Posted by Anthony in HAWPcast on June 29th, 2010
Hey, another HAWPcast. Our situation has changed — I’m in Texas, Ash is still in Arizona — but our own meandering, rarely interesting brand of conversation has not.
You can listen to it here. In it, we talk about the Actual Movie that Ash is going to be in, the awesomeness of Toy Story 3, and, at the very end, and for the last time in a very long while (ideally, ever), we talk about the most recent episodes of Doctor Who.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR TOY STORY 3
Anthony and Ashly Burch are writers and game critics who make surreal videos in their spare time. The videos aren't that bad.
Rev Rants: Every week, sort of, Anthony discusses games and gamer culture in this Destructoid video series (now defunct).
Anthony Burch on Destructoid: In addition to creating video content, Anthony used to write some awesome stuff for Destructoid.com.
Video Game Flicks: Over at AMC's blog, Anthony writes about videogames, movies, and videogame movies. Updates every other Tuesday.
Occasionally, Ashly acts in other stuff, like the movie Donna.
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© 2010 Hey Ash LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
Handmade by Hugs For Monsters.
Pecked by an Odd Looking Bird.
You know that feeling that you had when you watched the third act of Serenity? That’s how I feel when listening to you talk about something that I love. I listen to your show stressed out about how you’re going to take a dump on awesome things like Toy Story 3 and Doctor Who.
At least this time you ended up liking Toy Story 3 and your Doctor Who complaints seemed like they were closer to real complaints than just fanboy nitpicking.
At this point I had a point by point list of problems I had with your complaints. But then you went off on long arcs and I didn’t want to drown out the following paragraph:
God, I hate you. You hate long arcs? How are you a sci-fi fan? You realize the whole Blue Sun/Alliance thing would probably have taken multiple seasons to resolve and it would have been freaking awesome. It would have been far greater than the Serenity movie. Fantasy Sci-fi and Fantasy fantasy are genres about epic epicness. They are about authors writing ten thousand-word books to tell their story. This is a genre convention that has been settled. If you don’t like sci-fi then fine that’s allowed but stop watching it and talking about it.
Oh and before there were long arcs. Before there was The Sopranos, LOST, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, television was terrible. More proof that you hate awesome things.
I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with long arcs (RTD’s Dwho had the Last of the Time Lords/Time War thing as a really, really long arc, and I obviously love all of those shows you just listed apart from LOST).
What I have a problem with is the measured, cynical dispensation of Really Big Questions That Prevent The Plot From Making Immediate Sense that serve only to goad you onward and keep you watching rather than actually dealing with the subject at hand.
The Blue Sun/Alliance thing was a long arc, and also, quite importantly, NOT a Really Big Question That Prevents the Plot from Making Immediate sense. It was in the background, as a curiosity. It let the plot and character progress independently, while seeding a question that did not mandate an immediate answer.
Conversely, the entire last half-hour of The Pandorica Opens — the ENTIRETY of it! — literally makes no sense from narrative- or character-based perspectives until we have the answer to the Really Big Question of why the TARDIS explodes and how the Doctor is responsible. It stops you dead in your tracks, FORCES you to wonder what is going on, and then refuses to tell you because um er ah we’d like you to keep watching the show.
You’re confusing my hatred of cynical, nonsensical question-raising that never pays off in an interesting way with hatred of all long-form storytelling. I’m not saying every single show needs to be episodic and totally self-contained — not in the slightest.
Then maybe I am just too much of a Moffat fanboy or you are too much of an RTD fanboy or maybe you weren’t paying enough attention or my mind made connections that weren’t intended just cause because it made sense to me.
Something is going to happen on June 26, 2010 that causes cracks in the universe. They have been hinting at that all season long and we only find out 2 episodes before the finale that it has something to do with the TARDIS (we don’t even know that the TARDIS causes the explosion until The Pandorica Opens). The Evil League of Evil becomes aware that the TARDIS will do this so to stop it they lock up the, seemingly, only person who can drive The TARDIS. They don’t know that there is another. River flies off in the TARDIS and lands on the date of the explosion. The TARDIS explodes. End of part 1. What’s so complicated?
