I prefer it to episode based stuff, actually. That said, I don't want it to lose the episode feel altogether. This is, after all, Doctor Who. But I like the feeling that someone has put some thought into where things are going and have decided to surprise me.
Yes, I think I agree with you. I thought season five was fairly well balanced. There were five episodes that were directly based around the plot of the cracks, and eight episodes that were only indirectly related and played with the main plot around the edges. So far, season six has had six main plot episodes and two random plots, and the division between them has been fairly sharp. Granted, however, the ganger two-parter was in a grey area. It ended up being fairly important to the main storyline, but the actual plot of the two-parter stands on its own as a random set of episodes. So I'm not sure how to classify that one. If we split it down the middle, we get five arc episodes and three random, so that's still pretty arc-y. But I enjoy it even though I haven't felt quite the same sense of you-can-figure-this-out-if-you're-clever-enough-ness that I got from season five. There's a lot of mystery here, but I don't yet know if we can piece together the clues, which I love doing.
Yes.
Agreed. Although I imagine I will grow tired of Amy after a while.
As the male of the species, I must respectfully decline to ever grow tired of Amy. But I guess anything's possible, depending on where her character goes. I actually hope she will willingly give up her life with the Doctor and go back to being normal, rather than being left behind or having something traumatic happen that forces her to leave. I feel that would be a nice change.
That happened to a lot of the companions of Old Who. I don't know why they dropped that. Perhaps they rejected the idea of anyone wanting to leave as too preposterous. Although Martha did.
Well, it looks like the Silence will figure, at least. Which is what is making me apprehensive. While I know they are part of the extended plot, ever since the first episode of last season, so the longest running so far, I find them truly terrifying and will not manage to sleep if I am home alone after having seen one of the episodes where they are. Come on. Call me a wuss.
But they're so cuddly! You wuss. :P My girlfriend was fairly creeped out by them too.
Ick.
I'm wondering what role they will play, given that the Doctor appeared to essentially defeat them in 1969. I suppose there are some that could have hidden and survived.
It was not a Doctor-defeat, though. Only a conditioning of humans. It does not mean they are defeated in other areas, or that they cannot have developed a more carefull and sneaky attitude.
Speaking of, why a spacesuit? The Doctor posited that mankind went to the moon because the Silence needed a spacesuit, presumably for young River. But why a spacesuit? What can a spacesuit do that some other sort of suit or device couldn't?
Well, it can withstand the vacuum of space and let a person breathe where there is no air. Such as underwater, which is where the impossible astronaut came from. Why did it have to come from underwater? If it was teleported in somehow, why teleport it into water? Was there some sort of base under the water?
A member of the Silence was watching from a nearby rock. Amy saw it. This was in 2011, long after they were defeated in 1969. True, the Doctor himself in his own timeline hadn't defeated them yet at that point in the story, so they may still have existed in the future, but the rules of timey-wimey would allow that one to go either way. It's possible that the fact the Doctor would one day defeat them in 1969 would mean that they never existed beyond that. Except that one was clearly there in 2011. And it's possible that people have been seeing something scary in the TARDIS since the start of season five, something they forget as soon as they look away. Both the Doctor and Amy, in The Eleventh Hour looked up toward the ceiling of the TARDIS at one point with a very strange expression, confusion from the Doctor and near panic from Amy, emotions that were instantly forgotten when they looked away. We've seen that the Silents hang from ceilings. Are they inside the TARDIS? Have they perhaps been in there for a very long time? That might explain how they were able to destroy it, but it doesn't explain why they would want the universe to have never existed.
I don't want to think about the Silence hanging from the ceiling. Now I won't be able to sleep tonight, either. Gah.
Holy crap, I'm rambling, and I'm not done yet. The Silence said that Amy would "bring the Silence." How could Amy do that? By giving birth to River? Is River somehow involved with the Silence? Her older self didn't seem to know what they were, but it's possible she could have forgotten, given how they work.
Yes.
And the astronaut suit was also a prison. I feel like the Doctor when he rambles when he's missing something. Think, think. The suit could move on its own to catch the girl (maybe little River). It was built to be very strong, to hold something very strong. Why would little River be very strong? Your idea that whoever was inside the suit might not have been in control of what the suit was doing has merit. But why the need for a person inside the suit at all, in that case? Why the specific need for someone who is at least half Time Lord? Is it related to their efforts to make a TARDIS of their own? Why would they want one? As a weapon? Against who, they didn't have any enemies that we know about until the Doctor showed up. Do they want a TARDIS to defeat him? Or do they have an enemy we haven't seen yet?
I was also surprised that the girl would be so strong. I am not sure why that would be. Unless she did not escape on her own.
I quite like the idea of them having enemies. Perhaps they will get less scary then.
