Much of my thoughts on the second part of Steven Moffat’s most recent Doctor Who tale are mirrored with my scribbblings on part one, Silence in the Library. It’s rich and sumptuous, full of exquisite detail, big ideas and scares aplenty. In fact, it’s a step up from the previous week’s adventure with my misgivings - chiefly over the writing of Donna and some surprisingly flabby direction - all being taken care of. However that just opens up space for me to be a bit flummoxed by a dubious ending that left me a little empty…
This is a big story both for the Doctor and Donna, each facing massive emotional trials throughout. For the Doctor, he’s confronted by his future in the form of River Song and the reality that she will, at some point, become someone very special to him. Quite what the basis of their relationship is isn’t clearly stated, but taking the Time Traveller’s Wife riff and River knowing the Doctor’s real name brings confetti and rings to mind. Well, he’s had a daughter, why not a wife?
David Tennant and Alex Kingston are brilliant together - the calm poise Kingston brings to River Song taking the wind of out Tennant’s usually full sails like never before in the course of the series. It’s great to watch Tennant, at the top of his game, finding new directions to take the Doctor. It makes me hope he’ll be sticking around beyond next year’s specials, especially as he positively sings with Steven Moffat’s writing.
Moffat appears keen on the Doctor as an iconic, legendary figure - the man who fights the monsters - and this is writ large here. Opening TARDIS doors with the click of a finger, making the terrifying Vashta Nerada back away by simply getting then to look up his name in a book… It’s all great stuff and much more satisfying than some of the religious imagery we’ve seen the Doctor assuming previously.
As for Donna, she’s absolutely bang on this week following a shaky start in episode one. After being zapped who knows where last week, our red-headed heroine seems to be in an asylum, under the care of Dr Moon (Colin Salmon), the chap who’s also looking after the mysterious little girl watching events on a TV screen. And then Donna goes through meeting a fella, leaving the asylum, getting hitched, having kids… But something isn’t quite right…
And these are where the big ideas are brought out into the open - the library planet has one massive hard drive at its core, where those who escaped the attack of the Vashta Nerada were sent when they tried to teleport away from danger. And they’ve been there ever since, recently joined by Donna. The CPU (i.e. the little girl) has been keeping them occupied with scenes of spooky domestic bliss.
And here is where things start to trouble me. The climax is typically brilliant - fast, intelligent and poignant as River Song stops the Doctor from sacrificing himself, putting herself in the firing line to save the trapped beings held within the computer. It’s sad, heartbreakingly so, as the Doctor impotently watces a part of his future give her life to save thousands. But this is utterly negated by the Doctor’s realisation that River’s left a bit of herself on a chip bolted into the sonic screwdriver that allows him to download what’s left into the computer…
One of Steven Moffat’s maxims, going right back to The Doctor Dances, is that “everybody lives”. That was a beautiful climax to a great story - just once, everybody did indeed get to live. And here we have it again with the Doctor’s downloading of River Song’s… erm, whatever it is… into the computer. But this feels wrong - one of Doctor Who’s many messages is about taking responsibility, stepping up and making a stand. And sometimes that has consequences.
River’s fate, and that of the rest of her archaeological team, living a disembodied half life within a computer isn’t “everybody lives”, it’s “everybody lives, kind of, well not really, more like everybody turns into The Sims”. And it feels offensive that everybody thinks this is okay - it’s a cop out, and a slap in the face of the intricate relationship built up between the Doctor and River. Yes, we all love a happy ending, but this really isn’t, and an equally valid stance sometimes is “not everybody lives.” And that perhaps is the more important message to reinforce.
For a show - and central character - that advocates living life to the full, sucking the marrow and all that, this climax seems horribly at odds with some of Doctor Who’s core values. A tad dramatic perhaps, but this leaves a bitter aftertaste in an episode that is otherwise practically flawless.
Have to admit to feeling a bit disappointed with this, actually. Having loved all of Steve Moffat's other "Who" writing, this felt a bit like a retread of his previous episodes: another big love affair for the Doctor, shadows instead of statues, and even an attempt to emulate the "Are you my mummy?" catchphrase (although the utterly flat and unconvincing line delivery of "Who turned out the lights?" meant that its constant repetition had me tearing my hair out with irritation). And the first part of the story was unforgivably padded: the lengthy sequence dealing with the death of Miss Evangelista - a minor character whom we'd barely met but over whom we were expected to get all misty-eyed over - being particularly culpable.
