"The Giggle" - first thoughts [review]
Dec. 9th, 2023 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverQuite a lot of thoughts, but really only firsts. I haven't had all that much time to think about it, and we are planning a rewatch, probably tomorrow.
Very spoilerific.
I really don't know what to think overall. On the one hand, the adventure part was great. On the other hand, the ending was terrible. So, let's start with the great.
This was a suitably creepy, mind-bendy episode. I could have done with a bit fewer scenes of walking through doors into identical corridors, but that was driven by speed of exposition, as the Doctor explained to Donna what was going on. (By the way, who didn't foresee that they'd get separated by the Doctor going through a door too fast?) I'm disappointed that the Doctor spent most of that part being stymied by what was going on and the things the Toymaker was saying. I'd really expected that once he'd identified the antagonist, he would have switched to trying to figure out what the rules of the game were. I'd also hoped that there would be successive mindy-bendy puzzles, so that as the Doctor or Donna figured their way out of one, they'd find themselves deeper in another.
Neil Patrick Harris was excellent as the Toymaker. Note that I haven't seen/read the original episode so I don't know if this was consistent, but he really did make the episode. (Apparently, "The Celestial Toymaker" is the next story to be animated and I'm thrilled - this is one of the two lost episodes that I have always wanted to see. The other is "The Highlanders".) It was great seeing Mel, but she really didn't have any impact on the story, did she? I did like that we found out what happened to her and how she got back to Earth (which I had wondered when she appeared in "The Power of the Doctor" - I figured it was in prose or audio, but now it's TV-canon).
One thing we were wondering about was why they made UNIT's new headquarters (since the previous one had been destroyed) look so much like Avengers Tower (outside) and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier bridge (inside). Then the advisory alien sat behind a console like the advisory Asgard on the Daedalus in Stargate SG-1. (It didn't have to; it could have been walking around, or been an Ood, or something.) Then there was the shot of the Toymaker among the rose petals like in American Beauty, and we realized it must be the influence of the original televised puppet, nudging people to make broadcast images come to life. Notably, the things we noticed are all American, and we want to rewatch to see if there are more, though we're not likely to recognize British pop culture references.
Also, Donna figured out the waveform pattern! Like I noted in my review of "Wild Blue Yonder", she's as observant as ever. (I will say, since this is my journal and I can toot my own horn [so to speak] that as soon as she started drawing, I knew that it was music - she'd only drawn three lines but I knew it was a musical staff. The reaction of "I've heard that somewhere" didn't make sense, though. What she drew was a major chord, which is ubiquitous. No one would hear a major chord and immediately identify it with one specific major chord. It should have been an unusual, unique sequence.)
Okay, the ending.
When the Doctor was shot and started regenerating, I cheered! I've always wanted to see this: the Doctor gets killed in the middle of the story and the new Doctor has to pick up the pieces and win the day. I was so excited to see Fifteen go up against the Toymaker... And then we got two Doctors. Disappoint. Not even counting the slapstick method ("Both of you, pull. Outwards."), this was... no. At least it wasn't through an easily reproducible method of spawning multiple Doctors (they implied that it happened due to influence by the Toymaker).
But okay, now we have two Doctors and they challenge the Toymaker to a game of catch, which was the most boring defeat ever. No tricky moves or even sleight-of-hand, like the thing you do with dogs, pretending to throw in one direction but actually throw in a different direction. I'd expected one Doctor to wave at the other to throw to him while crossing past the Toymaker then dive out of the way at the last second, so that the ball went right at the Toymaker without him seeing it, causing him to miss. But no, the Toymaker just happened to miss. The Doctor won by default. Not satisfying.
And now we have two Doctors, and Fourteen is convinced to retire but also given his own TARDIS (in yet another slapstick way). What? Fourteen's not going to stay on Earth forever, and then there will be two Doctors running around the universe. Honestly, the real universe is a vast place and two Doctors or ten or even a thousand Doctors couldn't begin to cover it, but DW (or at least the more recent showrunners) have endeavored to depict the universe as actually rather small, small enough that a single man protects the entire thing; having two really overbalances things. I really get the feeling that the BBC told RTD, "Hey, you got back the Doctor that really got the show running again? Make sure that he sticks around so that we can bring him back later or maybe make a spinoff around him." And bonus, he's got a popular companion and a new companion ready to go with him, too.
(As the scenes were happening, I was really hoping that Fourteen would decide to arch himself to live out a normal life with the Temple-Noble family. I would have been fine with that.)
But honestly, what I had really been hoping for was Fourteen to regenerate willingly, with an optimistic, forward-looking final line, as a contrast to Ten's reluctance, bringing everything full circle and Fourteen's story to a satisfying close. Oh well. At least this was still somewhat in-character, for Ten at least - he was always the one most fascinated with humans and who dreamed of a normal life.
