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tellitslantI know, realistically, that curly hair is not always as soft and fluffy and innocuous as it looks and it probably takes fifteen different products to style it and is actually stiff as cardboard but NNNGH, RIVER SONG'S HAIR. I have no rational response to how pretty it is. *dies*
Aherm. I talk about other things under the cut.
So, three months later, eh? I don't think we get an actual answer as to whether the Doctor has been imprisoned the entire time - do we? - so I look forward to many fics in the interim. (I would have liked some River/Doctor fics if not for the fact that they say explicitly that it's his first time kissing her. Sigh.) I should also like to know why River is in New York in evening wear!
I saw the setup with Canton and the impenetrable box (hur hur hur) coming, but it was still a fantastic scene.
FNRG RIVER'S WET HAIR. SHE DOVE INTO THE SWIMMING POOL.
Ahem. Sorry.
The bit with Canton straightening the Doctor's bowtie is when I called that they were going to actually make him queer. Pleased to have been right! It also introduced the extremely disturbing theme of the episode, where half the time even we don't know whether they've seen a Silence. I had this horrible moment of oh my god there's one on the TARDIS when they pulled that and it was actually horrifying.
The bits in the orphanage are good, but between the writing on the wall and the creepy litte girl I am a little over some of Moffat's themes. I mean, really? Still, again, actually TERRIFYING to see Amy with the blinky light and then the hash marks and then the OMFG CREEPY AS FUCK SILENCE HANGING FROM THE CEILING. Jesus. *shudders* I hope Moff has invested heavily in psychotherapy as a discipline, bcause there will be a boom in a few years when this crop of kiddies hits the couches. Also, I kept mixing "Renfrew" up with "Renfield."
I didn't actually twig that that was River and Rory in Sixties drag until the closeups on them. That was fantastic. That entire scene, in fact, was just great. It cracks me up that they play "Hail to the Chief" every time Nixon enters a room. (Also, still not over the Doctor telling Nixon to "tape everything that happens in this room," ahahaha oh Doctor. Way to cause Watergate.
Looking forward to the explanation of the weird lady seeinginto Amy's dreaming brain (?) through the hatch in the door.
Love River taking over the examination of the suit. And why can the suit move without the girl in it? Was it powering itself off a Time Lord body? (LOL the Doctor licking the stationary.) Also, aw, Rory. Hearts!
Okay, jesus, creepy: did the Silence impregnate Amy? Here's what they say while they have her strapped down: "We do you honour. You will bring the Silence. But your part will soon be over." Um, ew? What?
OH MAN, the flirting. That is SO MUCH HOT my brain just short-circuited a little bit. (What with River's hair and all.) And again I kind of like that part of it is competence porn, because it's just, River is SO GOOD with her gun (...hur hur hur) that te Doctor can't help but find it hot, and she wants to show off for him. And, ah, wiggle up against him. As you would.
Love that the telly has rabbit ears, hee. That is a fantastic setup for getting rid of the Silence - and crucially does not wipe them out, but merely gets them off Earth, so the spectre of the Silence falling isn't neccessarily gone. I love it when the Doctor is clever. So does River.
HOW. HOW AMAZING IS RIVER SONG? Love her and the Doctor back-to-back with the screwdriver and still bantering and and and being epically hot and DOING TRICKS WITH HER GUN and basically also confiming that she and the Doctor are space-married. I want to be River Song when I graduate. We get that level of awesome standard with our PhDs, right?
And how fantastic is it that we get this incredible woman who is sexy and smart and autonomous and successful in her career and a bit of a bad girl and also an action heroine, all while the actress is forty-eight years old? I just think that's such a wonderful thing for the show to be doing, a wonderful message to send to the kids watching it (though not a new one, since we had Sarah Jane Smith beforehand - and how great is it that River and Sarah Jane are two strong, brilliant, sexy older women and yet so different? For a show that I'm pretty sure still hasn't passed the Bechdel test, it does a pretty damn good job with its ladies. Mostly.).
