Cold Blood

[daibhidc]

Oh. My. Freakin'. God!

That was something I said twice during the episode. First with delight, when I realised the Silurian Elder was Stephen Moore. He's one of those actors who you're faintly surprised to realise have never been in Doctor Who before, and he was brilliant.

Second with shock when (I did warn about the spoilers) Rory dies! And shortly afterwards gets wiped from history, including Amy's memory! Really didn't see that one coming.

Between those two moments was an episode I really enjoyed (especially since I correctly predicted which of the "apes" would kill Alaya). The usual conflict between the "war" and "peace" factions of Silurian society was given a neat twist with Maolokeh, who was basically on the "peace" side, but still didn't entirely see the humans as people.

(Although I'd have prefered it if they'd been suspended for another 500 years, rather than a thousand, since that would tie in with the Silurian Earth Reptile presence in Bernice Summerfield's time.)

And within the crack is ... a chunk of TARDIS! Eek!

Comments

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

It's a reset button because there is no resolution on this one. In the previous Silurians and Sea Devils stories there was one, a downer ending, but the issue was resolved. In this case the Doc is just pushing the issue a thousand years into the future. in 3010 they wake up and it is going to be lather, rinse, repeat.

As for Amy, well, she has been shown has been a little bit of a sociopath at times. Okay, that is a bit unfair, but she isn't the most empathic or mental stable of companions. And lets face it, TV has never been that accurate with psychology (or any other science, I mean they were repeating the moon swinging into orbit myth and implying apes, or at least our ape-like ancestors, were co-habiting the planet with the Silurians before the moon swung by, again. PertDoc got complaints about that in the 70s FFS). Plus the editing seemed a bit strange for Amy's big forgetting. I dunno, it just seemed off.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

But that's not what "reset button (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ResetButton)" means. It's a reset button if, at the end of the story, something happens that means most of the story has no long-term effects; in sci-fi shows often because it literally didn't happen. "Year Of Hell" in Voyager for example, where they stop the time-travel McGuffin that was fueling the entire storyline from ever existing.

A lack of resolution, so the story is still floating about waiting to be resolved, is kind of the exact opposite of a reset button.