Doctor Who - Extremis
May. 27th, 2017 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[Have a dinner date with Uhurua around 7, who I haven't seen in a while. We considered a movie. But Wonder Woman isn't out yet. And U didn't see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, sort of impossible to see 2, without 1. U did ask if I wanted to see...Alien: Covenant.
Me: I'm not sure I want to see a horror movie...and I thought you hated horror movies?
U: Well if it's sci-fi and not Nightmare on Elm Street...I can usually do it....Never mind, lets' keep it simple and just do dinner.
LOL. I don't know. I think of the Alien movies as full fledged horror films. But then I also think of Doctor Who as horror, so what do I know?
Anyhow, we'll see if I can write this in under two hours. ]
So, I finally saw the Doctor Who episode "Extremis" which apparently revealed who was in the vault and why. Feel sort of silly for thinking it could have been anyone else. Sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar or the simplest choice is the right one.
I liked the episode. I could tell Moffat wrote it, has the intricacies of plot that Moffat is famous for. With some good dialogue throughout. Particularly liked Bill's exchanges with the Doctor and Nardole
If an episode has good dialogue, I'll usually enjoy it. (And no, not all the episodes have good dialogue, at least three did not. I'm picky about dialogue. Some people are picky about plot, some about moral messages, some about theme, some world-building, some consistencies, for me? It's dialogue. (Well, dialogue and character development, which often go hand in hand). Which you'd think wouldn't be a problem in a medium that is basically 98% dialogue, but...it is.)
I also agree with the people who said River Song's tale is far from over. There were numerous allusions to River Song, in particular the whole idea of a simulation world where people were data feeds, set up in a manner similar to the Library. Maybe one of the reasons I liked this episode is in some respects it reminded me of Silence in the Library?
1. The allusions to Doctor Song were interesting. Missy in some respects reminded me of River...except a very dark version of River Song. I preferred John Simms version of the Master, but that's just because I like John Simms. ) And it is interesting that when The Doctor is hunting some sort of intervention or means of stopping Missy's execution...Nardol pops up with the solution. And the quote..."virtue in extremis" or the idea of "goodness when you hit rock bottom, and choose it...is true virtue or virtue in extremis". It's all very well and good to be "good, kind, or giving" when it is convenient, but if you can't choose that when your back is against the wall?
I don't think it's that simple. I've met people who were killers, horrible individuals do amazing things when their backs were up against a wall. While I've known truly kind people who did horrible things when theirs were. It's situational. And it depends.
On oh so many unknown factors. Human morality tends to possess a hypocrite's edge, mainly because whether we like or not, everything we do has an element of self-interest attached to it.
Then again, perhaps its best to focus on the positive. The Doctor chose not to kill the Master/Missy, instead he sort of did the same thing to her that he did to River in the Library. Placed her captive in a box. River was a data feed placed in the box that was the Library. Missy is placed in a vault for all time. (Personally, I think I'd rather die than spend eternity in a box, but that's just me.)
The other allusion is the whole simulation game...River was all about games. And simulations. Also she became at the end, a data feed, which was destroyed when the Library was destroyed, apparently in an episode entitled The Name of the Doctor, which I can't remember. (Thanks to the fans of the show for this insight. I'm not fannish about it. No judgement. I was fannish in this manner about Buffy.) Speaking of that episode, anyone know if we ever actually got the name of the doctor? I'm guessing not, or I'd have remembered the episode. The simulation, everyone is a data feed, even the Doctor, who sends himself and everything he's learned about the alien threat to the real Doctor in an email message, entitled "Extremis". Reminds me of what he did with River, he downloaded her to his screwdriver and uploaded her to the Library as a data feed or copy.
Nardol mentions that River told him to watch the Doctor's back, and if necessary, kick his ass.
2. Great dialogue between Bill and the Doctor. Bill is good comic relief.
Doctor: Go follow that guy.
Bill: Are you trying to get rid of us?
Doctor: Why'd you say that?
Nardole: You just asked us to go follow a guy with a gun down a dark hallway.
Doctor: Oh. right. Bill stay behind Nardol the whole way.
Bill: The next time I have a date, which is on very rare occasions, do not show up and place the Pope in my bedroom.
Doctor: Noted. Couldn't be helped.
3. The alien or threat. Finally an evil villain. Up until now, it has been ambiguous villains. This one reminded me of an uglier version of the Silence. Sort of a mummified version. I preferred the Silence. My one quibble with the episode is the villain who seems rather...silly and cliche. And apparently the villain is going to be on more than one episode. So, I may just need to get used to it. Sort of like I did with Matt Smith. He grew me. Maybe the alien will too? Except Matt Smith was more attractive, and in a bigger role.
I liked the whole set up with the simulations...and portholes. The idea once again of truth and reality, what is and is not real. What is true and not true. Seeing things as they are, and not as we wish them to be.
The Doctor is blind...but perhaps in more ways than one? The theme of blindness, agency, continues.
