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First off, as much as I enjoy ranting against RTD, his episodes always give me a lot to think about. So, though his writing is extremely problematic for me, at least it's problematic in a complicated-enough way that it can keep me busy for a day or so after the episode.
So, I pretty much called the whole Timelords Return thing on this one (perhaps I've been watching this stuff too long.) To be fair, there weren't too many other epic directions RTD could've taken it, so I'll give him that much. Fair enough. But there's a long list of odd decisions in this episode that I just cannot work out.
Oddly (or possibly not) first and foremost on my list is Why the Crap is There Actually a President Obama? As best I can recall, every single politician has been fictional. I mean, how many prime ministers have they gone through? And the president that was killed by the Master? Why, suddenly, does an actual political figure exist in this universe? Was it an excuse to use the Obama body double? To use random sound clips of his speeches? To use excessive lens flare? Or, best of all, will the actual Obama get to make a cameo in the final episode? (This is honestly the best and only unannoyingly justifiable reason that I can think of, and maybe if I hope hard enough we'll get a TV address from him offering his Nobel Peace Prize over to the Doctor or something...)I also suspect that, given RTD's brazen dislike of political power and his habit of playing them all for obnoxious, often corrupt fools I'm a bit distrustful that he's not putting Obama actually into the series just to make some kind of political statement about our misplaced idealism or something. ::grumblethisismyhippieliberalgrumblegrumble:: Also while I'm grumbling on this bit of the plotline, "he's ending the recession tonight"?! What the heck kind of... I mean, the complete and utter throw-away-ness of this idea just throws me for a loop. Someone must have some kind of basic grasp of economics over there, right? That could consult the writers and be, like, "The recession is not a Big Bad that can be fought and defeated all at once." I know there's always an effort to be topical, but The Recession used like that is such a... okay fine, it's just crappily done. Really, outstandingly crappily done. Which is also why I think, if RTD aims to further harsh the American mellow re: Obama (which, at this point, is thoroughly unnecessary), if he's going to do it with framing this bad, I am going to throw my shoe at him. (My secret, economics-breaking hope? If the rest of this doesn't go the way I think it will, I want the economy to be magically fixed by repossessing the billionaire's fortune.)
Second-highest on my I Don't Get it List is Why the Crap Does the Master Have Super Powers? To make him more creepy? To give the Doctor an excuse to have random super powers as well when things come down to brass tacks? (We have done random super powers before, though I'm really hoping there won't be a repeat of Glowing Angelic Doctor.)
I also have to wonder, after the unveiling of The Master Race, whether RTD realizes how completely funny his writing is sometimes. (Theory: This episode was an hour-long excuse to put John Simm into as many different outfits as possible. If I didn't love him so much, I'd find this completely unacceptable. But still hilarious.) I mean, sure, he's apparently "wiped out the human race" but there are billions of more-menacing ways to do it. (I love the Master. Especially "Breaking News: I'm everyone!") I'm not entirely sure of what they've made of the Master's relationship to the Doctor, though. I think they killed my Secret Brother theory with that "my father's farm" thing. I don't like "childhood friends" nearly as much as "secret brothers."
I also liked the Master's realization that the drumming was real. And then the Doctor says "It was just your insanity" like... "insanity" like that is something that some Timelords just have to work around on a regular basis. "Oh, you know. It's just your insanity." I wonder what they're going to make of the whole "He looked into the Vortex and something jumped into his head" angle... (Tangentially: The Doctor had a lot of odd outburts in this episode. Especially the beautifully awkward "I'm going to die!" conversation. "Hey, how are you, I'm scared." "I'm scared too." "That makes me more scared." "I'm going to die! I mean like, really die!")
Which also brings me to... what the heck happened with that gate thing? I think the two cactus aliens said it was affecting them as well (and I'm assuming "He set the template to human" was in regards to what everything would become?) So, if the gate is set high enough to affect the other aliens in the room, why doesn't it affect the Doctor? And, more importantly, how is Donna un-human enough to be unaffected? I mean, in some canons, even the Doctor is half-human. And there's basically no way Donna is completely a Timelord. Why doesn't it affect them if it affects two very biologically different aliens as well? (TARDIS magic?) My best hope for this? The Master is burning up his life force to survive. Now that everyone is him, he's burning it 7 billion times faster, and the Doctor has to find a way to reverse everything and save the human race in some ridiculous time limit. But I suspect we'll be leaving the Master to gallavant about while the Timelords are off in the distant bits of the universe being menacing and obscure.
I also suspect all this speculation is pretty useless because I'm about 90% certain that this entire timeline, from Eccleston on, will be effectively wiped out (I suspect the Time War will be undone), so Moffat will have classic canon (or a differently-groomed version of his own choosing) to work with, with these seasons existing in random reference much the way Classic Who does now.
So, I pretty much called the whole Timelords Return thing on this one (perhaps I've been watching this stuff too long.) To be fair, there weren't too many other epic directions RTD could've taken it, so I'll give him that much. Fair enough. But there's a long list of odd decisions in this episode that I just cannot work out.
