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selenayThese episodes certainly brought the series back with a bang!
The difficulty with the first episode in a new season is that it either has to do the job of re-introducing everyone to everything or it has to launch things with a huge bang. It's possible to do both (The Eleventh Hour was fantastic for that reason) but not easy and I have to admit that the first episode has usually been the weakest of the season.
I think Moffat decided "oh, to heck with new viewers" with these episodes, because they were enthralling, fantastic and utterly incomprehensible unless you're a fan who has watched the whole of season five. So, they worked brilliantly for me but probably won't have worked well for new or very casual viewers. Hopefully next week's pirate episode (pirates! hats! pirate hats!) will be a little more accessible.
However!
I don't even know where to start. The Silence are horrific, terrifying monsters. Partially it's the creepy looks, but the implications of them are what really got to me. I'm sure they'll be this year's running theme, I don't think we've seen the last of them, and they may actually rank up there with the Angels as one of the all-time great monsters. Moffat's strong point is monsters that play with abstract concepts that you wouldn't think would be bad until he puts flesh on them and you realise that something you can't see moving or that forget about when you aren't looking at them is actually far worse than flesh-devouring icky thing.
The idea that the Silence has been there forever, that one of them might be peering over my shoulder right now, is what got me. Ugh. Well done, Moffat, my nightmares are now complete :-)
The other big Moffat theme, playing around with time-streams, was there in full-force again and it made my head hurt in a good way sometimes. I'd expected the Doctor's death to be resolved at the end of the episode. Instead, it's been turned into that thing that's hanging over everyone and will probably not get resolved for weeks. I approve!
The little girl is very creepy. Who is she? Why is she regenerating? I'm sure it can't be as simple as being Amy's daughter, affected by the Time Vortex, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that resolves.
Speaking of Amy...
They really had me going (along with Rory) when she was declaring her love over the communicator. Even though we had a lot of great Rory/Amy stuff in last year's episodes, there was a part of me that worried she really was still pining for the Doctor. I think that I might have been as relieved as Rory to find out that she isn't :-) Because I adore Rory and I don't want him to leave the TARDIS. Also, I loved the fact that Rory wasn't jealous about the not-telling-him-she-might-be-pregnant thing and was more upset that she didn't think he could handle a potentially weird pregnancy. It's so easy sometimes to forget that he's a nurse!
Anyway, I still love Amy/Rory and I have a feeling that we're going to have a lot of lovely stuff between them as everything gets steadily darker. It feels like this is only the start of a very dark season.
I must give a special mention to Canton. How wonderful was he? How much do I want to see him back?
Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
He's a terrific character and if we don't get him back at least once this year, I may cry. I would be saying that even if we didn't have that final scene with the President. That just made him more awesome. The early part of Day of the Moon is what sold me on him: hunting everyone down, being sneaky and devious, and making me believe that he was a bad guy right up until that room was sealed. Then he continued to be awesome in the orphanage and, well, everywhere. I may be fangirling Canton just a wee bit.
I may also be fangirling River rather a lot, too. She gets better every time we see her. My heart almost broke when she said that her worst day would be the day that the Doctor didn't recognise her, because we've seen that day already and it was just as bad as she thinks it will be. Until she said it, I hadn't really grasped that they're moving in opposite directions and that makes it even more heartbreaking. Part of me is looking forward to seeing her again and seeing a lot of questions answered, another part dreads it because I think she'll break my heart again.
Also, did you see River take out all those monsters? So totally cool :-)
Overall, I thought these episodes were gripping, fun, frightening and lusciously dark. Not good as intros for newbies to Doctor Who, but perfectly pitched for fans with the combination of answers and new questions. Roll on next week!
The difficulty with the first episode in a new season is that it either has to do the job of re-introducing everyone to everything or it has to launch things with a huge bang. It's possible to do both (The Eleventh Hour was fantastic for that reason) but not easy and I have to admit that the first episode has usually been the weakest of the season.
I think Moffat decided "oh, to heck with new viewers" with these episodes, because they were enthralling, fantastic and utterly incomprehensible unless you're a fan who has watched the whole of season five. So, they worked brilliantly for me but probably won't have worked well for new or very casual viewers. Hopefully next week's pirate episode (pirates! hats! pirate hats!) will be a little more accessible.
However!
I don't even know where to start. The Silence are horrific, terrifying monsters. Partially it's the creepy looks, but the implications of them are what really got to me. I'm sure they'll be this year's running theme, I don't think we've seen the last of them, and they may actually rank up there with the Angels as one of the all-time great monsters. Moffat's strong point is monsters that play with abstract concepts that you wouldn't think would be bad until he puts flesh on them and you realise that something you can't see moving or that forget about when you aren't looking at them is actually far worse than flesh-devouring icky thing.
The idea that the Silence has been there forever, that one of them might be peering over my shoulder right now, is what got me. Ugh. Well done, Moffat, my nightmares are now complete :-)
The other big Moffat theme, playing around with time-streams, was there in full-force again and it made my head hurt in a good way sometimes. I'd expected the Doctor's death to be resolved at the end of the episode. Instead, it's been turned into that thing that's hanging over everyone and will probably not get resolved for weeks. I approve!
The little girl is very creepy. Who is she? Why is she regenerating? I'm sure it can't be as simple as being Amy's daughter, affected by the Time Vortex, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that resolves.
Speaking of Amy...
They really had me going (along with Rory) when she was declaring her love over the communicator. Even though we had a lot of great Rory/Amy stuff in last year's episodes, there was a part of me that worried she really was still pining for the Doctor. I think that I might have been as relieved as Rory to find out that she isn't :-) Because I adore Rory and I don't want him to leave the TARDIS. Also, I loved the fact that Rory wasn't jealous about the not-telling-him-she-might-be-pregnant thing and was more upset that she didn't think he could handle a potentially weird pregnancy. It's so easy sometimes to forget that he's a nurse!
Anyway, I still love Amy/Rory and I have a feeling that we're going to have a lot of lovely stuff between them as everything gets steadily darker. It feels like this is only the start of a very dark season.
I must give a special mention to Canton. How wonderful was he? How much do I want to see him back?
Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
He's a terrific character and if we don't get him back at least once this year, I may cry. I would be saying that even if we didn't have that final scene with the President. That just made him more awesome. The early part of Day of the Moon is what sold me on him: hunting everyone down, being sneaky and devious, and making me believe that he was a bad guy right up until that room was sealed. Then he continued to be awesome in the orphanage and, well, everywhere. I may be fangirling Canton just a wee bit.
I may also be fangirling River rather a lot, too. She gets better every time we see her. My heart almost broke when she said that her worst day would be the day that the Doctor didn't recognise her, because we've seen that day already and it was just as bad as she thinks it will be. Until she said it, I hadn't really grasped that they're moving in opposite directions and that makes it even more heartbreaking. Part of me is looking forward to seeing her again and seeing a lot of questions answered, another part dreads it because I think she'll break my heart again.
Also, did you see River take out all those monsters? So totally cool :-)
Overall, I thought these episodes were gripping, fun, frightening and lusciously dark. Not good as intros for newbies to Doctor Who, but perfectly pitched for fans with the combination of answers and new questions. Roll on next week!
