Hee, yeah. Jumping the shark; it crossed my mind, too. But most of that scene I spent flailing at the screen going BUT BUT BUT two minutes ago the shark was going to eat them, and now they've domesticated it to use it as a sled-shark? What?
It did make for nice imagery, though. I just wish it had made sense.
But Moffat's always thought of the Doctor as a benevolent savior. I think I would be fine with that. If he examined it in a realistic way. As in, story-realism, not factual realism. But he doesn't. The Doctor does things one moment that he says are impossible to do the next. Moffat keeps referencing RTD's episodes on all levels--dialog, catch-phrases, set, design, structure--but then he goes and undermines big, essential things like the "don't go back in your personal timeline" thing. It's horribly confusing.
I did like the fact that Sardick had changed too much to use the machine, too--but I felt it was too little, too late. Because . . . he was still going to let those people die just moments earlier. And then he had a weepy moment with his younger self, and the machine could pick that up? Basically, I didn't feel like I was shown the change in the writing, I was just being told Sardick had changed. Clearly, he had, since the machine wouldn't let him use the controls anymore! That made me go . . . dammit, Moffat. Show, don't tell.
If it was only about getting a specific frequency, then you could have produced that sound using the TARDIS. :| That was the moment in the episode that made me flail the most. Because it was so cheap. Let's randomly sacrifice the female love interest, because hey, that's what you do with personality-lacking, bland female love interests. And then the reason for her getting sacrificed didn't even hold up to the vaguest of examinations. It bothered me.
Also. Illnesses don't come with a countdown, and if you're ill and close to death, you usually don't look quite that perky. Unless she had a bomb on a timer in her stomach, that bit made no sense, either.
Sigh. The more I think about that episode, the more I realize how it made no sense at all.
no subject
It did make for nice imagery, though. I just wish it had made sense.
But Moffat's always thought of the Doctor as a benevolent savior.
I think I would be fine with that. If he examined it in a realistic way. As in, story-realism, not factual realism. But he doesn't. The Doctor does things one moment that he says are impossible to do the next. Moffat keeps referencing RTD's episodes on all levels--dialog, catch-phrases, set, design, structure--but then he goes and undermines big, essential things like the "don't go back in your personal timeline" thing. It's horribly confusing.
I did like the fact that Sardick had changed too much to use the machine, too--but I felt it was too little, too late. Because . . . he was still going to let those people die just moments earlier. And then he had a weepy moment with his younger self, and the machine could pick that up? Basically, I didn't feel like I was shown the change in the writing, I was just being told Sardick had changed. Clearly, he had, since the machine wouldn't let him use the controls anymore! That made me go . . . dammit, Moffat. Show, don't tell.
If it was only about getting a specific frequency, then you could have produced that sound using the TARDIS. :| That was the moment in the episode that made me flail the most. Because it was so cheap. Let's randomly sacrifice the female love interest, because hey, that's what you do with personality-lacking, bland female love interests. And then the reason for her getting sacrificed didn't even hold up to the vaguest of examinations. It bothered me.
Also. Illnesses don't come with a countdown, and if you're ill and close to death, you usually don't look quite that perky. Unless she had a bomb on a timer in her stomach, that bit made no sense, either.
Sigh. The more I think about that episode, the more I realize how it made no sense at all.