She Had Me At "Goodbye"
May. 18th, 2011 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaI already read somewhere that this episode was like a fanfic.
I think it's safe to say that all of the writers currently working for "Doctor Who" are writing fanfiction, such is the life of a writer who watched the material of the show we're watching now way back when and were fans themselves.
Rare, though, are the writers who can take a fanfictioned concept - the anthropomorphising of the TARDIS - and make it feel as though this should have happened long ago. It did, of course, with Rose and the Bad Wolf way back when in 2005, but this was different wasn't it.
Neil Gaiman, we who read him know, is a master at taking abstract concepts and giving them flesh. Making the idea of them work in human form, even while they themselves remain removed from humanity.
What happened with the TARDIS a.k.a "Sexy" a.k.a "Old Girl" and her suddenly becoming human was like a dream come true. For the first time, I identified almost 100% with the Doctor, because you see, it is the TARDIS and what she contains that make me watch the show.
I must say I was surprised by how worked up I was when I saw the "archived" console. The "old" coral TARDIS from the 9th and 10th incarnations of the Doctor. I was not prepared to see that happening.
As I said, the anthropomorphising is a concept thought about quite a bit in fanfiction, it stands to reason, as the love between the Doctor and the TARDIS is so substantial and concrete them communicating with each other in a tender, loving way.
Or, in fact, like lovers.
Which is lovely.
Until, of course, the underlying message of this episode makes itself known: "you don't make the living what shouldn't be alive".
When the TARDIS is dying and talking about the big word, that word that describes what being outside the box and inside the tiny vessel that is also bigger on the inside she says what she felt was "Alive".
From the moment we are born, we begin to die, because our cells are no longer used to build us, but to "rebuild" us. And cells are a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy of those original cells that make us who we are.
The TARDIS was dying, but beyond that, she was made of the death.
Neil is a wonderful story teller and one of the things he excels at is intertextuality, literary homage and pastiche ("A Study in Emerald", is a fine example).
The underlying story (and with it the message, that is subverted along the way) is, of course, "Frankenstein".
I don't think there's anyone over the age of 15 that isn't at least familiar with the story of the "Mad Scientist" who collects pieces of dead people, amniotic fluid from birthing women and uses lightening to create Life.
"It's Alive" Doctor Frankenstein cries as his creation moans it's first breath.
The story is a gothic monstrosity of ethics and criticism of the enlightenment as only the Romantics knew how to be.
The House is a conceptual Frankenstein, he collects the life forces of TARDIS' of times past, eats them and uses what ever passes through the Rift to mash together and serve It. The Ood was a nice touch. As was the mind-fuckery of another Rory Death.
I'm kind of sick of Rory being the butt-monkey, but at least the TARDIS has good taste, he is indeed pretty, it's a pity it was played for laughed - though honestly, it explains all the funny looking Doctors that have been around for decades.
The homage to "Frankenstein" was fantastic, as was the gorgeous and long overdue ode to the TARDIS. Especially when they used her "dead sisters" (I was crying by this point) there was a subversion of the message of using dead things in order to make alive, I think it was a great metaphor regarding organ donation.
Maybe some more coherence will come to me.
I loved it.
I think it's safe to say that all of the writers currently working for "Doctor Who" are writing fanfiction, such is the life of a writer who watched the material of the show we're watching now way back when and were fans themselves.
Rare, though, are the writers who can take a fanfictioned concept - the anthropomorphising of the TARDIS - and make it feel as though this should have happened long ago. It did, of course, with Rose and the Bad Wolf way back when in 2005, but this was different wasn't it.
Neil Gaiman, we who read him know, is a master at taking abstract concepts and giving them flesh. Making the idea of them work in human form, even while they themselves remain removed from humanity.
What happened with the TARDIS a.k.a "Sexy" a.k.a "Old Girl" and her suddenly becoming human was like a dream come true. For the first time, I identified almost 100% with the Doctor, because you see, it is the TARDIS and what she contains that make me watch the show.
I must say I was surprised by how worked up I was when I saw the "archived" console. The "old" coral TARDIS from the 9th and 10th incarnations of the Doctor. I was not prepared to see that happening.
As I said, the anthropomorphising is a concept thought about quite a bit in fanfiction, it stands to reason, as the love between the Doctor and the TARDIS is so substantial and concrete them communicating with each other in a tender, loving way.
Or, in fact, like lovers.
Which is lovely.
Until, of course, the underlying message of this episode makes itself known: "you don't make the living what shouldn't be alive".
When the TARDIS is dying and talking about the big word, that word that describes what being outside the box and inside the tiny vessel that is also bigger on the inside she says what she felt was "Alive".
From the moment we are born, we begin to die, because our cells are no longer used to build us, but to "rebuild" us. And cells are a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy of those original cells that make us who we are.
The TARDIS was dying, but beyond that, she was made of the death.
Neil is a wonderful story teller and one of the things he excels at is intertextuality, literary homage and pastiche ("A Study in Emerald", is a fine example).
The underlying story (and with it the message, that is subverted along the way) is, of course, "Frankenstein".
I don't think there's anyone over the age of 15 that isn't at least familiar with the story of the "Mad Scientist" who collects pieces of dead people, amniotic fluid from birthing women and uses lightening to create Life.
"It's Alive" Doctor Frankenstein cries as his creation moans it's first breath.
The story is a gothic monstrosity of ethics and criticism of the enlightenment as only the Romantics knew how to be.
The House is a conceptual Frankenstein, he collects the life forces of TARDIS' of times past, eats them and uses what ever passes through the Rift to mash together and serve It. The Ood was a nice touch. As was the mind-fuckery of another Rory Death.
I'm kind of sick of Rory being the butt-monkey, but at least the TARDIS has good taste, he is indeed pretty, it's a pity it was played for laughed - though honestly, it explains all the funny looking Doctors that have been around for decades.
The homage to "Frankenstein" was fantastic, as was the gorgeous and long overdue ode to the TARDIS. Especially when they used her "dead sisters" (I was crying by this point) there was a subversion of the message of using dead things in order to make alive, I think it was a great metaphor regarding organ donation.
Maybe some more coherence will come to me.
I loved it.
