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I realize I owe you all a post pertaining to life things, such as jobs (I has one 8D), summer housing (staying in Calabasas), thesis (I'm just about finished), and such other things. None of that is on my mind right now, however.
I just watched The Beast Below and I would like to ramble for a bit.
First of all, I am honestly not sold on Eleven yet. I'm giving myself a few more episodes - hell, I'll give it the whole season if I have to - but I'm just not liking him. It's not that I dislike his character, or that I'm going HE'LL NEVER COMPARE TO TENNANT AAAAAAAA or anything like that. I think he's following Martha Jones' rather unfortunate route: a competent, highly interesting character dropped in the hands of people that don't know how to write them. Yeah, I'm blaming all this on Moffat. He keeps bringing out traits I can't stand in the Doctor, namely the derision and the complete stupidity.
I mean, it's not unlike the Doctor to get utterly hacked off at a companion or another character for doing a stupid thing. It really isn't. HOU DAR U IM TAKIN U HOEM is a tad bit overboard for episode two, however - we don't usually see that sort of fury until the ninth or tenth episode in a thirteen-episode series. Also, why would the Doctor decide to take her home so quick after she's been in the TARDIS maybe ninety minutes and he had to actively convince her to come with him in the first place? The only other time I remember seeing him treat a companion like this is Rose in The Girl In the Fireplace - written by Moffat - in which he treated her like he usually did Mickey, which is Pretty Dang Off considering their prior interactions. Does Not Compute.
Also, he's stupid. Sure, he's got all the little clever bits and he figures out where they are and what's going on pretty quickly, but when we hit the climactic moment he's dumb. Since when does the Doctor ignore every little nuance when faced with a seemingly impossible choice? Wouldn't "the whale won't eat the children" stick out as a HUGE FLASHING BEACON OF IRREGULARITY to him? Because they certainly said and showed it enough. I'm accustomed to the Doctor investigating every single outcome before he makes the huge decision to lobotomize the whale and effectively end another species. That's kind of a huge choice to rush into there. The last time I saw him miss the obvious that badly was in Silence In the Library - also written by Moffat, surprise surprise - in which a very large revelation was the fact that paper comes from trees. Stunning revelation there, sir. I'll write my thesis on that.
So with the Doctor being poorly written, that leaves the new companion to keep me hooked: Amy Pond. I haven't got a strong handle on Amy's character quite yet - second episode and all, I'll continue to reserve judgment. What I have noticed, however, is that she's incredibly competent for someone who's just taken their first fling across time and space and is in their first dangerous situation away from home and has just been eaten and spat up by a whale. Again, it's not uncommon in Doctor Who for the companion to save the day - anyone remember Fear Her? Latter half of season two, Rose has been in the TARDIS for quite a while, and when the Doctor becomes incapacitated it's up to her to save the day. Believable, given her character development and the episode's placement. However, had Fear Her been earlier in the second series, or been in the first one at all, it would never have worked because nobody would have believed Rose could be that competent at that point. Every companion needs a few episodes to get their sea legs: it took Rose almost an entire season to break out of her role of kidnappee and be a bit more proactive; Martha's only competence in her first few episodes came from her medical training, which she got before the Doctor ever came into her life; Donna knew what she was getting into, went looking for the Doctor, and still needed a few episodes to really start being effective. I'd imagine this acclimation period owes to the fact that getting completely uprooted from everything you've ever known and flung across space and time is not something you do every Tuesday afternoon (or Saturday night, as the case may be).
Amy's moment of Companion Saving the Day comes in the second episode. The Doctor has been doing the whole gallivanting-across-time-and-space gig for nine hundred years. Amy's been doing it for ninety minutes. She really should not have the ins and outs figured out that quickly. She also shouldn't know the Doctor well enough to be able to make the incredibly wall-bangingly obvious metaphor she did. What on Earth are we going to do with this series if Amy peaks this early? Is it all, God forbid, downhill from here?
Honestly, this episode felt a bit like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a series in which they air the episodes out of order on purpose. For how out of order the entire thing seemed, I'm just wondering if we're getting Haruhi'd. (This also makes me wonder if we'll get to see the Doctor and Amy do the Hare Hare Yukai at the end of an episode sometime. If there's a way to sell me on this series, that's it.) I'd like character development to go where it's supposed to, please.