D'awwww, the Ponds. I doheart them.
I like that we finally get a queer character in the Moff's version of Who, but I do find it annoying that it's kind of played off as a "well, we're not quite there yet in tolerance" moment. It's historically appropriate - even more liberal than likely would have been the case, in the Cold War-era where homosexuality made a person a left-wing Commie pinko bastard, more likely than not - but that's the problem, that we only get it in an era where it's allowed to be written off. Hopefully we will get more instances of subtle or not so subtle queerness and then my argument will be invalid!
GOD I KEEP TRYING TO BE COHERENT AND THEN I WATCH THAT KISS AND MAKE EMBARRASSING HIGH-PITCHED NOISES.
Her smile! His arms! The way they touch! His excitement! Her epic heartbreak at thinking it's their last kiss (I refuse to believe that it could be, shut up)! Their FACES. UGH SO MANY FEELINGS. I HEART THEM SO MUCH.
After The Kiss, the little girl regenerating was almost too much. But. OMFG, what is going to happen there, and with Amy's maybe-pregnancy? CAN'T WAIT. The girl can't be on her first regeneration, can he, if she knows what's going to happen? ANYWAYS.
Next week Amy swashes and buckles! No River, but, well, it might be okay. :DDD
Aherm. I talk about other things under the cut.
So, three months later, eh? I don't think we get an actual answer as to whether the Doctor has been imprisoned the entire time - do we? - so I look forward to many fics in the interim. (I would have liked some River/Doctor fics if not for the fact that they say explicitly that it's his first time kissing her. Sigh.) I should also like to know why River is in New York in evening wear!
I saw the setup with Canton and the impenetrable box (hur hur hur) coming, but it was still a fantastic scene.
FNRG RIVER'S WET HAIR. SHE DOVE INTO THE SWIMMING POOL.
Ahem. Sorry.
The bit with Canton straightening the Doctor's bowtie is when I called that they were going to actually make him queer. Pleased to have been right! It also introduced the extremely disturbing theme of the episode, where half the time even we don't know whether they've seen a Silence. I had this horrible moment of oh my god there's one on the TARDIS when they pulled that and it was actually horrifying.
The bits in the orphanage are good, but between the writing on the wall and the creepy litte girl I am a little over some of Moffat's themes. I mean, really? Still, again, actually TERRIFYING to see Amy with the blinky light and then the hash marks and then the OMFG CREEPY AS FUCK SILENCE HANGING FROM THE CEILING. Jesus. *shudders* I hope Moff has invested heavily in psychotherapy as a discipline, bcause there will be a boom in a few years when this crop of kiddies hits the couches. Also, I kept mixing "Renfrew" up with "Renfield."
I didn't actually twig that that was River and Rory in Sixties drag until the closeups on them. That was fantastic. That entire scene, in fact, was just great. It cracks me up that they play "Hail to the Chief" every time Nixon enters a room. (Also, still not over the Doctor telling Nixon to "tape everything that happens in this room," ahahaha oh Doctor. Way to cause Watergate.
Looking forward to the explanation of the weird lady seeinginto Amy's dreaming brain (?) through the hatch in the door.
Love River taking over the examination of the suit. And why can the suit move without the girl in it? Was it powering itself off a Time Lord body? (LOL the Doctor licking the stationary.) Also, aw, Rory. Hearts!
Okay, jesus, creepy: did the Silence impregnate Amy? Here's what they say while they have her strapped down: "We do you honour. You will bring the Silence. But your part will soon be over." Um, ew? What?
OH MAN, the flirting. That is SO MUCH HOT my brain just short-circuited a little bit. (What with River's hair and all.) And again I kind of like that part of it is competence porn, because it's just, River is SO GOOD with her gun (...hur hur hur) that te Doctor can't help but find it hot, and she wants to show off for him. And, ah, wiggle up against him. As you would.
