Doctor Who 10x01 The Pilot

[kerravonsen]

Yes, I am behind! I am catching up.

I rather liked this one. Oh boy, this is reminding me why I like Twelve. Very frustrating: there were points at which I couldn't catch more than one word in three of what Bill was saying. Am I going deaf, or did other people have that problem too?

Oooh, I found a transcript! Here! (goes and reads)

Good:

• Visuals. Lots of work, but pretty and eye-catching and different; especially the montage of Bill's day juxtaposed with the Doctor's lecture about Time.
  • loved the alien planet, too
• Bill is genre-savvy.
• Twelve being Twelve.
• Love and a promise. Okay, infatuation and a promise, but still, that's a fabulous change from the usual "I'm going to eat you!" thing. Of course the Doctor assumed that it wanted to kill them, that's what relentlessly pursuing alien shape-shifting things usually do!
• Bill jumping to perfectly logical but erroneous conclusions about the nature of the TARDIS; "it's a knock-through", "it's a lift", etc.
• The Doctor going back in time to take photos of Bill's Mum; the reflection in the mirror showing him taking the photo.
• Not everything is evil, but everything is hungry.
• Genre-savvy Bill realising that the Doctor was going to mind-wipe her.

Bad:

• Um, how did the sentient motor-oil pursue the TARDIS across time and space?
• Flashbacks to "Waters of Mars" without being half so scary.

Indifferent:

• Bill's a lesbian. Oh well. I suppose that's a change.

Random:

• I suspected the puddle-shows-actual-face-not-reflection thing very soon after Bill looked into the puddle for the first time. No, I didn't see the non-reflection, but it was the first thing I thought of when considering what might be "wrong" with a reflection.

Favourite quotes:

"With some people you can smell the wind in their coats."

BILL: Oh, my God! Have we travelled in time?
DOCTOR: No, of course not. We've travelled to Australia.

BILL: Are you from space?
DOCTOR: No, of course not. Nobody's from space. I'm from a planet like everybody else.

BILL: Why? Is everything out here evil?
DOCTOR: Hardly anything is evil, but most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?

"Yeah, because I think you're going to wipe my memory. I'm not stupid, you know. That's the trouble with you. You don't think anyone's ever seen a movie. I know what a mind-wipe looks like!"

Comments

[kerravonsen]

I love how Bill asks the unexpected questions, like the one about the TARDIS acronym, or why the university lets the Doctor lecture on whatever he wants.

I'm not sure whether it was Donna's mindwipe it was referring to, or whether it was his own mindwipe, the more recent one where he forgot Clara. Considering that Bill said "how would you feel if someone did it to you?" I was assuming the latter.

[vilakins]

That one was voluntary though. He remembered that there was a Clara and the things he did with her, but nothing about her as a person. Someone didn't do it to him; he chose it.

Donna had all her memories of everything that had happened to her, all her personal growth, taken from her. I assume that's what he was going to do to Bill, though of course on a very much smaller scale. It wouldn't take much from Bill, unlike Donna, but it was still going to be not her choice. I love that she called him on it.

I have a deep loathing for all memory-wipe tropes (and "it was all a dream") and was furious when doing that to the kids in The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper ruined all the books for me.

[Edit] Nice layout! Did you create it?

[kerravonsen]

I love that she called him on it.
Agreed. I also liked that, when she saw that he was adamant, she tried to bargain with him - one week, one night - and finally agreed to be mindwiped for the good of the universe. I mean... I think there's a huge amount of difference between doing something to someone for the good of the universe, and doing something to someone for the good of the universe with their consent. The Doctor doesn't always see that, though. Too caught up in the Big Picture.

[Edit] Nice layout! Did you create it?
No, not this one. It was done by the ever-talented and ever-prolific ninetydegrees

[vilakins]

I realised I forget to say what I think about how the sentient motor-oil pursued the TARDIS across time and space. It was able to change size immensely (using extant moisture?) so I think it put a drop of itself on the TARDIS and grew from that each time.