problems set up last week. The cybermen are always a threat, things with Missy failed, the Doctor couldn't do anything for Bill, and Nardole did make it so they could run away further but that's not epically satisfying as resolutions go. And sure, the Doctor had a speech about how it wasn't going to work and working is not the point, he'll do what he can as long as he can, to be kind. And maybe being kind to a wandering watery spaceship is the fix. But mostly it was just a lot of nasty and death, and then deus ex machina, or machina ex puddle.
It's hard to get the feels swung around to 'yaay' if it's, you know, sudden puddle reversal.
... even if it's the sort of sudden expected for the whole season...
So, typing about it for like the length of the episode, I can see this episode had many good elements, and an ending that was quite shiny, and I shall probably like it later. Bits of it even a lot.
Other bits only in that 'well I'm sure we'll fix it pretty good, and canon even might later' way, but so it goes.
That episode didn't suck, last week didn't suck because they ended it this way, and I'm sure my feels will catch up to the good bits pretty soon.
their get out of jail card was exactly what I thought it was
and somehow I'm still angry.
This is the problem with them yanking us around by the feels, feels inertia skids on the turns and the feels don't keep up.
The problem is exactly what spectacle they thought we'd want to see. And from the start they showed us dead women, specifically dead lesbians. And I know they think they've fixed that, because they were not strictly dead, and turn out to have remained themselves even under great pressure, and the lesbians bit was necessary to the happily ever after, since clearly they set up the problem of not having feelings and then had it being fixed by true love, and tada magic lesbian spaceship. I mean the basic concept of magic lesbian spaceship is one I'm going to love later, now it's clear they're a person with opinions and free will. What if the TARDIS fancied you back? It's going to be brilliant.
... and quite substantially like one of my long term daydreams, only wetter.
... so there's that.
But to get there we got all this scary death imagery punching us in the same feels that always get punched, so I just end up angry, instead of all the other things one could reasonably feel about the episode.
And you could get to the same place different ways. It could have been more hopeful for longer. I mean the whole season has a 'change is scary' thread, and there's a lot of transformation being undeath and weirdness and death. And some getting reversed so it's happy life. So lo, Bill is tech, but magic space and time ship tech. And that's not dying, so yaay, they presented us with a problem and fixed it with a solution that gives her more freedom and power than any companion before her.
... and still, I'm pretty much hurt and pissed off, because along the way there was looking dead.
It's the difference between story on its own and story treading on your bruised feels, you know?
Like, they fixed it, but I'm not feeling it, just at the minute.
And then there's the Master.
... I think I saw that coming too. As in, I might have said that exact ending down the pub, and was not the only one. And I think it set up within the episode the out they can use next. If she can Bill and Ted herself a message she surely can't be shot in the back by an earlier self. So sad feels would be kind of a waste. And yet tell that to the feels.
... how cheap is it saying don't bother to regenerate though? maximum angst, and the Doctor gets no payoff despite his faith and hope being right this time, but that means the audience gets minimal payoff too. Unless angst is their thing.
And it doesn't make entire sense. Which the Master doesn't lately. But someone who always went that far to survive, killing himself because he'd rather die than work with the Doctor? Shall we list all the times he *has* worked with the Doctor? They've stood together before. Why the fuss? Because he doesn't like having empathy? Because he thinks it might be permanent this time? And granted he's done the dead bit before, even if it was a cunning plan, and maybe might know as well as we do she'll see it coming, so maybe... but...
I mean you can make it plausible, but why? Why is this the story to tell?
Always with villains, why is this the story to tell? That there's no escaping your old opinions and actions so why bother? The hell kind of story is that?
So Missy isn't likely to be gone long, if the writers don't want, but I hate that ending, even though, no, especially because I could see it coming.
Old self hates new self, new hates old, reinvention as self destruction, they've got a theme they're working, but if there's no way out then what the hell is the point? You'd have to be perfect always. We need the story where there's always a way out.
Nardole: finished the season as he began, as plot function with personality and goals defined sketchily and conveniently. But okay. I guess.
Cybermen: Saying they get invented everywhere does make sense, they're tech with monkey brains minus feelings, thinking they're superior and that mercy is to change everyone else. It is always going to be one way to fall off the tightrope. You will become like us is not a unique thought. It just does fall apart slightly in the design aesthetics. Still, more interesting to make it a more universal threat. Problem in the mirror, when the pain gets so much and the temptation is to stop caring.
... I remain annoyed with the implications for modern cyber tech users, prosthetics and so forth. Bill keeping hold of her feelings was a good. And Bill part upgraded was herself for ten years, so that part was good already. I just feel like it could be clearer.
Having Bill travel with the watery spaceship without leaving her cybernetic parts behind, just because the ship/pilot sees her just as well as the way she sees herself, that would have been good also.
Turning into water that can travel in space and time is interesting, but, does not address the same whatsit.
Of course Class has a regular character with an upgraded bit so taken as a whole the 'verse has covered these points.
Still, leaving her a cybermam would have left her in danger, and this way is really unambiguous on having the happily ever after, so from that angle yaay.
Oh, just read a line in someone else's anticipation for the episode that made me realise another direction it feels unsatisfying - they were wondering how the Doctor would fix it. Well as far as I could see, the Doctor and Bill and Nardole didn't actually fix any of the problems set up last week. The cybermen are always a threat, things with Missy failed, the Doctor couldn't do anything for Bill, and Nardole did make it so they could run away further but that's not epically satisfying as resolutions go. And sure, the Doctor had a speech about how it wasn't going to work and working is not the point, he'll do what he can as long as he can, to be kind. And maybe being kind to a wandering watery spaceship is the fix. But mostly it was just a lot of nasty and death, and then deus ex machina, or machina ex puddle.
It's hard to get the feels swung around to 'yaay' if it's, you know, sudden puddle reversal.
... even if it's the sort of sudden expected for the whole season...
So, typing about it for like the length of the episode, I can see this episode had many good elements, and an ending that was quite shiny, and I shall probably like it later. Bits of it even a lot.
Other bits only in that 'well I'm sure we'll fix it pretty good, and canon even might later' way, but so it goes.
That episode didn't suck, last week didn't suck because they ended it this way, and I'm sure my feels will catch up to the good bits pretty soon.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-02 05:37 pm (UTC)This was my problem with the episode too. They kept having people make decisions and not explain why those decisions.