chocolatepot | Might surprise you, Bizarre! (Reply)

I don't know if complicated is the right word, but they are definitely mixed.

- Moffat is definitely having some of the same issues as RTD. His finales are a similar kind of overload with similar connect-all-the-dots plots. I think there's a bit of a difference, though - the second half of this season hasn't been "woo sneaky arc word", it's been a mostly ongoing plot, and in general his arc stuff is stuff you wonder about the whole time instead of references slipped in that you don't notice until after it has a meaning. But yeah, overload finales bringing every kind of alien and every past episode together are their own kind of silly.

- I don't think it was genderfail to have Amy basically used as a womb by the bad guys. Not inherently, in itself. And from a narrative standpoint, I think I'd rather have a fake non-pregnant Amy running around rather than have to worry about her fetus's health as she runs around and fights robots. BUT. I think it was an enormous mistake to have Amy's baby be stolen and grow into River.
1. That's a LOT of trauma to heap on Amy
2. Which feels both unfair and overkill
3. And there's not enough of an effect on her, from neither the captivity nor the baby-stealing
4. Which isn't good characterization, I don't think

- I SAID the handcuffs thing was going to be non-sexual. I said it. And it was. I know all and see all. I had thought he would actually tell her his name, though, but it's funny that he didn't after the talk of how OOC that was. Except what does that mean for SitL/FotD when she said his name, if he never told her? Incidentally, I'm kind of confused as to when River and the Doctor fell in love, because he doesn't seem at all in love with her, to me - flirty, yes, but he flirts with everyone, but a different level of flirting because they're on the same level and so many people he flirts with aren't. And the marriage was pretty non-romantic, too. (NB I did like the look at Gallifreyan marriage customs.) I'm just kind of meh on the whole Doctor/River thing. It just feels like they're making it up as they go along, instead of having it thought out ahead of time.