Dr Who - 309 - Family of Blood
Jun. 2nd, 2007 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retro_eidasI will say that on the cry scale Family of Blood > Doomsday, probably .... but I didn't cry with this anymore than I did DD. Which likely means I am totally cold-blooded, but... I'm just not a crier, sue me. I liked this ep, but not as much as Human Nature.
Part of the reason why I didn't feel the need to cry at all is because you have Smith one second not willing to see the youngins he'd been training use those guns shooting scarecrows (which is fine and right to finally feel bad about seeing boys forced into that sort of situation), then next second Doesn't. Open. The. Frakking. Watch. when god damn hellfire and brimstone is literally raining down on the village and opening the watch will make it stop faster. I realize the man was facing suicide in order to make the bombing stop, but... countless people are dying. And he's standing their being emo and crying which is a very human reaction, but... I also completely realize this could entirely be just me and it's unfair... but the the emo and crying over the watch? Instead of tugging at my heartstrings, it inadvertantly touched that killer movie pet peeve of mine. The characters in movies who would rather stand there and cry/scream and be useless then do something about stopping whatever terror breathing down not only their own neck but countless innocent people and they have the power in their hands to make it stop... but they don't. Oh Jesus. Again, I realize this was likely a very unfair reaction to have (for several reasons), namely the ep overall was good and most of the time hit the right notes in me, but I'd also kept thinking about Last Temptation of Christ and unfairly comparing at that moment (and here, the Father?! Why Have You Forsaken Me?! emo failed on me, a lot. I wanted to kick Jesus in the head... which I don't think is what they were going for). This all harkens back to when I couldn't not compare Doomsday and Pullman's The Amber Spyglass and that emo also failing on me. I just hope in the rewatch this kneejerk reaction of mine doesn't get worse (which it has for Doomsday which I've become entirely indifferent towards). I really hope it doesn't, because there are many things I liked about the ep and it pains me the moments of the Big Drama are seemingly the ones that least worked for me.
David Tennant did give one helluva a performance though (even if the ep did feel a tinge of Let's give DT the gravitas people were overtly complaining went missing when Eccleston left. Felt a bit like... attractive actresses who get ugly to win Oscars. Felt a bit put-on... but frak, I seem to be in a complaining mood? Ugh! Must stop). That first bit of emo crying, when John, Martha and Joan are ducked out in the forest staring at the hostage TARDIS, did work for me. Excellent acting all around, in fact.
Martha is bonafide empress of the universe, but not like that really needs to be said. Saving herself and everyone else (and didn't I call that last week?? Tim opens the watch, distracting them just enough so Martha takes control!) in the near hostage crisis facing down the whole Family and their army by herself? *needs icon of Take Charge Martha* Being slightly emo, but yet still getting things done, telling John Smith to escort his "ladyfriend" outside (as he was panicking and being totally rubbish). Holy frakking Ellen Ripley, Batman. "Bones in the hand." Take THAT casual racism!! Amazing Joan could still manage being so utterly dismissive/casually racist at her, despite Martha basically saving them all from that little dance hall mess, practically single-handed. Some habits are hard to break I suppose 1913 England! May the Doctor NEVER go there again!. Yet for three months of racism, dismissiveness, forced into subservient hell and from John Smith himself..... a hug? And Martha apparently just being ok with that?? Yeah, thanks a lotscrew you too Rusty. That doesn't cut it, not by a longshot. Sure he has immense amounts of trust in Martha essentially placing his life squarely in her hands as he did. If the Doctor doesn't learn to really start showing his appreciation of her more soon, I... worry for her. The (supposed) unrequited thing and Martha feeling underappreciated does feel like it's Going Somewhere, I'm sure it is in fact (I heard as much is said in the Confidential). But... it almost seems like set-up for the Doctor to not know what he has until it's (almost) gone. Which is already habit canonically. He didn't manage to attempt telling Rose how he felt about her until it was too late. He may not realize how much Martha has done for him / means to him until she's paid for it in some horrible way and opening those stubbornly closed, oblivious, superior Lord of Time eyes of his. That seems Rusty's way, his answer to "epic" (the epic tragedy). Martha dying / maimed in some horrible way (possibly genetically if the theme holds up) in his arms and only then is when blind jackass finally "sees what's right in front of [him]". Tells her of her awesome, truly appreciates her, when she's so fargone or too weak to hear him. Ugh.
