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]

I felt it was a bit of a mess this episode. There was a lot of stuff in it, but it never really came together for me (not a surprise, since I kinda felt that last week too). Rory being offed felt almost like an after thought too, almost a Die Hard moment IYSWIM.

I'm wondering if Amy really has forgotten Rory, or is just pretending because it is easier for her. Lot of loose story threads that haven't been knitted enough, hampered by the need to make it a cliffhanger halfway through (if they had drawn some of it into last weeks it would have made a better whole, but lost the Cliffhanger moment), and a huge reset button (albeit one with a snooze function).

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

If she hasn't forgotten Rory, then she's suffering from a severe disassociative disorder. You don't go from tearful rage to pretending you've forgotten someone's existence because it's "easier". Apart from anything else, it isn't, you've got all the pain and sadness and anger, but now you're bottling it up for no real reason.

I'm not sure I agree about the huge reset button ... you mean because it doesn't end with the Silurians actually sharing the planet? Most Doctor Who stories don't end like that; in fact I can't think of a single present-day story which does end with humans and another species as long-term allies (largely, of course, because with most species the Doctor encounters this simply isn't an option...)

[john_amend_all]

In the timeline the new series seems to be following, doesn't a thousand years in the future correspond to a time when the Earth is abandoned by humans? <googles> "The Beast Below" has Earth abandoned in the 29th century for several hundred years.

[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.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know where that came from. In "The Ark in Space", the Nerva beacon was constructed in the 30th century, but wasn't used to escape the solar flares until thousands of years later.