The only thing they left unanswered is: Why did the TARDIS explode? and What is the Silence? Those are two important questions to be sure but I don’t think they mandate immediate answers. The finale worked for me and many other people without them. The show could end right here and I would be satisfied. I am more satisfied now than I was at the end of Serenity (don’t forget that Book’s mystery was another question that they made a really big deal about that they never answered).
But your final point about the difference between “cynical, nonsensical question-raising that never pays off in an interesting way” and long-form storytelling doesn’t make sense to me. Long-form storytelling requires questions. It requires a problem that is going to be solved little by little over a long period of time. For example, the Last of the Time Lords/Time War was, in my opinion, NOT long-form storytelling. There was no arc to that plot. Nothing moved forward little by little culminating in anything. The Time War was just background information to serve The Doctor being the last of his kind. When the Galifreyans showed up in The End of Time, it came out of nowhere.
You can’t have long-form storytelling where EVERY question is answered. If every question is answered then the story is over.
The Wire, Buffy, Angel, Mad Men. Examples of fantastic long-form storytelling that you brought up. Where were the Big Important Questions that drove those shows forward and could not possibly be understood or enjoyed without those answers?
Apart from Don Draper’s real identity, none of those shows had LOST or BSG or Who-sized question marks at their centers used solely to goad you into continuing to watch. If anything, the best of the shows in that list, The Wire, derived its drama almost SOLELY from being forthcoming and honest with the audience from every single conceivable angle — there are literally no significant mysteries I can think of in the entire series.
The issue with the whole question of why the TARDIS exploded is that it matters to the Doctor’s immediate predicament, and is not explored. Apart from the one shitty Dalek and the really poorly presented imminent doom (the universe is totally ending!…except for Earth, which will be fine. For how long? Uh, er, two thousand years. The clock is ticking!), there’s no enemy in the Big Bang.
The evil voice, the thing that brought the TARDIS there, is that enemy — but, whoops, you don’t get to actually see or fear that enemy for another year. Instead you get to see the Doctor infinitely-regress his way out of predicaments, do hollow and unconvincing goodbye stuff, and follow through on almost-clever time travel stuff laid down in earlier episodes. This is a clear-cut case of the showrunner’s desire for Big Overarching Mysteries to take precedence over what the story actually needs.
This is like if the end of Serenity was Shepherd Book walking into the fight between Mal and the Operative and going “nah, let’s not fight” and the Operative respecting him for some unknown reason and then Book walks out the door going, “I’ll explain that in a year.” The issue isn’t questions in and of themselves, it’s questions being the entire focus of a plot and then not being answered for years.
The Wire had questions. Are they going to catch Avon Barksdale? is a question. How are they going to do it? is a question. That is what plot is. It’s finding answers to these questions. It’s solving a problem little by little.
Mad Men (i’m still in season 2): How much does Betty know about Don? What are Peggy’s feelings about her baby? How did nobody know she was pregnant? Where was she before she came back to Sterling Cooper at the beginning of the season? BIG QUESTIONS: Can Don Draper ever really connect with his family without telling them the truth?
Buffy: Who is Angel? How did he become human? How does the world around Buffy function with all the weird stuff going on? What is the mayor up to? What is the first evil?
Angel: What is the Shanshu Prophecy and how does it relate to Angel?
These are all questions that drive the plot forward.
Maybe the problem you have is the scope. Except for Mad Men, all the shows you like seem to wrap up nicely at the end of each season. Would it be different if instead of let’s say 39 episodes over three years, the arc took 39 weekly episodes that occurred in one year?
I literally cannot believe you can’t grok the difference between “I wonder what will happen next” or “I wonder when I will learn more about this background story element” and “what the fuck is this island why is everyone on this island why the fuck does that statue have four toes wait why is the TARDIS exploding at that moment wait what the hell is that voice” questions.
