Doctor Who mid-series finale
Jun. 5th, 2011 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniI loved it !!!
Matt Smith was fantastic in "A Good Man Goes to War" and Moffat did use his Moff-jo :- )
Moffat is the man!
First off, Silurian detective and her human sidekick was a lot of fun. One might think that Stephen Moffat is involved in writing detective stuff...oh wait!
A nice way to remind us that The Doctor is nothing than an avatar of Sherlock himself...
Of course River being the Ponds' daughter wasn't a big reveal for most of us have guessed it for a while, but it was nicely done and I liked the "translation" bit : Melody Pond translated as River Song! BUT OF COURSE!!!
I wanted to slap myself afterwards because of course Pond and River had to point out the connection and the moment we heard of the baby name, Melody I should have guessed the translation thing!!! It was indeed written, put before our eyes to see.
The episode played again on red herrings and doubles, fooling us just like EyePatch Lady fooled The Doctor.
For instance the Lorna character who embodied all the little girls who, like Amy, had met The Doctor, ran with him and dreamt of him afterwards. The fact we didn't learn her name until the very end was a clever way to make us suspect she was young River, and therefore make us doubt about River being the baby (well, those of us who had that theory for a long time, and I'm sure Moffat knew it!). Lorna could have been River given what we heard in "The Impossible Astronaut" (she met The Doctor when she was a little girl and he made an impression on her!)but she was not, so of course as soon as she died it was obvious that River was Rory's and Amy's daughter.
Another play on the double leitmotiv was Ganger!Melody of course, but also the good man stuff...The Good Man going to War was both Rory and Eleven: the Last Centurion and The Last Time Lord...
And they actually hid/revealed another "good man": the poor Sontarian who kept using bellicose talk but was a caring guy (oh the line about being able to produce milk!!!!) and whom Rory called a warrior in the end but then Sontarian reminded him that he was "a nurse"...just like Rory himself. Perfect mirror! Did it foreshadow Rory's fate?
And the nurse thing, established at the beginning of the episode, of course echoed "The Curse of The Black Spot", foreshadowing the brief appearance of Pirate guy and his son "the ship is ours"! Nice touch again.
For a while, I've suspected that the" good man" River killed, the best man she had never met, was Rory, and her reaction when seeing him in the first scene made me think I was right. Of course, because of the big reveal, viewers are led to think that she was simply moved to see her father, but I think there's more to it. I can see River causing Rory's death and turning herself in...
Oh and River had a birthday with two Doctors!!! Naughty girl!!!!
Aside from the sexy subtext, it could be another clue for what's to come. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that the person in the space suit who killed The Doctor can't be River but The Doctor himself. The fact he put the space helmet on, in the pilot, had to be a clue, and the season is too heavy on doubles for not having a second (actually a third) Doctor showing up.
Lots of thing reminded me of BSG, Eyepatch Lady stealing the baby and saying it was hope called to my mind Laura Roslin of course, and half-Time Lord Melody seemed to be a new Hera. BTW the cot had a wonderful mobile that reminded me of Hera's too (Hera's had small vipers and raptors!).
Is Moffat a fan of BSG ?
"Blink" remains my favourite episode written by Moffat but I really enjoyed that mid-season finale. I knew that the mystery of Who killed The Doctor? and Why Did He Have to Die wouldn't be solved in this episode, and even though it wasn't very surprising it was well written enough and well played (who would have thought that Matt Smith would fill the Doctor's shoes so easily?) so I'm satisfied.
I love what Moffat has done with Amy and Rory. When you compare it to the Rose/Mickey thing it's mind blowing!
Like Whedon in BtVS, Moffat managed to use his characters to revive old literary cases while making them real, writing them as tue characters with their own journey and personality; last year when The Doctor said that the Pandorica box was a fairy tale River relied "Aren't we all?". She was right of course, but they are also more than their fairy tale models.
Rory isn't only The Nose (even though Pinocchio became a real boy, The Doctor playing the role of the Blue Fairy here), and Amy isn't only Sleeping Beauty.
And Melody Pond, the singing River in the forest isn't only the Little Red Riding Hood (a role Amy played too)who will meet the Big Bad Wolf, or the lost baby.
I adored David Tennant in the role, but I love that Moffat made the show less superhero-like and god-like, less American, and more European, more about the companions, all those children who, like Amy (and Lorna, and Melody), decided to dream up a world against the monsters from below the bed.
