Eleven: Things That Are Still Bugging Me
May. 25th, 2010 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charameiI enjoy the Eleventh Doctor, I really do. I laugh at his jokes, I've appreciated plenty of the plots he's been given and I'm rapidly falling in love with one of his companions.
But I don't love the Eleventh Doctor. I'm not fannish about him. He's ephemeral to me: I watch the show and enjoy it, and I then forget about it to such an extent that if asked to give a blow-by-blow description of the most recent episode twenty-four hours later I'd usually struggle to remember what the alien of the week was. Certainly every week thus far when I've sat down in front of iPlayer to watch the new episode, I've found myself wondering what happened last week.
By contrast, I listened to Wreck of the Titan over a week ago and could probably still give you a pretty good description of events, maybe even quote some dialogue. This despite the fact that it's twice as long and I listened to it in a fairly noisy office, while doing my paid job* and being interrupted constantly by real life.
*Which is basically copy-pasting. If I needed to use my brain, I wouldn't be listening to Who... probably ;)
I don't know why Eleven doesn't touch my heart. That bugs me, but I can't really answer it. There are some things that are probably related, though.
It's bugging me that Doctor Who has a serial format.
This is a stupid complaint. Doctor Who has always been serialistic and it's never bugged me. Doctor Who is, in fact, one of the greatest serialistic formats ever produced by a writer. The TARDIS is up there with red Kryptonite as a plot-producing artefact. So why is it irritating me now, all of a sudden, and only in this series? (By which I mean, it's not in the slightest irritating when listening to Big Finish or watching old Who: this is Eleven/S05-specific.)
Well,![[journalfen.net profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spawn_of_kong has just made a post to the effect that the Doctor's now (as of Time of Angels) seen what the cracks in the universe can do and seems to be reacting by ignoring them and gallivanting around the universe sightseeing. It's an extremely good point.
Moffatt's clearly trying to reduce the episodic nature of the series here. He's playing up the arc plot a lot more, laying a story that is taking the whole series to unfold. It's not been done since Key to Time, and then not really in the way we'd understand it today.
But it's not very well integrated. Why is the Doctor wandering around Venice and Wales (and trying to get to Rio) rather than paying attention to the imminent end of all reality? I hope Amy's not going to wake up and discover it was all a dream? (Though if Ten woke up and discovered it was all a dream, I'd laugh my socks off.)
It's not as if the TARDIS always goes where it's meant to: if they wanted to pad the series they could always just have the crew getting lost in Venice and Wales while trying to get to the arc plot. It'd take about two lines, but at least I'd feel he was trying.
There's a lot of potential in Who-with-unifying-plot, but I'm not sure they've quite worked out how to tap it yet. Until they do, this very lack of serialism may well be one of the reasons that the series feels too episodic to me.
That, or I'm going to wake up and find it was all a dream.
As mentioned, I can't really remember most of the plots I'm talking about that well (I remember The Hungry Earth because it's the most engaged I've been in the series since Flesh and Stone, but still). But it feels to me as though Eleven is very reactive, perhaps even more so than Nine. I don't get a sense of him driving the plot.
In theory there's nothing wrong with this. Drama doesn't need one protagonist to do all the heavy lifting, any more than it needs unity of time or place (*coff*). The thing is, I don't get any sense of Amy driving the plot either, or even the villains. Rory does, which is why I'm liking him so much. And again, it's not a feeling I get from, say, Five, who's all about the teamwork.
Of my three irritations, this is the most subjective: I'm documenting a vague feeling, not anything I can readily explain or define. I'm sure Eleven's done something off his own bat or they'd all be dead by now.
Amy, Amy, give me your answer, do,
I'm half crazy, all for the puzzle of you...
Oh, Amy, what is your personality? What is your function in the plot? (First person to say 'companion' gets thwacked.)
I have a friend who keeps defending Amy by suggesting that I don't like her because she's an ordinary person and doesn't have a 'gimmick' like RTD's companions do. Presumably this means that Barbara had the gimmick of, I dunno, being a schoolteacher or wearing skirts while companioning or being a strong female character in the early 60's or something, but I'm pretty sure she's an ordinary person without much of a gimmicky personality whom I like. Likewise Sarah-Jane.
But then, Barbara had a personality, and it was made of pure Awesome. Amy... what is Amy's personality? Anyone? Bueller?
Scratch that, what's Amy's role as companion?
I've seen a fairly good theory that says all companions are basically Liz, Jo or Sarah-Jane. And while puzzling Amy, I've had a chance to think this through:
Liz
The Liz is often one or both of scientist and sceptic. She questions the Doctor's academic conclusions and actively tries to learn from him. She's in this for the opportunity to learn. In terms of plot, she's often most active at the conclusion, where she can help to stop whatever's happening.
