I am so glad to see you say that. This just... argh. The story telling goes beyond sloppy in places, it becomes outright lazy. The reveal via River that the Doctor is still alive, for instance. Did you also see the robot solution coming?
...for no very good reason that I could see, the Doctor gets married to River. I just don't get that. I don't buy that he's in love with her. I'm not even sure that he loves her though I think he's got affection for her.
After various discussions, a friend of mine stumbled into a reason to make it make sense. Namely, River desperately wants him to love her. Which he knows. She wants desperately to be the woman who marries him, not murders him. Which he knows. He wants to repair the universe and so bribes her with a wedding. Very romantic, oh yes.
Theory that you can smack me down for if it looks too crazy:
After the backstory we've gotten on River this season, I'm not sure it can actually be said that she loves the Doctor. Too much of her characterization is centered around him, she's been brainwashed over him since forever, all of her is bound up in the marry/murder debate, so on and so forth. The sheer number of times she uses the word "love" is excessive. No one does that but the vastly, vastly insecure. It's more like it's something else she's been brainwashed to believe. Believe very much, enough to do really stupid stuff over it, but there's nothing that's tender about her emotion. It's all flashy and huge.
The point where River is at when she defies the Lake Silencio thing? She's been Mels after being the little kid in the suit. She grew up listening to Amy tell stories about the Doctor. Then she went batshit. Then the TARDIS downloaded goodness into her, she was handed her name, and then goes to university/stalks the Doctor. That's the grand sum of her interactions with him up until that point. Pretty darn sure about that.
I really don't see the love anywhere.
I did like the hot air balloon cars, but that does not a shining episode make.
No, but that Christmas Special by Dickens did sound cool. I'd take his somewhat flat but rather consistent characterization by this point, too.
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...for no very good reason that I could see, the Doctor gets married to River. I just don't get that. I don't buy that he's in love with her. I'm not even sure that he loves her though I think he's got affection for her.
After various discussions, a friend of mine stumbled into a reason to make it make sense. Namely, River desperately wants him to love her. Which he knows. She wants desperately to be the woman who marries him, not murders him. Which he knows. He wants to repair the universe and so bribes her with a wedding. Very romantic, oh yes.
Theory that you can smack me down for if it looks too crazy:
After the backstory we've gotten on River this season, I'm not sure it can actually be said that she loves the Doctor. Too much of her characterization is centered around him, she's been brainwashed over him since forever, all of her is bound up in the marry/murder debate, so on and so forth. The sheer number of times she uses the word "love" is excessive. No one does that but the vastly, vastly insecure. It's more like it's something else she's been brainwashed to believe. Believe very much, enough to do really stupid stuff over it, but there's nothing that's tender about her emotion. It's all flashy and huge.
The point where River is at when she defies the Lake Silencio thing? She's been Mels after being the little kid in the suit. She grew up listening to Amy tell stories about the Doctor. Then she went batshit. Then the TARDIS downloaded goodness into her, she was handed her name, and then goes to university/stalks the Doctor. That's the grand sum of her interactions with him up until that point. Pretty darn sure about that.
I really don't see the love anywhere.
I did like the hot air balloon cars, but that does not a shining episode make.
No, but that Christmas Special by Dickens did sound cool. I'd take his somewhat flat but rather consistent characterization by this point, too.