Dept. of four-plus (!) months of Doctor Who memeishness

[kaffy_r]

The End is in Sight

Indeed, we're approaching the final leg of my interminable trudge through the 30 Day Doctor Who Meme (only three more after this!)

Today, it's Day 27 - An Episode You Wish Hadn’t Been Made (or in my case, Episodes You Wish Hadn't Been Made)

There are so few episodes of which I can truly say "I wish it hadn't been made" and so many more of which I can say "I wish it had been done better," or sometimes even "This story needs major surgery, stat!" Because my sense of terse understatement is highly undeveloped, I'll give you at least my partial list, from least wince-inducing to unreasonably cringe-worthy to "Keep it off my screen forever, kthnxbai."

The one that almost didn't make it to this list, because it wasn't all that bad, but:

"Love and Monsters"
     Initial thought? NO FACE IN THE PAVINGSTONE! NO CHEESY, SKEEVY LOVE LIFE JOKES!
     And frankly? That's the only thing about this episode that I truly didn't like. I would rather have had Elton mourn Ursula and his lost friends. Alternatively, the Doctor could easily have saved more, or all, of LINDA, which, given the overall silliness of the episode, would have been good;  the slight darkness of Elton's admittedly wonderful words about the Doctor at the end would have been transcended by the episode's secondary message - that friendship is to be treasured above anything like power, or even efficiency.

Three that made my teeth grind, with the third one almost making it to "Plz Blow Up Nao" status:

"Journey's End"
     Initial thought? YOU DID *NOT* JUST DO THAT TO DONNA!
     There were so many ways this could have been written to allow Tate to leave the series, and still treat Donna with respect. If the dialogue between Wilf, Sylvia and the Doctor had been rewritten, with the Doctor telling them to keep things secret for now, until he could find a way to return Donna's memory without killing her, promising that he'd work on it until he succeeded, it could have worked (It might never happen, but at least you have the Doctor acknowledging that he has to make the effort.) If he had allowed Donna to make the choice, and Donna had allowed him to take her memory, again, it would have worked. If she had refused, and he had had to let her die, it would have been incredibly powerful. It probably wouldn't have passed muster with the BBC, but it still would have worked. As it was, it's still the episode I can't watch past a certain point, because it really hurts to do so. I can far more easily watch PotW all the way through. And speaking of that S1 ender ....

"Christmas Invasion"
     Initial thought? WANT NINE! WANT NINE! DO NOT WANT "DON'T YOU THINK SHE LOOKS TIRED?"
     I was, eventually, able to learn to like the Tenth Doctor, but honestly? I could have done with another season or so of Nine, and my sorrow at seeing him go made me wish, with the strong desire of a three-year-old child wanting its mother, that this Christmas special had been saved for a couple of years. And then there's the rage-inducing decision by the regenerated Doctor to torpedo Harriet Jones - in my opinion, for doing something that had to be done (there was no way the Sycorax were going to keep their word. Their leader had already shown that. Worse, they were stupid; stupid people are very apt not to believe even credible threats against themselves.) I know there are many ways to fanwank his decision so that it's perhaps a little less egregiously awful, but I like to reserve fanwanking for saving bad plots, not for masking bad characterization. As I said, I was eventually able to like Ten but this  episode, with his arrogant, arbitrary and petty action in the final minute or so, didn't help.

"The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood"
      Initial thought? RAMPANT MISOGYNY ALERT!!
     This had a number of intriguing concepts, a couple of kickass minor characters (Dr. Nasreen Chaudry, for one, whose awesomeness transcended even the "I'm going to stay down here for a bazillion years for luuuurrve" foolishness, since Neera Myal and Tony Pugh sold me on their affection) ... and, unfortunately, it also had Chris Chibnall's usual fear-of-women and love-of-clunky-dialogue fail. Chibnall lived down to my expectations - why did he do so well with Life on Mars and generally suck, in my opinion ("Adrift" and "Exit Wounds" for Torchwood notwithstanding) at writing anything in the Whoniverse? Every single female in these two episodes is depicted as aggressive, untrustworthy, or weak, with Amy being the only possible exception (and some might construe the fact that she's written as forgetting her own fiance as weak; I wonder how it would have been written if Rory had been the one to survive and Amy the one sucked into the crack? I think it's entirely possible Chibnall might have written Rory as remembering more.) The episodes could have been saved I think, or at least partly salvaged, by a scenario that didn't make Ambrose into a villain deserving of all the disgust she gets from the Doctor and her own son for doing some reasonably logical-under-the-circumstances things, while Ambrose's dad gets nothing but approbation for doing things that were just as stupid, and even less honorable. Yeah, these two are pretty despicable in my books, saved from being finalists for "Burn Them in a Supernova" category because someone has to cheer for Ambrose.

