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the image of an angel itself becomes an angel
SO I THINK THERE WAS THIS AWESOME EPISODE OF A TV SHOW OR SOMETHING.
I'd like to start with River.
Back in ye olde s4, when River Song first appeared, I remember actively liking her in concept and being really shaky on her in execution. I couldn't at the time articulate why, but having now seen more of her, I can fairly conclusively say that I didn't much like her because while I love the idea of two people trying to have a coherent relationship without ever being on the same emotional page, in practice seeing the Doctor so thrown was deeply disturbing when I didn't have any advance warning. Having now seen Eleven's take on it -- he knows that, in some probable timeline, he'll someday love her, and he can already see the qualities that will cause him to, but being confronted with a human who has a much more complex knowledge of him than he's already allowed is terrifying -- I think I really love River. We're supposed to be with the Doctor on this! We're supposed to be made uncomfortable, and be grated by her self-assurance, because neither the Doctor nor we the audience yet have the emotional touchpoints that allow us to want her to know the Doctor so well. This in turn makes me kind of adore River; she knows enough, and is confident enough in herself, that she doesn't need to apologise for what she's doing, and I don't want her to. (I may now have a theory that River's smugness about Knowing Things is revenge for those times when in her past the Doctor has been smug at her about Knowing Things, although of course he did it to her because she did it to him because he ... &c &c. :D)
I also suspect that I like River much more now because she's a character in her own right now, for Moffat to mess about with as he pleases. She's no longer part of the Say Ominous Things To Ten About The Downward Spiral of His Character Arc, PS Donna Is Going To Die plot, and that helps loads. I'm not sure I quite buy her Guide to the Doctor's Faces as a continuity-fix, but I suppose she could conceivably know four of him without making the continuity incoherent, and I suppose she could've run into Ten a few more times we didn't see, too. Ehh. It's a good enough handwave.
Anyway, it is made ALL BETTER by [a] gfdkjdfshjds the wheezing sound is the TARDIS's EMERGENCY BREAK fdskljdjkhdsf omggggg, we seriously had to pause for like a minute to shriek and flail about this, and anyway the Doctor likes the sound so I doubt it will be suddenly off the show; [b] RIVER FUCKING SONG FLEW BACKWARDS OUT OF A FUCKING SPACESHIP, GUYS, and also looks hot in those heels; [c] her archeologist-fu allows her to write "hello, sweetie" in Old Gallifreyan nnngh; [d] someone who is not the Doctor taught her how to drive the TARDIS?? either we have retroactive continuity and ROMANA CLEARLY TAUGHT HER, or we have Mysterious Time Lords In The Future, both of which would be awesome -- we could even combine them! Romana can have taught her in the future!!; and [e] River and Amy, you guys, I love everything River and Amy did when they interacted, and I may deeply want River/Amy fic now. Yesterday.
Speaking of Amy, she's kind of my favourite. She got around the blinking by only blinking one eye at a time! She was basically willing to be left behind when she thought her hand was stone! She did not come over all weird and jealous at River but instead they bonded over their mutual Doctor-acquaintance and their badassery! Amy didn't panic, but instead figured out how to turn the angel off!
Speaking of, OH GOOD GOD THE WEEPING ANGELS ARE GOING TO GET US; THEY CAN ESCAPE FROM THE TELLY. Basically what Moffat has done is something fucking brilliant, which is: he's taken away our only defense against the angels. They were bad enough before, when you can't hide from them by looking away and pretending they don't exist; now we can't even pretend they're fictional. We already knew that it's us, the audience, looking at the angels that makes them not move, not whether a character in-show can see them; now we know that we literally have to keep looking or they'll escape out the screen. I honestly don't think I blinked for that entire episode.
I think this one is hands-down my favourite so far. I do have a couple small problems, of course. First, having awesome, awesome Liz X be a black woman doesn't, spoilers, absolve you from all racefail forever, and don't think I didn't notice that the first two redshirts were black guys and that the only one with a name and any proper dialogue and character development was the white guy. Second, I think giving the angels a voice, much like giving the Vashta Nerada a voice, makes them less frightening. You've moved them a step closer to human without moving them close enough to be terrifying again. The calm with which Bob explained his situation was chilling, but less so for the ghosting in the library episodes. And that the angels simply killed those guys is at least a new mystery, but simple neck-snapping death isn't new in its horror? I don't know. The scene with the angel in the telly was still plenty terrifying to keep me huddled up for the whole episode.
It can be next episode now?
I'd like to start with River.
