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dweomeroflightMy feelings on this are pretty basic: Yes, it was pretty bad as a Who episode, but when have the Christmas specials ever been remotely good? And anything after The End of Time seems comparatively good.
It was a christmas special that exemplified everything about Moffat era who: humanity having agency, the Doctor as a conduit for greatness, not the Great himself, human qualities like family and love and what power they have even in a universe as unimaginably large as the Whoniverse, the importance of the Doctor learning from humanity, the usual timey wimey ness and of cause the trope that after the abject nihilism of shows like Spooks, is like fine wine, "and some days, everybody lives." If you are sick of these themes, if you never liked these themes to start with, if you prefer The Doctor as the main player and agent, as the guy who teaches everyone else about what to do, as the show's Big Hero ala Ten,you are going to hate this episode and most likely series seven as The Doctor scales himself back after TWORS.
This is Eleven personified. This is "the mad man with a box," this is the alien who "doesn't interfere in people or planet's unless there's children crying." This is the alien who is older then ancient itself and yet still says "In my opinion, there is, you know, always hope." This is the alien who realises, loneliness and Godliness aren't always best, that sometimes small scale, "being so human" is necessary. This is the guy who can look as old and as tired and as weary as a lonely God, but also the guy who laughs, smiles with friends, says "the bad things don't cancel out the good things and make them unimportant." He is a scaled back, more old fashioned Doctor and this christmas special was an hour of all of these themes in quick succession.
It was a weak episode, but damn it, I loved it anyway because I love Moffat's themes, I love his brand of humanism, I love the Pond's, I love Eleven and Matt, and I love that there IS hope, there IS a purpose and a point. That even Time Lord's, even one's that are the last of their kind have hope for a better future. It's all a bit Dumbledore and Harry Potter isn't it... "of course it's in your head Harry, but why on earth should that make it any less real?" Not a very sci fi concept, true, but this New Who was always fantasy masquerading as sci fi. I like fantasy better anyway. Always have.
Eleven does feel alone, he does as Donna said in FOTD, have a propensity for saying "he's fine," when he's not really fine at all. But instead of punishing himself for it like Ten did, Eleven finds a way to counteract the loneliness. He wishes upon that childish star and keeps going. I wrote about this in my Big Bang review: Moff reminds us what it is to be children, with horizons as big and as wide as an entire planet, perhaps even three or four. He reminds us what it is to exist as humanity with hope. And aspromethia_tenk said, that's not a trite message at all. We need to be reminded of it the whole damn time, we need to be reminded, "keep living, keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep wishing on that star, because we do matter." That's not boring or stupid to me, that's humanism and in today's TV wilderness, thank God for that.
So yeah- the story of the week was lame. It didn't make use of the WW2 setting at all. I find that irritating. I watch Foyle's war and study history. Yeah- I didn't like the sister of Cyril at all. Yeah- the bit about mother's being strong could be construed as sexist, especially if you don't regard this episode as more thematic then plot. But I do see it as something thematical. I am in for the long game with Moff, much like I was with Life On Mars. If you watched Life on Mars from week to week and focussed on the story's of the week, you were missing the point of the entire show... which was Sam's story, which was is Sam mad, in a coma, or back in time? and ultimately, where did Sam feel most alive? All of the stories of the week came back to that in some way or other. Moffat's Who is much the same... who is the Doctor? What do stories matter? Why does humanity? What can The Doctor learn from us? And does that matter? This Doctor returns favours when people make wishes, he makes children happy, even older children like Madge, because he doesn't like seeing them sad, he doesn't like watching them cry.
But aside from all of the above, even if I didn't agree with Lonewytch's analysis of Eleven as trickster and with the Madge/River parallels, any opinion I had of the entire episode was rendered completely invalid by the reappearance of the Pond's. By Amy's Christmas jumper and her refusal to let The Doctor off for not telling them about his not death quite so easily, for their hug of good friends, for Rory, that they set him a place for the last two years, because now he is family.
