Doctor Who 6x07: A Good Man Goes To War
Aug. 27th, 2011 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://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?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-08-29 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-29 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 02:19 pm (UTC)The Silurian whose name I forget, and her sidekick Jenny, they were fun too.
This I would love to see as a spin-off series: that Victorian setting. Jack the Ripper being supper...it seems like it would be terrific!
"Your father... he looks young, but he's lived for hundreds of years... and he's called... the Last Centurion."
I was actually grinning-- having been fooled by that ploy with the "stupid face" monologue before, it dawned on me that they were doing the same thing again.
I loved the Sontarran nurse too!
Is this a tangling of cause and effect? Probably.
I can't help but think that how quickly they've run through the last few Doctors has more significance than just the actors being ready to move on. Originally the Doctor only had 12 regenerations, so if First was one, there are only 2 left...and hints that 11 does not get a regeneration notwithstanding, I have to wonder...
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 02:39 pm (UTC)I had no idea you hadn't seen "A Good Man Goes to War" when I posted my comments to your other entry last night! I did think it was a bit strange that you were asking me for evidence about River when, uh, it's clearly what Moffat wants us to think after AGMGTW, but it never occurred to me that you hadn't actually watched it yet.
Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 02:48 pm (UTC)I take it, then, that you haven't yet seen my favourite Who artwork (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudron/5918323885/)? (I've bought a print which is awaiting framing.)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 03:28 pm (UTC)I hate it when shows just ignore their own canon. *grumble*mumble*whatever happened to the oldest son on "my three sons"?*grumble*mumble*
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 09:14 pm (UTC)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.
I felt a bit "meh" about it because gathering a load of allies seemed like such an unDoctorish way for him to operate.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 09:42 pm (UTC)However it did give us the chance to meet Jenny and Madame Vastra, so I can't complain.
However in spite of being able to change History, they still didn't manage to rescue the real Melody.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 10:21 pm (UTC)Indeed.
"This is a fighting hand."
I felt a bit "meh" about it because gathering a load of allies seemed like such an unDoctorish way for him to operate.
Particularly for something which is supposed to be a covert rescue operation.
But it could be anger clouding his judgement, as was mentioned in the episode.
There are other things that bother me: that it's supposed to be his "finest hour" and his "darkest moment", his ultimate high and low, but I don't think it was either one. He's had lower lows - I'd put the Ninth Doctor's dilemma about destroying the Earth in "Parting of the Ways" as lower, for one.
Though that moment with the Ninth Doctor, it bears thinking about.
"Coward or killer?"
"Coward every time."
But it seems that the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors are no longer cowards.
Another bother is that if Demon's Run was supposed to be a trap, it wasn't a very good one. The Pandorica was a much better trap.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-27 10:24 pm (UTC)Ha!
I think Moffat was entranced by the conceit "What if the Doctor called in all his favours? Wouldn't that be awesome?"
It was all about the spectacle.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 08:47 am (UTC)The trouble is that the producers seem to feel that every season finale (or in this case semi-season finale) needs to outdo everything that we've seen previously. That can lead to a lot of hype.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 09:57 am (UTC)Hence the wish I remember someone expressed a couple of seasons ago, that they wanted a season finale which consisted of the Doctor being slapped by someone's mother.