Doctor Who 4x08 - Silence in the Library
Jun. 2nd, 2008 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficHmmm… interesting.
A nice smorgasbord of ideas … without coming off as crowded the way these things sometimes do (I don’t want to name names, but sometimes Warren Ellis stories can come off like highbrow technobabble. And when Grant Morrison gets mystical, watch out!). The one complaint I have is that the equal relationship between the Doctor and Donna seemed to have a lot of instances of the Doctor treating Donna as “stupid girl who needs to do what I say because I R SMRT!” Really, would it have killed him to say “I got a call for help, we’re going to the Library” instead of lying about it? Why hello there, false suspense, how are you? Still inorganic and cheap? I can handwave that as the Doctor just taking Donna for granted… you know the way when you first get to know someone, you’re on your best behavior and you’re trying to relax a little, then as time goes by you start to relax?... but I still expect some sweet chin music for the stunt near the end.
In fact, going with the “Moffat unfair to Doctor-Companion interaction” flow here, Donna’s role seemed mainly… generic. Action!Donna was in-character, but being the “nice woman” could’ve been any NewWho companion, honestly, since in Who the bitch that gets things done is the Doctor.
If anyone ever makes a Doctor Who Mary-Sue litmus test, make sure "has a sonic X/has a X screwdriver" is on the list. The Doctor will travel back in time to before the Adipose scheme to have sex with Miss Foster and end up giving her a sonic screwdriver?
Oh, that sounded dirty.
A nice smorgasbord of ideas … without coming off as crowded the way these things sometimes do (I don’t want to name names, but sometimes Warren Ellis stories can come off like highbrow technobabble. And when Grant Morrison gets mystical, watch out!). The one complaint I have is that the equal relationship between the Doctor and Donna seemed to have a lot of instances of the Doctor treating Donna as “stupid girl who needs to do what I say because I R SMRT!” Really, would it have killed him to say “I got a call for help, we’re going to the Library” instead of lying about it? Why hello there, false suspense, how are you? Still inorganic and cheap? I can handwave that as the Doctor just taking Donna for granted… you know the way when you first get to know someone, you’re on your best behavior and you’re trying to relax a little, then as time goes by you start to relax?... but I still expect some sweet chin music for the stunt near the end.
In fact, going with the “Moffat unfair to Doctor-Companion interaction” flow here, Donna’s role seemed mainly… generic. Action!Donna was in-character, but being the “nice woman” could’ve been any NewWho companion, honestly, since in Who the bitch that gets things done is the Doctor.
If anyone ever makes a Doctor Who Mary-Sue litmus test, make sure "has a sonic X/has a X screwdriver" is on the list. The Doctor will travel back in time to before the Adipose scheme to have sex with Miss Foster and end up giving her a sonic screwdriver?
Oh, that sounded dirty.
