Doctor Who Season Five, Part 1

I’m definitely late on this, but I really feel the need to do an overview of the Doctor Who season after seeing the whole thing and finding out how the story arc was completed. However, I should say that it’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen the finale, and there were definitely some things that I missed/didn’t understand upon first viewing. So these are just my initial impressions of the season—I think a second viewing would really help, but I don’t have that kind of time right now.

Overall, I thought this was a strong season. There were definitely some low points, but when it was good, it was really good. Also, some of my opinions on specific episodes have changed in hindsight.

The Eleventh Hour: I thought this was an awesome beginning—a great entrance by Matt Smith, although I was admittedly unsure of him until near the end of the season (I apparently have issues with change). Here we meet little Amelia Pond, who is adorable, though definitely not normal. For one thing, she is way too mature for her age, and doesn’t seem to have any guardians.

Her strange life is made even stranger by the arrival of the Doctor, who completely charms her before taking off in the Tardis, promising to be back in five minutes. He doesn’t return for twelve years.

Now, a lot has been written about Amy Pond, some of it by me, and the sexism inherent in the writing of her character. Some have taken issue with the media focus on Karen Gillan’s basic hotness. Though I’m generally against objectification, I can’t help but take note of the fact that she is very, very pretty. That said, I have no problem with Amy’s job as a “kiss-o-gram,” and disagree with those who have said that this somehow means that the Doctor turned her into a giant whore. It’s refreshing to see a woman on television who is secure in her sexuality. I think Amy is screwed up, but in a way where she doesn’t know what she wants or even really who she is (and honestly, neither does the audience).

By abandoning her, the Doctor seems to have left Amy without any sense of direction or way to move on and grow up, and now he has to fix it, which he pretty much does in the finale. Looking ahead to that episode, which I admit I didn’t entirely understand, we find out that somehow the crack in Amy’s wall is responsible for her lack of a family, and the Doctor’s sacrifice fixes it. What we don’t really find out to what extent her life was changed as a result of the finale. Is she still a kiss-o-gram? Is she still in charge of her sexuality? Is she really all that in love with Rory? Maybe we’ll find out next season.

The Beast Below: This episode is one of those low points that I mentioned earlier. First off, there’s just some lazy writing. Queen Elizabeth asks her minions if the Doctor did “the thing?” for no other reason than to add mystery and to keep whatever stupid thing a secret from the audience. Like really, who would say that? Also, the Doctor is a complete dick to Amy for trying to protect him from the knowledge of the space whale.

Then there’s the space whale itself. The end of this episode could be seen as kind of beautiful in a way, but I have trouble believing that an animal who would willingly have lived in servitude to the humans would continue to do so after it had been brutally tortured for centuries. I feel like there’s a weird analogy to African slavery there. Also, the whale is awesome because it spared the children that were fed to it, but did we forget that it still apparently ate the adults? This just fails on so many levels.

However, this does mark the beginning of a giant theme throughout this season of memory. According to the recording, the people must choose to forget the truth, because if they remember, it will be changed, and everyone will die. Memory brings about change.

Victory of the Daleks was actually pretty forgettable, all things considered. For one thing, the Mighty Morphin’ Power Daleks were nothing but a blatant marketing ploy. However, this episode does further the theme of memory and ties directly to the finale. While I didn’t like this subplot the first time it aired, in hindsight I think the idea that just by remembering something, even something that didn’t actually happen, it becomes real, is an interesting one. The scientist becomes human just by remembering his (false) human life.

Time of the Angels introduces us to the concept that “That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel,” which could be an interesting play on the theme of memories coming true. However, I really hate both of these episodes for what they do with the Weeping Angel mythology. Now, instead of sending people back in time, they just snap their necks, which just seems so… vulgar. And they have all these new powers, like stealing the voices of dead people and becoming stone just by an image. Perhaps worst of all, we get to see these angels move, which actually made them a lot less scary for me. The cool thing about the angels in “Blink” is that when audience was watching, the angels didn’t move. The camera and the audience literally shared in the gaze. And then the camera would cut for a second, and when it returned, however they had moved was so creepy. This episode was just disappointing.

Flesh and Stone: These episodes really piss me off. My big issue in these, though, I covered in a previous post. The fear of Amy’s sexuality apparent in the writers is just shitty. However, something I should have covered is the fact that Amy essentially sexually assaults the Doctor. She comes on to him, he says no, and she doesn’t stop; and the whole thing is played for laughs. Honestly, if the roles had been reversed, nobody would have been laughing or cheering Amy on or whatever. So there’s that, which is inexcusable, but there’s also the fact that the Doctor reacts by basically saying, “You’re not in charge of your own body and we need to get you married off ASAP to this guy you’re not incredibly attracted to.” It’s just problematic on so many levels.

One more thing: the Doctor says that Amy can remember the soldiers eaten by the Crack because she is a time-traveller, but unlike with the Doctor in the finale, her ability to remember them does not make them exist. I don’t really know what to do with that, but there it is.

Vampires of Venice was both cool and infuriating. I really like the idea of it, and the baroness lady was a great villain, although the raping fish aliens squicked me out. Yet again, though, the writers horribly mishandled Amy. This time, her fiancé Rory is along for the ride, and it’s clear that she’s more attracted to the Doctor than to him. The Doctor maintains, though, that once Amy experiences the thrill of danger with Rory, she’ll go mad for him again. And it works, suggesting again that Amy is an irrational lady with an irrational lady-brain that will go after anything once her adrenaline starts pumping. She doesn’t know what she wants, and if she thinks she does, she is obviously wrong.

Okay, that's part 1, part 2 will probably be posted tomorrow....