Doctor Who: a further thought on characters

[butterfly]

So, my roommate is currently watching the episode because she was at work last night. And I just rewatched that first conversation with River and the Doctor and... it doesn't track. It literally makes no sense with what she tells us is supposed to be true later on. Her reaction to the Doctor warning her about danger is to be amused. She doesn't seem to take him seriously at all and it certainly doesn't seem to be causing her pain that he doesn't recognize her (and he obviously doesn't recognize her -- she introduces herself to him). All of that comes later.

However, she does tell us in her opening dialogue with Lux that, "I lied. I always lie." This does make me suspect that she's not on the level about knowing the Doctor in the future. I'm still not sure that I think that she and the other crew members are real -- they could be constructs of the little girl/computer core's mind. She also just doesn't act like she knows him -- his personality, his quirks, what makes him a person.

Anyway, I had to leave the room at that point, because the rest of the crew was being assholish to Evangelista and I know this time around that there's no point to it -- she just gets insulted and then dies horribly. Bleh.

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Though even if River turns out to be a liar, there's still a fair amount of bad storytelling -- Evangelista being an excellent example of why telling and not showing doesn't work. They show her doing what Lux asks in a competent manner (asking the Doctor and Donna to sign the personal experience things), then show the crew be jackasses to her but tell us that it's because she's stupid. Then they have everyone ignore her when she tries to warn them about something strange having happened (which really affirmed my feeling that they were all jerks) and then finally they show her doing something stupid... but then it's the generic 'horror movie girl' stupid thing. Oh, and everyone gets to find out that (shocker) the Stupid Girl had feelings too but it was pretty damn obvious even before she died that they were hurting her. And, with that, Moffat made it so that I didn't give a damn about any of the rest of the expedition members because they were, to a person, assholes.

[teskafuture.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree with that whole statement. And that wasn't it. There were all kinds of things that seemed just... off. The Doctor breaking out that he was 'old and thick' didn't seem right. Donna asking out of no where if they were going to shop. Where did that come from? There's a difference between witty lines and ones that are just out of place.

And I have no attachment whatsoever to the expedition group. If they all get caught in the shadows... oh well. Which is completely different from TIP/TSP where I actually bonded a bit that crew.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

There were all kinds of things that seemed just... off. The Doctor breaking out that he was 'old and thick' didn't seem right. Donna asking out of no where if they were going to shop. Where did that come from? There's a difference between witty lines and ones that are just out of place.

Hearing that Moffat pulled out an old script and dusted it off explains so much to me. This didn't feel relevant to the characters at all.

And I have no attachment whatsoever to the expedition group. If they all get caught in the shadows... oh well. Which is completely different from TIP/TSP where I actually bonded a bit that crew.

And TIP was a hell of a lot scarier, too. "Don't turn around," actually got to me. It still creeps me out.

[teskafuture.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't heard that he pulled out an old script.... that makes sense.

"Don't turn around" was definitely more scary!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't heard that he pulled out an old script.... that makes sense.

Apparently this is said in the Confidential. However, as I would actually have to watch the Confidential to see this for myself, it's second-hand information at this point.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

I didn't gather from the Confidential that this was an old script -- just that the idea of the Library itself was an old one.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Someone else is said that he wrote a version of this in something called 'Decalog'? Beats me. That could be a warped rumour based on the fact that Blink was originally a short story, though.