"Who turned out the lights?"
Jun. 2nd, 2008 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksLoath as I am to judge a two-parter solely on the merits of the first part, I thought I might just put a few thoughts down. This is, of course, the new Doctor Who's most anticipated annual event: the Steven Moffat story. After whacking us around the head with The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, causing controversy with The Girl in the Fireplace, earning two Hugos in the bargain and probably again this year for Blink, Moffat has gotten so much hype and such high expectations that you can't help but fear that this is the year he'll slip up. Especially so since this comes on the heels of the announcement that he'll be taking over as the series showrunner. If you want to wade into the fearsome jungle of fandom seasoned with the anonymity of the Internet that is Outpost Gallifrey (sorry, it's the Doctor Who Forum, now), you'll see that the backlash has already begun, even before he's started. Oh, fandom, I really want to kick you in the genitals sometimes.
But enough pleasant imagery. What do we have here, in Silence in the Library? In brief: mad and entertaining enough, with a couple of good old chills, but it's all starting to look a bit familiar.
Spoilers now:
'Fess up, Steven. You padded. I've heard enough of your commentaries, seen enough of interviews with you to know when you've overwritten and it needs to be trimmed and when you've underwritten and you're desperately trying to find some way to push the minutes back up. Looking at this, I'd say you ran under by, oh, about ten minutes on this one: this explains the dragged-just-a-bit-too-long death of Miss Evangelista, as well as the multiple times the Doctor asks River Song who she is, as if he was a retarded child who couldn't suss it out immediately why she's acting this way. Not to mention the repetitive dialogue that comes with data ghosting not once, but twice, the second time with the reanimated corpse of Proper Dave.
And you're starting to repeat motifs: the zombies of The Empty Child, complete with catchphrase, the Doctor intruding on the "real world" like in Blink, the time jumping of The Girl in the Fireplace... I mean, back then a few accused you of ripping off The Time Traveller's Wife, but at least the Doctor's encounters with Reinette were just over the course of a person's lifetime, which means you weren't actually ripping off Wife's non-linear experience, but actually taking the premise of your Bernice Summerfield short story, The Least Important Man. But this time, man, you went whole hog. To be fair, the idea of a time traveller meeting people out of sync with his own personal timeline isn't original to the novel either, but the entire love light that Song has for the Doctor doesn't make it easy to defend the derivation.
But here I am, sounding like the naysayers. Despite the padding and the repetition, it was still entertaining. The Vashta Nerada are both scary and audacious, a literal Invisible Enemy I'm surprised the classic series never attempted (well, a creeping darkness did crop up in Sapphire and Steel) since it would have made the budget boys really happy. River Song is nicely played by Alex Kingston, although I fear that while you were able to save Jenny from the axe, you might take it to the good Professor instead (of course, hundreds of Benny fans' hearts broke that you couldn't use her, but predicting Song's fate, maybe it's just as well). The Library itself is well realized, Euros Lyn does his usual, competent work, and I'm always a fan of slightly creepy little girls in Doctor Who.
Not much else to go on, really — I'll probably have more to say after I can digest the story as a whole. At the end of the day, a great script by Moffat, but the cracks are starting to show a bit. Still, Moffat with cracks is miles better than, say, The Doctor's Daughter or The Unicorn and the Wasp.
But it was inevitable really: no one could stand up to that kind of hype.
But enough pleasant imagery. What do we have here, in Silence in the Library? In brief: mad and entertaining enough, with a couple of good old chills, but it's all starting to look a bit familiar.
Spoilers now:
'Fess up, Steven. You padded. I've heard enough of your commentaries, seen enough of interviews with you to know when you've overwritten and it needs to be trimmed and when you've underwritten and you're desperately trying to find some way to push the minutes back up. Looking at this, I'd say you ran under by, oh, about ten minutes on this one: this explains the dragged-just-a-bit-too-long death of Miss Evangelista, as well as the multiple times the Doctor asks River Song who she is, as if he was a retarded child who couldn't suss it out immediately why she's acting this way. Not to mention the repetitive dialogue that comes with data ghosting not once, but twice, the second time with the reanimated corpse of Proper Dave.
And you're starting to repeat motifs: the zombies of The Empty Child, complete with catchphrase, the Doctor intruding on the "real world" like in Blink, the time jumping of The Girl in the Fireplace... I mean, back then a few accused you of ripping off The Time Traveller's Wife, but at least the Doctor's encounters with Reinette were just over the course of a person's lifetime, which means you weren't actually ripping off Wife's non-linear experience, but actually taking the premise of your Bernice Summerfield short story, The Least Important Man. But this time, man, you went whole hog. To be fair, the idea of a time traveller meeting people out of sync with his own personal timeline isn't original to the novel either, but the entire love light that Song has for the Doctor doesn't make it easy to defend the derivation.
But here I am, sounding like the naysayers. Despite the padding and the repetition, it was still entertaining. The Vashta Nerada are both scary and audacious, a literal Invisible Enemy I'm surprised the classic series never attempted (well, a creeping darkness did crop up in Sapphire and Steel) since it would have made the budget boys really happy. River Song is nicely played by Alex Kingston, although I fear that while you were able to save Jenny from the axe, you might take it to the good Professor instead (of course, hundreds of Benny fans' hearts broke that you couldn't use her, but predicting Song's fate, maybe it's just as well). The Library itself is well realized, Euros Lyn does his usual, competent work, and I'm always a fan of slightly creepy little girls in Doctor Who.
Not much else to go on, really — I'll probably have more to say after I can digest the story as a whole. At the end of the day, a great script by Moffat, but the cracks are starting to show a bit. Still, Moffat with cracks is miles better than, say, The Doctor's Daughter or The Unicorn and the Wasp.
But it was inevitable really: no one could stand up to that kind of hype.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 04:55 pm (UTC)I haven't watched many of the Moffat episodes, though, so I can't really tell if there are cracks showing. Perhaps with time; and I will agree with you, even if an excellent writer has some chinks in the wall of words from time to time, someone who tries to do mad and entertaining and creepy and thoughtful all at once, it's much better than giving the actors a poorly-written script that sounds like it came off of an elementary school's writing project.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 09:46 pm (UTC)I just have to say I love your icon.
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Date: 2008-06-02 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 04:21 am (UTC)... I have the feeling this could go on for a while.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 12:58 am (UTC)The structure is a problem for that and while Ms Evangelista (last seen by me as Anabelle Fritton in St Trinians) was great eye candy, they really really did over play the death.
I hope the second half was good.
River Song... well... so many thoughts. Bernice Summerfield was the best assistant the Doctor never had on TV so a similar replacement would be nice. On the other hand, she seems pretty knowledgeable. Assuming its not the magic clone offspring. Susan anybody?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 02:00 am (UTC)