...why do I have no amy/rory icons

[aria]

First, a general niggling feeling I'm having about this season: I think that everyone is trying to write Moffat episodes? And they're doing it with only middling success; I deeply wish Gatiss wouldn't try to write about creepiness and small children when he isn't actually saying anything with it (this would be the reason I never wrote up an episode reaction for last week's), and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this iteration of "Amy's timestream gets fucked relative to the Doctor's." Also the setup was clunky enough that I spent the first ten minutes rather irritably wondering why Amy didn't just go out of that room and press the green waterfall button and save them all a lot of bother.

That said, holy wow this episode. I loved the sets; the creepy robots were the proper sort of creepy; I loved Rory in those stupid glasses. Mostly, though, KAREN GILLAN, HOW SO AMAZING. Her old Amy was absolutely fucking fabulous in every way, and the single best scene of the episode is when Amy's talking to herself through the glass, reminiscing about Rory and connecting. The epic swordfighting didn't hurt either. And guys, I don't think I've shipped a married couple this hard in ever. Except for maybe Peter and Elizabeth. (There is no universe in which Amy and Rory and Peter and El sit down for married couple dinner nights, but against all reason I kind of want to write that fic now.)

I also fucking adored what they chose to do with the Doctor in this one; actually, though they've done it in writing with varying success all season, Matt Smith has been totally selling a Doctor who is as kind as he can be while still being very alien and very calculating and very frightening. And I love that it's being done in a quiet understated way, too. Oh, and Rory saying, "This isn't fair; you're turning me into you," because -- of all the companion-as-Doctor moments that have happened in New Who, that was the most direct and the most chilling.

It's funny, because this season much more than last I am beginning to have the "I can see a brilliant, glorious show somewhere in here, but it's not quite there," that I had with all of RTD's stuff, but ... I think I missed it! I think I like having it back. And I think I have it back less for the episodes that miss than for episodes like this one, where I can see exactly what the show is supposed to be, and it's wonderful.

Comments

[gehayi]

Actually, I can think of a way that Rory and Amy get to meet Peter and El. Canton Delaware III, obviously, is a friend and mentor of Peter and adores Elizabeth, because honestly, how can anyone NOT adore Elizabeth?

And then Peter and Neil get to talking and they think of a way to keep the Doctor from dying for reals and forever in 2014. And it takes Peter and Neil and Elizabeth and Canton and his husband and Jenny-the-Victorian and Madame Vastra and Amy and Rory. And, finally, River, who has a planet-sized library at her disposal and who uses that library and that brilliant mind of hers to restore her corporeality, her life and her regenerations, thank you VERY much.

AND EVERYBODY LIVES.

[aria]

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS COMMENT.

[such_heights]

A++++

[lowkey]

Bonus point if Neil has to steal something incorporeally -- like peace, or time, or hell, a Time Lord's life, or something.

[gehayi]

Or information or technology from Gallifrey. (You KNOW that Neil would look at Gallifrey--a planet isolated from the rest of the universe by a time-lock--and would think, "Hmmm. That might be an interesting challenge."

...I just realized something. Neil Caffrey is Jack Harkness's ancestor. Or if he isn't, he ought to be, as they're the same kind of people.

[caliena]

I am writhing in pain about what Rory has to endure here and in the whole season...

This wonderful man, the Doctor is losing so hard ;_;

[such_heights]

I LOVE KAREN AND ARTHUR AND AMY AND RORY FOREVER AND EVER AHHHH.

[sahiya]

I adored this episode. It took it a little while to warm up, but wow, it packed such a punch in the end. Last week I felt just like you did - that Mark Gatiss had tried to write a Moffat ep and failed. I didn't feel that way about this ep, though; I felt like Tom MacRae did a really good job of taking set-up that was clearly all Moff and making it his own. So much really amazing character work. I'm still sort of reeling.

[katewrites]

For certain Karen G was SO AWESOME. She played both Amys to the hilt and you could see where the older Amy came from - it's like the first time the Doctor left her, only this time she had to evolve further and had to grow harder.

The setup was so silly (Rory, you saw two buttons, why the hell wouldn't you say "the up one" or "the green one" etc) but the payoff was worth it x a billion.