Night Terrors

[eve11]

What's not to love about creepy dolls? You know, as I was growing up our house had a "creepy doll room". Literally, that is what we called it. My dad bought antique dolls for my mom. They were creepy. The creepy doll room was creepy. But apparently it gave me a thick skin when it comes to creepy dolls. :)

A few thoughts:

- What, precisely, are the mechanics of the ability of the fear of a Tenza or whatever it was called, to shrink people down and then turn them into dolls? Also, hey, miniaturization two episodes in a row!

- This episode was very dark most of the time. I mean, lighting-wise. A while back on dw_cosplay folks had been gathering together the items for Amy's outfit in this episode and it is actually really a lovely outfit. But we hardly see it!

- Wooden copper pot, and glass eyeball in the drawer. And I love Eleven's reactions. "We're in the doll's house. Or, it's a setting for large termites."

- "Claire can't have kids!" Was interesting, but hey, nobody even mentioned "Well, was George adopted?" Just saying.

This was a good standalone episode; the doll house had a rather old school feel to it, and the plot was light enough that it even seemed paced like old school. But I feel like we need some emotional continuity with what just happened with Melody and River and the Ponds. Like, okay, here's the thing. Amy had a month to bond with her new little baby Melody in AGMGTW, and Rory even rescued her and held her and stuff. And then she got taken away. And now here in this episode, there's a dad who has a bit of a weird alien child but still holds on to him and says "I'll never let anyone take you". And Rory just kind of watches this, and okay Amy's a doll at that point, but in the aftermath there is no addressing of the point that, even if the Ponds grew up with Mels, they still lost their little baby. As I mentioned on a friend's journal, I'm usually not one to say "Canon Error: Apply Fanfic?" but in this case, well, it really seems like they are having a tough time melding the canon arcs with standalone stories. Next week's ep is supposed to be standalone as well, so we'll see when and if they decide to revisit the emotional arc of this series, what they will do with it.

Comments

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard, this ep. was originally supposed to air in the first half of the season and got moved, which explains a lot about the complete lack of emotional continuity.

[livii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but Black Spot didn't have any either (unless it got cut, but then why couldn't they film a little extra for this one? Black Spot ended up with a Kovarian moment which wouldn't have been there if it was later on in the season, after all). Both eps had a small child with abandonment issues placed in peril. I feel either of these placed after LKH should have triggered SOME reaction, you know?

[eve11]

I do hope they address some of these issues in the next few episodes... but they're kind of running out of episodes in which to tie everything up!

Farscape kind of taught me to not get myself so ridiculously invested in shows and more take them as they are. So at the least, I am still entertained. And there's always fanfic. I even saw a pretty good filler story (Eleven/Rory, kind of) on the Pit of Voles yesterday so I know that the good stuff is out there at any rate...

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

I also thought it strange that the Doctor didn't even question if George had been adopted. Maybe it was in a scene that got cut from the final show?

Here's my take on the miniaturization mechanics. A Tenza is sort of like a cowbird. The Tenza parent dumps its offspring for somebody else to raise, and the surrogate never suspects. This is because the Tenza has a psychic ability to create reality from his perception. Either the Tenza parents determine what the surrogates want and manipulate the changeling's appearance to match that desire, or the changeling himself is able to sense it and shape himself to that perception. The ability extends to the people and things around him; that's how he made his parents forget that Claire couldn't have children; he looked at them as his parents so they did too. But when something shook his sense of security - maybe all those alien invasions in London over the past few years? - he developed a set of fears that spiralled out of control. Normal childhood fears expanded and his perception of every new stimulus as a monster created them as actual monsters. Mom and Dad taught little George to lock what they thought were imaginary fears in the closet so that's what he did. His visualization that he was locking every fearful thing in the closet produced the reality that anything threatening actually did get sucked into the closet. Which left George with a closet full of monsters. Imaginary fears could fit into the closet easily, but real people who produced fear in him wouldn't fit. George must have had some unconscious sense that people need to live in houses, so when he locked scary people in the closet, he put them in the dollhouse. It was Rory's fault that he and Amy got locked in the closet; he joked that maybe they should let the monsters eat the scared kid when they found him - just as they walked past George's window.

