Spoiley spoil spoil
There was a bit in tonights episode that freaked me the fuck out:
when Donna realised that all the children were the same and then Miss Evangelista lifted her veil
and then it got seriously creepy. I’ve no idea about what really happened ongoing plot-wise, but that was fucking awesome.
Oh, and Catherine Tate was again brilliant. Again. So who the hell is/was/will be River Song?
That bit freaked me the fuck out too. I was afraid to look directly at the screen for the rest of the episode. :o And I just know the Doctor Who lolcats community on LiveJournal (ihasatardis) is going to have a freaky-ass field day with it.
All this foreshadowing about Donna’s fate makes me more and more uncomfortable with every episode. (I avoid spoilers for future episodes, so I don’t know what’s actually going to happen, but it sure seems like they’re setting us up for a Horrible Death.) Especially because she’s pretty much become my favorite companion ever. I’ve never seen a Catherine Tate sketch that didn’t irritate me, but she really is excellent in this.
Interesting that blinking made Something Bad Happen (Donna and the kids near the end). Does Steven Moffat want all the kids in Britain to tape their eyelids open?
I have to say that the episode was interesting, but what actually happened? Five million things seemed to be going on at the same time… and I still never quite figured out who River Song was/is… It seemed like there were 50 stories crammed into the last 10 minutes.
And even though I’m looking forward to Rose coming back, I still love Catherine Tate… Then again, I love her in The Catherine Tate Show too…
It pretty much went exactly where I expected it to go with the conclusion but it was still a very atmospheric episode. And considering I got an infestation of spiders (including brown recluses) from bringing in books from storage last week the idea of something that can kill you coming out the pages resonated with me…
Very feel good episode. I liked how the usual rich bureaucratic weasely guy who more or less owned The Library turned out to be a pretty nice guy after all.
I never really thought we’d find out who River is. The theme was “spoilers.” It’s more fun wondering who she could be that she knew the Doctor’s real name and there’s only one person he ever could reveal his real name to.
What’s Donna so worried about? I mean, she can’t expect to travel with the Doctor literally forever. Eventually she’s going to grow too old to be constantly running. The Doctor could meet River for the “first” time in six months, or six years, or 600 years. Evidently River is from pretty far in the future.
It doesn’t really matter what part of the future River Song is from if you’re travelling with a time-traveller, does it? River knew who Donna was but had never met her, by the sounds of it. Sounds a little ominous. I hope she doesn’t have a traumatic death.
I thought this episode was good (loved the bit inside the VR world and all the children being the same was definitely a blood freezing moment) but the bit that annoyed me was the realisation that monster I can’t spell came out of the books because they’re from trees. O-kay, so anyone who works in the British Library or the Library of Congress is in mortal peril then? I’m pretty sure if people were being found stripped to their skeleton there we’d know about it. I found the principle of monster I can’t spell quite stupid really, fear of the dark comes from the unknown and being exposed in a medium you’re blind in, not from some made up necrotising swarm of creatures. Oh, and what the hell was the whole blanking out the helmet of doomed people about if not just so the skull could conveniently fall against it to show they were dead.
Last, but not least, give me a break with the stutter guy seeing Donna and not being able to say her name quick enough. Jump off the fucking teleport mat you knob! The way they set that up was pretty cheap too with the “There wasn’t anyone with his name even in the system” when he was clearly there, and if her name was listed (and she wasn’t even an official visitor) why wasn’t his?
Okay so I’ve come up with lots of reasons why it bugged me/things don’t make sense, but I re-iterate that I DID enjoy it a lot. I’m just hard to please. 
Seems obvious she was more than a companion - I’m guessing a wife. They again, I’m not a big Who nerd. Do WE know his ‘real name’?
Well, sure. But you’re looking at it wrong. You’re gonna die some day. However, if you met a tim traveler who said “You’re levdrakon? Oh, poor you. Yes, we do know some of the same person, but I never had hte chance to meet you…” There’s a difference between knowing you’re going to die someday and really knowing.
