Doctor Who Review
Jan. 1st, 2010 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianSo, that's the end of Davies' reign on Who.
Not that he would ever let us forget it in the last ... what, two-fifths of the programme? I couldn't believe the self-indulgent bitch-fit the Doctor threw when it was clear that he'd have to die to save Wilf. His predecessor had a lot more class. When it was Rose that he saved by absorbing the energy of the Time Vortex, he just did it, tried to hide the pain from her as long as he could, and then admitted it in a calm, non-grudging sort of way. Like it really was his honour and his pleasure, and he wouldn't even think of burdening her with grief and blame because of his respect and affection for her. To burden Wilf with that emotional baggage ... I know he was seeing Wilf as a father figure by then but seriously, I wouldn't want to let someone know how much the sacrifice I was making for them hurt and scared me because it would make them feel worse. That was not classy ... and that wasn't really the Doctor, either - or at least, I don't think it was. I think it was Davies.
Don't get me wrong. There were good moments. The pacing was really weird and I didn't know where the plot was going half the time, but that's okay (well, for varying definitions of 'okay') because this episode was never going to be about plot or a story or anything else. This was about Davies having his final tantrum and taking his final bows. And take them he did, in the cheesiest possible ways, for fully twenty minutes, and then whimpered about how he didn't want to go before he ... exploded the TARDIS? Ecclestone didn't explode the TARDIS in the same way. This apparently was an excuse for them to rebuild it in Moffat's image, but ... they couldn't have come up with a better way?
So essentially I spent the first half blinking at it and going "...WTF?" and no, I don't have anything to say about the plot because I don't think I got it. I thought they all died in the Time War, but ... before they did, they screwed with the timeline to try to get pulled out of the bubble in which the Time War was contained before they all died? Thus causing a paradox that would end time itself and not caring because they thought they were going to become beings of pure consciousness and didn't need a time or a universe to experience as these beings of consciousness ... but again, that didn't matter because it wasn't about the plot, this episode. It apparently didn't have to make sense, because again, a plot or a story wasn't what it was about. It was about glorifying the Doctor. Well, the Tennant!Doctor, and Davies through him.
I spent the last few minutes shrieking for him to die, I admit it. Not because I wanted him to die, exactly, but because there was only so much "Hasn't he been great?!?" I could take. I mean, come on. Ecclestone went gloriously. "I just want you to know that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. ...And you know what? So was I." And then foom. That was classy. Not self-indulgent bollocks for twenty minutes as we see all the lovely people whose lives the Doctor has enriched (and enriches again by either saving their lives or making them rich). And the Ood singing him to his 'eternal reward' or whatever oh my fucking gods HE IS NOT THE FUCKING MESSIAH!
I am looking forward to Matt Smith. I am looking forward to Steven Moffat. And as David Tennant said that Time Lords live too long ... well, so did bloody Davies. He's got his kumbaya-yas out. Now I want a full Moffat-run season. I don't care if I don't much like the new Doctor Who font and dread the inorganic nature that the TARDIS is bound to take on - NO MORE OF THIS. I guess I'm looking at Moffat the same way I'm looking at 2010, and Davies as being 2009. There were a couple of good things tied up with a lot of crap, and now it's a fresh slate and hopefully it'll get better. *nod*
Now I will finish watching When Harry Met Sally and try to get over the need to shriek.
Not that he would ever let us forget it in the last ... what, two-fifths of the programme? I couldn't believe the self-indulgent bitch-fit the Doctor threw when it was clear that he'd have to die to save Wilf. His predecessor had a lot more class. When it was Rose that he saved by absorbing the energy of the Time Vortex, he just did it, tried to hide the pain from her as long as he could, and then admitted it in a calm, non-grudging sort of way. Like it really was his honour and his pleasure, and he wouldn't even think of burdening her with grief and blame because of his respect and affection for her. To burden Wilf with that emotional baggage ... I know he was seeing Wilf as a father figure by then but seriously, I wouldn't want to let someone know how much the sacrifice I was making for them hurt and scared me because it would make them feel worse. That was not classy ... and that wasn't really the Doctor, either - or at least, I don't think it was. I think it was Davies.
Don't get me wrong. There were good moments. The pacing was really weird and I didn't know where the plot was going half the time, but that's okay (well, for varying definitions of 'okay') because this episode was never going to be about plot or a story or anything else. This was about Davies having his final tantrum and taking his final bows. And take them he did, in the cheesiest possible ways, for fully twenty minutes, and then whimpered about how he didn't want to go before he ... exploded the TARDIS? Ecclestone didn't explode the TARDIS in the same way. This apparently was an excuse for them to rebuild it in Moffat's image, but ... they couldn't have come up with a better way?
So essentially I spent the first half blinking at it and going "...WTF?" and no, I don't have anything to say about the plot because I don't think I got it. I thought they all died in the Time War, but ... before they did, they screwed with the timeline to try to get pulled out of the bubble in which the Time War was contained before they all died? Thus causing a paradox that would end time itself and not caring because they thought they were going to become beings of pure consciousness and didn't need a time or a universe to experience as these beings of consciousness ... but again, that didn't matter because it wasn't about the plot, this episode. It apparently didn't have to make sense, because again, a plot or a story wasn't what it was about. It was about glorifying the Doctor. Well, the Tennant!Doctor, and Davies through him.
I spent the last few minutes shrieking for him to die, I admit it. Not because I wanted him to die, exactly, but because there was only so much "Hasn't he been great?!?" I could take. I mean, come on. Ecclestone went gloriously. "I just want you to know that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. ...And you know what? So was I." And then foom. That was classy. Not self-indulgent bollocks for twenty minutes as we see all the lovely people whose lives the Doctor has enriched (and enriches again by either saving their lives or making them rich). And the Ood singing him to his 'eternal reward' or whatever oh my fucking gods HE IS NOT THE FUCKING MESSIAH!
I am looking forward to Matt Smith. I am looking forward to Steven Moffat. And as David Tennant said that Time Lords live too long ... well, so did bloody Davies. He's got his kumbaya-yas out. Now I want a full Moffat-run season. I don't care if I don't much like the new Doctor Who font and dread the inorganic nature that the TARDIS is bound to take on - NO MORE OF THIS. I guess I'm looking at Moffat the same way I'm looking at 2010, and Davies as being 2009. There were a couple of good things tied up with a lot of crap, and now it's a fresh slate and hopefully it'll get better. *nod*
Now I will finish watching When Harry Met Sally and try to get over the need to shriek.