by Ian » Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:39 am
Saw Doctor Who - The Lodger and then the finale last night. The Lodger wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, actually. Fluffy crap, but watchable enough with some funny moments.
As for the finale... well. Didn't like it, sorry. Not awful or anything, but very disappointing on the whole. The tonal shift between part 1 (which actually bothered to be atmospheric and even quite chilling toward the end) and part 2, which seemed to mostly treat it all as a bit of a joke jarred badly, and it was all a bit nonsensical really. Also not particularly happy that both the River Song/Silence will Fall arcs are dragging on for another season. RTD seemed to want to turn the show into (a poor man's) Buffy. Moffat seems to want to turn it into (a poor man's) Lost. What's more annoying is this sort of thing essentially makes a nonsense of the reasons we were given for so few multi-part stories (that it would alienate the casual viewer. I rather think incredibly complicated arcs that span several seasons are somewhat more likely to alienate Mr and Mrs Casual than an increase of 2 parters). Watching the finale, the cynic in me couldn't help but observe that it would hardly matter if the entire universe (bar Earth) had remained dead, since we never see any of it anymore anyway.
All in all, a surprisingly disappointing end to a surprisingly disappointing season. I like the main characters/actors, but the stories themselves are still pretty poor. Best of the season by far was the Angels 2parter, but even that is arguably fatally compromised by having the "Arc" dominate so much of part 2, essentially making it redundant as a standalone. New Who still hasn't delivered a truly decent season since 2007, and that's becoming increasingly ridiculous.