DAMN YOU, MOFFAT
Jun. 7th, 2008 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogmagogWHAT THE FUCK, MOFFAT
WHY THE HELL AM I CRYING
Doctor Who - 04x09, "Forest of the Dead"
Well, this marks the third time Doctor Who has made me cry, after "Father's Day" and "Doomsday"...and everybody even lived! WHAT THE FUCK, MOFFAT, HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO MAKE MY CRY WITH A HAPPY ENDING.
Anyway, I went from "cautious but generally favorable" towards River Song to "she's AWESOME and we'd better see her showing up again as a companion, both to Tennant and to future Doctors" (the regeneration comment was left open-ended, so we don't know whether she just met him as Ten and stayed with him through regeneration[s] or whether he just told her about it and all of her adventures were with Ten). Despite the worries last week put us through with the implication that Donna might be sidelined this ep, she actually had a chance to shine, and those final scenes with her ersatz husband (especially the one where he's trying to call her but can't get it out) probably pushed me a good portion of the way into weepyville.
Gotta say, while the first part was good, the second part was EXTRAORDINARY, and probably the best of the season so far (and that's saying something, given the previous strong episodes this season). The one real nitpick I had was with the Vashta Nerada's general sidelining, and even that seemed to work; they really were more of a force of nature than a real villain, so it made sense that in return for having their planet back they'd let the people go.
Also, parts of the episode were predictable, but parts weren't: I'd figured out that they'd been "saved" in the hard drive, that Doctor Moon might in fact be the moon, and that CAL was the computer was the little girl. I didn't predict CAL's actual identity, which made Lux seem like much less of a jackass. I totally called it re: River's eventual fate...though not her REAL eventual fate, which was a twist even I didn't foresee. It was BRILLIANT how it seems to be setting up for a dramatic ending, leaving the screwdriver and the book as a sort of memorial, and then WAIT THERE'S A FEW MINUTES LEFT, WE CAN EKE OUT THE FIRST REAL HAPPY ENDING SINCE "THE DOCTOR DANCES" (and that was a Moffat ep too, as it happens). And her happy ending was the bit where I just broke down, because she totally deserved it and it was such a DOCTORISH thing to do for her. EVERYBODY LIVES (even if only as data on a computer hard drive and in a fantasy world).
My one concern with the ending, though...were Anita, Evangelista and the two Daves taken from River's mind, or were they really their own Data Ghosts from the suits? I mean, if they're connected to a wireless network or summat - and Evangelista's appearance in Donna's dreamworld seems to suggest that's true, since she was saved - then it could conceivably be their own real Data Ghosts preserved (with Evangelista's face being corrected through River's memory, though perhaps keeping her with the enhanced intellect, since she did seem happier that way). But if it's just River essentially being accompanied through time by her own memories of her friends, that seems like a slightly creepier version (though ultimately still a happy ending, I guess). I'm leaning towards the former though, given Evangelista's appearance.
Oh, and one final thing: the next time they direct a story about the danger of shadows, it would help to light the sets differently, and to pay more attention to the actors' shadows. After the Doctor's just given an impassioned plea to the group not to let their shadows cross, it seems silly when River comes up to the Doctor and stands close enough that their shadows merge. And really in general there were a lot of scenes where the shadows were highly problematic; not good for a story about shadows. :(
WHY THE HELL AM I CRYING
Doctor Who - 04x09, "Forest of the Dead"
Well, this marks the third time Doctor Who has made me cry, after "Father's Day" and "Doomsday"...and everybody even lived! WHAT THE FUCK, MOFFAT, HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO MAKE MY CRY WITH A HAPPY ENDING.
Anyway, I went from "cautious but generally favorable" towards River Song to "she's AWESOME and we'd better see her showing up again as a companion, both to Tennant and to future Doctors" (the regeneration comment was left open-ended, so we don't know whether she just met him as Ten and stayed with him through regeneration[s] or whether he just told her about it and all of her adventures were with Ten). Despite the worries last week put us through with the implication that Donna might be sidelined this ep, she actually had a chance to shine, and those final scenes with her ersatz husband (especially the one where he's trying to call her but can't get it out) probably pushed me a good portion of the way into weepyville.
Gotta say, while the first part was good, the second part was EXTRAORDINARY, and probably the best of the season so far (and that's saying something, given the previous strong episodes this season). The one real nitpick I had was with the Vashta Nerada's general sidelining, and even that seemed to work; they really were more of a force of nature than a real villain, so it made sense that in return for having their planet back they'd let the people go.
Also, parts of the episode were predictable, but parts weren't: I'd figured out that they'd been "saved" in the hard drive, that Doctor Moon might in fact be the moon, and that CAL was the computer was the little girl. I didn't predict CAL's actual identity, which made Lux seem like much less of a jackass. I totally called it re: River's eventual fate...though not her REAL eventual fate, which was a twist even I didn't foresee. It was BRILLIANT how it seems to be setting up for a dramatic ending, leaving the screwdriver and the book as a sort of memorial, and then WAIT THERE'S A FEW MINUTES LEFT, WE CAN EKE OUT THE FIRST REAL HAPPY ENDING SINCE "THE DOCTOR DANCES" (and that was a Moffat ep too, as it happens). And her happy ending was the bit where I just broke down, because she totally deserved it and it was such a DOCTORISH thing to do for her. EVERYBODY LIVES (even if only as data on a computer hard drive and in a fantasy world).
My one concern with the ending, though...were Anita, Evangelista and the two Daves taken from River's mind, or were they really their own Data Ghosts from the suits? I mean, if they're connected to a wireless network or summat - and Evangelista's appearance in Donna's dreamworld seems to suggest that's true, since she was saved - then it could conceivably be their own real Data Ghosts preserved (with Evangelista's face being corrected through River's memory, though perhaps keeping her with the enhanced intellect, since she did seem happier that way). But if it's just River essentially being accompanied through time by her own memories of her friends, that seems like a slightly creepier version (though ultimately still a happy ending, I guess). I'm leaning towards the former though, given Evangelista's appearance.
Oh, and one final thing: the next time they direct a story about the danger of shadows, it would help to light the sets differently, and to pay more attention to the actors' shadows. After the Doctor's just given an impassioned plea to the group not to let their shadows cross, it seems silly when River comes up to the Doctor and stands close enough that their shadows merge. And really in general there were a lot of scenes where the shadows were highly problematic; not good for a story about shadows. :(
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The Fan is Not the Target...
Date: 2008-06-08 06:36 am (UTC)Beautiful episode, though.
Re: The Fan is Not the Target...
Date: 2008-06-08 07:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-08 03:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-08 07:56 pm (UTC)I hope we see Lee McAvoy again! After all, Martha's doctor boyfriend Tom made an (offscreen) return...though it helped that he was from the 21st century and from Earth. And given that I'm worried they're going to kill Donna off at the end of the season, I'm not imagining she's gonna get too much of a happy ending with Lee. :(