Amy Ponds of the 99% (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
allchildren) wrote2010-05-09 12:36 pm
allchildren) wrote2010-05-09 12:36 pm
Entry tags:
something just short of a love letter
Eleven, you are the Doctor of me. Matt Smith's face, you are the boss of me.
:D:
I feel unbearably repetitive when I go on about how unexpected this all is. It is -- loving Who again, loving Eleven over Nine, loving Matt Smith's face over all other faces -- but what else is new. Shit happens and we've gone from "ha ha footface" to "I want to go to there" in a matter of days. I find it difficult to discuss in words beyond "faaaaaaaaaaaace," but I woke up wanting to talk calmly about him and the episode, so here we are. SENTENCES and PARAGRAPHS, expletive deleteds. You're not even going to see any other capslock except at the end where I assure you I had no choice! What is this!
I'm not sure when he became My Doctor. Sometime before this episode, though; I confessed to Carrie my new allegiance the other day during my approximate seventh rewatch of "The Eleventh Hour." I think I was sold on him, that first time on Easter, during fish custard, and I think that scene also holds the first key of my love:
ELEVEN: I haven't even got an aunt.
AMELIA: You're lucky.
ELEVEN: I know.
And the thing is he seems to mean it. He is not mourning or angry anymore (although he is mercurial and can be provoked: see him actually attacking the Dalek, seeming so immature); he is open and not cynical. Additionally, he has this quality, which I think is very much something inherent in Matt Smith's face and brought out by his performance, of being simultaneously a gleeful runaway child and a professorial bewildered old coot. I didn't see that range in either of the previous two Doctors, and in Eleven it's not a dichotomy of two distinct modes; they are an elastic continuum and they really do manifest at the same time.
Also! Can we talk about Matt's Smith's face's voice, and body language, and line readings?
"Can someone give her a jumper? Lucy, lovely girl. Diabetic." What even is that? How was that cold open so fantastic?
"Vampire-ahhhhh."
"Capture Amy Pond?" (Nearly every pronunciation by either Matt or Karen of "Pond" has been epic, but he took it to a new level right there.)
Uhhh, every single thing said in his confrontation with Rosanna, so threatening and cool and sexy? Also sitting in her throne, homg? "Think of the children."
"Ewughhh. I mean I've been around a bit but really, that's ... eughhh."
"Shouldn't I be dead? Mm?"
Why is he so amazing. :(
What is weird is that this episode is a collection of several thousand brilliant moments that in sum don't seem to quite live up to the math. The interpersonal dynamics are all fantastic -- Rory and the Doctor! But this isn't like Mickey and the Doctor at all, it's much fonder and perhaps more personal on Rory's part. Challenging TARDIS expectations! Yours is bigger! You make people want to impress you (cue Matt Smith's face looking sad!!)! And it's not like Mickey and Rose, either, because uhhh, I don't really ship Amy and Rory at all (I want them to hang out and have goofy adventures! But not really with the kissing). Whoops! I don't know if it's a chemistry issue between Karen & Arthur or just the way the kiss was filmed, but I was really surprised to learn from Confidential that Karen was trying to make that the kiss of Rory's life. I did not get that at all from what was onscreen. On the other hand, their "gondola driver" application and the screwball fiance-brother-nine talk changed my life, so, it's cool. And Rory-Francesco fight! Absurd and glorious, spurred on by a your mum joke, and saved by Amy Pond!
But it fell a bit flat. What I think went wrong (for me):
1) the Doctor's noble assertion that he'd tear the house of Cavalieri apart stone by stone on behalf of Isabella and her name, is quite fucking hollow given that her father was not actually named until after he'd shut himself up with the vampire girls to initiate his Miles Dyson routine. Literally every character (aside from gatekeeper guy) not of Team Tardis died in this episode, but Guido -- his name is Guido -- did more than the rest, including wearing a Rory's Stag shirt while driving a gondola, and allow himself to be silenced during the Doctor's dazzling quiet thinking session -- for the least recognition.
2) Rosanna's death. First, we have the classic(ally annoying) Doctor waffling of sympathy-condemnation-mourning. Why do you shout "Nooooo!" when you've left her with no other options? Furthermore, she doesn't take the perception filter off before jumping. Given Prince Teeth's earlier comment are we given to understand that she's committing suicide-by-matricide? That's gross/horrible. Also, what will become of all her sons in the water? Ehhh?
3) Quick fix complete with cheesy bystander applause. I don't want to take away the Doctor climbing up a building since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evemac said that's what solidified him as the Doctor for her, but ... bleh, Doctor climbing up a building. In other news: stopping the storm cancels out the tidal wave caused by the earthquake? Well ... that's good to know! ???
And where it all came back together (for me):
Her boys.
Amy Pond, I love you for many many reasons. Too many to mention! You are, after all, canonically magnificent. But at this juncture, and contrary to my vision for this post as a haven of real grammar and full sentences, I must say it as it must in truth be said: I love you, Amy, BECAUSE HAREM.
