vanessarama

I've been incredibly busy at work because there have been several people on leave and lots of deadlines. But I worked really hard and got lots done. And there were things to look forward to! We got a new washing machine, for a start. Oh, and there was this TV show I like starting its new season...

But first, let's get this out of the way.
Well, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would.

I just found it... totally lacking in internal logic and requiring too much suspension of disbelief. Which is how I've found the entire season, really. It seems as if there is no internal logic to the Whoniverse any more.

There were two lines in there that pissed me off a LOT. First, "What happened to time?" "A woman". GAH GAH GAH. Oh, Woman. The undiscovered country, the strange alien phenomenon that's so peculiar and unfathomable that we have to make a big THING about it being a woman. Cos it wasn't a person, and it wasn't a particular person, and god forbid we should say her name. It was just "a woman".

And second: "Hell in high heels". Apart from also being a top sexist line, it's something out of a bad 50s noir hardboiled detective show. "She walked into my office in a short skirt, split up the thigh. Nice lookin' dame, lips as red as sin. Hell in high heels." For fuck's sake.

There was, however, one line I did like. That was "River didn't get it all from you. Sweetie."

And there was something about it I *loved*, and that was the crazymixeduptime universe with the Romans and War of the Roses and whatnot. That was cool.

Apart from that, well. There are still a multitude of plot threads left dangling and silly things that make no sense in the context of the show's previous decades of established universe. Where do I begin? What happened to the inexplicable missing three months in the season opener? Why is it a good thing to tell the universe the Doctor's dying - if it's gone out to *everyone*, why aren't the multitudes of enemies there to make sure he's finished off, as they were when the Pandorica opened? Why is River allowed to be in her own timestream twice when nobody else is? Who blew up the TARDIS?

For that matter, if they really wanted the Doctor killed, why not just send River out there with a rifle and a telescopic sight? Or a bazooka? Why did she have to be at the bottom of a lake in a spacesuit? Who were the evil eyepatch people, where did they come from, why did the evil eyepatch woman have to raise a half-timelord baby to kill the Doctor? When did Real Amy get replaced with Ganger Amy? If silence will fall when the question is asked, why are they trying to make silence fall to *prevent* the question being asked? They can't both be right.

And what was with the bit where he finds out the Brig has died? I suppose it was a tribute to Nicholas Courtney, but it did seem a bit awkwardly shoehorned in since it had little plot relevance. Couldn't they have just dedicated the episode to him instead?

I was appalled that at the end River turns out to be a clingy moany Mary-Sue who as

scribblemoose says, destroys the world because she loves a man too much. Stand by yer man, ladies!

Also, the tesselactor says "Like you, we have always stood for law and order." Now, excuse me, but the Doctor does not stand for law and order, and never has. Justice and truth, yes. As AJF said today while we were watching, the Doctor is chaotic good.

And finally, the ending with the blue dude echoing "Doctor WHO?" was lame.

Matt Smith was great as always. Actually all the actors were great. They're just not strong enough temptations for me to overlook the giant flapping plot threads that never get tied up.