Spoilers

[green_amber]

I've just watched..

Fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

I cried with sorrow and I cried with happiness and I cried with recognition; "Today, everybody lives."

That wasn't just the best episode of New Who so far, it was the best piece of drama I've seen in a long time.

God are we seeing Moffat growing: that wasn't just the Moffat who can do scarey and postmodern and structurally brilliant and funny and who understands just what time travel can do for narrative structure and who can catch exactly how people really do talk as opposed to the way they do in TV drama; that was the Moffat who's growing up and is trying to understand life and children and love and death. And spoilers and tech, of course.

Lots of it is ripped off from The Time Traveller's Wife, of course. But frankly my dear I don't give a damn.

No spoilers :)

EDIT: Have we EVER seen the Doctor having knowledge of his own future? So simple and yet such an interesting thought..

EDIT 2: Do we HAVE a Bad Wolf yet this season??

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Yeh. What a shame. The downside of getting a really good actress I guess is you don't get her for long..

but OMG what if we got to have Alex Kingston as regular!!!! She is indeed now absolutely someone I could imagine as the Doctor's partner.

[davesangel.livejournal.com]

I absolutely can't see Kingston as a regular or as the Doctor's partner. I thought she was so unbearably smug in the first of the two parter, and had no redeeming features in the second episode. I really do feel that Moffat has severe inabilities when it comes to writing plausible, exciting and appealing female characters for scifi ('Girl in the Fireplace' is another perfect example). Which is odd, given that I liked his characterisations in 'Coupling'. I know a few other people who feel the same way as me about Kingston/River Song, but we seem to be in the minority! :)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Sorry I adore Alex from way bavck when she was Moll Flanders - she is so amazingly lushly sexual and yet so also so obviously smart and capable - such a wonder to see that in a woman actor in regular work..

[davesangel.livejournal.com]

She was alright as Moll Flanders, but as the Doctor's future life partner...I just don't see it at all. And even he didn't see it until she whispered his name...which kind of suggests that he doesn't see how he could be attracted to such a person in the future. I dunno.

In regards to the Bad Wolf in this season - there have been a few things that have recurred. There was a frequent mention of bees, as well as 'something on Donna's back' (which I have a feeling will crop up again soon), and the idea of 'songs coming to an end' (though that could have been a reference to tonight's episode). And 'darkness' seems to be a key theme as well, especially if you watch the trailer for the next few episodes that was screened recently. I have no idea how much of this, if any, is relevant to the whole 'story arc' but there doesn't seem to be anything as solid as a Bad Wolf reference, and instead lots of little clues here and there.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Other than regular appearances of Billie Piper. On a viewscreen, in London, and as a kiddie picture on the wall (with wolf) in the first part of this two-parter. Plus of course lots of references to death, leading up to Donna being DEAD MEAT.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Oh yeh, how did I forget about Rose? *blush*

[percyprune.livejournal.com]

My response is diametrically opposite. She makes a perfect wife for the Doctor: capable, smart, charismatic, sexy and with a maturity we've rarely seen in a companion. Alex Kingston has that Helen Mirren quality of getting hotter as she gets older.

I really don't understand some fans' knee-jerk reaction against her. Smug? Bossy? You might as well be describing the Doctor himself.

As for the Doctor's response to River, wheeeell love is an odd thing. It's not always at first sight and the circumstances of their first meeting is definitely disconcerting. I'm so pleased with this addition to the canon. It's much-needed and if the Doctor is ever going to be married, I can think of no better bride than River Song.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I think it's very clear he thinks she is hot as hell, a match for him and immensely capable. Which is very much teh Moffat pattern of the the Dr's ideal woman (cf reinette).

[nmg.livejournal.com]

I adore Alex from her role in Croupier, and not just because she got her kit off.

ahem.

[dalmeny]

I really do feel that Moffat has severe inabilities when it comes to writing plausible, exciting and appealing female characters for scifi

I have to disagree. I thought the Moffat version of Madame de Pompadour was one of the most remarkable TV creations I'd seen in a long time. (My reaction to her is certainly very personal, but it's been enough to keep her in my head for the past two years. I've been reading about 18th century France because of it.) And I found both Nancy and Sally quite memorable.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I worship Alex on a number if levels - firstly, because she's a DAMNED good actress, but secondly because it's nice to see a woman who is, if one is honest, not traditionally pretty but manages to be utterly gorgeous.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

yup I agree - see above..

[percyprune.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

I cannot *abide* Alex Kingston - she makes my teeth ache.