Oh, there are spoilers if you haven't watched it yet.
I thought this was a fantastic episode. The Cybermen have never really floated my boat, so to speak, but thankfully they were an incidental part of the episode, because really it was all about the Doctor, and in that regard it was brilliant. The dialogue was just great. I mean, maybe I'm just caught up in the moment, but that seemed like some of the best dialogue that's been written for the Doctor this season, and he and Craig play off each other wonderfully.
My problem was not so much with the cybermen as with Craig. I just cannot get into him. And I really, really hate it when they make cheap sentimental points to get out of a tricky situation (I blew them up with love) -- everything so far has suggested you get chopped into pieces when the cybermen assimilate you; here that had to be changed without any really good reason. And it reminded me of the Gatiss Dalek episode, which is not good.
But it was all about the Doctor, as I said. It was about how he relates to other people. It was about how people love him. It was about how he's the Doctor, and he's here to help. It's about everything that makes him a magnificent, wonderful person, the way he cares, the way he thinks, the way he believes in us. The ways he interacts with everyone in the episode, from Craig and Stormageddon to the other shop employees right down to the random children at the end, it all just highlighted what an amazing person the Doctor is.
I did like the Doctor's part in this. But I wish he could have played off someone else. And Craig did serve as a good foil in trying to interrogate the shop employee Doctor style.
And I liked how he was not going to get involved, and then he did.
It was, in fact, exactly highlighting all the things that the Doctor is having a hard time believing about himself lately. He's afraid that he does more harm than good. He's afraid that if he keeps going, he's just going to get more people hurt, or killed. He's afraid that in the end he's just a silly old man in a box. Even though none of that is true. This episode proved beyond a doubt that even though there are valid criticisms against him, none of what he's feeling is true. He's the Doctor. He does much more good than he has ever done harm, just by his very nature.
But he doesn't feel that right now, and so he's going to meet what he thinks is his destiny. He has the blue envelopes, he has the cowboy hat, he knows the time, he knows the place. He knows it'll be River in that suit. He's had 200 years to make his peace with it, and it appears that he has. He's ready to let it be done.
Except that Doctor Who isn't a show about accepting your fate. It's a show about making your own fate, believing in yourself, and being the most brilliant person you can possibly be. It's the Doctor that inspires those things, because that's how he lives his life. "This is what I do, every day, every minute. This."
Yes. I do wonder how they will make their way around the ``fixed point'' stuff, though. And which Doctor we are dealing with. He wore Tweed by the lake. He was still wearing the coat (the wonderful, wonderful coat) yesterday (and seems to have been wearing it for 200 years). I wonder whether that is significant.
I don't know what's going to happen, but clearly he's going to find some way around it. Either this has all been one Doctor all along and there's going to be some clever solution, or else this is the ganger Doctor who has been given 200 years to run around and experience things on his own and say goodbye to everyone, and now his fate is not simply to die in the real Doctor's place, but to die so that the real Doctor (who is the same person as him, really) can continue to make a difference. If the entire universe thinks that the Doctor is dead (and everyone with a look into the future of his timeline does seem to believe this), then the Doctor will become a myth, a legend, a story. He won't be famous and feared throughout time and space. He can go back to exploring and fixing things in peace, without something like the Silence using his friends against him.
My main problem with the ganger Doctor theory is that he has a t
Tardis. But the reasoning seems sensible. And to be fair, the Doctor in America had a car.
In such a scenario, perhaps that's why River accepts the charge of killing him, even though clearly she isn't in control here. Perhaps she takes the fall so that the Doctor can keep doing what he does.
I don't really know. I don't know how it's going to turn out. But I can't wait, because I have a feeling it's going to be great.
I have high hopes for the next episode, too.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
Doctor Who 6.12 - Closing Time
- 25/09/2011 04:52:22 PM
878 Views
I can't add a whole lot to this..
- 26/09/2011 04:39:11 AM
722 Views
I was not that enthusiastic.
- 26/09/2011 07:37:08 AM
729 Views
200 years..
- 26/09/2011 04:06:25 PM
673 Views
The Doctor bits were good, the Craig bits were not
- 27/09/2011 03:07:13 PM
665 Views
My thoughts exactly *NM*
- 27/09/2011 04:11:23 PM
283 Views
Might it also be possible ...
- 27/09/2011 08:03:52 PM
715 Views
I feel like there's no way that 32 minutes thing is a coincidence
- 27/09/2011 11:07:32 PM
688 Views