Doctor Who: "Gridlock" thoughts...

[fajrdrako]

I liked the title.

It was a Sunday evening treat for myself: watching Doctor Who all my myself, on the sofa - well, with Logan, but he only emitted the occasional editorial chirp.


It wasn't quite what I expected - in some ways. I guess the 'trapped in the slipstream of traffic' was not unexpected, but the exaggeration of the situation at first almost lost me - and then seemed quite wonderful. I loved the various people the Doctor met, and I loved his dropping from car to car.

I was sorry to see the Doctor and Martha were apart for so much of the episode, because I do so like them together. I missed their interchanges. Still, when they were together, what we got was wonderful - less banter, more honesty.

Things I particularly loved:
- the Doctor telling Martha about Gallifrey in the beginning, but not telling her the truth
- the Doctor being only too aware (and regretful) that he had not told her the truth
- the Doctor's reflection that he had been "too busy showing off"
- the Doctor's description of Martha as a stranger - and hers of him as a man she hardly knows, but has faith in
- the cats (even though I'm really not a cat person, no, not at all, honest! well... sometimes.)
- the Doctor's moods. For some reason I find hard to analyze, I most love the Doctor when he is angry. Here we had him angry, regretful, joking, reflective, sympathetic, and so on, but his best moment was when he told the mood-dealers to close up shop because he'd come after them when he'd found Martha.
- come to think of it, I really loved the mood-drug vendors
- the cat-nun and her dedication to the Face of Boe. I was delighted to see the Face of Boe again - he's one of my favourites.
- the guy in the bowler hat
- the guy in white
- the garish girls
- the lines about the Doctor's coat - and its origin story
- was Rose mentioned? I am one of those fans who has loved and cherished each time when the Doctor has said her name, but I'm still glad if this time he didn't, just to prove we're not in a rut. I didn't notice Mr. Saxon, either.
- I liked it that the visual appearance of the place was so unlike that of New New etc. New York in "New Earth"

I could have done without the creatures at the bottom of the fast lane, but ... I guess they served their purpose: entertaining the eight year olds, and being metaphorical bottom-feeders.

Of course I liked the ending, not so much because of what the Doctor was saying, but because he was saying it to Martha. Seems to me she's reached some sort of turning point. Will the Doctor need an excuse to take her on the next adventure?

Am I right to think that the title refers to the Doctor, locked in his pattern of grief with regard to Rose and denial with regard to Martha? Or am I just being fanciful there?

Comments

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

is there a good reason apart from very understandable wishfull thing for declaring the TV movie out of canon?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert on the subject but my understanding is that because it was produced by other people (wasn't it?) and deviated from what was accepted canon, and because it wasn't very good and was therefore unpopular, and particularly because it was Americanized, many people wanted to write it off as non-canon along with the parodies and the other half-forgotten non-canonical material. Not to mention the material (like the novels and radio shows) that some people call canon and some don't.

So, yes, wishful thinking.

I think the reality to canon is more arbitrary than that. A lot of it boils down to the whim, taste, or competence of whatever set of writers and producers is producing the material at any given moment. Still, in writing fanfic, I like to respect canon just because I don't want readers to be conscious of how I am playng with it.