What a long, sad trip it&#39;s been

I'm starting to think they need to run expository notes at the bottom of the screen the way they used to do on Lost. At this point, I'm not even following the story line anymore, I'm just watching because it's shiny and British.

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It’s true that the season-long mysteries are making it more complex to watch. Last season’s made it difficult for me to like Amy until after the big reveal, but I do appreciate the fact that it had a proper pay off unlike RTD’s smoke and mirrors.

Of course, I was never a big fan of David Tennant ;)

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I crapped out on last season altogether. What was the big reveal about Amy? This whole River Song business? Because that also makes no sense to me.

Of course, I was never a big fan of David Tennant ;)

Well really, who could be?

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Anyone who's not up-to-date should not read further unless they want to be spoiled big time:

The big reveal about Amy was that the crack in the wall had erased her family and many of the experiences that had created her personality from existence. Thus both the irritating inconsistencies about her life and some of the things that made her adult version so unlikeable compared to her younger self were deliberate and part of the plot rather than being bad continuity and characterisation.

As for River Song, we still don't know everything about her, but she's Amy and Rory's daughter, has some Timelord-like abilities because of the nature of her conception and her appearances are out of synch with The Doctor's direction of travel through time so in the episodes we we have seen she knows more about The Doctor than he does about her.

The thing I'm currently puzzling about is how they're going to explain how The Flesh, which turned up randomly as a mid-season antagonist having never appeared anywhere before, is suddenly prevalent enough that two different characters on two different planets and in two different times have both been replaced by it.

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The big reveal about Amy was that the crack in the wall had erased her family and many of the experiences that had created her personality from existence.

So, was that patched up, so to speak? Or is the crack in the wall still looming as an unresolved storyline?

It sounds like they're going for some kind of big destiny thing with River Song because obviously she's going to be involved with The Doctor in the future...or the past...or whenever, and I'm getting the impression that this destiny involves his death or apparent death.

I totally bagged on the Flesh episode. I tried watching it twice and couldn't get through it either time.

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So, was that patched up, so to speak? Or is the crack in the wall still looming as an unresolved storyline?

The Doctor reset the universe at the (obviously temporary) cost of his own existence. Amy got her parents, her memories and Rory back and then remembered The Doctor back into existence with the help of River’s now blank diary. Amy seemed a lot nicer this season – we’d been assuming that it was as a result of the restored memories but then it was revealed that the real Amy had been replaced with Flesh so who knows.

It sounds like they're going for some kind of big destiny thing with River Song because obviously she's going to be involved with The Doctor in the future...or the past...or whenever, and I'm getting the impression that this destiny involves his death or apparent death.

The current working assumption is that River was the little girl in the spacesuit at the beginning of this season and that The Doctor is the man who she was in prison for shooting. How or when they manage to have their supposed romance is still not clear. Of course the Doctor’s death at the beginning of the season is complicated by the fact that there is at least one Flesh version of him out there somewhere.

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*facepalms*

All I know is that, being schooled in Back to the Future theory of time travel, Amy Pond coming face-to-face with the middle-aged daughter that she had just given birth to should have sundered the space-time continuum forever. So there.

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Classic Who had rules about that sort of thing, but they got jettisoned in the RTD era.

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I'm totally there with you. I was OK last season but this season, every episode has been like that. From what I'd heard from friends in the UK, the last episode was supposed to be utterly fantastic. I watched it last night and my pronouncement was "Not so much."

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I watched that last night and I was like, okay -- we've got a lizard woman, headless monks, cybermen, a giant blue genie, a chick with one eye, a guy who looks like a big baby in a diving suit, some kind of army, another chick who's dressed like a metermaid, Rory's a centurion, Amy had the world's shortest pregnancy and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON.

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It just so happens that I had breakfast yesterday with a friend who was talking about the same thing -- she and her husband came to that conclusion as well. The characters you mentioned in this final episode were repeats, but I'm damned if I could remember them all. It's not just the characters, though. The dialog is very fast (Tennant did this too), with an implicit faith that I'm going to follow it -- which I'm not ;)

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It's not only fast, it's also British and my American ears can hardly handle it. I could use some subtitles!

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Fortunately, I don't have that particular issue. I watch a huge amount of British TV and movies and have for a very long time.

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That's the thing, so do I...and I also always have. But this is just so motormouthed that half of it goes right over my head.

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So then maybe it's not the accents per se, just the speed. My problem is with children -- I don't understand what they say most of the time, even if they are technically speaking my language :)

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twirlycurls.livejournal.com

I'm about four episodes behind because I just can't bring myself to watch episodes that I know will leave me confused and disappointed. I also find the show convoluted and confusing now, but wasn't sure if others felt that way or if it was just me, paying less attention with every episode.

Seriously, I have no idea what the last season was about. I don't think I could give a summary of the themes or even the straight-forward events if my life depended upon it.

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I think I abandoned last season after the third or fourth episode. I enjoyed this season's premiere with Mark Sheppard but I very quickly found myself lost again.

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pedx.livejournal.com

I've seen a few of the new episodes and simply cannot muster up any interest anymore. The episode where the Tardis becomes a woman was just plain ridiculous.

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pearlette.livejournal.com

The episode where the Tardis becomes a woman was just plain ridiculous.

Oooh, no, I loved that. :) Neil Gaiman should write more eps for Doctor Who! I simply loved Doctor + TARDIS = OTP. Indeed, it was quite surprising that no previous writers had ever thought about that concept before.

I first watched Doctor Who in about 1973, when I turned ten and was finally allowed to watch the Scary Show. I've never entirely understood it, LOL. It's just Fun. And that's the level at which I enjoy it.

I adore both Tennant's Doctor and Matt Smith's Doc. Matt Smith has a lot of the spirit of Tom Baker about him. His Doctor is pure Doctor: a jester, infuriating, quizzical, immensely clever, very witty, but can also be quite cold. That coldness has always been part of the Doctor's character, it helps us remember he's an alien. Even Tennant's Doc could be cold, at times.

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I'm a real latecomer to this series. Christopher Eccleston was my first Doctor and I was just getting into the show when David Tennant replaced him. And then he was The Doctor for so long that he just IS The Doctor to me. It didn't hurt that he really did look like an alien. He also had a face that was capable of such pathos, and Matt Smith just looks too callow to pull that off, IMO.

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