The last time I hurt this much over a TV show was when I finished Buffy, season 7. And you guys remember that post, right?
I'm sitting here in front of my computer, trying to begin to process how a fictional story about made up characters can affect me so deeply. It's not a - "Oh I'm depressed and my live is over" hurt, its a beautiful hurt, it makes the world seem a little deeper and I'm looking with new eyes. That's the power of a well-told story.
Spoiler Warning Time.
SPOILER WARNING TIME.
I WARN THEE.
I'll try to be coherant here.
First of all, I appreciated going back to more traditional Weeping Angels (as opposed to the season 5 Angels). They were also properly scary, and I loved that they explained that Angels can inhabit any sculpture, which finally explains the montage from the end of "Blink."
Secondly, all of the humor in this episode was fantastic. I can't even think about laughing right now, but it's one of the best episodes we've had from Moffat in awhile... he writes his best when he's planning to break our hearts.
And River was fantastic. We got to see older River again, right in her absolutely perfect element of the 1930's. That woman so belongs in a screwball comedy/film noir. And she and the Doctor had an awesome Nick and Nora type chemistry going on. I mean, c'mon, the Doctor checking himself in the mirror before going out to see her, being so affectionate in the most adorable way... it was beautiful.
And it's good that we got the good stuff because the hard stuff was hard. Amy and Rory were fantastic in this episode, but especially Amy, and their love and devotion to each other was heartrending.
The moment when they jumped off the roof was possible one of the hardest fictional moments I've ever seen on television.
And then in the graveyard, when Rory turned... and was gone... and Amy had to make her choice - but we knew what it would be, there was never any doubt. The Doctor breaking his heart, begging her not to go, but River - her daughter - knowing this was the right thing to do -
This was a good episode. It was reminiscent in various ways of all of Moffat's best episodes; "Blink," "The Girl in the Fireplace," "Silence in the Library."
Some people will disagree with me, but I think it is just as good as any companion goodbye that RTD ever wrote. And though it hurts so much (and gosh it hurts) knowing that Amy and Rory lived out their lives together, happily, that they didn't suffer as Rose did, or loose everything as Donna did... it's good.
And the Doctor still has Amy. Because he went back to her as a little girl, and told her stories. He wasn't an imaginary friend. Apparently Steven Moffat has been waiting two and a half years to tell us this. It's beautiful.
I loved this episode. It had everything I love about Doctor Who in it. And even though it took me a long time to fall in love with Amy (not because of who she was so much as that in season 5 the writers didn't know where they were going with her), I grieve her passing as much as I ever have anything on Doctor Who. But my grief is for us, and the Doctor, not for her.
3 comments:
Simply fantastic episode. On a purely technical note, I love how he tied pretty much all of the Angel stuff together, even explained a weird tangent of the Season 5 episode (why the Angels were snapping necks instead of zapping in time--it was demonstrated here that when an Angel is too weak, it can't zap back).
And...yes.
I just wanted to say, I think that the Ponds had the most beautiful love story. They refused to live without each other. Over the course of the last three seasons we got to see them grow and mature together, not only as girlfriend and boyfriend, but as a married couple. I think that most love stories make the mistake of making the wedding the end of a romance, when it's really only ever the beginning.
I absolutely agree, Anon! That has been one of my favorite aspects of their parts on the show (and one of the reasons why I want Martha and Mickey to come back so we can see them in action as a married couple!)
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