New Who: "Flesh and Stone"

[lizbee]

In some ways, this was a bit of a let-down from last week, although it could be that I was overstimulated by yesterday's pop culture, and then I spilled fried egg on my keyboard, then I needed another cup of tea, and then I spent the rest of the episode eating Nerds, which involves sorting the big ones from the little ones.  So maybe I just wasn't in an appropriately receptive mood.

ANYWAY.  The bits I liked were:

- everything with River, especially everything with River and Amy together
- nearly everything with Amy, especially the bits where she's utterly terrified, but keeps going anyway.  My favourite kind of courage.
- creepy forest is creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy
- "I got him to say comfy chairs."
- Father Octavian's sacrifice
- the end of the Angels

The bits I didn't like were:

- opening the Wikipedia page for Nerds, and realising they're a Nestle product.
- the attempted seduction at the end.  Mostly because I have a mild squick about scenes where one person offers love, or sex or whatever, and the other declines.  See also: Christine Chapel and Spock in "The Naked Time".  And it seemed like a very odd leap for Amy to make, though probably in-character for someone who sees locking a tie in a car as a perfectly good way to take control of a conversation.  It hit the same sort of, "What?  Where the hell did that come from?  That is so embarrassing for everyone concerned!" button as the mortgage scene in "The Impossible Planet".  Only sort of funnier, because Eleven was clearly reverting to his curly-haired-bescarved self, and was possibly on the verge of telling Amy that she was a very beautiful woman, probably.

(Given that Eleven starts kissing her back at one point, it is possibly a bit OTT to complain that Amy is trying to rape him?  Mebbe just a little?  She said, understatedly.  But it is still an uncomfortable scene.)

ETA: ...Judging by my flists, it's clear which scene everyone is going to be talking about. So it's a wee bit annoying that I don't quite know what to think of it! Reactions seem to divided into three:

- ZOMG RAPE!
- ZOMG THAT WHORE!
- ZOMG A COMPANION WHO IS UPFRONT AND NOT COY ABOUT HER SEXUALITY AND DOESN'T TIE IT TO HETERONORMATIVE DOMESTIC FANTASIES!

I think, on the whole, I'm coming down in favour of the third option? But I want to see how it plays out over the next few weeks; I think it's maybe a bit telling that Amy goes into seduction mode right as the Doctor's brain is turning re: the crack. Is Amy the centre of a crack in the universe? Is she completely in control of her actions? I am in wait and see mode. And next week, vampires!

Comments

[copracat]

- ZOMG RAPE!
- ZOMG THAT WHORE!

Seriously, my eyes are rolling so hard.

Amy, who has been so swift on the uptake, so aware of what the Doctor is saying and what he isn't saying, was suddenly taking a bit of time to hear 'no'. Bad writing because the "doctorly realisation and exposition while avoiding 'lolarious' insatiable woman" scene was too precious an idea to turf? (Kill your babies, writers.) Or a sign that something's wrong with Amy?

But then Moffat said, during an early Confidential, that he was disappointed when he thought Karen Gillam was short and dumpy because she was otherwise awesome for the role. Imagine his delight when she turned out to be an Amazonian hottie. I don't suppose we expect too much deviation from the usual stereotypes during mofftime.

[xwingace]

Most of my boggling about that scene is also from "where the hell did that come from" rather than outright condemnation. (Though I don't usually consider the gender politics of the show deeply enough to immediately jump to option 3 either).

But I sure as hell want some sort of explanation.

[alias_sqbr]

I've been working on a fic set a bit further ahead in the story (now sadly somewhat jossed but I'll survive) and a scene something like that was pretty much the personal canon I'd decided on, though not so sudden or insistent. So I'm definitely going with option 3.

Ah, River, so awesome.

And to be a little science fictiony for a second, I am VERY CURIOUS about this crack. How much of the previous seasons has been retconned? Will it stay retconned once everything's fixed? Is this possibly going to be a way to bring back Gallifrey?

[biichan]

I know what you mean about feeling let-down. I liked the episode, I really did, but it just didn't satisfy me like some of the others did. I dunno.

[aryas_zehral]

I don't think I fit into any of those categories. I felt that the end scene felt like it came out of nowhere, had little to do with what had gone before and just didn't fit. But I felt the whole episode felt weak. The first part was creepy, the second not so much even though the angels were moving and looked like angels and there was the whole "don't walk into the light!" section. It was a bit boring really.

[juliekarasik]

My thoughts: Amy's just been though a few incredibly intense days, with her imaginary best friend / fantasy mebbe-boyfriend. She's already at a very ambivalent crossroads personally and she's still relatively young. You could look at this as a natural reaction. (Though the scene hit my own squick buttons and I was curled up in my chair going "oh god no!")

[fyrdrakken]

I wasn't too happy because I was going, "Oh, great, another Companion who canonically wants into the Doctor's pants and gets the brushoff. Way to make the relationships explicitly stated onscreen and deny the shippers their fun, there!" But, yes, glad that she A) went for what she wanted and B) was very upfront about wanting her shot at a one-night-stand if nothing else.