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The DW Christmas Special review/meta.
I love A Christmas Carol, to begin with. Really, it's almost part of my DNA I think. You see, when I was growing up, my mother would read one 'ghost' aloud every Sunday in advent (and then the actual Christmas Day on the fourth Sunday), so I know it nearly by heart even though it's been a while since I have actually sat down and read it. (Every year she had yet greater difficulty reading Tiny Tim's death, and I don't blame her. If that doesn't make you cry you have a heart of stone. Even the muppet version makes me all choked up...) Also I love adaptations. The Muppet one is fabulous. The 3-D animated one with Jim Carrey almost made me pinch myself in astonishment at how faithful it was. Scrooged is hilarious and wonderful, and so on...
I'm not really going anywhere with that, I just wanted to mention it. Because I know and love that book, so f.ex. when the phrase 'surplus population' popped up I nearly bounced with joy. :) (I'll get to that later.) Anyway I shall start my proper 'review' now. Many spoilers under cut.
The Meta
I am going to start off by quoting this bit of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
copperbadge's review of 'The Vampires of Venice':
'One thing I truly love about this show and kinda didn't think about till just now was that while it doesn't always follow the same formula, you do sometimes see a formula pop up repeatedly, one of which is the one where the Doctor vows halfway through an episode to kick someone's ass all over town and then proceeds to do so. I love this mainly because once he has sworn to kick ass, there's a great pleasure in watching him figure out how the ass is to be kicked and then execute his plan of kickassage.'
I mention this because this was exactly the way this episode started off... The standoff between Kazran and the Doctor was rather reminiscent of the Doctor's interactions with Signora Calvierri (well, without the flirting), and that wonderful line that I rather loved in the trailer - "Remember, whatever happens tonight, you brought it on yourself' - is perfectly in line with this, and the Doctor officially throwing down the gauntlet. And then... then we get the opposite of 'Because you didn't remember her name': The old man can't strike the child. And the Doctor realises that there is more to him - that he is redeemable after all. (Loved the Sherlocking!) You know, I think he probably had a plan, originally, some way of kicking Kazran's ass all over town if he wouldn't co-operate. And then instead he throws it out of the window and chooses to look for a different way. It's like a bait-and-switch in terms of plot. :)
And then we get the fish, swimming round the lamp post, and Christmas carols playing and everything clicks into place... Love the fish, btw. Love, love, love. Plus the fog - the whole feel of the place - was so Dickensian that I almost melted...
The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already: it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by and was brewing on a large scale.
Which brings us to the Christmas carol playing over the loud speakers, which makes the Doctor decide to cast himself as the Ghost of Christmas Past... Some have described this as the Doctor basically writing self-insert fanfic, and that's pretty close to the mark. But it's more than that, considering the way storytelling is Moffat's leitmotif. The Doctor at the end of S5 quite literally becomes a story, and nothing more, until Amy brings him back. We have River Song, the keeper of his story, carrying his tales around in a book. (There is even echoes in RTD's era... John Smith: "What am I then, nothing? Just a story?") Writing himself into people's lives is what he does. Young Kazran is sad that he doesn't have a story about the day the fish came... ("Everyone has a story."/"But you don't...") and within minutes the Doctor has given him one! (A shark in his bedroom, no less.) But this is it... Stories are how we communicate, how we view the world. And - by the way - re-writing history, making the protagonist watch his own story unfold as his past is changed? I don't have the words to describe the level of delight this causes me. The timey-wimey-ness is clever, of course, but it's the story that's the point. (Or, in other words: The timey-wimey-ness is transport. The *story* is the amazing thing!) And whilst I'm on this topic I must take a moment to admire the way in which the story, 'A Christmas Carol' is used by the Doctor to save the day, re-writing Kazran's life story - inspired by an actual Christmas carol, that he hears. And then the day is saved by Abigail singing a Christmas carol. It's like a Moebious strip, the whole thing folding in and around itself. Or - it's a story that's bigger on the inside. ;)
For the next bit I'm going to quote Matt Smith: “The Doctor loves Christmas [because] it’s showcasing humans at their most open and giving and kind…everything The Doctor’s about.” I absolutely love that this Christmas episode confirms that unequivocally, because I had this exchange going round my in my head:
COPPER: Rather ironic when this is very much in the spirit of Christmas. It's a festival of violence. They say that human beings only survive depending on whether they've been good or bad. It's barbaric.
