"Let's Kill Hitler", "Timelash", etc.

[usuallyhats]

- "Let's Kill Hitler": well, that... happened. Yeah, not exactly impressed by that. There were a lot of things I liked about it - confirmation that Time Lords can change their skin colour when they regenerate, great lines, Rory punching Hitler, robot person operated by teeny weeny people à la Numskulls etc - but overall, not happy. I can't get over the mismatch in tone between "Amy and Rory have been waiting all summer for the Doctor to find their kidnapped baby" and "Amy and Rory are having wacky making-crop-circles-with-a-mini shenanigans", for a start, and I'm not entirely convinced that they would just sit at home waiting for the Doctor to turn up with Melody, either. I really hope that this is going to be dealt with a bit more in the next episode. THEIR BABY IS STILL MISSING.

I also hated the revelation that River became an archaeologist in order to track the Doctor down. One of the things I've always liked about River is the fact that she's clearly had other things going on in her life that had nothing to do with the Doctor, but that's been turning out to be less and less true recently. :( I didn't like River using her remaining regenerations to cure the Doctor either, both because she's giving up her lives for the man she's going to be in love with, and because I've never been a fan of "glowy regeneration magic heals EVERYTHING". River's change of heart was a little sudden, too: I was rather looking forward to the idea of her having a redemption arc where the other characters already know where she's going to end up.

In conclusion: SADFACE, THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED. I'll reserve final judgement until the end of the season, but right now, I am considerably less optimistic than I was about the possibility of everything working out ok.

- Also yesterday evening I rewatched "Timelash", which I sort of love even though many aspects of it are basically a bit terrible. A particular highlight was the unconvincing "bok" sound made by a couple of aged-to-death people's skulls hitting the floor; I laughed out loud both times it happened. ♥ Other things I enjoyed included Herbert attempting to banish the Doctor, heh.

- On a completely different note and from the department of "things I want", here is a Wonder Woman rucksack with built in cape. Possibly it is a good thing for my finances that they don't ship to the UK. BUILT IN CAPE.

Comments

[kaptainvon]

River's life, like the show, is less and less interesting the more About The Doctor it becomes, and the further it moves from going to fascinating places discovering fascinating things. This medium-becomes-the-message thing may actually be annoying me as much as the fourth-wall-breaking-acknowledging-the-metatext stuff like multi-Doctor stories and 'Attack of the Cybermen'.

[usuallyhats]

River's life, like the show, is less and less interesting the more About The Doctor it becomes, and the further it moves from going to fascinating places discovering fascinating things.

Yes, exactly! Especially when all they're really saying about the Doctor is that he's A Bit Epic, which I don't particularly want him to be anyway.

[carawj.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES to everything you've said about Let's Kill Hitler. So many funny lines, but so much overall fail. I hated all the same things you did for all the same reasons and it's making me sad and cross with the show.

I am choosing to believe that timey wimey shenanigans will make this not the real timeline, but even if that's the case, there's so much about this ep I'll still dislike!

[usuallyhats]

Me too! I think it does seem fairly likely that there'll be some rewriting of time going on, but I'm not sure it's going to rewrite everything I want it to. :/

[salamandersam.livejournal.com]

My impression of River giving up her regenerations was that she did it for her parents whom, in a way, she did kind of grow up with. Though I would have appreciated it more if they'd shown her in Season 5.

[usuallyhats]

Oh, I like that interpretation a lot better! I've also read some speculation that Mels didn't appear last season because she wasn't there in the original timeline, but rewrote it so she could grow up with Amy and Rory, which I think makes sense (ish!).

[callmeromana.livejournal.com]

It looked to me rather like she was sharing her still-flowing regeneration energy than giving her lives (how many did she have anyway? looks like she spent a lot in her youth)

[usuallyhats]

I think they said in the hospital scene at the end that she'd given away all her regenerations, didn't they? She must be on at least her third body by this point, I think...