![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snorkackcatcherYep, that was another good one, Mr Moffat. Not as scary as previous efforts, but very intriguing.
I wasn't sure whether this was going to work after the first part, but it certainly came through -- a good solid plot that brought all the elements together by the end very effectively. The Vashta Nerada weren't really as creepy as the Weeping Angels, but then they had the feel of being the kind of monsters who set up the rest of the story. The mysterious scenes with the little girl were worked in very nicely, and Donna got to have some excellent moments in the VR simulation (as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meddow said, her story here mirrored the Doctor in Human Nature/ Family of Blood). But onto a few more detailed points ...
First, River Song. It will be very interesting to see where they go with this, if anywhere. The idea of a future companion meeting the Doctor at an earlier point when he doesn't realise who they are is an obvious one given the premise of the show -- but the problem with doing that on a TV show is always with the implementation. It semi-commits the scriptwriters to a future story arc, and if (as here) there's the suggestion that the companion is from significantly later in the Doctor's personal timeline, maybe after another regeneration, then you have the same problem as any multiple-era story -- by the time you get round to filming it, the actor/actress may not be available (Alex Kingston isn't exactly a nobody), and even if they are may look a lot older than they did at a supposedly older age. Of course, if River is a Time Lady in disguise, you can get round that with handwaving a regeneration, but then you have to explain again why the Doctor didn't know ... The Ood may have known something about her, of course -- "your song is coming to an end" -- but that could very easily be a bluff.
I hope I'm wrong, but in common with a number of other elements in New Who the whole sequence had the feeling of being there purely as a 'hook' -- but in the computer programming rather than the dramatic sense. In other words, something written in not because you have any specific development in mind, but merely there in order to provide a framework that will make it easier to add such a development should you ever decide what you want it to be. Other examples (which I gather the production team have more or less admitted are such) are the hand picking up the Master's ring from the flames at the end of Last of the Time Lords, and Jenny from The Doctor's Daughter. On the whole, I think I actually find that less satisfactory than an out-and-out retcon -- because in the latter case, you don't know in advance that they're making it up as they go along, because the scriptwriters didn't either and so didn't tell you. I hope I'm wrong as far as River is concerned -- because obviously her story also could be an excellent piece of setup for the Year of Specials that wouldn't commit the producers to anything beyond that year.
As for the shippy element -- oho, lots of teasers there! River Song not only seems to have done a number of relationship-type things with the Doctor, she knows the Doctor's real name, which from Old Who appears to be something only another Time Lord would know -- except for that little hint of special circumstances in which someone would be told it. I think we're meant to assume marriage or some other form of bonding here, right? Which, since the script carefully ensured that the Doctor was interrupted when he was explaining it, could naturally mean that it's something totally different if the scriptwriters so desire!
As for the Doctor and Donna -- it really is looking as if we have the converse of the previous series, doesn't it? In other words, the Doctor is the one who's interested in the companion, rather than vice-versa. There was a hint of that his speech in The Sontaran Stratagem, a couple of hints in The Unicorn and the Wasp, and here -- well, it's not just the "everything" scene at the end, there's also the Stammering Man that Donna fancied turning out to have been a real person, and especially River's reaction to finding out who Donna was.
That looked very ominous at first, as if River knew Donna was shortly about to meet some terrible fate -- but perhaps it's merely the case that she knows her as the one the Doctor fell for, who left him to settle down with someone else *cough* and who wasn't Jo Grant, and is really impressed by this person ... I hope it's something like that rather than Donna getting killed off/trapped in an alternative universe/whatever, because one series (plus TRB) is nowhere near enough Donna and I'd love to see more of her. Well actually, I'd like to see any companion stick around for several series like they did in the old days, but especially Donna. (A meta-hint towards this theory would be the fact that RTD admitted that they tweaked an existing series plan and scripts already written for a different character to suit Donna once Catherine Tate made it clear she wanted to sign up. "Doctor falls for her, she doesn't fall for him" is the sort of thing that would be built into the initial design of the character regardless of who was eventually cast -- the flipside of the situation with Martha in S3.)