And so there. Mixed feelings. I think it's mostly positive and I'll enjoy this episode in the future, but it's definitely a letdown after "Wild Blue Yonder". I'm pretty happy with the 60th overall, and I did really like Fourteen, as a very different Doctor from Ten, and I'm excited for Fifteen's first solo adventure later this month.
Very spoilerific.
I really don't know what to think overall. On the one hand, the adventure part was great. On the other hand, the ending was terrible. So, let's start with the great.
This was a suitably creepy, mind-bendy episode. I could have done with a bit fewer scenes of walking through doors into identical corridors, but that was driven by speed of exposition, as the Doctor explained to Donna what was going on. (By the way, who didn't foresee that they'd get separated by the Doctor going through a door too fast?) I'm disappointed that the Doctor spent most of that part being stymied by what was going on and the things the Toymaker was saying. I'd really expected that once he'd identified the antagonist, he would have switched to trying to figure out what the rules of the game were. I'd also hoped that there would be successive mindy-bendy puzzles, so that as the Doctor or Donna figured their way out of one, they'd find themselves deeper in another.
Neil Patrick Harris was excellent as the Toymaker. Note that I haven't seen/read the original episode so I don't know if this was consistent, but he really did make the episode. (Apparently, "The Celestial Toymaker" is the next story to be animated and I'm thrilled - this is one of the two lost episodes that I have always wanted to see. The other is "The Highlanders".) It was great seeing Mel, but she really didn't have any impact on the story, did she? I did like that we found out what happened to her and how she got back to Earth (which I had wondered when she appeared in "The Power of the Doctor" - I figured it was in prose or audio, but now it's TV-canon).
One thing we were wondering about was why they made UNIT's new headquarters (since the previous one had been destroyed) look so much like Avengers Tower (outside) and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier bridge (inside). Then the advisory alien sat behind a console like the advisory Asgard on the Daedalus in Stargate SG-1. (It didn't have to; it could have been walking around, or been an Ood, or something.) Then there was the shot of the Toymaker among the rose petals like in American Beauty, and we realized it must be the influence of the original televised puppet, nudging people to make broadcast images come to life. Notably, the things we noticed are all American, and we want to rewatch to see if there are more, though we're not likely to recognize British pop culture references.
Also, Donna figured out the waveform pattern! Like I noted in my review of "Wild Blue Yonder", she's as observant as ever. (I will say, since this is my journal and I can toot my own horn [so to speak] that as soon as she started drawing, I knew that it was music - she'd only drawn three lines but I knew it was a musical staff. The reaction of "I've heard that somewhere" didn't make sense, though. What she drew was a major chord, which is ubiquitous. No one would hear a major chord and immediately identify it with one specific major chord. It should have been an unusual, unique sequence.)
Okay, the ending.
When the Doctor was shot and started regenerating, I cheered! I've always wanted to see this: the Doctor gets killed in the middle of the story and the new Doctor has to pick up the pieces and win the day. I was so excited to see Fifteen go up against the Toymaker... And then we got two Doctors. Disappoint. Not even counting the slapstick method ("Both of you, pull. Outwards."), this was... no. At least it wasn't through an easily reproducible method of spawning multiple Doctors (they implied that it happened due to influence by the Toymaker).
But okay, now we have two Doctors and they challenge the Toymaker to a game of catch, which was the most boring defeat ever. No tricky moves or even sleight-of-hand, like the thing you do with dogs, pretending to throw in one direction but actually throw in a different direction. I'd expected one Doctor to wave at the other to throw to him while crossing past the Toymaker then dive out of the way at the last second, so that the ball went right at the Toymaker without him seeing it, causing him to miss. But no, the Toymaker just happened to miss. The Doctor won by default. Not satisfying.
And now we have two Doctors, and Fourteen is convinced to retire but also given his own TARDIS (in yet another slapstick way). What? Fourteen's not going to stay on Earth forever, and then there will be two Doctors running around the universe. Honestly, the real universe is a vast place and two Doctors or ten or even a thousand Doctors couldn't begin to cover it, but DW (or at least the more recent showrunners) have endeavored to depict the universe as actually rather small, small enough that a single man protects the entire thing; having two really overbalances things. I really get the feeling that the BBC told RTD, "Hey, you got back the Doctor that really got the show running again? Make sure that he sticks around so that we can bring him back later or maybe make a spinoff around him." And bonus, he's got a popular companion and a new companion ready to go with him, too.
(As the scenes were happening, I was really hoping that Fourteen would decide to arch himself to live out a normal life with the Temple-Noble family. I would have been fine with that.)
