So hurrah, it wasn't an RTD-style apocalyptic wig-out, nor was it All A Dream! In fact it was very good. In brief: the universe has ended and the Earth is the last to go (please switch off the lights). The doctor, freed from the Pandorica, hatches a plan to save space and time, but at the expense not only of his own life but the very fact of his having existed at all. Fortunately Amy can bring people back by the power of her mind, so as long as she can remember the Doctor everything will be OK. But can she? Well, what do you reckon? The man spent half of this episode in a fez. Who'd forget that?This was not an episode to please those who like to think too deeply. Those, for example, who might think "if the Doctor has never existed, surely the Earth wouldn't have survived long enough for Amy to reach her wedding day and remember him back to life, because [insert any of the gazillion times the Doctor has saved the planet over the years before now] would never have happened". Or those who might get deeply irritated that, having set up the Pandorica as the greatest prison ever created, the Doctor manages to get out by a whimsical piece of timey wimey trickery involving being saved by sending his saved self back in time to hand over the screwdriver to Rory. And for anybody who prefers proper science to "er, Amy's only half dead and when she sees herself as a kid it'll be fine, and as for the universe, when the light from the thingy goes onto the whatsit, everything will be OK", well, fergeddaboutit.
Hmm. I seem to be talking myself out of liking this. But come on Marie, who cares? This isn't 'Horizon'. It was clever and neat and it had junior Amy Pond in it - I LOVE junior Amy Pond (Caitlin Blackwood) and desperately hope there will be more of her next season - and the Doctor in a fez! (OK so River and Amy destroy the fez, but as he says, he can buy another fez. Do it, Doctor.) There was lots of peril and a fossilised Dalek and antics in a museum, which is a good place for Doctory antics to take place, and River Song - with more River Song to come - god I love River Song, I want to be River Song when I grow up - and when the Doctor finally went back over his life as he made his way out of history, it was all rather understated and nicely done, and turns out whoever brought it up in the comments was right, that WASN'T a jacket-based continuity error in the Angels episode. Well spotted, that man. So yes, very good. Very good indeed.
Which means we end the series with high marks. The good episodes (my own faves? Vincent, and Amy's Choice) were great, and the bad episodes (Victory of the Daleks, and that tedious two-parter with the green scaly leotard monsters) weren't that bad. I have learned to love Matt Smith's Doctor - so what if I don't want to jump him, his absent-minded dotty professor schtick is hilarious - and Amy Pond has been an equally dotty and highly entertaining sidekick.
And yet and yet and yet... I just haven't cared about this series the way I used to care. Aside from that Vincent ending, which seems to have switched on the waterworks everywhere except for in my own eyes, it has all been, emotionally, a bit 'so what'. The Doctor never gets that fussed by anything: surely he should be at least slightly concerned by - say - the imminence of his own removal from the world? And Amy's much emphasised love for Rory would be more convincing if, for example, she didn't make jokes about wanting to snog the Doctor in front of Rory on their wedding day. As for Rory, I've never believed in him as a character - and I don't ever like the 'spunky girl and wet pathetic lovelorn admirer' dynamic, as it makes me worry that I'm going to end up with a wet pathetic lovelorn admirer of my own one of these days - so I wasn't at all bothered either time he got killed, and when he decided to sit outside Amy's box for two thousand years I know I was supposed to be moved but I just rolled my eyes. Purrlease. How boring is this man? Could he not at least request to have the box moved into a library to help him pass the time? And yes RTD's series were messy and soapy and hideously erratic, but they were wonderfully emotional too, and I cried my eyes out on numerous occasions. In this series, if I wasn't laughing or scared I was bored. Fortunately I was laughing or scared most of the time. (Well, you know, Doctor Who scared. By which I mean, would have been scared, if I was eight.) So if I had a request for next series, it would be this: yes to the cleverness, yes to the zaniness, but please try for a bit more emotional depth next time.
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Other things it's best not to ponder too deeply: It's your wedding day and you miraculously have parents again. So, with little thought, you climb back into the Tardis with the Doctor, leaving behind just-acquired parents and not yet having had wedding night with new husband. Do you see any of the other companions doing this?
That said, I really enjoyed this and noticed that this finale was the exact opposite of an RTD finale: I felt a little let down by the first part and delighted and satisfied by the second part (provided, as you've pointed out, I didn't think about it too much). That's a world of improvement from being built up, then painfully disappointed and wanting to throw stuff.
Doctor Who is still in transmission here in Canada, so although I've seen all the season's episodes once, I've only been able to apply "Persephone's Re-watchability Test" up to "Vincent". (Verdict on "Vincent": still sappy, although with occasional good moments. Felt the same way about Love Actually.) "Amy's Choice" still comes out way ahead on the PRT, with the Churchill and the Chibnall thing still in the basement. Quite enjoyed all the others. The Space Channel is also re-running the complete new Who canon. Eccleston comes out pretty damn well, and we're enjoying David Tennant all over again, even though we own all the box-sets. Mind you, the Resident Fan Boy and I have yet to steel ourselves for "Fear Her"...
