Doctor Who 5x03, "Victory of the Daleks"
Apr. 17th, 2010 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitThat was so disappointing on so many levels.
I've never been a Dalek fan, but the trailer made it look like this week's episode would do something really new with them; instead, we got the same old Dalek conquest stuff. Only with the bizarre new twist of rainbow-colored Daleks, WTF? The whole point of Daleks is that they don't have individuality.I really suspect that was included just to enable a couple of charming homophobic jokes from the Doctor about the Daleks being "swishy" and "pretty supreme." Which is so wrong, both on a political level and for the character. Ick. [I withdraw this argument. It's become clear that I misheard "swish" as "swishy" (the latter is a homophobic slur, at least in U.S. slang), and that this mishearing was the basis for the rest of my problem with the scene. I'm still not comfortable with the scene; I still think there's something weird going on in it about masculinity, but I don't feel like I've got sufficiently solid evidence.]
The story was unsuccessful in two other major ways. First, pacing. There was too much happening too fast, so nothing got developed, events occurred with ridiculous speed (how did the gravity bubbles go from designs to "installed in fighter planes" in three minutes?), and there were traces of edited-out subplots (e.g. the young woman crying at the end because her RAF boyfriend got killed, which it was impossible to care about because we hadn't spent any time with her). The story would've benefitted from being an old school four-parter.
Second, plausibility. I don't ask much from Doctor Who in this respect, but the Daleks strategy of lighting up London was absurd. People had BLACKOUT CURTAINS. They didn't sit in the dark every night, for heaven's sake. The Daleks lighting up the street lamps might have made sense (although I vaguely recall reading that most street lighting was removed entirely during the war), but all those lighted windows certainly didn't. And then there was the Doctor's equally brilliant strategy for defusing bomb!Bracewell. Instead of, say, using the TARDIS to take him out into deep space and then trying to defuse him, the Doctor endangers the whole earth because somehow talking about feelings stops bombs from exploding? How does that even work, seriously? And does every single New Who episode really have to be all about how Humans Are Awesome And Feelings Are Awesome And OMG Aren't We All Special?
And then the Doctor leaves Bracewell on earth. Bracewell the living bomb, who we know is psychically linked to the Daleks and whom they might have another go at detonating when they come back. I know this was supposed to be all uplifting and compassionate, but from my perspective it looked like sentimental misjudgment. Yes, let's let the android go in search of his fake memories, never mind that he might blow up the planet!
Speaking of sentimentality . . . I didn't much like Amy in the episode, I'm afraid. For one thing, I kept wanting to tell her to stand up straight and stop wriggling and giggling. Worse, though, is the fact that she seems to be increasingly written the way Gwen Cooper was written on Torchwood, as the person who always saves the day because of her super-amazing female compassionTM. I hate the gender essentialism of that, I hate the way it reinforces the idea that men are brains and women are heart, and I hate the way it makes female characters uninteresting because they're all the same and all completely predictable.
Oh, and did we really need to have yet another companion written as fancying the Doctor? I thought we'd gotten rid of that with the end of the RTD era, and I'm deeply unhappy to see it again. I ignored the hints of it in the first and second episodes because I wanted to believe Moffat would be a better, more interesting show-runner than that. It's not that I'm opposed to the idea of romance being included on Doctor Who (hardly!) but it's been done too often lately, both requited and unrequited versions. And I hate that it's written in such a way as to imply that the Doctor is (a) exclusively heterosexual and (b) only interested in white women [Rose, River, Reinette vs. Martha and Jack]). I would really like a break from it, thanks. Alas, next week we get River Song. I liked her as a character the last time we saw her, but the prospect of "the Doctor's wife" is not a cheering one. *sigh*
Returning to the plot for a minute, this week's clue to the season finale, Amy not remembering the events of "The Stolen Earth," would've been more compelling if it hadn't been unsubtly re-stated at the end, and then even more unsubtly emphasized with the Giant Crack of Doom. I'm tired of the GCoD already and we're only three episodes in.
About the only thing I liked in "Victory of the Daleks" was the Doctor's frustration at the Daleks escaping again, and the way he didn't really seem at all sure that saving the earth was much compensation. Which is probably just me reacting against the general soppiness of the episode and the "humans are the best!" theme I mentioned above.
