Doctor Who 4x7 - 4x10
Jun. 16th, 2012 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkYesterday was Friday, which is now Doctor Who evening :) We watched the rest of season 4 because I couldn't bring myself to stop (sooo tired now.) It was worth it.
The Unicorn and the Wasp: Agatha Christie! A classic murder mystery story with aliens. I could have done without the "she finds her lost child again" detail, that was just too convenient and not really necessary, and I don't know why nobody suspects the servants, but it was a good fun episode. Donna! <3 I was only a little bit disappointed that there were no actual unicorns. (That is a lie. I want unicorns.)
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead: River Song! \o/ Already? I've heard of her, but I thought she only came much later. At least I know she comes back, she's fantastic. Now I know why L. laughed so much when I said I like it when people meet the Doctor before he meets them after "Blink". She's competent and smart and brave and has an intriguing backstory and is just fascinating. (And 51st century? Isn't that where Captain Jack comes from? Of course, she's a time traveller, so she might be from sometime else. Yay bisexual characters!)
The Vashta Nerada are scary, even more before they run around as skeletons. "I am the Doctor. Look me up." Great line, but it implies that the Vashta Nerada can read and absorb information, and do it extremely quickly, meaning they're even more dangerous...
The slow reveal of who the girl is was very well done, I thought.
Oh Donna! They do love screwing with your mind. A whole life, and with children - ouch. If she really remembers it as if that whole life had happened... *hugs her*
I'm conflicted about the ending River gets. I think it would be easier to accept if the narration doesn't seem to say that it's a happy ending, because in my opinion it isn't, not completely. She's not dead, but she's lost so much, and especially after Donna's experiences a virtual life doesn't seem very appealing. Yes, the Doctor and Cal apparently fixed it, but still. Can she even die in there? After Captain Jack (among others) I'm very wary of immortality. I'd like to think she had a good life, and it would have been a good death. Of course, she's River Song, so for all I know she builds herself whole new worlds with spaceships, and when she finally has enough she can (hopefully) still decide to die. It's a reprieve.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing her again!
Midnight: Donna and the Doctor taking a vacation! For the first half of the episode I expected Donna to show up again, but in the end it was a very good Doctor-focused episode. Great acting. What's the name of those type of episodes that play out with a small cast in a single room? (ETA: Bottle episode.) I completely bought that the passengers brought up the idea of throwing the creature out even before it became obvious that it was influencing them (humans, after all). I can believe both that the creature was malicious from the start and only needed to learn how to express itself, or that it picked up the fear from the passengers around it and was to a large extent shaped by what it got from them.
It was believable that this was an event to shake even the Doctor, who is quite used to scary things, and I liked him and Donna in the end.
I wasn't thrilled that in both The Unicorn and the Wasp and this one the non-straight character is killed, but otoh I'm happy they regularly have non-straight characters, and they get happy endings too (like the couple in "Gridlock", they were adorable.)
And then the three-parter, but I'm too tired to write down my reactions now (soo many things.) Tomorrow.
Funny quote of the evening: M. said she can't understand how people can't like the Doctor; even a few of her coworkers, who are otherwise interesting people...
The Unicorn and the Wasp: Agatha Christie! A classic murder mystery story with aliens. I could have done without the "she finds her lost child again" detail, that was just too convenient and not really necessary, and I don't know why nobody suspects the servants, but it was a good fun episode. Donna! <3 I was only a little bit disappointed that there were no actual unicorns. (That is a lie. I want unicorns.)
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead: River Song! \o/ Already? I've heard of her, but I thought she only came much later. At least I know she comes back, she's fantastic. Now I know why L. laughed so much when I said I like it when people meet the Doctor before he meets them after "Blink". She's competent and smart and brave and has an intriguing backstory and is just fascinating. (And 51st century? Isn't that where Captain Jack comes from? Of course, she's a time traveller, so she might be from sometime else. Yay bisexual characters!)
The Vashta Nerada are scary, even more before they run around as skeletons. "I am the Doctor. Look me up." Great line, but it implies that the Vashta Nerada can read and absorb information, and do it extremely quickly, meaning they're even more dangerous...
The slow reveal of who the girl is was very well done, I thought.
Oh Donna! They do love screwing with your mind. A whole life, and with children - ouch. If she really remembers it as if that whole life had happened... *hugs her*
I'm conflicted about the ending River gets. I think it would be easier to accept if the narration doesn't seem to say that it's a happy ending, because in my opinion it isn't, not completely. She's not dead, but she's lost so much, and especially after Donna's experiences a virtual life doesn't seem very appealing. Yes, the Doctor and Cal apparently fixed it, but still. Can she even die in there? After Captain Jack (among others) I'm very wary of immortality. I'd like to think she had a good life, and it would have been a good death. Of course, she's River Song, so for all I know she builds herself whole new worlds with spaceships, and when she finally has enough she can (hopefully) still decide to die. It's a reprieve.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing her again!
Midnight: Donna and the Doctor taking a vacation! For the first half of the episode I expected Donna to show up again, but in the end it was a very good Doctor-focused episode. Great acting. What's the name of those type of episodes that play out with a small cast in a single room? (ETA: Bottle episode.) I completely bought that the passengers brought up the idea of throwing the creature out even before it became obvious that it was influencing them (humans, after all). I can believe both that the creature was malicious from the start and only needed to learn how to express itself, or that it picked up the fear from the passengers around it and was to a large extent shaped by what it got from them.
It was believable that this was an event to shake even the Doctor, who is quite used to scary things, and I liked him and Donna in the end.
I wasn't thrilled that in both The Unicorn and the Wasp and this one the non-straight character is killed, but otoh I'm happy they regularly have non-straight characters, and they get happy endings too (like the couple in "Gridlock", they were adorable.)
And then the three-parter, but I'm too tired to write down my reactions now (soo many things.) Tomorrow.
Funny quote of the evening: M. said she can't understand how people can't like the Doctor; even a few of her coworkers, who are otherwise interesting people...
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Date: 2012-06-16 09:45 pm (UTC)Yes, Bottle episode, thanks :)