THE DOCTOR: Actually, that's not true. Christmas is a time of -- of peace and thanksgiving and...what am I on about? Christmas is always like this.
I'm not sure that's completely correct - I have a recollection of him saying 'my Christmas is always like this' - but whatever the case, I love that here he gets to have numerous happy Christmasses (one after the other), full of fezzes and scarves and bowties and fun travels with a happy young boy and a gorgeous young woman, and that he embraces it so joyfully, so completely sure that Christmas is good! I'm not trying to put Ten down, btw. But I'm trying to pin something down, a difference of perspective...
These are only generalisations, of course, but I think that RTD's view of heartache is generally something that comes from the outside, breaking people's happiness. Moffat has a more organic view - the crashing space liner is only a catalyst, and is saved with no loss of life. The loss in the episode is in-built, unavoidable, a part of life to be accepted, not fought against. (It's that water metaphor again. Do you try to fight it, or do you flow with it?) Oh! I know! I was going to save this for its own post, but it fits here (promethia, this is all yours, really):
It's the difference between 'pure science' and 'applied science': Applied science is the exact science of applying knowledge from one or more natural scientific fields to practical problems. Many applied sciences can be considered forms of engineering. Pure science, also called basic science, is the exact science of the development of scientific theories. This research is done at times without consideration of their application, and at other times aims to answer phenomena and possible mechanisms proposed in applied science. It is the counterpart of applied science.
Now Ten's era, I think, is generally applied science - there is a problem, and the Doctor finds a way to solve it. Eleven, on the other hand, tends to look at the whole system until he understands it, and then knows how to work with the system to change things. I'm not saying these are cast iron rules or anything, but the way he deals with Kazran illustrates the difference rather beautifully: At first the Doctor's going to fight him, using force to make him do what he wants. But then - using knowledge gained from observation - decides to instead use the system (re-writing Kazran's life) in order to achieve his means. So, I think that's it: RTD mostly uses outside forces to alter things, and Moffat mostly uses things inherent in people's lives. What do you think? (ETA: I think that these are probably just two modes of storytelling, and they both use both, they just tend to favour one over the other. Also RTD is character-led and Moffat story-led etc.etc. Really, I'm just rambling.)
Anyway - there are things that cannot be altered...
Which brings me to Abigail. I have to say, that when DW fridges a woman, it does it quite literally, and there is certainly something about the beautiful woman who gets taken out once a year but in the end has to die that's... problematic. But, she undoubtedly works in the story. Plus, if we see her as the Tiny Tim stand-in, she doesn't survive just because she gets a rich benefactor (plenty of shades of Vincent here), which again ties in with what I said above. Particularly the very beginning, when Kazran calls her unimportant, only to end up having her become the most important person in his life. Like I said - 'surplus population' is a key phrase:
'If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,' returned the Ghost, 'will find him [Tiny Tim] here. What, then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted back by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
It's about everyone being important - not for what they can do, or their talents, but for who they are.
But I also thought of something else re. Abigail. When the Doctor asks about the numbers on her box, she says: "You say you are a doctor - are you one of mine?" Which made me wonder if the reason her family amassed such a big debt was in order to find a cure for her. And also why poor Kazran couldn't - her family had already tried everything.
Of course, there were infinite shades of 'To the Last Man' in the Abigail/Kazran love story, but it rather highlights the differences in story telling I was trying to pin down above. Abigail's illness is an unalterable part of her life. Poor Tommy is a victim of circumstance, or fate, Torchwood and the rift coming in and changing his life without him having much say in anything. Abigail volunteers to be frozen (because she can't have a life anyway). It's not a case of one being a better kind of story, they're just different. And in the end they both save the day. :)
Oh! That reminds me: One of the most touching parts was all the passengers singing ("They're singing for their lives..."). There's something absolutely beautiful in that (shades of 'Gridlock'). And I just adored the ending and the 'Sky Full of Song'. Which made it snow... *deep happy sigh* I've had the tune stuck in my head ever since, and I am impatiently waiting for someone clever to put it up on youtube. So pretty. Plus, it's the theme used for the 'sleigh ride'.
