Doctor Who: Cold Blood

[eve11]

Arg, this ep was pretty standard and predictable, done okay I suppose, and I managed to spoil myself for the fact that Rory most likely wasn't going to make it, so the big surprise wasn't as much of a surprise as it should have been.

Neutralizing all his ape bacteria? I suppose that means, eg, attempting to free him of any disease/antibodies whatever that might run rampant through the Silurians and their apparently tiny gene pool? Or just an excuse to make the poor Doctor yell a bit anyway. And he said "remove half the things keeping me alive..." heh, is that a tiny hint of the "half-human on my mother's side" bit? ;)

I thought there was a bit too much smugness from the Doctor in the negotiation scenes. Also, um, okay, Amy and Nasreen are humans, yes, but speaking for all of humanity? er, not really. And the "well you can have the places we can't live in" bit did not sit well with me. Anyway I just felt a bit like fast forwarding through those scenes. I was a bit bored. More explosions and running needed.

I love the hissing noises that the Silurians make. They sound like actual lizards, which is cool.

I love Matt Smith. He is admittedly a bit less convincing in the "getting really angry" bits, but his excitement and bargaining and clever-y bits are all great. I love his "Much better, thanks" and "Oh dear, really? There's always a military isn't there?" bits and his sneaky smile, "Invasion force? Me and lovely Nasrene?" after the failed decontamination. I love the way he says the line "I don't know!" when he gets the shrapnel out of the crack. I love the way his voice kind of cracks itself a bit when he's trying to tell Amy that it's not the same, her being able to remember the clerics vs. her being able to remember Rory.

Doctor, that Silurian scientist put a two-foot-long dissection scar into Moe! I know he's all lonely scientist and stuff but your squee might be harshed a bit if you talk to Moe and/or Amy. I understand they are supposed to be only as good or bad as humans but yipes, he was a bit scary.

Nasrene annoyed me at the beginning, just her delivery of the lines, bleh. But I liked her at the end when she decided to stay with Tony. I wonder if we get to see them again during the finale.

Ambrose Ambrose Ambrose. I don't think you would have really been able to kill that Silurian Warrior with a stun gun. what a piece of work, but rather anvil-ed in by a weakly plotted script.

Okay, show, that is way too many times you've killed off Rory! It was only two weeks ago he got disintegrated and now we have this! What the heck? And how sad yet fitting that his last words are just "I'm sorry". Well, I think his death itself might get erased in the finale? Let's have Team TARDIS back in series 6, pretty pretty please? Also, now what does this do for the whole Amy wanting to jump the Doctor's bones thing?

I don't understand the logistics of the crack. The Doctor puts his hand into it while it's all glowy and open and stuff and no time energy hits him, but then later on the time energy leaks out in tendrils and devours Rory's body. so what was the difference between the Doctor being bathed in light and Rory being bathed in light?

TARDIS shrapnel? Say it ain't so! What the heck are they going to do if the TARDIS explodes? They'll have to fix it, won't they? I know what I will do, most likely: obsessively seek out fanfiction where the TARDIS truly goes kablooey and kind of breaks Eleven in the process, and how he has to recover yet still find ways to have adventures and be brilliant.

More crappy editing: in the Confidential Matt Smith even mentioned that the continuity directors made a big deal about him having to hold the sonic screwdriver up instead of pointing it at people, then in the edited bits with him facing off against Restak all of his shots have him pointing it up and all of her shots show him pointing it directly at her. Also, the flashback shot where Rory gets shot, totally did not include the gunshot. Fire your editors, Moffat! Or at least don't tell the fans to "notice everything" when your editors can't be bothered. Bah.

Comments

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this episode did not please me much. Partly because of the Rory thing, but also in large part because of all the other things. Like the Doctor's insistence that humans are better than Ambrose killing the Silurian. That indicates that the Doctor is very good at selective memory, since he sees them being fairly badly behaved nearly every day of the week.

Oh well, another episode next week and a chance to be better.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

Also, um, okay, Amy and Nasreen are humans, yes, but speaking for all of humanity

not an invalid crit in a story sense - and i thought the same thing for a moment -but it worked for me in a practical sense because there is no other way to handle that. i mean, should the Doctor have gone running around looking for "representatives" of the Earth? that isn't his style, but the immediacy of the moment wouldn't allow for it. the time, the opportunity, was then, and it felt in character to me. imho, 'natch. ;)

granted, that in no way invalidates the legit argument that they could have not written in that way, but they did, bless them.