So many characters in the episode are robbed of their agency. Here they have none at all, all simulations or computer programs of an alien intelligence who controls them. The moment they develop agency or the awareness enough to take hold of their own agency...they commit suicide. Because much like someone in a computer simulation game -- they'd rather die than keep being killed ad nasuem or just trapped inside a box playing out various scenarios, with no choices. Takes you back to the Doctor and Missy, would you rather die or be trapped inside a box? Except with the simulations, what if the only choice you have is to die or stay trapped, with no choices? What if agency or power is in making that choice to die? And what if that drive...is really not agency at all, not power at all, but dictated by the program? The moment you become aware, conscious, of what is happening -- you are programed to self-destruct? No agency at all.
The only character who had agency, outside the villain, in the episode, it turns out is the Doctor, who doesn't kill himself as directed. Instead he finds a third option, he emails the information he's collected on the alien to the actual Doctor.
I honestly think the arc theme is lack of agency. Of being trapped. Which goes back to River Song. A character who made a choice to sacrifice herself to save her love. And he attempts to save her by downloading her to the Library, where she's trapped until it is destroyed. And in an way, he saves Missy by trapping her in a box, instead of executing her as he'd been ordered to do...on the planet of executioners. (Seriously?)
I actually thought the exchanges there were funny, if a tad disturbing. The Doctor outdoes the planet of executioners when it comes to death counts. I rewound a couple of times to make sure I got that part right. Because really? On a kid's show? Geeze.
I don't know people, this is a bit violent and adult in theme for kids. Teens, yes. Kids, no. But I don't have kids, so not a really an issue for me. Besides I know people whose kids watch The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones...Doctor Who is rather tame in comparison.
Overall I enjoyed the episode. (just the one quibble about the villain). It has a big of a chinese puzzle box of a plot, but that's Moffat and why I enjoy his writing.
Ranking of episodes?
1. Pilot
2. Extremis
3. Knock Knock
4. Smile
5. Thin Ice
6. Oxygen.
[Sigh. The Opera Singer is back. It sounds like a Russian Opera singer, singing in Hebrew...So a Russian Jewish Opera Singer? I live in an interesting place. Today I bought earrings at an African Street fair, which was packed. And the only white people there were possibly me and ten other people spread throughout. All the vendors and 90% of the customers were African-American or Carribbean-American descent, ie. black. The earrings are gorgeous. They'd bussed people in. This was in Fort Greene, which otherwise is wall to wall yuppie or hipster in today's lingo. Under 40, hip, white, and pretty. They all look a like. All thin. All active. Guys wear beards. Women long hair. I
feel like I'm looking at the cast of one of those shows on Freeform.]
Me: I'm not sure I want to see a horror movie...and I thought you hated horror movies?
U: Well if it's sci-fi and not Nightmare on Elm Street...I can usually do it....Never mind, lets' keep it simple and just do dinner.
LOL. I don't know. I think of the Alien movies as full fledged horror films. But then I also think of Doctor Who as horror, so what do I know?
Anyhow, we'll see if I can write this in under two hours. ]
So, I finally saw the Doctor Who episode "Extremis" which apparently revealed who was in the vault and why. Feel sort of silly for thinking it could have been anyone else. Sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar or the simplest choice is the right one.
I liked the episode. I could tell Moffat wrote it, has the intricacies of plot that Moffat is famous for. With some good dialogue throughout. Particularly liked Bill's exchanges with the Doctor and Nardole
If an episode has good dialogue, I'll usually enjoy it. (And no, not all the episodes have good dialogue, at least three did not. I'm picky about dialogue. Some people are picky about plot, some about moral messages, some about theme, some world-building, some consistencies, for me? It's dialogue. (Well, dialogue and character development, which often go hand in hand). Which you'd think wouldn't be a problem in a medium that is basically 98% dialogue, but...it is.)
I also agree with the people who said River Song's tale is far from over. There were numerous allusions to River Song, in particular the whole idea of a simulation world where people were data feeds, set up in a manner similar to the Library. Maybe one of the reasons I liked this episode is in some respects it reminded me of Silence in the Library?
1. The allusions to Doctor Song were interesting. Missy in some respects reminded me of River...except a very dark version of River Song. I preferred John Simms version of the Master, but that's just because I like John Simms. ) And it is interesting that when The Doctor is hunting some sort of intervention or means of stopping Missy's execution...Nardol pops up with the solution. And the quote..."virtue in extremis" or the idea of "goodness when you hit rock bottom, and choose it...is true virtue or virtue in extremis". It's all very well and good to be "good, kind, or giving" when it is convenient, but if you can't choose that when your back is against the wall?
I don't think it's that simple. I've met people who were killers, horrible individuals do amazing things when their backs were up against a wall. While I've known truly kind people who did horrible things when theirs were. It's situational. And it depends.
On oh so many unknown factors. Human morality tends to possess a hypocrite's edge, mainly because whether we like or not, everything we do has an element of self-interest attached to it.
Then again, perhaps its best to focus on the positive. The Doctor chose not to kill the Master/Missy, instead he sort of did the same thing to her that he did to River in the Library. Placed her captive in a box. River was a data feed placed in the box that was the Library. Missy is placed in a vault for all time. (Personally, I think I'd rather die than spend eternity in a box, but that's just me.)
