muir_wolf | thinky thoughts on S6 of Doctor Who (so far)

I'm trying to figure out how I could have loved Season 5 so very very much, and yet Season 6 has just seemed so...meh.

I think it's because Season 5 had these strong single episodes that showed us more about the characters and tied them closer to us with our own emotions, all while keeping the heart of the individual episodes. I had questions, yes, and I could feel, at the edges, the larger season arc being built, but I was left satisfied at the end of each episode.

This season, the major season arc has been thrust to the forefront in quite a few of the episodes, and has often felt heavy-handed (the pregnancy scan at the beginning of the episodes got old really quick), and yet it's a chaotic mess of questions rather than delicately slipped nods and nudges. There comes a point when I become frustrated. This whole last episodes gave me absolutely nothing except confirmation that River is Amy's daughter - and you know what? They'd forced the issue of ~just who River is~ and the astronaut girl and ~WHETHER OR NOT AMY WAS PREGNANT~ that when it was finally revealed, I didn't get any emotional payoff. I was just happy to be able to tick that question off the list as finally answered. Last season, I was so emotionally invested with the characters that I cried in a lot of episodes, but this season, I didn't even bat an eye when baby!River/Melody turned into flesh.

When Eleven was saying "They're all brave..." and Matt was doing his standard amazing job, my thought was "Matt's doing his standard amazing job," not TEARSSOMANYTEARS.

My official TV watching opinion is that Moff & Co are trying too hard to be clever, and they're doing it at the cost of what Doctor Who has always had - heart.

I don't want to spend the hour of Doctor Who each week trying to keep track of just what the hell is going on. I want to connect with the characters and have my heartstrings pulled and be amazed.

Vincent and the Doctor has no twisty magnificent plots. It's about people. The end of The Pandorica Opens didn't leave me staring at my television screen, wide-eyed and with tears all over my face because of the plot, awesome as it was. It was Rory, lovely perfect Rory, trying so hard to stay human, and Amy so determined to keep him there, it was Amy dying and the desperation on the Doctor's face and in his voice. It was the people at the core of the story. And when Doctor Who is about people, or TARDIS!people or Time Lords or what have you, it's so very good.

There was a moment in yesterday's ep that was perfection, and that was when Rory ordered the Doctor in to see baby!Melody. I love how the the three of them fit together, and I think that's the strength of the show (w/ this Doctor and this regeneration). The rest of the episode, though, in my opinion, continued the season's trend of flashy plot at the cost of the emotional core of the characters.

/my two cents

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A++++

I keep trying to put into words why I am really disliking most of S6 (The Doctor's Wife is an obvious exception) beyond the fact that I feel like River Song is the most annoyingly written plot device in the history of ever. (Seriously. If they made her timeline ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE instead of continuously handwaving it, I might actually enjoy her presence.)

I agree with everything here. The sad thing is, Matt Smith is just so exceptional at being the Doctor, and the moments they had in the midseason finale (with Lorna Bucket) could have been such greater payoffs. I think splitting the season into two chunks means WE GOTTA DO EVERYTHING IN SEVEN EPISODES GO GO GO and I can't even count the pirate episode as one. Season 5 had a lot of subtlety that the RTD seasons lacked, but now I feel like everything is so on the surface all the time. AND ON TOP OF THAT, you have Amy being taken offscreen before the season even starts? That's a bullshit maneuver at best, and seriously lazy.

Not to mention the fact that I am side-eying like crazy that now Amy's sort of all MY BABY-fied.

I feel like I'm extra bitter since everyone seems to be in love with River Song except me (and Allison), but I just... can't. I don't understand where the story is going to make sense, and if that's all we're going to get, then yeah, S6 just won't work for me.

(Ugh, why does anything I ever write about Doctor Who NOT MAKE SENSE.)

You have definatley expressed what I've been feeling this season as well - as a viewer, I'm working so hard on figuring out just what the hell is going on, (I've had to rewatch the two, two episode arcs twice now) that the centre piece of Doctor Who, the characters, are being lost in the translation.

I haven't seen the recent ep (we are behind a week, and I haven't downloaded, but read enough to get the gist of it), but the 'big reveal' seemed mighty anticlimatic.

It just seems like Moffit is trying too hard, instead of allowing the characters to shine.

And more Rory, please. Always more Rory :D

Edited 2011-06-05 22:05 (UTC)

It bums me out, too, because I was starting to like River last season. They've just drawn her story out soo much, and made it so convoluted, that she really is annoying.

