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zeborah
People who enjoyed the episode have the entire internet to squee in. To them I will cheerfully say, "It was classic Moffat. So how about this weather?"
To everyone else, I dedicate this post.
So yeah, I didn't expect this to be anything other than "classic Moffat"; I just watched because it's an important episode, everyone else would be watching, and I felt the need for my dislike of it to be well-informed. So key things for me were:
1. Day of the Doctor
So Clara's now graduated from being a nanny to being a teacher. Was she studying before, or have we skipped several years, or does Moffat just not realise that teachers have to be trained? (Like nurses. If Rory is the same age as Amy, and most of their first episode happens when Amy's 19, and getting your nursing degree takes 3 years in the UK, then are we supposed to assume Rory started university at 16 or younger, or are we just supposed to think becoming a nurse is what you do when you're not cool enough to be a Doctor? This is a serious question I need it for a fanfic whose timeline is screwed up because canon is a piece of classist junk.)
I missed the early screening because of technology so my friends who saw it at the movies took great pains to avoid spoilers for me until I could see the evening screening. But they did talk about the audience reaction, and she also said to me "What's the thing that Moffat always does?"
"Put women in boxes?" I said.
"Exactly," she said to my entire unsurprise.
"Huh?" said her husband.
The Woman in the Box this episode was the Moment, wearing Rose Tyler's form so Moffat could include a favourite actress without having to, you know, worry about characterisation or anything. I guess Time Lord technology is all about stuffing sentience into a box and harnessing the results? Anyway Billie Piper got to be all soulful and she's awfully good at being soulful so there was that.
Ten is snogging Good Queen Bess, who is being acted terribly. Okay, I get that not every actress can be Helen Mirren or Judi Dench or Cate Blanchett or Miranda Richardson. But seriously that was bad. When there were two of them, I could tell which was the alien because that one had a tiny bit of the self-pride that Elizabeth ought to have had.
Ten and Eleven compare sonics. Eleven's is bigger, just like his torch was bigger than Rory's in the Vampires of Venice. Yes, Moffat, we get it, you have a big dick. Now stop waving it in our faces.
I liked the woman with the inhaler. Apart from the "asthma as comedic relief" thing. And the thing where, while she's awesome in some moments of extreme stress, in others she's made to revert to "Help, Doctor, please save me!" as if she was fainting in Godzilla's hand.
The 3D paintings were cool and their use in the plot's resolution was tidy. But... it was kind of low key. Thinking about it, I think it's because Moffat (as so often) was distracted by all his other Cool Things that he forgot to keep our attention on the paintings, so there was no weight there to make it really resonate.
I was glad that after 400 years it eventually occurs to the Doctor that there might be an alternative to genocide. It's a bit unnerving that this appears to be the first time it seriously occurs to him: that he hasn't in fact spent the last 400 years in a state of terminal esprit d'escalier telling himself, "Next time I meet my past self I must tell him to do X instead!" But at least it didn't validate the old "I am responsible for the death of billions; clearly no-one knows pain like I do! <single perfect tear>" trope.
2. The Five(ish) Doctors
Summary: A bunch of washed-up actors are neglected by the world in general and Steven Moffat in particular, and nagged by their shrill wives. I stuck with it for a while hoping for something interesting to happen, but then they gave John Barrowman a wife. A shrill, nagging wife. So at that point I closed the tab.
To everyone else, I dedicate this post.
So yeah, I didn't expect this to be anything other than "classic Moffat"; I just watched because it's an important episode, everyone else would be watching, and I felt the need for my dislike of it to be well-informed. So key things for me were:
1. Day of the Doctor
So Clara's now graduated from being a nanny to being a teacher. Was she studying before, or have we skipped several years, or does Moffat just not realise that teachers have to be trained? (Like nurses. If Rory is the same age as Amy, and most of their first episode happens when Amy's 19, and getting your nursing degree takes 3 years in the UK, then are we supposed to assume Rory started university at 16 or younger, or are we just supposed to think becoming a nurse is what you do when you're not cool enough to be a Doctor? This is a serious question I need it for a fanfic whose timeline is screwed up because canon is a piece of classist junk.)
I missed the early screening because of technology so my friends who saw it at the movies took great pains to avoid spoilers for me until I could see the evening screening. But they did talk about the audience reaction, and she also said to me "What's the thing that Moffat always does?"
"Put women in boxes?" I said.
"Exactly," she said to my entire unsurprise.
"Huh?" said her husband.
The Woman in the Box this episode was the Moment, wearing Rose Tyler's form so Moffat could include a favourite actress without having to, you know, worry about characterisation or anything. I guess Time Lord technology is all about stuffing sentience into a box and harnessing the results? Anyway Billie Piper got to be all soulful and she's awfully good at being soulful so there was that.