Oh, show, please get better. Please. It's not that I want to be a stereotypical snobbish Classic Who fan who can't shut up about how much better the show used to be. But these last couple of weeks, I find myself thinking those things. The fact that I recently watched the most wrenching Fifth Doctor stories makes New Who look silly by comparison, and I admit that it's unfair (there were plenty of silly or just plain bad Classic Who stories). But even so, I would like the show to get better now.
ETA: lizbee has pointed out that I may have misheard the Doctor's comment to the Dalek Supreme, interpreting "swish" as "swishy," and that swish can be complimentary in UK slang. I acknowledge the possibility (although on re-listening I still heard "swishy") but I still think that the Doctor's mockery of the Daleks' new color scheme is based in impugning their masculinity, implying that their attempt to seem powerful/masculine/warlike has failed (and that kind of mockery is always homophobic). It doesn't make a bit of literal sense--surely the Daleks have neither gender nor sexuality--but I don't think Gatiss considered it that closely when writing the scene. And my main point stands: it really bothers me that the Doctor would be written as thinking in those terms.
I've never been a Dalek fan, but the trailer made it look like this week's episode would do something really new with them; instead, we got the same old Dalek conquest stuff. Only with the bizarre new twist of rainbow-colored Daleks, WTF? The whole point of Daleks is that they don't have individuality.
The story was unsuccessful in two other major ways. First, pacing. There was too much happening too fast, so nothing got developed, events occurred with ridiculous speed (how did the gravity bubbles go from designs to "installed in fighter planes" in three minutes?), and there were traces of edited-out subplots (e.g. the young woman crying at the end because her RAF boyfriend got killed, which it was impossible to care about because we hadn't spent any time with her). The story would've benefitted from being an old school four-parter.
Second, plausibility. I don't ask much from Doctor Who in this respect, but the Daleks strategy of lighting up London was absurd. People had BLACKOUT CURTAINS. They didn't sit in the dark every night, for heaven's sake. The Daleks lighting up the street lamps might have made sense (although I vaguely recall reading that most street lighting was removed entirely during the war), but all those lighted windows certainly didn't. And then there was the Doctor's equally brilliant strategy for defusing bomb!Bracewell. Instead of, say, using the TARDIS to take him out into deep space and then trying to defuse him, the Doctor endangers the whole earth because somehow talking about feelings stops bombs from exploding? How does that even work, seriously? And does every single New Who episode really have to be all about how Humans Are Awesome And Feelings Are Awesome And OMG Aren't We All Special?
And then the Doctor leaves Bracewell on earth. Bracewell the living bomb, who we know is psychically linked to the Daleks and whom they might have another go at detonating when they come back. I know this was supposed to be all uplifting and compassionate, but from my perspective it looked like sentimental misjudgment. Yes, let's let the android go in search of his fake memories, never mind that he might blow up the planet!
Speaking of sentimentality . . . I didn't much like Amy in the episode, I'm afraid. For one thing, I kept wanting to tell her to stand up straight and stop wriggling and giggling. Worse, though, is the fact that she seems to be increasingly written the way Gwen Cooper was written on Torchwood, as the person who always saves the day because of her super-amazing female compassionTM. I hate the gender essentialism of that, I hate the way it reinforces the idea that men are brains and women are heart, and I hate the way it makes female characters uninteresting because they're all the same and all completely predictable.
Oh, and did we really need to have yet another companion written as fancying the Doctor? I thought we'd gotten rid of that with the end of the RTD era, and I'm deeply unhappy to see it again. I ignored the hints of it in the first and second episodes because I wanted to believe Moffat would be a better, more interesting show-runner than that. It's not that I'm opposed to the idea of romance being included on Doctor Who (hardly!) but it's been done too often lately, both requited and unrequited versions. And I hate that it's written in such a way as to imply that the Doctor is (a) exclusively heterosexual and (b) only interested in white women [Rose, River, Reinette vs. Martha and Jack]). I would really like a break from it, thanks. Alas, next week we get River Song. I liked her as a character the last time we saw her, but the prospect of "the Doctor's wife" is not a cheering one. *sigh*
Returning to the plot for a minute, this week's clue to the season finale, Amy not remembering the events of "The Stolen Earth," would've been more compelling if it hadn't been unsubtly re-stated at the end, and then even more unsubtly emphasized with the Giant Crack of Doom. I'm tired of the GCoD already and we're only three episodes in.
