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I enjoyed this episode of Doctor Who, although it was a bit of a shame that the 1930's Germany setting was little more than window-dressing. "Why didn't a time-traveller kill Hitler?" has been a bit of a sci-fi stable for ages, so having some time-travellers save Hitler's life was an amusing twist[0] (as was Hitler in the closet). It was a pacy episode, with some great comic moments, and River Song gets camper than ever. But.
I feel I have to reserve judgement on this series until we see how the plot arcs get wrapped up, but I'm beginning to worry about it. There's a bit too much of the ontological paradox (I mean, really, Melody Pond causes her parents to start going out, and then is named after herself?), and a bit too much deus ex machine (Mel is Amy and Rory's best friend, and this is the first we've heard of her?).
Also, whilst I really love River Song, I worry that they've not got a clear idea of how her life is plotted. This week's episode was a neat way of having her regenerating time-lordy skills resolved such that she can die in Silence in the Library, and also manages to explain why the Doctor has told her his real name (I assume that's what he says to her), but if she's part time-lord, why can she have time-lord-killing lipstick on without dying herself? And why does she, when she first meets her parents, not react as if she was meeting her parents?
So: this was fun, but I am concerned that after building up such a complicated mess of plot the ending will feel unsatisfactory, that the writers are going to pull another deus-ex-machine out of an ontological paradox to try and tidy things up. We shall see...
[0] Though having the trailers spoiler the "you just saved my life" line was a great shame. Why do that?
I feel I have to reserve judgement on this series until we see how the plot arcs get wrapped up, but I'm beginning to worry about it. There's a bit too much of the ontological paradox (I mean, really, Melody Pond causes her parents to start going out, and then is named after herself?), and a bit too much deus ex machine (Mel is Amy and Rory's best friend, and this is the first we've heard of her?).
Also, whilst I really love River Song, I worry that they've not got a clear idea of how her life is plotted. This week's episode was a neat way of having her regenerating time-lordy skills resolved such that she can die in Silence in the Library, and also manages to explain why the Doctor has told her his real name (I assume that's what he says to her), but if she's part time-lord, why can she have time-lord-killing lipstick on without dying herself? And why does she, when she first meets her parents, not react as if she was meeting her parents?
So: this was fun, but I am concerned that after building up such a complicated mess of plot the ending will feel unsatisfactory, that the writers are going to pull another deus-ex-machine out of an ontological paradox to try and tidy things up. We shall see...
[0] Though having the trailers spoiler the "you just saved my life" line was a great shame. Why do that?
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Hmmm, Melody Pond and River Song. Does this entirely obvious similarity have some in-universe explanation? Are we awaiting one?
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Also, although the episode had much less Hitler than I was expecting, I think it was actually just the right amount of Hitler. "Shut up, Hitler" was tied with River and the Doctor's ludicrous flirtatious "aha, but I knew you'd know I knew" action hero banter for my favourite bit of the episode. :D
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I was wondering about this! The best I can come up with is that she's still regenerating (she gets shot shortly afterwards and recovers immediately) so it doesn't affect her. Although that would mean that she was planning to regenerate anyway, and being shot by Hitler was just a lucky accident? Hmm.
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I don't have a major problem with this in small doses, or if handled in an entertaining way (like in the last episode of the previous series, where the reason the Doctor has a mop with him when he goes back in time to talk to talk to Rory is because future Rory has told him that he had a mop with him when he appeared).
Similarly ontological and ouroboric things happen to a particular character in Babylon 5. (Link contains spoilers for a 15-year-old episode of B5.)
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I tend to align somewhat with a lot of the comments in this interview.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/19/the-coversation-doctor-who, particularly this bit
It seems to be doing its best to alienate the casual viewer and frustrate the faithful with its format of inter-crossing stories spilling over from one episode to the next – none of which seem to be resolved or adequately explained. Sure, it's convoluted and complicated, but in much the same way a toddler's scribbles can be. It's as if the creators can't trust the viewers to stay hooked through just quality, and instead keep them constantly dangling, desperately seeking answers for the ever-amassing pile of questions the show poses. It's like having a kid screaming, "I know something you don't know … but I'm not telling!" in your face non-stop for 45 minutes.
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Yes, I share this concern.
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Silence in the Library was a red herring: the machine would have killed the Doctor, too. Time Lords can be killed. Regneration saves them if they are badly injured, not if they are dead, and the machine in the Library was deadly.
The episode was rather unsatisfactory, but you've managed to miss miss why entirely by focussing on things like paradoxes and whether the plot will make sense. Do you think you might be suffering from being a geek?
S.
The incident in the library
Ah, but, so, now she's saying that losing one, her last, regeneration is worth less than burning the doctor's several? That works too, but I may prefer the former intermediate.
And anyway at that time was she aware she was a timelord? She's bound to suffer some major memory loss sometime soon, otherwise she will have always known things she didn't know? Like she grew up in a spacesuit but when she first sees it she doesn't say, 'I grew up in suit much like this... wait, this is it.' or 'mummy, why did you at shoot me?'
Re: The incident in the library
S.