Ten is snogging Good Queen Bess, who is being acted terribly. Okay, I get that not every actress can be Helen Mirren or Judi Dench or Cate Blanchett or Miranda Richardson. But seriously that was bad. When there were two of them, I could tell which was the alien because that one had a tiny bit of the self-pride that Elizabeth ought to have had.
Ten and Eleven compare sonics. Eleven's is bigger, just like his torch was bigger than Rory's in the Vampires of Venice. Yes, Moffat, we get it, you have a big dick. Now stop waving it in our faces.
I liked the woman with the inhaler. Apart from the "asthma as comedic relief" thing. And the thing where, while she's awesome in some moments of extreme stress, in others she's made to revert to "Help, Doctor, please save me!" as if she was fainting in Godzilla's hand.
The 3D paintings were cool and their use in the plot's resolution was tidy. But... it was kind of low key. Thinking about it, I think it's because Moffat (as so often) was distracted by all his other Cool Things that he forgot to keep our attention on the paintings, so there was no weight there to make it really resonate.
I was glad that after 400 years it eventually occurs to the Doctor that there might be an alternative to genocide. It's a bit unnerving that this appears to be the first time it seriously occurs to him: that he hasn't in fact spent the last 400 years in a state of terminal esprit d'escalier telling himself, "Next time I meet my past self I must tell him to do X instead!" But at least it didn't validate the old "I am responsible for the death of billions; clearly no-one knows pain like I do! <single perfect tear>" trope.
2. The Five(ish) Doctors
Summary: A bunch of washed-up actors are neglected by the world in general and Steven Moffat in particular, and nagged by their shrill wives. I stuck with it for a while hoping for something interesting to happen, but then they gave John Barrowman a wife. A shrill, nagging wife. So at that point I closed the tab.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-25 01:52 pm (UTC)I was underwhelmed.
I found the story disjointed, very clearly paying fan service (but mainly for the writer?). It was far more farcical than I'd imagined, and the Good Queen Bess bits (yes, Moffat, you did your research and filch a couple of phrases from the Queen of England herself, have a cookie.) reminded me of Blackadder, only not as funny.
The pictures were cool, the statues thing was ridiculous, the security theatre perfectly idiotic, and my attention wandered a lot.
I also couldn't tell the two younger doctors apart. (The third was much more interesting.) The portrayal of women was everything I'd expected, which is not a compliment: Do you really need people to remind you to use your inhaler *all the time*?)
So, yeah. I saw it. I'm glad I did, it means I don't have to wonder whether I'm missing anything by not watching Dr. Who.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-27 07:30 am (UTC)Moffat for me has gone steadily downhill, but I can see how other fans disagree so vehemently on this because the way he's gone downhill is by repeating all the things those fans like so much. Over and over. If you love the things, this is great. If you started noticing a while ago that the things are sexist bilge, this becomes increasingly intolerable.
But being the 50th it was useful to watch so I can participate intelligently in conversation about it.
(Also: if only it'd been a celebration of all 50 years, not just of the last seven...)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-25 04:05 pm (UTC)As to whether Clara needs to train to be a teacher, it depends on what type of school she's teaching in. Private schools can do what they like; if they think the person can do the job, then they don't need to be formally qualified. Also, it would depend on when the story was set. Our current Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has started making noises about there being no need for teachers to have any training. The man is an idiot, but who knows whether he'll manage to put the policy in place? Link here to article...
no subject
Date: 2013-11-27 07:38 am (UTC)Interesting re teachers, thanks. Clara's supposed to be teaching in (fictional) Coal Hill School, apparently a comprehensive, in approximately present-day UK. It could be a few years in the future if it's been a few years since we last saw Clara, otoh if so then that would have given her time to be trained anyway, so either way.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-26 03:15 pm (UTC)I thought it a bit cheesy that Clara's teaching in Susan's old school near the Foreman scrapyard (which apparently still exists 50 years later and currently uses a 1960s style advert). The fan in me, of course, squeed to that. :)
Edited to add – it was nice to for once see Doctor Who at the same time as the Brits. Previously, we had to wait months or not years.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-27 07:50 am (UTC)Your reasons are reasons I'd believe if I trusted that Moffat had thought about it at all. I stopped trusting Moffat a while ago, and comparing this with the confusion over Rory I find it really hard to be certain that Moffat realises that these types of jobs require training.
(Clara wanting to live a life apart from the Doctor is another thing that makes me twitchy. Yes, it's portrayed as her decision and if it stood alone I'd be fine with that. But Amy and Rory, and separately River, were made to make the same decision / have the same decision made for them. In other words, it's Moffat's decision: it's his ideal that his Mary-Sue character Eleven shouldn't have actual Companions anymore but instead be free to come as he pleases, play with his toys for a bit, and then put them back in their box and go away again.)
I actually like cheesiness (though I missed this one until you mentioned it). Doctor Who was meant to be cheesy and in-jokes are entirely appropriate for a 50th anniversary special. It may be statistically unlikely but when has that ever stopped a good story? :-)