Silence in the Library--My Thoughts-- Spoilerific

[amberfocus]

I've watched it twice now and I really don't like a stranger being tender with the Doctor.  It gets my back right up.  He may not be a stranger to this woman, but she's a stranger to him and more importantly to us, and I don't like it.  I think River Song is supposed to be the Doctor's future wife or lover or else is going to convince him that she is and she's not.  I'm not thrilled about either option, because come on, the Doctor's a bachelor and should be and he already goes around snogging half the universe and it's getting ridiculous.  (Yes, I know I like to marry him off to Rose and give them babies, but that's so not the point!)  Plus, have you seen what his typical girlies look like?  And you're telling me he'd go in for the mature, lived in woman when he likes window dressing as much as he does?  Not that the actress isn't attractive, but Donna's much prettier and sparkier with him than this woman, and let's face it, the Doctor has a type (young and pretty or lots of cleavage showing, both if he can find it [Jabe, Reinette]) and this woman is not it.

I actually like Alex Kingston a great deal and I even enjoyed the character of River, and the character could have worked, but I think she was woefully miscast.  I mean the reason Sophia Miles/Reinette almost worked was because she was his type.  Plus I think Alex is far too recognizable an actress to be in a sci-fi show like DW.  I kept expecting Dr. Mark Green to pop up from the dead and take his wife back to the ER.  Horribly distracting.  Recognizable period piece actors are one thing, but modern day popular show actors?  It breaks the believablilty in half and this episode already had enough things doing that without adding this.  Mostly I didn't think she had very much chemistry with the Doctor.  Or any.  In fact, I don't think any of the supporting actors had any chemistry with anyone except the little girl and her therapist.  

I think Donna had far too small a role in this and I didn't like the fact that she was shoved aside so hard here.  I also didn't appreciate another anvil dropping on her head.  I mean, come on, we get it, Donna's doomed, she either won't survive the end of the season or something bad is going to happen to her and she'll be retconned or something and forget who the Doctor is, or she'll be stuck in a parallel world in exchange for Rose, or something, but she won't be around the Doctor anymore, one way or another he'll lose her.  Yes, we get it.  Enough already, will you please just let us freaking enjoy her for the rest of the season, and that means writing for her and not taking her out of the action halfway through an episode?  Oh, and I do love Rose, I swear I do and if she were coming back permanently I'd be first in line to welcome her with open arms, but she's overshadowing Donna this season and again, we get that Rose is coming back, can we just wait until she gets here and enjoy her then, and let Donna shine now, please?  We don't have that much time with her left.  I want it to mean something.  I want Donna to have tender, sweet, funny, silly, ridiculous, heartbreaking moments with the Doctor while she still can, darn it!

I was really disappointed in the writing, too.  I expected a lot more from this writer than what he showed up with here.  It's disjointed and shaky, seems to rip off his other plots and a book or two I could mention, but won't.  If he at any time next week has the Doctor using his telepathy to go into River's head I will throw something at the screen.  It did have it's spooky moments but it wasn't scary the way Blink was.  Not even close.  I did like the little book that looked like the TARDIS, even if the journal aspect of it seems like a rip off of that book I won't mention.  The sets were really pretty, though.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant, but apparently I needed to get it out of my system.

Comments

[millylicious.livejournal.com]

Your bit about loving Rose and welcoming her with open arms, but just wanting Donna to shine because she is so much made of awesome she should wear a caution sign perfectly reflects what I feel.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I think I like the way you put it better.

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Doin't worry about River. She's a liar, she said it herself: "I lied. I'm always lying". I'm pretty sure she called the Doctor too early so he woudl'nt yet know what an evil manipulative liar she can be.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, that would be nice.

[stargirl577.livejournal.com]

River rubbed me the wrong way. I did not like her at all, and I was also a bit distracted by Alex Kingston playing the character. I thought it was an okay episode but not brilliant. I am however waiting to reserve my finally judgment until I see the second part. At this point, it is my least favorite Moffat story.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll reserve my final judgment, too. This is just my preliminary one. *grins* And yes, so far my least favorite Moffat story, quite possibly my least favorite DW story, too, which means its worse than Love and Monsters.

[galadriella1.livejournal.com]

River isn't who she says she is. Mind you, we don't really know who she is. But remember, we have a second part and this is coming from the writer who first really REALLY gave us D/R chemisty in TEC/TDD, so I have this faith that this will be okay.

Personally, one of my thoughts is, why would River have a TARDIS designed journal - my OH thinks she nabbed the Doctor's 'book' from the library and has managed to intergrate herself with the use of spoilers!!

I also think we could be nudging onto a Donna and Rose moment, a pretty serious cameo from our blonde girl (it isn't impossible, these eps were filmed between Turn Left and the finale.)

Have faith!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Oh, like the idea of her stealing the Doctor's 'book' from the library. It would be nice to see a Donna/Rose interaction again before the Rose episodes start. Especially if they let Donna shine in it.

[melnay13.livejournal.com]

I agree River could have worked, but not with that actress. Chemistry equals zero between the two of them. Oh, and what about that character name? River Song. Really? Pocahontas, line two. I'd actaully prefer that he name her Pocahontas.