So, quick disclaimer before I jump into this: I havn’t seen The Wire, or Mad Men, and skipped most of Buffy so that I could get to Angel, but I think the point is being missed here (Oh, and I was a big LOST fan, but we’ll just ignore that for the moment)
You can derive questions for any show, just about, but the powerful difference lies in whether or not these questions are simply “Will X happen” or if they are “What the fuck is X”.
The former question isn’t so much a question as much as it is plot. If you’re curious as to how the show will progress, and how things will occur in the future, that’s the writers doing their jobs, so long as it’s kept in check.
Meanwhile asking the latter questions is more along the lines of what Anthony’s getting at here. He is saying that leaving the question of “What the fuck is the Silence” unanswered, and largely ignored simply for the sake of having it to be a reason to tune in next week/year/whatever is largely unsatisfying and likely weak writing. No matter what the answer to that question is, it cannot possibly be as fulfilling as they’re gonna make it look like it will be (take it from the LOST fan).
The shame in all of this is that shows will continue in this fashion for a long time because it works and because it allows for otherwise weak writing to keep a consistent membership by use of Mystery as a crutch, and the more and more times people fall for it, the more it will be used, and the more shows will alienate their fanbase and ultimately lead to one of two outcomes: The death of the show, or the death of its creativity, which is probably worse.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a quick example. Watch any old gameshow, whatever it may be, and then look at a more recent one (Are you smarter than a 5th grader particularly comes to mind). In the more recent show, they find that audiences are more drawn into a fake drama if the host draws out whether the answer is right or wrong, and this happens time and time again, until honestly you spend a full hour watching someone answer ten questions. Almost the entire experience is fake in this situation, drawn out and given tension because it calls to some more primal part of us that simply wants to know.
I believe that this idea can be used for good, somehow, someway, but that we’re far off from it in modern writing.
Oh, right, and as to the application to Dr. Who: It’s really up to you. I largely agree with Anthony, and that’s kinda a bias that comes with anyone actually posting on his blog thing, but I don’t think that that’s the only view of the finale here. To me, Matt Smith at least stepped up a bit more in this episode, not simply being wacky and random, but during the unwinding of time thing, he showed a hint of growth, more as an actor than as the Doctor, to the point where I could see him eventually delivering more powerful scenes like Tennant.
I guess the final word on if it’s good or not comes down to if you feel they intentionally hid aspects of things from us so we’d come back, or if you feel that was simply the most natural way of things to progress. I’m sure both camps exist.
Oh, I keep remembering things, or maybe forgetting them… either way, as to Angel: The Shanshu wasn’t a mystery in the least. As I recall, no more than an episode or so from when they even mentioned Shanshu did they find out it was about a Vampire with a soul that would play a role in the end of the world, and become mortal as a result. There’s no mystery there other than “How?”, but as per earlier, that’s plot, not mystery… Does that make sense?
“I wonder what will happen next” or “I wonder when I will learn more about this background story element”
Those are the ONLY type of questions there are. Every question in every show is either plot or background. Is what bothers you, then, that when the questions are posed, that you can’t tell under which categories they belong?
“What the fuck is the island?” Was background. It did not ultimately matter to the plot. But nowhere in the entirety of LOST was this so important that the entire cast had to stop and figure this out before they could continue. Any more than we have to stop our daily lives and figure out where the universe came from. You’re a storyteller so you understand the concept of character motivation.
Why is everyone on this island? This wasn’t part of the plot for most of the show. Why should they care why they are on the island if all they want to do is get off? This only became important for Jack because searching for purpose was what his character is about.
Why does this statue have four toes? Why did it matter? When the four-toed statue was mentioned, the castaways were on their way to save part of their group. Were they supposed to stop and figure out this background information before they continued? Was the information ever important? I don’t know how much of LOST you watched but the answer is no. It was never important to anyone else but the fans. No one’s life ever rested on knowing why the statue had four toes.