But, there is also Kazran himself of course. "I learned life's most invaluable lesson!"/"Which is?"/"Nobody comes!" Except then someone does... Moffat really does this bit brilliantly, but - just like with Amy - knowing the Doctor doesn't automatically lead to a *better* life, just a different one. "An old friend of mine once took a very long time to explain that life isn't fair." And that final confrontation... The Ghost of Christmas Future indeed. Really, just masterful. In the original, of course, Scrooge is already a changed man by the time the third ghost shows up - the visions of the future appertain to the man he was, and work to re-enforce his resolve to change. Kazran, on the other hand, has ended up hardened in a different manner... A manner which makes it easier for him to break down barriers, but still, a very different story.
Going back to the Doctor again, I love how once more this episode demonstrates the madness that is his life. He has a whole adventure with new friends, going to all kinds of places and having a lot of fun, whilst Amy and Rory are in deadly peril for an hour... Is it any wonder that he tends to be absentminded, going off on strange trails of thought? That's how his life is.
Sundries/Squee
- Darcy, a few days before Christmas, caught one of the trailers for the Special. Realising it featured Michael Gambon, he was convinced that they would 'waste' him and not give him anything interesting to do. (He's still bitter that they had Derek Jacobi and then didn't use him as the Master, instead going with John Simm. He does not appreciate Simm's particular talents, I'm afraid.) After we'd finished watching, however, he turned to me and said: 'Now that was miles better than any other Christmas Special they've ever done. Just infinitely better writing. Plus the new guy is a far better, and more interesting, actor!' So, yeah, he's a Moffat fan. (If he could read this he'd tell me that he's not a 'fan' of anything. He just has taste! ::insert withering look:: Sadly, DT's ability to radiate pain really didn't work on him at all...) Ah well, I'm not complaining. The sheer relief of not to have to brace myself for rolled eyes after every episode is something I'm enjoying rather a lot.
- I think we need look no further than Kazran's initial speech to find Moffat's opinion on the current government. Just sayin'.
- "Christmas Eve on a rooftop, saw a chimney, my whole brain just went "Why the hell not?" Eleventy, I love you too much for words.
- Oh goodness, too many brilliant things to count, I'm realising. The sleigh ride, the card tricks, the sky full of fish (so beautiful!), the fezzes, the psychic paper shorting out, THE DOCTOR MARRYING MARILYN MONROE!!!!, the shark in the bedroom (Moffat's childhood fear!), all the brilliant, brilliant lines - esp 'halfway out of the dark', etc. etc.
- "It's this, or going to your room and designing a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes." I love, love, LOVE how the Moff is stealthily pushing a Doctor/Master agenda here. Best comment on this was bytabula_x_rasa, who almost made me choke with this exchange:
"Theta, where are you going?"
"I have a lot of shelves to put up!"
- Eleven's face after the "Better a broken heart, than no heart at all."/ "You try it then!" exchange. Ten would have done that thing of looking like a man-shaped ball of pain, but Eleven just goes very quiet and says nothing. Partly, I think, because he understands that other people's pain and empathy really don't mean much at all when you, yourself, are hurting. Yet another lesson learned from having been Ten... (And as for the 'If you had only one day left with your beloved, which one would you choose?', then my mind instantly thought: 'Well I didn't get a choice, so - of course - it was the day the Daleks decided to destroy the universe. And after the day had been saved, I dumped her off in a parallel world and told her to marry my clone. So really, don't complain, it could be much, much worse!' But I doubt Kazran would have appreciated that...)
ETA: OMG!owlsie just made me realise... "The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean - you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was! The towers sang, and you cried."
Oh Doctor! Every story is your story, isn't it?
- The trailer. OMG the trailer. There was all the awesome parts (naked!River, the Doctor in the Oval Office ordering jammy dodgers and a fez, the Stetson, River shooting the Stetson off his head, Amy and Rory and an Ood with green eyes and the proto-TARDIS we saw in The Lodger (I KNEW IT!!!!!), Musketeers, bearded!Doctor... And yet there were weird scary things with big heads and Amy (and River) with odd little lines drawn on their bodies, and Amy screaming and Rory not reaching a door in time. And I'm curling up into a little ball, going 'Don't break the pretty, don't break the pretty, don't break the pretty...' because we've had one happy ending and I'm not counting on TWO, and Amy and Rory are the logical targets for badness, since both River and the Doctor are safe due to their continued stories and I am full of anticipation and worry. (I am a Buffy fan, and thus scarred for life...)