Matt Smith was fantastic in "A Good Man Goes to War" and Moffat did use his Moff-jo :- )
Moffat is the man!
First off, Silurian detective and her human sidekick was a lot of fun. One might think that Stephen Moffat is involved in writing detective stuff...oh wait!
A nice way to remind us that The Doctor is nothing than an avatar of Sherlock himself...
Of course River being the Ponds' daughter wasn't a big reveal for most of us have guessed it for a while, but it was nicely done and I liked the "translation" bit : Melody Pond translated as River Song! BUT OF COURSE!!!
I wanted to slap myself afterwards because of course Pond and River had to point out the connection and the moment we heard of the baby name, Melody I should have guessed the translation thing!!! It was indeed written, put before our eyes to see.
The episode played again on red herrings and doubles, fooling us just like EyePatch Lady fooled The Doctor.
For instance the Lorna character who embodied all the little girls who, like Amy, had met The Doctor, ran with him and dreamt of him afterwards. The fact we didn't learn her name until the very end was a clever way to make us suspect she was young River, and therefore make us doubt about River being the baby (well, those of us who had that theory for a long time, and I'm sure Moffat knew it!). Lorna could have been River given what we heard in "The Impossible Astronaut" (she met The Doctor when she was a little girl and he made an impression on her!)but she was not, so of course as soon as she died it was obvious that River was Rory's and Amy's daughter.
Another play on the double leitmotiv was Ganger!Melody of course, but also the good man stuff...The Good Man going to War was both Rory and Eleven: the Last Centurion and The Last Time Lord...
And they actually hid/revealed another "good man": the poor Sontarian who kept using bellicose talk but was a caring guy (oh the line about being able to produce milk!!!!) and whom Rory called a warrior in the end but then Sontarian reminded him that he was "a nurse"...just like Rory himself. Perfect mirror! Did it foreshadow Rory's fate?
And the nurse thing, established at the beginning of the episode, of course echoed "The Curse of The Black Spot", foreshadowing the brief appearance of Pirate guy and his son "the ship is ours"! Nice touch again.
For a while, I've suspected that the" good man" River killed, the best man she had never met, was Rory, and her reaction when seeing him in the first scene made me think I was right. Of course, because of the big reveal, viewers are led to think that she was simply moved to see her father, but I think there's more to it. I can see River causing Rory's death and turning herself in...
Oh and River had a birthday with two Doctors!!! Naughty girl!!!!
Aside from the sexy subtext, it could be another clue for what's to come. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that the person in the space suit who killed The Doctor can't be River but The Doctor himself. The fact he put the space helmet on, in the pilot, had to be a clue, and the season is too heavy on doubles for not having a second (actually a third) Doctor showing up.
Lots of thing reminded me of BSG, Eyepatch Lady stealing the baby and saying it was hope called to my mind Laura Roslin of course, and half-Time Lord Melody seemed to be a new Hera. BTW the cot had a wonderful mobile that reminded me of Hera's too (Hera's had small vipers and raptors!).
Is Moffat a fan of BSG ?
"Blink" remains my favourite episode written by Moffat but I really enjoyed that mid-season finale. I knew that the mystery of Who killed The Doctor? and Why Did He Have to Die wouldn't be solved in this episode, and even though it wasn't very surprising it was well written enough and well played (who would have thought that Matt Smith would fill the Doctor's shoes so easily?) so I'm satisfied.
I love what Moffat has done with Amy and Rory. When you compare it to the Rose/Mickey thing it's mind blowing!
Like Whedon in BtVS, Moffat managed to use his characters to revive old literary cases while making them real, writing them as tue characters with their own journey and personality; last year when The Doctor said that the Pandorica box was a fairy tale River relied "Aren't we all?". She was right of course, but they are also more than their fairy tale models.
Rory isn't only The Nose (even though Pinocchio became a real boy, The Doctor playing the role of the Blue Fairy here), and Amy isn't only Sleeping Beauty.
And Melody Pond, the singing River in the forest isn't only the Little Red Riding Hood (a role Amy played too)who will meet the Big Bad Wolf, or the lost baby.
I adored David Tennant in the role, but I love that Moffat made the show less superhero-like and god-like, less American, and more European, more about the companions, all those children who, like Amy (and Lorna, and Melody), decided to dream up a world against the monsters from below the bed.