I'm glad astrogirl2 explained the incontinuity; the lack of emotional connection between Amy/Rory/River's story and George's family's was a bit jarring just after the Let's Kill Hitler episode (which now that I've watched it again a few times I'm coming to like it more than I did at first - maybe I was too tired to take in all the subtleties the first time around).

[eve11]

That is a good analysis. I understand the metaphorical bits of it, certainly; I guess I was just wondering what kind of magic the little boy had that he could literally turn people into dolls. But yeah, the changeling ability would probably lead to something like that. Manipulation of his surroundings or energy fields or something. The mechanics of how everyone ended up tiny and in the cupboard were of course secondary to the why in this episode. Just, they took some time last episode to talk about miniaturization rays and "compression fields", so I was wondering if the same physics were behind this one. :)

I think part of Let's Kill Hitler's difficulties on first view were the sheer "WTF"-ery of it! It seemed jarring because we weren't expecting it. It's hard to make that work without letting people ease into the episode. The only episode where my reaction was "Well, that was completely unexpected! I'm strapping in gleefully for the rest of the ride!" was The Big Bang where the pandorica opens and Amy's inside with the "Okay kid, this is where it gets complicated" line. LOVED that, and loved the rest of the episode on first view, immediately. LKH had a bit more of a rough start, and it's dragging quite a bit of prior plot points along with it and needs to tie up a lot of things. I like it, and like you I like it more on subsequent viewings, but my first reaction was a sidelong glance and a "Yeah, this is like, bad fanfic crack." It got better as it went along too.

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

I sort of assumed that the dolls actualized as monsters when they got locked in the closet, and it was their monster magic that turned newcomers to dolls also. Sort of along the unintended consequences model.

I did love Amy's "this is where it gets complicated" line, and that whole story arc was right up my alley from the start. I have to admit that I was truly exhausted and had had a few glasses of wine by the time LKH started so a lot of it went over my head. Now that I've watched it sober 4 times (I think, maybe only 3), I have found so much fun stuff in it. I absolutely LOVED it when Amy asked Rory if he could actually ride a motorbike and he replied, "I imagine so; it's been that sort of day." So perfectly Rory!

I'm still pretty sceptical of the Doctor's death scenario - there seem to be so many unresolvable continuity conflicts - but guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens along with everyone else.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Oh my gods, I was so scared during the episode....then gradually got less frightened as it proceeded. :)

The contents of the drawer were very cool. Loved the tea making scene by the way. I'm hoping there's more follow up about River, Amy, Rory and the whole dynamic with the Doctor.

[eve11]

Yeah, the whole "You're not from social services, are you?" bit was pretty cool.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I love the attention to details and characterizations. Makes me a very happy fan.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. Great episode on its own, but the lack of continuity is sort of jarring.

[eve11]

I'm hoping they give themselves enough time to tie everything back together. I'm starting to be all tin-foil-hat and wonder if there aren't bits that all of fandom has been missing, like, eg, are we skipping back and forth in the Doctor's timeline? Where and when does the 200 years of running come into play? Was the Doctor in the tux really only 28 minutes removed from the Doctor on the floor of the TARDIS?

But the rational part of my brain says, "That way lies madness!" and is pretty sure that the explanation is far more to the side of "Moffat got hopelessly tangled in the web of trying to plot out arc-y TV" than "Moffat is a secret genius who has successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of every astute fan everywhere."

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

and is pretty sure that the explanation is far more to the side of "Moffat got hopelessly tangled in the web of trying to plot out arc-y TV" than "Moffat is a secret genius who has successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of every astute fan everywhere."

Love this!

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I am inclined to believe he got in way too deep, although I would be immensely pleased to find out he was in fact being a secret genius all this time. I feel like they haven't been tying things up well enough lately--it's either lazy writing or excessive suspense, or maybe both. And yet, it's Doctor Who, so I kind of love it anyway, haha. :P