Time of the Doctor (Spoiler free)

[daibhidc]

Well, I enjoyed it.

And the fact I start with that rather than my usual "Wow, that was awesome!" says a lot. Specifically it says my enthusiasm has been muted by the fact I'm clearly in the minority. Not just on the internet, either; my sister's been complaining about it since Christmas.

Which is why this post is spoiler-free. Normally, at this point I'd be raving about my favourite moments and why, and what bits I thought were really clever, and which bits I thought were flawed but not enough to spoil it. But I don't think I can do that in my normal stream-of-consciousness, barely-edited, isn't-Doctor-Who-wonderful style. If I were to start going on about why I liked it, it would have to be in the form of mounting a defence. And I don't have the energy for that right now. Maybe I will later.

Comments

[john_amend_all]

Judging by the poll on Gallifrey Base, you're actually in the majority.

[vatine]

I really liked it when I watched it, but the further I am distanced in time from that moment, the less I like it.

There were a few things that were just "ugh". The way most, if not all, female characters we saw threw themselves at the Doctor, in sexual endo (it was not subtle, so it can;t be innuendo) was troublesome.

I did like that the Silence "monsters" were confessional priests. That is, if anything, even creepier than them being what they were beforehand.

There were also a flurry of great little throwaway things.

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I loved it too. It was brilliant, flawed but brilliant. I loved the idea of what the silence really were, living confessionals that allow you to forget your sin as soon as you've confessed it, that was a good old fashioned bit of SF. It gave Clara some much needed character depth, and also giving the Doctor yet another figure from a mysterious past (and yet another girlfriend) was a nice touch; for a 900+ time traveller there has previously been little in the sense of deep time about his travels prior to the Moffat era. Plus wooden cybermen, comedy Sontarans, Daleks, and then those eyebrows!

[sabremeister]

Nearlydead#11 looked a bit like Hartnell, I thought. Also, he'd been living on that planet for something like 600 years, so he's now about 1700 years old.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, totally agree about the female characters. For a while I was wondering if the fact the Mother Superior was basically River Song was a plot point, but no, it's just that Moffatt Female Character #2 is more obviously the same character every time than Moffat Female Character #1.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. That's not the impression I was getting from Twitter and LJ.

[vatine]

Oh, aye, the mostly useless use of the Weeping Angels. They are supposed to be deeply scary and this episode turned them into light relief. :(