I did love that veteran's memorial at the end as my scale of awesome in this ep fell Martha > Tim > Joan > The Doctor (as he didn't appear much and Smith, despite self-sacrifice, doesn't register to me). I did love seeing Tim at the end (although in a wheelchair, that couldn't have been him then seeing Present-Day!Martha bumping into him in that vision in the last ep... but I now suspect the vision was only to show-off Tim's enhanced clairvoyance via the watch, not anything foreshadowy).even if Band of Brothers pulled the tv war heartstrings better where the memorializing is concerned, but they only had 42 min. and BoB is keerazy long. They did try. Not to mention, I felt - and hopefully rightly - Martha = Tim. The one who can thanklessly pull, even that stupid guy who abused and bullied you in school, from the mire and death... just by the sheer power of their awesome. I'd wished the Doctor invited Tim onto the TARDIS and not Joan (even if I understand why he did it), despite Tim's fate already foreseen. Maybe he absorbed enough Time Lord mojo to regenerate? *wishful thinks* Sadly it seems the TARDIS is only room enough for those legal-enough the Doctor can have innuendo with.
I would complain about too many epilogues (because, yeah... too many epilogues) if I didn't think I'd already just used up my complaint quota for the season, namely what I felt was needless lengthiness of the Joan / Doctor goodbye (maybe had the Last Temptation of Christ emo worked on me it wouldn't have felt so long?)... but the scene is saved by that last thing of pwnage Joan says to the Doctor. Because seriously, that did need to be said. Especially after this whole Old Testament bent of the Doctor's (that was some frighteningly dark shit). The Doctor can be one scary son of a bitch and sometimes thoughtlessly so (despite all his good intentions). Picking the village on a whim, ultimately saving the day but leaving so much devastation in his wake. He gets off too much - often in fluff and light and giggles - without it being called on. Queen Victoria had similar pwnage last season but it felt like it got handwaved due to Ten/Rose taking the piss (before and after, despite rightly being exiled, however futile that was with their convenient space & time machine. Laughing like idiots when people are getting torn to pieces by a monster). Like she was being some rigid, superior beeyotch overreacting. Here it comes from the beloved Joan... and that had to cut and you could see in the Doctor's face how much it cut. I managed to feel bad for Joan too because she's a widow all over again, because saying what she did, it was like this very harsh, very real acknowledgement that - despite what the Doctor says about John Smith still being inside him (somewhere... deep down) - John Smith was dead to her. She even seems to hate the Doctor (perhaps likening the Doctor to the man that shot her first husband? As the Doctor's existence means John Smith's death). I loved that and it was a bigger emotional pay-off for me than all the watch emo. Although too bad it seemed to have come a bit at the expense of the Doctor's appreciation of Martha which should have been much more than there was, but as I spec'd above that probably won't come 'til the finale anyway... and probably in some extreme fashion. Although there won't be any immediate emotional fall-out for the Doctor (or Doctor/Martha) after this ep, I do think that hubris will be catching up the Doctor in the finale. Joan's last pwnage seems to be suggesting as much.
They didn't kill the Family of Blood because they wanted to show how frakking terrifying the Doctor can be... but also methinks to potentially bring the Family back in the future at some random time when they need a good villain out of the woodwork.
Next week? The Moffat ep. It's about damn time too. Even if it's also the (cutting corners with the budget cuz we're running out of money) Doctor&Martha-lite ep of the season.
Part of the reason why I didn't feel the need to cry at all is because you have Smith one second not willing to see the youngins he'd been training use those guns shooting scarecrows (which is fine and right to finally feel bad about seeing boys forced into that sort of situation), then next second Doesn't. Open. The. Frakking. Watch. when god damn hellfire and brimstone is literally raining down on the village and opening the watch will make it stop faster. I realize the man was facing suicide in order to make the bombing stop, but... countless people are dying. And he's standing their being emo and crying which is a very human reaction, but... I also completely realize this could entirely be just me and it's unfair... but the the emo and crying over the watch? Instead of tugging at my heartstrings, it inadvertantly touched that killer movie pet peeve of mine. The characters in movies who would rather stand there and cry/scream and be useless then do something about stopping whatever terror breathing down not only their own neck but countless innocent people and they have the power in their hands to make it stop... but they don't. Oh Jesus. Again, I realize this was likely a very unfair reaction to have (for several reasons), namely the ep overall was good and most of the time hit the right notes in me, but I'd also kept thinking about Last Temptation of Christ and unfairly comparing at that moment (and here, the Father?! Why Have You Forsaken Me?! emo failed on me, a lot. I wanted to kick Jesus in the head... which I don't think is what they were going for). This all harkens back to when I couldn't not compare Doomsday and Pullman's The Amber Spyglass and that emo also failing on me. I just hope in the rewatch this kneejerk reaction of mine doesn't get worse (which it has for Doomsday which I've become entirely indifferent towards). I really hope it doesn't, because there are many things I liked about the ep and it pains me the moments of the Big Drama are seemingly the ones that least worked for me.
