Doctor Who stuff

[annissamazing]

I should be working on homework for my Black Experience class. I'd intended to stay a week ahead, but if I don't get cracking, I'm going to be a week behind by Monday. But all I can think of right now is Who fandom stuff.

I was watching "Closing Time" earlier today with Dominic. Dominic isn't feeling too well today, so I was keeping him up a little bit later, so I could dose him with pain reliever before I put him down for the night. Two years ago, Dominic loved Doctor Who. He used to ask to watch it, called it his favorite show, wanted his very own Chucks, but he's moved on and now doesn't generally want anything to do with it. But while we were watching "Closing Time," he started talking about the TARDIS, and it was one of the funniest things I've heard in ages. I nearly opened a Word document to transcribe what he was saying. From memory:

"The Doctor has a cool box. The TARDIS. Why does that girl think it's a box? When she went inside, she was surprised, because it's bigger on the inside! What if I had a box and it was so small that I couldn't even fit inside, but on the inside it's as big as... as big as a person!. As big as a house, because that's the biggest things can get. And you would think it was just a small box, but you would be wrong. Wouldn't that be cool?"


I watched "The Wedding of River Song" tonight. While I'm still underwhelmed by the season in its entirety, I think many of the arcs wrapped up pretty neatly. There were a lot of really great bits. I really loved the visuals of all of history happening at once. There were a great many very funny lines. Amy was rocking, and finally showed some rage at losing her child (which is a relief from my point of view as a fan, but ruins some meta I've been working on for a week or two). I really adored that bit. I also love that she saved Rory for a change.

The actual wedding was cringe-inducing for me. It made me very, very uncomfortable. I haven't examined why yet, but right now I'm leaning towards the fact that the Doctor doesn't appear at this point to actually love River. I felt better when we learn that she'd actually married an android copy of the Doctor.

To be honest, I'm not thrilled with the idea of the Doctor marrying anyone at all. I rarely read wedding fics because the idea just seems so un-Doctorish to me, but it appears to be inevitable in this case. If it must happen, I want them both to be head-over-heels in love with each other. I want that feeling to be palpable. And it just isn't. Not yet.

Have we learned yet why the TARDIS exploded in Season 5? Or is that revelation yet to come?

And then there's the question. The question that must not ever be answered. Doctor who? I bet the answer is 42.*

Then there's the question I'm most interested in. Does the Doctor get to keep his fabulous new coat?

*Edited to add: This seems to be a lead-in to next season. I really hope that season 7 is not really about the Doctor's real name. I've been thinking about this for a while. At this point in the run, there is no name that will be acceptable. Read any number of fanfics where an author has chosen a name for either the full Doctor or his "Journey's End" clone. Even the Doctor's favorite pseudonym doesn't really work as a genuine name for him. Please don't tell us his real name, Mr. Moffat. That can only end in wank.

Comments

[kelkat9.livejournal.com]

First, Dominic is a very cool kid! Such big thinky thoughts for such a little person.

I watched the ep too. I giggled during the first part cause it was just a bit silly. MS + beard = giggles. No, he must never have another beard. I agree there were some great parts to it. Yes! Amy finally has a reaction. Still, for me, it should have been an ongoing theme in many eps so although I'm happy SM finally addresed it, it's a bit late.

You know what's funny about the wedding was his attitude. I just didn't get that he married her cause he wanted to. I'm not even sure why he did it. I do believe she loves him and he cares for her. I just don't get that sort of love/devotion from him for her. I get more emotion from him over Amy. He must keep the coat.

[annissamazing]

Oh man... I really wish I'd had some sort of word processing tool open so I could start writing down what he said. That was just a small sample of his soliloquy on the TARDIS. This morning, he said, "I think Doctor Who is my favorite show again."

Heh.

I said, "Really? Why?"

He looked at me like I was stupid and said, "Remember the Weeping Angels???"

I stand by my assessment that Moffat is a phenomenal writer. However, I can't help but feel that he might have forgotten that the audience cannot know what's going on inside his characters' heads. If Amy is merely channeling her anger toward the woman she feels is responsible for taking away her daughter, then we need to be shown that either in conversation, or writing, or something. It really looked as though Amy didn't care that her daughter was taken.

You know what's funny about the wedding was his attitude.

Yes, exactly. His attitude towards this "wedding" was, "If I must, I must." No matter how much I loved someone, if this was his attitude toward marrying me, I'd back the hell out.

RIVER: "What am I doing?"
DOCTOR: "As you're told."

Well, now I know where her line earlier this season came from, but I still found it repugnant. So, yeah, I was *really* uncomfortable with that scene. Good kiss, though.

I felt better when we found out he didn't tell her his name after all. It seemed like it wasn't a real wedding, though I do believe they get married eventually. Or River's lying or making a joke about this particular "wedding."

The Doctor getting married seems so strange to me because it's such a human thing to do. Do Time Lords get married? I truly don't know. What meaning does a wedding have to the Doctor? What, exactly, is he promising when he marries someone? This may be my own religious and civic understanding of marriage coming through. Since the Doctor is an atheist and an anarchist, what does he get out of a marriage?