ANYWAY, that is all for I HAVE to stop now.
I'm not really going anywhere with that, I just wanted to mention it. Because I know and love that book, so f.ex. when the phrase 'surplus population' popped up I nearly bounced with joy. :) (I'll get to that later.) Anyway I shall start my proper 'review' now. Many spoilers under cut.
The Meta
I am going to start off by quoting this bit of
copperbadge's review of 'The Vampires of Venice':'One thing I truly love about this show and kinda didn't think about till just now was that while it doesn't always follow the same formula, you do sometimes see a formula pop up repeatedly, one of which is the one where the Doctor vows halfway through an episode to kick someone's ass all over town and then proceeds to do so. I love this mainly because once he has sworn to kick ass, there's a great pleasure in watching him figure out how the ass is to be kicked and then execute his plan of kickassage.'
I mention this because this was exactly the way this episode started off... The standoff between Kazran and the Doctor was rather reminiscent of the Doctor's interactions with Signora Calvierri (well, without the flirting), and that wonderful line that I rather loved in the trailer - "Remember, whatever happens tonight, you brought it on yourself' - is perfectly in line with this, and the Doctor officially throwing down the gauntlet. And then... then we get the opposite of 'Because you didn't remember her name': The old man can't strike the child. And the Doctor realises that there is more to him - that he is redeemable after all. (Loved the Sherlocking!) You know, I think he probably had a plan, originally, some way of kicking Kazran's ass all over town if he wouldn't co-operate. And then instead he throws it out of the window and chooses to look for a different way. It's like a bait-and-switch in terms of plot. :)
And then we get the fish, swimming round the lamp post, and Christmas carols playing and everything clicks into place... Love the fish, btw. Love, love, love. Plus the fog - the whole feel of the place - was so Dickensian that I almost melted...
The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already: it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by and was brewing on a large scale.
Which brings us to the Christmas carol playing over the loud speakers, which makes the Doctor decide to cast himself as the Ghost of Christmas Past... Some have described this as the Doctor basically writing self-insert fanfic, and that's pretty close to the mark. But it's more than that, considering the way storytelling is Moffat's leitmotif. The Doctor at the end of S5 quite literally becomes a story, and nothing more, until Amy brings him back. We have River Song, the keeper of his story, carrying his tales around in a book. (There is even echoes in RTD's era... John Smith: "What am I then, nothing? Just a story?") Writing himself into people's lives is what he does. Young Kazran is sad that he doesn't have a story about the day the fish came... ("Everyone has a story."/"But you don't...") and within minutes the Doctor has given him one! (A shark in his bedroom, no less.) But this is it... Stories are how we communicate, how we view the world. And - by the way - re-writing history, making the protagonist watch his own story unfold as his past is changed? I don't have the words to describe the level of delight this causes me. The timey-wimey-ness is clever, of course, but it's the story that's the point. (Or, in other words: The timey-wimey-ness is transport. The *story* is the amazing thing!) And whilst I'm on this topic I must take a moment to admire the way in which the story, 'A Christmas Carol' is used by the Doctor to save the day, re-writing Kazran's life story - inspired by an actual Christmas carol, that he hears. And then the day is saved by Abigail singing a Christmas carol. It's like a Moebious strip, the whole thing folding in and around itself. Or - it's a story that's bigger on the inside. ;)
For the next bit I'm going to quote Matt Smith: “The Doctor loves Christmas [because] it’s showcasing humans at their most open and giving and kind…everything The Doctor’s about.” I absolutely love that this Christmas episode confirms that unequivocally, because I had this exchange going round my in my head:
COPPER: Rather ironic when this is very much in the spirit of Christmas. It's a festival of violence. They say that human beings only survive depending on whether they've been good or bad. It's barbaric.
THE DOCTOR: Actually, that's not true. Christmas is a time of -- of peace and thanksgiving and...what am I on about? Christmas is always like this.