Another episode that I thought was really…clear and complete. The only thing I didn’t have figured out before they revealed was what the deal was with Doctor Moon.
-Joe
It’s pretty straightforward: Donna knew him as Lee in the Matrix fantasy, but that wasn’t his actual name in the real world. In Moffat’s original script, it would have turned out that in the real world, “Lee” was actually an overweight girl who’d imagined herself as a man in the fantasy world. Which might have made it easier to understand why Donna couldn’t find him, but would probably have been confusing in other ways.
I’m convinced River’s his wife. The way she knew him, the tenderness and bickering, knowing his name… wife.
Good ep. I thought it was kind of crowded, and the Vashta whatevers weren’t scary, but I really, really liked River. They have written themselves into a corner, though, haven’t they? With her.
Maybe she’s agreed to do a future series? Thing is, they’d have to cram her in before Tenant leaves the show.
Still, seeing as how one of the characters flat out said “You guys are bickering at each other like husband and wife”, well, that said it all for me.
-Joe
They haven’t written themselves into a corner with River. We never have to see her again. Judging by the number of books etc about the Doctor there are lots of adventures that never make it to TV, and judging by the off-hand references, there are lots more that never even make it to the books. Plus, she knew he was the Doctor, but she never said she was “married” or whatever to Ten, or Eleven, or Twelve–she just said he was “younger” and “not quite developed” like an old picture. Quite frankly, we never have to see her again (and we probably never will) and it won’t change anything about the show or about how she’s canon. I guess that’s the joy of writing a show about a time/space traveler–you can’t and won’t show every person he’s met and every place he’s been.
She’s just one of Moffat’s Mary Sue characters. I wouldn’t give her another thought.
I didn’t hate the two episodes. I didn’t like them. They were the biggest meh of the entire New Who.
Well, the swarm things said “these are our trees,” and “we hatched here.” I was thinking maybe the builders of the Library world didn’t just import all the books but mowed down all the indigenous forests of that planet to make replicas of all the books.
That, or they had always followed the trees (now books) they came from, but they weren’t in a big enough quantity to swarm and be a danger until they were put into the biggest library ever.
-Joe
I thought perhaps it wasn’t just that she knew that Donna died but that Donna died horribly. I think Catherine Tate (brilliant as ever) alluded to that in the Doctor Who Confidential that followed.
“Oh, that levdrakon, of the acid-burning-chewy death that we all read about in the news” :o
Wasn’t there a line of some sort in the first part about that, something to do with the fact that they never swarmed elsewhere, suddenly there’s a great concentration of paper and they can.
Great episode, a nice second parter (which usually turn out the lesser of the two episodes in science fiction series) even with the everyone lives ending. The transcription error in Miss Evangelista’s face wasn’t as alarming as the kids being the same for the sake of memory size. The cyber world worked out nicely too, with the “and then, you forgot” lines and time progression of hours in seconds.
Next week, the Doctor’s take on Airport '77 
You guys are probably right, but something about River’s expression also made me think, “Donna? That Donna? My Great Grandmo… sorry, spoilers!”
Hey, when I go, I wanna go out in a cool acid-burning-chewy death kinda way.
I’ve just started watching Dr. Who again–last time I was into it was Dr. Number Four. Anyway, what day and channel are these new episodes on? I’ve been seeing episodes on BBC America but they are with Martha so obviously not current.
The UK showings are on Saturday evenings and are about three weeks ahead of the American showings on the SciFi channel. I want to say the ones on SciFi are on Friday night but I’m not positive on that. The next three episodes for the US are quite a bit of fun so it’s a good moment to pick it up.
Sign this waiver and swing by my place next Tuesday.
-Joe
I thought that absolutely everything in the memory world was fantastically done, especially the ‘and then, you forgot/remembered’ repetition.
It kind of surprised me that I felt this way but I thought that the glimpse of Wrathful Doctor actually fit in nicely with the “River knows his real name for some reason/saving River/not willing to let go” bit.
Also, how shameful is it that I have a ridiculously huge schoolgirl-esque crush on the Doctor?