The Beast Below
Apr. 20th, 2010 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99I think I know the reason why I don't think this worked.
I still think that 45 minute Dr. Who is a bad idea because it's very difficult to write Dr. Who well in that time-span. Think how much better The Eleventh Hour was, because you had time for the setting up, the middle and the resolution, and some character bits inbetween, whereas this felt like a lot of setting up and a lot of resolving, but not a lot of middle.
I think Mr. Moffat will get better at that, but I think that was where most of my problems lay.
I mean, there were things that were good, like the smilers, even if we didn't get an explanation of why the smilers, and Terrance Hardiman and Sophie Okonedo. I liked that Lancashire was the centre of the complex, even if we were the mouth (mouthy Lancashire gits, represent).
But something seemed to be off. As I said, some of it would appear to be structural, but I think part of it is that we're still not sure of what/who 11 is.
That's despite Matt Smith doing his best. In my review of the Eleventh Hour, I said I was back in love with the Doctor, and it would take something pretty bad for me to fall out of love with him (with 10 it was not even trying to save the Ood in The Impossible Planet), and boy did they try. I don't like people shouting, particularly at poor, if not blameless then at least desperately trying to do the right thing companions.
But two things saved the day:
1) Matt Smith can shout. Tennant really can't, well, not in the mockney accent. This is not a horrible slander, I can't shout either, I turn into a shrill Davros-esque ball of bile and spittle.
2) He didn't apologise, he just got on with doing. No more of the 'I'm so sorry' wishy-washiness. Doing works far better as an apology than words do.
Admittedly, the space whale = the Doctor thing was hammered home with all the subtlety of a not-subtle thing, and I'm not really sure the Doctor is kind. Good, maybe, but kind, not so much.
Admittedly my favourite bit of the episode was related to that, when it's revealed that they really didn't need to torture the poor sweet darling space whale, and everyone else looks sad while the chief smiler/winder/the Demon Headmaster just looks horrified, and that's when you realise that everyone else has been able to wipe it from their minds for an interval but he couldn't.
I liked the never-ending hug at the end, but I can see why other people didn't. Did I mention I'm still at the 'they're so cute and adorable" stage?
Writing that reminded me of something else that I didn't like about the episode, terrible lack of use of Terrance Hardiman, who, without sfx of any kind can terrify myself and my housemates by existing. But then again, we're all the right age to remember the Demon Headmaster, 'who was a marvellous man, and this is the best school I've ever been to'.
I still think that 45 minute Dr. Who is a bad idea because it's very difficult to write Dr. Who well in that time-span. Think how much better The Eleventh Hour was, because you had time for the setting up, the middle and the resolution, and some character bits inbetween, whereas this felt like a lot of setting up and a lot of resolving, but not a lot of middle.
I think Mr. Moffat will get better at that, but I think that was where most of my problems lay.
I mean, there were things that were good, like the smilers, even if we didn't get an explanation of why the smilers, and Terrance Hardiman and Sophie Okonedo. I liked that Lancashire was the centre of the complex, even if we were the mouth (mouthy Lancashire gits, represent).
But something seemed to be off. As I said, some of it would appear to be structural, but I think part of it is that we're still not sure of what/who 11 is.
That's despite Matt Smith doing his best. In my review of the Eleventh Hour, I said I was back in love with the Doctor, and it would take something pretty bad for me to fall out of love with him (with 10 it was not even trying to save the Ood in The Impossible Planet), and boy did they try. I don't like people shouting, particularly at poor, if not blameless then at least desperately trying to do the right thing companions.
But two things saved the day:
1) Matt Smith can shout. Tennant really can't, well, not in the mockney accent. This is not a horrible slander, I can't shout either, I turn into a shrill Davros-esque ball of bile and spittle.
2) He didn't apologise, he just got on with doing. No more of the 'I'm so sorry' wishy-washiness. Doing works far better as an apology than words do.
Admittedly, the space whale = the Doctor thing was hammered home with all the subtlety of a not-subtle thing, and I'm not really sure the Doctor is kind. Good, maybe, but kind, not so much.
Admittedly my favourite bit of the episode was related to that, when it's revealed that they really didn't need to torture the poor sweet darling space whale, and everyone else looks sad while the chief smiler/winder/the Demon Headmaster just looks horrified, and that's when you realise that everyone else has been able to wipe it from their minds for an interval but he couldn't.
I liked the never-ending hug at the end, but I can see why other people didn't. Did I mention I'm still at the 'they're so cute and adorable" stage?
Writing that reminded me of something else that I didn't like about the episode, terrible lack of use of Terrance Hardiman, who, without sfx of any kind can terrify myself and my housemates by existing. But then again, we're all the right age to remember the Demon Headmaster, 'who was a marvellous man, and this is the best school I've ever been to'.