Why is the TARDIS exploding? THAT is plot. Just like what are the cracks? is plot. They were introduced in the very first episode of the season but was every episode after that have to be about the cracks or are they allowed to have other adventures before fully addressing the cracks? Like I said, it’s all about character motivation. Is this problem so important that it needs to be addressed RIGHT NOW because we are all going to die if its not solved OR can we continue on our way?
I don’t want to get too side tracked on the LOST here, but you do recall that one of the most fundamental moments of the Pilot of LOST was Charlie saying “where are we”, establishing the huge question of “WTF is the island”, right? What the island is was a huge question that ultimately never received a satisfying answer because it is impossible to set up so huge of questions and expect to satisfy the audience with an answer. (The Whispers answer is a great example of this. For those not well versed, late in the final season, a character stops, says “I think I know what these things are”, and pulls an answer to a mystery from the first season directly out of his ass)
This is the fear with the building up of why the TARDIS is exploding, and what Silence will fall means. It is that drawing out any of these to such ridiculous lengths that the answer couldn’t possibly satisfy even a remote portion of the audience who have been tuning in for a year to find these answers.
As much greif as LOST got for its finale, I think it showed that the writers finally realized what a deathtrap this mystery game is, and decided to pull a 180 and do a fully character driven finale without a single iota of mystery or half-assed answers involved.
In fact, I think the final season of LOST is a great example of how to do a Who-esque season, where you’ve got a single, overarching thing going on over here while the normal day to day is still happening. The entire season long they’ve got this side universe going on, this plot point that, like the crack, we can only speculate and get hints about what in the hell it is. However, when the rubber meets the road in the finale, LOST fully explained in a satisfying way both for the characters and the audience the entirety of the sideways world, while Who this season decided it only felt like answering these halfway, only to pose twice as many questions in its wake.
Perhaps if the finale didn’t slap us in the face with things like “So, why was the TARDIS exploding in the firs place?” followed by “Uh, dunno, Oh look over there, ADVENTURE!”, it wouldn’t have felt so cheap, I guess.
I completely agree about the Daleks being about as threatening as a headache. The Daleks have been defeated so often and brought back so often only to be defeated yet again that any sense of threat they once had is gone.
I think I mentioned it before, so I won’t bother explaining it again, but there are so many bad guys that just become a running joke. I call it Borg Syndrome* for obvious reasons.
I was kind of surprised that you liked how he beat them in that Army of Ghosts two parter. Take away all of the techno bullshit that he went through, what did he physically do to get rid of all those billions of Daleks? He pulled a lever. Every time I see a Dalek I assume someone will pull a lever and they will fall through a trapdoor. The explanation for it took all of 5 seconds to go through, pull a lever, oh dear Rose has gone but not. Ooh, took out the Cybermen too? Result! Bargain!
The Goa’uld from Stargate were just as bad. They couldn’t even kill 4 people – one of whom is an archaeologist. A sodding archaeologist. They are easy to kill. I’ve played Tomb Raider, just stick a spike trap in front of a pack of shotgun ammo those pesky Egyptians leave lying around.
“We are the borg, you will be assimila…oh, you are human? Forget it then. But the rest of you are fucked. Oh, you’re with the humans? I’ll just go and die in a corner.”
Toy Story 3 made me fucking tear up, easily my favorite flick from the past two years, yay marriage!
God Damn it, thanks for spoiling Toy Story.
I quote:
“MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR TOY STORY 3″
We actually put that up in response to Josh’s comment, cause we were a collectively dumb and forget to preface it.
(sorry Josh)
Its ok, only heard the furnace bit then quickly switched off
Just annoyed with the fact that it won’t be out here in the Uk for another 3 weeks.
I like how you said the electric hydra is better than podtoid when the only real difference is that you left
So you didn’t like Doctor Who, saw it coming. I liked this season but I understand your points and agree with some of them but I feel you’ve been spoiled by Russell T Davies character development, but you’re entitled to an opinion. The one thing is that whole “You may definately kiss the bride thing” = F’ing retarded but I understand Amy and Rory’s relationship and feel that she does love him because I have seen a similar relationship and they were happy with it so yeah. What ever this is just my 2 cents.
