Doctor Who 6.06 The Almost People

[prodigy]

I have no idea what to say about this episode. Seriously, I'm not sure I can muster enough for bullet points. I guess:

- What?
- The sad part is that no matter how disjointed that was, I could still follow the plot, which put it above most of this season. Uh, until the end, anyway.
- What?
- Shut up, soundtrack. Doctor Who has the most overwrought soundtrack I've heard on a TV program recently. It's not succeeding in compelling me to feel things.
- What?
- Why is Doctor Who so obsessed with evil women and the havoc they wreak on sympathetic men? What is this, Supernatural?
- What??
- How is it we're six eps in and still haven't had a genuinely good one?

Comments

[aurimae]

Nodding to all of this. I'd opted out to tuning into this new series after seeing the previous one and not liking the way the writing was going at all (i.e. NOWHERE), but I ended up catching the premiere and actually liked it since it finally seemed like it was getting out of that heavy-handed rut it dug for itself (and the masochistic side of me wanted to see how Moffat was going to fuck up). But after The Doctor's Wife, which I did not enjoy (I'm not a Gaiman fan), I kind of gave up, thinking, hey, at least, I gave it another shot that it did not deserve. Unfortunately, BBC America does reruns of the new eps all the time, and seeing it on TV would save me the bother of downloading, so I sat and watched the two-parter. UGH. They really have a special talent for making Doctor Who that boring. And being pregnant against your will is fucking HORRIFIC. I hate that Moffat's using the pregnancy trope, and I know he's going to treat it badly.

And another resounding YES to your observations on The Rebel Flesh.

Also, thanks for giving me access to your DW! I'm still not sure what to do content-wise with this DW, and a journal as empty as mine is pretty disconcerting, so I appreciate it!

[prodigy]

Shh, you can't go around not liking Gaiman out loud like that, you don't want to have your fanbadge revoked or anything. (I love his best and am intensely irritated by his mediocre, particularly when it's massively overrated, as it usually is.) Who fans have a creepy Whedonesque devotion to Moffat and Eleven at this point, totally convinced that every narmy swelling soundtrack moment is profound and every repetitive creepy plot thing that goes nowhere is going to tie up into something eventually. It's like Lost all over again, except how I remember a lot less "LOOK AT THEIR ADORABLE FACES UBUBUBUBU" about Kate and Sawyer.

Sometimes I think Moffat should have his woman privileges revoked, and then I'm not sure which would be worse, Moffat!Who with no women or Moffat!Who with how he currently writes them. It's sad how that's actually a consideration.

And not a problem, I harbor no state secrets! Out of curiosity, do we know each other pre-existingly and I'm just too dense to have realized?

[aurimae]

I guess it wouldn't help to say that I can't stand Eleven and think Amy to be the blandest character (and actress) in recent Who history. But I guess that's why I usually stick to lurking. To be fair, I haven't read Sandman, which a lot of people consider some of Gaiman's best stuff, but his willingness to flaunt his white, male privilege isn't exactly causing me to make me rush to read it. Yeah, I've noticed how the majority of DW fans have embraced Moffat Who and apparently wear rose-tinted goggles as far as the show's concerned. I've been doing quite well avoiding them. *g*

Not sure if you're familiar with some of the statements he's made regarding (the portrayal of) women--in short, he's a misogynistic, sizeist douchebag--but it does explain so much. :/ Which makes the 180 from the female characters of Sally Sparrow & River Song in series 4 to the female characters of Moffat Who even more baffling. (Like how is Sparrow so much more compelling and developed in the ONE episode she's in than Amy Pond who's had more than an entire series?) I mean, holding those kind of notions, you're eventually going to run into some problems, but why are they showing up now and so glaringly? Question marks all around. Am curious to know your thoughts on how River Song's been treated--both as a character and by Eleven.

No, we haven't crossed paths on the Internet before. I've seen you briefly on LJ from some fandom in some way and subscribed to your DW in a similar fashion here. :)

[prodigy]

Sandman is, I think, great, as a piece of comic-book storytelling; I haven't read it in a while but it's sort of a "if you read one thing by Gaiman read Sandman," and it helps he's a much better comics writer than a prose one.

Sure am familiar with his anti-woman sentiments, unfortunately, and I wish it wasn't so unsurprising. I think River Song's been treated terribly in both seasons so far, in the backhanded way of a writer who doesn't take female characters seriously -- in that she can be "bad" and dangerous in a way a male character wouldn't get away with because Moffat would actually consider him menacing, because if a woman does it it's spunky and amusing, due to how inherently nonthreatening Moffat thinks women and female characters are. Also, Eleven treats her like crap, condescends to her, and is generally uninterested in her except to vaguely string her along and make fun of her, I think.