carmen_lj | Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan (Reply)

Right. Well. This is it. I'm scared. Scared, people. I don't want to cry too much. I mean, *of course* I'm not going to cry, but y'know.

Fear of EMO aside, I'm absolutely loving this season of Doctor Who. Limiting the 'meta-story' to character development and letting there be a self-contained adventure each week, jumping cheerfully from genre to genre, has been utterly wonderful. Like Westerns, I'm not fond of the hard-boiled detective thing, but tend to like it better in a sci-fi setting (Star Trek: TNG can be blamed for this, mostly). And we get another storyteller voiceover, a dude this time, but fair enough after three women. Plus, heh, I know that other dude! He's actually an American too! ...or he was when playing Friar Tuck in Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves, anyway.
It's not just the genre-hopping (yeah, I'm getting this stuff out of the way early, since inevitably I'll be distracted later on) it's the look and feel of each episode. They're fantastic contrasts and they each look fantastic. The direction for ATCM and this one (so far, I'm only a few minutes in, but I've been kept distracted from "oh fuck off, hard-boiled detective nonsense" because it just looks so damn good) in particular: gorgeous.
OMG pre-credits sequence, OMG. LOLARIOUS AND AWESOME.
Sting! I recognise a music thing! I'm so proud.
"Only you could fancy someone in a book." Oh, poor naive little Rory. He has never met fandom, has he? Or, y'know, people? Mr Darcy actually did exist before Colin Firth dived in a lake, y'know.
I like Amy's glasses. I like that she has glasses. I like they are all hanging out and having a lovely time and NOTHING IS GOING TO GO WRONG.
I hate endings too, Doctor, but my librarian friends are all going to come and kill you now for your booky vandalising ways.
I don't want Rory to die after getting coffee. It will make be sad whenever I get coffee. AND I GET COFFEE A LOT. You get those coffees, Rory, get them and stay alive!
Oh, OMG. Okay he did get zapped, but OMG RIVER. And OMG BOOK. And OMG THAT WAS COOL.
Just flailing all the way in delight at just HOW MUCH I LOVE DOCTOR WHO for the next few minutes.
Ah, and I like the establishment of The Time Travel Rules for this episode. Cause I've no issues with them being messed about with, changed, bent or broken, so long as that's set up first.
OMG RORY'S GRAVE...we don't count as viewers, right? WE'RE NOT REALLY WATCHING THEM, RIGHT?
"It's a gift of the TARDIS; it hangs around." I do believe someone just retconned quite a few things, the earliest being The Myth Makers (1965!) so that Vicki will still understand Troilus once the TARDIS has gone and thus gets rid of the plot hole that would suggest she's stuck in the past and isolated from everyone around her on account of not being able to understand the languages of ancient Earth, rather negating what's intended as a happy ending. (ETA: just reading this over before posting, I love this even more now it has sod all to do with the episode and really does seem to be a gratuitous retcon, heh.)
Ooh, the Doctor left River a message for a change, cool. I shall take that as a keen hint of the equality of experience/knowledge in their relationship at this point. Especially when she sends a message back, heh.
I want River's dress.
I DON'T LIKE RIVER BEING SCARED. THAT MAKES THINGS REALLY SCARY.
"Final checks." "Since when?" SINCE HE GOT MARRIED. OH. More episodes of the Doctor and River being married and knowing it please. OH AND A PARDON AND CONFIRMATION THAT SHE SPENDS AGES OUT OF PRISON. AND SHE'S A PROFESSOR NOW TOO. MARVELLOUS. Ahem. I really will be terribly sad if there's not more of this...though it does make SitL/FotD even worse really, going from this loveliness to that. BUT STILL.
And then he read the last chapter and OH. (Yet I still have Utter Confidence this is going to end well, shusht; I don't believe Moffat would do anything truly horrid or nihilistic.)
The Doctor losing his temper and River telling him to calm down and I JUST WANT THEM TO HAVE ALL THE SCENES THEY MAKE ME HAPPY.
"There's a car out front, shall we steal it?" I LOVE YOU RIVER.
THEY ARE REALLY MESSED UP. I love them, but, oh, so messed up. I do love Amy going to be all lovely and maternal at River though. And that River is willing to show her vulnerability to her mother.
"Why not zap him back in time like they normally do?" Because they're baiting some manner of trap, trio of experienced time-travel adventurer people! Have you forgotten YOUR LIVES?!
"I'm sorry Rory, but you just died." Please, please let the next line be "What, again?"
Ah, we don't know who the storyteller is, the typist...Amy?
"You think you'll just come back to life?" "When don't I?" See, it's an emotional scene, and yet I FEEL NO DESPAIR. For you cannot convince me what with all the coming back to life, with LAMPSHADING the coming back to life that there will be a horrible ending here.
ARE THEY GOING TO JUMP TOGETHER? I don't how how I feel about that. But it is very them.
Oh, fuck it, I did cry when they jumped. I tried not to, but, um, yeah. Oh well.
Well, this is too good...WHAT AWFUL LAST MINUTE THING IS GOING TO HAPPEN? I was a bit worried there wouldn't be a final Pond huddle though. I like they got in a last huddle. WHAT BAD THING IS GOING TO RUIN IT? ...oh, well done Rory. Couldn't have just got in the bloody TARDIS could you?
Bother, and again, with the crying. So they did die, but it's okay because most people do by the time they're in their eighties.
Five minutes left. I expect a beautiful and uplifting epilogue now, thankee.
"River, they were you parents. Sorry. Didn't even think." QUITE. "Don't travel alone." "Travel with me then." "Whenever and wherever you want, but not all the time." They really are smashing.
And Amy as storyteller, yay. Sentimental, but not over the top. Emotionally satisfying; this is totally a goodbye I'm okay with.
Well, I loved that. This is why: I love how small it is, how intimate, how there's no great villain, just an alien species doing what it does to survive, and that in this smallness that we say goodbye to Amy and Rory. I love that the answer is "run!" and that it's not about saving the universe or even the world but about the Pond family (all four of them), and their relationships, and their lives and who they are and how they save each other. That was the story of Amelia Pond, and it was awfully good.

In a word: magnifique.

Ooh, a Christmas trailer!