moffaterawho | Saturday Squee Post: Night Terrors

"I'm not a fan of those "love conquers all" endings - they're just not my thing."

This one could've been done much better if the dad had just not said anything as he saved his Tesla-son from the monsters--if it had been a case of "ack ack he's not human" then, presented with danger, he doesn't even think about putting his life on the line to save him. But then they just *had* to go ham it up and it just felt forced.

"There were some nice Doctor moments in it, but the ending with the song and the close-up of the Doctor's death date again almost felt like an apology: "we know this wasn't the best episode, but keep watching because we still have to resolve all that other stuff, remember?""

This season really can't make up its mind about whether it's about a season-long plot arc or about individual episodes, and it's *really* jarring to go from plotplotplot to an episode like this without any way of connecting them. It's possible to shift from plot-gear to standalone, but you have to be doing something that connects back to the main thread. And the episode-endings of OMINOUS NON/PREGNANCY and DEATH IS COMING FOR YOU DOCTOR try to do that, but... "Bad Wolf" and "Mr Saxon" only worked because there hadn't been any buildup, because we weren't in plot mode to begin with, and only picked up on them after the fact.

(Torchwood, interestingly, is having the exact opposite problem, where there's little sense of resolution in any given episode, where they're *too* tied into the whole, though the two about Jack's BF from the 20s were a bit better..)

Yes, the thing with the cuckoo in the nest resolution, you could almost look away from the TV for a few seconds and miss the "he's an alien" revelation, yet's it supposed to be a big stumbling block. It was dealt with very quickly and yet very heavy handedly.

My feeling about the season-long plot vs individual episodes is that we've got this situation where only the showrunner is seemingly allowed to do the big stuff, which leaves everyone else to do stand-alone episodes with references to the story plot crammed in. And to be honest, I would be quite happy to lose many of those stand-alone episodes. Aside from the Richard Curtis episode and the Neil Gaiman episode, I think they generally tend to be of a poorer quality.

The problem is, the River Song stuff alone (not to mention the Silence, the companions storylines and the Doctor's death) necessitate that all of Moffat's episodes are big on plot. We can't really have Moffat stand-alone episodes anymore, which is a bit unfortunate because it means we're never going to get another "Blink." I still think the Moffat episodes stand out way beyond the others, but it does sort of leave everyone else to slot round those big episodes. There's this feeling now I think, that we're always treading water until the next Moff episode.

(My main thing with Torchwood right now is that I think it should have been five episodes. There are some great ideas in there, but not enough for Torchwood themselves to actually do, which leaves them looking a bit silly as they go around doing fairly unnecessary things that don't really have much impact on anything. Also, that omniscient computer system they have really needs to go.)

Crud. I had spent a fair amount of time composing a reply then the internet ate it. :(

I hadn't thought of the point about not getting another "Blink," but it's an (unfortunate) good one. (and don't even get me started on the weeping angels episode last season. It made me so mad.) :( Hopefully some other really good writer will come along? IDK. I really like the larger plot arc this season, those first two episodes were amazing, but, yeah, there's been some pretty serious water-treading. The worst part about this episode, though, is that the narrative thread of last week was still so open-ended and demanding-of-resolution, it didn't make much sense that they'd just go gallivanting off (essentially) purposelessly. And given that the doctor didn't initially know that the kid was a Tesla, we don't have that as a justification like with the Flesh episodes.

Richard Curtis episode? You mean from last year?

See, I think there could've been a lot more for them to do; next week is the last episode, yet there's way more than 1 ep of material left to cover, even by a normal show's pace. I pretty much agree with you about looking a bit silly as they go around doing fairly unnecessary things that don't really have much impact on anything, just think that the issue is that they should've had more to do, rather than less time to do the same amount of stuff. Also, we should really have found out the real purpose of the Miracle several episodes ago. Like, it's supposed to be all sinister, but as of yet we really pretty much have nothing to go on other than that they're secretive and making a lot of money off it; I presume that the institutional murder and the economic depression are collateral damage rather than intended consequences. (Unless burning someone alive who can't die creates a disembodied consciousness that can be utilized as a resource, this is really my only idea) Also I think Ester plays off Jack much better than off Rex and I'm annoyed that they seem to have slated Jack in 'gay' rather than bi/queer, but w/e.

I've heard that this week's episode was swapped in the running order with "Curse of the Black Spot" (another meh episode) and that's why there's no reference to previous events in it, with the exception of the ending. Still, a line or two somewhere about previous events would have been nice.

The weird thing is, if you look on other communities, there are a lot of people who loved this episode because it WASN'T a continuation from last week and it wasn't a timey-wimey River thing. So the show has to play to two audiences at the moment, to some extent. Personally, I would be happy to see them junk the stand-alone episodes and just give in to the overall arc, but there'd be uproar in some quarters because there wouldn't be any convenient jumping on point for new viewers.

We're one week behind with Torchwood in the UK, so I don't know what happens in episode 9, but so far I'm struck by how little Torchwood are actually achieving themselves and how much information is falling into their laps. It makes them seem rather ineffectual. I've actually reached the point now where I'm not really bothered about the team itself, I just want to see how all the politics of it works out and What Jilly Does Next. Both of which will probably be dispensed with now in order to wrap it all up. Meh.

Oh, I totally agree, including with the Torchwood stuff.

The premise for this episode wasn't bad, but the ending was not only sappy but very unsatisfying. And why was I left with more of a worry about how the parents were going to be able to pay their rent than about the kid?

I think they relied too much on how the characters were 'scared' of the dolls than on making them really scary. I mean, how come the man who punched out Hitler and a Nazi who was really a robot be so afraid of a few dolls?

The only things that saved the episode for me were the excellent acting and a few great lines.

And I don't know how I've been so dense, but the name of the lake where the Doctor dies suddenly clicked for me when they showed the screen with the place and date. By the way, he seems to have known for a while that he was going to die, but now he's aware of when. The only problem with that is that date has already passed.

Mum

One thing I found myself wondering about the ending was "so he's never going to tell his wife that she hasn't really got a son?" Bit weird. Also three-hundred and fifty pounds a month for a two-bed flat in London is weirdly cheap, so if they can't afford that they probably have bigger problems than an alien kid.

Saturday Squee Post: Night Terrors

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