Dark Water - A Doctor Who-related rambling
Nov. 4th, 2014 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tabbiewolfI am simultaneously excited and terrified of the upcoming episode of Doctor Who. Let's explore why.
This week's episode, "Dark Water," was huge in both exposition and anticipation. First off, we finally learn who Missy is. Roughly no one is surprised, mind (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spotweld predicted this I believe the second time we saw her, if not the first, using pretty much the exact same wordplay that Missy explains it to the Doctor with), but having it finally told is huge and in my opinion satisfying: she is NOT a new villain that has been laced into the Doctor's backstory, which would be hugely annoying after the amount that's been done in the past couple seasons. No, she's The Master, back and still really bent on destroying the human race for no other reason than because she wants to (and probably because it'll destroy the Doctor as well; they ARE nemeses).
In all honesty, I believe these are the best kind of villains: she's evil, truly madly deeply, and there's no real reason for it outside of petty annoyance with the world. I admit to enjoying the black-and-white, good v. evil, as compared to softening the villain and making us want to like them. I think that's probably why I like Doctor Who -- it's usually pretty upfront about the blatant evilness of the bad guys. Daleks may not be able to get up stairs, but damn, they hate and must destroy anything that isn't their species, and there's really no reason for that, they just do.
So anyway, the Master is back and she's a Time Lady now, and this opens the possibility of the Doctor eventually changing genders eventually which is pretty awesome in my opinion. Gender swapping has been show-canon since "The Doctor's Wife" (thanks, Neil Gaiman!), but actually having it on screen is pretty cool.
My immediate issue with this week's episode is how its second part is going to play out. It was a beautiful buildup, with reveals throughout the show (beautiful shot of the doors closing to reveal the Cyberman eyes -- that was gorgeously done), but...well...the other story, Clara's, is less intriguing. Her boyfriend, Danny Pink, is apparently another Rory, in that they've killed him*. Considering we saw one of his (and assumedly Clara's) several-times-great grandchildren in one of the first episodes of the season, death is probably not a permanent thing in this case. Again, Rory. The poor men in this show, they get no respect.
We're dealing with the Doctor facing Clara at her worst, having dealt with the death of a man she just confessed her complete and undeniable love for...and it's all sort of bland, really. They put Clara's breakdown into a "you can really only see this once" dream sequence, which makes it really poignant the first time and ruins it for every re-watch. We do finally see that yes, despite his general alien-ness with this regeneration, the Doctor really does care for Clara, but...the whole thing just seems a bit like a stepping stone instead of a major character development: They killed Danny Pink to advance the story, not to reveal any development of character in anybody.
So Danny is dealing with the afterlife**, meeting the boy he killed in Iraq/Afghanistan/whatever Middle Eastern country he was stationed in as a soldier. This is another "we've been building it up all season and here it is" thing, but in my opinion it's much less satisfying than the Master's reveal...which is odd because it's a much more human, much more emotional thing, and yet it's treated as a bit of a throwaway. Maybe if I rewatch the episode it'll seem deeper, but in all honesty I was more interested in what was going on with everyone trying to figure stuff out than with Danny the soldier.
That might just be me, I'll admit.
Anyway, this was the first truly scary Cyberman-based episode in my opinion (in the new series, anyway; I haven't seen enough older ones to judge). "Nightmare in Silver" was great -- again, Neil Gaiman being awesome -- but it wasn't nearly as scary as seeing cyberman from the inside-out. You forget they're human on the inside, but this episode was a very enthusiastic reminder of that.
Resolutions That Need to Happen
• All those dead folks we saw throughout the season being greeted by Missy or Seb; I suspect we'll be seeing them as Cybermen.
• Danny & Clara. Will Danny end up as a cyberman? Will the Doctor have to kill him to protect Clara? Or will he come back and they'll live happily ever after, with Clara finally saying her (real) goodbye to the Doctor?***
• The Cybermen's takeover of London
• The Doctor and the Master. It'd be REALLY INTERESTING to see the Master become the Doctor's companion, but I doubt that will happen****. I don't really want them to kill the Master though because having another Time Lord out there is a great plot device to play with, as they proved with Missy in general.
Can you see why I'm worried about the upcoming show? I'm sincerely hoping this doesn't get fucked up.
And that has been your "Tabbie nerds out about Doctor Who" for the time being.
*I suspect it'll be revealed that Missy planned this so she could get the Doctor where she wants him, so I won't be too surprised if that comes up in the upcoming episode.
**A Matrix Data Slice where Missy has been trapping the consciousnesses of the recently deceased. I don't know enough about Doctor Who to have any idea what this is outside of more TARDIS-like technology. Apparently The Matrix was in Doctor Who long before the movie of the same name or even Neuromancer (thanks, Wikipedia) which proves that Doctor Who is basically the be-all, end-all of science fiction.
***I don't dislike Clara as a companion, but her personality has been in flux since she was introduced. She seems to serve as a way of advancing plot far more often than an actual character, and that bugs me (although I guess most companions kind of serve that role).
****The makeout was hilariously uncomfortable and I suspect, upon the reveal at the end, made a lot of slash writers squee. Doctor/Master is a major pairing in the fan fiction world.