Since we’re jumping on the RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH ANTHONY IS A STOOPIDFACE bandwagon, I did find it strange that you (Anthony) dismissed the episode about the Doctor renting a room in that guy’s flat, and saying that it in no way reflected realistic human interaction basically because the guy is fat and it’s unbelievable that she would like him (and not ask him out herself). If anything the realistic (quote unquote) outcome that you described is the stereotypical one that every tv show has done before: unattractive friend harbors crush for years, finally reveals his love, then is dumped because he’s gross looking, friendship over. I found the view that she wouldn’t find him attractive because he’s fat to be a little insulting and unrealistic (since American romance wouldn’t work if that were the case). And lets face it, women and men are BOTH insecure as hell, it’s not like she would have definitely told him that hes liked him. I thought it was a different looking romance than the one you usually see on television, and I like how they both had the same insecurities, even though he was a big guy and she was a decently attractive girl. Her honest attraction to him and his atypical body type reminded me a lot of some of the unusual Torchwood moments, like Gwen’s attraction to Reese (which won out in the end over the rest of the eye-candy), and the scene where Jack blatantly and (I think) honestly flirts with a middle-aged, slightly overweight woman. I don’t know if the Brits are used to dating more dumpy-looking people, but I like seeing more realistic couples on television, and I thought that episode was one of the better examples of that, despite their silly “I love you! I love you too!” realization right before their happily-ever-after.
That said, I love your face and you guys are awesome.
*definitely told him that she liked him.
That’s fair. I could just be overly cynical about this stuff, but I’ve just literally never seen any situations like that solve themselves in the way they nearly always do in films (Pretty in Pink’s focus-tested ending notwithstanding).
I’m going to try to not shit on your opinions, because I actually agree with you for the most part on The Big Bang, but I do have one comment to say against you because arguing is fun.
I think it’s clear why the Daleks/Cybermen/Sontarans/etc. put the Doctor in the Pandorica. They found out that the TARDIS was going to explode (this is the weak part of the plot, but just go with it for a second), and they thought “HMMM… WHO’S PRIMARY FUNCTION IS TO PILOT THE TARDIS? THE DOCTOR! EXTERMINATE!” Now, it still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that a) they knew this and b) they formed an Alliance, but I gave Moffat a bit of wiggle room for the Rule of Cool. It was absolutely unacceptable that they had no influence on the plot whatsoever in the second part, because that made it clear that they were just there for the Rule of Cool and that’s really not… cool.
But I was feeling pretty meh on the The Big Bang anyway. Even if it wasn’t as bad as the Tinker Bell solution, it still felt like a Deus ex Machina. People are saying stuff like “It was set up in advanced that Amy’s memory was important, so this isn’t a Deus ex Machina at all!” BUT NO THEY’RE WRONG! Two one-off mentions in previous episodes plus repeating it over and over again in this two-parter does not mean it was “set up in advanced”.
And then, with regards to the multi-season arc, I agree that it was stupid. River Song’s story does feel like it could be told in an interesting and compelling way over multiple seasons, but only if they actually dispense some information over those seasons instead of saying “Here’s someone from the Doctor’s future… She’s dangerous… she’s still dangerous.” “Silence Will Fall,” though, is the most bullshit multi-season arc ever because it is a one season arc that they felt like it would be cooler if they told it over two. I remember talking to a friend before The Big Bang and saying “they better give us some answers next week,” and he said “YEAH!” and then we got back from finale and he said “THAT WAS AWESOME” and I gave him the most WTF face I could muster.
I would, though, love to see them try and tackle it in a much better way sometime in the future.
Finally, I don’t think you guys should give up on Doctor Who yet. Sure, one season seems like it should be enough for Moffat to find his footing, but considering that production is done out of order, just because he didn’t find his comfort zone in the finale doesn’t mean he won’t.