But honestly, what I had really been hoping for was Fourteen to regenerate willingly, with an optimistic, forward-looking final line, as a contrast to Ten's reluctance, bringing everything full circle and Fourteen's story to a satisfying close. Oh well. At least this was still somewhat in-character, for Ten at least - he was always the one most fascinated with humans and who dreamed of a normal life.
And so there. Mixed feelings. I think it's mostly positive and I'll enjoy this episode in the future, but it's definitely a letdown after "Wild Blue Yonder". I'm pretty happy with the 60th overall, and I did really like Fourteen, as a very different Doctor from Ten, and I'm excited for Fifteen's first solo adventure later this month.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-10 11:15 am (UTC)That is a really interesting idea! And I'm definitely in favour of anything that makes sense of the ridiculously Stark Tower-shaped UNIT headquarters. (Though, hey, I just realised it didn't actually get blown up this time, perhaps because it's destined to be used for the new spinoff?)
The Doctor won by default. Not satisfying.
Totally agree about the anticlimax of the game of catch. TBH I'd actually forgotten that was how they 'defeated' the Toymaker! Definitely should have been some kind of clever action from the Doctors, not pure chance.
I was really hoping that Fourteen would decide to arch himself to live out a normal life with the Temple-Noble family.
That would have been a really neat idea. :-)
what I had really been hoping for was Fourteen to regenerate willingly, with an optimistic, forward-looking final line, as a contrast to Ten's reluctance
At least we didn't get "I don't want to go". He has matured that much. And I felt he was actually okay about regenerating this time - which was why it felt a bit of a let-down that it wasn't actually the end for him.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-10 03:56 pm (UTC)> UNIT headquarters... to be used for the new spinoff?
I had totally forgotten about the spinoff. It makes sense that they built that huge set for that. Though I have to say, considering that they blew up the new UNIT building last year in "The Power of the Doctor", they build towers really fast. :D
> At least we didn't get "I don't want to go". He has matured that much.
That line was perfect for Ten but Fourteen has definitely grown beyond that. RTD and DT did such a good job creating a completely new character out of the old one, with understandable character growth and yet still the Doctor and still grounded in Ten. While I love Ten (there's darkness and rage done right), I didn't want that character and storyline to return. :dance:
no subject
Date: 2023-12-10 04:39 pm (UTC)Totally with you regarding Fourteen. I had really just had my fill of Ten, to the point where I just couldn't write him (or write opposite him in role-play) any more. But I love Fourteen. He's grown up in all the right ways, whilst still retaining that sense of childlike fun and energy that's always been a big part of the Doctor. So much love!
And yes, they really do get those towers built quickly! Especially considering they had their funding withdrawn completely (or whatever it was) only a couple of years ago!!!
no subject
Date: 2023-12-10 08:29 pm (UTC)Overall I enjoyed it, and didn’t know that was Neil Patrick Harris. I did guess that Donn drew a waveform though, which is awesome.
But that was a game changer of an ending. So is this gonna be like how Meta apparently has a TARDIS?
no subject
Date: 2023-12-11 09:31 pm (UTC)No idea where the show is going to take Fourteen, and it really isn't useful to speculate, because they could do anything. But it really isn't much like Meta. The episode shows that Fourteen actually has a functioning TARDIS, whereas Meta's TARDIS comes from a TARDIS coral given to him in a scene that was cut from Bad Wolf Bay. Not on-screen, not canon, though it's a common headcanon.
Moreover... and yes, I've researched this because I was looking into how long it takes to grow/build David's TARDIS...
A TARDIS takes a thousand years to grow and build. In the deleted scene, the DoctorDonna tells Meta to do a number of things that will cut that time down to a fraction of that, but the numbers she gives cuts it down to 20-30 years - in other words, it can't be ready yet. (I have no idea if Meta has his TARDIS now in Big Finish, but TV canon-wise, there hasn't been enough time.) I had David cut down that time more by building only the bare minimum necessary to dematerialize (no chameleon circuit, no safety features, etc.) and spending the next few years in the time vortex bringing the TARDIS up to the very minimum spec, and then also adding some technobabble (including the fact that he's a genius temporal engineer, which neither the Doctor nor Meta is).
(In my mind, all the skimping and improvising David did produced a somewhat stunted but also precocious TARDIS, evidenced by choosing the pronoun "he" and some of the things he's done. In a WIP where David meets the Time Lords (which was based on the comic "Supremacy of the Cybermen" but now has to be changed due to series 12), the Time Lords are appalled by his TARDIS and want to "put it out of its misery".)
And besides that, even if Meta has a TARDIS, he can't actually use it to travel time and space. In "Rise of the Cybermen", the Doctor is very clear that Pete's World doesn't have a time vortex, so any TARDIS would not be able to dematerialize and travel like that. It could fly, but flying to another star would take years/decades/millennia. (If Big Finish does have Meta with a TARDIS, they're likely ignoring this. Every fan author has. :P )