amberfocus | Silence in the Library--My Thoughts-- Spoilerific

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.