lizbee | (Reply)

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Put me in with the lovers. I loved this episode. I loved the way everything tied together from the personal to the world-spanning. I loved how none of the narrative elements felt wasted or superfluous. I love the concept of a soul being an accumulation of stories that are edible. I loved the idea of something being not only the story of what happened but the story of all the possibilities that didn't happen. I loved the singing, I loved the feeling that I was glimpsing a real culture with real traditions - Who rarely does this, enamored as it is with playing around with Earth and human history. Most of its aliens never even reach two dimensions much less three. I haven't watched much classic Who (working on it! and I have seen the Aztecs so I gave a little squee that your theory made sense to me) but the episodes I have seen that still holds true. I like aliens to look, well, alien, and to act alien and confusing and they did a good job of that here!

The God bit didn't bother me, mainly because I don't come to Who looking for a nuanced treatment of religion. Whether it was meant as a stab at the idea of religion as a whole or was intended as an allegory for sexual abuse of children by clergy, I kinda don't care? It's a good theory, but I'm willing to take the plot at face value without looking too deeply at it. I don't know why I'm so passive about Who in that way. I'm not that way about other shows. I just can't take Who seriously as a commentary on social issues. I have no idea why that is.

I love Matt Smith, even with the emo tear. During his tenure, even when I otherwise hate an episode, I still love him. I'm not as much an Amy lover as you, I don't hate her but she's never hit the right notes for me, and I love more the devotion Rory represents than I do Rory himself. I've kept watching for Matt Smith. I've come to love his portrayal of the Doctor the most of all the New Who Doctors - and I adored Eccleston's Doctor so that was a high bar to pass.

Ten is a weird case where I loved watching David Tennant on screen and it was clear that he was having so much fun but the Doctor who was written for him to play was kind of a jerk and rubbed me the wrong way sometimes. Which I think mostly had to do with the Rose obsession and the way Martha was dumped on, which is why Donna felt like such a breath of fresh air and their camaderie made Ten fun again. In the same way, I'm enjoying Clara. Though we did not linger overlong on depressed!Eleven (thank goodness) Clara and the Doctor and their respective actors seem to be having so much fun on screen together and that is what I watch Who for.

The way I described Ten also kinda describes how I feel about River Song...but in an effort not to harsh your squee I'm going to shut up now.

Edit - come to think of it, I think "The Aztecs" was one of the few nuanced, respectful treatments of religion I have seen on TV. Writers could learn a lot from studying that episode.