Dark Water reaction post

[dbskyler]

Sadly, my streak of not liking any New Who story with the Master in it remains unbroken. I just don't enjoy crazy!Master, and apparently that is not affected by the Master's gender presentation. Although I do like the fact that we now have definitive, on-screen canon that a female Doctor is possible one day. While we were told that information back in "The Doctor's Wife," that could have been argued away as "the Doctor lies." This, not so much.

But sigh, did we have to get a female version of the Simm portrayal? It makes me long for the level-headedness of Ainley!Master. (And yes, I know that Ainley!Master was not exactly level-headed, but he was in comparison to Missy, which is my point.)

The afterlife stuff was all squicky-creepy. The bit with the Cybermen in the water, with only their internal skeletons showing, was cool, I'll admit, but why add the weird afterlife stuff to it? The Matrix on Gallifrey was not heaven, or hell, or a way for Time Lords to be immortal. It was simply a repository of knowledge and memories. The dead were still dead, even among the Time Lords. (Well, except for the Master -- that sucker keeps coming back.)

Then there was that bit with the dead still being conscious in their bodies, and experiencing getting burned alive when they're cremated. WHAT THE FUCKING HELL? THERE ARE CHILDREN WATCHING, BBC. CHILDREN WHO MAY HAVE LOST FAMILY MEMBERS. CHILDREN WHOSE FAMILY MEMBERS MAY HAVE BEEN CREMATED. There is absolutely no excuse for having that in a Doctor Who episode. It's not an "ooh, let's be scary" moment, it's full-on body horror, and triggering, and just completely inappropriate. Even if you somehow had to stress the plot point that the Cybermen need buried bodies over cremated ones -- and I don't see why you would -- there were at least fifty umptillion better ways of doing that. It could have been as simple as a setting on the Master's laser screwdriver that uncremates bodies. That wouldn't have been any more ridiculous than 3/4 of what happened in "The End of Time."

I hope next week is better, but I am not holding out hope.

Comments

[eve11]

I missed the Thick of It reference but I did get the Monty Python reference.

I've been in Halloween mode for a while, and this episode seemed like an exceptionally creepy Halloween episode. It would have scared the pants off me as a kid, the way no Dalek or Cyberman or monster ever would. However, there has always always been an undercurrent (or strong overcurrent) of body horror in Cybermen stories. This one was more macabre than most and very scary, but it makes sense?

I never did get what the 3W stood for though.

Also this is just me, but I think Missy killing Dr. Chang in cold blood after toying with him was way more disturbing than the cremation thing.

[clocketpatch]

Missy-Master killing Dr. Chang was terrifying. Simm was a terrifying Master, but I think Gomez is scaring me more.

I completely missed the Monty Python reference, what was it?

[eve11]

Perhaps it was just historical, but Missy's "Humankind; bring out your dead!" reminded me of the scene in Monty Python.

What was the Thick of It reference?

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

The Thick of It reference was when the Doctor gave the psychic paper to that guy, and it had something on it about politicians and swearing.

[clocketpatch]

"Not a government inspection. So soon... Why is there all this swearing?"

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It was a very Halloween-y episode, yes, and it's possible that was a major influence on the plot choices. There has been a body horror undercurrent to the Cybermen, I agree, but up until now, it's all been abstract-scary. Up until now, we've had "Imagine you came across a Cyberman, and a skull fell out of its head, and then it came after you!" That's scary, but no one is ever going to actually come across that situation. It's hypothetical, and only scary in a "what if?" abstract way. This felt a lot less "what if," and a lot more "this is the terrible thing that happens to you when you die." It's a horror movie scenario, and I don't like horror movies, and I don't like to be unexpectedly confronted with one in my Doctor Who.

3W stands for 3 words ("don't cremate me"), although I didn't figure that out myself; I saw it explained on someone else's post.

Missy killing Dr. Chang didn't bother me -- it was just shorthand for "yes, this person is evil." Maybe if Dr. Chang had been established more, I would have cared more, but it was a run-of-the-mill redshirt moment for me.

[eve11]

It definitely struck me as more supernatural than DW usually is. And I suppose the body horror element is a rather Moffat-esque kind of thing except it's playing on adult fears instead of children's fears this time. As for Chang, I suppose there's been a lot of casual death in DW, but that one struck me as unusually cruel and (like the body horror stuff) much more intimate than eg, the Master gassing everybody at the conference table a few years ago.

I also have a theory that lots of this may be rewound in the finale... the whole "This isn't a sleep pill; it induces a dream state" bit may be revisited?