wealhtheow: River Song fluffs her hair smugly (river-fluffs-hair-smugly)
[personal profile] wealhtheow
I loved this episode!  Matt Smith sold his scenes incredibly well, and I loved his whirlwind mission to find information on the Silence.  Cheesy, swashbuckling type fun.  I especially loved how it seemed like an echo of River Song's own epic quest across Time and Space when the Pandorica was opening. 

River Song and Amy are probably my favorite parts of this episode. Eleven has always been fantastic, but this season I've been increasingly concerned that River and Amy's characters were losing the mystery and intensity (respectively) that made them so fantastic.   But here Amy is easily as firey as ever, from her badass entrance to her vicious treatment of Madame Kovarian.  As brutal as her action was, I was glad to see that Amy really did feel rage at Melody's kidnapping and treatment.  I've been handwaving Melody's parents' seeming lack of concern about their daughter, but I'm glad I don't have to handwave quite so hard anymore.  I know they didn't expect a child, and hardly got to hold her as a baby, and have a whole lifetime of memories of her their bff.  But it still felt wrong that Rory&Amy weren't more heartbroken, and didn't put much (any?) effort into finding or rescuing her, secure in the belief that she ended up all right.  (Their decision to let history take its course in regards to River seems particularly odd given that they chose not to let history take its course in regards to Amy vs Older!Amy in "The Girl Who Waited."  In both instances, someone goes through untold agonies and survives to be leaner and meaner than before, but in Amy's case, they choose to avert that course, and in River's, they...don't.  And I still don't get why.)

Just as her mother shows off just how merciless and commanding she can be, River gets a chance to showcase the depth and power of her love.  Her interplay with the Doctor was fantastic, especially his hurt at her dogged refusal to give up on him.  I will say, the one downside to this episode was that it made me want to re-watch all of River Song's episodes, and some of them are just too scary!  Maybe some bright sunshine-y afternoon I'll revisit them, to see how it all reads once we have all the pieces of the puzzle put together.

And how much do I love that River makes it a habit to have mother-daughter chats with Amy?  So, so much.

I hate that so much of River's timeline is now explained and used up, and I really hope we get more episodes with her--even if she just pops in, snatches the hat off the Doctor's head, and then zaps out.  Or just the occasional shot or two of her in the background, laser-dueling while the Doctor and her parents are in the midst of a conversation about how boring the planet they're on is, and how nothing ever happens these days.  I want more of her!

And I want more Doctor Who.  Christmas has never felt so far away!

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July 2014

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