Well, here we are, another season cliff-hanger, and my major responses are:
- meh
- wtf?
Did this whole storyline just jump the shark? Maybe that’s too harsh, but it always worries me when an episode throws in all the old villains and characters from past episodes. Sontarans, Cybermen, … the only one missing was the Daleks.
But mostly, I think it’s the inconsistencies with the entire Dr Who mythos that irk me. At the start, we have Rory popping up all over time and space gathering the help. No explanation of how he got there and back. At the end (small spoiler) River Song pops in to say hello. Does nobody need a Tardis anymore? If anyone can flit around time and space, where would we be, I ask you.
Also, in the previous ep., fake-Amy is disintegrated with the sonic screwdriver, which is all it takes with “The Flesh”. Um. Can it be that in all the previous eps. she’s never been around when the Doctor used it? Someone, please go back and check and let me know in the comments.
What’s bothered me most, for a long time now, is the lack of any clear explanations for what’s going on. You get a quick line such as “The Golgafrinchans have an Interociter”* and then, before you can say “WTF?” the action rushes along quickly to the next bit. I suspect I haven’t understood a word of the series since Tom Baker. However improbable, there used to be Science, and sometimes philosophy at the centre of the series. Now it’s all just dashing about.
BBC – Doctor Who – The Official Site.
* Points if you know what an Interociter is without Googling. No points for Golgafrinchans, too easy.
In regards to Rory being everywhere and how did he get there… It’s a time traveling TARDIS. Drop off and pick up? And how River Song ends up anywhere is ALWAYS a mystery but seeing as who she is, it isn’t surprising. And no he didn’t disintegrate any of the flesh till after everyone had left in the TARDIS and the Flesh Doctor disintegrated himself and the other Flesh.. I don’t think an awesome writer like Moffat would have small mistakes in that.
And it isn’t all dashing about… it’s dashing about in a bow tie! There are plenty of clear explanations if you look into all of the clues laid out in every episode. It normally all makes sense by the end of the season or into the next season
Yeah, don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s tremendous fun. But I miss the older series with their more-developed stories.
Re: Rory – agree with the Tardis pick up/drop off stuff.
Re: River Song, ever since her introduction to the series she has always been able to travel time/space without a TARDIS – the method of how she can has purposely been kept secret because of the ‘spoiler’ revealed in the last episode. I suspect more will come out in future episodes.
My understanding of the ‘flesh’ thing was that the sonic screwdriver had to be emitting a certain frequency to dissolve the Flesh, but can’t find any transcripts to back up my memory.
What I like most about the current series is how intertwined the story line is – especially the most recent River Song plot, it is so amazingly detailed.
But, to be honest, I’ve only started watching Dr. Who since David Tennant was Doctor, so my views are pretty limited to the current series
I’m a hardcore DW fan and I can say that I have faith in Moffat to explain all this. He’s been planning all this since before Smith was even the Doctor! Faith man.
Secondly, my mom who has never been a big SF fan didn’t mind DW until Smith, or rather, Moffat came around. She thinks the plots are too fast and complex now. Why is it all dashing about? Because Moffat and the other writers he recruits have that particular “style”. Making household objects scary, fiddling with time travel, confusing the heck out of us fans, that’s the new era of Moffat and Smith.
This is how sci-fi should be! Exciting, but still with crazy tech explanations and great plots. Since Smith is portraying the Doctor a little more alien and distant, we’re not getting much “touchy feely” sort of stuff. Oh well, the great stories make up for it and I end up treasuring the small heart-to-hearts (haha!).