I wasn't sure whether this was going to work after the first part, but it certainly came through -- a good solid plot that brought all the elements together by the end very effectively. The Vashta Nerada weren't really as creepy as the Weeping Angels, but then they had the feel of being the kind of monsters who set up the rest of the story. The mysterious scenes with the little girl were worked in very nicely, and Donna got to have some excellent moments in the VR simulation (as
meddow said, her story here mirrored the Doctor in Human Nature/ Family of Blood). But onto a few more detailed points ...First, River Song. It will be very interesting to see where they go with this, if anywhere. The idea of a future companion meeting the Doctor at an earlier point when he doesn't realise who they are is an obvious one given the premise of the show -- but the problem with doing that on a TV show is always with the implementation. It semi-commits the scriptwriters to a future story arc, and if (as here) there's the suggestion that the companion is from significantly later in the Doctor's personal timeline, maybe after another regeneration, then you have the same problem as any multiple-era story -- by the time you get round to filming it, the actor/actress may not be available (Alex Kingston isn't exactly a nobody), and even if they are may look a lot older than they did at a supposedly older age. Of course, if River is a Time Lady in disguise, you can get round that with handwaving a regeneration, but then you have to explain again why the Doctor didn't know ... The Ood may have known something about her, of course -- "your song is coming to an end" -- but that could very easily be a bluff.
I hope I'm wrong, but in common with a number of other elements in New Who the whole sequence had the feeling of being there purely as a 'hook' -- but in the computer programming rather than the dramatic sense. In other words, something written in not because you have any specific development in mind, but merely there in order to provide a framework that will make it easier to add such a development should you ever decide what you want it to be. Other examples (which I gather the production team have more or less admitted are such) are the hand picking up the Master's ring from the flames at the end of Last of the Time Lords, and Jenny from The Doctor's Daughter. On the whole, I think I actually find that less satisfactory than an out-and-out retcon -- because in the latter case, you don't know in advance that they're making it up as they go along, because the scriptwriters didn't either and so didn't tell you. I hope I'm wrong as far as River is concerned -- because obviously her story also could be an excellent piece of setup for the Year of Specials that wouldn't commit the producers to anything beyond that year.
As for the shippy element -- oho, lots of teasers there! River Song not only seems to have done a number of relationship-type things with the Doctor, she knows the Doctor's real name, which from Old Who appears to be something only another Time Lord would know -- except for that little hint of special circumstances in which someone would be told it. I think we're meant to assume marriage or some other form of bonding here, right? Which, since the script carefully ensured that the Doctor was interrupted when he was explaining it, could naturally mean that it's something totally different if the scriptwriters so desire!
As for the Doctor and Donna -- it really is looking as if we have the converse of the previous series, doesn't it? In other words, the Doctor is the one who's interested in the companion, rather than vice-versa. There was a hint of that his speech in The Sontaran Stratagem, a couple of hints in The Unicorn and the Wasp, and here -- well, it's not just the "everything" scene at the end, there's also the Stammering Man that Donna fancied turning out to have been a real person, and especially River's reaction to finding out who Donna was.
That looked very ominous at first, as if River knew Donna was shortly about to meet some terrible fate -- but perhaps it's merely the case that she knows her as the one the Doctor fell for, who left him to settle down with someone else *cough* and who wasn't Jo Grant, and is really impressed by this person ... I hope it's something like that rather than Donna getting killed off/trapped in an alternative universe/whatever, because one series (plus TRB) is nowhere near enough Donna and I'd love to see more of her. Well actually, I'd like to see any companion stick around for several series like they did in the old days, but especially Donna. (A meta-hint towards this theory would be the fact that RTD admitted that they tweaked an existing series plan and scripts already written for a different character to suit Donna once Catherine Tate made it clear she wanted to sign up. "Doctor falls for her, she doesn't fall for him" is the sort of thing that would be built into the initial design of the character regardless of who was eventually cast -- the flipside of the situation with Martha in S3.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 01:06 am (UTC)I'll be cross if they kill her off and we don't see the nice young man again. :(
no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 11:22 am (UTC)River Song's storyline would have been far less constricting if she was a Time Lord and we could have another actress play her. Other than the fact the Doctor didn't sense her, she did mention that the Doctor hooking himself up to the computer would kill him dead with no regeneration possible. The return of Gallifrey could be one of those spoilers she was not telling him.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 07:58 pm (UTC)