And next week looks brilliant. That's why it's called reality, stupid. I will take eight, please and thanks.
:D:
I feel unbearably repetitive when I go on about how unexpected this all is. It is -- loving Who again, loving Eleven over Nine, loving Matt Smith's face over all other faces -- but what else is new. Shit happens and we've gone from "ha ha footface" to "I want to go to there" in a matter of days. I find it difficult to discuss in words beyond "faaaaaaaaaaaace," but I woke up wanting to talk calmly about him and the episode, so here we are. SENTENCES and PARAGRAPHS, expletive deleteds. You're not even going to see any other capslock except at the end where I assure you I had no choice! What is this!
I'm not sure when he became My Doctor. Sometime before this episode, though; I confessed to Carrie my new allegiance the other day during my approximate seventh rewatch of "The Eleventh Hour." I think I was sold on him, that first time on Easter, during fish custard, and I think that scene also holds the first key of my love:
ELEVEN: I haven't even got an aunt.
AMELIA: You're lucky.
ELEVEN: I know.
And the thing is he seems to mean it. He is not mourning or angry anymore (although he is mercurial and can be provoked: see him actually attacking the Dalek, seeming so immature); he is open and not cynical. Additionally, he has this quality, which I think is very much something inherent in Matt Smith's face and brought out by his performance, of being simultaneously a gleeful runaway child and a professorial bewildered old coot. I didn't see that range in either of the previous two Doctors, and in Eleven it's not a dichotomy of two distinct modes; they are an elastic continuum and they really do manifest at the same time.
Also! Can we talk about Matt's Smith's face's voice, and body language, and line readings?
"Can someone give her a jumper? Lucy, lovely girl. Diabetic." What even is that? How was that cold open so fantastic?
"Vampire-ahhhhh."
"Capture Amy Pond?" (Nearly every pronunciation by either Matt or Karen of "Pond" has been epic, but he took it to a new level right there.)
Uhhh, every single thing said in his confrontation with Rosanna, so threatening and cool and sexy? Also sitting in her throne, homg? "Think of the children."
"Ewughhh. I mean I've been around a bit but really, that's ... eughhh."
"Shouldn't I be dead? Mm?"
Why is he so amazing. :(
What is weird is that this episode is a collection of several thousand brilliant moments that in sum don't seem to quite live up to the math. The interpersonal dynamics are all fantastic -- Rory and the Doctor! But this isn't like Mickey and the Doctor at all, it's much fonder and perhaps more personal on Rory's part. Challenging TARDIS expectations! Yours is bigger! You make people want to impress you (cue Matt Smith's face looking sad!!)! And it's not like Mickey and Rose, either, because uhhh, I don't really ship Amy and Rory at all (I want them to hang out and have goofy adventures! But not really with the kissing). Whoops! I don't know if it's a chemistry issue between Karen & Arthur or just the way the kiss was filmed, but I was really surprised to learn from Confidential that Karen was trying to make that the kiss of Rory's life. I did not get that at all from what was onscreen. On the other hand, their "gondola driver" application and the screwball fiance-brother-nine talk changed my life, so, it's cool. And Rory-Francesco fight! Absurd and glorious, spurred on by a your mum joke, and saved by Amy Pond!
But it fell a bit flat. What I think went wrong (for me):
1) the Doctor's noble assertion that he'd tear the house of Cavalieri apart stone by stone on behalf of Isabella and her name, is quite fucking hollow given that her father was not actually named until after he'd shut himself up with the vampire girls to initiate his Miles Dyson routine. Literally every character (aside from gatekeeper guy) not of Team Tardis died in this episode, but Guido -- his name is Guido -- did more than the rest, including wearing a Rory's Stag shirt while driving a gondola, and allow himself to be silenced during the Doctor's dazzling quiet thinking session -- for the least recognition.
2) Rosanna's death. First, we have the classic(ally annoying) Doctor waffling of sympathy-condemnation-mourning. Why do you shout "Nooooo!" when you've left her with no other options? Furthermore, she doesn't take the perception filter off before jumping. Given Prince Teeth's earlier comment are we given to understand that she's committing suicide-by-matricide? That's gross/horrible. Also, what will become of all her sons in the water? Ehhh?
3) Quick fix complete with cheesy bystander applause. I don't want to take away the Doctor climbing up a building since
evemac said that's what solidified him as the Doctor for her, but ... bleh, Doctor climbing up a building. In other news: stopping the storm cancels out the tidal wave caused by the earthquake? Well ... that's good to know! ???And where it all came back together (for me):
Her boys.
Amy Pond, I love you for many many reasons. Too many to mention! You are, after all, canonically magnificent. But at this juncture, and contrary to my vision for this post as a haven of real grammar and full sentences, I must say it as it must in truth be said: I love you, Amy, BECAUSE HAREM.
And next week looks brilliant. That's why it's called reality, stupid. I will take eight, please and thanks.