Did all the Doctor's enemies gang up on him at the end of season five on their own, or did something point them at him? Did something trick them into working together? Could the Silence have done that? If their disappearing and commanding trick works on other species, it's possible they could have, to get the Doctor out of the way. How did all those species show up in 102 AD? Can they all time travel? I guess the Daleks have shown some ability in that area, maybe they shared it? Time travel would also be needed to plant the Pandorica in ancient times and start the story about what it was. They seemed convinced that only the Doctor could pilot the TARDIS, though we've seen that River can do it, which suggests that they are mistaken. But what gave them that idea in the first place? There used to be a lot of TARDIS machines and a lot of people who could fly them.
I like the idea of something being behind that sudden gathering of enemies. Although, I suppose an end to the universe might do it.
The conviction that only the Doctor could pilot the TARDIS is probably due to the belief that he is the last Timelord (a belief which does not take account of River). While there were a lot of TARDIS machines, the people flying them were always Timelords. We have seen other people fly it, but hardly ever with much success.
If the Silence have been nesting in the TARDIS, they could know an awful lot about a lot of things. They might even be able to fly it themselves. Hmm.
Ack.
Did you know that the headless monks from A Good Man Goes To War were mentioned in season five? When the Doctor and Amy are at the museum where they find the black box containing River's coordinates in Time of Angels, the Doctor mentions that the place where the museum is now was the final resting place of the headless monks. Don't know if that means anything.
I know.
I am fairly sure it is the flesh Doctor who dies. And that River kills him. Other than that...
Those do seem to be likely outcomes, which is why I keep looking for other ones. But I might be looking too hard. Would River go to jail for killing the flesh Doctor? Would she willingly stay there and feel guilty about it if she had no control over the spacesuit and if it wasn't even the real Doctor?
Would she know it was the flesh Doctor she killed? She might kill the flesh Doctor and still think him the real Doctor.
God, I hope not. I think that would be too dark for Doctor Who. While Doctor who is dark, it is still very conscious of its position as a children's show, and I think having a kid kill her father is taking a step too far. A bit like in the very first Doctor's episodes there was one where a pair of scissors were used to threaten, wielded by the Doctor's granddaughter. They regretted that one; granted, times have moved on from there, but still.
You may be right. There's been an awful lot of "you think it's the Doctor but we actually mean Rory" going on though. And he's the only other person we know right now who could be considered "a good man, and a hero to many". The cleric in Time of Angels also thought that the Doctor would refuse to help River if he knew what she had done. Which seems like it must be something worse than involuntarily killing the flesh Doctor ...
The attitude of the cleric would also work if he thought River had killed the Doctor. I can see that they are trying to do the Rory/Doctor thing, but I cannot see it working on that.
So many questions. But, basically, yes. Except the first question. She is not the eyepatch lady. No way in hell.
I think the eyepatch is a sort of camera thing or possibly a badge of a club. Too many people wearing it.
Maybe the eyepatch is something bionic. Something over your eye that lets you see things in a certain way, or lets you see the Silence?
Or a constant image of the silence, so you never forget that you have seen them?
I am fairly sure the Silence blew up the TARDIS. I don't know why. They do seem related to prisoner zero, as well -- the effect they have of editing themselves out. Not identical, but ... similar. One possibility is of course that they turn out to not be the bad guys after all. Just guys with rather bad moral compasses fighting someone very bad.
Prisoner Zero certainly knew something about them. So did the Weeping Angels. This suggests they aren't restricted to Earth. Oh, that's what I meant to say above. If the Silence are nesting in the TARDIS, perhaps that gives a new meaning to that repeated phrase, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know." Maybe the reason it's funny is because the danger is right there in the TARDIS with him and he can't see it.
Yes, quite probable.
I am rather excited.
Me too. 
I can tell
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
Doctor Who begins again this weekend.
- 26/08/2011 04:56:48 PM
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I know. But I am home alone, so I am not sure I dare watch it.
- 26/08/2011 08:57:02 PM
582 Views
What's the worst that could happen?
- 26/08/2011 09:56:07 PM
472 Views
Have you been having a lot of coffee today?
- 26/08/2011 10:13:01 PM
629 Views
I'm gonna assume from the lack of posts in the last 24hours
- 28/08/2011 07:54:06 PM
528 Views
I liked it. *spoilers*
- 28/08/2011 08:51:42 PM
608 Views
Re: I liked it. *spoilers*
- 28/08/2011 09:35:53 PM
563 Views
Re: I liked it. *spoilers*
- 29/08/2011 05:24:05 PM
566 Views
I liked it.
- 28/08/2011 10:32:56 PM
490 Views
I loved how ridiculous River was
- 29/08/2011 12:59:59 AM
508 Views
"Well, I was on my way to this gay, gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled...
- 30/08/2011 01:35:28 AM
453 Views