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Jun. 13th, 2010 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshMy reactions to this episode were a bit mixed. I liked the plot of the story, the scary autopilot program doing everything it can to find a pilot and in the process killing people and messing up the continuity of time. Of course the Doctor is going to get pulled into the middle of that.
Things that I liked:
*The fumbling, almost hopeless relationship between Craig and Sophie that could have gone on like that forever if the Doctor hadn't arrived to point and nudge.
*The Doctor's conversation with the cat on the stairs. So cute!
*The non-technological thing he built on his bed - I loved the watches dangling from each spoke.
*The Doctor not being sure which outdoor sporty game Football is, but still being tops at it (and totally not realizing that it's a TEAM sport, lol).
*He's finally got a communications device. I've been wanting him to get one for years - it makes no sense that he wouldn't have some way to keep in touch with others of his group when they're not all together, and yet this is the first time I've seen him have something TARDIS-y for the purpose (not just, for instance,stealing borrowing someone's phone).
*Craig's conversation with the Doctor about bringing girls over, then looking at the outfit and adding, 'or boys.' There really isn't a straight bone in this particular Doctor's body, if you ask me.
*The Doctor taking far too long in the shower, and then falling out and blindly grabbing the toothbrush instead of his sonic screwdriver. Nothing quite so menacing as a mostly naked, scrawny guy with an electric toothbrush, lol.
Things that I didn't like so much:
*This sense that's been popping up in episodes lately that the Doctor doesn't have any sense of the continuity of time. Last week it was his frustration with having to wait for the alien to attack. It was cute but a bit silly. The Doctor lives inside his own continuity so of course he's had to idle while waiting for things before. He's maybe not very good at being patient (plenty of examples of that) but it's not like he's never had to do it before. And it was worse in this episode. The idea that he doesn't know if the 17th or 18th century is closer to the 21st is just poor understanding of the character on the part of the writer. He may have trouble hitting the mark he's aiming for, but once he lands somewhere, he's always shown a pretty firm grasp of where and when he is, along with at least a rudimentary ability to behave appropriately to that time and place. The awkward air kisses were hilarious, but seemed wrong.
*That ear piece communications device was way too convenient. He's never had one before and now, suddenly, just when he's tossed out of the TARDIS and left on his own, he has a comm so he can talk to Amy and coordinate what they're doing. Nope. Sorry, don't like it. It should have, at the very least, been introduced in an earlier episode in some way, just so it didn't come off as a blatant plot device. And the next question is, will they keep it? They should, because the Doctor really does often need one. I'm afraid it will disappear and never be seen again, like so many other plot devices.
*The disembodied voice over the door intercom system. It felt too repetitive. Too much like the 'are you my mummy?' line coming over the radio. Plus, wow, how many people were dumb enough to go in, instead of just grabbing their phones and calling for emergency assistance. That's just way too creepy of a scenario to walk into like that even in real, non-tv situations.
*I'm getting tired of perception filters. They seem to be a favorite gimmick of the new DW writers, as it's popped up a number of times, and this makes at least three times this season alone. And now we learn that they can affect not only what you see but what you remember, which puts all sorts of tin-hat theories in my head, since the Crack is also changing what people remember.
All in all, I didn't love the episode, but I did like it. It was fun and light-hearted, lots of silliness (as much as the air kisses seemed a symptom of bad characterization, they never stopped being really funny, especially when he was mostly naked and awkwardly air kissing some girl he'd never met before). I don't particularly like the awkwardness of this Doctor, but Matt Smith pulls it off well, making him seem almost adorable in his awkwardness, rather than just inexplicably idiotic.
Things that I liked:
*The fumbling, almost hopeless relationship between Craig and Sophie that could have gone on like that forever if the Doctor hadn't arrived to point and nudge.
*The Doctor's conversation with the cat on the stairs. So cute!
*The non-technological thing he built on his bed - I loved the watches dangling from each spoke.
*The Doctor not being sure which outdoor sporty game Football is, but still being tops at it (and totally not realizing that it's a TEAM sport, lol).
*He's finally got a communications device. I've been wanting him to get one for years - it makes no sense that he wouldn't have some way to keep in touch with others of his group when they're not all together, and yet this is the first time I've seen him have something TARDIS-y for the purpose (not just, for instance,
*Craig's conversation with the Doctor about bringing girls over, then looking at the outfit and adding, 'or boys.' There really isn't a straight bone in this particular Doctor's body, if you ask me.
*The Doctor taking far too long in the shower, and then falling out and blindly grabbing the toothbrush instead of his sonic screwdriver. Nothing quite so menacing as a mostly naked, scrawny guy with an electric toothbrush, lol.
Things that I didn't like so much:
*This sense that's been popping up in episodes lately that the Doctor doesn't have any sense of the continuity of time. Last week it was his frustration with having to wait for the alien to attack. It was cute but a bit silly. The Doctor lives inside his own continuity so of course he's had to idle while waiting for things before. He's maybe not very good at being patient (plenty of examples of that) but it's not like he's never had to do it before. And it was worse in this episode. The idea that he doesn't know if the 17th or 18th century is closer to the 21st is just poor understanding of the character on the part of the writer. He may have trouble hitting the mark he's aiming for, but once he lands somewhere, he's always shown a pretty firm grasp of where and when he is, along with at least a rudimentary ability to behave appropriately to that time and place. The awkward air kisses were hilarious, but seemed wrong.
*That ear piece communications device was way too convenient. He's never had one before and now, suddenly, just when he's tossed out of the TARDIS and left on his own, he has a comm so he can talk to Amy and coordinate what they're doing. Nope. Sorry, don't like it. It should have, at the very least, been introduced in an earlier episode in some way, just so it didn't come off as a blatant plot device. And the next question is, will they keep it? They should, because the Doctor really does often need one. I'm afraid it will disappear and never be seen again, like so many other plot devices.
*The disembodied voice over the door intercom system. It felt too repetitive. Too much like the 'are you my mummy?' line coming over the radio. Plus, wow, how many people were dumb enough to go in, instead of just grabbing their phones and calling for emergency assistance. That's just way too creepy of a scenario to walk into like that even in real, non-tv situations.
*I'm getting tired of perception filters. They seem to be a favorite gimmick of the new DW writers, as it's popped up a number of times, and this makes at least three times this season alone. And now we learn that they can affect not only what you see but what you remember, which puts all sorts of tin-hat theories in my head, since the Crack is also changing what people remember.
All in all, I didn't love the episode, but I did like it. It was fun and light-hearted, lots of silliness (as much as the air kisses seemed a symptom of bad characterization, they never stopped being really funny, especially when he was mostly naked and awkwardly air kissing some girl he'd never met before). I don't particularly like the awkwardness of this Doctor, but Matt Smith pulls it off well, making him seem almost adorable in his awkwardness, rather than just inexplicably idiotic.
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Date: 2010-06-13 06:08 pm (UTC)I also wonder if Amy's time passed at the same rate as the Doctor's. Didn't seem so; she never changed clothes and never really left the console room it seems. So while three or four days passed for the Doctor, I think only an hour or two passed for Amy? This is total fanservice/reading in but you could argue that that kind of time distortion may have thrown his time sense off, linked as he is with the TARDIS.
I loved the shower scene, and also I loved the bit where he's like "Oh yes, I'll shout if that happens. Something like, 'I wasn't expecting this!'" Ha, I laugh every time I watch that scene (and I watched it a bunch because it was included in the pre-release clips).
What I like about this episode is that there are bits and pieces of it that I liked so much, I think I can use them to temper my desires to read spoilers about the upcoming week...