Examples of the Liz would be Ian, Zoe, Liz, Romana I and Martha.
Jo
The Jo is the one the Doctor cares about most, and he'll often do something dramatic and angsty when she leaves. She's often naive and/or innocent until she spends time in his world. She tends to unquestioningly assume he's right and he'll spend a lot of time trying to protect her from things that want to eat her or kidnap her or both, often while learning something about the power of friendship. She's in this for him, romantically or otherwise. In terms of plot, she furthers it mostly by getting kidnapped or being otherwise put in danger that she can't get herself out of. Fans often find her irritating.
Examples of the Jo would be Susan, Victoria, Jo, Peri and Rose.
Sarah-Jane
The Sarah-Jane is plucky and adventurey, to coin a phrase. She questions the Doctor's moral conclusions and isn't afraid to take matters into her own hands when he's out of commission or not there. Whereas the Liz is his student and the Jo his disciple, the Sarah-Jane is much closer to his equal. She's in this for the adventure. In terms of plot, she's often most active at the beginning, where she uncovers it while the Doctor's regenerating or sulking or outside getting lattes.
Examples of the Sarah-Jane would be Barbara, Jamie, Sarah-Jane, Romana II, Ace and Donna.
This isn't to say that all companions must fall neatly into an archetype. Some of the best don't: Nyssa's probably both a Liz and a Jo, God only knows what Tegan falls under, and I'd argue that the Brigadier is a category unto himself. But I doubt the writers were trying to fit the characters into archetypes: rather, this is an accident because those three basics work so well.
Please note that I gave them each a basic plot function too: this isn't just a personality thing. A companion either helps drive the plot, helps the audience make sense of the plot, or gets kidnapped by the plot. This is fairly standard even across those who don't entirely fit the rest of the archetype pattern.
Plotwise, I guess Amy's a Jo - she's been kidnapped or rendered useless enough times, and she did pull some Power of Love crap twice in two episodes at the beginning of the series. She's also explicitly in this for the Doctor. But I don't feel any chemistry between Gillan and Smith to follow the rest of that archetype through, and the Jo is the archetype least able to work with bad chemistry: it's all about that relationship.
As for Rory? I reckon he's probably a Sarah-Jane, albeit a rather incompetent one. And I do love Rory. He's got personality, acting chops and a function in the plot, and at this point we only need Jenny back to create an Ian-Barbara-Susan team TARDIS for the new era.
But still I wonder: what is the point of Amy Pond?
But I don't love the Eleventh Doctor. I'm not fannish about him. He's ephemeral to me: I watch the show and enjoy it, and I then forget about it to such an extent that if asked to give a blow-by-blow description of the most recent episode twenty-four hours later I'd usually struggle to remember what the alien of the week was. Certainly every week thus far when I've sat down in front of iPlayer to watch the new episode, I've found myself wondering what happened last week.
By contrast, I listened to Wreck of the Titan over a week ago and could probably still give you a pretty good description of events, maybe even quote some dialogue. This despite the fact that it's twice as long and I listened to it in a fairly noisy office, while doing my paid job* and being interrupted constantly by real life.
*Which is basically copy-pasting. If I needed to use my brain, I wouldn't be listening to Who... probably ;)
I don't know why Eleven doesn't touch my heart. That bugs me, but I can't really answer it. There are some things that are probably related, though.
1. Arc plots
It's bugging me that Doctor Who has a serial format.
This is a stupid complaint. Doctor Who has always been serialistic and it's never bugged me. Doctor Who is, in fact, one of the greatest serialistic formats ever produced by a writer. The TARDIS is up there with red Kryptonite as a plot-producing artefact. So why is it irritating me now, all of a sudden, and only in this series? (By which I mean, it's not in the slightest irritating when listening to Big Finish or watching old Who: this is Eleven/S05-specific.)
Well,
spawn_of_kong has just made a post to the effect that the Doctor's now (as of Time of Angels) seen what the cracks in the universe can do and seems to be reacting by ignoring them and gallivanting around the universe sightseeing. It's an extremely good point.Moffatt's clearly trying to reduce the episodic nature of the series here. He's playing up the arc plot a lot more, laying a story that is taking the whole series to unfold. It's not been done since Key to Time, and then not really in the way we'd understand it today.
But it's not very well integrated. Why is the Doctor wandering around Venice and Wales (and trying to get to Rio) rather than paying attention to the imminent end of all reality? I hope Amy's not going to wake up and discover it was all a dream? (Though if Ten woke up and discovered it was all a dream, I'd laugh my socks off.)
It's not as if the TARDIS always goes where it's meant to: if they wanted to pad the series they could always just have the crew getting lost in Venice and Wales while trying to get to the arc plot. It'd take about two lines, but at least I'd feel he was trying.