This week's episode, "Dark Water," was huge in both exposition and anticipation. First off, we finally learn who Missy is. Roughly no one is surprised, mind (
spotweld predicted this I believe the second time we saw her, if not the first, using pretty much the exact same wordplay that Missy explains it to the Doctor with), but having it finally told is huge and in my opinion satisfying: she is NOT a new villain that has been laced into the Doctor's backstory, which would be hugely annoying after the amount that's been done in the past couple seasons. No, she's The Master, back and still really bent on destroying the human race for no other reason than because she wants to (and probably because it'll destroy the Doctor as well; they ARE nemeses).In all honesty, I believe these are the best kind of villains: she's evil, truly madly deeply, and there's no real reason for it outside of petty annoyance with the world. I admit to enjoying the black-and-white, good v. evil, as compared to softening the villain and making us want to like them. I think that's probably why I like Doctor Who -- it's usually pretty upfront about the blatant evilness of the bad guys. Daleks may not be able to get up stairs, but damn, they hate and must destroy anything that isn't their species, and there's really no reason for that, they just do.
So anyway, the Master is back and she's a Time Lady now, and this opens the possibility of the Doctor eventually changing genders eventually which is pretty awesome in my opinion. Gender swapping has been show-canon since "The Doctor's Wife" (thanks, Neil Gaiman!), but actually having it on screen is pretty cool.
My immediate issue with this week's episode is how its second part is going to play out. It was a beautiful buildup, with reveals throughout the show (beautiful shot of the doors closing to reveal the Cyberman eyes -- that was gorgeously done), but...well...the other story, Clara's, is less intriguing. Her boyfriend, Danny Pink, is apparently another Rory, in that they've killed him*. Considering we saw one of his (and assumedly Clara's) several-times-great grandchildren in one of the first episodes of the season, death is probably not a permanent thing in this case. Again, Rory. The poor men in this show, they get no respect.
We're dealing with the Doctor facing Clara at her worst, having dealt with the death of a man she just confessed her complete and undeniable love for...and it's all sort of bland, really. They put Clara's breakdown into a "you can really only see this once" dream sequence, which makes it really poignant the first time and ruins it for every re-watch. We do finally see that yes, despite his general alien-ness with this regeneration, the Doctor really does care for Clara, but...the whole thing just seems a bit like a stepping stone instead of a major character development: They killed Danny Pink to advance the story, not to reveal any development of character in anybody.
So Danny is dealing with the afterlife**, meeting the boy he killed in Iraq/Afghanistan/whatever Middle Eastern country he was stationed in as a soldier. This is another "we've been building it up all season and here it is" thing, but in my opinion it's much less satisfying than the Master's reveal...which is odd because it's a much more human, much more emotional thing, and yet it's treated as a bit of a throwaway. Maybe if I rewatch the episode it'll seem deeper, but in all honesty I was more interested in what was going on with everyone trying to figure stuff out than with Danny the soldier.
That might just be me, I'll admit.
Anyway, this was the first truly scary Cyberman-based episode in my opinion (in the new series, anyway; I haven't seen enough older ones to judge). "Nightmare in Silver" was great -- again, Neil Gaiman being awesome -- but it wasn't nearly as scary as seeing cyberman from the inside-out. You forget they're human on the inside, but this episode was a very enthusiastic reminder of that.
Resolutions That Need to Happen
• All those dead folks we saw throughout the season being greeted by Missy or Seb; I suspect we'll be seeing them as Cybermen.
• Danny & Clara. Will Danny end up as a cyberman? Will the Doctor have to kill him to protect Clara? Or will he come back and they'll live happily ever after, with Clara finally saying her (real) goodbye to the Doctor?***
• The Cybermen's takeover of London
• The Doctor and the Master. It'd be REALLY INTERESTING to see the Master become the Doctor's companion, but I doubt that will happen****. I don't really want them to kill the Master though because having another Time Lord out there is a great plot device to play with, as they proved with Missy in general.
Can you see why I'm worried about the upcoming show? I'm sincerely hoping this doesn't get fucked up.
And that has been your "Tabbie nerds out about Doctor Who" for the time being.
*I suspect it'll be revealed that Missy planned this so she could get the Doctor where she wants him, so I won't be too surprised if that comes up in the upcoming episode.
**A Matrix Data Slice where Missy has been trapping the consciousnesses of the recently deceased. I don't know enough about Doctor Who to have any idea what this is outside of more TARDIS-like technology. Apparently The Matrix was in Doctor Who long before the movie of the same name or even Neuromancer (thanks, Wikipedia) which proves that Doctor Who is basically the be-all, end-all of science fiction.
***I don't dislike Clara as a companion, but her personality has been in flux since she was introduced. She seems to serve as a way of advancing plot far more often than an actual character, and that bugs me (although I guess most companions kind of serve that role).
****The makeout was hilariously uncomfortable and I suspect, upon the reveal at the end, made a lot of slash writers squee. Doctor/Master is a major pairing in the fan fiction world.
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-06 08:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-06 11:01 pm (UTC)I've heard a lot of people bitching "Oh, it's The Master again. Why didn't he bring in [the Rani/Romana/any other previous Doctor Who character in the existence of the show]?" and same for the Cybermen, but in all honesty I feel that this is very much a "Don't fix what ain't broken" situation and I think they pulled it off very well. They're called nemeses for a reason, folks.
I'm still keeping my expectations as low as possible, though.