The Day of the Doctor
Nov. 26th, 2013 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanSo I finally just watched The Day of the Doctor (no cinema showings in Vietnam, boooo). And it was amazing and so much better than I'd feared – I'd thought we might get that sense of being overstuffed with stuff that happens with a lot of New Who, where the pace is so fast it's fucked. But nope.
And I just. I cried. The Doctor, the clever Doctor who's the one who heals, and who chose not to destroy Skaro before the Daleks could be born – it was always devastating that even he was pushed into choosing that kind of violence, that he committed genocide, that brute force and cynicism did defeat intelligence and romance. I didn't exactly want it changed, but it always felt like on some level a betrayal of the programme's ethos, as well as a really devastating comment on pacifism and the necessity of violence. Now certainly this solution wasn't pacifism – pacifism can't really win if you set up a sci-fi universe with emotionless destroyers as antagonists – but. The Doctor WAS the Doctor, and everybody lives. Seriously, I cried.
And. I mean ALL of the Doctors being there, doing the calculation, helping save Gallifrey? It was one of those things where I wasn't sure of the logic but it totally didn't matter because this is what the Doctor is about, all of him, all his iterations,
Also, Billie Piper was excellent. That was a really cool use of the Bad Wolf thing and I liked how totally un-Rose she was, and Ten's reaction shot was excellent. The way the three Doctors interacted was so fun, especially the sly commentary on some of the elements of New Who that have enraged purists (“does this happen a lot in the future?” “Am I having some kind of midlife crisis?” “It's a screwdriver, not a water pistol?”) The cracks about the different accents were nice too, although again I mourned the absence of Lots of Planets Have A North.
I loved John Hurt. Everyone was great, actually. I wasn't crazy about the Elizabeth thing – bit too Blackadder – but whatever. Scarf Girl was great, as was Brigadier Junior, and I liked the Bechdel passing. I liked Clara more than I ever have before – I've never disliked her, but as with Rose I also didn't quite connect, and I definitely did here.
I really, really missed Nine in the Big Red Button scene. I get Eccleston didn't want to do it but I felt his absence so much there; he should have been there for that conversation, that first post-War Doctor who when asked if he would be a coward or a killer, grinned and said “coward. Every time.” But it was still so great. And they got to engage with the decision to destroy Gallifrey and the Daleks together, more than they ever have before, and to change it. Verklumpt.
I was unfortunately spoiled for Baker's appearance, but I would've guessed it anyway the moment Clara mentioned an old man and “I think he's the curator.” Curator as retired Doctor, especially in the context of frozen life as art, is so ridiculously perfect. And seriously. FOUR, and the two of them grinning away and “Who knows,” and tapping his nose. *flappy hands*
Also, congratulations everyone for the restraint with the Daleks. Just enough to remind people of the threat they posed without letting it become remotely a story about Daleks; it was a story about doubling and the past and whether killing a vast number of people to save the rest is okay. I hope we get back to the negotiations at the Black Archive.
Oh, also? So many cool little references. I Chesterton! <3 I mean, on some level they're sort of cheap little in-jokes. On the other hand, they're in-jokes with a lot of affection invested.
I loved getting to see the start of that regeneration too, especially since I'd already clocked the leather jacket.
So yes. Happy birthday Doctor Who, and thank you to all the countless people who've put it together and made it brilliant, an inedible part of our national life; from Verity Lambert to Douglas Adams to the Bristol Boys to every Doctor and Companion. Here's to the next fifty years.
And I just. I cried. The Doctor, the clever Doctor who's the one who heals, and who chose not to destroy Skaro before the Daleks could be born – it was always devastating that even he was pushed into choosing that kind of violence, that he committed genocide, that brute force and cynicism did defeat intelligence and romance. I didn't exactly want it changed, but it always felt like on some level a betrayal of the programme's ethos, as well as a really devastating comment on pacifism and the necessity of violence. Now certainly this solution wasn't pacifism – pacifism can't really win if you set up a sci-fi universe with emotionless destroyers as antagonists – but. The Doctor WAS the Doctor, and everybody lives. Seriously, I cried.
And. I mean ALL of the Doctors being there, doing the calculation, helping save Gallifrey? It was one of those things where I wasn't sure of the logic but it totally didn't matter because this is what the Doctor is about, all of him, all his iterations,
Also, Billie Piper was excellent. That was a really cool use of the Bad Wolf thing and I liked how totally un-Rose she was, and Ten's reaction shot was excellent. The way the three Doctors interacted was so fun, especially the sly commentary on some of the elements of New Who that have enraged purists (“does this happen a lot in the future?” “Am I having some kind of midlife crisis?” “It's a screwdriver, not a water pistol?”) The cracks about the different accents were nice too, although again I mourned the absence of Lots of Planets Have A North.
I loved John Hurt. Everyone was great, actually. I wasn't crazy about the Elizabeth thing – bit too Blackadder – but whatever. Scarf Girl was great, as was Brigadier Junior, and I liked the Bechdel passing. I liked Clara more than I ever have before – I've never disliked her, but as with Rose I also didn't quite connect, and I definitely did here.
I really, really missed Nine in the Big Red Button scene. I get Eccleston didn't want to do it but I felt his absence so much there; he should have been there for that conversation, that first post-War Doctor who when asked if he would be a coward or a killer, grinned and said “coward. Every time.” But it was still so great. And they got to engage with the decision to destroy Gallifrey and the Daleks together, more than they ever have before, and to change it. Verklumpt.
I was unfortunately spoiled for Baker's appearance, but I would've guessed it anyway the moment Clara mentioned an old man and “I think he's the curator.” Curator as retired Doctor, especially in the context of frozen life as art, is so ridiculously perfect. And seriously. FOUR, and the two of them grinning away and “Who knows,” and tapping his nose. *flappy hands*
Also, congratulations everyone for the restraint with the Daleks. Just enough to remind people of the threat they posed without letting it become remotely a story about Daleks; it was a story about doubling and the past and whether killing a vast number of people to save the rest is okay. I hope we get back to the negotiations at the Black Archive.
Oh, also? So many cool little references. I Chesterton! <3 I mean, on some level they're sort of cheap little in-jokes. On the other hand, they're in-jokes with a lot of affection invested.
I loved getting to see the start of that regeneration too, especially since I'd already clocked the leather jacket.
So yes. Happy birthday Doctor Who, and thank you to all the countless people who've put it together and made it brilliant, an inedible part of our national life; from Verity Lambert to Douglas Adams to the Bristol Boys to every Doctor and Companion. Here's to the next fifty years.
