Day of the Moon

[nonelvis]

This show. This show. It makes me almost inexpressibly happy. I am still trying not to get my hopes up, because Moffat could screw up anytime, but I had the same attitude with S5, and S5 turned out to be perfect. DON'T SCREW UP S6, MOFF.

Specific thoughts:

• "Three months later" was so not the opening I was expecting, but as my husband said last night when I watched DotM with him, "Moffat just dives right in, doesn't he?". You hardly even get time to think during that opening, but I think it was the right approach; it's a much more exciting way to get the point across that it's taken time to uncover how established the Silence really are. Also, River once again proves what a badass she is, and I never get tired of watching that.


• Okay, on closer examination, having the Doctor get captured so that Canton can go undercover and pretend to chase the rest of Team TARDIS for three months is not really much of a plan. God knows I've seen worse on this show, so I can easily live with this. Besides, now there's an opportunity to write fic about Canton's relationship with Eleven during that three months which obviously includes angsty porn.


• River and Rory in 1969 costumes. Memo to costume designer: Rory should be wearing hornrims much more often.


• I seriously think Moffat must spend his days wondering exactly how he can scare the ever-lovin' shit out of people. It's the only explanation for that creepy orphanage (And the guy who played Dr. Renfrew? Outstanding), and the NEST OF SILENTS HANGING FROM THE CEILING LIKE GIANT BATS OUT TO EAT YOUR FACE. Which might have made me shrink back on the couch and make an unhappy noise when I saw it, if I were the sort of person who's scared by such things. Which I am.


• I assume we're going to have to wait to find out more about the woman Amy saw at the child's door. (Possible spoiler: she's cast for episodes 7 & 8.) I am not expecting an "it was all a dream" plot resolution, though; that'd be way too simplistic for Moffat.


• I know there are people who don't care for how the Doctor deals with the Silents, but it didn't bother me at all. Getting the villains to sow the seeds of their own destruction is very typical of his style. I could say more, but I couldn't say it as well as Calapine did, so go read her post on the subject. (There's a followup here.)


• ELEVEN/RIVER I LOVE YOU NEVER EVER LEAVE ME. Except of course we already know they will, but that's what fic is for.


• And now, the end. I can't tell you how grateful I was not to have been spoilered for this episode, because the end left me literally with my jaw open and my hands flailing at the television. I'd heard plenty of rumors about Time Lords, but there are always rumors about Time Lords on this show, so it's easy to dismiss them as the usual fanwankery. Not this time, obviously.


In conclusion: more of this NOW NOW NOW, please.

Comments

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

BBC America had the last four, I think, episodes from S5, and I watched them. I have no doubt Rory loves Amy and is completely devoted to her, and in that sense, is a really good guy. But he seems just plain dumb -- hell "stupid face" is his official nickname. He's lived twice as long as the Doctor, but appears to have changed not at all in that time.

Mmmm, yes, River's baby with the Doctor, that makes sense, unless there's some storyline where Amy's the surrogate, but I could also imagine she'd raise the girl what with River in prison and everything.

I did a slow-mo frame-by-frame review when the astronaut was lifting his/her mirror faceplate. There's something flesh-colored underneath, though you only see the chin area. It's really wrinkly, like the Silence guys' chins, but again, who knows?

I thought all the other Time Lords were sealed up under some dimensional lock at the conclusion of the Time Wars?

[nonelvis]

Ah, I see your point about Rory. I like him anyway, but now I get what's bugging you about him.

As for the other Time Lords: unsurprisingly for this show, it's a little confusing and even contradictory. At the end of S3, the Doctor tells the Master that Gallifrey burnt and that all the Time Lords are dead. But at the end of the S4 specials, in Ten's final episodes, it turns out that the Time Lords implanted a way to bring back Gallifrey through the Master. Gallifrey magically reappears next to the Earth (causing no changes whatsoever in our orbit, etc., but whatever), but by the end, Ten and the Master have managed to seal Gallifrey (and the Master) back behind the time lock.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

i got the impression that it's not just gallifrey that's sealed behind the time lock, but gallifrey's destruction -- the doctor did burn it and killed all of the time lords, and then he sealed it up so it could never be undone. which makes sense in a time war, since undoing things and crossing timelines are probably the kind of tactics you'd use when you've got time travel.

[nonelvis]

But is that still valid post-EoT? I'd buy your theory otherwise, except that EoT gave me the impression that Gallifrey was still around, just locked away.