This is, of course, to say nothing of the numerous plot holes in the episode (how does Britain not have spaceship tech but the ability to build a country on a whale? How does the planet end, again? What do the smilies have to do with anything? Why on Earth will bad grades get you killed? What do they do with the non-eaten kids once they hit sixteen?). I can put up with plot holes in my Doctor Who so long as I'm sufficiently entertained and love the characters. When I'm having issues with even that...well.
I'm giving it a few more episodes. I'm trying. I'm just waiting and hoping that patience will pay off eventually.
I just watched The Beast Below and I would like to ramble for a bit.
First of all, I am honestly not sold on Eleven yet. I'm giving myself a few more episodes - hell, I'll give it the whole season if I have to - but I'm just not liking him. It's not that I dislike his character, or that I'm going HE'LL NEVER COMPARE TO TENNANT AAAAAAAA or anything like that. I think he's following Martha Jones' rather unfortunate route: a competent, highly interesting character dropped in the hands of people that don't know how to write them. Yeah, I'm blaming all this on Moffat. He keeps bringing out traits I can't stand in the Doctor, namely the derision and the complete stupidity.
I mean, it's not unlike the Doctor to get utterly hacked off at a companion or another character for doing a stupid thing. It really isn't. HOU DAR U IM TAKIN U HOEM is a tad bit overboard for episode two, however - we don't usually see that sort of fury until the ninth or tenth episode in a thirteen-episode series. Also, why would the Doctor decide to take her home so quick after she's been in the TARDIS maybe ninety minutes and he had to actively convince her to come with him in the first place? The only other time I remember seeing him treat a companion like this is Rose in The Girl In the Fireplace - written by Moffat - in which he treated her like he usually did Mickey, which is Pretty Dang Off considering their prior interactions. Does Not Compute.
Also, he's stupid. Sure, he's got all the little clever bits and he figures out where they are and what's going on pretty quickly, but when we hit the climactic moment he's dumb. Since when does the Doctor ignore every little nuance when faced with a seemingly impossible choice? Wouldn't "the whale won't eat the children" stick out as a HUGE FLASHING BEACON OF IRREGULARITY to him? Because they certainly said and showed it enough. I'm accustomed to the Doctor investigating every single outcome before he makes the huge decision to lobotomize the whale and effectively end another species. That's kind of a huge choice to rush into there. The last time I saw him miss the obvious that badly was in Silence In the Library - also written by Moffat, surprise surprise - in which a very large revelation was the fact that paper comes from trees. Stunning revelation there, sir. I'll write my thesis on that.
So with the Doctor being poorly written, that leaves the new companion to keep me hooked: Amy Pond. I haven't got a strong handle on Amy's character quite yet - second episode and all, I'll continue to reserve judgment. What I have noticed, however, is that she's incredibly competent for someone who's just taken their first fling across time and space and is in their first dangerous situation away from home and has just been eaten and spat up by a whale. Again, it's not uncommon in Doctor Who for the companion to save the day - anyone remember Fear Her? Latter half of season two, Rose has been in the TARDIS for quite a while, and when the Doctor becomes incapacitated it's up to her to save the day. Believable, given her character development and the episode's placement. However, had Fear Her been earlier in the second series, or been in the first one at all, it would never have worked because nobody would have believed Rose could be that competent at that point. Every companion needs a few episodes to get their sea legs: it took Rose almost an entire season to break out of her role of kidnappee and be a bit more proactive; Martha's only competence in her first few episodes came from her medical training, which she got before the Doctor ever came into her life; Donna knew what she was getting into, went looking for the Doctor, and still needed a few episodes to really start being effective. I'd imagine this acclimation period owes to the fact that getting completely uprooted from everything you've ever known and flung across space and time is not something you do every Tuesday afternoon (or Saturday night, as the case may be).
Amy's moment of Companion Saving the Day comes in the second episode. The Doctor has been doing the whole gallivanting-across-time-and-space gig for nine hundred years. Amy's been doing it for ninety minutes. She really should not have the ins and outs figured out that quickly. She also shouldn't know the Doctor well enough to be able to make the incredibly wall-bangingly obvious metaphor she did. What on Earth are we going to do with this series if Amy peaks this early? Is it all, God forbid, downhill from here?