It felt like too many ideas thrown in for me and it just ended up being confusing. The villains' backstory, purpose and modus operandi were muddled and unclear, and I agree about the dubious ending. I'm just hoping Moffat hasn't exhausted his supply of ideas for writing "Doctor Who" already...
Whilst I can understand the criticism you have of the ending, I have to say that I really enjoyed it and felt it was right. It worked for me in a way that Jenny's resurrection in [i]The Doctor's Daughter[/i] did not. Whilst Jenny's resurrection felt unnecessary and wrong, River Song's felt uplifting and satisfying. Albeit bittersweet as well, as the Doctor and River Song would never see each other again.
I do agree with you, though, on the hope that Tennant sticks around for the next full series with Moffat at the helm. I'd love to see where Moffat and Tennant, with a full series at their disposal, could take the Tenth Doctor. However, my head tells me that Tennant will most likely depart with Russell T. Davies as that seems like the natural time for change. I hope I'm wrong though. :)
River's "everybody lives" voiceover was very Desperate Housewives! But I'm sure the ending will feel more appropriate when the season is viewed as a whole. Did River and Jenny survived to balance out an even greater loss to come?
I disagree, I though that this was the best episode from the season, and the ending fitted with that. The thing is, that the Doctor knew that she would sacrifice herself and so would think about some way to save her - so it made sense in that way - and the voiceover (I think) was a quote from Doctor Dances. We had the self-sacrificial death of Kylie in the xmas special, where the doctor tries to save her but then has to let her go. Death is dealt with more sensibly in the new Who, and in fact you could say that the real theme of this story is death and loss - much better than the days of classic Who when characters were introduced just to be victims, who died without a blink from the doctor or the companions. Indeed, that was made the reason for Martha's departure, witnessing the death of the friendly fish-faced alien, and stating that she couldn't do that any more.
Despite how much I dislike La tate, nothing expressed the death and loss theme better than the heart-breaking disappearance of the virtual children. This was well played, and perhaps tate played the mom more believably than any of the other companions could have. Much has been said in other places about the fact that even these kids come back, but, again even this works (this is top-notch SF!), as Doctor Moon is caring for the psychological well-being of the people there by providing the environment and creating emotional holds to maintain the environment - it was when Donna realised that it was illusional that the environment collapsed (and don't forget, her relationship with the husband appeared to be real).
I felt the plot overly complicated and unnecessarily off the wall (over the 2 parts), to hide what was a series of serious rehashes and similarities with his previous work.
Doctor Dances - invisible force that heals you
Blink - force that attacks only when invisible
Forest of Dead - invisible force that attacks you
A thudding catchphrase.
My mum, a real DW and DT fan, simply didn't "get it". All that faffing about with a girl whose a computer. And the constant reiteration of "spoilers"!. Okay Mr Moffat, we get it, you're "down with the kids" (easter eggs in Blink, 'Spoilers' in this one).
I love the Doctor as a hero, but I love him as a person... who is flawed and makes mistakes, as well as saving the day.
I'm just so... saddened. I just don't "get" Moffat's eps, like my Mother, and now he's going to be guiding the entire universe.
I'm going to lose my favourite show, and I'm afraid I'm not magnanimous enough to be pleased that others may find it in my place.
As much as the "saving" of River was a bit unbelievable, I was still happy it happened, as Moffat said, Given the choice between total oblivion or the run of all of those stories etc in the library, he would chose the latter, and that is what the Doctor gave River. (Paraphrase)
Dr. even gave Kylie a bit of a second chance at existence. While we are talking about resurrections, I thought Jenny's was completely believable - the doctor grew his hand back, she healed herself - it just should not have taken so long :(
There are inconsistencies everywhere - after all, nothing is perfect, but I like this episode(s) even if they reprise some other idea's of Moffat's. hopefully he will, over a season, be more eclectic.
I only watched this episode tonight, through the 'magic' of iplayer. I don't think it was overly complicated, had lots of threads perhaps, but all nicely platted together at the end. Perhaps a little more thought was required to watch this episode than some others. I loved it.
I was not as keen on today's 'bus journey'. It did not compare to the Forest of the dead.