I'm not sure that's completely correct - I have a recollection of him saying 'my Christmas is always like this' - but whatever the case, I love that here he gets to have numerous happy Christmasses (one after the other), full of fezzes and scarves and bowties and fun travels with a happy young boy and a gorgeous young woman, and that he embraces it so joyfully, so completely sure that Christmas is good! I'm not trying to put Ten down, btw. But I'm trying to pin something down, a difference of perspective...
These are only generalisations, of course, but I think that RTD's view of heartache is generally something that comes from the outside, breaking people's happiness. Moffat has a more organic view - the crashing space liner is only a catalyst, and is saved with no loss of life. The loss in the episode is in-built, unavoidable, a part of life to be accepted, not fought against. (It's that water metaphor again. Do you try to fight it, or do you flow with it?) Oh! I know! I was going to save this for its own post, but it fits here (promethia, this is all yours, really):
It's the difference between 'pure science' and 'applied science': Applied science is the exact science of applying knowledge from one or more natural scientific fields to practical problems. Many applied sciences can be considered forms of engineering. Pure science, also called basic science, is the exact science of the development of scientific theories. This research is done at times without consideration of their application, and at other times aims to answer phenomena and possible mechanisms proposed in applied science. It is the counterpart of applied science.
Now Ten's era, I think, is generally applied science - there is a problem, and the Doctor finds a way to solve it. Eleven, on the other hand, tends to look at the whole system until he understands it, and then knows how to work with the system to change things. I'm not saying these are cast iron rules or anything, but the way he deals with Kazran illustrates the difference rather beautifully: At first the Doctor's going to fight him, using force to make him do what he wants. But then - using knowledge gained from observation - decides to instead use the system (re-writing Kazran's life) in order to achieve his means. So, I think that's it: RTD mostly uses outside forces to alter things, and Moffat mostly uses things inherent in people's lives. What do you think? (ETA: I think that these are probably just two modes of storytelling, and they both use both, they just tend to favour one over the other. Also RTD is character-led and Moffat story-led etc.etc. Really, I'm just rambling.)
Anyway - there are things that cannot be altered...
Which brings me to Abigail. I have to say, that when DW fridges a woman, it does it quite literally, and there is certainly something about the beautiful woman who gets taken out once a year but in the end has to die that's... problematic. But, she undoubtedly works in the story. Plus, if we see her as the Tiny Tim stand-in, she doesn't survive just because she gets a rich benefactor (plenty of shades of Vincent here), which again ties in with what I said above. Particularly the very beginning, when Kazran calls her unimportant, only to end up having her become the most important person in his life. Like I said - 'surplus population' is a key phrase:
'If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,' returned the Ghost, 'will find him [Tiny Tim] here. What, then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted back by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
It's about everyone being important - not for what they can do, or their talents, but for who they are.
But I also thought of something else re. Abigail. When the Doctor asks about the numbers on her box, she says: "You say you are a doctor - are you one of mine?" Which made me wonder if the reason her family amassed such a big debt was in order to find a cure for her. And also why poor Kazran couldn't - her family had already tried everything.
Of course, there were infinite shades of 'To the Last Man' in the Abigail/Kazran love story, but it rather highlights the differences in story telling I was trying to pin down above. Abigail's illness is an unalterable part of her life. Poor Tommy is a victim of circumstance, or fate, Torchwood and the rift coming in and changing his life without him having much say in anything. Abigail volunteers to be frozen (because she can't have a life anyway). It's not a case of one being a better kind of story, they're just different. And in the end they both save the day. :)
Oh! That reminds me: One of the most touching parts was all the passengers singing ("They're singing for their lives..."). There's something absolutely beautiful in that (shades of 'Gridlock'). And I just adored the ending and the 'Sky Full of Song'. Which made it snow... *deep happy sigh* I've had the tune stuck in my head ever since, and I am impatiently waiting for someone clever to put it up on youtube. So pretty. Plus, it's the theme used for the 'sleigh ride'.