Oddly (or possibly not) first and foremost on my list is Why the Crap is There Actually a President Obama? As best I can recall, every single politician has been fictional. I mean, how many prime ministers have they gone through? And the president that was killed by the Master? Why, suddenly, does an actual political figure exist in this universe? Was it an excuse to use the Obama body double? To use random sound clips of his speeches? To use excessive lens flare? Or, best of all, will the actual Obama get to make a cameo in the final episode? (This is honestly the best and only unannoyingly justifiable reason that I can think of, and maybe if I hope hard enough we'll get a TV address from him offering his Nobel Peace Prize over to the Doctor or something...)
Second-highest on my I Don't Get it List is Why the Crap Does the Master Have Super Powers? To make him more creepy? To give the Doctor an excuse to have random super powers as well when things come down to brass tacks? (We have done random super powers before, though I'm really hoping there won't be a repeat of Glowing Angelic Doctor.)
I also have to wonder, after the unveiling of The Master Race, whether RTD realizes how completely funny his writing is sometimes. (Theory: This episode was an hour-long excuse to put John Simm into as many different outfits as possible. If I didn't love him so much, I'd find this completely unacceptable. But still hilarious.) I mean, sure, he's apparently "wiped out the human race" but there are billions of more-menacing ways to do it. (I love the Master. Especially "Breaking News: I'm everyone!") I'm not entirely sure of what they've made of the Master's relationship to the Doctor, though. I think they killed my Secret Brother theory with that "my father's farm" thing. I don't like "childhood friends" nearly as much as "secret brothers."
I also liked the Master's realization that the drumming was real. And then the Doctor says "It was just your insanity" like... "insanity" like that is something that some Timelords just have to work around on a regular basis. "Oh, you know. It's just your insanity." I wonder what they're going to make of the whole "He looked into the Vortex and something jumped into his head" angle... (Tangentially: The Doctor had a lot of odd outburts in this episode. Especially the beautifully awkward "I'm going to die!" conversation. "Hey, how are you, I'm scared." "I'm scared too." "That makes me more scared." "I'm going to die! I mean like, really die!")
Which also brings me to... what the heck happened with that gate thing? I think the two cactus aliens said it was affecting them as well (and I'm assuming "He set the template to human" was in regards to what everything would become?) So, if the gate is set high enough to affect the other aliens in the room, why doesn't it affect the Doctor? And, more importantly, how is Donna un-human enough to be unaffected? I mean, in some canons, even the Doctor is half-human. And there's basically no way Donna is completely a Timelord. Why doesn't it affect them if it affects two very biologically different aliens as well? (TARDIS magic?) My best hope for this? The Master is burning up his life force to survive. Now that everyone is him, he's burning it 7 billion times faster, and the Doctor has to find a way to reverse everything and save the human race in some ridiculous time limit. But I suspect we'll be leaving the Master to gallavant about while the Timelords are off in the distant bits of the universe being menacing and obscure.
I also suspect all this speculation is pretty useless because I'm about 90% certain that this entire timeline, from Eccleston on, will be effectively wiped out (I suspect the Time War will be undone), so Moffat will have classic canon (or a differently-groomed version of his own choosing) to work with, with these seasons existing in random reference much the way Classic Who does now.
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Yeah, the Obama thing is really weird and bothers me. Like, the whole recession-ending magic bullet. There is absolutely nothing he can do to fix our economy that fast, much less the whole fucking world's. ...Also, nice job pronouncing his name correctly. DD:<
And yeah, the Master's superpowers, wtf. Presumably a side-effect of whatever it is that makes him need to eat all the time and makes him all Skeletor. Regarding your Secret Brothers theory... they could still be Secret Half-Brothers? ^_^;
...I thought the cactus aliens said they weren't affected. So they should still be standing in the back room, being green and spiky.
...Hey, I just had an interesting thought. If this entire RTD bit gets entirely unmade, never happened, never existed... does that mean the Doctor gets two extra regenerations? I don't think they're gonna play it that way, like, completely obliterating everything that's happened these past few seasons, and if they did it would make me kinda sad, cuz there was some good stuff in there, but it would also be kind of awesome.
From:
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I think that bit of the cactus dialog was iffy. I went back and listened to it twice, and it still sounded like "we're." It makes a lot more sense if they aren't, though. A lot more. Presumably their sound editor was off with the economics adviser when they were doing that scene.
Two extra regenerations is an interesting thought... and that'd actually be a really useful thing for him to do for his future writers (unless Moffat really has an itch for working out a kosher way around the regeneration limits. I'm assuming he's at least involved in Big Ideas decisions at this point, unless RTD's ego is even bigger than I thought).
I figure if RTD wipes the timeline it'll still exist sort of in the way that the Master's Toclafane worked. It still pretty much happened, it just technically didn't for the human race. The main thing that's keeping me on this theory right now is that the Time Lords are the Big Bad. They've always kind of been a thorn in the Doctor's side, but never evil. I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of the Doctor's race suddenly being up there with the Daleks. (And if some kind of universal balance thing is pulled on us, where since we've destroyed the Daleks some other equally powerful race needs to be pulled into the universe to take over where they left off... pah.)