reaction to "The Next Doctor"
Jan. 5th, 2009 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dbskylerYes, I know I'm late to the party, but as I just saw this last night for the first time, here is my reaction post.
First, big sigh of relief because . . . I really liked it! And that makes this the first Christmas special I have liked since "The Christmas Invasion." "Runaway Bride" had its good moments but also some really bad ones, and "Voyage of the Damned" just had me cringing all the way through. But this was a fun romp with an interesting plot that was well executed throughout.
Interestingly, the plot point that bothered me the most during the actual episode -- why doesn't the Doctor just know if this person is a future incarnation or not -- now doesn't bother me at all. Because after thinking about it, I've come up with an explanation. Yes, the explanation still assumes that Time Lords can recognize each other telepathically. Not only does this make sense for a species that regenerates (and you thought recognizing someone with a new haircut was hard), but the recognizing thing has been established in both Old and New Who multiple times, especially in the multi-Doctor episodes. (And it does still bother me that in "Time Crash" Five doesn't pick up on who Ten is right away, but then again the fact that Ten obviously expects him to saves that for me -- I have to assume that some effort on the part of the recognizer is required, which Five obviously wasn't expending at that point.) But Time Lords recognizing each other must not help when the "recognizee" isn't a Time Lord. In other words, Ten was probably using that telepathic-recognition-sense for all he was worth, but not coming up against anything -- and the lack of a positive response is not equivalent to a negative response. So because Jackson was actually human, Ten didn't get an answer one way or the other.
And while I'm on the subject, I wish they had spun out the "possible future Doctor" bit a little more, but I did enjoy the scenes we got. I especially loved Ten's hoping he doesn't die by tripping over a brick ; ) -- well, can't be any worse than hitting your head on a console (or whatever the hell happened to Six), can it? (But don't worry, David, I'm sure RTD has a better exit for you planned than that.)
Things I didn't like as much:
-- Jackson standing in helpless impotence while his son was in danger. After the Doctor's little speech about how Jackson's heroism was himself and not a result of the infostamp, it came off as very strange. If the Doctor just had to be the savior in that moment, it would have been better to have Jackson go for it and get stopped by the Doctor (preferably because of a danger a human couldn't survive, but a Time Lord could -- double points if that had been the moment when the Doctor revealed to Jackson who he really was).
-- the "Rosita, nice name" moment. For god's sake, RTD, you've given Rose her very own boy-toy Doctor in a parallel world and you still can't let it go?? I was really hoping that after "Journey's End" there would be no more sappy Rose references, but apparently not.
Things that didn't quite make sense:
-- why Jackson didn't recognize the Tenth Doctor when the Tenth Doctor was on the infostamp that was poured into his head.
-- the whole infostamp thing in general-- how the Daleks had it in the void, and how the Cybermen got it (are they having void wars in there? What else might be going on -- Cyberman/Dalek games of Twister?) And because this person at Behind the Sofa said it so much better than I ever could, I now refer you to a quote from a post by Tom Dickinson:
"And how the hell does that info-phallus, stolen from the Daleks that appeared in Doomsday, have footage from Voyage of the Damned or the Christopher Eccleston era, anyway? Is iPlayer available via the time vortex? I can't even get it here in America."
Things that were great:
-- Pretty much every damn thing the Doctor did, from grabbing that rope to going up in a hot air balloon
-- The other characters, especially Jackson Lake
-- The cameos of all 9 previous Doctors -- fan squee!!!
-- The ending, where the Doctor capitulates and goes to the celebratory dinner. Yay! And there are even infostamp home movies for him to narrate during the dessert . . . ; )
So yes, overall it was thoroughly enjoyable. Which restores my hope that the remaining specials might be enjoyable, too.
First, big sigh of relief because . . . I really liked it! And that makes this the first Christmas special I have liked since "The Christmas Invasion." "Runaway Bride" had its good moments but also some really bad ones, and "Voyage of the Damned" just had me cringing all the way through. But this was a fun romp with an interesting plot that was well executed throughout.
Interestingly, the plot point that bothered me the most during the actual episode -- why doesn't the Doctor just know if this person is a future incarnation or not -- now doesn't bother me at all. Because after thinking about it, I've come up with an explanation. Yes, the explanation still assumes that Time Lords can recognize each other telepathically. Not only does this make sense for a species that regenerates (and you thought recognizing someone with a new haircut was hard), but the recognizing thing has been established in both Old and New Who multiple times, especially in the multi-Doctor episodes. (And it does still bother me that in "Time Crash" Five doesn't pick up on who Ten is right away, but then again the fact that Ten obviously expects him to saves that for me -- I have to assume that some effort on the part of the recognizer is required, which Five obviously wasn't expending at that point.) But Time Lords recognizing each other must not help when the "recognizee" isn't a Time Lord. In other words, Ten was probably using that telepathic-recognition-sense for all he was worth, but not coming up against anything -- and the lack of a positive response is not equivalent to a negative response. So because Jackson was actually human, Ten didn't get an answer one way or the other.
And while I'm on the subject, I wish they had spun out the "possible future Doctor" bit a little more, but I did enjoy the scenes we got. I especially loved Ten's hoping he doesn't die by tripping over a brick ; ) -- well, can't be any worse than hitting your head on a console (or whatever the hell happened to Six), can it? (But don't worry, David, I'm sure RTD has a better exit for you planned than that.)
Things I didn't like as much:
-- Jackson standing in helpless impotence while his son was in danger. After the Doctor's little speech about how Jackson's heroism was himself and not a result of the infostamp, it came off as very strange. If the Doctor just had to be the savior in that moment, it would have been better to have Jackson go for it and get stopped by the Doctor (preferably because of a danger a human couldn't survive, but a Time Lord could -- double points if that had been the moment when the Doctor revealed to Jackson who he really was).
-- the "Rosita, nice name" moment. For god's sake, RTD, you've given Rose her very own boy-toy Doctor in a parallel world and you still can't let it go?? I was really hoping that after "Journey's End" there would be no more sappy Rose references, but apparently not.
Things that didn't quite make sense:
-- why Jackson didn't recognize the Tenth Doctor when the Tenth Doctor was on the infostamp that was poured into his head.
-- the whole infostamp thing in general-- how the Daleks had it in the void, and how the Cybermen got it (are they having void wars in there? What else might be going on -- Cyberman/Dalek games of Twister?) And because this person at Behind the Sofa said it so much better than I ever could, I now refer you to a quote from a post by Tom Dickinson:
"And how the hell does that info-phallus, stolen from the Daleks that appeared in Doomsday, have footage from Voyage of the Damned or the Christopher Eccleston era, anyway? Is iPlayer available via the time vortex? I can't even get it here in America."
Things that were great:
-- Pretty much every damn thing the Doctor did, from grabbing that rope to going up in a hot air balloon
-- The other characters, especially Jackson Lake
-- The cameos of all 9 previous Doctors -- fan squee!!!
-- The ending, where the Doctor capitulates and goes to the celebratory dinner. Yay! And there are even infostamp home movies for him to narrate during the dessert . . . ; )
So yes, overall it was thoroughly enjoyable. Which restores my hope that the remaining specials might be enjoyable, too.