But, there is also Kazran himself of course. "I learned life's most invaluable lesson!"/"Which is?"/"Nobody comes!" Except then someone does... Moffat really does this bit brilliantly, but - just like with Amy - knowing the Doctor doesn't automatically lead to a *better* life, just a different one. "An old friend of mine once took a very long time to explain that life isn't fair." And that final confrontation... The Ghost of Christmas Future indeed. Really, just masterful. In the original, of course, Scrooge is already a changed man by the time the third ghost shows up - the visions of the future appertain to the man he was, and work to re-enforce his resolve to change. Kazran, on the other hand, has ended up hardened in a different manner... A manner which makes it easier for him to break down barriers, but still, a very different story.
Going back to the Doctor again, I love how once more this episode demonstrates the madness that is his life. He has a whole adventure with new friends, going to all kinds of places and having a lot of fun, whilst Amy and Rory are in deadly peril for an hour... Is it any wonder that he tends to be absentminded, going off on strange trails of thought? That's how his life is.
Sundries/Squee
- Darcy, a few days before Christmas, caught one of the trailers for the Special. Realising it featured Michael Gambon, he was convinced that they would 'waste' him and not give him anything interesting to do. (He's still bitter that they had Derek Jacobi and then didn't use him as the Master, instead going with John Simm. He does not appreciate Simm's particular talents, I'm afraid.) After we'd finished watching, however, he turned to me and said: 'Now that was miles better than any other Christmas Special they've ever done. Just infinitely better writing. Plus the new guy is a far better, and more interesting, actor!' So, yeah, he's a Moffat fan. (If he could read this he'd tell me that he's not a 'fan' of anything. He just has taste! ::insert withering look:: Sadly, DT's ability to radiate pain really didn't work on him at all...) Ah well, I'm not complaining. The sheer relief of not to have to brace myself for rolled eyes after every episode is something I'm enjoying rather a lot.
- I think we need look no further than Kazran's initial speech to find Moffat's opinion on the current government. Just sayin'.
- "Christmas Eve on a rooftop, saw a chimney, my whole brain just went "Why the hell not?" Eleventy, I love you too much for words.
- Oh goodness, too many brilliant things to count, I'm realising. The sleigh ride, the card tricks, the sky full of fish (so beautiful!), the fezzes, the psychic paper shorting out, THE DOCTOR MARRYING MARILYN MONROE!!!!, the shark in the bedroom (Moffat's childhood fear!), all the brilliant, brilliant lines - esp 'halfway out of the dark', etc. etc.
- "It's this, or going to your room and designing a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes." I love, love, LOVE how the Moff is stealthily pushing a Doctor/Master agenda here. Best comment on this was by
tabula_x_rasa, who almost made me choke with this exchange:"Theta, where are you going?"
"I have a lot of shelves to put up!"
- Eleven's face after the "Better a broken heart, than no heart at all."/ "You try it then!" exchange. Ten would have done that thing of looking like a man-shaped ball of pain, but Eleven just goes very quiet and says nothing. Partly, I think, because he understands that other people's pain and empathy really don't mean much at all when you, yourself, are hurting. Yet another lesson learned from having been Ten... (And as for the 'If you had only one day left with your beloved, which one would you choose?', then my mind instantly thought: 'Well I didn't get a choice, so - of course - it was the day the Daleks decided to destroy the universe. And after the day had been saved, I dumped her off in a parallel world and told her to marry my clone. So really, don't complain, it could be much, much worse!' But I doubt Kazran would have appreciated that...)
ETA: OMG!
owlsie just made me realise... "The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean - you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was! The towers sang, and you cried."Oh Doctor! Every story is your story, isn't it?
- The trailer. OMG the trailer. There was all the awesome parts (naked!River, the Doctor in the Oval Office ordering jammy dodgers and a fez, the Stetson, River shooting the Stetson off his head, Amy and Rory and an Ood with green eyes and the proto-TARDIS we saw in The Lodger (I KNEW IT!!!!!), Musketeers, bearded!Doctor... And yet there were weird scary things with big heads and Amy (and River) with odd little lines drawn on their bodies, and Amy screaming and Rory not reaching a door in time. And I'm curling up into a little ball, going 'Don't break the pretty, don't break the pretty, don't break the pretty...' because we've had one happy ending and I'm not counting on TWO, and Amy and Rory are the logical targets for badness, since both River and the Doctor are safe due to their continued stories and I am full of anticipation and worry. (I am a Buffy fan, and thus scarred for life...)
ANYWAY, that is all for I HAVE to stop now.