Oh, Steven Moffat, you crafty, crafty writer

[locker_monster]

See, second parts are always better. Definitely more running in this one. I'm not sure I really understood everything, but there were elements that I enjoyed.

So the girl is the computer core and Dr. Moon is, well, the moon. How stupid am I. Lux mentioned that the moon wasn't real, it was just a doctor moon, and it wasn't until like halfway through the episode that I got that the moon is Moon. So the doctor moon protects The Library, which is essentially the little girl, Charlotte. So Lux's family built The Library for Charlotte, killing the forest of the Vashta Nerada, the Vashta Nerada hatched, and CAL saved everyone there to save them. Then she went into sleep mode? This is the part I'll have to re-watch. I assume Dr. Moon was trying all this time to help everyone stuck in the data core and that was why he was having those sessions with Charlotte. The core didn't have the capacity to save everyone correctly for so long.

And speaking of being saved, poor Donna. That's the problem with virtual realities. You come out of them with memories of the fake life you had but they feel real. Donna has to go the rest of her life seeing the faces of the children she had, but didn't. That's just tough (and a fic waiting to be written). But one potential happy: her husband was real. It's not enough that Steven Moffat writes this happy life for Donna, and then takes it away, but he ends it all with Donna walking away, completely unaware that Lee is real. But Donna did say, "I'll find you." Though, if Donna dies by the end of the season, that statement's sort of moot. Please, do not kill off Donna Russell T Davies. I do realize that the potential for Rose's death was hyped in the "The Satan Pit" but it never came to pass, so I hope RTD is just pulling another fake out. There could be many a reason why River would react the way she did when she met Donna. Granted, I can't think of any at this moment, but we shouldn't just automatically assume that Donna dies. Now is not the time to start killing off the companions. They only did it, like, three times on Classic Who and one of those was potentially not true, so Companions do come out of their tenures relatively unharmed.

Crafty Steven Moffat. Okay, so no reveal on who River is, but instead more speculation. And yet again he writes out a potential Companion. River dies, but not really, but she's gone enough that she can't come back and travel with the Doctor. I mean, she will travel with the Doctor but only for so long. And she knows the Doctor's name, his real name. What the hell does that mean? Stupid Doctor doesn't get to finish his sentence either. He would only reveal his real name to... To who? His wife? His true love? His therapist? Gah! Are there clues that point to River's true identity? And by true identity I mean the reason why the Doctor would trust her with his name. The moment she whispered the truth in his ear, there was a music cue. It sounded vaguely like the Doctor's theme, but I would have to re-watch that again. But it's interesting that the Doctor will continue to visit River, once he properly meets her. That puts a different spin on their friendship. He goes the entire time knowing her knowing how she dies. Is that what draws the future Doctor to visit River time and time again?

Once the Vashta Nerada were explained, I think I understood the story a little better. It's not just a random thing. There's always a reason for the monsters to be doing what they're doing in Moffat's stories. The Vashta Nerada's home was destroyed, all so humans could read their books. Somewhere in there there's a message about clear cutting. ;-) I like how Moffat was able to weave in the Vashta Nerada sort of subtly. You don't realize one of the team members is dead unless you catch the clue. Other Dave kept repeating his line. Anita only had one shadow after some point. I caught her one shadow down in the computer core, while the Doctor was preparing to hook up his brain to the computer core. Did Anita's second shadow disappear before that? Cool little things like that are the things I like about Steven Moffat's stories. You have to re-watch them sometimes for the small things.

I'm annoyed that the squareness gun saved the day again. Seriously Steven, you're starting to repeat yourself (again). Got monsters coming to the left and right of you? Squareness gun! Apparently, and this is according to wikipedia and I don't know where they got this (maybe from the podcast commentary), but the squareness gun River has is possibly the squareness gun Jack owned and eventually left in the TARDIS. Jack left his gun in the TARDIS? Okay, it's possible he had it on him when the Doctor saved him at the end of "The Doctor Dances" and the Doctor being against guns, told him to leave it in the TARDIS whenever they went somewhere. That's another fic waiting to be written. Also, "Everybody lives!" Um, sort of. Again, repeating, but it has the right sentiment. Sometimes, not everyone has dies.

Funny how next week looks like an episode of The Twilight Zone. Actually, it looks like a cheap episode with one set, no Donna for some strange reason, and the Doctor on a plane. "There's something on the wing of the plane!" Oh well, got to save money somewhere.

And next week's episode is the 200th episode of Doctor Who. That is, if you count the episodes of Classic Who and each serial is a whole episode and not four parts or six parts (or twelve parts). Anyway, that's what wikipedia says. That's kind of cool. And it only took what? 44 years? ;-)

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Next week is Not Much Donna because it's being filmed at the same time as the episode with Not Much Doctor.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

So instead of having one episode with very little Doctor and Donna we will get two episodes with lots of Doctor but practically no Donna and vice versa. That's either very smart or very lame. I hope they give a reasonable explanation for each situation.