The “Fun Driving” of a Newly Provisional Driver
As some of you may know, I recently got my P plates after about 4 and half years being a learner *round of applause*. If you’re thinking I could’ve gotten my full licenses in that time, you would indeed be correct. In fact my dearest sister was often harping on about how many of her friends could drive without supervision already and they were TWO WHOLE YEARS YOUNGER. Ish. My perfectly plausible excuse is the fact that I go to uni and work in the city, really who drives to the city? I love Sydney’s defective public transport system.
For this reason, we left about 40 minutes early, and so we stopped by Maccas to get some food. Only to find as we were leaving that they had not given me any sauce for my nuggets! Blasphemy. I executed a bold 3 point turn and parked haphazardly in front of Maccas for my sister to dash in and get some of that sauce. My haphazard parking had nothing to do with the fact that I’m dreadful at parking at all of course.
My adventure continues after a raced around a corner to beat an orange light and searched for an elusive parking spot. We were almost murdered in the process by an aggressive looking female who looked like she was about to be hospitalised for lung cancer or emphysema. How did we attract this dangerous woman’s attention? You might ask. Well, it all started when we both wanted that same parking spot, and despite the fact that I was closer and better positioned, she gave me a look that could only be interpreted as a death threat before proceeding to speedily snatch the parking spot away.
(she’s not actually this old but I’d like to think so)
I probably could’ve prevented her from parking there (though I would’ve taken a smidgen longer than the average driver) but between death and a parking spot, I chose life. Or at the very least a lot of shouting and a possible keyed car. She left at about the same time as us meaning it was very possible she also saw Doctor Who. I sorely hope that she is not the kind of fan Doctor Who attracts nowadays (perhaps it was her daughter, who she was accompanying to watch, or better yet she was shopping and it was all a coincidence). Otherwise, I cannot fathom how a once intelligent show has become watchable even by the insane.
The Pre-Movie Adventure
We arrived to find a girl had seated herself in one of our seats. After I told her that was our seat, she still didn’t move. It wasn’t like she was a scary woman who was going to challenge us for the seat, more just a 14 year old girl who quietly and somewhat blankly stared at me like she couldn’t comprehend what I meant. “K12? That’s our seat? See?” I say waving my ticket in front of her. “K12?” She replies somewhat blankly and starts looking at the seat numbering as though it was so confusing. And then she glances at the 4 empty seats next to her before looking up at me again. Blankly. Was that her “subtle” way of asking me to just move over? Apparently so. Because it wasn’t until I said “we have 5 people and there are 4 seats here so you can’t sit there” that she scooped up her popcorn, drink and her friend’s drink which was occupying another poor soul’s seat and clumsily vacated our row.
The Actual Movie
As the credits rolled, one word was going through my head. Amazing.
In all honesty I was probably convinced the moment David Tennant made his appearance (as was the rest of the audience apparently as he was greeted with a round of applause and cheering). I found the plot to be clever and humorous and to top it all off, Gallifrey is not dead! As someone who has been secretly hoping for the Doctor to somehow break the time lock and visit Gallifrey again, or at least see him interact with some Time Lords (that weren’t born from a TARDIS as per River Song) how much better could it get really? As an individual episode, it was exciting packed with possible unobjectionable fan services moments.
But then I think about its implications for the Doctor Who universe and future storylines and I can’t help but get a little angry at Moffat. It’s true he knows what fans want to see. Tennant for many. Gallifrey’s return for a fair few surely. Rose has her fair share of fans of course. And of course, Tom Baker’s surprise appearance that was sure excite more than a few members of the audience. But television often refuses to bring back fan favourites or explore certain storylines for a reason. Because as much as it brings joy in a fan fiction universe, at the end of the day it does nothing for the main story arc or worse regresses it.
Here are some of my pet peeves.
REALLY? GALLIFREY?! Even as I watched Matt Smith declare he was “changing his past” and my fan side rejoiced at a saved Gallifrey, another part of me despaired. Frankly I felt a little cheated. After almost 8 years of emotional anguish and I’m-a-villain-like-Adolf-Hitler-but-instead-of-a-whole-race-I-killed-two-whole-species because he felt he had no choice, it turns out he’s not so bad after all. While it’s all dandy on the technical possibility front as far as suspension of disbelief will allow (I may have missed something that only the best Doctor Who fans would’ve caught), it seems almost fraudulent. Like it was all for nothing. As though I’ve been sent an email informing me I have failed all my exams this semester pushing me into the pits of depression only to follow up with an email that it was all a mistake once I’ve regretted and forgotten. I’m sure there are fans out there that will disagree with me, but personally I would’ve rather he somehow found a way to break the time lock (without going insane like Dalek Caan) and rescued some/all of the Time Lords.
What happened to the Trenzalore/Doctor’s time stream plot? In the Name of the Doctor, he jumps into the time stream from Trenzalore and runs into the War Doctor. And next thing you know he’s a in his TARDIS reading about advanced quantum physics awaiting the arrival of Clara after which he is promptly picked up but UNIT to look acquiesce Elizabeth the First’s demands. So how did they get out of Trenzalore assuming the entire Doctor Who show follows the linear and subjective viewpoint of the Doctor’s timeline and isn’t just a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey episodes. So perhaps Moffat just planned a random fun but still relevant episode of Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary. It still begs the question, where in Matt Smith’s timeline does this occur then? Perhaps the Christmas episode aptly named The Time of the Doctor will go back and address this Trenzalore plot black hole.
And of course, how many doctors are there? What number are we up to? Though we know the doctor often lies about his age and such, it’s been assumed his statement that he can only regenerate 12 times is fact and this has obviously been a topic of debate as of The Name of the Doctor. Before the 50th Anniversary episode Moffat has been spewing all sorts of rubbish, namely the fact that “The War Doctor doesn’t identify himself as the Doctor so Matt Smith is still 11th despite the fact that the limit is 12 regenerations not 13 bodies” as was in this article:http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/24/doctor-who-steven-moffat-clears-up-the-whole-doctor-regeneration-problem-sort-of-4199592/ and various other publications. And not long after I find this lovely article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-christmas-spoilers-matt-2847509 on the internet that COMPLETELY contradicts everything Moffat had been saying. That Matt Smith is indeed the 13th and John Hurt’s War Doctor now counts as well as the metacrisis doctor that Tennant created and left with Rose in the alternate universe. Was that Moffat’s idea of a “clever red herring”? Perhaps he meant that despite the fact that Matt Smith is the Doctor after the 12thregeneration, as a fan-base we should still see him as the 11th Doctor. Either way, they were more than just misleading statements. If he has so much time to create confusing lies, why doesn’t he go back and invest in patching up his string of plot holes? Where is the Moffat who wrote the fabulous “Blink” episode all those years ago?
I guess we’ll see what the Christmas episode brings (which by the way I’m going to join the many fans out there who believe it should be titled “Silent Night”). Despite my mad rant, I’m still a fan and as a positive watching I’m generally distracted enough by Matt Smith’s clever quips and quirk that I can ignore some of the issues with the overall storyline. Speaking of which, Clara was so amazing in her first two episodes in the Dalek asylum and as a Governess/barmaid… she’s sort of been a letdown ever since… I’ll leave off here before this turns into a chaotic novel critiquing what is still one of my favourite TV shows.
The Rest of the Day
Aside from a minor hiccup in getting to our agreed rendezvous point for dinner stemming from me assuming my friend would know the way and I could just follow her car, it was significantly less eventful that the trip there. The short story is my sister had to Google maps it.
PS: Whatever happened to the Zygon-Human peace treaty? I guess we can just assume it all worked out…