What I can see him doing is loving a person so much that he would marry because it means a lot to that other person (in this case, River). I think we might have skipped over that part, though.

[redknightalex.livejournal.com]

Amy was rocking, and finally showed some rage at losing her child (which is a relief from my point of view as a fan, but ruins some meta I've been working on for a week or two). I really adored that bit. I also love that she saved Rory for a change.

I will never be completely satisfied with the lack of angst Amy seems to have over losing a lifetime with her child, who is now older than her and lives in a very strange timestream. I'm not a mother, although I know you are, and how would you feel about losing all of Dominic's memories like the one you just shared? Enough to kill a thousand, I imagine, like many a mother's out there. Amy killed one and saved her husband (although, you could argue, Amy just had the eyepatch kill whats-her-name and was only indirectly involved). It will never be enough because River and Amy have the worst luck ever.

I totally forgot about the TARDIs exploding. If it takes 2+ series to explain that, when you're viewers are already forgetting about it, you have a serious problem.

Can they actually use 42 as an answer? Either way, any answer would be a let down (other than Dr. Foreman, but we've giggled over that already). And, when watching Classic Who, other Time Lords had names, but you also had The Master, Romana, Rassilon, Borusa, or even Omega. When did Time Lords ever need to have proper names? I see no reason why we need to have the Doctor's name replaced by a name that's conforms to what we expect a name to be.

Re marriage: I agree. I usually hate weddings fics in general, even in other pairings, not only because it isn't my type of fic, but when it comes to the Doctor, unless you have a type of scenario like in TIP, with a ridiculously long story for the Doctor to be involved with someone, I can't see it. He's run all his life, which was also a theme in this episode, so to "settle down" with marriage is against all that he is.

Heh, come to think of it, the Doctor would be a terrible husband and would constantly be off and about with no one to track his whereabouts (except for River, perhaps). And with Moffat at the wheel...I just don't trust him writing women. Ever. (Which I think is why I love his version of Sherlock: all the women have either minor roles or fit into easy stereotypes.)

Series 7...*sigh* I think my head!canon will revert to ending with Ten and then backtrack, again, for more Classic Who. Or maybe skip on to Fringe....

[annissamazing]

It's hard to say how I would react if someone took my kid. When I had that scare a couple weeks ago, I was really calm until the crisis passed, and then I fell apart. But as I fell apart, I blamed pretty much every person who had a hand in it and was so furious I probably would have lashed out had any of them been within my reach.

Amy's reaction is not outside the boundaries of reality (inasmuch as her situation was outside the boundaries of reality), but it is, I believe, extremely unusual. The emotions in this season just seemed really inconsequential. Like an afterthought. "Oh, I guess this person might be upset about that..." Had I been Amy (and I'm not really anything like her), I would have been angry at everyone and 30-some-odd years fighting for my life on my own would have reinforced that anger. Anger at the Silence, Madame Kovarian, Rory, the Doctor, and yes, even River herself.

Nah, 42's just a joke. "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." The Doctor is the Doctor's identity. His name, to me, is inconsequential. It would change his identity and no name is going to sound good.

See my response to kelkat9 above. I went on about far longer than I intended. heheh :)

Series 7...*sigh* I think my head!canon will revert to ending with Ten and then backtrack, again, for more Classic Who. Or maybe skip on to Fringe....

Audio adventures all the way, yo!

[eskridge77.livejournal.com]

First... love hearing about Dominic's view of the TARDIS!

Second... I thought "Wedding" sort of reflected the season as a whole. There were parts I really liked and parts I sort of rolled my eyes over.

It was a neat way to kill, but not kill, the Doctor. And I don't really consider the Doctor and River married because it was the android and not the Doctor.

Would they use 42 again? I mean, besides the obvious Douglas Adams connection, there's also the fact that 42 has already figured prominently in a DW story.

I forgot about the TARDIS exploding, too... hmmmm.

[annissamazing]

I liked the finale more than I disliked it, though I disliked the series more than I liked it.

I was not expecting the Doctor who was murdered to be the Tesselecta. I was expecting him to be the Ganger. I don't consider that their actual wedding, but I think they are actually married. The when, where, and how, I don't think we've seen nor will we ever see.

Would they use 42 again?

Seems unlikely. It's just what I think of whenever anyone makes a big deal out of a single question.

I forgot about the TARDIS exploding, too... hmmmm.

I think that Moffat is too good a writer to leave that major thread hanging. The question is, will he answer it while anyone still cares?

[10docandr.livejournal.com]

Don't you hate it when real life interferes with fandom? Maybe Dominic is coming back to the Who fold.

In all seriousness though, good luck on all the classwork.

[annissamazing]

You know, I think he might be. He told me this morning that Doctor Who is his favorite show again. I think he was going for brownie points, though. ;)

Thank you. Looks like I'll be home with a sick little boy tomorrow, so I'll have some time to get caught up.

[elgordo42.livejournal.com]

That would be very cool, indeed!

[annissamazing]

I think I lucked out in the kid department. One of these days, you'll get to meet him!