Doctor Who season finale
Jun. 22nd, 2024 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethToday's ep made me have a lot of feelings, which is RTDs basic goal in life, so that worked.
I liked that it helped to have watched the Tales of the TARDIS. I've only watched the first one but I'm more likely to go back for the rest now.
I liked bits of the finale but found the solution theologically incoherent. What happens when you bring death to death? Nothing, that's where he lives. I mean I guess they're going for a thing where he's the only thing powerful enough to kill himself but... I don't know, Diane Duane's Young Wizards books seem to have better answers to that one. I liked that in the end Death made a lot of Life, but that should have been part of the solution. It should be possible to change. I'm just not keen on the fix for death being killing things harder.
Also there was a mention of silence that made me think trying to destroy the TARDIS retroactively makes a lot of sense now. Plus the whole his constant companion is death bit from the first 2005 episode gets a bit more true.
... the idea that anyone or anything could see all the times and places the Doctor has seen and just decide it all needs to be dead...
Sutekh is a proper scary idea. The CGI didn't necessarily convey that but considering the family audience it did enough. And the scary skull face people were better, especially when we knew them.
Thing is though by making the stakes be Literal Everything, We Mean It, then you know it'll unhappen in half an hour anyway. It's going to hit rewind because the story is part of a bigger story. So the big stakes are the most ignorable.
Which is part of what makes it proper worrying when Mel got taken. I couldn't quite believe the total wipeout at UNIT including both child characters would stand for more than a few minutes, but I could believe bad could happen to one friend at a time.
I never like it when characters can't resist or stay in control of their own actions. Choice matters.
I would have made Sutekh's defeat happen by having Sue be more real than her creator father mother other imagined. Not as the final fix but as an important ingredient. Save the babies, even the scary one, on purpose.
I did like that she was okay in the end.
And the TARDIS got to make choices the creep didnt think were possible any more, so that's something.
Things only being significant because we believe they are is dropped in at the end of the story but seems to be an answer to the whole Gods paradigm, which is always interesting but, like, the universe very much did die? But also got fixed so who knows.
I liked the answer to Ruby Sunday but also think it only counts as a full and complete answer if you skate very fast and don't think about it. Which we appear to be encouraged to do. Makes sense in feelings though.
I felt like it left the Doctor feeling more alone in the end though. Like he connected with Ruby about being a foundling and now he isn't any closer to knowing where he comes from but he's having giant feelings about it. And they aren't happy ending feelings so he's feeling isolated from Ruby who gets a happyish answer.
I liked that there was a voice in the story to say there's been a lot of days she could have come looking and maybe she should get a choice. But the story didnt exactly agree, Ruby's choice is being supported as the good ending one.
It's family TV so the good ending is more family.
Ruby guiding the Doctor back to going to see Susan makes sense from the info she has but Susan's timeline doesn't half go tricky because Time War. ... even without all the Big Finish that the TV can ignore. I havent even listened all the Big Finish and they've just announced more Susan stories.
If the TV goes back they'd need a good story. All the feelings parts are set up again. But if he finds her and she remembers him and forgives him, that's like, one episode, and it'd have to be about growing up and moving on without him.
But they also said that Susan's parent hasn't existed yet because time travel, so there's story there.
... more Jenny stories are also available from Big Finish...
Okay this bit isnt episode review, this is chasing the plot bunnies.
But I'm not coming up with much to say about most of the episode. Lots of whoosh, lots of feelings.
One last tiny thing that bothered me? It wasn't imitable violence, but imitable bad idea engineering when the Doctor jammed a metal spoon where a spoon would ideally not go. I mean, I don't think many viewers would try it, but it looked expensive.
I loved Ncuti Gatwa in this. The Doctor had so much to go through. And his face at the end.
The thing with endings is when we're trying to figure out the payoff then we highlight all the personally meaningful bits and pull them together in a unique to us way that feels like it would be a satisfying story.
And then someone else has to write one particular story out of their one particular brain, and it can never be the same bespoke experience.
So a lot of big feelings is a pretty good payoff, if they can manage it.
So that works okay.
I liked that it helped to have watched the Tales of the TARDIS. I've only watched the first one but I'm more likely to go back for the rest now.
I liked bits of the finale but found the solution theologically incoherent. What happens when you bring death to death? Nothing, that's where he lives. I mean I guess they're going for a thing where he's the only thing powerful enough to kill himself but... I don't know, Diane Duane's Young Wizards books seem to have better answers to that one. I liked that in the end Death made a lot of Life, but that should have been part of the solution. It should be possible to change. I'm just not keen on the fix for death being killing things harder.
Also there was a mention of silence that made me think trying to destroy the TARDIS retroactively makes a lot of sense now. Plus the whole his constant companion is death bit from the first 2005 episode gets a bit more true.
... the idea that anyone or anything could see all the times and places the Doctor has seen and just decide it all needs to be dead...
Sutekh is a proper scary idea. The CGI didn't necessarily convey that but considering the family audience it did enough. And the scary skull face people were better, especially when we knew them.
