Waters of Mars
Nov. 15th, 2009 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcWow.
I mean, wow.
That ... was something.
Firstly, it was a good, old-fashioned "base under siege" story. I can't remember the last time I saw a base under siege story (which, since their heyday was ten years before I was born, isn't surprising[1]).
Secondly, it was a "The Virus" story, which managed to use the horror-movie aspects of this much more effectively than, say, your typical Cyberman story (being on a par with "The Empty Child" for creepiness in this regard).
But the scariest thing in it wasn't the Flood, or the claustrophobia of being trapped in a confined space with the Flood breaking their way in. It was the Doctor.
I knew this episode involved a moral dilemmia, and had heard hints the Doctor was going to make a "dark" decision. And for a moment, I thought this meant he was going to let the Web of Time stand, and the last quarter hour would consist of everyone dying while he walked slowly back to the TARDIS.
Instead we get a Doctor who has taken it upon himself not just to tear up the rulebook, but rewrite it; his survivor's guilt having been transformed into a conviction that he's the only winner of the Time War, and there's nothing he can't do. When he says "I own the Laws of Time, and they will obey me!" David seems to be channelling Tom's "There is only my will, because I control the Key to Time!", except that Fourth was putting it on to make a point, and Tenth means it. (It's also hard not to notice that he's paraphrasing another Time Lord who thinks he's above the rules.) He's clearly going too far, and those he saves knows it. He prompts them for thanks (also uncharacteristic), but gets terror from those who have just seen a glimpse of what he's become, and horrified understanding from the one who saw it happening.
Even then, I really didn't expect that bit at the end. It doesn't get mentioned in Confidential, but I suspect part of the reason the Doctor was so manically determined to screw destiny was a belief that he could avoid what's waiting for him at Christmas 2010.[2] But following Adelaide's example, he's going to face what's coming -- although that "No!" indicates he's still got no intention of accepting it.
Roll on Christmas...
[1]Yes, okay, BBC Books' The Deviant Strain is a base under siege story. And so is Big Finish's The Apocalypse Element, and BBC 7's "Horror of Glam Rock". But they were books and audio dramas, so I didn't see a base under siege.
Yeah, okay, "Dalek". And again in "The Parting Of The Ways". Shut up.
[2]I think. Maybe now that they've skipped a year (since last year's special was in the Victorian era) it can be Christmas 2009, and that annoying artifact of a funny bit in "Aliens of London"[3] can finally be put to rest.
[3]Which, yes, had Number 10 under siege. Shut up.
I mean, wow.
That ... was something.
Firstly, it was a good, old-fashioned "base under siege" story. I can't remember the last time I saw a base under siege story (which, since their heyday was ten years before I was born, isn't surprising[1]).
Secondly, it was a "The Virus" story, which managed to use the horror-movie aspects of this much more effectively than, say, your typical Cyberman story (being on a par with "The Empty Child" for creepiness in this regard).
But the scariest thing in it wasn't the Flood, or the claustrophobia of being trapped in a confined space with the Flood breaking their way in. It was the Doctor.
I knew this episode involved a moral dilemmia, and had heard hints the Doctor was going to make a "dark" decision. And for a moment, I thought this meant he was going to let the Web of Time stand, and the last quarter hour would consist of everyone dying while he walked slowly back to the TARDIS.
Instead we get a Doctor who has taken it upon himself not just to tear up the rulebook, but rewrite it; his survivor's guilt having been transformed into a conviction that he's the only winner of the Time War, and there's nothing he can't do. When he says "I own the Laws of Time, and they will obey me!" David seems to be channelling Tom's "There is only my will, because I control the Key to Time!", except that Fourth was putting it on to make a point, and Tenth means it. (It's also hard not to notice that he's paraphrasing another Time Lord who thinks he's above the rules.) He's clearly going too far, and those he saves knows it. He prompts them for thanks (also uncharacteristic), but gets terror from those who have just seen a glimpse of what he's become, and horrified understanding from the one who saw it happening.
Even then, I really didn't expect that bit at the end. It doesn't get mentioned in Confidential, but I suspect part of the reason the Doctor was so manically determined to screw destiny was a belief that he could avoid what's waiting for him at Christmas 2010.[2] But following Adelaide's example, he's going to face what's coming -- although that "No!" indicates he's still got no intention of accepting it.
Roll on Christmas...
[1]Yes, okay, BBC Books' The Deviant Strain is a base under siege story. And so is Big Finish's The Apocalypse Element, and BBC 7's "Horror of Glam Rock". But they were books and audio dramas, so I didn't see a base under siege.
Yeah, okay, "Dalek". And again in "The Parting Of The Ways". Shut up.
[2]I think. Maybe now that they've skipped a year (since last year's special was in the Victorian era) it can be Christmas 2009, and that annoying artifact of a funny bit in "Aliens of London"[3] can finally be put to rest.
[3]Which, yes, had Number 10 under siege. Shut up.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 10:53 pm (UTC)