![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcUnsettling. Mostly in a good way.
Clearly going for folk horror, so, much as I prefer my Doctor Who stories to be neatly tied up with a barrelful of explanations, I will accept that you don't do that in folk horror. And honestly, while folk horror isn't my cup of tea, it works, to an extent.
It's the most folk-horrific while we're in Wales, of course, although that's nicely subverted with the pub of Suspicious and Vaguely Sinister Locals who turn out to be trolling the Englishwoman. Although ... is the story they claim to be winding her up with actually wrong? Again, we don't get any answers, but it would be consistant with what happens, kind of.
While that's the most folk-horrific, back in London is the most actually horrific, with the Mysterious Woman somehow turning even her mother against her. And Kate. (Who also notes the whole "magic coming back" thing, which kind of had me thinking "But this is Doctor Who. There's always been creatures that look like they're from folklore and have appropriate powers and vulnerabilities, so how can they tell the difference?")
And then a montage of decades passing where I had to wonder where this was actually going.
And then Ruby realises (or decides) she's here to stop Roger ap Williams, and it kind of feels like we've moved into a different story entirely. Even when it turns out her method of stopping him is weaponising the Mysterious Woman, it still feels like it's not exactly the same genre it started as. And then ... decades continue to pass, and I'm really wondering where this is going.
And it turns out to be going back to the start, where Old Ruby is sort of revealed to be the Mysterious Woman, but also stops any of it from happening at all. Why? How? Because folk horror, that's why.
Clearly going for folk horror, so, much as I prefer my Doctor Who stories to be neatly tied up with a barrelful of explanations, I will accept that you don't do that in folk horror. And honestly, while folk horror isn't my cup of tea, it works, to an extent.
It's the most folk-horrific while we're in Wales, of course, although that's nicely subverted with the pub of Suspicious and Vaguely Sinister Locals who turn out to be trolling the Englishwoman. Although ... is the story they claim to be winding her up with actually wrong? Again, we don't get any answers, but it would be consistant with what happens, kind of.
While that's the most folk-horrific, back in London is the most actually horrific, with the Mysterious Woman somehow turning even her mother against her. And Kate. (Who also notes the whole "magic coming back" thing, which kind of had me thinking "But this is Doctor Who. There's always been creatures that look like they're from folklore and have appropriate powers and vulnerabilities, so how can they tell the difference?")
And then a montage of decades passing where I had to wonder where this was actually going.
And then Ruby realises (or decides) she's here to stop Roger ap Williams, and it kind of feels like we've moved into a different story entirely. Even when it turns out her method of stopping him is weaponising the Mysterious Woman, it still feels like it's not exactly the same genre it started as. And then ... decades continue to pass, and I'm really wondering where this is going.
And it turns out to be going back to the start, where Old Ruby is sort of revealed to be the Mysterious Woman, but also stops any of it from happening at all. Why? How? Because folk horror, that's why.