And finally - drum roll, please - two I think should never have been made, with the most stinking piece of ordure bringing up to the rear:

"A Christmas Carol"
     Initial thought? DITCH IT
     Oh, my god, this was horrid. While the fabric of DW canon is so loose as to be cheesecloth rather than silk, the entire conceit of this Christmas episode - that the Doctor would knowingly play havoc with someone's time line to change his entire personality - is repugnant to me and something I believe exceeds even the loose strictures of DW canon. It put me out of the story in a particularly unpleasant ways. And, while I've spent decades knowing DW plots don't necessarily make sense and oft-times are complete nonsense (and that that is sometimes part of the show's charm), this one left me so emotionally uninvested that its considerable loose plot ends and particularly large, muddy clods of nonsense were impossible to ignore; I tried to suspend it, but all that mud and plot absurdity brought my disbelief plummeting to the ground. And it's a pity, because some of the writing is gorgeous (Moffat can't not write beautifully; it's just the plots he erects that can be a misery), the actors act the hell out of what they're given, and some of the fairy tale imagery is charming. In the end, though, none of that can save this one for me.

"42"
     Initial thought? NO, REALLY - DITCH IT. AFTER YOU'VE PUT IT THROUGH A SHREDDER AND POINTED AND JEERED AT IT FOR GOOD MEASURE. 
     I've talked before about my distaste for this (and here's where I said it for at least a second time.) I found it unconvincing in every way, embarrassing for both the writer* and for Tennant**, a waste of Freema Agyeman's Martha (I'm glad she was never written quite as sloppily afterwards), and completely unsuccessful, for me, in doing what it obviously was trying to do - convince me that the Doctor would have any of the responses to the described plot hooks which the writer asks us to believe he would. (And by "embarrassing" I mean I actually found myself looking away from the screen in embarrassment *every time someone uttered the phrase "burn with me" and **the entire time Tennant was trying to convince me he was possessed by the chunk'o'sun or that he was afraid of the situation.) Chibnall ... fucking Chibnall ....

Comments

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I didn't much care for A Christmas Carol either. I think my problem with it was I didn't really care about the secondary characters, who essentially replaced the (IMHO, much more entertaining) Amy and Rory for the duration of the episode. And weirdly, I didn't really feel like the plot had much dramatic tension...despite the supposedly high stakes.

[kaffy_r]

I agree with both your comments; there was no dramatic tension, and it sorely missed Amy and Rory.

unrelated

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I just received an email notification that you had edited a reply to my comment on a post from two years ago. It seemed very odd to me and I thought I should mention it in case it wasn't something you were doing... ie someone is messing with your account.

Re: unrelated

[kaffy_r]

Oh, no, don't worry at all - that really was me. I was working on this post, which required me going to the post you mention; I noticed that the icons showing up in my replies had reverted to my default icon, because I'd discarded whatever icons I'd used at the time. I'm a little obsessive* about having an icon that matches (in my head, at least) what I say in my comments. So I looked up some of my current icons, and chose new ones to use, and edited them in.

Thanks for worrying, though; what I did is amazingly weird a little weird.

*Which, in the language of my people, means incredibly, fucking, anal-retentively obsessive. Ahem.

Re: unrelated

[maruad.livejournal.com]

"*Which, in the language of my people, means incredibly, fucking, anal-retentively obsessive. Ahem."

I am okay with that part as long as a you haven't been hacked.

:D

Re: unrelated

[kaffy_r]

Nope - hack free! :)

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Every single female in these two episodes is depicted as aggressive, untrustworthy, or weak, with Amy being the only possible exception

Amy is in no way an exception. The single thing in these episodes that annoys me most is the scene where Nasreen and the Silurian representative are trying to have peaceful negotiations to prevent all-out war between two species and Amy gets so bored about having to sit through all that talking that that she PUTS HER HEAD DOWN ON THE TABLE. Everything about her reaction is incredibly childish. It really put me off the character for a long time.

There were so many ways this could have been written to allow Tate to leave the series, and still treat Donna with respect.

Exactly! I find JE incredibly frustrating because the ending was so problematic, but it didn't have to be. I really enjoyed this episode up until Jack, Martha, and Mickey left and Ten started taking away everybody else's decisions.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Everything about her reaction is incredibly childish. It really put me off the character for a long time.

Exactly. And there's not only that scene - I haven't watched those episodes (or any of S5) again since; I simply can't bear to. But I do remember that Rory was, of course, very worried about Amy. He had no idea whether she was dead or alive. So when they meet each other down in the Silurians' cave he's naturally very relieved. And she blows him off. She acts as if he's being an idiot and there's no reason why he should be clingy. And she's engaged to him. That was the last straw for me.