Honestly, this episode felt a bit like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a series in which they air the episodes out of order on purpose. For how out of order the entire thing seemed, I'm just wondering if we're getting Haruhi'd. (This also makes me wonder if we'll get to see the Doctor and Amy do the Hare Hare Yukai at the end of an episode sometime. If there's a way to sell me on this series, that's it.) I'd like character development to go where it's supposed to, please.
This is, of course, to say nothing of the numerous plot holes in the episode (how does Britain not have spaceship tech but the ability to build a country on a whale? How does the planet end, again? What do the smilies have to do with anything? Why on Earth will bad grades get you killed? What do they do with the non-eaten kids once they hit sixteen?). I can put up with plot holes in my Doctor Who so long as I'm sufficiently entertained and love the characters. When I'm having issues with even that...well.
I'm giving it a few more episodes. I'm trying. I'm just waiting and hoping that patience will pay off eventually.
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And... idk. Amy is a good point. She has seemed to have 'peaked' quickly. It feels a bit like there should have been another episode in there. But IDK. Maybe they know something we don't? \O_o/
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTEcNWdEUxw
See how he reacts when she suggests he's "Unstable". 8D
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Take Nine's first episode: he saves Rose, does a lot of running, goes around calling humans stupid apes, doesn't tell Rose there's a possibility that Mickey's still alive even after getting eaten by a melting trash can, and just generally acts like the standoffish yet somewhat fun guy we come to know and love. You get a measure of his personality, and you see it develop through subsequent episodes. There is actual character and relationship building woven through the OMG PLOT parts.
Take Ten's first episode too: he's functional for barely twenty minutes of it, but we get him. Derping around the spaceship, tasting the blood, being a bit impulsive, "no second chances," and being able to celebrate Christmas with Rose's family right after pretty much unseating Harriet Jones...he doesn't have long, but we still get a good glimpse of who Ten is and who he's later going to be. Again, development.
It's been two episodes and I still don't have a clue who Eleven's supposed to be. I don't have a problem with Eleven, because I still don't know jack diddly about him, except that maybe he likes fish sticks and custard. All I see are the Moffat traits: treating the companion like they're a five-year-old moron and being incredibly dense. Until he develops beyond that, I'm not going to know what to think of Eleven, but I'm going to be incredibly disappointed with Moffat.
Fan theory is that there's some timey-wimey going on with Amy, but fan theory is also worried she's going to be another Bad Wolf and is going ick at the general concept. IDK. \O_o/
And I am just wordy tonight, jeez. |D;;;
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So I can't say I'm too surprised at the way I've been hearing it's going. Moffat likes to do "tell, don't show" a BIT too often for my tastes. *disgruntled* and again, THIS IS WHY I'M NOT WATCHING THIS SEASON.
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Also, Amy has probably had a long time of pretending the Doctor as her imaginary friend and just has likely been imagining all sorts of possibilities of travel so... that's probably still stuck with her, even if she was told to forget, it's still apart of her.
I'm okay with plot holes since I'm use to jumping into stories with no background and just going with the flow XD
Really, as Jen mentioned, watching so many episodes of the classic series I think that probably helps, too. Eh. *shrug*
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IDK, I'm just hoping the writing itself picks up.
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HARRUMPH.
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Yes, how can they build a country on a whale? Maybe it was just a propulsion thing...not having enough fuel, etc. Maybe once they got the whale down, they built the city on top of it and made it go, and added more stuff later? I assume the non-eaten kids get to vote at 16, and they become full adults at that point. As far as I'm concerned, the Smilies are just creepy Big Brother authority figures that tell you through facial expressions when you're stepping out of line, and follow it up with consequences.
I...agree with you about the Doctor just really missing the point. Maybe it was "that time of the regeneration"? I got nothin'.
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Honestly, I would have loved for the episode to explain all that. Was it a propulsion thing? Would the fact that the sixteen-year-olds already know and have been working with the whale make a difference? How can you have a half-Smilie? I have no idea and the holes just frustrate me.
That, honestly, was the worst part for me. When the main character has to miss an obvious clue - which has been pointed out to him several times, by the way - for an episode to work, you've got major writing issues.