K's Doctor 7.3 Review

Some of this may be repetitive if you check out Jana's earlier post, but I wanted to share a specific review of last night's Doctor Who episode, "A Town Called Mercy."  Heavy on the SPOILERS!

The opening was interesting, but I'm a little tired of voiceovers by random people.  Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the Amy intro, but I'd rather just jump into the action.  Also, it was obviously space meets cowboys, so it made me miss Firefly.    I found the setting distracting to the story. So much emphasis was made on it being a "western" that it had to fight itself before it could become serious.  Matt Smith was adorable dancing through the Western cliches, but accents were distractingly bad, and I found that it was just trying too hard.  Maybe this is just the result of having a British television show portray the American West.  The sheriff was all right, but most of the other characters seemed more like caricatures than real people.



The Doctor or The Sheriff?

 I've repeatedly complained about missing River, but when Amy acknowledged she was a mom, that was actually enough for me.  This was not an episode that seemed like it should include River; it wasn't about collecting a group like last week, and River wasn't any business of this guy's.  Amy didn't need to provide him with details.   This simple acknowledgement that River existed (the VERY first this season) was satisfying and seemed appropriate.  I still miss her, but I didn't feel a gaping hole where she should have been, like I did last week.



Solomon (David Bradley) from 7.2

 This episode did manage to overcome it's cheesiness after a bit.  When the Doctor grabbed the gun and was ready to let the cyborg man kill "the alien doctor," I was horrified and thrilled.  Matt Smith is really coming into his own in my opinion.  It created a complex situation that brought back the feel of some darker Tennant episodes.    It also proved that his merciless action last week (letting the bad guy just die) was not careless, out of character writing, but establishing a pattern. 




Amy

 
This was a story that made you ask questions and I loved it. It is true that sometimes the questions were pushed in our face just a little more than neccesary.  I want to come to questions of right and wrong on my own, and it was very spelled out this time, but it still was a great episode.  It was my favorite this season so far. 

Other things of note- The Doctor is 1200 now, so he's aged a bit and hasn't spent all that time with Rory and Amy.  This is obviously something that Moffat made some effort to point out, and it's the reason the Doctor has gone through some changes.  Amy and Rory specifically said that they need to spend some time at home because they're aging faster than their friends.  This is yet another mention this season (in addition to families and jobs) of life outside of the Doctor.  You can feel Moffat setting something up.

I can't wait to see what other people thing about Season 7 so far!

Doctor Who - always leaving me with more questions than answers

After the Doctor Who episode Saturday night, I've decided to reflect on some of my meandering thoughts about Series 7 (and the series as a whole) for Whovian Sunday. 

The Doctor Alone

The "unmerciful" Doctor in 7.3.

The episode "A Town called Mercy," brought up a point about the Doctor travelling alone compared to travelling with companions. The Doctor, without human companions, becomes a slightly different Time Lord. He becomes less merciful; part of me wonders if he wanders off with River and they have adventures. Is she rubbing off on him? I don't know - it's not like she's evil, but she's certainly less merciful. Amy had to tell him that "this is not how we roll... we can't be like him, we have to be better than him." The Doctor usually reminds others to show mercy, but he's not been that way so far this season. He keeps presenting the option of killing - he's done it in all three episodes now. This isn't new, in fact, we've seen this angry, almost manic Doctor before: with Donna in her Christmas episode and in "The Waters of Mars." Sometimes that powerful, scary Doctor is pretty amazing, but I'm glad when we've seen him that way, he manages to be with people that will bring him back down to earth. I think that angry Doctor was the one that ended the Time War. That I truly can believe would be terrifying.  

Amy and Rory Leaving

I have to admit something... I watched the preview for next week. I generally have avoided these, but I let it play. There was (I guess this is a SPOILER) a tiny tidbit between Amy and Rory talking about choosing; I'm assuming they were discussing choosing life with the Doctor or life without the Doctor. I hope they don't just choose an option. That seems like such a cop out. I mean, don't get me wrong, forgetting the Doctor or being put in a parallel universe is not a good thing, but really, after being so involved for so long, you're just saying, "We're done..." Even Martha had more of a reason than that. I don't know... surely there's more to it than that. I think Amy and Rory have been good with (and for) the Doctor; at the very least it has been an interesting dynamic to watch. It was pointed out on another blog that Amy and Rory have been with the Doctor for ten or more years (off and on of course) - that's an unusually long time for them to want to travel with the Doctor. I don't think I'd actually thought about that before and what that means about his relationship with them. It makes me wonder why he needed that relationship... obviously he was meant to be a huge part of their lives - he crashed in Amy's backyard and since then has depended on them to be companions. Unless... there's a huge part to the Doctor's story that we're not seeing. He's aged considerably in the last 2 seasons - how is that? Amy and Rory haven't been with him on every adventure. What has he been doing??? 

Reflections on the 7.3 episode

I thought it was interesting that we see the Doctor, Amy, and Rory come strolling into town at the beginning of the episode. No TARDIS there, no conversation about where they were going, no having to go get them It's been a big thing about the Doctor retrieving Amy and Rory and now they're just there - what's that about - cutting room floor decisions or making Jana ask crazy questions about what's going on purposes?  

And seriously... that mother line. I was about to throw something at the TV - she acknowledged she was a mom, but nothing else. Really? REALLY?

DFTBA!

Jana