Love that the telly has rabbit ears, hee. That is a fantastic setup for getting rid of the Silence - and crucially does not wipe them out, but merely gets them off Earth, so the spectre of the Silence falling isn't neccessarily gone. I love it when the Doctor is clever. So does River.
HOW. HOW AMAZING IS RIVER SONG? Love her and the Doctor back-to-back with the screwdriver and still bantering and and and being epically hot and DOING TRICKS WITH HER GUN and basically also confiming that she and the Doctor are space-married. I want to be River Song when I graduate. We get that level of awesome standard with our PhDs, right?
And how fantastic is it that we get this incredible woman who is sexy and smart and autonomous and successful in her career and a bit of a bad girl and also an action heroine, all while the actress is forty-eight years old? I just think that's such a wonderful thing for the show to be doing, a wonderful message to send to the kids watching it (though not a new one, since we had Sarah Jane Smith beforehand - and how great is it that River and Sarah Jane are two strong, brilliant, sexy older women and yet so different? For a show that I'm pretty sure still hasn't passed the Bechdel test, it does a pretty damn good job with its ladies. Mostly.).
D'awwww, the Ponds. I doheart them.
I like that we finally get a queer character in the Moff's version of Who, but I do find it annoying that it's kind of played off as a "well, we're not quite there yet in tolerance" moment. It's historically appropriate - even more liberal than likely would have been the case, in the Cold War-era where homosexuality made a person a left-wing Commie pinko bastard, more likely than not - but that's the problem, that we only get it in an era where it's allowed to be written off. Hopefully we will get more instances of subtle or not so subtle queerness and then my argument will be invalid!
GOD I KEEP TRYING TO BE COHERENT AND THEN I WATCH THAT KISS AND MAKE EMBARRASSING HIGH-PITCHED NOISES.
Her smile! His arms! The way they touch! His excitement! Her epic heartbreak at thinking it's their last kiss (I refuse to believe that it could be, shut up)! Their FACES. UGH SO MANY FEELINGS. I HEART THEM SO MUCH.
After The Kiss, the little girl regenerating was almost too much. But. OMFG, what is going to happen there, and with Amy's maybe-pregnancy? CAN'T WAIT. The girl can't be on her first regeneration, can he, if she knows what's going to happen? ANYWAYS.
Next week Amy swashes and buckles! No River, but, well, it might be okay. :DDD
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 01:21 pm (UTC)Also:
That is a fantastic setup for getting rid of the Silence - and crucially does not wipe them out, but merely gets them off Earth, so the spectre of the Silence falling isn't neccessarily gone.
When I read that, I suddenly had a thought linked to the conversation that Rory and the Doctor had, that culminated in the statement "Rome fell". And, y'know, I fully and completely believe that Moffat is twisty enough to have that meaning of the word "fall" in mind when random characters are saying "Silence will fall".
I...have to go and have thoughts about this.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-04 06:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-30 10:38 pm (UTC)Um...I'm pretty sure we have the same brain. Did your's short-circuit when they kissed as well?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 06:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 08:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 08:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 08:35 pm (UTC)Mind if I friend you? I keep meaning to, especially as the rest of the London crowd had so much fun with you when you visited!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-02 02:55 am (UTC)By all means. *warm fuzzy*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 11:17 am (UTC)I really have no coherent thoughts on the little girl, etc., even though I'll probably try to have some later because basically it lends itself to a few obvious possible conclusions about parents and children and who are whose and I'm not sure I like any of them?
But like, equally, that episode was so satisfying and top class and emotionally coherent (which I think is Moffat's real skill) that I feel like...I dunno. Like I shouldn't overthink and panic about the fact all roads seem to lead to meh, because, well, whatever road it is, if it has THIS MUCH FUCKING AWESOME RIVER, HOW BAD CAN IT BE.
I totally noticed alllll the things you did though, including hilarious failure to recognise River and Rory in sixties drag.