[kaffy_r]

While that bothered me less than some things in the episode, it was annoying because it was, or at least it seemed to me to be, so transparently written to echo comments from Moffat about clinginess in females. I think we were supposed think it was a witty little joke. It wasn't, at least in my opinion.

And, since I really like Amy, this kind of heedless writing sometimes makes me break out in hives.

[kaffy_r]

I'd forgotten about the head on the table bit, but you're correct; the way she was written (and/or directed) was thoughtlessly disrespectful of Amy's character. She'd previously been shown as interested in things around her, at least when it came to people and their interactions, (her self-reported boredom when it came to museums always seemed to me to be more of a snark at the Doctor's lecturish ways) - and here that part of her personality is completely ignored.

.. because the ending was so problematic, but it didn't have to be.

With that, you've encapsulated why some episodes become high-annoyance episodes for me. They're almost right, at least in terms of construction, and then someone puts a clunker of a plot twist, or a characterization fail in, and all the good work is overshadowed by the one bad element.

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

A Christmas Carol BORED ME TO DEATH. I fell asleep everytime I see it XDXDXD

[kaffy_r]

I certainly haven't gone back to watch it.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

The other thing I hated about A Christmas Carol, as well as the casual disregard of recent canon (touching past selves) and the Doctor's arrogance in rewriting Kazran's life, is that he just didn't care about the thousands of other frozen people. At no other time in Doctor Who canon would he have just walked away without making sure they were freed. It would have been so easy to do - a five-second sequence at the end showing them pouring out of the building looking for their families. Instead, we're left with this picture of the Doctor as a dilettante who'd rather gallivant around time with Abigail and Kazran and marry Marilyn Monroe. That's no Doctor I've ever loved.

Good choices for the other ones also, though much as I find 42 a complete waste of money and the actors' talent I'd rate the S5 episodes and A Christmas Carol as very much worse.

[kaffy_r]

The Doctor's apparent lack of care about all the other icily entombed folk was another of many reasons that this one left a sour taste in my mouth; you're quite correct about that. It's sloppy writing, or mis-focused writing, and it's made worse by the fact it was unnecessarily so.

And the sad thing is that each of the actors over-achieved like hell in this episode; they tried to wring every ounce of quality they could find from the script. I respected each of them (the one exception was the singer who played ... hmmm ... Katherine (?) She was a bit of a cipher, albeit a pleasant one with a pretty voice.)

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'm totally with you re Love and Monsters (although I despised that episode far more than you apparently did) and A Christmas Carol (I howled in outrage all the way through, and described it to a friend who hadn't seen it yet as being 'not special, not canonical, not Doctor Who, but CERTAINLY Christmas', along with 'come back, Kylie Minogue, all is forgiven, and that's saying a lot'), but completely puzzled re 42. I understand and largely agree with all your criticisms here and in your older linked post on it, but none of them matter to me because the episode felt good to watch. Something about it resonates with me and overrules all the weaknesses; I've seen it several times now, and my opinion hasn't changed.

However...top of the charts in my Hate Parade would be Midnight. Hate hate hate hate. It's so clumsy and panto-ish and visually greasy that I shudder just to think on it. My husband and I were in violent disagreement when it first aired - though he'd come round a bit by the time we sat through it again with a family friend who needed some Who catch-up - but although I can see his reasons for loving it (the idea of the Doctor alone, companionless, powerless, and seen by the others as a smarmy interfering egoist), and although it did have one utterly awesome bit (the gorgeously rendered echolalia), I would rejoice if someone could mindwipe me so I'd never seen nor heard of it :-S

Dishonourable Mention: THE VILE, SEEMINGLY ENDLESS EPILOGUE AT THE END OF THE END OF TIME.; Argh argh argh and nuff said.

Secondary Dishonourable Mention: the end of The Waters of Mars. Again, that wasn't the Doctor as we've known him all these years. Graah.

[kaffy_r]

' ... come back Kylie Minogue, all is forgiven ...'

*snrt*

One of the reasons I enjoy hearing back from people is that so many people whose views I respect have some very different reactions to episodes; it's a reminder that personal taste can vary wildly, and for perfectly good reasons.

Looking at some of your picks for good or bad episodes reinforces that belief in my book.

For instance, you are part of a small but not insignificant group who really had severe and well-thought-out problems with Midnight, including critic Jacob Clifton, who has done some remarkably incisive reviews of DW over on Television Without Pity. I loved it, partly because it made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and forced me to look at the negative (but completely understandable) human reactions that can emerge from desperate situations.

In another instance, I liked Waters of Mars, largely for the reason you disliked it, seeing the Doctor as we haven't seen him. In my case, it felt not as if this was a "false" Doctor, but a "previously undiscovered, but organically understandable and logically existing" Doctor.

