A journey through an American’s addiction to Doctor Who

Let’s all together say it out loud: Steven Moffat is a Genius.  He’s the master of suspense, and intricate plots, and unpredictability that keeps you on the edge of the seat.  I was nearly ready to consider Series 4 to be the weakest of the new series; but this episode brings my faith right back.

Also let me be the first (last? given that this show already aired?) to say that from the get-go, the concept of this show is pretty interesting.  The interplay of the little girl’s imagination being visited by the doctor; the physical manifestation of the girl as a security camera — forget what I said last time about following a formula.

There are some nice science fiction elements — I really liked the ghosted death with consciousness embedded in the chips.  While it’s nothing new (Neuromancer had done this computer construct thing over 20 years ago, after all), it really worked for me in the plot and added to the creepiness.

I also very much appreciated the nice touch of the the psychiatrist reversing himself.  The dreams and nightmares are real, and the real world is not — this is wonderful stuff.

Guesses and Predictions

First, Dr. Song’s knowledge of Donna foreshadows her tragic end — there’s a reason that the second-to-last episode of the series is still unnamed, and a reason that the relationship between Donna and the Doctor has not been alluded to.  Donna’s end must be rather tragic in order for Dr. Song to remember her, assuming she’s met the Doctor in her past / his future.  I’d predict that Rose Tyler’s return spells Donna’s doom.

Second, Dr. Song will end up being a companion in the abridged Series 5. It’s just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Third, I predict that “CAL” is the girl herself, probably in the sense of it being her name or her initials.

Fourth, Vashta Nerada (doesn’t this name sound just like something out of Harry Potter?) will be a major plot line of Torchwood next year.  The 51st century is Jack’s home time, so he could have easily known about this episode’s outcome.  I make this prediction in stride, though, since there are rumors that Torchwood’s posture will change.

Conclusion

I’m on the edge of my seat.  I feel almost desperate enough to find spoilers (almost, but not quite). I guess we’ll see how I did on my predictions next week, or even next year for some of them.

It’s time for the 1920s! I for one have no idea what the historical context is, in England. It’s between the wars, and the aristocracy is quite alive — that much is clear. Other than that, I don’t really know.

Of course things are made easier by the fact that, yay, this is the time in our season when we visit a Famous Historical Personage! (reminder: we’ve already done the Place and Time of Historic calamity when The Doctor Ends Up Being Responsible, and we haven’t yet done the Doctor Lite episode). I actually mean this without any sarcasm, but the seasons are formulaic somewhat, aren’t they? Though I appreciated that they were actually having fun with some back-references (Charles Dickens / Christmas / ghosts)

Let it be said that I said it first (ok, well, I said it just in my last post). Once again the Doctor and Donna have to explicitly state that they’re not together. However, they sure don’t behave that way — for heaven’s sake, she kisses him. It’s almost as if the amount of physical contact of the Doctor and his companion is inversely proportional to the amount of sexual attraction the companion has to the Doctor.

The episode has at least one mistake here. According to Wikipedia, Christie disappeared on December 8th, 1928. But it certainly doesn’t look like December 8th.

The episode is, actually, quite funny. Not Death at a Funeral funny — which happens to be quite close in the sense of a British murder mystery comedy.  But certainly the least scary and most laugh-out-loud funny of the recent episodes.

It’s a bummer that we have to wait two weeks for the next fix of the Doctor and Donna.

The teasers were a bit more unclear than the very few minutes of the episode showed. Here I was, thinking that this episode is about to take us into the Doctor’s past, but they just go and clone a grown child out of him. Lame? Well, not necessarily; just not a blast from the past that I expected. Of course, I’m not far enough into the old serials to know all the backstory just yet. Though he did have a granddaughter of course, and the Doctor does let on a bit about his family’s death. Did this happen between the 8th and 9th Doctors? Or did this happen before and it’s a matter of time for me to see this?

Much like for the last few episodes, Donna and the Doctor keep having to deny that they’re a couple. Last time (Planet of the Ood) they were not even supposedly together — they were from the “Noble Corporation”, I think — and still someone assumed they were a couple.

The Hath make for somewhat interesting aliens (have we seen them before? do they have a history? my lack of Doctor Who history makes this tough). For one, they seem to be intelligent and not outright evil. Second, they have the absolutely most awesome moment of rah-rah before going to battle — all without a single sound.

That moment is so completely opposed to the screaming heads of the human population. Take that, you stereotypical scenes of terrorists loudly shooting in the air screaming in a foreign language!

Jenny turns out to be, what, another Time Lord of sorts? Her thinking is definitely Doctor-like; her agility and ability to take risks as well. And despite a nice false ending that seemed to wrap everything up, we get a new character in Jenny: permanent, or spin off, only time will tell.

Well, well.   Haven’t I been bad.  Just because I got a new job didn’t mean that I had to stop following my quest.

But then again not that I had.  While the Web Planet still rests on top of the TV, waiting to be fully watched, some parts of Doctor Who keep happening and are unavoidable.  For example, Torchwood Series 2 came and went and was consumed by me, and now we’re up to Episode 6 of the new Doctor Who series’ fourth season.

My thoughts on the previously viewed work will be forthcoming.  For now, I’ll keep on watching.