The other allusion is the whole simulation game...River was all about games. And simulations. Also she became at the end, a data feed, which was destroyed when the Library was destroyed, apparently in an episode entitled The Name of the Doctor, which I can't remember. (Thanks to the fans of the show for this insight. I'm not fannish about it. No judgement. I was fannish in this manner about Buffy.) Speaking of that episode, anyone know if we ever actually got the name of the doctor? I'm guessing not, or I'd have remembered the episode. The simulation, everyone is a data feed, even the Doctor, who sends himself and everything he's learned about the alien threat to the real Doctor in an email message, entitled "Extremis". Reminds me of what he did with River, he downloaded her to his screwdriver and uploaded her to the Library as a data feed or copy.
Nardol mentions that River told him to watch the Doctor's back, and if necessary, kick his ass.
2. Great dialogue between Bill and the Doctor. Bill is good comic relief.
Doctor: Go follow that guy.
Bill: Are you trying to get rid of us?
Doctor: Why'd you say that?
Nardole: You just asked us to go follow a guy with a gun down a dark hallway.
Doctor: Oh. right. Bill stay behind Nardol the whole way.
Bill: The next time I have a date, which is on very rare occasions, do not show up and place the Pope in my bedroom.
Doctor: Noted. Couldn't be helped.
3. The alien or threat. Finally an evil villain. Up until now, it has been ambiguous villains. This one reminded me of an uglier version of the Silence. Sort of a mummified version. I preferred the Silence. My one quibble with the episode is the villain who seems rather...silly and cliche. And apparently the villain is going to be on more than one episode. So, I may just need to get used to it. Sort of like I did with Matt Smith. He grew me. Maybe the alien will too? Except Matt Smith was more attractive, and in a bigger role.
I liked the whole set up with the simulations...and portholes. The idea once again of truth and reality, what is and is not real. What is true and not true. Seeing things as they are, and not as we wish them to be.
The Doctor is blind...but perhaps in more ways than one? The theme of blindness, agency, continues.
So many characters in the episode are robbed of their agency. Here they have none at all, all simulations or computer programs of an alien intelligence who controls them. The moment they develop agency or the awareness enough to take hold of their own agency...they commit suicide. Because much like someone in a computer simulation game -- they'd rather die than keep being killed ad nasuem or just trapped inside a box playing out various scenarios, with no choices. Takes you back to the Doctor and Missy, would you rather die or be trapped inside a box? Except with the simulations, what if the only choice you have is to die or stay trapped, with no choices? What if agency or power is in making that choice to die? And what if that drive...is really not agency at all, not power at all, but dictated by the program? The moment you become aware, conscious, of what is happening -- you are programed to self-destruct? No agency at all.
The only character who had agency, outside the villain, in the episode, it turns out is the Doctor, who doesn't kill himself as directed. Instead he finds a third option, he emails the information he's collected on the alien to the actual Doctor.
I honestly think the arc theme is lack of agency. Of being trapped. Which goes back to River Song. A character who made a choice to sacrifice herself to save her love. And he attempts to save her by downloading her to the Library, where she's trapped until it is destroyed. And in an way, he saves Missy by trapping her in a box, instead of executing her as he'd been ordered to do...on the planet of executioners. (Seriously?)
I actually thought the exchanges there were funny, if a tad disturbing. The Doctor outdoes the planet of executioners when it comes to death counts. I rewound a couple of times to make sure I got that part right. Because really? On a kid's show? Geeze.
I don't know people, this is a bit violent and adult in theme for kids. Teens, yes. Kids, no. But I don't have kids, so not a really an issue for me. Besides I know people whose kids watch The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones...Doctor Who is rather tame in comparison.
Overall I enjoyed the episode. (just the one quibble about the villain). It has a big of a chinese puzzle box of a plot, but that's Moffat and why I enjoy his writing.
Ranking of episodes?
1. Pilot
2. Extremis
3. Knock Knock
4. Smile
5. Thin Ice
6. Oxygen.
[Sigh. The Opera Singer is back. It sounds like a Russian Opera singer, singing in Hebrew...So a Russian Jewish Opera Singer? I live in an interesting place. Today I bought earrings at an African Street fair, which was packed. And the only white people there were possibly me and ten other people spread throughout. All the vendors and 90% of the customers were African-American or Carribbean-American descent, ie. black. The earrings are gorgeous. They'd bussed people in. This was in Fort Greene, which otherwise is wall to wall yuppie or hipster in today's lingo. Under 40, hip, white, and pretty. They all look a like. All thin. All active. Guys wear beards. Women long hair. I
feel like I'm looking at the cast of one of those shows on Freeform.]
no subject
Date: 2017-05-27 11:31 pm (UTC)I don't have spoilers on this, but I smell a Moffat twist.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-28 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-28 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-28 03:36 pm (UTC)I suppose she could have excaped during Oxygen, but he seemed to be talking to her at the end of this episode.