Doctor Who - The God Complex
Sep. 21st, 2011 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightcastleAs most of you know, I have not been thrilled with this series so far. I think a great deal of that may have to do with the arc, which I'm not impressed with. This may explain why I seem to be enjoying the stand alone episodes like this one as much as I am.
It's hard NOT to think of "The House of Asterion" with this episode, and I certainly took to calling the Monster "Asterion" early. Even the whole godhood aspect tracks. And honestly, drawing on Borges for a Doctor Who episode seems perfectly appropriate.
In fact, that's one of the things I find most incarnations of Doctor Who have done that I've liked, taken a good tale and thrown in a mix of Sci Fi/Myth/Fantasy/Horror and then shaken it well with some wit and interesting characters.
The leftover fears were wonderfully creepy, and the very fact they are somewhat defanged and more absurd than scary worked. I would have appreciated a few more fears that were scary and loose, but I can't complain too much. I didn't even mind the cop out on showing the Doctor's room.
I really don't like this habit writers have of setting up someone as an obviously good new companion and killing them off. I think it's lazy, and takes away from some of their tragedy. I don't mind The Doctor liking people, but I wish it wouldn't be quite so completely "He's going to ask them to join." I get that in this case, it specifically allowed him to confess that he basically makes people an offer they can't refuse, and that he feels guilty for it, so it is a bit more forgivable, but the pattern still annoys me.
The only real let down I had was the death of Asterion. It felt very rushed, with breaking a single person's faith giving him "space to die". They did set it up some, so it wasn't completely flat, but it did lack dramatic tension as they did it.
Of course, the reason it felt rushed is almost certainly that it WAS rushed in order to allow for the coda with The Doctor saying farewell to Rory and Amy. If I believed for a moment this was actually goodbye, I would feel let down by that. Not that out-of-nowhere farewells are unknown in Doctor Who - in fact, they are very common - but given the season-arc structure they are using now, there isn't much reason for it.
The whole "Breaking of Faith" in the Doctor felt a bit ham-fisted, actually. I liked it as an idea, but I *really* didn't like it ending with him calling her "Amy Williams". I've had enough issues with the way they were playing the last name thing as an emasculation of Rory, and that just left a bad taste in my mouth.
More interesting, perhaps, was the Doctor breaking his faith in himself. Ultimately, it doesn't seem Amy had more than a moment of doubt about The Doctor. Certainly not a shattering that would make her ask to leave, and the end implies she doesn't ask to leave. (Neither does Rory.)
It's the Doctor who can't handle it, here. He doesn't trust himself to keep her alive anymore. He can't even wait until she decides she's done and leaves him. I'm ok with that, but it felt a bit out of nowhere as build up.
But all of that is nitpicking about the arc. The episode itself was great fun. An interesting villain, a fun setting, a bit of the Doctor being wrong, and some lovely name checks to continuity. (Sontarans and Catpeople on the Wall of Fear, Daleks and Weeping Angels as the fears listed, and even a namecheck to Nimon from the classic Fourth Doctor episode.) If more of this Series had been like this, I would be much happier with it.
Sadly, while I suspect the next ep can be a bit of a fun romp with the return of Craig and Cybermen galore, by my calculations there are only 2 episodes left and there is no way Moffatt isn't going to make sure the arc hangs heavily over it. Depending on how well it gets integrated
that may or may not be a problem. Hopefully it will tie into the ship from The Lodger being the ship The Silence (or perhaps those aliens are now called something else as they are just members of the order) had in 1969.
It's hard NOT to think of "The House of Asterion" with this episode, and I certainly took to calling the Monster "Asterion" early. Even the whole godhood aspect tracks. And honestly, drawing on Borges for a Doctor Who episode seems perfectly appropriate.
In fact, that's one of the things I find most incarnations of Doctor Who have done that I've liked, taken a good tale and thrown in a mix of Sci Fi/Myth/Fantasy/Horror and then shaken it well with some wit and interesting characters.
The leftover fears were wonderfully creepy, and the very fact they are somewhat defanged and more absurd than scary worked. I would have appreciated a few more fears that were scary and loose, but I can't complain too much. I didn't even mind the cop out on showing the Doctor's room.
I really don't like this habit writers have of setting up someone as an obviously good new companion and killing them off. I think it's lazy, and takes away from some of their tragedy. I don't mind The Doctor liking people, but I wish it wouldn't be quite so completely "He's going to ask them to join." I get that in this case, it specifically allowed him to confess that he basically makes people an offer they can't refuse, and that he feels guilty for it, so it is a bit more forgivable, but the pattern still annoys me.
The only real let down I had was the death of Asterion. It felt very rushed, with breaking a single person's faith giving him "space to die". They did set it up some, so it wasn't completely flat, but it did lack dramatic tension as they did it.
Of course, the reason it felt rushed is almost certainly that it WAS rushed in order to allow for the coda with The Doctor saying farewell to Rory and Amy. If I believed for a moment this was actually goodbye, I would feel let down by that. Not that out-of-nowhere farewells are unknown in Doctor Who - in fact, they are very common - but given the season-arc structure they are using now, there isn't much reason for it.
The whole "Breaking of Faith" in the Doctor felt a bit ham-fisted, actually. I liked it as an idea, but I *really* didn't like it ending with him calling her "Amy Williams". I've had enough issues with the way they were playing the last name thing as an emasculation of Rory, and that just left a bad taste in my mouth.
More interesting, perhaps, was the Doctor breaking his faith in himself. Ultimately, it doesn't seem Amy had more than a moment of doubt about The Doctor. Certainly not a shattering that would make her ask to leave, and the end implies she doesn't ask to leave. (Neither does Rory.)
It's the Doctor who can't handle it, here. He doesn't trust himself to keep her alive anymore. He can't even wait until she decides she's done and leaves him. I'm ok with that, but it felt a bit out of nowhere as build up.
But all of that is nitpicking about the arc. The episode itself was great fun. An interesting villain, a fun setting, a bit of the Doctor being wrong, and some lovely name checks to continuity. (Sontarans and Catpeople on the Wall of Fear, Daleks and Weeping Angels as the fears listed, and even a namecheck to Nimon from the classic Fourth Doctor episode.) If more of this Series had been like this, I would be much happier with it.
Sadly, while I suspect the next ep can be a bit of a fun romp with the return of Craig and Cybermen galore, by my calculations there are only 2 episodes left and there is no way Moffatt isn't going to make sure the arc hangs heavily over it. Depending on how well it gets integrated
that may or may not be a problem. Hopefully it will tie into the ship from The Lodger being the ship The Silence (or perhaps those aliens are now called something else as they are just members of the order) had in 1969.