About the only thing I liked in "Victory of the Daleks" was the Doctor's frustration at the Daleks escaping again, and the way he didn't really seem at all sure that saving the earth was much compensation. Which is probably just me reacting against the general soppiness of the episode and the "humans are the best!" theme I mentioned above.
Oh, show, please get better. Please. It's not that I want to be a stereotypical snobbish Classic Who fan who can't shut up about how much better the show used to be. But these last couple of weeks, I find myself thinking those things. The fact that I recently watched the most wrenching Fifth Doctor stories makes New Who look silly by comparison, and I admit that it's unfair (there were plenty of silly or just plain bad Classic Who stories). But even so, I would like the show to get better now.
lizbee has pointed out that I may have misheard the Doctor's comment to the Dalek Supreme, interpreting "swish" as "swishy," and that swish can be complimentary in UK slang. I acknowledge the possibility (although on re-listening I still heard "swishy") but I still think that the Doctor's mockery of the Daleks' new color scheme is based in impugning their masculinity, implying that their attempt to seem powerful/masculine/warlike has failed (and that kind of mockery is always homophobic). It doesn't make a bit of literal sense--surely the Daleks have neither gender nor sexuality--but I don't think Gatiss considered it that closely when writing the scene. And my main point stands: it really bothers me that the Doctor would be written as thinking in those terms.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 01:40 am (UTC)What I don't understand is how Moffat went from being such a creative, interesting episode writer in the RTD era to being such a dull, un-innovative showrunner. It's disheartening.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 05:50 am (UTC)I think you must have misheard; I just went back and watched that scene again, and the Doctor says, "Pretty swish. You must be feeling pretty supreme."
"Swish", in this context, being slang for "cool, awesome, stylish", and "supreme" as a play on the Dalek Supreme's title.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:06 am (UTC)"supreme" as a play on the Dalek Supreme's title.
Yes, I know that. But I think in the context of the Doctor mocking the Daleks for their pretty new color scheme (and especially since he called the Supreme Dalek "sweetheart" earlier in the scene), I still think there's something ugly going on about masculinity (which is also about homophobia, since attacks on "effeminacy" usually contain an imputation of homosexuality). Obviously it's not literal--the Daleks probably have neither gender nor sexuality--but it still really bothers me to see the Doctor written as thinking in those terms.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:08 am (UTC)He also called Churchill "dear", so it seems more like Gatiss is writing him as a dropper of endearments, sarcastic and otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 07:30 am (UTC)I think that was well done - I believed that he was actually considering letting the Earth go down for the sake of the universe. I like that letting go of the Earth is conceivable in this regeneration - it makes Eleven seem very new and a bit uncertain about how he feels about things.
I would like the show to get better now.
*hugs* It will! I am eternally optimistic about this show. It will always get better. And then it will get worse again and we will all be sad. Again.
Go and watch some Seventh Doctor, maybe? I like his Dalek story a lot - it's set in 1963, and it's very good. My favourite Dalek episode actually. (Maybe equal favourite with 'Dalek', which was terrifying.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 04:25 pm (UTC)I'm sure you're right. I was really expecting Moffat to come in with a bang, and maybe I'm unreasonably disappointed that he hasn't done more, faster.
Go and watch some Seventh Doctor, maybe?
Skipping Six sounds like a good plan, but I'm not sure I'm ready for Seven yet. I've gone back and started watching a Second Doctor reconstruction (The Enemy of the World) and I've still got one Turlough audio left. I need a little bit of a buffer period before moving on to a new Doctor.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:38 pm (UTC)Oh and YES OMG, this was such a frustrating episode of Who. I've seen some people complain that it ought to be a two-parter, and I think I agree; the whole Daleks-in-WWII thing could have been interesting, could have been all about Churchill's dilemma about what lengths it would be acceptable to go to to stop Nazism, and then the second part could have been the more lighthearted, Spitfires-in-space thing, and introduced the new Daleks and made the repetition of Amy's weird memory stuff less clunky. But as it was, it was just kind of a jumble, I thought.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 03:50 pm (UTC)could have been all about Churchill's dilemma about what lengths it would be acceptable to go to to stop Nazism
That would've been a great story. I don't understand why the story we actually got seemed to rush right over any interesting possibilities to make room for deadly uninteresting ones.