I thought I'd be over the Moffat tropes by now? But I think I was sold because I wasn't...that scared of the Silence last week, but now, with the marks just appearing on Amy with no memory of putting them there, dude, that was actually a really good execution of those tropes - better than he's done, I think, since The Empty Child, really.
And, omgs, I kind of LOVE that there's just no explanation for her evening wear. Like, she was all, well, I'm off to explore an abandoned building and pretend to die; MAY AS WELL DO IT IN EVENING WEAR!
ETA: Ugh I FORGOT. I agree that the neat reverse time stuff is suuuuper weird and can't possibly be true so I don't know why they're pushing it. I have decided my personal interpretation will be twofold: 1) she's got that stuff on her mind because she just saw him die, and whether or not she's ever heard about this adventure and knows that he gets out of it due to some future/past shenanigans, there's always the "time can be rewritten but not always" stuff. And, more importantly, 2) I have decided that it is likely because it is poetic that the first time she meets him is the last time he meets her and that perhaps major events have a tendency to form themselves around each other in perfect inversion. I like this not because I want to ascribe any particular first/last significance to any event but because I like the idea of firsts and lasts having particular, bittersweet significance for them, because you never know if it's inverted. (Which really goes back to the way I think it's tragic anyway; it's more like that, to me, if you never even know which version you'll be getting).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:29 pm (UTC)I do not understand how many people are saying that they didn't understand the episode! I felt it was really coherent, and also like you said emotionally coherent, and just. Loved it, honestly, even the bits without River.
I am definitely coming to the conclusion that even if they do something super-screwy with River, I won't be able to get too upset, because like you say, LOOK HOW MUCH AWESOME WE HAVE ALREADY.
And yes, I subscribe to your timeyness theory! I choose to believe that she's wrong and we'll get a future-for-her point where they kiss again and she'll be delighted and surprised. It does make a lot of sense that his death is still on her mind and all.
I wish I had coherent thoughts about the Time Child. Maybe in a while. Definitely loving that there are still unanswered questions for the entire series to deal with.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 03:48 pm (UTC)This episode was properly creepy, but I am stuck on RIVER SONG OMFG. Competence porn! That pre-shooting flirting was INDECENTLY HOT for a children's show and totally made the Doctor forget where he was for a second. And the way she's all bragging that she can shoot 8 of them, and then she KILLS THEM ALL BY HERSELF AND TELLS HIM TO BUILD A CABINET. I kind of can't even deal with how amazing she is. And how he's all nervous and doesn't know what to do with his hands when she snogs him like a senior kissing a sophomore girl at his locker, b/c he doesn't want them to be RUDE. Soooooo adorable.
Basically, YES, everything you say.
I'm with Becka (SHOCKINGLY) that I love there's no explanation for her evening wear. It's like the show was all, oh wait, we haven't had River jump out of anything in evening wear for awhile, BETTER GET ON THAT. Because they love her tooooo.
I am reduced to <333333333333333.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 04:09 pm (UTC)I too am pretty much stuck on RIVERRRRRR. I really can't believe all the flirting and the touching and the kissing and they are both so amazing and I have all the feelings. LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM. HER. THEM.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 07:47 pm (UTC)My sister has ringlets like AK (I sadly have straight hair...) and she either has to spend hours to get it to look even sort of right or she just ties it in a frizzy bun and gives up. I wonder if River has magic haircare products...we must have conquered frizz by the fifty-first century, right?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 08:23 pm (UTC)Loved the rest of the ep, though (in spite of the fact that we sort of lost track of Canton, who was so brilliantly strong in the first half).
One thing: I left it thinking that 'the silence will fall' meant 'the Silence will be defeated' all along? Non?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-07 04:43 am (UTC)Hm. Amy's been pregnant before -- in that episode where she had to choose which world was real and which was a dream, and then both turned out to be dreams made up by the dark side of the Doctor or something. Related?