The Lonely God might be lonely, and he might be smarter than all of humanity put together, but without these strays he picks up he is lesser. With them, he has one of the most important things there is to have at Christmas... a family.
And sometimes tears are ok. Sometimes tears of happiness happen and that's not a bad thing and Eleven knows this. Goodness knows, I cried with him.
So Onwards! I say, Onwards! to new horizons and new companions and old friends and all of space and time. Goodbye Ledworth. Hello everything. And everywhere and anywhere we Whovians have never ever been.
It was a christmas special that exemplified everything about Moffat era who: humanity having agency, the Doctor as a conduit for greatness, not the Great himself, human qualities like family and love and what power they have even in a universe as unimaginably large as the Whoniverse, the importance of the Doctor learning from humanity, the usual timey wimey ness and of cause the trope that after the abject nihilism of shows like Spooks, is like fine wine, "and some days, everybody lives." If you are sick of these themes, if you never liked these themes to start with, if you prefer The Doctor as the main player and agent, as the guy who teaches everyone else about what to do, as the show's Big Hero ala Ten,you are going to hate this episode and most likely series seven as The Doctor scales himself back after TWORS.
This is Eleven personified. This is "the mad man with a box," this is the alien who "doesn't interfere in people or planet's unless there's children crying." This is the alien who is older then ancient itself and yet still says "In my opinion, there is, you know, always hope." This is the alien who realises, loneliness and Godliness aren't always best, that sometimes small scale, "being so human" is necessary. This is the guy who can look as old and as tired and as weary as a lonely God, but also the guy who laughs, smiles with friends, says "the bad things don't cancel out the good things and make them unimportant." He is a scaled back, more old fashioned Doctor and this christmas special was an hour of all of these themes in quick succession.
It was a weak episode, but damn it, I loved it anyway because I love Moffat's themes, I love his brand of humanism, I love the Pond's, I love Eleven and Matt, and I love that there IS hope, there IS a purpose and a point. That even Time Lord's, even one's that are the last of their kind have hope for a better future. It's all a bit Dumbledore and Harry Potter isn't it... "of course it's in your head Harry, but why on earth should that make it any less real?" Not a very sci fi concept, true, but this New Who was always fantasy masquerading as sci fi. I like fantasy better anyway. Always have.
Eleven does feel alone, he does as Donna said in FOTD, have a propensity for saying "he's fine," when he's not really fine at all. But instead of punishing himself for it like Ten did, Eleven finds a way to counteract the loneliness. He wishes upon that childish star and keeps going. I wrote about this in my Big Bang review: Moff reminds us what it is to be children, with horizons as big and as wide as an entire planet, perhaps even three or four. He reminds us what it is to exist as humanity with hope. And as
promethia_tenk said, that's not a trite message at all. We need to be reminded of it the whole damn time, we need to be reminded, "keep living, keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep wishing on that star, because we do matter." That's not boring or stupid to me, that's humanism and in today's TV wilderness, thank God for that. So yeah- the story of the week was lame. It didn't make use of the WW2 setting at all. I find that irritating. I watch Foyle's war and study history. Yeah- I didn't like the sister of Cyril at all. Yeah- the bit about mother's being strong could be construed as sexist, especially if you don't regard this episode as more thematic then plot. But I do see it as something thematical. I am in for the long game with Moff, much like I was with Life On Mars. If you watched Life on Mars from week to week and focussed on the story's of the week, you were missing the point of the entire show... which was Sam's story, which was is Sam mad, in a coma, or back in time? and ultimately, where did Sam feel most alive? All of the stories of the week came back to that in some way or other. Moffat's Who is much the same... who is the Doctor? What do stories matter? Why does humanity? What can The Doctor learn from us? And does that matter? This Doctor returns favours when people make wishes, he makes children happy, even older children like Madge, because he doesn't like seeing them sad, he doesn't like watching them cry.
But aside from all of the above, even if I didn't agree with Lonewytch's analysis of Eleven as trickster and with the Madge/River parallels, any opinion I had of the entire episode was rendered completely invalid by the reappearance of the Pond's. By Amy's Christmas jumper and her refusal to let The Doctor off for not telling them about his not death quite so easily, for their hug of good friends, for Rory, that they set him a place for the last two years, because now he is family.
