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eumeliaI've just come home from viewing the most recent Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars.
In a word: Damn! (or *squee*!!!)
In many more words: First thing's first - Bowie Station?!
For reals!?!
How geeky are the Whovian writers?
Second of all, please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the Elemental pattern and focus in this year's specials - The Next Doctor was Fire, Planet of the Dead was Earth and The Waters of Mars was... well...
Makes you wonder what the ep (of which the trailer was fucking brilliant, y/y) is going to focus on.
I feel that this episode was a much better portrayal of the Doctor's character than the other specials earlier this year.
Not just that the portrayal was more authentic, there was also a whole lot more connection with the previous seasons on Nu-Who; from the space suit that he wore in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - whoa, was there a huge amount of intertext of that in this episode - to the Fixed Point/Time in Flux dichotomy that seems to get more messed up as we draw closer to the end of his song
(The Ood always creep me out, and the Doctor, as well they should).
There was a whole lot of channelling of the Master here, but unlike the Master - who is meant to be this way - I felt that the Doctor was merely cracking up.
And when I say cracking up, I mean that I feel he has reached a certain breaking point and he has no one to anchor him. If there's something the specials over the past year have shown it's that the Doctor works better when he has a companion who can give him a little perspective.
Referencing The Fires of Pompeii - through the name and the action on screen - we see Donna's influence, arguably the most influential of the Companions intellectually and socially (if only because she's the only one out of Nu-Who ones that wasn't/isn't in love with the Doctor), but it's so utterly twisted - because in Fires... Donna acts out of compassion and empathy (both things the Doctor -Ten- does his best to emulate though he doesn't actually grok it).
In Waters by contrast, the Doctor decides to save those who are meant to die out of a sense of grandeur and because he can.
Deux Et Machina never rang so true.
The fact that Captain Brooke died any way, after the Doctor proved that he was a Lord of Time - not just a regular dime a dozen Time Lord - because beyond him being the Last, he is the Only - I think that's the Fourth Knock.
I feel there's a Robert Oppenheimer thing going on in the episode as well, but I'm finding it difficult to put my finger on it.
Perhaps it's the notion that through Death, Hope can prevail.
I hope that wasn't too incoherent!
I will try gather more and better thoughts on this over the next few days.
In the meantime *fangrrl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
In a word: Damn! (or *squee*!!!)
In many more words: First thing's first - Bowie Station?!
For reals!?!
How geeky are the Whovian writers?
Second of all, please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the Elemental pattern and focus in this year's specials - The Next Doctor was Fire, Planet of the Dead was Earth and The Waters of Mars was... well...
Makes you wonder what the ep (of which the trailer was fucking brilliant, y/y) is going to focus on.
I feel that this episode was a much better portrayal of the Doctor's character than the other specials earlier this year.
Not just that the portrayal was more authentic, there was also a whole lot more connection with the previous seasons on Nu-Who; from the space suit that he wore in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - whoa, was there a huge amount of intertext of that in this episode - to the Fixed Point/Time in Flux dichotomy that seems to get more messed up as we draw closer to the end of his song
(The Ood always creep me out, and the Doctor, as well they should).
There was a whole lot of channelling of the Master here, but unlike the Master - who is meant to be this way - I felt that the Doctor was merely cracking up.
And when I say cracking up, I mean that I feel he has reached a certain breaking point and he has no one to anchor him. If there's something the specials over the past year have shown it's that the Doctor works better when he has a companion who can give him a little perspective.
Referencing The Fires of Pompeii - through the name and the action on screen - we see Donna's influence, arguably the most influential of the Companions intellectually and socially (if only because she's the only one out of Nu-Who ones that wasn't/isn't in love with the Doctor), but it's so utterly twisted - because in Fires... Donna acts out of compassion and empathy (both things the Doctor -Ten- does his best to emulate though he doesn't actually grok it).
In Waters by contrast, the Doctor decides to save those who are meant to die out of a sense of grandeur and because he can.
Deux Et Machina never rang so true.
The fact that Captain Brooke died any way, after the Doctor proved that he was a Lord of Time - not just a regular dime a dozen Time Lord - because beyond him being the Last, he is the Only - I think that's the Fourth Knock.
I feel there's a Robert Oppenheimer thing going on in the episode as well, but I'm finding it difficult to put my finger on it.
Perhaps it's the notion that through Death, Hope can prevail.
I hope that wasn't too incoherent!
I will try gather more and better thoughts on this over the next few days.
In the meantime *fangrrl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
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Date: 2009-11-19 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 09:42 am (UTC)Sooooo much better than Planet of the Dead which was, okay and waaaaaaaaay better than The Next Doctor which was utter crud, imo.
I get the feeling that when Ole' Rusty was writing that one he feeling the financial pressure (add to that that he just finished Torchwood: CoE... he may have been feeling a tad used, m'thinks).
no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 06:36 pm (UTC)