(no subject)

[rynne]

Dear Moffat,

There's this thing, maybe you haven't heard of it? It's called ORIGINALITY. Look it up some time.

No love,
me

I wanted to like this episode, I really did, but it mostly went back and forth between "meh" and "dislike".

Apart from River Song, the ensemble just isn't distinctive. It's like Moffat disregarded everyone else so he could give her more attention, and it was obvious. And it's not like it's impossible to create a well-fleshed ensemble, where everyone gets their own personality and history--see TIP/TSP for lessons.

But seriously, List of Things I Recognized That Moffat Has Done Before:
--51st century, thus far only not mentioned in Blink
--squareness gun
--using said squareness gun to open a hole in the wall to escape from a zombie
--random love interest
--zombies infected with something chasing after people
--creepy little kids, both of whom are sympathetic in some way as well as creepy
--talking to someone out of a TV/computer screen
--episode openers whose scenes we get to later in the episode
--the Doctor being something of an idiot (in GitF, he forgot about the difference in time passing; here he wanted to know about his personal future--note that both of these have something to do with time travel, which is his area of expertise, supposedly)
--little girl linked to the future
--mechanical things masquerading/being like people (clockwork robots, statues with faces)

And that's only the things I noticed, while trying not to get bored. Because, that's right, I was also trying not to get bored. And normally, if I can say one thing about Moffat, it's that he does write pretty gripping stories--but not this time. This really got rather repetitive. Okay, let's play a few rounds of "The Doctor is cryptic, people don't want to listen, and he needs to repeat himself!" Also, while the ghosting thing with Miss Evangelista was sad and all, it felt drawn out far too long. I kept wanting things move.

Also, hold on, the Doctor lied about why they ended up in the library? Why would he do that? He's gotten cryptic messages with the psychic paper before (New Earth) and had no problem saying so. Then, not only did he lie, but Donna apparently had no problem with it. What? Donna would not let that go without saying something. Feels like another example of Moffat's somewhat...skewed notion of gender relations.

...How do these Vashta Nerada (sp?) manage to have enough mass to animate the suit?

And I just...didn't like River Song. I was willing to give her a chance, but I just didn't like her. Once she figured out that this was the Doctor before he met her, nearly everything she said and did along the lines of "spoilers" felt rather...smug. Especially the diary and the sonic screwdriver thing. And I just don't know why Moffat would introduce her now. I don't know if he knew he would be the next showrunner when he wrote it (I assume he would have found out awhile before the public did, but it still might have been too early), but it just doesn't seem something appropriate to introduce in a season where there's so much focus on and build-up for Rose coming back.

ETA: Also, I just have no reason to care about River Song. The Doctor isn't invested in her, so neither am I, really. We don't know her, and pretty much everything she said is designed specifically so we don't get to know her--spoiling us spoils the Doctor. So, Moffat, why should I care about this random woman who thinks she's something special to the Doctor?

I think the only ways Moffat might save her for me are if she's A: Romana, or B: Jenny. Otherwise, no.

This episode just...didn't seem as clever as Moffat usually is. Very disappointing.

Comments

[midnightzstorm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely agree. Why can't the guy just pick a different century. After RTD leaves the whole series will take place then and the Doctor will have a different girl in every episode.

Also I would think that Moffat and the other writers would catch on that River Song isn't very likable. She seems kind of Mary Suish. Hopefully she will be evil/fake or something like that.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

I just don't want her to be exactly what she seems. As it is, this episode really just wasn't very interesting. I doubt she's the little girl, though--or if she is, I think the rest of the expedition would be too, with them all in her mind or something.