And I absolutely understand what you mean by liking the feel of an episode, even when you can see the structural problems with it. In addition to "Love and Monsters," for me, I think that "Aliens of London" falls into that category. I readily acknowledge its considerable dramatic, plot and structural problems, but I still like it; it still felt good to me, because it showed me Jackie's love of and fear for her daughter, and turned Jackie into a real person for me.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My 'problems' with Midnight were purely stylistic - a combination of what I feel were bad cinematography choices (which is what I meant by visually greasy) and and low-rent Brit-glossy-soap actors/characters. At the time I said, 'I thought I was watching an episode of Crossroads.' If that rings no bells with you, trust me, you're fortunate :P When Doctor Who does quintessential uber-British guest casts - as in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, or, yes, 42 - I get a wee frisson of warmed cockles (not to mention a bittersweet dash of homesickness!), but when it's the skanky sort (Midnight), I just get the DO NOT WANTs.

I loved it, partly because it made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and forced me to look at the negative (but completely understandable) human reactions that can emerge from desperate situations.

And this is exactly why A Clockwork Orange is one of my most-beloved films, and why I had to walk out on it some years ago during its limited cinema re-release, and why I still can't bring myself to watch it again even though I raced to buy the DVD the moment it became available. I think we understand each other; it's just that our reactions are fixed on different targets :D

[kaffy_r]

it's just that our reactions are fixed on different targets.

Sounds about right!

(As to your comment aboiut low-rent Brit-glossy-soap actors/characters, I can understand that; I'm saved from it by not being aware of which Brit actors appear regularly (or irregularly) on what soaps, so I don't have that unpleasant bit of association to fight through.)

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

BTW I expect you've heard the news about Elisabeth Sladen by now. I'm absolutely gutted. My friend who knew her personally always said Sladen was a lovely in RL as the character she played. Goodbye Sarah Jane, we'll miss you far too much :-(

[kaffy_r]

Definitely. I posted about it - and I also used the word "gutted." It's strange how much of a connection one can have with someone you never knew in real life, someone who was a character in a couple of odd little television shows. My eyes have been intermittently moist since hearing the news.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

This article has an embedded video of Sarah Jane's farewell in Classic Who. As the writer says, if you can watch it without tearing up you're made of strong stuff...

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Interesting, because I loved Midnight. I thought the suspense was excellently done - and so much better than the (to me) execrable Library episodes. Even better still, though, was the helplessness of the Doctor without a companion. He didn't have a way of relating to the other passengers the way he normally would have - or Donna would have done for him - and he became the outsider. Excellent foreshadowing for Waters of Mars, in hindsight.

And speaking of Waters of Mars, while I didn't like what the Doctor became at the end, it had been very well foreshadowed and, IMO, was logical and fitted the character. He'd been through too much, and isolated himself from the companions who protected him and humanised him, to a degree, too much. It goes back, once more, to Donna's you need someone to stop you, which we saw in Runaway Bride and again saw the need for in Fires of Pompeii. Remember also the Doctor's punishment for the Family in 1913 - no Martha in sight, and he was cold-bloodedly cruel. I hated that - but there's a pattern. The point is that the Doctor as we've seen him all these years is the nice, friendly face of him; there's a side of him underneath that is all Time Lord: in charge, judgemental, thinks he has a right to order anything as he sees fit, etc. He abandoned Jack; he made decisions for Rose and Donna disregarding their own wishes - and these are people he cared about. So, to me, Waters of Mars was inevitable. Put that together with his confessions to Wilf in End of Time, though, and we start to see the Doctor we love again. Only too late :(

(As for the EoT epilogue, pure self-indulgence. I like bits of it, and I see it as a tribute to the wonderful companions Ten had. I just don't like the regeneration and beyond *g*).

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

As for the EoT epilogue, pure self-indulgence. I like bits of it, and I see it as a tribute to the wonderful companions Ten had.

That's exactly it - it was fanservice, and as such, should have been a DVD extra. But never never never a part of main show canon!

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I think Midnight isn't just good, it is perfect. It is perfectly written, perfectly acted, perfectly crafted in every way. There is not a single moment of it that I think could have been done better. Midnight is PERFECT.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

And here we have a lovely example of what Lady K said to me, above: One of the reasons I enjoy hearing back from people is that so many people whose views I respect have some very different reactions to episodes; it's a reminder that personal taste can vary wildly, and for perfectly good reasons. To you, Midnight is perfect. To me, it's a superb story concept utterly ruined by the form of its presentation. Just goes to show :-)

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I agree with almost everything you say here!

[kaffy_r]

Ah ... our instincts often seem to run in parallel!