Dr Who: The Impossible Astronaut
Apr. 23rd, 2011 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawyl"This isn't as bad as it looks!" How can Amy not get Laurel and Hardy? It looks like Royal Mail now deliver across time as well as space. Why a school bus? "I've been running my whole life. Now its time for me to stop." Oooh, foreshadowing. The Doctor is 1103. And doesn't like wine: "I thought it would taste more like the gums!" Iconic shot of the astronaut standing in the water. "It's OK, I know it's you" and cut away to avoid revealing an important plot point. Cue Morgan Sheppard with a can of gas. "We do what the Doctor's friends always do: as we're told." River cracks the case.
Matt Smith is fantastic in the diner scene: the jokey opening line, the same sort of introductions as before, but everything falls flat and the Doctor doesn't know why. Alex Kingston's look of fury is great. And also scary. The Doctor is 909. The whole thing is a nice reversal of the status quo: the companions (and the viewer) are in on the spoilers and, just this once, the Doctor is the one in the dark. "Rory, is everybody cross with me for some reason?" River exposits. "Why are you in prison? Who did you kill?" Foreshadowing? "Fish fingers and custard" Great moment between the Doctor and Amy.
Cue Mark Sheppard with a glass of whiskey. "1969. Who's president?" Nixon's back! And he has tapes! "I can't trust anyone..." And we're in farce mode. The TARDIS and transfer of momentum. How does that work then? "I'm going to need a SWAT team ready to mobilise, street level maps of Florida, a pot of coffee, 12 jammy dodgers and a fez" Did Perry Mason make it to Gallifrey? Amy sees the fnords. Nice period detail on the lavatory door. I like bathroom woman's shock/forget loop — it's funny and creepy and underlines the plot point.
"Surnames of three of America's founding fathers." "Lovely fellas. Two of them fancied me!" Heh. It's a trap? Well, duh! Someone needs to clean their medical equipment. Haven't the fnords every heard of hygiene? "I'm quite the screamer..." "What's going on here?" "Nothing! She's just a friend!" She's so not. The fnords get creepier: how can you fight someone you can't remember? Call back to River's death in Silence in the Library — it's not even a retcon. She's travelling backwards in the Doctor's timestream and she knows she's going to die of a broken heart. Dr Who: the least heteronormative show on the Beeb. Amy is pregnant, so whence River's queasiness? Thematic statement: guns are always bad.
And we're done.
Matt Smith is fantastic in the diner scene: the jokey opening line, the same sort of introductions as before, but everything falls flat and the Doctor doesn't know why. Alex Kingston's look of fury is great. And also scary. The Doctor is 909. The whole thing is a nice reversal of the status quo: the companions (and the viewer) are in on the spoilers and, just this once, the Doctor is the one in the dark. "Rory, is everybody cross with me for some reason?" River exposits. "Why are you in prison? Who did you kill?" Foreshadowing? "Fish fingers and custard" Great moment between the Doctor and Amy.
Cue Mark Sheppard with a glass of whiskey. "1969. Who's president?" Nixon's back! And he has tapes! "I can't trust anyone..." And we're in farce mode. The TARDIS and transfer of momentum. How does that work then? "I'm going to need a SWAT team ready to mobilise, street level maps of Florida, a pot of coffee, 12 jammy dodgers and a fez" Did Perry Mason make it to Gallifrey? Amy sees the fnords. Nice period detail on the lavatory door. I like bathroom woman's shock/forget loop — it's funny and creepy and underlines the plot point.
"Surnames of three of America's founding fathers." "Lovely fellas. Two of them fancied me!" Heh. It's a trap? Well, duh! Someone needs to clean their medical equipment. Haven't the fnords every heard of hygiene? "I'm quite the screamer..." "What's going on here?" "Nothing! She's just a friend!" She's so not. The fnords get creepier: how can you fight someone you can't remember? Call back to River's death in Silence in the Library — it's not even a retcon. She's travelling backwards in the Doctor's timestream and she knows she's going to die of a broken heart. Dr Who: the least heteronormative show on the Beeb. Amy is pregnant, so whence River's queasiness? Thematic statement: guns are always bad.
And we're done.