This ep really disappointed me. I was so looking forward to another Moffat two parter, and the highlight of the ep turned out to be the collective shudder that the Doctor and Donna shared at the thought of living books. Well, that and the Doctor's dislike of archeologists.

I want more Donna time, darnit!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

I agree with so much of this - particularly the sidelining of Donna. Okay, we get it, Donna is DOOMED, but can we not enjoy her while we've got her? She so quickly became My Companion it's not funny, and though I still love Rose, I'm more worried about how they're going to ruin her return than about how wonderful it's going to be when she comes back. There's a really small needle to thread on that one, and subtlety, thy name is not Russell T. Davies. He's been at his best writing "blank" and letting the actors bring out the subtleties (just rewatched "Rose", and it's really so much better than its rep). So, in short, worried about Donna, worried about Rose, can't enjoy anything through the hail of anvils!

As for River Song, I'm kind of hoping the weirdness is a clue that she's not what she appears to be - I know Alex Kingston is a terrific actress and can do better than this. Plus, that name is so laughable; I'm not sure whether Moffat is serious or having another swipe at Mary Sues. I agree, she has no chemistry AT ALL with the Doctor, and that surprises me for this reason:

And you're telling me he'd go in for the mature, lived in woman when he likes window dressing as much as he does? Not that the actress isn't attractive, but Donna's much prettier and sparkier with him than this woman, and let's face it, the Doctor has a type (young and pretty or lots of cleavage showing, both if he can find it [Jabe, Reinette]) and this woman is not it.

In a way, this is a tautological problem, because those are the only options the production team has offered us, but one thing I have noticed is that Tennant seems to have better chemistry with "older" women (Mrs. Moore, SJS, Donna, even Yvonne Hartman) than he does with the more obvious love interests. I know it's one of those things that people see differently, but I saw no chemistry with Reinette, and only very rare flashes of sexiness with Rose and Martha (friendly, buddy chemistry, yes, but that's different). From what I've seen of his other work, that's also consistent - Eccleston's the one who goes around having wholly inappropriate chemistry with teenaged girls (and boys, and tall, powerful men of African descent).

So I wonder if they were banking on that history, and it just didn't happen? Or, she's lying.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I, too, hope River is not what she appears to be. I guess David Tennant has chemistry with a lot of older women in a lot of his other roles, too, but I don't know. It seems off here. Really, really off. I did think he had good chemistry with Billie, myself. And with Freama actually. Though if I had to pick anyone it was that actress who played Natalie in Blackpool that he's had the most chemsitry with of anything I've seen him in. Now she I would have bought as River Song even if she has already played the Racnoss in DW. Even there she had more chemistry with him than Alex Kingston.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

Alex Kingston is a marvelous actress, warm and sexy and always compelling... So this is weird. Maybe it's because she's getting nothing from DT (as is appropriate in the context), but Clive Owen is a complete black hole in Croupier, and she was still really sexy, so I'm thinking/hoping it's narrative!

[julisana.livejournal.com]

I agree that he generally doesn't go for the more mature women. But maybe when she "first" met him, she was young and with perkier tits?

B/c he seems to like them young and perky. ;)

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Anything's possible. *grins*

[katecarter.livejournal.com]

"I kept expecting Dr. Mark Green to pop up from the dead and take his wife back to the ER."

Oh gosh, I knew that feeling. That was one of the first things I thought when I heard they cast her.

I agree with the sidelining of Donna. Donna is my second-favorite companion, and I'm already upset we're losing her. I think she's just developed spectacularly (especially since my initial reaction to her return was "Oh gosh, that's just ruined the whole fourth series!"). Catherine Tate is a really brilliant actress and she needs to have some more screen time.

And I hate River! You're right, there's no chemistry there. I'm really afraid she's going to be the 2009 companion, which I'm not happy about, because I really don't like her. At. All. And if they wind up having a "relationship" I am going to be furious (but I think a lot of other fans will be too). Of course, the possibility exists that she's another Martha who thinks she can influence his younger self to get in the sack with her. Obviously, they're not traveling together anymore, so I don't think it's going to be anything long-term, whereas with Rose, I could honestly believe he'd have stayed with her the rest of her life.

I also thought the Doctor's reaction to "discovering" he's a "pretty boy" was a bit off...I mean, seriously, it's taken him over two years to discover this?! I don't think so. I do like what they did with the girl, though. You know there's a very definite mystery, but you're not sure what.

The sets were amazing, the actors were awful (because of the lack of chemistry; they just seemed so bland), the effects were great (the skeleton in the suit made me scream, even though I'd seen the spoilers), the writing was...so-so. I think Moffat could have done a bit better, although it was enough to give me a very healthy respect of the dark and particles in sunbeams. But, we'll see next week, maybe the second half will be so mind-blowing it'll make up for the first half (and get rid of River).
(here's a thought...I wonder if River actually stole the journal from someone else and is using the knowledge of the Doctor acquired from it? She could have stolen the screwdriver too. "Archaeologist" might be a cover for "professional thief.")

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I do hope the second half is much, much better. They could still salvage this, but I don't ever think it'll be Moffat's best.

[nonlinearmusing.livejournal.com]

AH. You hit the nail on the head!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yep.