WHAT EVEN WAS THE PIRATE EPISODE? UGH. SO BAD. And then when they popped up in the last episode, it reminded me of how awesome it was to see Liz 10 and Vincent again in the finale of S5, and how disappointing this was comparatively.

YES, THANK YOU, ABOUT AMY BEING BABY-FIED. When she was sitting with bb!Melody and Rory was going off to fight I was very much hellls no. And are they just not even going to explain ever when Amy was taken? Like, lah dee dah, on the way home from the supermarket, no big.

And I love the characters so much, I do. Amy and Rory and Eleven are my favorite combination in new!who so far, and I love how they balance each other, so it just sucks how everything is about baby!River and River killing someone and the astronaut.

Mostly I just want Amy and Rory and Eleven and Canton and Canton's lover to run off into the sunset. I don't think anything this seasons "main plot" has to offer can possibly beat that.

I really don't see how they can possibly pretend that this is aimed at kids, when NOTHING MAKES SENSE. I especially don't get who these people are who are leaving glowing reviews. I just want the show to be fun and mostly make sense again, is that really so much to ask? =/

There were a few good moments in the episode last night, I'm just really getting tired of the string of questions that are being shoved down my throat.

I love Rory to veritable pieces, and I love the balance of the characters, so yes, definitely, always more Rory!

I'm mostly inclined to rewatch the latter half of Season 5 during the hiatus, and ignore Season 6 until it returns. It's not worth the frustration it's causing me in the meantime, blergh.

CANTON. Man, he made up for a lot of what I didn't enjoy about the opener. I mean, I didn't hate it, but it still wasn't up to par considering S5. Especially the first half.

Can we also add a spin-off of Madam Vastra and Jenny and have it be a grand lesbian mystery-solving romp in the Victorian era? Because DO WANT.

Ugh, at least it's still better than anything Miracle Day will ever, ever be. (Rusty, look at your life. Look at your choices.)

I would watch the hell out of that spin-off. I hope some good fic for them spring up, because they were adorable and definitely upped my enjoyment of the ep. And Canton ♥ I would very much like to kiss Mark Sheppard.

I think a large part of my disappointment is just how good Season 5 was. Hopefully they'll manage to pull out some actual sense-making in the back half, but even with that the episodes just haven't been that great, and certainly haven't been strong as stand alones (excepting The Doctor's Wife, of course).

I like how the managed to not actually answer any questions in 6.07 other than River as Melody. That really made me happy.

I'm in agreement with everything you have to say. On everything. Especially how this show has lost its heart, which it had in spades last season. I don't know. I'm obviously still going to watch because Matt and Karen and Arthur are the epitome of delightful, but. I just don't know, man.

And I keep trying to rationally explain my problems with River Song without sounding like a bad feminist, since you just know that's what fandom will jump up and down screaming if you express any dislike for their faves, but I apparently don't have the patience.

I think some of the problem I have with River is that, until yesterday, all we knew about her was through her interactions with the Doctor, interactions which didn't even make sense within context of the Doctor that we know. I think it's hard to call her a strong female character when she's been completely defined, at least to the audience, by a man. And yes, yes, the Doctor is a Time Lord, etc etc, except that to her he's a man. At least Martha and Rose had lives outside of the Doctor, had their own hopes and dreams. (The whole Amy/Rory/family-eating-cracks-in-walls is a whole other deal.)

What we know about River is that she met the Doctor when she was young, she killed the best man she ever knew, she has some close relationship with the Doctor, and...? We know she's Amy's daughter now, but we also know that her entire life was turned upside down by the Doctor's enemies trying to get at the Doctor.

Last season, I think it was easier to enjoy River, but this season, when she's telling Rory that her greatest fear is the day the Doctor won't remember her at all? That she think it'll kill her? Nevermind that it does, the fact that she says that? I don't know, I find that annoying. Living your life around one person is just...it's just not good.

/essay

Anyway, yes, I will watch it for always, and I will continue to delight in Matt and Karen and Arthur, but I do hope the season picks up and brings us back to the basics of lovely people and heart.

I know other people that have said they are trying to hard to to be clever and I would have to agree. But all the clues are there....

I knew who River was MONTHS ago
I know who was in the space suit that kills the doctor
I know who the little girl is
I know there is more to River than what she told them at end of the latest episode and I don't think River even knows but it is so obvious!

...lol, well that's not what I'm talking about here. There are approximately a zillion different spec pages on the web, though, so have fun ;)

What I'm saying here is that I think they're trying too hard to be clever at the cost of the emotional core of the characters.

thinky thoughts on S6 of Doctor Who (so far)

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