Post by Kestrel on Apr 28, 2022 4:09:41 GMT
I might've gone into this one with my expectations set a bit too high... the imminent release of the 2DAs has gotten me rather enthused about 2nd Doctor stories (after this I'm diving right into the Lost Stories boxset that's been languishing in my backlog for months). Which isn't to say that I disliked this story or anything--I didn't, it was fun!--I just hoped for, I dunno... a bit more.
I love the framing device, though the implication (made explicit at the end) that the Doctor never thought to check back in on Zoe until his seventh incarnation is pretty... pretty oof. Entirely in-character, of course, but still oof.
I think the reason this story failed to really engage me was that the plot was just... too familiar. The whole idea of conceptual lifeforms--creatures living in language, specifically stories here--is a great idea... but also one I've seen in Doctor Who before. Several times. And this tale doesn't really do anything with this premise to make it stand out from the others. But the main thing holding this one back is just... the missed potential. You've got a bunch of archeologists on a dig, the Doctor inserting himself into one of the teams... and yet we don't get to see hardly of his (or the Jaime and Zoe's) interactions with them. There's the great scene where, and I forgot to transcribe the dialog so I'm just paraphrasing here, the leader of the expedition says something to the effect of, "Your Doctor's over there shouting at the scientists," and Zoe--I think it was Zoe, at least--but it might've been Jaime--replies (with just the perfect delivery) something like, "Yeah, he does that."
And I just wanted to see more of that beyond the one short scene we got. Oh well.
And then there was all the nonsense with the "faces". A pretty obvious, but toothless dig at social media influencer culture, I guess. Didn't really do much to elevate the story, and drew me out of the experience. The only thing keeping this character (Selsi) tolerable and was the fact that Lisa Bowerman can make any character work.
And, as I expected going into this, Frazier Hines was a delight. I haven't heard much of Deborah Watling's Victoria, but I thought she was pretty damned good here, too. So, TL;DR a pretty so-so script elevated by excellent performances.
I love the framing device, though the implication (made explicit at the end) that the Doctor never thought to check back in on Zoe until his seventh incarnation is pretty... pretty oof. Entirely in-character, of course, but still oof.
I think the reason this story failed to really engage me was that the plot was just... too familiar. The whole idea of conceptual lifeforms--creatures living in language, specifically stories here--is a great idea... but also one I've seen in Doctor Who before. Several times. And this tale doesn't really do anything with this premise to make it stand out from the others. But the main thing holding this one back is just... the missed potential. You've got a bunch of archeologists on a dig, the Doctor inserting himself into one of the teams... and yet we don't get to see hardly of his (or the Jaime and Zoe's) interactions with them. There's the great scene where, and I forgot to transcribe the dialog so I'm just paraphrasing here, the leader of the expedition says something to the effect of, "Your Doctor's over there shouting at the scientists," and Zoe--I think it was Zoe, at least--but it might've been Jaime--replies (with just the perfect delivery) something like, "Yeah, he does that."
And I just wanted to see more of that beyond the one short scene we got. Oh well.
And then there was all the nonsense with the "faces". A pretty obvious, but toothless dig at social media influencer culture, I guess. Didn't really do much to elevate the story, and drew me out of the experience. The only thing keeping this character (Selsi) tolerable and was the fact that Lisa Bowerman can make any character work.
And, as I expected going into this, Frazier Hines was a delight. I haven't heard much of Deborah Watling's Victoria, but I thought she was pretty damned good here, too. So, TL;DR a pretty so-so script elevated by excellent performances.