Doctor Who The Well
Apr. 26th, 2025 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI liked that one, I think. SPOILERS
I liked the gradual reveal that we had been here before, but it was bothering me that they would do that and then use different rules. And I don't see that the rules had much overlap.
But by the end, around when the TARDIS left but the story didn't, I decided it made the ending make sense.
The rule is that this being is a person. The rule is that they were playing a game with the people it frightened to death. So they can change up the rules if they feel like it, and watch people scramble to destroy each other in response.
Or, alternately, the rule was slightly misunderstood. If it's not transferred to the person that did the killing but the person closest at the moment of death, then the one rendering emergency medical care could be that.
The thing is that it's very DW to discover the rules and use them, like noticing krillitane respond to sound and krillitane oil, or looking up werewolves in books. Noticing the mirrors and using it is very DW, it's just... even more arbitrary.
I'd be happier with some technobabble. Make something up and stick with it, fine, but it's left so hand wavey they don't even.
All that said, the interesting stuff with the people worked. It wasn't anywhere near as scary as midnight because it starts with guns and stays that way. It's not being stuck on a bus at random, it's military paranoia, which is more expected. But it works.
And the disability stuff was handled very well. I think. I'm not deaf. But I liked how there was a mix of sign and subs and saying she can still read lips *and then* using it to isolate and confuse and sort of indicate when someone is thinking of her as a person?
Which is why I think maybe the point is the scary was also a person, who made a bunch of choices.
But all that said, an arbitrary scary thing fits with recent episodes, so, who knows.
I liked how the reveals of Strange, future medical tech and social norms and laws and all, turned into a reveal of Unknown. Like, everything familiar goes Unknown. That was well done.
And I liked again that someone asked about biology instead of just assuming from looks. Good questions.
I felt the big feelings the story wanted me to feel so that worked, I just... am sort of glad the bit with the well wasn't the correct answer? Like, I have had enough of Noble Sacrifice. Unsacrifice your Nobles, it's much better.
... now I'm thinking about Donna, which is a whole tangent, ish.
... now I'm thinking about Turn Left. One tiny change, great big consequences. Butterfly compensators. One person making the difference.
Possibilities.
Am looking forwards to more episodes.
I liked the gradual reveal that we had been here before, but it was bothering me that they would do that and then use different rules. And I don't see that the rules had much overlap.
But by the end, around when the TARDIS left but the story didn't, I decided it made the ending make sense.
The rule is that this being is a person. The rule is that they were playing a game with the people it frightened to death. So they can change up the rules if they feel like it, and watch people scramble to destroy each other in response.
Or, alternately, the rule was slightly misunderstood. If it's not transferred to the person that did the killing but the person closest at the moment of death, then the one rendering emergency medical care could be that.
The thing is that it's very DW to discover the rules and use them, like noticing krillitane respond to sound and krillitane oil, or looking up werewolves in books. Noticing the mirrors and using it is very DW, it's just... even more arbitrary.
I'd be happier with some technobabble. Make something up and stick with it, fine, but it's left so hand wavey they don't even.
All that said, the interesting stuff with the people worked. It wasn't anywhere near as scary as midnight because it starts with guns and stays that way. It's not being stuck on a bus at random, it's military paranoia, which is more expected. But it works.
And the disability stuff was handled very well. I think. I'm not deaf. But I liked how there was a mix of sign and subs and saying she can still read lips *and then* using it to isolate and confuse and sort of indicate when someone is thinking of her as a person?
Which is why I think maybe the point is the scary was also a person, who made a bunch of choices.
But all that said, an arbitrary scary thing fits with recent episodes, so, who knows.
I liked how the reveals of Strange, future medical tech and social norms and laws and all, turned into a reveal of Unknown. Like, everything familiar goes Unknown. That was well done.
And I liked again that someone asked about biology instead of just assuming from looks. Good questions.
I felt the big feelings the story wanted me to feel so that worked, I just... am sort of glad the bit with the well wasn't the correct answer? Like, I have had enough of Noble Sacrifice. Unsacrifice your Nobles, it's much better.
... now I'm thinking about Donna, which is a whole tangent, ish.
... now I'm thinking about Turn Left. One tiny change, great big consequences. Butterfly compensators. One person making the difference.
Possibilities.
Am looking forwards to more episodes.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-27 11:38 am (UTC)I love that way of putting it.
Good post, you thought about everything in much more detail than I!
Personally I was just glad that it 'fixed' Midnight which I never liked. But this really worked for me. ^_^