I think what i hate the most about how they brought the Doctor back was the fact that he is now, essentially, one of the Gods from Discworld.
Why does he exist? Because we believe in him. What if we stop believing in him? Does he not exist anymore?
What about his past exploits? Does Amys one time “Oh yuh, that guy” regeneration mean that they now have always existed, didn’t always exist, do people remember him now that he exists once more, why does my hair look funny after I wear a hat?
Hmm. I think I lost the plot somewhere along there.
Actually, we don’t ever have existed here anymore, but this is hardly the time to be conjugating temporal verbs in the past impossible never tense.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18621_the-sadness-toy-story-measured-in-tears-5Bchart5D.html
read that
I love Dresden Codak, and I don’t think Ashley looks that much like Kimiko, I mean she kind of does but not totally like. Kimiko’s taller for one. But yeah you should totally make a remake of that.
Oh, and if you want to see something that’s kind of Machinima, look up Freeman’s Mind, it’s basically a guy playing Half Life and talking like he’s Gordon Freeman.
As long as we’re hating on Anthony, I find it weird that you constantly say that you wish there were more shows where you can just ‘ Hang out with the characters’ and yet you don’t listen to podcasts, which is basically all it is. I mean, you’ve known the guys on the electric hydra (presumably) longer and (hopefully) are more attached to them than to some doctor guy. ( Not to mention the cast of characters on TEH is probably a lot more interesting, since you have guys like Brad and Jim and Joseph and Adam). Is it that it’s not in space or something? Should the dtoid community put together some sort of podcast where we pretend to be time pirates or something, and then just talk about shit we like about time travel? It’s weird.
While I do have multiple issues with many of your own personal issues with the 6th Doctor Who season (of the reboot), I’m going to ignore it because we all have opinions, and I generally happen to love most of your opinions.
I am with the others though, in saying that you shouldn’t give up on the show. I am with you 100% of the way in that RTD was a much better showrunner, and that his work is almost being completely undermined by Moffat. I still think Smith fits the role, and that he has come somewhere in the season, and deserves our continuity as fans.
Also, where did you get your sonic? I’ve been looking for a good one for AGES. I’d love it if it were a nice hefty metal screwdriver that glowed rather bright and made sound, and I’m willing to shill out quite a sum, but if its not, I’ll live. Is yours nice?
Oh yeah, and as much as I love Rory and think he’s a total bad-ass, him still being there after almost tearing up at seeing that museum slide-show with him carrying the Pandorical through the London blitz, then imagining him as the epitome of a stoic guardian, for 2000 long years, just to see him pop up in uniform and go “Howdy I’m still here I just happened to be lying low” soiled it a touch.
I could keep going but this has gotten too long. Good podcast, good luck with gearbox.
They have a couple over at ThinkGeek.com
I know they have the ninth/tenth Doctor’s screwdrivers as well as the new one. They did have the laser screwdriver for a while, but I’m not sure they do anymore.
ping ping out of stock
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/a520/
liked this hawpcast, nearly ruined toy story cause i downloaded this off itunes before i read the spoiler warning, but managed to skip most of it.
I was also surprised that you guys didn’t enjoy the flat episode more, seeing as you guys love character driven episodes and there wasn’t much amy pond.
keep up the good work.
Man, you guys have to try to do these more often. I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work and the HAWP podcast happens to be my favorite. Thanks
Wow, I’ve really been missing the HAWPcast. You guys are the primary reason I got into Doctor Who. I figured it was easier to just watch all of the new DW seasons than it was to complain about not knowing what the hell you guys were talking about. Its a shame you didn’t enjoy it as much as previous seasons, but I get the problems you had with it. (You didn’t mention the Hungry Earth/Cold Blood episodes. I was hoping to know what you thought about them.) I guess I’m easily pleased. Or maybe its just that Matt Smith is my first current Doctor and I’m more willing to forgive the weaker parts of his story. Anyway, I’d be bummed if we don’t get a commentary track for this year’s Christmas special.