Back in ye olde s4, when River Song first appeared, I remember actively liking her in concept and being really shaky on her in execution. I couldn't at the time articulate why, but having now seen more of her, I can fairly conclusively say that I didn't much like her because while I love the idea of two people trying to have a coherent relationship without ever being on the same emotional page, in practice seeing the Doctor so thrown was deeply disturbing when I didn't have any advance warning. Having now seen Eleven's take on it -- he knows that, in some probable timeline, he'll someday love her, and he can already see the qualities that will cause him to, but being confronted with a human who has a much more complex knowledge of him than he's already allowed is terrifying -- I think I really love River. We're supposed to be with the Doctor on this! We're supposed to be made uncomfortable, and be grated by her self-assurance, because neither the Doctor nor we the audience yet have the emotional touchpoints that allow us to want her to know the Doctor so well. This in turn makes me kind of adore River; she knows enough, and is confident enough in herself, that she doesn't need to apologise for what she's doing, and I don't want her to. (I may now have a theory that River's smugness about Knowing Things is revenge for those times when in her past the Doctor has been smug at her about Knowing Things, although of course he did it to her because she did it to him because he ... &c &c. :D)
I also suspect that I like River much more now because she's a character in her own right now, for Moffat to mess about with as he pleases. She's no longer part of the Say Ominous Things To Ten About The Downward Spiral of His Character Arc, PS Donna Is Going To Die plot, and that helps loads. I'm not sure I quite buy her Guide to the Doctor's Faces as a continuity-fix, but I suppose she could conceivably know four of him without making the continuity incoherent, and I suppose she could've run into Ten a few more times we didn't see, too. Ehh. It's a good enough handwave.
Anyway, it is made ALL BETTER by [a] gfdkjdfshjds the wheezing sound is the TARDIS's EMERGENCY BREAK fdskljdjkhdsf omggggg, we seriously had to pause for like a minute to shriek and flail about this, and anyway the Doctor likes the sound so I doubt it will be suddenly off the show; [b] RIVER FUCKING SONG FLEW BACKWARDS OUT OF A FUCKING SPACESHIP, GUYS, and also looks hot in those heels; [c] her archeologist-fu allows her to write "hello, sweetie" in Old Gallifreyan nnngh; [d] someone who is not the Doctor taught her how to drive the TARDIS?? either we have retroactive continuity and ROMANA CLEARLY TAUGHT HER, or we have Mysterious Time Lords In The Future, both of which would be awesome -- we could even combine them! Romana can have taught her in the future!!; and [e] River and Amy, you guys, I love everything River and Amy did when they interacted, and I may deeply want River/Amy fic now. Yesterday.
Speaking of Amy, she's kind of my favourite. She got around the blinking by only blinking one eye at a time! She was basically willing to be left behind when she thought her hand was stone! She did not come over all weird and jealous at River but instead they bonded over their mutual Doctor-acquaintance and their badassery! Amy didn't panic, but instead figured out how to turn the angel off!
Speaking of, OH GOOD GOD THE WEEPING ANGELS ARE GOING TO GET US; THEY CAN ESCAPE FROM THE TELLY. Basically what Moffat has done is something fucking brilliant, which is: he's taken away our only defense against the angels. They were bad enough before, when you can't hide from them by looking away and pretending they don't exist; now we can't even pretend they're fictional. We already knew that it's us, the audience, looking at the angels that makes them not move, not whether a character in-show can see them; now we know that we literally have to keep looking or they'll escape out the screen. I honestly don't think I blinked for that entire episode.
I think this one is hands-down my favourite so far. I do have a couple small problems, of course. First, having awesome, awesome Liz X be a black woman doesn't, spoilers, absolve you from all racefail forever, and don't think I didn't notice that the first two redshirts were black guys and that the only one with a name and any proper dialogue and character development was the white guy. Second, I think giving the angels a voice, much like giving the Vashta Nerada a voice, makes them less frightening. You've moved them a step closer to human without moving them close enough to be terrifying again. The calm with which Bob explained his situation was chilling, but less so for the ghosting in the library episodes. And that the angels simply killed those guys is at least a new mystery, but simple neck-snapping death isn't new in its horror? I don't know. The scene with the angel in the telly was still plenty terrifying to keep me huddled up for the whole episode.
It can be next episode now?
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Random moment that I loved: when Amy was teasing the Doctor about River and he suddenly went "Yes. You're right. I am Mr Crankypants today." It made me go 'awwww' inside.
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The neck-snapping isn't a new horror, but it would have been really weird if all the angels had done was send the redshirts back in time--assuming that that was going to happen made the approach of the angels when Bob was alone a bit less scary.
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I cannot ship any combination of 11, River, and Amy (well, baring the Doctor and River combination)-- it feels too weirdly like a little Time and Space nuclear family. And I am SO pleased I am getting my wish for grumpy (adorable!) old man Doctor.
I am... hmm. I can't really make grandiose statements about Who Should Be Like This because--lacking the patience for the old serials-- all I've seen is the New Era, but anyway! I love how the show's scaling itself back to being a show for children first, adults second. I think RTD tried too often (and too hard) to make Who for adults first, and maybe for children as a sort of after-thought.
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But that is some INSPIRED creepiness there, despite my own fail!
(Also, I'm totally with you on Amy blinking one eye at a time. The whole time I watched Blink the first time I was thinking very hard at the screen that that's what the characters should have been doing! Because really, it's not feasible to do what the Doctor said and "don't even blink")