I like Rory. I'm glad he's coming along.
I agree pretty much with you, Marie, except I think I probably enjoyed it more then you did, and I like Rory. Also liked Matt Smith from the off.
I totally agree about the emotion, though I have enjoyed the restraint of it after RTD's sometimes over emotional moments. But it IS strange. Two of my favourite Moff episodes: The Girl in the Fireplace & Blink have me blubbing every time. Yet I haven't once blubbed this season. I was touched and moved by the Doctor's saying goodbye, particularly when he tells young Amelia about the big blue box, but I think I should have FELT more. Is that Matt Smith's fault? Steven Moffat's? I'm not sure. So I hope they build on that next time, because I SO DO NOT WANT TO BE LET DOWN by the Doctor and River Song finally getting it together.
Persephone on the jumping into the Tardis and leaving your folks thing, I just thought it was a bit like that moment in Rose, when she wasn't going to leave Mickey until the Doctor told he could time travel. And maybe now Amy has her memories back of her family she doesn't miss them so much. No. If I think about that too hard it makes my brain hurt(-:
I have spent a serious amount of time fanwanking the 'how did the world survive without the Doctor for Amy's wedding day to arrive' etc stuff. I have decided that, once Amy remembered the Doctor, he would always have existed to save the world. Never mind that this is a massive paradox - a lot of Steven Moffat's plots seem to revolve around massive paradoxes and I think we simply have to accept them as 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey'. I would like to nominate Steven Moffat as the next Emeritus Professor of Time Travel, the next opening that arises. He clearly knows more about it than most physicists.
Similarly, Amy has *always* had her parents now, in her mind. She woke up on the morning of her wedding day with two timestreams in her head (albeit one forgotten, then recalled), just as River said she would wake up 'where we are meant to be'. I'm trying not to think too hard about how the Doctor managed to be her imaginary friend when he never existed, though perhaps my simulatanous existing / never having existed thing above applies here too. Excuse me, my brain is melting.
(Also fanwanking about Amy meeting little Amelia. In Father's Day, didn't the Doctor warn Rose of dire consequences if she touched her younger self? *fanwank* *fanwank* Maybe these things don't matter when you're in the middle of a collapsing and erasing universe.)
I think there may be more of little Amelia in the next series - we've already watched her hear the TARDIS returning after she waited all night, in the first episode. That was such a deliberate scene I can't believe it was a mistake. Talk about your narrative arcs.
And I love Rory now. I didn't use to, but he was all kick-arse (and quite hot) as a Roman, with the swording and the punching the Doctor. And I think guarding the box for 2000 years is actually more heartbreakingly sweet than wimpy (but then, my all-time heroes in fiction are Gilbert Blythe and Mr Darcy, both of whom waited for the loves of their lives to go 'doh! Actually, you are pretty brilliant'). I hope human-Rory can remember his time as Roman-Rory, and that makes him less wimpy. I have been grinning to myself every time I think about the three of them running round time and space next series; having Rory on board neatly sidesteps the whole companion and the Doctor love thing - they're now just the Scooby gang tracking down who wants to make the silence fall. Have I mentioned I love Steven Moffat? I love Steven Moffat.
Aaaand (this comment is a blog post in itself), anyone else get reminded of RTD's point about Captain Jack - that he was created because they needed someone to wield a gun - when River taunted and shot the Dalek? You can't imagine the Doctor approving of the way she dealt with that. God, I cannot WAIT for next series...
Yes, agree lots (especially about the 'don't think too deeply about the science' comment. Except I really like Rory and much prefer him to Mickey - mostly because I really believe in him and Amy as a couple, while it was always clear Mickey never cut the mustard for Rose once the Dr came along. I like that we've got a conventionally pretty companion who can resist the Dr (in fact finds him a bit hilarious) but that she's a red blooded woman at the same time (come on someone has just saved the world and brought himself back into existence a hug might just not release enough emoption, even if it is your wedding day).
I think that all the time-stream crossing violations can be adequately explained by the doctor's observation "The Universe is very small now" - it wasn't complicated enough to get terribly upset by people crossng their own timelines. And of course Am(elia)y Pond wasn't crossing her owen timeline as such, as she met versions of herself from somewhat different timelines. The Doctor 9and his screwdriver) did meet himself (and itself) from the same timeline, but he's a Timelord and has got away with that in the past, albeit usually in different incarnations.
And Rachel's almost right that "Amy has *always* had her parents now, in her mind"; it's just the "in her mind" bit that's wrong. She has always had her parents in Universe 1.1; her surprise on seeing her mother was down to deja vu (or rather ne deja vu) triggered by her wedding day and the echo of the universe that never was...
I must point out when you mentioned about the Earth surviving without The Doctor because of all the times he had saved it, that by that point all the stars and planets had already exploded or disappeared so none of the races of creatures that had attacked Earth over the years would have existed to attack the Earth as they all exploded in 102BC. Hope this makes sense. :)
Oh yes - good point Niki.
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