Thing is though by making the stakes be Literal Everything, We Mean It, then you know it'll unhappen in half an hour anyway. It's going to hit rewind because the story is part of a bigger story. So the big stakes are the most ignorable.
Which is part of what makes it proper worrying when Mel got taken. I couldn't quite believe the total wipeout at UNIT including both child characters would stand for more than a few minutes, but I could believe bad could happen to one friend at a time.
I never like it when characters can't resist or stay in control of their own actions. Choice matters.
I would have made Sutekh's defeat happen by having Sue be more real than her creator father mother other imagined. Not as the final fix but as an important ingredient. Save the babies, even the scary one, on purpose.
I did like that she was okay in the end.
And the TARDIS got to make choices the creep didnt think were possible any more, so that's something.
Things only being significant because we believe they are is dropped in at the end of the story but seems to be an answer to the whole Gods paradigm, which is always interesting but, like, the universe very much did die? But also got fixed so who knows.
I liked the answer to Ruby Sunday but also think it only counts as a full and complete answer if you skate very fast and don't think about it. Which we appear to be encouraged to do. Makes sense in feelings though.
I felt like it left the Doctor feeling more alone in the end though. Like he connected with Ruby about being a foundling and now he isn't any closer to knowing where he comes from but he's having giant feelings about it. And they aren't happy ending feelings so he's feeling isolated from Ruby who gets a happyish answer.
I liked that there was a voice in the story to say there's been a lot of days she could have come looking and maybe she should get a choice. But the story didnt exactly agree, Ruby's choice is being supported as the good ending one.
It's family TV so the good ending is more family.
Ruby guiding the Doctor back to going to see Susan makes sense from the info she has but Susan's timeline doesn't half go tricky because Time War. ... even without all the Big Finish that the TV can ignore. I havent even listened all the Big Finish and they've just announced more Susan stories.
If the TV goes back they'd need a good story. All the feelings parts are set up again. But if he finds her and she remembers him and forgives him, that's like, one episode, and it'd have to be about growing up and moving on without him.
But they also said that Susan's parent hasn't existed yet because time travel, so there's story there.
... more Jenny stories are also available from Big Finish...
Okay this bit isnt episode review, this is chasing the plot bunnies.
But I'm not coming up with much to say about most of the episode. Lots of whoosh, lots of feelings.
One last tiny thing that bothered me? It wasn't imitable violence, but imitable bad idea engineering when the Doctor jammed a metal spoon where a spoon would ideally not go. I mean, I don't think many viewers would try it, but it looked expensive.
I loved Ncuti Gatwa in this. The Doctor had so much to go through. And his face at the end.
The thing with endings is when we're trying to figure out the payoff then we highlight all the personally meaningful bits and pull them together in a unique to us way that feels like it would be a satisfying story.
And then someone else has to write one particular story out of their one particular brain, and it can never be the same bespoke experience.
So a lot of big feelings is a pretty good payoff, if they can manage it.
So that works okay.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-23 04:59 pm (UTC)This might be the best summary. ^_^
I liked bits of the finale but found the solution theologically incoherent.
*snort* Yeah, it made no sense. Actually you made me realise what it reminded me of: The Bee Movie! But then RTD plots are... well, I don't come to him for plots.
I liked that in the end Death made a lot of Life, but that should have been part of the solution.Which is part of what makes it proper worrying when Mel got taken. I couldn't quite believe the total wipeout at UNIT including both child characters would stand for more than a few minutes, but I could believe bad could happen to one friend at a time.
Yes this. EVERYONE dying is clearly going to be reversed. But one companion? That could happen.
I liked the answer to Ruby Sunday but also think it only counts as a full and complete answer if you skate very fast and don't think about it. Which we appear to be encouraged to do. Makes sense in feelings though.
Yes, it's lovely. Also nice to have the audience mirror the big bad in over-thinking everything. ;)
I felt like it left the Doctor feeling more alone in the end though. Like he connected with Ruby about being a foundling and now he isn't any closer to knowing where he comes from but he's having giant feelings about it. And they aren't happy ending feelings so he's feeling isolated from Ruby who gets a happyish answer.
That is a very good point. And his story won't ever be mundane. But, she did get him to open up a lot.
I liked that there was a voice in the story to say there's been a lot of days she could have come looking and maybe she should get a choice. But the story didnt exactly agree, Ruby's choice is being supported as the good ending one.
I am just deeply appreciative of RTD writing a happy ending and not angst. That's progress.
One last tiny thing that bothered me? It wasn't imitable violence, but imitable bad idea engineering when the Doctor jammed a metal spoon where a spoon would ideally not go. I mean, I don't think many viewers would try it, but it looked expensive.
LOL.
I loved Ncuti Gatwa in this. The Doctor had so much to go through. And his face at the end.
What an incredible actor, what casting.
And then someone else has to write one particular story out of their one particular brain, and it can never be the same bespoke experience. So a lot of big feelings is a pretty good payoff, if they can manage it. So that works okay.
Again, excellent summary.