David Tennant did give one helluva a performance though (even if the ep did feel a tinge of Let's give DT the gravitas people were overtly complaining went missing when Eccleston left. Felt a bit like... attractive actresses who get ugly to win Oscars. Felt a bit put-on... but frak, I seem to be in a complaining mood? Ugh! Must stop). That first bit of emo crying, when John, Martha and Joan are ducked out in the forest staring at the hostage TARDIS, did work for me. Excellent acting all around, in fact.
Martha is bonafide empress of the universe, but not like that really needs to be said. Saving herself and everyone else (and didn't I call that last week?? Tim opens the watch, distracting them just enough so Martha takes control!) in the near hostage crisis facing down the whole Family and their army by herself? *needs icon of Take Charge Martha* Being slightly emo, but yet still getting things done, telling John Smith to escort his "ladyfriend" outside (as he was panicking and being totally rubbish). Holy frakking Ellen Ripley, Batman. "Bones in the hand." Take THAT casual racism!! Amazing Joan could still manage being so utterly dismissive/casually racist at her, despite Martha basically saving them all from that little dance hall mess, practically single-handed. Some habits are hard to break I suppose 1913 England! May the Doctor NEVER go there again!. Yet for three months of racism, dismissiveness, forced into subservient hell and from John Smith himself..... a hug? And Martha apparently just being ok with that?? Yeah, thanks a lot
I did love that veteran's memorial at the end as my scale of awesome in this ep fell Martha > Tim > Joan > The Doctor (as he didn't appear much and Smith, despite self-sacrifice, doesn't register to me). I did love seeing Tim at the end (although in a wheelchair, that couldn't have been him then seeing Present-Day!Martha bumping into him in that vision in the last ep... but I now suspect the vision was only to show-off Tim's enhanced clairvoyance via the watch, not anything foreshadowy).
I would complain about too many epilogues (because, yeah... too many epilogues) if I didn't think I'd already just used up my complaint quota for the season, namely what I felt was needless lengthiness of the Joan / Doctor goodbye (maybe had the Last Temptation of Christ emo worked on me it wouldn't have felt so long?)... but the scene is saved by that last thing of pwnage Joan says to the Doctor. Because seriously, that did need to be said. Especially after this whole Old Testament bent of the Doctor's (that was some frighteningly dark shit). The Doctor can be one scary son of a bitch and sometimes thoughtlessly so (despite all his good intentions). Picking the village on a whim, ultimately saving the day but leaving so much devastation in his wake. He gets off too much - often in fluff and light and giggles - without it being called on. Queen Victoria had similar pwnage last season but it felt like it got handwaved due to Ten/Rose taking the piss (before and after, despite rightly being exiled, however futile that was with their convenient space & time machine. Laughing like idiots when people are getting torn to pieces by a monster). Like she was being some rigid, superior beeyotch overreacting. Here it comes from the beloved Joan... and that had to cut and you could see in the Doctor's face how much it cut. I managed to feel bad for Joan too because she's a widow all over again, because saying what she did, it was like this very harsh, very real acknowledgement that - despite what the Doctor says about John Smith still being inside him (somewhere... deep down) - John Smith was dead to her. She even seems to hate the Doctor (perhaps likening the Doctor to the man that shot her first husband? As the Doctor's existence means John Smith's death). I loved that and it was a bigger emotional pay-off for me than all the watch emo. Although too bad it seemed to have come a bit at the expense of the Doctor's appreciation of Martha which should have been much more than there was, but as I spec'd above that probably won't come 'til the finale anyway... and probably in some extreme fashion. Although there won't be any immediate emotional fall-out for the Doctor (or Doctor/Martha) after this ep, I do think that hubris will be catching up the Doctor in the finale. Joan's last pwnage seems to be suggesting as much.
They didn't kill the Family of Blood because they wanted to show how frakking terrifying the Doctor can be... but also methinks to potentially bring the Family back in the future at some random time when they need a good villain out of the woodwork.
Next week? The Moffat ep. It's about damn time too. Even if it's also the (cutting corners with the budget cuz we're running out of money) Doctor&Martha-lite ep of the season.
