We've had a few days to mull things over now (apart from those of you yet to see it, who should stop reading now...).
There's a couple of things I'm having trouble with, regarding the mid-series finale.
It
was an odd, downbeat story throughout, compared with previous departure tales, as I mentioned
in my review. It unsettled me before viewing it, during - and since.
There are questions still to be answered. For one thing, when did Amy and Rory live? The dates are
absent from the headstone. Did they overlap with their Leadworth selves?
Why stay in New York - a place which the Doctor has told Amy he can never return to? Why not move back to England, hide themselves in a big anonymous city like London and wait for the Doctor - or River - to show up? It's a chance in a million, but the odds are better than staying where they did. Would they really have simply accepted what had happened without putting up some kind of a fight?
Have to say I'm
still not happy with the emotional response from the Doctor and River. He has lost the one person who, as he told her just last week, has meant so much to him; she her parents. The TARDIS might not be able to get back to NYC, but a Vortex Manipulator could. Wouldn't they do everything they could to get Amy and Rory back to the safety of their home, family and friends?
My
biggest concern, though, is Brian. The parents of all the previous companions, since
2005, have been involved in their leaving - but poor Brian is left at home
waiting for a return which will never happen. Jackie went off to 'Pete’s World' with Rose, and got her husband back – kind of. The dysfunctional Jones clan
were brought back together through their encounter with the Doctor. Wilf lost
the “better” version of his grand-daughter, but he knows what she can be
capable of. She might never remember - but he does. Sylvia Noble is redeemed. She’s unlikeable at first but we’re sorry
to see her go by the end.
Brian gets introduced late in the day - a funny, genuinely nice man - and he's never going to see his son and daughter-in-law ever again. Just because the Doctor said last week that sometimes bad things happened, surely he's not going to leave him waiting.
No doubt it is assumed that the Doctor does go and speak with him - it's just a pity that we don't get to see it.
I'm not sure if you are familiar with the different stages of bereavement. What I don't think we've been given is a proper sense of closure.
Rule One, Moffit lies! He is not done. The "silence" in the library (river is saved there, and hence the doctor, but he is erasing himself, hmmmm...I guess he has to go back) and the "crack in the wall" it is still there (asylum of the daleks, look up)....the ponds are still not totally gone yet, which is why is doesn't feel finished. It is sooo not. The FIRST christmas special references saying goodbye to a love and changing light bulbs. "silence" also relates to the doctor traveling alone, but I haven't figure that out yet. I have no idea what he is playing at....put this a long game, no doubt in my mind. .
ReplyDeleteThey are leaving the show, but the story is not over. River Song, the doctor the Silence, cracks in time (and I think the 2 other Ponds for at one or two final episode)...timey-wimey more to come. Rule One, Moffit Lies!!!
ReplyDeleteI suspect it might be more about Moffat painting himself into a corner - which is sort of what he says in this week's Radio Times. He had used up other departure scenarios and there was no other way to play it. His biggest mistake was having all those "deaths" - which undervalued the threat. If we hadn't had all those fake deaths, a real one now would have been a huge dramatic shock - one of the Ponds sacrificing themselves for the other.
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