Downloading Doctor Who
Jun. 26th, 2010 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightcastleAs it will take some time, I can put down some thoughts.
There have been numerous themes throughout Series 5. The most obvious have been the cracks, supposedly caused by a large explosion, and hinted at to be the TARDIS.
Another has been Perception Filters and the general sense of not seeing what is there. This goes right back to the very first episode, where the Doctor discusses noticing things in Pond's house. The narrative logic implies it is Prisoner Zero, but that doesn't at all have to be the case. (The Doctor running his way back through this entire season changing our interpretation of what has happened is a strong possibility for the finale.)
The Fairy Tale has been part of it. Moffat has discussed he views Doctor Who as such, and there have been LOTS of fairy tale tropes. (You can argue that Doctor Who and Sci Fi in general always tends to tap these, but it's hard to ignore some. Girl flees her house in her nightgown to see magical things. The Queen walks among the common folk and there is a friendly giant. If you wish hard enough, you can be a real boy. Vampires and innocent girls going into a sinister castle. Creepy things chasing you in the woods or in a graveyard. A kiss breaks a curse. A city that sleeps for a thousand years. An invisible creature that's misunderstood.
Add that River has flat out said "aren't we all" in response to The Pandorica being a fairy tale. (And this is a River who already knows the secret.) The whole Pandorica and Romans seems to be drawn from Amy's mind, and she's mentioned fairy tales.
Is this a story arc or just a thematic element? Hard to say. I can definitely see some aspect of this being all in Pond's head. One version of events is not "real", but just a dream of some kind? I'd probably be annoyed by it, but I could see it.
Finally, there is Pond herself. What is A Duck Pond with no ducks? A Pond. Why is she Amy and not Amelia, Amelia was a fine fairy tale name. More than one person has noted that the implication little Amelia waiting in the snow was just a dream doesn't mean it really was. Was the comment Amy makes, "Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in six months" way back in The Eleventh Hour more than just a name change? Will the Doctor being in the Pandorica mean we see Amelia grow up instead of Amy? Will it actually end up that Season 6 will be the Doctor and Amelia Pond traveling, not the Doctor and Amy? Might this explain the oddly uneven and mercurial characterization of Pond? (She's actually two people we've been seeing?) Does she not remember things we *know* are history because she's actually from the wrong Universe? (And are we going to rewrite all established continuity with this?)
Finally, Moffat likes fangs.
As others have mentioned, the constant "we need to make each season finale bigger" has backed them into a corner. They keep threatening the entire universe with destruction and we seem to have even had it this time. Re-booting the timeline has always been anathema to Doctor Who and mostly avoided in 30+ seasons of the show. It's the ultimate cop out, and I'm really hoping Moffat doesn't go with it here. We had enough Deus Ex Machina endings from RTD, and I was hoping for something a bit more clever. I thought part one of the finale was distracted and busy, crowding out all the truly interesting creepy bits with Pond for a Star Wars Cantina flood of enemies from a dozen different time lines that are seemingly working together to make a trap for the Doctor because the Cracks threaten the universe. It really felt thrown together and rather uninteresting. Sensation for sensation's sake, just a distraction. I remain hopeful the "Silence Will Fall" voice is the real culprit/villain/explanation and the rest just gets shoved to the background quickly.
We shall see what we shall see, but after the Ghana-USA match.
There have been numerous themes throughout Series 5. The most obvious have been the cracks, supposedly caused by a large explosion, and hinted at to be the TARDIS.
Another has been Perception Filters and the general sense of not seeing what is there. This goes right back to the very first episode, where the Doctor discusses noticing things in Pond's house. The narrative logic implies it is Prisoner Zero, but that doesn't at all have to be the case. (The Doctor running his way back through this entire season changing our interpretation of what has happened is a strong possibility for the finale.)
The Fairy Tale has been part of it. Moffat has discussed he views Doctor Who as such, and there have been LOTS of fairy tale tropes. (You can argue that Doctor Who and Sci Fi in general always tends to tap these, but it's hard to ignore some. Girl flees her house in her nightgown to see magical things. The Queen walks among the common folk and there is a friendly giant. If you wish hard enough, you can be a real boy. Vampires and innocent girls going into a sinister castle. Creepy things chasing you in the woods or in a graveyard. A kiss breaks a curse. A city that sleeps for a thousand years. An invisible creature that's misunderstood.
Add that River has flat out said "aren't we all" in response to The Pandorica being a fairy tale. (And this is a River who already knows the secret.) The whole Pandorica and Romans seems to be drawn from Amy's mind, and she's mentioned fairy tales.
Is this a story arc or just a thematic element? Hard to say. I can definitely see some aspect of this being all in Pond's head. One version of events is not "real", but just a dream of some kind? I'd probably be annoyed by it, but I could see it.
Finally, there is Pond herself. What is A Duck Pond with no ducks? A Pond. Why is she Amy and not Amelia, Amelia was a fine fairy tale name. More than one person has noted that the implication little Amelia waiting in the snow was just a dream doesn't mean it really was. Was the comment Amy makes, "Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in six months" way back in The Eleventh Hour more than just a name change? Will the Doctor being in the Pandorica mean we see Amelia grow up instead of Amy? Will it actually end up that Season 6 will be the Doctor and Amelia Pond traveling, not the Doctor and Amy? Might this explain the oddly uneven and mercurial characterization of Pond? (She's actually two people we've been seeing?) Does she not remember things we *know* are history because she's actually from the wrong Universe? (And are we going to rewrite all established continuity with this?)
Finally, Moffat likes fangs.
As others have mentioned, the constant "we need to make each season finale bigger" has backed them into a corner. They keep threatening the entire universe with destruction and we seem to have even had it this time. Re-booting the timeline has always been anathema to Doctor Who and mostly avoided in 30+ seasons of the show. It's the ultimate cop out, and I'm really hoping Moffat doesn't go with it here. We had enough Deus Ex Machina endings from RTD, and I was hoping for something a bit more clever. I thought part one of the finale was distracted and busy, crowding out all the truly interesting creepy bits with Pond for a Star Wars Cantina flood of enemies from a dozen different time lines that are seemingly working together to make a trap for the Doctor because the Cracks threaten the universe. It really felt thrown together and rather uninteresting. Sensation for sensation's sake, just a distraction. I remain hopeful the "Silence Will Fall" voice is the real culprit/villain/explanation and the rest just gets shoved to the background quickly.
We shall see what we shall see, but after the Ghana-USA match.
