A few quick Dr. Who notes (with spoilers for series 5)
Kam and I finally watched the two-part finale of this latest Dr. Who season, “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang.”
I felt that it almost made up for the disappointments of the rest of the season.
No time for a detailed writeup, but a few quick thoughts (including spoilers):
- We both love Amy Pond. (And we thought both actresses did a great job.) I am immensely pleased that she will apparently continue as a companion next season. She continues a run of great companions ever since the series revived; I've really liked pretty much all of them except for Donna, who I eventually grew to tolerate.
- We love River Song, and I'm delighted at the hint (at the end of the finale) that she'll be more prominent next season.
- We are not so fond of Matt Smith. He's okay, and he does goofy pretty well, but—well, I still feel the way I did at the start of this season: “I like him well enough so far, but he has neither Eccleston's wounded deep sadness with manic tendencies nor Tennant's mix of effervescence, looks, silly hair, and occasional moments of gravitas.”
- Most of the episodes I liked were by Steven Moffat, and I liked all the Steven Moffat episodes (though I got a little tired of the middle of the weeping angels two-parter). Though there were things I liked about some other episodes, especially “The Lodger.” I was disappointed that Richard (Four Weddings and a Funeral) Curtis didn't do better than “Vincent and the Doctor”—it was okay, but not great.
- Right near the end of the Silurian two-parter, I was thinking to myself, “We've gotten all the way through a two-part Chris Chibnall episode without him doing any lasting harm to the show!” And then Rory got zapped. Sigh. Although given subsequent events, it's possible that that wasn't Chibnall's fault.
- Can we refer to the new multicolored Daleks as “iDaleks”?
- The two-part finale was classic Moffat. For example, I may someday get tired of the trope of leaving messages for time travelers to see a long time later, telling them to rendezvous at some particular point in spacetime, but I'm not tired of it yet.
- I'm not clear on whether the ending of the finale means that the entire season has now retroactively never happened (except in the memories of the Doctor and Amy and Rory and River). I think that Rory is now made of flesh and blood, but I'm not even certain of that. Does the Doctor's return mean that some of the events of the season did happen after all? I just don't know! I imagine this has been hashed out on fan sites, but I haven't had a chance to go looking.
- Seems to me there was a lot more of people saying “Shut up!” to each other this season than is usual for this show.
- Probably my favorite exchange in the entire season was the brilliant bit between Amy and the Doctor at the end of “Flesh and Stone,” especially this: “[...] quite possibly the single most important thing in the history of the universe is that I get you sorted out right now.” / “That's what I've been trying to tell you!”
Anyway. Am now looking forward to next season much more than I was a few episodes ago. But I'm still more fond of Amy (and of Moffat) than of Eleven.