More thoughts on The Time of Angels

[eve11]

So, I am curious. Last week we had a giant improbable and never-explained WTF moment in the whole "stopping the Dalek bomb with love" plot point, and it really just didn't work very well at all. But this week we have another whole giant improbable WTF and not-well-explained moment in that oh yeah, "that which takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." Just as much out of the blue and not explained, the image on the TV gets imbued with an Angel soul (somehow) and steps out of its picture to become an Angel. Think about it. This makes no sense, really. But this scene actually seemed to work, at least better than last week's, if fan reactions on lj are any account (my reaction included. I am quite prepared to handwave that moment because I thought it was a cool, creepy scene).

Why does the first giant handwave fall flat and the second one get a pass? Does it have to do with tone and pacing? Or the fact that the biology of these monsters is already so ridiculous and improbable that we can just add new talents without suspending that much more disbelief? I think maybe it is actually a case of writing the improbable to obtain the "right" emotional response. If the "magic" ability tells a better story, then we forgive it, and as an audience we are quite good at judging what a good story entails.

Thoughts?

Comments

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it's because the Angels are sort of magical creatures to begin with (okay, so they have some handwavy technobabble reason why they're not really magic in-universe, but...well, they are really. And unlike some curmudgeonly oldschool fans, I'm fine with that. Really. :D); and in magical terms it kind of "makes sense" - they are all to do with images and the eye of the beholder and that sort of stuff, aren't they? But I think the main thing is the creepiness of the concept - things coming out of the telly and getting you - that's somehow very disturbing and daft at the same time, and I think that's why it works.

[eve11]

and in magical terms it kind of "makes sense" - they are all to do with images and the eye of the beholder and that sort of stuff, aren't they? But I think the main thing is the creepiness of the concept - things coming out of the telly and getting you - that's somehow very disturbing and daft at the same time, and I think that's why it works.

Whereas "stop the bomb with love" is rather cheesey and daft at the same time, yeah. It's like, if we're going to suspend our disbelief we want an emotional or storytelling dividend in return, I guess.