So yea, you guys rock, blah blah, generic fan praise. Thanks for continuing to be awesome.
btw as far as surreal, hyper short TF2 videos go, you could do worse than 19 seconds of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1FMd8O-MDc
My girlfriend bawled at the end of TS3, and I just had a nice pang in my heart since I had a hard time parting with my toys–Hell, I still have most of them and my nephews get mad when I tell them not to touch. Nothing like being 23 and owning new Transformers!
http://www.11secondclub.com/vote/june10/
Didn’t have time to read anything yet, just leaving this here cause you guys are a fan of doctor who.
Oh my God! I can’t believe I forgot this the first time I posted, but I officially lawl’d that one of the few episodes you guys liked this season of Who was the van Gogh episode after totally prejudging it in an earlier HAWPcast because it was one of the historical episodes. I thought it was really good too btw.
Run on sentences, wheee!
no more dr.who eh, seems that the next podcast will be about 10 minutes
Go onto /tv/, they have the exact opposite opinion as you of this series finale and of Moffat and RTD.
I just gotta say I’m surprised there are folks who don’t like the new Doctor Who as much or more than the RTD stuff. I loved that run, it was actually my introduction to the show (though I’ve gone back and watched lots of old episodes), but some of my favorite episodes were the Moffat ones and I enjoyed this season overall more than I did any other.
Aside from personal preference, which covers alot (like the fact I didn’t experience the problems following what was going on as it unfolded or feel I was being led along by “oh, big shiny secret!” or feel Moffat does alot more showing while RTD did too much telling) my only real complaint is… the term Mary Sue.
Mary Sue is such an overused term that it’s really lost all meaning. It used to mean someone who was put into a pre-existing canon, almost always an author stand-in, who was better than everyone else at whatever it was they did (the literal Mary Sue was a Star Trek insert who was a better captain than Kirk, doctor than Bones, etc.) and could never do anything wrong and was loved by everyone (examples being where the man in a couple really loves the Mary Sue but, because she is so kind and perfect, she convinces him to settle for his canon girlfriend… or he leaves his girl for her). She’s a flawless and obvious self-insert by the writer.
Now it’s just broadly applied to characters people think are too competent, or too well-liked (usually because the person dislikes them and doesn’t understand why others would, assuming it must be mere writer fiat). When I see “Mary Sue” applied non-ironically these days I tend to assume the person using it wants to feel justified in their dislike of a character.
It’s ok to dislike Amy, but I certainly can see both why she’s charming and how she’s pretty flawed and don’t have a problem with the role she played. If anything the reason the Doctor brought her along being “because you were a riddle/the universe screwed you up” and not “because you’re so gosh darn cute and brilliant” makes her LESS of a Mary Sue to me.
Oh, and real quick: I came away from the end with the impression that she did not create the Doctor with the power of her imagination, but that due to her relationship with the cracks and the Doctor’s guidance she was able to pull things that back in as the universe was recreated, thus bringing her parents back into reality with them having always been there.
The Doctor, brushed from history (but incompletely so, as Amy still had enough memories of their first encounter to have grown up with him as her imaginary friend) but physically just trapped on the other side of the cracks, piggybacked on that by dumping all those things that would remind Amy of him on her wedding day in her head when she was a kid.
There are some holes, sure, and I hope a few of them would be addressed (this season has been very good at having a character voice a complaint or question moments after one of my friends asked it allowed during the show, as in it has happened at least 10 times) but they didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the show very much at all.
Holy crap, I am so procrastinating from doing actual work. Sorry for the double dose of rambling.
I gotta say, I laughed at your toy story review and your talk of how Jayne died in noncannon world, but I got REALLY freaked out when I realized that yes, you look EXACTLY like Kim from Dresden Codak (Which I’ve been reading for a FUCK LONG TIME it makes my toes curl just thinking about how old I am XD ) and kicked myself for not realizing it earlier. Just commenting to say that that reenactment would be, indeed, awesomely epic and that YES you should read Dresden Codak, Ash~