Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Sep. 14th, 2012 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackGood things
The basic concept was good.
There were lots of awesome moments. I was giggling or cheering every few minutes. Random examples: Amy saying she was worth two men, but he could come along too if he liked; Amy complaining about her companions; some of the later Rory/Dad stuff.
I liked the slightly larger stable of characters.
The silurian-abandoned spacecraft and the villain were creepy.
Bad things
It's still trying to be way, way too cute. Yes, yes, dinosaurs. Don't have the doctor literally turn to the camera and say "dinosaurs on a spaceship". Don't have such a "snakes on a plane" title. Trust yourselves to make the episode interesting without getting all up in our faces with the title. Especially if you don't really follow up on the concept.
Likewise, Rory and Dad were funny in places, but it starts out as "ho, ho, families are really embarrassing" which I just find grating and tedious. As always, too much pointless technobabble and gratuitous fake tension.
Nitpicks about the plot making no sense and rushing in premises for the sake of the plot I can't be bothered to enumerate.
So, the doctor suddenly decides now to start executing war criminals? I mean, I sort of agree that it's long past time, not to be blase about it, I don't want the death penalty in real life, but to admit that if you repeatedly let someone go and they AGAIN slaughter thousands of innocent people, then maybe the innocent people's right to life outweighs theirs, even if it's sad. But it seems an awful cop out that this sudden reversal of everything he stands for wasn't particularly mentioned in episode yet, and that he pushed the bad guy into a disney "brought it upon himself" ending. He wouldn't let anyone else get away with that: if he wants him to survive, he shouldn't put him in a spaceship that's going to blow up, and if he wants him to die, he should kill him so there's no chance he'll escape at the last minute!
The basic concept was good.
There were lots of awesome moments. I was giggling or cheering every few minutes. Random examples: Amy saying she was worth two men, but he could come along too if he liked; Amy complaining about her companions; some of the later Rory/Dad stuff.
I liked the slightly larger stable of characters.
The silurian-abandoned spacecraft and the villain were creepy.
Bad things
It's still trying to be way, way too cute. Yes, yes, dinosaurs. Don't have the doctor literally turn to the camera and say "dinosaurs on a spaceship". Don't have such a "snakes on a plane" title. Trust yourselves to make the episode interesting without getting all up in our faces with the title. Especially if you don't really follow up on the concept.
Likewise, Rory and Dad were funny in places, but it starts out as "ho, ho, families are really embarrassing" which I just find grating and tedious. As always, too much pointless technobabble and gratuitous fake tension.
Nitpicks about the plot making no sense and rushing in premises for the sake of the plot I can't be bothered to enumerate.
So, the doctor suddenly decides now to start executing war criminals? I mean, I sort of agree that it's long past time, not to be blase about it, I don't want the death penalty in real life, but to admit that if you repeatedly let someone go and they AGAIN slaughter thousands of innocent people, then maybe the innocent people's right to life outweighs theirs, even if it's sad. But it seems an awful cop out that this sudden reversal of everything he stands for wasn't particularly mentioned in episode yet, and that he pushed the bad guy into a disney "brought it upon himself" ending. He wouldn't let anyone else get away with that: if he wants him to survive, he shouldn't put him in a spaceship that's going to blow up, and if he wants him to die, he should kill him so there's no chance he'll escape at the last minute!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 08:06 pm (UTC)Also, I think there was an "I've never had a gang!" line in this episode - am I remembering rightly? - which made me think "oh yes you did, there was that time when you had about half a dozen people flying the Tardis". But you know, details.
Also also: I am still waiting for more Rory and Amy relationship stuff. I'm pleased that they've gotten back together but in my opinion "I'm infertile so I set you free/dumped you but then the Doctor put us in a position where we thought one of us was about to die and then we made up" feels like it needs a bit more resolution than "we smooched and now everything's OK".
no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 10:06 am (UTC)Ah! OK, fair enough. I still need to see the next one.
I think there was an "I've never had a gang!" line in this episode
Oh yes, I thought that was pretty funny, regardless of truth. But I honestly didn't expect that to be consistent with previous episodes :)
Also also: I am still waiting for more Rory and Amy relationship stuff.
I ended up missing most of the existing relationship stuff (most of the "waiting outside the tomb for 1000s of years" as well as whatever broke them up before the dalek asylum episode). So to me it looks like "they're always together, but every season or so they have a bogus excuse to break up, but it doesn't last".
So maybe they'll handle the reconciliation well, but I feel like, if they don't, Rory and Amy will just stay together anyway because the plot demands it, so it doesn't seem to make much difference, alas.
And, although I didn't see the lead up, so I don't know if there were better reasons for it, I was a bit creeped out by "I'm going to break up with you because you want children and I'm infertile". Maybe there was a good reason for it, but most of the time that's a really horrible decision[1], because (a) it assumes you absolutely definitely know better than your partner what's most important to them (b) it excludes all possible other options like adoption (c) it screws your partner up enough that if circumstances change, you won't be able to fix it.
[1] Possibly realistic, although I'd prefer an acknowledgement that it was a really big mistake to make that clear.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 05:37 pm (UTC)As far as I'm aware there wasn't really any build up to it. It feels to me like someone sat there going "we want Amy to break up with Rory. But we want Amy to be sympathetic, and Rory is really nice so if she just broke up with him she could be less sympathetic, so we have to give her a really BIG reason ... oh! I know! Infertility!" ... which is a really, really, really rubbish justification.
(Although I kind of liked the idea that they broke up between when we saw them last and now, in that it points out that their lives do go on and other things happen and they continue to be people, they're not just a happy little family in stasis between visits from the Doctor)
And yes, agreed that in general it is a really really awful decision. Plus, she apparently found out she was infertile and didn't TELL Rory which is also a really really awful decision (it might not explicitly be in the marriage vows but I understand you're supposed to share this sort of thing ...). Also, how the hell did she find out in a way that didn't involve him finding out? (Especially as he's a nurse and therefore wouldn't be foxed by medical jargon or anything)
no subject
Date: 2012-09-24 11:52 am (UTC)Yeah, it seems like that might well be what happened.
It IS realistic for people to make bad relationship decisions. Lots of people might feel they were "not good enough" if they were infertile, even though that's completely wrong. But I think it's a big problem for a show to present them as normal with no critical examination.
it points out that their lives do go on and other things happen and they continue to be people, they're not just a happy little family in stasis between visits from the Doctor
Yeah, that is good.
it might not explicitly be in the marriage vows but I understand you're supposed to share this sort of thing
Our marriage vows mention communication :) Not in much specifics, admittedly, and I can't remember what Rory and Amy said, probably just the traditional minimum :)
how the hell did she find out in a way that didn't involve him finding out?
Uh, good question. You're right, I'm so used to mysterious Plot Ailments, I didn't even question it.
I assumed a doctor had found out [something] which meant she was infertile, even though in real life you'd normally find out after trying to have a baby and failing. And even then you wouldn't be certain.