There's a lot of potential in Who-with-unifying-plot, but I'm not sure they've quite worked out how to tap it yet. Until they do, this very lack of serialism may well be one of the reasons that the series feels too episodic to me.
That, or I'm going to wake up and find it was all a dream.
2. Reactivity
As mentioned, I can't really remember most of the plots I'm talking about that well (I remember The Hungry Earth because it's the most engaged I've been in the series since Flesh and Stone, but still). But it feels to me as though Eleven is very reactive, perhaps even more so than Nine. I don't get a sense of him driving the plot.
In theory there's nothing wrong with this. Drama doesn't need one protagonist to do all the heavy lifting, any more than it needs unity of time or place (*coff*). The thing is, I don't get any sense of Amy driving the plot either, or even the villains. Rory does, which is why I'm liking him so much. And again, it's not a feeling I get from, say, Five, who's all about the teamwork.
Of my three irritations, this is the most subjective: I'm documenting a vague feeling, not anything I can readily explain or define. I'm sure Eleven's done something off his own bat or they'd all be dead by now.
Amy fricking Pond
Amy, Amy, give me your answer, do,
I'm half crazy, all for the puzzle of you...
Oh, Amy, what is your personality? What is your function in the plot? (First person to say 'companion' gets thwacked.)
I have a friend who keeps defending Amy by suggesting that I don't like her because she's an ordinary person and doesn't have a 'gimmick' like RTD's companions do. Presumably this means that Barbara had the gimmick of, I dunno, being a schoolteacher or wearing skirts while companioning or being a strong female character in the early 60's or something, but I'm pretty sure she's an ordinary person without much of a gimmicky personality whom I like. Likewise Sarah-Jane.
But then, Barbara had a personality, and it was made of pure Awesome. Amy... what is Amy's personality? Anyone? Bueller?
Scratch that, what's Amy's role as companion?
I've seen a fairly good theory that says all companions are basically Liz, Jo or Sarah-Jane. And while puzzling Amy, I've had a chance to think this through:
Liz
The Liz is often one or both of scientist and sceptic. She questions the Doctor's academic conclusions and actively tries to learn from him. She's in this for the opportunity to learn. In terms of plot, she's often most active at the conclusion, where she can help to stop whatever's happening.
Examples of the Liz would be Ian, Zoe, Liz, Romana I and Martha.
Jo
The Jo is the one the Doctor cares about most, and he'll often do something dramatic and angsty when she leaves. She's often naive and/or innocent until she spends time in his world. She tends to unquestioningly assume he's right and he'll spend a lot of time trying to protect her from things that want to eat her or kidnap her or both, often while learning something about the power of friendship. She's in this for him, romantically or otherwise. In terms of plot, she furthers it mostly by getting kidnapped or being otherwise put in danger that she can't get herself out of. Fans often find her irritating.
Examples of the Jo would be Susan, Victoria, Jo, Peri and Rose.
Sarah-Jane
The Sarah-Jane is plucky and adventurey, to coin a phrase. She questions the Doctor's moral conclusions and isn't afraid to take matters into her own hands when he's out of commission or not there. Whereas the Liz is his student and the Jo his disciple, the Sarah-Jane is much closer to his equal. She's in this for the adventure. In terms of plot, she's often most active at the beginning, where she uncovers it while the Doctor's regenerating or sulking or outside getting lattes.
Examples of the Sarah-Jane would be Barbara, Jamie, Sarah-Jane, Romana II, Ace and Donna.
This isn't to say that all companions must fall neatly into an archetype. Some of the best don't: Nyssa's probably both a Liz and a Jo, God only knows what Tegan falls under, and I'd argue that the Brigadier is a category unto himself. But I doubt the writers were trying to fit the characters into archetypes: rather, this is an accident because those three basics work so well.
Please note that I gave them each a basic plot function too: this isn't just a personality thing. A companion either helps drive the plot, helps the audience make sense of the plot, or gets kidnapped by the plot. This is fairly standard even across those who don't entirely fit the rest of the archetype pattern.
Plotwise, I guess Amy's a Jo - she's been kidnapped or rendered useless enough times, and she did pull some Power of Love crap twice in two episodes at the beginning of the series. She's also explicitly in this for the Doctor. But I don't feel any chemistry between Gillan and Smith to follow the rest of that archetype through, and the Jo is the archetype least able to work with bad chemistry: it's all about that relationship.
As for Rory? I reckon he's probably a Sarah-Jane, albeit a rather incompetent one. And I do love Rory. He's got personality, acting chops and a function in the plot, and at this point we only need Jenny back to create an Ian-Barbara-Susan team TARDIS for the new era.
But still I wonder: what is the point of Amy Pond?
