![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Doctor Who - Night Terrors
Okay, that was definitely a watch-from-behind-a-cushion one. (Behind the sofa doesn't work for me; it's uncomfortable, and that is not conductive to feeling secure.)
I think that was the creepiest episode so far. (I was going to say "ever", then I remembered there was one coming up with ventriliquist dummies and a clown, so...) And it was an "Everybody lives!" one. Have you noticed they're always the spookiest? I suppose it's because when a Dalek comes screaming at a crowd of hapless extras shooting everyone in sight, you at least know what's going on. But when people are just having weird things happen that make them less human, like turning into gasmask zombies or living dolls...
George was brilliant, to the extent that I was relieved to watch Confidential and learn Jamie was okay and full of self-confidence, and just really good at pretending to be scared. And the order in which the people disappeared was logical: first the woman he thought was a witch; then Rory and Amy because he heard Rory say he'd let the monsters eat him; then the landlord (a btilliant touch, a totally mundane fear and one that George probably doesn't even understand; he just knows that anyone that scares his Dad must be really scary.)
I twigged the doll's house thing as soon as Amy said the saucepan was painted wood, so I'm quite pleased with myself there.
Gattis shows the same grasp of childhood fears as Pratchett does in Hogfather[1], perhaps even better. The ultimate fear isn't monsters in the wardrobe, or creepy dolls, or even men who have some sort of power over your parents. As beautifully dramatised here, it's the possibility that they don't want you, letting Gattis do a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when George's dad makes it clear he does.
(It would have been so easy to make Alex an unsympathetic authoritarian who thinks George should toughen up, leading to the end ringing horribly false [see "The Idiot's Lantern" by, er...]. Instead we get a man who genuinely wants what's best for his child, but is well aware he has no idea what that is.)
And of course, being Doctor Who, it manages to be funny even when it's creeping you out: the toe-curling embarassment of the TARDIS crew going door to door, the Doctor's "Don't open the cupboard! Open the cupboard! Don't open the cupboard!" and the totally resigned tone with which Rory comes to the conclusion "We're dead. Again."
Criticism? Well, George's room was a little too much a horror-movie kid's bedroom. Real kids' bedrooms, however creepy the shadows may be, have brightly coloured posters on the walls, and portable TVs with games consoles hooked to them. They don't have ancient Victorian dolls with flaking paint, not even hidden in the cupboard. But it's Doctor Who, and you expect atmosphere to trump realism.
And finally, the obligitory foreshadowing. "Tick tock goes the clock..."
[1]"Let's see, now...in Hogfather there are a number of stabbings, aomeone's killed by a man made of knives, someone's killed by the dark, and someone just been killed by a wardrobe. It's a book about the magic of childhood. You can tell."
I think that was the creepiest episode so far. (I was going to say "ever", then I remembered there was one coming up with ventriliquist dummies and a clown, so...) And it was an "Everybody lives!" one. Have you noticed they're always the spookiest? I suppose it's because when a Dalek comes screaming at a crowd of hapless extras shooting everyone in sight, you at least know what's going on. But when people are just having weird things happen that make them less human, like turning into gasmask zombies or living dolls...
George was brilliant, to the extent that I was relieved to watch Confidential and learn Jamie was okay and full of self-confidence, and just really good at pretending to be scared. And the order in which the people disappeared was logical: first the woman he thought was a witch; then Rory and Amy because he heard Rory say he'd let the monsters eat him; then the landlord (a btilliant touch, a totally mundane fear and one that George probably doesn't even understand; he just knows that anyone that scares his Dad must be really scary.)
I twigged the doll's house thing as soon as Amy said the saucepan was painted wood, so I'm quite pleased with myself there.
Gattis shows the same grasp of childhood fears as Pratchett does in Hogfather[1], perhaps even better. The ultimate fear isn't monsters in the wardrobe, or creepy dolls, or even men who have some sort of power over your parents. As beautifully dramatised here, it's the possibility that they don't want you, letting Gattis do a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when George's dad makes it clear he does.
(It would have been so easy to make Alex an unsympathetic authoritarian who thinks George should toughen up, leading to the end ringing horribly false [see "The Idiot's Lantern" by, er...]. Instead we get a man who genuinely wants what's best for his child, but is well aware he has no idea what that is.)
And of course, being Doctor Who, it manages to be funny even when it's creeping you out: the toe-curling embarassment of the TARDIS crew going door to door, the Doctor's "Don't open the cupboard! Open the cupboard! Don't open the cupboard!" and the totally resigned tone with which Rory comes to the conclusion "We're dead. Again."
Criticism? Well, George's room was a little too much a horror-movie kid's bedroom. Real kids' bedrooms, however creepy the shadows may be, have brightly coloured posters on the walls, and portable TVs with games consoles hooked to them. They don't have ancient Victorian dolls with flaking paint, not even hidden in the cupboard. But it's Doctor Who, and you expect atmosphere to trump realism.
And finally, the obligitory foreshadowing. "Tick tock goes the clock..."
[1]"Let's see, now...in Hogfather there are a number of stabbings, aomeone's killed by a man made of knives, someone's killed by the dark, and someone just been killed by a wardrobe. It's a book about the magic of childhood. You can tell."
no subject
Same here. In my case, I think Recognising When You've Been Shrunken And Stashed In A Dollhouse is one of the important life skills I learned from Diana Wynne Jones.