Doctor Who 6x07: A Good Man Goes To War
Aug. 27th, 2011 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenOh. My. Goodness.
This is actually not a re-watch for me; I hadn't seen this episode before. So I'm going to be rather incoherent.
So that's who River is. I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. But "Melody Pond" -> "River Song" makes good linguistic sense.
I'm still a bit stunned.
I'm leaning towards the "River killed the Doctor" theory even more now. After all, if they made her into a weapon to kill the Doctor... and the Doctor was killed... then she's probably the one who did it.
Okay, backtracking to the rest of the episode...
All the gathering of allies... it has the feeling of a season finale. Well, it is, sort of, because it's a mid-season finale. But even though a lot was happening, it felt as if not a lot was happening. I can understand why some people felt a bit "meh" about the episode.
But there were a lot of good bits in the midst of it.
"Your father... he looks young, but he's lived for hundreds of years... and he's called... the Last Centurion."
(I must admit, she had me going in the middle of that sentence - I thought "no, it can't be the Doctor, can it?")
The Sontaran nurse, oh that was fun, with all his declarations of hope to destroy people in battle, while attending them as a nurse... I really like the characterisation of the Sontarans that is happening in these most recent seasons. They're... worthy opponents.
The Silurian whose name I forget, and her sidekick Jenny, they were fun too. (Though obviously this Jenny is not the Doctor's Daughter Jenny. Pity.)
Very much the feel of a finale because of all the characters being brought back. The fighter planes, I wish they hadn't done that. But the pirates, it was nice to have a nod to them.
What River said about the Doctor bringing this on himself... it's chilling, but very plausible. It follows on from "The Pandorica Opens", where he's trapped by an alliance of peoples who consider him a trickster, a harbinger of destruction... but the roots of it go back further than that. Because he's been building a reputation that enables him to say "Heard of me? Then run." It happened in "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" - notably also written by Moffat. We have the Tenth Doctor's vengeance against the Family of Blood. We have the Tenth Doctor's "I used to be so merciful" when he talks to the Krilitane in "School Reunion". We have the Seventh Doctor's almost casual destruction of Scaro.
That the Doctor is changing the meaning of "Doctor" from "healer" to "warrior".
Demons run when a good man goes to war.
"This endless war..."
"What war?"
"The war against you."
Is this a tangling of cause and effect?
This is actually not a re-watch for me; I hadn't seen this episode before. So I'm going to be rather incoherent.
So that's who River is. I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. But "Melody Pond" -> "River Song" makes good linguistic sense.
I'm still a bit stunned.
I'm leaning towards the "River killed the Doctor" theory even more now. After all, if they made her into a weapon to kill the Doctor... and the Doctor was killed... then she's probably the one who did it.
Okay, backtracking to the rest of the episode...
All the gathering of allies... it has the feeling of a season finale. Well, it is, sort of, because it's a mid-season finale. But even though a lot was happening, it felt as if not a lot was happening. I can understand why some people felt a bit "meh" about the episode.
But there were a lot of good bits in the midst of it.
"Your father... he looks young, but he's lived for hundreds of years... and he's called... the Last Centurion."
(I must admit, she had me going in the middle of that sentence - I thought "no, it can't be the Doctor, can it?")
The Sontaran nurse, oh that was fun, with all his declarations of hope to destroy people in battle, while attending them as a nurse... I really like the characterisation of the Sontarans that is happening in these most recent seasons. They're... worthy opponents.
The Silurian whose name I forget, and her sidekick Jenny, they were fun too. (Though obviously this Jenny is not the Doctor's Daughter Jenny. Pity.)
Very much the feel of a finale because of all the characters being brought back. The fighter planes, I wish they hadn't done that. But the pirates, it was nice to have a nod to them.
What River said about the Doctor bringing this on himself... it's chilling, but very plausible. It follows on from "The Pandorica Opens", where he's trapped by an alliance of peoples who consider him a trickster, a harbinger of destruction... but the roots of it go back further than that. Because he's been building a reputation that enables him to say "Heard of me? Then run." It happened in "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" - notably also written by Moffat. We have the Tenth Doctor's vengeance against the Family of Blood. We have the Tenth Doctor's "I used to be so merciful" when he talks to the Krilitane in "School Reunion". We have the Seventh Doctor's almost casual destruction of Scaro.
That the Doctor is changing the meaning of "Doctor" from "healer" to "warrior".
Demons run when a good man goes to war.
"This endless war..."
"What war?"
"The war against you."
Is this a tangling of cause and effect?
