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fourth option
It's Doctor Who day! Again! IT'S HAPPENING EVERY WEEK, HOW AWESOME IS THAT.
I'll get the bits I liked less out of the way first, so as to sort out the things that I did like.
1. Although I liked large bits of the plot in concept, in execution it didn't work quite so well. What is the space whale going to eat now, and did it ever really need humans in its diet or was that just a way to keep the population cooperating? Whyyyy did we have to go inside its mouth and spend five minutes in goo? (I was not one of those children who liked gross things, but maybe children who are not me still like lots of goo?) If both Amy and Liz X were so appalled and so puzzled by their former choice upon the Big Reveal, what was the actual change in motivation? And really, why all the fear and the keeping down of the population, especially with those Smilers? I think I really want a different creepy fairytale-esque episode with the Smilers, because it felt like they were there for bonus terror and didn't serve the plot in any functional way.
2. We don't need it hammered in that ELEVEN IS LIKE A SPACE WHALE. HE IS OLD AND KIND AND ALONE! Meanwhile I also want to know why the Doctor doesn't just evacuate everyone using the TARDIS. It's not like they were on a time limit.
On the other hand, here are some things I loved:
1. AMY. She keeps hairpins in her nightdress for convenient lock-picking. She was morally opposed to what the Doctor was doing, but everyone, including the Doctor, was too, and she didn't spend any time being a useless moral compass -- which is not specifically a criticism of any previous companions, but there has been a tendency to go "THIS IS WRONG," which the Doctor probably already knows, without offering a viable alternative -- but she stopped him when she came up with a better solution! I am always, always easy for Companions As The Doctor; it seems to always be done in a different iteration, but I really like this one. Amy makes choices without consulting anyone, and tries to protect the Doctor from being hurt, and basically does her best to put the Doctor in the companion role for some of the episode. I love Eleven's look of horror at this, and also how he manages to deal with it.
2. Relatedly, I adore Amy's anxiety about her upcoming wedding. Perhaps she's rubbish at weddings, especially her own. I like that her running away is like the Doctor's running away, and that in exchange for a normal life, they have the TARDIS and anywhere they would like. I'm curious to see Eleven's reaction when he learns exactly what it is that Amy's running from.
3. I love the quiet understated way they dealt with the Time War. "Bad day," the Doctor says, but somehow from Eleven it doesn't feel like a downplayed understatement to mask pain. He's finally dealing with it. [There is a whole separate, possibly pages-long chunk of meta here, about each Doctor as a reaction to the last one, and the ways in which Eleven is different from Ten -- obviously -- and why; I have many Thoughts, most of them related to the scene where he tells Amy about being the last of his kind. I'll need to watch it again first, though, and also probably see how he deals with Daleks this time through.]
4. Amy's innate understanding of the Doctor is great, and probably also deserves to be looked at some more, in a way that is tied up with how she gets to Be The Doctor this episode. I like that I feel there's a lot going on with Amy. I also adore their scene at the end; those two have such great chemistry and affection for each other, and I just want to watch them interact more.
Yeah, still excited for Moff time. :D
I'll get the bits I liked less out of the way first, so as to sort out the things that I did like.
1. Although I liked large bits of the plot in concept, in execution it didn't work quite so well. What is the space whale going to eat now, and did it ever really need humans in its diet or was that just a way to keep the population cooperating? Whyyyy did we have to go inside its mouth and spend five minutes in goo? (I was not one of those children who liked gross things, but maybe children who are not me still like lots of goo?) If both Amy and Liz X were so appalled and so puzzled by their former choice upon the Big Reveal, what was the actual change in motivation? And really, why all the fear and the keeping down of the population, especially with those Smilers? I think I really want a different creepy fairytale-esque episode with the Smilers, because it felt like they were there for bonus terror and didn't serve the plot in any functional way.
2. We don't need it hammered in that ELEVEN IS LIKE A SPACE WHALE. HE IS OLD AND KIND AND ALONE! Meanwhile I also want to know why the Doctor doesn't just evacuate everyone using the TARDIS. It's not like they were on a time limit.
On the other hand, here are some things I loved:
1. AMY. She keeps hairpins in her nightdress for convenient lock-picking. She was morally opposed to what the Doctor was doing, but everyone, including the Doctor, was too, and she didn't spend any time being a useless moral compass -- which is not specifically a criticism of any previous companions, but there has been a tendency to go "THIS IS WRONG," which the Doctor probably already knows, without offering a viable alternative -- but she stopped him when she came up with a better solution! I am always, always easy for Companions As The Doctor; it seems to always be done in a different iteration, but I really like this one. Amy makes choices without consulting anyone, and tries to protect the Doctor from being hurt, and basically does her best to put the Doctor in the companion role for some of the episode. I love Eleven's look of horror at this, and also how he manages to deal with it.
2. Relatedly, I adore Amy's anxiety about her upcoming wedding. Perhaps she's rubbish at weddings, especially her own. I like that her running away is like the Doctor's running away, and that in exchange for a normal life, they have the TARDIS and anywhere they would like. I'm curious to see Eleven's reaction when he learns exactly what it is that Amy's running from.
3. I love the quiet understated way they dealt with the Time War. "Bad day," the Doctor says, but somehow from Eleven it doesn't feel like a downplayed understatement to mask pain. He's finally dealing with it. [There is a whole separate, possibly pages-long chunk of meta here, about each Doctor as a reaction to the last one, and the ways in which Eleven is different from Ten -- obviously -- and why; I have many Thoughts, most of them related to the scene where he tells Amy about being the last of his kind. I'll need to watch it again first, though, and also probably see how he deals with Daleks this time through.]
4. Amy's innate understanding of the Doctor is great, and probably also deserves to be looked at some more, in a way that is tied up with how she gets to Be The Doctor this episode. I like that I feel there's a lot going on with Amy. I also adore their scene at the end; those two have such great chemistry and affection for each other, and I just want to watch them interact more.
Yeah, still excited for Moff time. :D
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Yes. I think that ... well, I feel like it's still too early to be forming Theories of Eleven (if I'd tried to form Theories of Ten after only New Earth and Tooth and Claw, I would have a much lighter and weirdly less sympathetic take, for instance) but it does look like Eleven has a lot more self-awareness, or at least self-honesty. He's not going to yell about not hurting things; he's going to get the job done and actually deal with the consequences. I think I really dig it.
I love all those things you list about Amy, and also that she and the Doctor seem to really form/inform each other's characters, in a surprisingly equal way. I mean, she was there through his entire regenerative process, he's been a major presence for more than half her life, and I think they've become a bit like each other. I hope this Goes Places.
Y/Y/MFY. :D