so it seems I am posting about Who again

[wanderlight]

(1) Show, are you going to make me cry every week?

5.02: the beast below

a. The opening shot of Starship UK was a tiny piece of absolute beauty -- this is what exploring space & time should be like. ♥

b. I continue to adore Amy's attitude. She strikes a nice balance: a little fed-up cynicism (of the "you hopped into that box and left me hanging for twelve years, why should I listen to anything you say?!" type), a little delighted wonder.

c. I sort of feel like this ep had so much lovely stuff it hardly fit into 42 minutes. A two-parter might have been able to explore Liz Ten (who rocked, by the way) & the Smilers & the whole repressive government thing more, all of which I were intrigued by. I sort of wonder if mysterious things that weren't resolved will be later in the season, though? That mysterious crack seems to be threading itself through the story, to begin with ...

d. Continuing to be impressed by the aesthetic. I said this to faeriemaiden already: something about the Davies era was very crayon-y, whereas Moffat seems to be using pencil crayons, or maybe oil paints? More finesse, more shading-in.

e. So we've got the Doctor having to make a hard call, as per usual, with angry resignation, and you can almost feel the tiredness in him as he realises What He Has To Do, Again -- but then, because she's clever, and doesn't take the Doctor's word for law, Amy figures it out. And he doesn't have to kill the star whale, or anyone on Starship UK, and no one dies. I feel like this could be a kind of pivotal thing, between Davies and Moffat -- and these are, of course, blanket generalisations, not careful delineations -- or at least I hope it could be: that this Doctor will be allowed, by the writers, to be merciful and kind. It nearly killed me, to see the look in Ten's eyes, the despair settling in as he had to let people die, or the people he loved suffered because of him ("The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End"), and having to make impossible choices all the time. I just -- I don't know; too much of that and the magic goes out of it, for me.

f. "All that pain, and the misery, and loneliness -- and it just made it kind."

g. Oh, and at the end, there? One of the loveliest platonic hugs ever. \o/


(2) What was your first Who episode, everyone? (Or, failing that, the first one that drew you in, and why?) I'm curious about this because it seems that for everyone who knows avendya and ressie_noldo, it's "The Girl in the Fireplace" (I swear it was a widespread conspiracy, you two got us all), but there must be other firsts out there?

Comments

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

Okay, well, just butting in to say you have to watch "Turn Left," even if you don't ever see the last two, because it's basically one long ep of Donna Being Awesome. I mean, that's how I see it. Admittedly it hit a whole bunch of my own personal storykink buttons anyway, so it other people might not love it like I do, but...still an awesome episode.

[wanderlight.livejournal.com]

Yes! I'm pretty sure she's watched/planning to watch all of S5, but "Turn Left" is an excellent piece of writing. Also the one right before it, "Midnight" -- no Donna in that one, but still great, and very creepy.

[breathingbooks.livejournal.com]

Watched it. It annoyed me at times (I get very impatient about things like the thing on her back), but it was mostly quite good. I especially liked how centered it was on Donna's family, and how Donna still had her own strength even without the Doctor. I wanted to punch Rose though - what a twit.