The Lonely God might be lonely, and he might be smarter than all of humanity put together, but without these strays he picks up he is lesser. With them, he has one of the most important things there is to have at Christmas... a family.
And sometimes tears are ok. Sometimes tears of happiness happen and that's not a bad thing and Eleven knows this. Goodness knows, I cried with him.
So Onwards! I say, Onwards! to new horizons and new companions and old friends and all of space and time. Goodbye Ledworth. Hello everything. And everywhere and anywhere we Whovians have never ever been.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 08:41 am (UTC)He wishes upon that childish star and keeps going. I wrote about this in my Big Bang review: Moff reminds us what it is to be children, with horizons as big and as wide as an entire planet, perhaps even three or four
Right on. Moff speaks to the child inside us, and his vision of Who is filled with hope rather than angst. I think he skirts closer to the Dark than any previous Who writer - the Dark Fairytale elements of series 6 are case in point, but where the dark is darkest, the light is brightest, right? It's realm of fairytale.
Yeah- the bit about mother's being strong could be construed as sexist, especially if you don't regard this episode as more thematic then plot. But I do see it as something thematical.
I agree here. And something i've picked up on since is the fact that Cyril can wear the halo without it causing him massive amounts of pain - in contrast to when the Doctor picks it up. Why? I think it's because the ability to wear the halo and carry the forest souls is more about the ability to make space for/accept and receive love in your life than gender. Hence the Doctor can barely even touch it - it makes sense because in a way the ep looks thematically at his intimacy issues.
But aside from all of the above, even if I didn't agree with Lonewytch's analysis of Eleven as trickster and with the Madge/River parallels
That's cool -please don't be afraid to ever comment on my posts with a complete disagreement of how i've read the show. I would never be offended; i favour the reader response approach, which says that all approaches to and interpretations of a text are equally valid, because it's how the reader interacts with them that counts. Discussion is a happy thing :)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 02:52 pm (UTC)That is quite brilliant. Love it.
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Date: 2011-12-28 08:15 pm (UTC)It seems in the ep on a superficial level this openness to love is gendered as a female quality, but yet Cyril can wear the crown - he just isn't ready yet, he's younger, more immature. So it seems likely that it's about who the person is, not what gender they are. It's the Doctor who interprets "weak" and "strong" as about gender - maybe because he doesn't really understand or own his issues with intimacy yet? He claims to Madge that he can't feel like she does - only to discover he can by the end of the ep.
I'd been puzzling over this as the Doctor's extreme reaction to the crown really stood out to me. I think this image is actually the most powerful of the episode by a clear mile and is a pointer to the main theme
no subject
Date: 2012-01-01 08:31 pm (UTC)That is an excellent image. I need to actually rewatch this episode soon!
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Date: 2011-12-28 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:33 pm (UTC)I also picked up on that and favour this intepretation. I just didn't know how to word this. I felt that the "strength" was not so much gendered in a female/mother/nuture binary so much as an affirmation of the importance of self sacrifice and familial love to individuals as humans. Which fitted in with a christmas theme perfectly.
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Date: 2012-01-01 08:36 pm (UTC)I enjoy real scifi too, but Doctor Who certainly isn't that, and I love it for it.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:03 am (UTC)I adored the episode - and I had recently lost interest a bit in the whole Who thing. I liked the magic/fantasy, the Narnia references, the way the Doctor seems, as you say, to be reverting to the old doctor. I liked 9 and 10 very much but they were somehow a different show.
I was a bit concerned at how we never heard how the other airmen did or did not survive.
I liked Cyril's glasses - just part of him and never mentioned.
My grandson (3) screamed and screamed at the tree people and the spacemen so we had to watch it in two parts.
Thanks for summarising the humanist aspect of it all. You're absolutely right!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:29 pm (UTC)I liked his glasses too :)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 02:53 pm (UTC)Humanism, FTW!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:28 pm (UTC)