New Who: "The Big Bang"

[lizbee]

Fact: That defied every single one of the expectations I claimed not to have, and broke every bit of speculation I put forward.

Additional fact: HOMG IT WAS AWESOME.

Further additional fact: I'm glad that Rory is no longer an Auton, because it would have inevitably led to sex toy jokes, which would have been in very poor taste.

When the Doctor was like, "YOU'LL HAVE YOUR PARENTS BACK!" I was SO VERY AFRAID that suddenly Amy would be, you know, normal. BUT NO! She still spent a childhood being dragged to psychiatrists, believing in her imaginary friend. Only now he is friends with all of Ledworth, SO THERE. And she and Rory ran away on their wedding night! At last, a married couple in the TARDIS who are not Barbara and Ian, which I know has been one of the longstanding dreams of fans of crowded TARDISes. (Although it tends to be cited as a way of avoiding companion/doctor subtext? Which, not from where I was sitting.)

(Also: I saw people going, "I don't want the season to end with Amy and Rory getting married, because then Amy will leave. Because it is a well-known fact that, following marriage, one ceases to have a life of one's own, or interests, and one simply sits at home knitting baby clothes in preparation for the inevitable happy event. I swear to God, fandom, Moff may say stupid and sexist things in interviews, but when it comes to misogyny, you could give lessons.)

I ... honestly feel a little drained. I often feel that way after DW finales, but with RTD's finales, it was a case of sensory overstimulation, whereas here, it was more of an emotional rollercoaster. (Although, may I say that I am really impressed with how Murray Gold's score has been used this whole season, what with being generally not intrusive or annoying? Thank you.) There was a very nice balance of lulz, plot, emotion, character, Scary Fossil Dalek, badassery, timey-wimey shenanigans and canonical Doctor/TARDIS.

Let's talk about Matt Smith. When he was first cast, I was like, "Whatevs, another young, skinny white dude with stupid hair." And I was pretty Smith-neutral until the clip from "Vampires of Venice" appeared, when it became apparent he wasn't just going to be Ten Mark II.

By now, he is so very much the Doctor that I can't imagine anyone else in the role. He is totally convincing as an old man in a young man's body, and it's not just the costume, but the way he sits and speaks when he's tired. His realisation that, no, he hadn't escaped, he was just going to die very slowly, was utterly heartbreaking, so it was a real victory when he turned up at Amy's wedding and danced like a nerd.

(How much did I love that he was dancing with the children? SO MUCH. You might say, "Oh yes, that's the Eleventh Doctor, only children won't judge his dancing," but I'm pretty sure that, back in Gallifrey, when they held the annual Hootenanny of Rassilon, the first Doctor embarrassed and appalled his children, his friends and his brother by nerd-dancing with the Time Tots.)

OH HAI, YOU KNOW WHAT I ENJOYED? How it's the end of the season, and none of the female characters got screwed over by the narrative. Previous efforts:

2005: Rose saves the day via possession by TARDIS, loses memory of it
2006: Blah blah, trapped in other universe as long-term consequence of pissing off Queen Victoria while the Doctor gets off scot free with a single emo tear of manpain
2007: Martha realises that the Doctor will never love humanity as much as he loves his genocidal, family-torturing ex-boyfriend, leaves
2008: Donna saves the day via possession by Time Lord brain, gets mind-wiped

It's funny, because Mofftiem is not that different from the RTD era -- not like, say, contrasting Graham Williams with Jon Nathan-Turner, or even JNT's early years against the later, Cartmel-dominant Seventh Doctor era -- but it only takes a few small tweaks for the things I found distressing and offensive about the RTD era to fall away. My only complaints about Mofftiem are the lesser visibility of people of colour (on the other hand, fewer evil or dead PoC), and the general straightness of it all (on the other hand, no dead lesbians. Actually, I think RTD only killed one lesbian, but factor in Torchwood and it seems like more).

You know when I started laughing out loud? 04:10, where the AU features Richard Dawkins as a cult leader.

OH YEAH, I ALMOST FORGOT: MULTI-SEASON ARC! What is the Silence? I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's probably not faerie dementia in this case.

"Legs. Good. Bowtie. Cool. ...I can buy a fez." And so Matt Smith's request for a hat goes unanswered once more. Also, I like the callback to the regeneration.

LET'S TALK ABOUT RIVER SONG, GUYS. She stared down a Dalek and made it beg for mercy. Granted, it was a weakened fossil Dalek (note to self: AVOID FOSSILS AT ALL COSTS SOME OF THEM ARE DALEKS), but still!

It's funny how this two-parter didn't feel like a Dalek Story at all. But that's okay; Dalek Stories have probably been done enough lately, and sometimes all you need is a single Dalek hanging around being creepy. And fossilised. DO NOT WANT. It's as bad as that pond Dalek!

But yes, River Song stared down a Dalek. And shot a fez. And, working quietly in the background, helped Amy to bring the Doctor back. How is it that she wound up in the 21st century with the others? Because she seemed to need the vortex manipulator back in order to return to her own time. Unless, perhaps, she was originally from this time, and somehow skipped forward a few millennia? Someone should write that fic. Not me, I seem to have my B5 fic mojo back this week. But someone.

NEXT: The Sarah Jane Adventures in a few months. And after that, an escaped Egyptian goddess. On the Orient Express. In space. Anything that sounds that much like a parody of "Voyage of the Damned" is either going to be amazing, or an absolute atrocity. After today, I'm willing to cautiously put my money on the former.