'Turn Left'
This is all one big exploration of the explanation of parallel worlds that I did in 'Time for a Change', only busier, and rightfully so. For awhile I was about to play the 'oh come on' card but it turned out to be a clue rather than awkward writing so excellent!
I'd read that Billie Piper had some issues remembering how to play Rose Tyler. Apparently she thought the character sounded like Elmer Fudd or something. I swear she said 'time wode' instead of 'time lord' at one point. She was not ... great. Everything else was good build, and made me extra curious as to what was next.
'The Stolen Earth'
Wow. It's all about making the villains look big and bad. In wrestling it's part of the concept called 'selling'. If you make it look like something is really hurting you and people like you, they tend to be sympathetic to you and hate the mean man hurting you. When he cheats to be able to continue hurting you, it's an easy way to tell he is a Bad Person. In this episode, when a certain word reaches the ears of some of our rough-and-tumble heroes and they start crying from fear, kissing their loved ones goodbye and saying everyone will soon be dead, you know the speakers must be Very Bad.
And they are.
Nothing bad here really, apart from Rose coming across as a mopey version of Ace from the New Adventures. Continuity abounds. The subtle hints this year start to come together, even to the point of having another Hartnell reference! Even a possibly goofy thing works out as clever rather that goofy. Cliffhangers abound!
'Journey's End'
This is very clearly Russell T. Davies saying goodbye to the show, even though he'll be helping with the specials next year. For the most part this is all top notch, cleverly using pieces of the puzzle that have been lying in plain sight this whole time and showing how they all fit together, using things that could have been lazy 'get out of jail free' cards as plot points instead. At the end, he puts all the surviving players where they need to be for the next creative team.
But.
You saw the hesitation coming, didn't you? That all was not well? It's not that much that I went 'yuck' to but it's pretty heavy-duty stuff that receives the 'oh come on' card.
1 - Russell has now made me hate Rose. I was just starting to enjoy her visit and then it turns out she's nothing but a child emotionally. From referencing her run as companion and comparing it to here, it seems clear to me that she's a childish 'Princess' looking for an imaginary 'Prince' that only exists in her head. Martha came through the TARDIS and learned things, grew up a bit. Donna expands herself mentally. Rose did not. Worse yet, Russell apparently wants us to sympathize with her and expects us to be happy when he gives her what she wants, sort of. Thumbs down from me.
2 - The big 'putting things where they should be' moment made me flashback to one of the very early Doctor Who stories I wrote in high school, 'The Masterplan'. I consider it to one of the worst things I've ever written, perhaps THE worst thing. Somehow, this moment made a similar moment in my story not seem so bad. Russell, we should NOT be making 'The Masterplan' look good. Ever. Seriously.
3 - While they needed some extra time to put everybody back and get them settled, the extra length episode felt extra long. It's probably a good ten minutes too long.
With that vented, the closing shot of the episode I liked a lot.
One brief little observation about the fourth series: a subtle theme seemed to be the rebuilding of the Doctor's support system. For the past three series we've been hearing about what the Doctor has lost and what it's done to him: family, friends, enemies, home planet - all gone. In this series we saw what could be a new Matrix, new family, most of his friends collect to visit and, unfortunately perhaps, the return of more old enemies. Still no 'new' Gallifrey but one thing at a time, hmm?
Russell T. Davies. I've not agreed with everything you did and at times I felt your writing was more like fan fiction than my own but you brought the show back in so many ways beyond the literal. On the whole, it's been fantastic.
Thank you.
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2 comments:
I agree to a number of the oh come on moments in the finale. He did well in explaining it away but in all honesty it felt abit like a Star Trek episode where they used a bit of techno babble and slight of hand to pull off the multiple doctors and all.
I did like the bit at the end with having Donna have to forget everything. I think it helped ground the final episode. An excellent yet tragic bookend to the series. Plus as I said it helped bring the episode back to serious tone so you can forget about the Tardis "towing the earth back.
ON the whole Davies did well in bringing the series back to the mainstream of sorts and for that I give him credit for.
Russell sometimes seems to get hung up on the idea that the Doctor can do anything so that makes him a bit magic. Which is true but he sometimes makes him a bit too magic in my opinion. Admittedly, its still a bit more fun that the 'plots within plots, dark avenger' that McCoy played at times. I guess I wish someone would reverse the polarity of the neutron flow or something. I'm not always sure why certain things don't feel quite 'right'. I guess that's just part of being a long time fan: you make decisions as to what's 'right' and it can be hard shaking them. I consider myself a bit liberal in this regard so when something does trigger that 'really?' moment, it tends to be something big.
Anyway, lets see what Moffat does that I won't like. :)
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