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May. 30th, 2010 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshI am not pleased. Not even a little bit. I take all kinds of exception to this episode. Partly because they killed Rory and I liked him better than Amy. Partly because they let the crack energy wipe him out utterly, erasing and re-writing Amy's entire life with him. Yeah, that's a big part of it and it goes back to the end of season four, re-writing Donna's mind so she wouldn't remember any of her time with the Doctor. There were different reasons and forces behind the two events, but it's a thing the Who writers clearly think is a cool trick. I disagree. I think it's a cheap trick.
I don't know. The only way I can see this being justified is if Amy's lack of memory of Rory becomes an issue somewhere along the line - like if the crack spits him back out again in some way or they encounter Alternate Reality Rory or something. Because this was a moment in time where things could have gone either way, and in one of the outcomes, Rory and Amy were still alive and together, waving at their past selves.
I was also dissatisfied with the Silurians. These particular Homoreptilians are a different branch than the Silurians the Doctor has encountered before, so they shouldn't have any grudge against Humans on that basis. Humans didn't drive them underground, they went on their own in fear of an apocalyptic event, so they can't have a grudge against them for that. And when they went underground, Humans were very primative and apparently not seen as a threat so much as good sport. So I don't understand where the pathological hatred of the warrior Silurians was coming from. Yes, they felt a threat from the drill, but they were more than just defending their home from perceived attack. They were out and out crazy. It was too big a schism between the warriors and everyone else. The hypocrisy of the Silurian warriors I can overlook - condemning the humans for killing even one of theirs, but willing to kill their own if they inconveniently get in the way is all part and parcel of the pathological hatred and makes sense within that context. It's what has caused such an insane level of hatred for 'apes' that is never explained - just written in, as far as I can tell, because it makes for an exciting, dramatic story. In Warriors of the Deep, the anger of the Silurians is somewhat more understandable. It was less of a frothing at the mouth and more an inability to see any other way forward.
The Silurians looked gorgeous this go-round. And with the explanation that they were a slightly different branch than the Silurians the Doctor encountered previously, it's easy enough to accept not only the vast improvement in prosthetic/make-up technology but also the redesign. I only wish as much care had been taken with making them a more multi-dimensional species.
And then there's the crack. As soon as the Doctor started talking about shrapnel I knew it was going to be a piece of the TARDIS he found. It was all a bit too leading. So the big bad thing is going to happen on Amy's wedding day, although she will seemingly no longer be getting married (the question is, if Rory was completely undone in history, wouldn't Amy's life have been lived differently, with different people filling the hole where Rory should have been?), and it involves the TARDIS being blown to bits. Maybe next season they'll all just be stuck in Amy's new, Rory-less life in Leadworth? The town that time forgot? Maybe it will take another entire season to deal with the repurcussions of the explosion that caused the crack. Or maybe the writers will find some way to neatly tie everything up and move on to next season with no lingering problems, so they can start some all new Mystery of the Season. Yeah, I think I'm feeling a little bitter about things at the moment.
I don't know. The only way I can see this being justified is if Amy's lack of memory of Rory becomes an issue somewhere along the line - like if the crack spits him back out again in some way or they encounter Alternate Reality Rory or something. Because this was a moment in time where things could have gone either way, and in one of the outcomes, Rory and Amy were still alive and together, waving at their past selves.
I was also dissatisfied with the Silurians. These particular Homoreptilians are a different branch than the Silurians the Doctor has encountered before, so they shouldn't have any grudge against Humans on that basis. Humans didn't drive them underground, they went on their own in fear of an apocalyptic event, so they can't have a grudge against them for that. And when they went underground, Humans were very primative and apparently not seen as a threat so much as good sport. So I don't understand where the pathological hatred of the warrior Silurians was coming from. Yes, they felt a threat from the drill, but they were more than just defending their home from perceived attack. They were out and out crazy. It was too big a schism between the warriors and everyone else. The hypocrisy of the Silurian warriors I can overlook - condemning the humans for killing even one of theirs, but willing to kill their own if they inconveniently get in the way is all part and parcel of the pathological hatred and makes sense within that context. It's what has caused such an insane level of hatred for 'apes' that is never explained - just written in, as far as I can tell, because it makes for an exciting, dramatic story. In Warriors of the Deep, the anger of the Silurians is somewhat more understandable. It was less of a frothing at the mouth and more an inability to see any other way forward.
The Silurians looked gorgeous this go-round. And with the explanation that they were a slightly different branch than the Silurians the Doctor encountered previously, it's easy enough to accept not only the vast improvement in prosthetic/make-up technology but also the redesign. I only wish as much care had been taken with making them a more multi-dimensional species.
And then there's the crack. As soon as the Doctor started talking about shrapnel I knew it was going to be a piece of the TARDIS he found. It was all a bit too leading. So the big bad thing is going to happen on Amy's wedding day, although she will seemingly no longer be getting married (the question is, if Rory was completely undone in history, wouldn't Amy's life have been lived differently, with different people filling the hole where Rory should have been?), and it involves the TARDIS being blown to bits. Maybe next season they'll all just be stuck in Amy's new, Rory-less life in Leadworth? The town that time forgot? Maybe it will take another entire season to deal with the repurcussions of the explosion that caused the crack. Or maybe the writers will find some way to neatly tie everything up and move on to next season with no lingering problems, so they can start some all new Mystery of the Season. Yeah, I think I'm feeling a little bitter about things at the moment.
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Date: 2010-05-30 04:48 pm (UTC)Short version:
I quasi-spoiled myself for Rory's demise. On the one hand it softened the blow but on the other, oh my god they erased Rory from time! Those bastards! Good thing they had a big time-eating
plot devicecrack in the universe to clean up writing themselves into a corner again.The only way I can see this being justified is if Amy's lack of memory of Rory becomes an issue somewhere along the line - like if the crack spits him back out again in some way or they encounter Alternate Reality Rory or something.
I think it might come back. I don't know if Arthur Darvill is in the series finale but it's all about rewriting time. How much more of Amy's life gets altered or has been altered? And how is the Doctor going to deal with it? He kept the engagement ring; I think he has to tell Amy at some point, but then he's also turning slowly into the "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me" Doctor, so who knows? My money's on Rory somehow coming back, or at least on Amy remembering him.
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Date: 2010-05-30 06:41 pm (UTC)This might be a silly thing, but it kind of bothered me that the gung-ho warrior Silurians with any characterization (the "wrong" ones) were female, while the wise, kind Silurians were male. I might just be looking for things to complain about though, since I wasn't at all impressed with this two-parter. The first part was dull, and the second part was kind of ridiculous and not in a good way.